Dining Out, Phone, Updates

Had an incredible meal last night at Vegetate with BC. He said if that were what veggie cuisine were like all the time he'd not really miss meat. Not a bad compliment. We did the restaurant week thing there, and added the wine pairings, which worked well (especially the ruby port with the chocolate-with-hot-peppers torte & ginger sorbet - yum!). Fantastic meal. This is only my second time there, but we'll definitely go back. I just wish they were a bit more Metro accessible (they are, they're just a good several blocks walk from the Metro).

Much snuggling and talking followed.

Contrast that meal with the one we had at Viridian on Tuedsday. For a restaurant known (among the veggies I know) as being very veggie/vegan friendly, it was disappointing that none of the prix fixe entrees was vegan. I did end up doing three courses, and the courses were okay, but the restaurant lost out - ordering the vegan entree and the two other pieces separately came out to less than the prix fixe price. Odd. And the video of the house demolition (which played over and over again over the bar) was distracting without being entertaining. I'm sure I'll go back, but not any time soon.

Phone replacement ordered for my Treo. That's all I'm saying for now, since it won't arrive until next week. Suffice to say I'm looking forward to the switch, and thank you, thank you, thank you to a friend, who shall remain nameless, for a nice discount on it.

Took the tri bike in to the shop yesterday, so no riding for a bit. It's had this persistent creaking noise for the past month and it's driving me nuts, so I just said, "figure it out and fix it," and left the bike with them for a week. So, long run this weekend, then some rest, perhaps Sunday a dip in the cult co-op pool and some sun to even out the lovely biker's tan I have ("you've got a built-in wife-beater," says BC). Looking forward to seeing a bunch of folks (and showing off BC) on Saturday afternoon at a get-together in the inner 'burbs.

Relatively quiet this week at work. It's a blessing when Congress goes out of session (a mixed blessing - it's been hot and humid here like most of the country, but a blessing nonetheless), especially in my practice area. Playing catch up on a couple of things, and managed to dig up a nice source of funds which had been forgotten. That was worth at least my annual pay, so I feel like anything else I do this year is gravy, to paraphrase my first CFO in the government (after I did something similar).

Oh, it's not the iPod that's died, it's the iHome speaker/clock/radio thing - the dock has somehow slipped and won't connect correctly. I know this because the Apple dock that synchs the iPod with the computer works perfectly with no slippage. Good to know the old 3G is ticking along like clockwork.

Still debating Chesapeakeman, too. I think the low-key setting seems more my style. Won't be as much crowd energy, but I think I actually prefer that, given my treatment of most exercise as a solo thing. We'll see, but I'm thinking I may be having a talk with my boss about it this upcoming September.

View this post at the Glen

Shame and Feminization

I've been meaning to write about the Thai cops and their new "Hello Kitty armband" punishment regime, but as usual Morford has beaten me to the punch and written a lovely bit of satire about this ridiculous practice. I especially love his introduction of the cutest kitty around:

We speak, quite naturally, of Hello Kitty, perhaps the most unspeakably evil icon of horrific cuteness since that time My Little Pony and Smurfette had a dirty threesome with a Cabbage Patch Kid at Circus Circus back in '98, resulting in a mutant bastard offspring so repulsively adorable the U.S. government must now keep it locked away in an ironclad Area 51 bunker lest humans see it and instantly explode into bloody piles of candy canes and glitter and 2 billion pink Swarovski crystals.

Go read the rest here.

The thing he doesn't mention explicitly is the inherent sexism at work in this "punishment." The sexism that declares that somehow having to wear a Hello Kitty armband will make these (male) cops less manly, more feminine, and that this is somehow a bad thing. It's a ludicrous practice, and it deserves every bit of ridicule it's receiving.

View this post at Count Four

Guilty Pleasure

Yet another reason I'm going to hell: I like to watch DC parking enforcement come down and ticket the tourists cars illegally parked past the rush hour start time on Independence Avenue. If it's a really slow day they'll even tow them, leaving some family of blond-headed kids and their fanny-pack wearing parents scratching their heads and frantically calling to find out where there car is, just like the ones sitting on the concrete barrier directly across the street from my office window right this moment.

View this post at the Glen

Address Entries

I'm trying to update my addressbook. Do me a favor and leave your contact info (if you think I should have it). Comments are screened, or you can email it to me.