ActiveRain International Dinner in Austin, Texas! (Okay, so maybe that sounds a bit dramatic).

I decided to go with an eye-catching headline here for my post about my first dinner with an ActiveRain friend who is from another country.  Another COUNTRY, I say! 

But which country is it, Jason? 

Well, it's Canada, of course!

Liz Moras and I had a chance to meet VERY briefly (perhaps five minutes or so) last month while she was in Austin, but this time around, it was several hours spent at dinner at a legendary Austin hangout.  My wife joined me, along with Russell Lewis, and we took Liz to Threadgill's restaurant near downtown, at Riverside and Barton Springs. 

Russell and I have become fast friends since last summer, and he and I never fail to make each other laugh.  That night with Liz, we all laughed so much that I think we scared the remaining patrons out of the place.  At 9:30pm, we realized that we were the only people in the restaurant, so we thought they might have closed.  It turns out we had another hour to go!

Liz is kind, fun, and a phenomenal conversationalist.  I love talking to people who are actually listening (who doesn't?), and Liz did not disappoint.  I can see why she was recently chosen to be a Team Leader for Keller-Williams in her market - great choice!

I guess one of the most surprising things to me was realizing that Liz had never tasted chicken fried steak OR catfish!  That problem was solved quickly.  These are actually two of my favorites, although I don't have either of them very often, now that I am 38 and watching my waistline.  I mainly seem to be watching it grow, unfortunately.

Russell seemed to have a story about most of the pictures and music posters hanging on the walls, which made me wonder if that's why he chose it in the first place!  Threadgill's is where Janis Joplin got her start in the 60's, so the history there is palpable.

We spent about 4 hours talking and joking before we took Liz back to her hotel.  From what I understand, she will be returning in late August, so I hope we have a chance to do it again!  In fact, maybe I need to plan my next birthday party a bit later this year....

Thanks to both Liz and Russell for a terrific evening.  My wife, who is just over six months pregnant now, remarked on the way home about how nice it was to get a chance to talk to adults that night!

Here's Liz's post about our night - I asked her to email me some of her pictures so that I could write this post:

Austin City Limits - Part III - Jason Crouch-Russell Lewis-Liz Moras