Saturday, February 26, 2005
Breakfast at home with Patrick: veggie scramble, bacon, and the world's largest English muffins. More work on the shower regrouting project. More password changing. Started my tax return. Shredded lots of old papers we didn't need. Cut my hair. Showered. Dinner at Xiao Loong with Patrick: Pan-Pacific Wonton ( A flavorful mixture of crabmeat, cream cheese, and green onions encased in a thin Chinese pastry, deep-fried to a golden brown and served with Xiao Loong's sweet and sour sauce and Chinese hot mustard, $6.50), Stir-Fried Spinach and Mung Bean Thread (Fresh spinach and delicate mung bean threads, stir-fried with a garlic wine sauce, $7.50), Sweet and Sour Pork (Tender chunks of lean pork, deep-fried in batter and quickly tossed with onions and bell peppers in our tangy ginger-sweet and sour sauce, $7.95), Combination Chow Mein (Egg noodles stir fried with a combination of chicken, beef, and shrimp, fresh assorted vegetables, and green onions, $6.95). Service was inattentive on several counts, and one busboy tried to take my plate 3 seconds after I stuck a wonton in my mouth, but we like the food so much here we don't care. We say hello to Jeff, our favorite server. While we dined we noticed two other young gay couples dining at the same time. We didn't know West Portal was such a hotbed for 20- and 30-something gay couples! (Actually, it's probably just this restaurant that's the draw.) Patrick's fortune: Executive ability is prominent in your make up. My fortune: Wise men make more opportunities than they find. Created a printer stylesheets for tinaluu.org and frankfarm.org. Finished watching Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which we started watching last night but I forgot to write about that, so there's no mention of it yesterday. This Japanese western was perhaps very artful for its time, but I had a hard time grasping all the details of the plot, and it was hard to suspend my disbelief that the entire town was composed of simply the men and prostitutes of two warring factions. Where were all the mothers and children? I chose the film because Tarantino is said to have been influenced by Kurosawa, and indeed, we do see one brief scene which Tarantino duplicates almost exactly in Kill Bill: Volume 2, and it's fun to see that.