Ben and Jerry's Lends a Hand in Locks of Love Donation

Summer has finally hit Austin, and it will not be merciful. Luckily for us, Ben and Jerry's tour debuting two Texas inspired flavors was in town to bring us relief from the heat. The two flavors are Bourbon Pecan Pie and Barbeque Peach. While both of them won a place in my Southern heart, I’m fairly certain that the clear winner was the Bourbon Pecan Pie.

While on the Austin leg of their Texas Tour, Dan Bookmiller and Jana Steele made friends at many iconic locations. The Draughthouse is where @MouseTheDog got to enjoy a few scoops as well.

Here's Mouse and Dan on a Summer Afternoon. I love the pairing of Mouse next to the cows as his historical function is to herd cattle.

And here's Mouse and Jana posing next to the Sprinter. Did I mention that the Sprinter is equipped with a solar panel on top? That's another thing to add to my list of "Dream Sprinter" features.

Last Austin stop at HomeAway Downtown.

As if ice cream wasn’t already a treat, the Ben and Jerry’s good deed mantra struck again on their last day in Austin. @AgentMarshall and I had been planning on donating our hair to Locks of Love for quite some time now, and the Ben and Jerry’s team lent us a hand. At their last stop in Austin, Jana of Ben and Jerry’s traded in her scoop for a pair of scissors to make the Locks of Love haircuts.
Here's Jana about t make the first snip on Marshall.

Marshall is really happy to get that hair cut off!

Good bye, Hair!

I'm next up. This is my seventh donation to Locks of Love. I have two ponytails to make it easier to cut.

I am also extremely happy to get this hair cut. Jana was a pro at cutting hair. The entire process did not take more than three minutes, and that's including the time she took to give it a some style.

And here's the final results. Two ponytails. Two freshly cut hairdo's. And three very happy people.
Thank you so much to Dan, Jana, Ben and Jerry's for bringing delicious ice cream to Austin and helping us donate to Locks of Love.

Mouse thanks you too!

Being a Data Nerd: Using Data to Find Super Cheap Flights

The data geek in me loves to research and research and research before I purchase anything, and airline tickets are no exception. There are plenty of blog posts advising you when you should buy and how to strategically use flight credits. In addition to those, there is another piece of data that will greatly influence supply and demand, more so than purchase date.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t work for all airlines who don’t publish their supply. Because some of my more frequented airlines do not publish their supply, I gather data in there other fashion.

1. Start looking at flights early and sign up for alert services. Hipmunk.com and Zapta.com are two that I use. I like Hipmunk’s ability to have several searches open, however, their alert emails are much too slow. I like that Zapta that is quick with alert emails.
2. Once you know the range of flight prices, you’ll know if you’re buying at a low, medium, or high price.
   1. Keep in mind that price fluctuations typically only rise close to the departure date. For domestic flights, it is usually three weeks from departure, and it is typically 53 days from departures.
   2. For domestic flights, I check throughout the day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for price drops.
3. If flights are very empty, you can predict that the prices will drop and keep dropping until you are just about to depart. You'll need to get this data by going to the airline website and go through the purchasing process to see the seat selections. Note you don't actually have to buy the seats to see how many seats were available. See my photos for example.

Both flights are about $900. Silly cheap.

The flights going overseas was so empty that the airline pretty much comped the Austin to San Francisco leg of the trip. The top two photos show that the trip originating from San Francisco or Austin at the same price.  The photo below shows the amount of seats remaining on the flights just three weeks away from the flight date. These prices were a 25% (over $300) less than typical prices.

Look at all those empty seats!

Now you know what kind of data to collect. Start collecting data now, and save a respectable sum.

In the Heat of the Summer, You'll Wish You were at Alaska Brewing

Central Market has fun cooking classes with fun guests. When I saw that Alaskan Brewing was going to be hosting a class, I couldn't miss it. A big thanks to Central Market and Alaskan Brewing for having me as a guest.

The first course started with a seafood crostini. Crisp carbs topped with rich cheese and seafood? Yep. That's a win.

This lovely bite of heaven was served with the Freeride APA for a lovely contrast. Something this rich needs to be paired with something that can cut the fat.

For our second course, we had the orange IPA salad dressing over kale and orange segments. This was paired with a Icy Bay IPA which features a surfer on the bottle. Orange and bitter kale was a most excellent pairing for the salad and dressing. The beer was a great cleanser for each bite.

The next dish up was the amber glazed salmon served with veggies and rice. In addition to providing tasty bites and refreshing sips, they also provided us tips when visiting Alaska. There are many cruise options to Alaska. When you are there you can rent a car and blaze your own adventure. Get salmon when you arrive. It'll be super fresh if you visit at the right time of the year. Salmon breeds spawn at different times, so as long as you arrive during the correct window, you might be in for a treat. You can also go on a tour of the brewery. There are a number of ways to get to the brewery, and here are their recommendations if you aren't coming with a tour group.


Alaskan Brewing has only been in Texas for a few years, but they have been around the block and collecting their fair share of awards along the way. The Smoked Porter is absolutely delicious, and I highly recommend grabbing one of the vertical tasting boxes or keep buying the bombers when you see them available.

Central Market's Jordan Knowles and Alaskan Brewing's Terry Nance and Jon Blakley give us a toast!

Look Back at Gardner Austin

One of the new things I'm starting on my blog is the "Look Back" series in which I'll share my experiences at events and restaurants that have been opened for at least three months.  Sometimes I'll visit new restaurants in their early days, but I like to let the dust settle before diving into the menu. As my good fortune would have it, Gardner happened to be launching a new bar menu and invited some guest to partake in their offerings. Thank you so much, Gardner for having us in for a lovely tasting.

Gardner's new cocktail menu was dangerously subtle and sophisticated. The drinks were not overly forward - which is a refreshingly different from the heavy handed cocktails I typically make at home. This is a photo of the rum, turmeric, and strawberry. I'm a fan of turmeric as supplement, and I'm definitely a fan of how well it plays in a cocktail.

The spring menu has several dishes that make you welcome the warm patio weather and sunny skies. This dish with gnocchi doesn't appear to be on the menu anymore, but if you do see gnocchi on there again, you ought to order it.

This is the trout roe with celery, strawberry, chive. The drastically different textures and colors are make this a truly interesting dish. The salty gelatinous roe with the vegetative ice was a great combination.

It looks like item, named Alliums, isn't on the menu either, and I feel sad for those mushroom lovers who miss it. This umami laden dish was reminiscent of many Asian dishes that are onion and mushroom based. Photo by John M. P. Knox.