February 2003 Archives
I didn't get to post this yesterday, since it was a busy day, but...
I woke up pretty late yesterday morning and flipped on the TV. I usually don't watch TV much in the mornings, even on weekends, but I just decided to see what was on. Sometimes there's something good on PBS. What awaited me was video of those bright streaks in the sky that, by now, people have seen far too much of. It took me a few moments (and some channel flipping) to even grasp the magnitude of what had happened.
It instantly made me think back to the Challenger explosion in 1986. I remember sitting in class when they told us about it. For some reason, I seem to remember that they brought in a TV for us to watch the news on, but that may just be my memories getting all jumbled up. Back then, I was really into astronomy, so the news hit me hard. Today, I was just sort of shocked that it could happen again in a lifetime.
It's truly a sad day.
Posted on February 2, 2003 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Last night, I took Sarah to The Inn at Little Washington for dinner for her 30th birthday. Though her birthday was actually last Wednesday, the restaurant was celebrating its 25th anniversary that night and, though it was actually open to the public, it was also $1000 a couple (or maybe a person, I can't remember which) that night. Which is a bit out of my price range. So we opted to go a week after.
It took about an hour and a half to get out there, but it was really worth it. The inn seems to be in the middle of nowhere. The sky was absolutely gorgeous and looked even better when we left. Despite a bright crescent moon, we were still able to see a lot of stars. Certainly far far more than we're able to see from our apartment. Truly breathtaking.
The restaurant itself was very nice indeed. A guy in a top hat and coat came to our car and led us to the door then opened it for us. Someone was waiting for us and knew who I was when I mentioned that I had reservations for 8:30. He let us warm our hands by the fire before taking us on a little tour of the place, as we'd never been there before. We then were seated. Sarah got to sit on something almost like a couch with a little pillow to play with. While we were looking over the menus, they asked us if we wanted anything to drink and brought out some bread. After figuring out what we wanted and learning about how to order (since it was a multi-course meal and all), we ordered.
And then the food came. And what food it was. I've never had anything quite that good before. Since it's unlikely we'll be able to afford to go there again any time soon, we decided to try new things. Though I won't prattle on about everything we ate, I'd like to say that I tried rabbit for my main course and it was yummy. The desserts were also exquisite.
I also had some tea with my dessert (though it was a bit odd to have tea with my ice cream-y dessert, I wanted tea, dammit). Though I was completely flummoxed when he asked what kind of tea I wanted. I don't generally know the names of teas I like. I tend to stick with your ordinary black tea that you find in the supermarket or jasmine tea or something cinnamony and orangey. I probably should've just taken the one he suggested that he described as "smoky", though I wasn't thinking and that reminded me too much of... well... a barbecue. Though I know it didn't really mean that and I probably would've loved it. So instead of saying what I should've said, which is that I was looking for something spicy, sweet, and citrus-y, I said I wanted something sweet and fruity. :P So I ended up with an interesting black tea that was cranberry flavored. I forget the name of it. The woman who brought it said it was African something-or-other, but I totally forget what the something-or-other is. But it was very tasty.
We were allowed to keep our menus and the second page of the menu actually mentioned Sarah's birthday, which was a nice touch.
I think I under-tipped the coat check guy. I don't know for sure. But I'm not used to having my coat checked, especially at a fancy place, so I had no idea what was too little or too much. At least I left more than a 20% tip for dinner. They definitely deserved it. We were treated very well, especially for people who were obviously clueless and who didn't drink any of the expensive alcohol. :)
If you have the time and the money, I'd definitely recommend the place for a really special occasion. It's pricey and you may be able to get food that's just as yummy for cheaper, but the ambience and the treatment are worth it.
Posted on February 6, 2003 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Huh. Hadn't heard about this before. I want my $5!
Posted on February 11, 2003 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Jeez... this is the most snow I've seen in a LONG time and it's still coming down hard. My car is completely buried out there. It's a good thing I didn't have anywhere to go today. Though I wish I'd filled up on gas Friday night. Not much I can do about it now. They're actually saying we could get 2 feet.
The bad part is I actually do have several places to go tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the roads will be clear enough by the time I have to get out there.
Posted on February 16, 2003 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
School got called off Wednesday and today. Tomorrow we will be going back. Yesterday I finally dug out my car after finally finding a shovel of some sort (though we couldn't find a snow shovel anywhere). So I'll be good to go. It'll actually be kind of nice going back to work and getting out of the apartment. I went out a bit yesterday but it wasn't enough. After being stuck inside pretty much from Friday night until Tuesday, I have a lot of being outside to catch up on.
I don't remember what it's like to be at work.
Posted on February 20, 2003 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
So I'm back to work at last. It was kinda nice having an entire week off, though I wish I'd been able to plan for it. I ended up just goofing off, for the most part. But I guess that's O.K. Goofing off is sometimes necessary.
There's still a giant mound of snow in the parking lot of my apartment complex. At least most of the sidewalks are clear now.
Posted on February 24, 2003 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
This is great. I know a lot of people are going to fall for this one, but I found it amusing. I hadn't gotten this one before.
I got an e-mail claiming to be from "Ebay Customer Support" today. The subject was "Ebay Techical Alert"(sic). It read:
"Dear custmer (rcraven@speakeasy.org),
We regret to inform you that because of some technical problems and a great data loss our team scheduled a maintenance session and managed to keep your account and auctions in good state."
It then told you to click on this link, which led to a site called "www.ebay-invoice.com" and the bottom of the e-mail had all the eBay trimmings of a usual eBay e-mail on it. This eBay Invoice site had the exact look of eBay. When you put in a user name and password, it then brought you to a page that told you to click on a button to go to sign in (which was weird, since wasn't that where I just was?). When you clicked the button, you were forwarded to the real eBay page and it tried to login with the user name and password given.
Hopefully people will be bright enough to notice what's going on here and not fall prey to these near-illiterate password thieves. It's amazing what people try to get away with these days.
Posted on February 24, 2003 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wow. Last night's Smallville was easily the best episode of the season, if not of the show. And I went into it not really expecting much. I had no idea just how much plot they'd jam into this one episode. There was SO much going on, but it never once felt overwhelming. They were even able to include a minor subplot on top of all of the good stuff.
A few weeks ago, I was lamenting the current state of Smallville and worrying about where it was going. But the past couple of episodes, especially this one, have been outstanding.
When the first hints of the Superman movie music started playing, I felt a little giddy. When it came out full bore, it was almost chilling. Great use of music in the scene between Clark and Dr. Swann.
Excellent excellent episode.
Oh. And I get out early today because of the snow. Mwah.
Posted on February 26, 2003 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)