The SoCo draw and la gasolina

Friday afternoon I made a visit to my alma mater to participate in a symposium in concert with the School of Business on the status of their MIS curriculum.

First, let me say that I was very impressed with my graduating program’s status. While most MIS programs in this nation are flat to down, UT’s is sharply up. It’s definitely thanks to some hard work by the faculty and administration there. It’s also an effect of the hard work of research staff who now are gladly working with incoming business school students to establish the passion for seeing IT as a business value proposition, versus a mere cost center.

After said event, my girl came to meet me downtown and I thought that it would be a great night to have a proper “date calibre” dinner out. We headed over to Vespaio on South Congress. Vespaio is the grand dame on the S. Congress strip with respect to “fine dining” and we had, as yet, not eaten there since we visited.

The food was quite good: I had a cioppino while my shellfish-allergic girlfriend had a creamy pasta with chicken. This plus two glasses of wine and I would say that the meal was a success. I don’t think it would be too improper to say that the meal for two was over 100 dollars but less than 150, all told.

But…then I realized that meal was a 2 tanks of gas for a great many people.

Bus. Pass.