A techgasm and a foodgasm...all in one day
Max Brenner's was featured on the Food Network over the July 4th weekend (Their web site is http://www.maxbrenner.com). The food looked so good I looked it up and found out there was one at the Forum Shops at Caesars...so...my one outing for the brief free moment I get during this conference week was planned! Oh My Gosh! What a treat and delight. I did, as the title implies...have a food-gasm over dessert...but I am getting ahead of myself....
The restaurant was very much what I needed this evening as I've not had a night to recharge my batteries all week - running from sun-up (literally) to the early morning hours of the next day since we arrived has taken its toll. I am an introvert who plays the role of an extrovert every day, but for my batteries to recharge I require some definite quiet, alone time - usually with either a camera in my hand and/or a journaling tool. The atmosphere at Max Brenner's was perfect for that. I had a quiet table in a corner where I could write, chat with the waiter, and enjoy my food. There was music, but it was a nice jazz, relatively quiet, and with no words. The noise level in Vegas is astronomical nearly everywhere you go and I am having a hard time dealing with that at this point in the week. The quiet of the restaurant was refreshing.
Dinner was the Kobe Beef "Brenner Burger" with the waffle fries dusted with Cocoa powder and chili powder. It was delicious. I will typically get rid of the bun after a couple of bites but the bun was so rich and buttery I ended up eating a good portion of the bun and burger, before deciding if I would have room for any dessert I had to let the bun go.
Dessert was the Crystal Sugar Churros with Chocolate Fondue and Muddled Raspberries! Goodness! First of all, I may now ONLY be able to eat cinnamon sugar if I'm using large crystal sugar. The sensation of that in my mouth was incredible. Add to that the bitterness of the muddled raspberry sauce with the smooth sweetness of the chocolate...I savored every bite! It was well past delicious to a whole other level of goodness.
The other "gasm" of the day...my techgasm ... came during the BbWorld company product address today. I think the actual moment that caught my breath was the date picker in the new course setup wizard (if you've not built a few hundred courses in Blackboard that might not mean anything to you, but trust me on this...it's big for them to finally build this feature). This is what I sent our online learning group in my daily update from BbWorld tonight...
"They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I’m a firm believer that is true. Today’s BbWorld update is, primarily, a pictorial update. During the Blackboard Product Keynote delivered by Michael Chasen, President & CEO of Blackboard; Ray Henderson, CTO & President of Blackboard Learn; and Kayvon Beykpour, Vice President of Blackboard Mobile there were lots of laughs, a few ewws and ahhs, and quite a few applause as the Bb folks provided a glimpse of what’s most likely to come in 2011-2012 with the Bb products. (Remember – these are likely product enhancements – not guaranteed ones.) I took a bunch of photos and have captioned them. You can view the series here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kicki22/sets/72157627191050332/. They are in reverse order so start with the last photo in the set and move forward from there to view it in the same order we did."
Some cool stuff in the product updates...always a favorite part of every BbWorld show.
Vegas has been fun...looking forward to getting back home and staying home for a little while.