Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Woke up around 2:00 AM—don't know why. Got up (bathroom), went back to bed. Couldn't sleep. Got up, had a snack (Maruchan instant noodles which take 3 minutes), read Wired Magazine online, read some e-mail, sent some e-mail, went back to sleep around 3:00 AM and this time it worked! Sleep... At work I cleaned up some of the text-only templates for our Web site. I installed iCab 2.8.2—a Web browser for the Mac—and was disappointed at how poorly it rendered my XHTML 1.1 and CSS pages. I adjusted our site to serve iCab users the non-CSS version of our pages and things looked considerably better after that. I realized that the agent-detection code which Alex took from SourceForge was not written very efficiently, but I don't have time to rewrite it right now. Today was our holiday luncheon for our Office of Student and Curricular Affairs. We went to One Market Restaurant. Ena couldn't make it because she had to pick up friends or family at the airport. James stayed at work to work. Appetizers: Debrah had carrot soup, Cindy had medallions of monkfish, Joel had a Caesar salad which had a strong anchovy base, Kristina had a mixed greens salad with a pecorino tuile, Michael and I chose to have no appetizer. Entrees: Debrah had ravioli, Cindy had a Caesar salad, Joel had GRILLED HAMBURGER WITH BIG FRIES (Celeriac Salad, Port Dijon, Sweet Onions, Roquefort and Caramel Catsup $13.75), Michael had a duck salad, Kristina had freeform vegetarian circular lasagne, I had a roasted chicken boob baked in a boat dish with macaroni and cheese and breadcrumbs with a side of acorn squash and some mixed green salad. Desserts: Cindy and I each had a chocolate sampler, which included the Chocolate Almond Toffee Crunch Cake (with Sour Cream Fudge Icing, Caramel Ice Cream), a chocolate custard tart, a chocolate mint ice cream sandwich, a tiny scoop of pumpkin ice cream, and a sugary mint leaf. Joel and Kristina each had the ice cream special: homemade pumpkin with a large dollop of whipped cream and pecan and praline sauce. Of his dessert, Joel said, "It made my eyes go like *that* and made my toes curl." Michael had a warm pumpkin cake surrounded by cinnamon apple chunks. Debrah had triple-layer pumpkin cheesecake. The pastry chef was Patti Dellamonica-Bauler. The chef was Adrian Hoffman. The meal was delightful except 2 things: (a) we were about 15 minutes late and the host rudely chided us by saying that our table was given away but they could squeeze us in and they have many afternoon reservations but you can take your time, and (b) Debrah said both her appetizer and entree were lukewarm. She didn't complain until dessert, so I told her next time she should send it back. After lunch, Cindy let us run a few errands, but we all returned to work soon afterwards. Patrick had his final exam in Mandarin today. He thinks he did pretty well. After the exam, the teacher invited him and another white guy and Sam (who was Patrick's ride home and a previous student of the same teacher) to lunch at Lucky Dragon—a nearby Chinese restaurant. We went to dinner at 2223 to celebrate his excellent learning. We had 2 glasses of champagne (US$12.50) and shared a 3-prawn appetizer ($9.50). Patrick had salmon ($16.50), I had chicken ($17.50), we shared a warm-center chocolate cake for dessert ($6.50). Later tonight, Patrick found out by e-mail that he got a 92 out of 100 on the exam.