Sunday, March 11, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Lunch with Melissa at Kappo Nami Nami (240 Castro Street, Mountain View), which serves upscale traditional Japanese. We arrived minutes after opening and were quickly seated, but we were disturbed by the smell of cigarette smoke which I discovered seemed to permeate the entire restaurant after walking to the restroom in the back. After checking with Melissa that she smelled cigarette smoke also, I returned to the back and looked out the back door. No smokers, but there were dozens of cigarette butts all over the ground right outside the door. When I mentioned this to the waitress, she did not seem very committal to our desire for clean air but said she would close the door. Cigarette smoke was not a problem for the remainder of our meal. The meal was very delicious, and Melissa said it was one of the best meals she has had in a long time. We both could tell the quality of the fish is very high. The portions of fish on the sushi and sashimi are much larger than I am used to. Our dishes did not come out at the same time—there was a delivery gap of at least several minutes, and service was mostly neglectful. Afterwards we strolled Castro Street, enjoying the unusually warm weather. We happened upon a musuem of locks and safes, and the friendly owner invited us inside and proceeded to give us a personal tour which I found quite interesting. There were about a dozen large bank safes that you could open and touch as well as a collection of probably several hundred locks, some from places like China, Vietnam, and the Middle East. Afterwards Melissa left probably to study and I went to my sister's. I thought 7-year-old Jeremy how to play chess. In his first chess game ever, he put my king in check before I could do the same. He's a very fast learner, and I could tell he had the beginnings of developing strategy even after only a couple of moves. Lani made a delicious beef stew for dinner. We also had steamed rice and steamed broccoli. Dropped in on Bryan's bbq: Bryan, Andy, John B, Ted, Philip (sp?), Kyle, Matt, Albert, Sally, Eric, Galen, Marck G, John L, Herman, Chris (sp?), and probably some others I am unable to recall right now. Conversations and activities (not necessarily in order): how long does it take to get propane?, Galen fries chicken breasts and makes a sauce, Mandarin, adam4adam, hot nude photos, Star Trek trivia, Star Trek Experience, Turtle Talk with Crush (California Adventure), when should I buy a Mac?, Apple TV, should I get an Apple TV or a Mac Mini?, I told sneeper he should have worked the floor at Macworld, HDTV, HDMI 1.2, Lemon Party, Roomba and Moomba, Mammoth, knee problems, exercise, back massage, steak and sausages, fruit tart (you are what you eat). Late meal near home. Patrick stayed home today—he had a lot of work upon which to catch.