Saturday, April 17, 2004
Two oranges for breakfast. Did dishes. Did stretching exercises. Joel called from Long Beach where he's doing a presentation for the school—he can't change the power settings so that the screen saver doesn't kick in. I gave him the local admin password because there was no other way around it. I had actually noticed that on Thursday before I handed the laptop off but didn't have time to investigate it further. Washed out the toaster oven, which had been smelling funny. Dusted and vacuumed the entire apartment. Removed a few spiders in the process using our Australian spider catcher. Vacuumed the heat lamp vent in the bathroom. I demolished a bead on the beaded curtain, repaired it with needle and thread. Swapped air cleaners between the bathroom and front living room. Gathered junk of which to get rid. Installed black split tubing between the rackmount unit and the printer to hide the power and USB cables. Snacked on tortilla chips, fudge stripe cookies, and candied ginger. Installed more of the same for Patrick's Oyster docking station. Taped Jacques Pepin making some kind of almond cake with poached plums and a plum sherbert. Taped and watched a cheerleading championship show. (Joel got me mildly interested after his visit to Anaheim for a cheer competition.) Did weight exercises. Lunch at home by myself: ramen soup with spinach, egg, green onions, and wonton dumplings. Washed rugs. Brushed my teeth. Tower Market for groceries and cheese for tonight's party. It was billed as A Night of 30 Cheeses, but it turned out to be A Night of 34 Cheeses. They were brought together at Jamie's place, which was decorated with stylish flair, comme toujours. As people entered, they were asked to fill out a card specifying the name, vendor, country or region, and animal from which the cheese was made. All sorts of crackers, breads, and fruit accompanied the spread on the giant dining table, which had as its centerpiece a large 5-stem candelabra aglow. It took me a long time, but I tasted every cheese. The ones I liked: Saint Andre, garlic cheese dip, Red Dragon Somerdale, Sage Derby, Madrigal (which tasted like a mild Swiss), Cowgirl Creamery St. Pat, 5-year-old white cheddar, Pecorino Pepato (which had black peppercorns), Montsegur Le Roy (which had green peppercorns), Fromager d'Affinois Double Cream, Iberico, Taleggio, Farmhouse Cheddar. Ones I didn't like: Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk, Brillot Sougrilo Triple Cream, Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog, Rigotte d'Echalas, Sally Jackson, Blue Shropshire, dry Monterey Jack, Royal Blue Stilton, Nealsyard Daly (which tasted vaguely like shrimp or seafood to me), Monte Negro, Mor Bier, Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam, Camembert, Gorgonzola dip, Lancanshire, Shelly Grossman, Pau, French Valencay, Gorgonzola. There were two that I thought were okay except they were spicy: Jalapeno Monterey Jack and Cappiello Mozzarella. The favorite cheese of the night by seemingly all (including me) was easily the Red Dragon Somerdale, which had delicately flavored mustard seed in it—not spicy, my friend. I later learned that it was a cheddar that was also made with Welsh brown ale. I had brought the Humboldt Fog and the Rigotte. The former Jamie had assigned me to bring, and the latter I had bought on a whim at random. In attendance was Aaron's mom Marsha and her friend Tom, Randy, Chloe, Aaron, Jamie, Ben, Sanjay, Kai (who just the previous day had returned from 5 months in Philadelphia), Alina and her (new to me) boyfriend Mike, Nicole, Tara and Kevin and Michael, Tom and Sue, Greg, Brock, Demetrius, Evan (born and raised in San Francisco), Brian, Sam, Ronnie (whom I didn't get to meet), Steve, Waleed, Brian, Liz. I introduced Evan and Tara for the first time. Another delightful and memorable evening.