CUEBALLS

Welcome one and all to the Completely Unofficial Early-Birds And Leftovers Line-up Squad, aka the CUEBALLS. The CUEBALLS were formed over a decade ago as an unofficial (just like the name says) group organizing optional ELD social activities for each year's ASEE conference. Only trouble is, for the last few years, that "group" has just been me, and I seem to get later and later each year with sending this out. This year is an all-time high (or is it low?) in lateness.

Here are the ground rules (they're pretty simple). Come join whatever you wish as long as it doesn't interfere with your other conference-related obligations. See, told you it was simple.

Saturday night

Meet in the lobby of the Hilton Austin (400 E. 4th Street) at 6:45 for a 7:00 p.m. departure in search of food and drink. I have a number of options re: possible locations, but have a number of opinions on what might be the best bet. More on that front as we get nearer the start of the conference. Oh, just fyi, my flight isn't due to arrive in Austin until about 5:35, so I might be cuttin' it close getting to the Hilton by 6:45 myself. If you're going to be getting in that evening and want to catch up with us (wherever the heck we are) just call my cell (email Mel for his cell #, I didn't really want to post it to the world).

For the beer aficionados among you, there are a number of pretty good options for micros (for later Saturday evening or elsewhen during the time we'll be in Austin) that are reasonably close to the convention center / hotels. Two among them are Maggie Mae's and the Ginger Man, but both have somewhat limited food options, making them perhaps good places to hit later in the evening, after a tasty meal elsewhere.


Sunday

Sunday was all over the board - doing the trails got the most votes (5), but there was one biker, one jogger, and three hikers in that five-some. Bats got three votes, although that's not tied to Sunday specifically. As for museums, none got more than two votes (Mexic-Arte and LBJ), while three more got single votes (Austin Museum of Art, Harry Ransom Center, and the Texas State History Museum), and among those, some expressed interest in more than one museum, so even those numbers are in some cases partial votes. Based on those low numbers, I'm not going to try to organize anything specific for Sunday.

Mel put the biker/jogger/hikers in touch with each other, as well as the batty threesome. Amy VE is coordinating this, so if you want to join in, email her or reply to this post. If any of the rest of you are interested in either of those options, please let Mel know and he'll fold you into that communication string.

Not necessarily limited to Sunday

Congress Bridge bats (yep, bats, as in a bazillion and six of the little devils)
(www.austincityguide.com/content/congress-bridge-bats-austin.asp)
(www.austin360.com/search/content/events/special/bats.html)

For those of you who want to get your road work in, there’s the Lady Bird Hike and Bike Trail (www.austinexplorer.com/Hiking/HikeDetails.aspx?HikeID=4)

For something a bit out of the ordinary (like if the bats weren't enough for you), for those of you who are familiar with Whole Foods – Austin has the mothership – at 80,000 sq ft it’s the largest Whole Foods store in the chain. It's so big and fancy they do tours.
(www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/lamar/)

Wednesday night


Blues on the Green 2009 (Waterloo Park - only about a nine block walk from the convention center) http://www.kgsr.com/Other/blues/
Wednesday, June 17th, Cyril Neville (yep, one of the Neville Brothers)
http://www.kgsr.com/Other/blues/artists.html#cn
Show (it's FREE, by the way) starts at 7:30, so plenty of time to get there after the last ELD conference session is over. Limited food options and non-alcoholic beverages will be available in the park.

For the non-blues crowd, meet at a pre-determined location (maybe the Austin Hilton lobby again) to venture out for a nice relaxing dinner with friend and colleagues. Still to be determined, more info once we're all in Austin.