This is especially for all the poly folks on my friends list:
Dave Coverly’s Speed Bump
Month: March 2004 Page 1 of 6
Dave Coverly’s Speed Bump
it’s all your faults you know. Everyone kept saying that I needed to write in my journal more, an effort I’ve now been sustaining for over a month. But as a result, you now get to be subjected to such banality as “What I had for Lunch”.
While we were out and about yesterday at lunch, eloren and I noticed a newish restaurant on Windward Parkway called Thai Picasso, which billed itself as a Thai-French restaurant. We thought this was intriguing, and we both like Thai food (though I admit to still being woefully undereducated about it, so we figured we’d go give it a try.
The lunch menu was nicely priced, with most of the entrees in the $6 range, with a set of specials up around $10. eloren had the spicy basil shrimp special, while I elected for an appetizer of crunchy fried shrimp and ginger beef. In addition, we each had a bowl of soup, with eloren taking the coconut soup and myself a bowl of Tom Yum soup.
Everything was delicately spiced, without anything being overpowering. The “crunchy friend shrimp” turned out to be jumbo shrimp wrapped in a spring roll cover and flash fried, with a sweet sauce for dipping. The Tom Yum was spiced just enough to give it flavour without ever being overbearing, and the ginger beef was succulent and soft in the mouth, with a delightfully subtle taste.
To finish the meal, we split a piece of tiramisu, since eloren‘s more expensive lunch order came with a complementary piece of cake. It was a wonderfully light and sweet finish to a delightful meal.
If you find yourself in the Windward Parkway area of Alpharetta, give this place a try. I was not disappointed.
Last night after telynor left, we decided to go out and have a dinner out as we didn’t feel like washing any dishes. We ended up at Famous Dave’s Barbecue, where we had a massive plate of food. Upon returning, I walked into the bedroom, where I saw Jenna sitting on the bed obscured by shadows. To my amazement, when I flicked on the light, the shadows didn’t go away!
Further investigation revealed that she had managed to get past the mesh screen protecting the fireplace and was now covered with soot! Our lovely white kitty was now an odd mottled grey!
I think she thinks she’s in trouble. I’m trying hard not to wound her dignity by laughing too hard at her!
It was a pretty quiet weekend here, mostly spent hanging out with telynor and her son G.
Friday night, telynor called and asked if we’d like to have dinner with her and her son. We thought this was a fine idea, and decided to head over to TGI Fridays for a relaxing meal. We had shrimp and ribs and steak and all kinds of goodness, then came back to our place to watch Blazing Saddles, which telynor had never seen.
Saturday, kitanzi and I went over to the Alpharetta YMCA to see what their prices looked like. Definitely reasonable for a family membership, but the setup cost was more than we wanted to do today. They have some nice facilities, though, including a new outdoor pool with a water slide that looks like it’ll be a lot of fun when it’s completed.
Having checked out the amenities, we decided to take a look at the Alpharetta Big Creek Greenway, which is a six mile long nature trail that follows down the flood plain of Big Creek. We entered the trail right around the 5.5 mile mark, and decided to walk to the 4 mile mark and back. This turned out to be just at the limit of our endurance on a bright sunny day, but it was a very pleasant stroll and there was a lot of, er, mobile scenery to appreciate, as lots of folks were out in their shorts on bikes and roller blades. This is definitely a place we intend to revisit often.
We came home and took a nap, then telynor and G. came over again and she prepared us a wonderful dinner of beef Stroganoff. We had intended to go to the Atlanta housefilk, but we were all feeling a bit bushed, so we decided to veg out and watch a few hours of Firefly instead, since telynor and her son haven’t seen it yet. We watched four episodes before deciding that bed was the better part of valour. telynor and G. elected to stay the night, so we all toddled off to dreamland.
The next morning was a lazy day, which consisted mostly of more Firefly, laundry, and conversation. Don’t really have anything more exciting to report, I’m afraid.
So what’s been off my shelf this last week?
- The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire by John Christopher
When I finished The White Mountains a couple of weeks ago, I was somewhat frustrated because I was missing the second book in the trilogy. So I went to abebooks.com and ordered a copy. When it came, I immediately jumped back into the world of Will and Henry and Beanpole as they struggled against the domination of the Tripods.
These are pretty brisk reads, and I must admit that there’s a lot of things that the older reader in me would love to have seen addressed in more detail, and some odd science here and there. But the story is just as good as when I was a kid, and the ending still leaves me with a touch of sadness. I hope that in the end, the people of Earth do manage to get their act together.
- Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David
Peter David is one of my favourite people writing in comics, and I had enjoyed some of his previous forays into prose fiction, so I was looking forward to this book. It turned out to be very satisfying, although I wasn’t sure at first if it was going to be. The first quarter of the books concerns itself with our protagonist’s ignoble birth and upbringing, and somewhere in those two hundred pages I began to wonder if David had set out to try and write an engaging fantasy novel without a single likable character in it. Once we catch back up with the present, however (the exposition is told via a lengthy flashback), the story gets seriously underway, and it’s very hard to put down. Despite the fact that Apropos whines too much, you do start to pull for him towards the end, and I commend David for resisting the urge to wrap it up with a cliche happy ending. If you like anti-heroes and atrocious puns, this may be a book you’ll enjoy.
Who’s your favourite anti-hero?
Today was the sort of day that I hate being trapped inside for. For lunch, eloren and I went to Loco’s Deli, and sat out on the patio in the sun, enjoying the nice breeze and 70 degree (F) weather.
Ah, spring. 🙂
For some reason, today I feel like a 13 year old boy who just discovered his dad’s stash of Playboys.
This weekend, kitanzi and I drove up to Chatanooga for Galacticon.