Monday, March 30, 2009

Usual oatmeal breakfast. To work. CCD meeting. Supp app followup. Submitted a book order to Susie: O'Reilly, Using Drupal. BTS work: generated images for Eric D's news story. Helped Sue A figure out what to do with an unsolicited request related to domain names (answer: ignore it). Coded and announced to the committee the draft of the fall 2009 computer requirements. Lots of calendar management. Lunch from the cafeteria: chicken marsala, mixed vegetables, brown rice, corn muffin. Met Eric L to review the new network connections in Eric D's new workspace. Three ports were installed, but when I tested them last week only 2 of them worked. He showed today that one of the ports takes about 30 seconds after you plug it in before it becomes active, and I thought that was really weird. He said something about it being on a newer switch which didn't make sense to me—newer should be faster, not slower. I tried to tell him that it didn't sound right to me, but he wouldn't do anything about it, and it really doesn't matter—we just need to use that port for whatever won't get unplugged and plugged frequently (like a laptop). Their contractor failed to mount the box to the cube wall, which looked really unprofessional to me, and I was told that that was impossible to do because there was no hard surface to mount it to. (So, to me, that means you mount a hard surface in the spot that you need it—something like this is not impossible with the right hardware.) We agreed that worst case he would try to find some heavy duty double-stick tape. He mentioned duct tape, and that's when I told him if he couldn't find adequate double-sticky mounting pads that I would just do it myself. Yeesh. ICRD work for Rodney. Signed up for Adobe Flash training which Eric D took last year and which I didn't have time for then. Added links to our website to the Class of 2012 website for student AK. More calendar management. Facebook followup by email with Devi, Marie, Susie. Lots of calendar management. Dinner with JCB and James at Jardiniere. This is my first time at Jardiniere. The first thing I notice when I walk in: the dining room and bar are exquisitely decorated. JCB said Monday nights are great because you get a 3-course prix fixe meal ($45) with included wine pairings. He treated to thank me for helping him out with his computers 2 previous Saturdays. James (The Pup) came along for the ride and was great company, just like JCB. They both started with the featured cocktail: savoie sour: cognac, lemon, absinthe ($10). Appetizer: warm asparagus salad, country ham, brioche croutons, bread, butter, Domaine Edmond Jacquin, Roussette de Savoie "Marestel" Savoie, France 2005. Main course: roast hoffman chicken, tartiflette potatoes, Guy Dufouleur, Fixin Premier Cru "Clos du Chapitre" Burgundy, France 2005. Dessert: biscuit de savoie, Navarro Vineyards, Late Harvest Riesling, Anderson Valley, California 2007. Service was very, very good, and very inobtrusive. I believe we nearly had a different person when each course or wine tasting was delivered. This was a little disconcerting, but I never found myself wanting at any point. The only error: while (our server?) cleared some dishes, she dropped JCB's used butter knife on the banquette seat next to him—not a big deal. I enjoyed every course. No single one was my favorite; I liked them all evenly. When I got home, Patrick was watching Next (2007) on Netflix instant watch, so I watched the end with him. Here's the note we left on Netflix: "Patrick says: I wish I could've seen 2 minutes into the future to avoid picking this movie. Frank says: This film doesn't accurately depict Cris Johnson's ability at all."