Zeigen

This is going around, and it’s been a while since I did a meme theme, so… Why not! Here’s a hundred random foods, and you bold the ones you’ve eaten, and cross out the ones you’d never try.

“Never” is a very strong word. (What if you were trapped in the Andes with a rugby team? Marooned in a life raft in the Atlantic? Competing on Survivor?) So, I took “never consider” to mean “probably would not consider,” but even so there are not many cross outs.

Most of the ones that aren’t crossed out I’d genuinely like to try, although it didn’t seem worth the effort to score each item on how tasty I considered it or how much I wanted to try it; I did add some comments in parentheses here and there.

My score is only 54, which doesn’t seem that high to me. Post in the comments your score if you don’t have a blog to do this yourself!

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4. Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

(Links are to Wikipedia. FAQ here, analysis here.)

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich (allergic to peanut butter, that vilest of substances)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (allergic again)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava (ate this once by mistake, not knowing it had walnuts in it)
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (tried a tiny sip once, didn’t like it)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (nope, not going to try any form of smoking)
37. Clotted cream tea (probably had this as a kid but can’t remember)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (at a memorable TiVo celebration in 1999 was the last time)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (really want to try this some day)
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (once was enough)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (I’ve tried each separately but never together)
73. Louche absinthe (thanks to an absinthe bar at Burning Man)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Someday, I hope.)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox (I’m allergic to salmon)
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (Garlic Festival for the win!)

At your favorite restaurant, order something completely out of your comfort zone, something that you’ve always wanted to try, something you don’t know if you’ll like.

Worst case, you don’t like it (and can order something else instead).

Best case, you’ve got a new favorite dish.

1. Sunday is less crowded than Saturday (and at 10am the traffic was practically nothing), but next year I hope take a vacation day from work and visit it on Friday instead.
2. Mild weather trumps crowds: If the forecast shows one of the three days is much less hot than the other three, choose that day.
3. Parent to young-child ratio of 1:1 too demanding. Strollers on the dusty ground pose challenges. (Friday & daycare may be the solution.)
4. No matter how much your two-year-old says he wants to ride the carnival ride in the kids area with the Jeep 4×4s going up and down and round and round, he really won’t like it.
5. Not all garlic corn is created equal. The high school fundraising booth with $3 corn isn’t bad, but the other place has better corn.
6. Get to the free vanilla garlic ice cream both early, to avoid it being sold out and also because the more garlic-infused regular food you eat, the less your tangue can really appreciate the nuance of garlic ice cream.
7. The shade structure with the karaoke has plusses and minuses. The plusses include the shade, and available seating. The minuses include the karaoke.
8. The best spot in the whole place is the rain room.

Yvonne and baby Logan joined Kimi, Sammy, Sophie and me for the Gilroy Garlic Festival again yesterday. While I had a great time, and I feel like Sammy and Sophie loved it too, Yvonne and Kimi thought it all a bit too much with little kids. I already can’t wait for next year, though.

I recognize the relationship between Taco Bell’s menu and actual Mexican food has always been something similar to the relationship between how computers work in Hollywood movies versus how they actually work in real life — a fiction loosely inspired by the source material, designed to look real to those who have never had much hands-on experience with the genuine article.

But as I drove by a Taco Bell this morning and saw an ad for their new “Bacon Club Chalupa,” I couldn’t help but feel that they’re not even trying any more.

I don’t eat bacon (heresy!) but I’ll bet 31 grams of fat and 970 milligrams of sodium never tasted so muy bueno.

On Saturday Kimi and Sammy and Yvonne and I made our way down to the Gilroy Garlic Festival again, always one of my favorite times of the year.

A bit more traffic this year than last year, and while I love the festival I’d love to see them change things up a bit more — the same booths are always in the same location each year.

The garlic bread was just amazing this year, and I think I lost track of all the things we ate: Corn on the cob with garlic butter, garlic ice cream (you gotta eat it early so you can still the taste the garlic), Pacific Rim Garlic Chicken Stir Fry, garlic stuffed mushrooms, garlic scampi, garlic calamari in a spicy tomato broth, garlic BBQ oysters (that one was just me), garlic kettle corn (popcorn). I feel like I’m leaving some things out, too. Also some wonderful strawberry/banana/peach smoothies that — horrors! — didn’t have any garlic in them.

One of my favorite moments was when I was waiting in line for the BBQ oysters and overheard two young men standing nearby: “Hmm, look at that, they have garlic gator tails. You ever eaten alligator?” “No, but I’d like to. Too bad I’m out of money.” “Yeah, me too.” (The item they were discussing cost $5.) “Wait, I have $3 left, how much do you have?” “Umm, exactly $2.” “That’s $5! Wanna split?” “Score!” They high-fived and rushed to the end of the line.

Kimi and I picked up some nice gloves of raw garlic as well as some inexpensive jars of crushed garlic. I don’t cook often but I’m really craving more garlic this week, so maybe I’ll whip something up.

Sammy was an amazing eater — he seemed to like everything he tried. Especially the garlic kettle corn.

Unlike last year, which was a bit overcast, it was blazing hot this year. Yvonne was telling us a co-worker of hers looks at the weather forecast each year and schedules her visit on the day that’s forecast to be coolest. That’s a smart idea — we’ll try that next year.

Sammy fell asleep in my arms a bit before 2pm and, although normally a light sleeper, stayed asleep on the shuttle bus and all the way home.

John (Yvonne’s husband) was too busy with his thesis to join us this year, so we met up with him for dinner and had crepes. Yum!

Tonight was our second wedding anniversary, and to celebrate, John and Yvonne watched Sammy, and Kimi picked out a great Vietnamese restaurant in Palo Alto, Tamarine. (Yelp reviews for Tamarine.)

We started with the mushroom rolls and roti prata, which might have been a bit too much fried food, but were both very delicious. For the main course, we tried the signature Tamarine Prawns along with some curried long beans (green beans, that is), with lemongrass rice. I loved the prawns, and the rice was just amazing, and the beans weren’t bad at all.

For dessert, it was a lemon tart for me, and tapioca with ice cream for Kimi. Both delicious.

All in all I’d recommend the restaurant highly. It didn’t blow me away like Aqua did last year but very delicious, and wonderful to spend time together and think about two years of being married. Love you, sweetie, and thank you!

Wednesday night is our new date night. After dropping off Sammy with Kyrie, we grabbed some quick food at Sushi Tomo on University in Palo Alto (not very good, sorry — Kimi hated her zaru soba, and the tempura was a little off, but the spicy tuna was ok). Then it was time for Pan’s Labyrinth at the Cinearts, where we arrived ten minutes late but just in time for the opening scene.

It’s hard to review this movie without revealing too much of the plot. I first have to say this: Do not take children. We were warned this was an intense film, but “intense” is too mild a word to describe the movie. A better word might be “brutal” but you could also add in “shocking” and “relentless.” The commercials that I’ve seen (or more accurately, the commercials I fast-forwarded through) give the impression of a gentle but sad and dark fairy tale. You’re better off expecting a violent war film with certain fightening fantastical elements.

Now that your expectations are set, the film is beautifully made, written in perfect balance, acted with rare skill, and fully deserving of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 2006. It walks a delicate line between its fairy tale theme and its rebels vs. soldiers war story, and more than once I thought it was unraveling, only to realize I was being led deeper into the maze. There are certain foreshadowing elements that should have been a little less emphasized, but overall this is a film that will be haunting me for months. I recommend it highly as long as you have a strong stomach for violence; there were three or four scenes Kimi could not watch. Despite all that, it is a rare and breathtaking masterpiece.

Rant: “Pan’s Labyrinth” is a bit misleading as a translation of the Spanish title, El Laberinto del Fauno. I didn’t know the real Spanish title until afterwards, and so based on the English title, I expected Pan himself to show up or be referenced; a better title would be “The Fawn’s Labyrinth.”

Postscript: If you’ve seen the film, check out the interesting trivia.

For her 30th birthday and St. Valentine’s Day, I took Kimi to the Straits Cafe in Palo Alto. They had decorated it nicely with pink and red balloons, and it was quite crowded. (I had forgotten that a year ago I had made a reservation to return to Chez TJ, so when they called me to remind me I had to cancel. But we’ll go back there next year.) Right away, I think Straits had made an error in strategy: It was a prix fixe menu (with cutesy names such as “Casanova’s Chicken Skewers” and “Flaming Arrows of Love”), and the regular menu wasn’t available. While Kimi and I didn’t mind at all, I heard more than one arriving couple balk at the idea (”But I wanted the chili crab!”). They certainly should have warned those customers making reservations that the regular menu was off.

Regardless, the menu that they picked was memorable and appropriate. The appetizers were my favorite part: Roti prata (a dish Kimi loves almost more than me), vegetarian samosas, satay chicken, and coconut shrimp. The main course was a mix of beef fillet (which we passed on since neither of us eats red meat), panfried swordfish, Indonesian-style grilled chicken, and chili-infused asparagus with little dried shrimps and shallots. For dessert, a chocolate-covered strawberry and a molten chocolate cake.

Happy birthday Kimi!

On Sunday, John and Yvonne came over for our second annual “Thanksgiven,” which takes place on the Sunday of the four-day weekend. It’s a chance for the four of us to unwind and spend time socializing with a more intimate Thanksgiving-style dinner.

Here are my notes on the menu:

John and Yvonne bring:
Tofurky
Cranberry sauce
Green beans with garlic
Apple, berry & pumpkin pie
Gravy
Baked brie & crackers

Stephen and Kimi:
Stuffing
Mashed & sweet potatoes
Drinks
Sweet potato cheesecake

We timed things so that Sammy napped while we ate. Everything was delicious. Some of you may not be big fans of tofurky but I like it.

We capped things off with a game of Dragon’s Gold, some light napping, and later some warm egg nog and rum with all the variety of desserts.

John and Yvonne, thanks for being such great friends and a part of our lives.

I’m looking forward to leftovers…

The last few years we’ve had Thanksgiving at my parents’ place up in Elk Grove. This year, Kelly and Rob hosted. This was great for two reasons: First, it’s a lot closer, and second, they did almost all of the cooking, so we could relax a lot more. The only downside is that I didn’t get to see my brother Phil and his wife Erin and daughter Sarah, since they went to Erin’s parents instead.

Kimi made a pair of sweet potato cheesecakes topped with maple cream. In addition to the traditional menu (mostly cooked by Kelly and Rob’s friend Keith), Rob also cooked some crab, which tasted really great although I have to say it felt out of place. A memorable addition, to be sure.

Kelly’s step-mom, dad, sister Tara, and brother-in-law-to-be Geoff were also there, so it was a big group. After dinner, a few folks watched football and the rest of us played some Outburst (one of my favorite party boardgames). Sammy was well-behaved the whole day and managed to take a nap at 3 in the office. Kimi ended up taking him home around 7, and Harry and I followed a bit later (we had invited him to spend the night).

It felt good to see my parents again, and I appreciated Joanna driving them down and back. If we had more room in our house I think we would have invited them to stay as well as Harry.

At home, Kimi went to bed early so Harry and I played some Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, completing the series we had started the week before. In this two-player board game that shares some similarities with Stratego, the black side (Sauron’s minions — the orcs, cave troll, warg, and other bad guys) are definitely stronger than the white side (the Fellowship and assorted other good characters). Harry’s very good at this game, and gets a lot of practice since they apparently play a lot at his work. With Harry playing the more difficult white side, he beat me 2-1 in the first series, but I managed to win the second series 2-1. The new deluxe edition has some variant characters, and when we played with those, he beat me 3-0 alternating sides. I don’t like the variant characters nearly as much, but I do recommend the game overall — a really interesting game for two players that somehow manages to capture the feel of the books better than any other Lord of the Rings-inspired game I’ve played.

Thursday night we watched BloodRayne, a truly awful inspired-by-a-videogame-neither-of-us-have-ever-played movie, and Friday we basically vegged out and watched Heroes all a bit during the day and finishing up after Sammy went to bed. We had a mini-marathon and succeeded in watching the first nine episodes. I enjoyed Heroes quite a bit, and it’s clear the writers actually know where the first few episodes are going. I was a bit surprised at how much gore there was; it’s not for kids at all. The series plays around with comic books as a theme but ultimately I think the series has more to do with a cross between The 4400, X-Files and Lost than with any particular comic book.

As I write this, Kimi and I are doing a movie-trade. She’s seeing the 7:10 showing of Casino Royale and I’ll see the 10:30 showing.
I’ll add my impressions later.

Last Friday was date night, and thanks to the pro babysitting of John & Yvonne, Kimi and I headed out to dinner and a movie.

Our first intention was to try the world-famous Uncle Frank’s BBQ, which is around the corner from our house, but we got there at 8:30 and unfortunately it closes at 8. What!? First they don’t let us in with Sammy since it’s in a bar (21 and over required even for the restaurant). Now we learn that they close at 8. Damn you Uncle Frank, with your tantalizing but inaccessable BBQ.

So our second choice was Tomatina, in the Mercardo off 101. This is probably Kimi’s favorite restaurant. The parking lot was a madmadmadhouse as usual, so we got our garlic rolls and piadines and strawberry-lemonade to go, and ate in the cafe area at the Mt. View Century. Not romantic or elegant, but certainly delicious.

For the second movie I’ve seen this year, and Kimi’s first, we choose Spike Lee’s Inside Man. I recommend this film. You should know that it’s not really a standard caper pic as it advertises itself to be, and that Jodie Foster’s role is tiny. But Denzel and Clive did a great job, and Spike’s film-making was both engrossing and confident. I suspect there are about six or seven plot holes (and Kimi and I compared notes on them on the way home, each having found possible flaws the other one didn’t find), but ultimately this is a movie that riffs well off of bank heist pics and police standoff pics (such as Dog Day Afternoon, which it pays tribute to) and goes in a fresh direction.

Spike choose to open and close with a piece of Indian pop music — the deliciously catchy Chaiyya Chaiyya from Dil Se (listen/watch it now!).

Epilogue: On Saturday night, we picked up food to go from Uncle Frank’s, and while I think eating it to go misses a majority of the experience, Uncle Frank’s is definitely the real deal. The cajun corn is so incredibly spicy that it’s a full-body experience. There are a few reviews that make for good background reading.

After my first full week back at work, I’ve learned that I really have to figure out when I want to do my blogging. I’m too busy at work (and usually work through lunch), and when I come home I haven’t figured out when to do it. After Sammy goes to bed at 8pm seems like a logical choice, but I’ve been really consumed in watching the Winter Olympics lately.

Amazing how quickly eight days can go by without a blog entry. Kimi promised to write about Sammy’s first solid food experience last weekend, and it would be great to talk about our trip to Santa Cruz last Sunday to see Auntie Tracee. Or perhaps I should have described hosting poker night on Tuesday and coming in tied for first both tournaments. Certainly my reaction to some of more interesting Olympic events — women’s snowboarding cross, cross-country 4×10km relay — is blogworthy. Maybe we’ll go back and fill in the gaps sometime. But maybe not.

Here’s one event while it’s still fresh in my mind. Last night Kimi and I went to eat at our favorite Japanese restaurant in Mountain View, Yakko, and the staff there was crazy over Sammy, poking and prodding him to mutual delight. He fell asleep not long after the food arrived, so all worked out on that score. I’m not sure why Yakko’s chose to name a lightly seared tuna sashimi dish “Screaming Orgasm” — cultural divide? – and I actually felt self-conscious when the couple at the next table asked what it was called. But it’s an amazing thing to eat.

Today Kimi is with Yvonne at a scrapbooking expo for most of the day, so it was me and the kid. Around noon we took off in the jogging stroller to play in the park and buy some milk – it’s such a warm day. Some states are buried in snow, but here in California we wear t-shirts in February. They all came back for lunch, and we went out to eat at Los Portales (a wonderful family-run Mexican restaurant on Moffett), then I took some photos to try to figure out how to use the new external flash Kimi got for her birthday. Let me know what you think.

Today is not just Valentine’s Day, but it’s also Kimi’s birthday, and the two-year anniversary of our engagement. To celebrate, I took her to Chez TJ’s in Mountain View. (Thanks go to Kyrie for watching Sammy for us.)

We proceeded to have an eleven course meal: a tiny goat cheese pastry puff for an appetizer, three plates of amuse bouche (including foie gras wrapped in fig, and two others I don’t remember), soup (carrot with crab for me, onion with poached egg for Kimi), vegetable (beets for Kimi, foie gras au torchon for me), seafood (bay scallops and sweet shrimp over wood-ear mushrooms for me, salmon for Kimi), main (since neither of us eat red meat, it was a goat cheese ravioli for me and the scallops/shrimp for Kimi), desert (gateau, ice cream, poached pears), coffee, and, to finish, mignardises (”preciousnesses”) – miniature chocolate and jelly sweets. Not being big wine drinkers we opted not to do the pairing, but instead we shared a delightful glass of Riesling recommended by the wine stewardess.

Each course was tiny and delicate, and an absolute delight. The service was impeccable. The setting is a converted house and the ambience is very romantic. If you’re looking for an extravagant French-California meal, and can secure a reservation (they have a very long waiting list), I would definitely recommend Chez TJ.

To Kimi: Sweetheart, I love you very much. Happy birthday and happy Valentine’s Day.

I don’t often head in to San Francisco, despite it being close by. When I lived in Berkeley, my friend Mike (who now lives in Davis) was terrified of driving into the City, and felt like doing anything in S.F. took much longer to accomplish. I’m not that bad, but the City can be intimidating. That didn’t stop me from hauling Sammy up there to meet with the real-life people behind the names “Thomas Hawk” and “Davis Freeberg” of the Thomas Hawk Digital Connection.

We met for lunch at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher in the Ferry Building — somehow I have managed to never visit the Ferry Building previously — and talked for nearly two hours about blogging, technology, photography, and (naturally) TiVo. Thomas’s article is forthcoming and will cover what we talked about.

I enjoyed meeting Thomas and Davis a great deal. They are very enthusiastic about technology and at heart I think they want TiVo to succeed as a company.

(Thomas on the left, Davis on the right.)

Afterwards Sammy and I did some shopping and I took a picture or two (with our Nikon point’n’shoot, since Tracee had borrowed our Canon Rebel XT). Even though I had already had lunch, I couldn’t help but get some bread and an apple turnover from the Acme Bread Company, and sample the crab cake sandwich and clam chowder at the San Francisco Fish Company. (I only had a little bit of the crab cake; the rest I brought back for Kimi.)

Next I’ll post a picture or two in the style of Thomas’s site — the difference being that I’m not a good photographer, while Thomas is a pro.

Sammy is normally so well-behaved, but I think Taylor’s was a little loud for him, and he wasn’t as enthusiastic about talking for two hours as I was, so he got a bit fussy. Fortunately, he loved the Ferry Building itself and was happy to nap both for the ride there and back.

Update, 14-Feb-06, 9:33pm: Thomas Hawk’s article detailing what we talked about is now posted at his site. Thanks Thomas!

This evening, Jay K. (Director of Customer Support at TiVo) had arranged an offsite for the TiVo operations groups (service operations, customer support, manufacturing, sales operations) to see the USA vs. Japan exhibition soccer game at Pacbell SBC AT&T Park in San Francisco. Not everyone made it, but there were enough of us to make a crowd.

Jay and I took the Caltrain up, and we met up with everyone at the Acme Chop House before the game. I’ve eaten there before, and while I don’t eat red meat (so the chops and steaks do nothing for me), there’s enough seafood on the menu to keep me interested. Their calamari is really good.

The soccer game was actually thrilling. Our seats were on the bleachers just behind the goal. (Spoiler ahead.) USA scored the first three goals and dominated the first half, and then Japan scored two, dominated the second half, and threatened to score again several times — fun to watch. I was impressed by how many Japanese supporters there were, and their coordinated cries of “Nip-pon, Nip-pon” put the home team’s crowd’s half-hearted “USA, USA”s to shame.

Rich Thomas (of Sad Salvation) was there too, and we talked a bit about blogging. He took pictures, unlike me, and I’m new enough to blogging to be curious about what it’s like when two bloggers cover the same event. (Update: Rich’s post is written.)

Between the Superbowl, the Olympics, and this soccer game, someone would get the impression that I’m interested in sports or something. In reality, normally I hate sports. In particular, I hate baseball (maybe because it’s alien to me, having been born in England).

Caltrain coming home was incredibly crowded and slow: two hours. I almost passed out.

Rob came over for lunch today, and we lugged Sammy over to Castro St. and ate at Hunan Chili (formerly “Twinkled Spring,” how crazy a name is that?). The Sesame Chicken was wonderful, spicy and tasty. The Prawns with Mixed Vegetables were bland and overcooked. The soup, egg rolls, rice and ice cream were all fine. Fortune: “You will be surrounded on all sides by luxury.” Fine, yes, thanks, but is it my luxury? Overall, the deliciousness of the chicken outweighed the mediocrity of the prawns.

I had completely forgotten that I had agreed to pick up Kyrie’s step-mom, Elisa, and Elisa’s daughter, Ariana (a junior in high school). So when they called me, I dumped Rob, changed Sammy as quick as I could, and met A&E at the Caltrain station. Fortunately they had called ahead, so they didn’t have to wait long. They were starving, so I took them to Amarin (my very favorite Thai restaurant in Mountain View, fittingly introduced to me by Kyrie). Ariana had the vegetarian Pad-Thai and Elisa tried the buffet (which I haven’t had); they both declared it delicious. It was so warm today (unseasonably so) that we ate in their patio. Afterwards we stopped by Tapioca Express (”Suddenly, I want more!”), a new experience for Elisa. She seemed to enjoy her Brazilian Coffee Snow Bubble with pearls.

Later Kimi returned home sporting her new haircut. Sexy! I encouraged her to dash off and see Brokeback Mountain with Yvonne to show it off; perhaps Kimi will review the movie here later.

Sammy is zonked out. He was extremely happy and bubbly today; I can’t believe I only have until next Wednesday left in my paternity leave.

It was a rainy Saturday morning when Kimi, Sammy and I headed up to San Rafael to see my youngest brother Harry and my sister Joanna’s new apartment in San Rafael.

Their new apartment is basically empty — in his room, Harry has only a bed (a futon, on the floor), a TV, and a computer desk with his computer; all his clothes, books, CDs and other things were tucked into his closet. Joanna has four or five sitars and little else. The overall impression is stark. But the apartment’s spacious, the location is great, and they have a large beautiful creek right outside.

Kimi and I have so much stuff; part of me is envious that they are so unburdened. But of course it’s also nice to be able to sit down at a table when you want to eat, and I am a packrat because I like having my games and books and CDs and other junk around.

A bit later, my brother and sister-in-law Rob and Kelly arrived, and we went downtown to Rafter’s, a brew-pub, and I thought the food was very good (I had the clam chowder and a grilled chicken salad; Kimi and Jo split a pizza with shrimp and mango).

Harry showed us around his company’s office (Mind Control Software), and it had the great energy of a small startup — board games everywhere, ping-pong table, walls covered in interesting stuff. But it’s basically one giant bullpen for 30 people, and I can’t imagine getting work done in that environment.

Back at their apartment we tried out Carcassonne: The Discovery, which I’ll review separately at some point. In short, I think it has some interesting mechanics but overall the tile balance seems off.

Then it was off to Kyrie’s for her 29th birthday party. A long and busy day for Sammy but he performed like a champ.

Of course, Harry blogs as well (and in fact his blog is really the inspiration that got me started), so here’s Harry’s version of the same event.

Kimi, Sammy and I drove up to the island of Alameda this evening to meet up with an old friend of Kimi’s from Oregon, Chris C., who was in town for a class.

We ate at Asena, and it was delicious, a very good restaurant. Kimi had chicken with filo, Chris had the Mahi Mahi special, and I had pasta with crab meat.

Well worth the drive.