#6 - 28 oz

Next morning I woke up very early in the morning. When I had made my packing at home, I had thought that south of Texas should be warm in November. The reality hit me during the morning run. Shorts and T-shirt did not protect me against the morning frost and frozen lawn. The following morning I had learned my lessons, i.e. running with white collar dress shirt felt much more comfortable, even if I felt myself a little over dressed compared to other sporty early birds.

All the meeting days were productive, as well as the educative social event arranged at the Houston space center. After 20 year I am quite surprised that the deployment of the new Internet Protocol technology (IPv6) that was hot topic in the Houston meeting is still in early phases of commercial deployment. Major technology transitions take time.

It was time to relax after a productive week in the meetings. Mr J promised to offer me a Texas style dinner. We went to a nice Texas steak house. I felt rather full after eating a big bowl of salad for a starter. It would have been good time to stop eating, but we continued. After a big bowl of soup I felt even fuller. However, the main course was already ordered, so we continued. The main course was a 28 oz (794 g) Texas style T-bone steak. Because we had had the lengthy discussion about how good we have been eating, none of us wanted to give up.  The dinner had changed to a tough competition. Both of us were able to finish the tasty, but really over sized, steak. It was time for a dessert. I was really scared to look at the menu, but thought that it is not good to give up. Then I found a perfect dessert for me; i.e. “the smallest sundae in Texas”. Two spoonfuls and it was done, but so was Mr. J. as well. The result was a tie, but both of us felt like winners. My stomach was harder than a football. I did not dare to ask how was Mr. J. feeling.

For some reason, both of us decided to skip the breakfast next morning. It was Saturday and we had plenty of time before our flight back to Finland. We went sightseeing, driving through the cost of Galveston watching the ocean. Around three o’clock afternoon I felt a bit hungry, even if I thought that it will take another week or so for my stomach to digest the tasty T-bone steak. So we stopped by Jack in the Box in order to have some “light breakfast”.

Eating Texas steak is endurance sports.

Lessons learnt:

There is no such thing as free lunch – but feel free to enjoy your dinner.

There are moments when it is better to forget your competitive attitude.