entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

This box of Russian sugar cubes sits in gBox's kitchen.  My coworker Lex assures me that Russian sugar is sweeter than American sugar.

My lovely wife shows off a head of cabbage, freshly harvested from our community garden plot.

The English word 'abalone' comes from the Rumsen word 'aulon', which apparently meant "mermaid pussy".

Good food: sushi at Sushi Masa with tarian, whom Kim and i met for the first time.  The shima aji was noteworthy.  For relaxing times, we made it Suntory shochu time.

Bad food: benchilada ate huitlacoche, so you don't have to.  racerxmachina, i know you're going to be all over this one.

<ronebofh> "Saizuke has cod milt served with citrus sauce, panfried Japanese ginkgo nuts and monkfish liver served with citrus sauce."
<rone> um... wow.  cod milt.
<nyar> what's that?
<rone> fish semen.
<nyar> gross
<beaker> never done a snoball before?
<rone> not with a fish.

Look, Rodrigo y Gabriela just fuckin' rock.  I will belabor this further, but that's really all you need to know, and if you're in San Diego, Tucson, Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane, buy a ticket now and go see them on their current tour.  If you're in Denver, Austin, or Tokyo, good luck finding a scalped ticket.

2wanda and i picked up elmuchacho and had dinner near his place at Yama Sushi (excellent prices, and they had mirugai sashimi... mmm, mirugai).  Afterwards, we headed to the show.  The openers were two random dudes, one on electric guitar, the other on harmonica, xylophone, and saw.  They were mediocre at best; not offensive, but clearly not very good musicians.  Afterwards, the sound guys played a Shakti track that was really good; it wasn't very long, so i'm guessing it was "Lotus Feet".  Right before R&G came out, they played Tool's "The Pot", which really warmed the crowd up; i've never seen intermission music used so effectively before. ( set list )

They're intensely engaging, stopping songs in the middle to incite applause and ripping right along after, urging clapping and yelling, and just displaying general showmanship.  They swear a lot.  They have a lot of fun on stage and it is quite contagious.  My only regret was that i wished that they'd played "Take Five".

Science Foo Camp gave me and Kim the opportunity to meet the genteel covertmusic for the first time today, and see the suave torkington on Sunday, for the first time since MOUNT.BOB.  We had Chinese and Persian, respectively, and we had a swell time talking.

( so much chocolate it's all over you screen )

Kim and i took a flight early this morning to Marion Morrison Airport to drive to Riverside (yes, i know Ontario's closer, but we couldn't get any decent fares) for the wedding of my old college friend Dave Zuckerman.  The traffic in Southern California is an obnoxious endemic feature, a daily hazard for travelers; besides, SoCal is so big, it takes a long time to get anywhere anyway.

For the first time since the early `90s, "we" were all together at the same time: Brian Dailey, Eugene Hsu, Ron Swain, and the aforementioned DZ.  We had a blast, of course, cracking wise during the wedding rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, and at the après-ceremony dinner at Café Sevilla (which reminded me of the Current Music).  Except for Brian, who also works in the IT dungeons (albeit for academia instead of the dread world of startups), we've all settled into different careers, all of which have little to do with the degrees we achieved (and by "we" i mean "they", as i never completed my curriculum).  The food and wine at Sevilla were excellent, despite a few hitches (how does a Spanish restaurant run out of Spanish wine, i ask you?)

This afternoon's ceremony was elegant and succinct.  Dave and Julia radiate passion, love, and good humor.  I liked what i saw, and i had a great time.

This morning, we had brunch at Plums with jkcohen and his better half Beth, and it was delightful to spend a few hours with them (alas, not nearly as much time as we'd've liked), and the food was excellent.

Now i must go to bed, as we must get up before the crack of dawn to make an 06:45 flight.  I just didn't want to take Monday off...

An order of tsubugai at Sushi Masa.