I don’t have to worry about it for a couple of years, but when my brother-in-law (a.k.a. “brother from another mother”) Andy graduates from law school, I might give him one of these to hang in his office:
It’s a poster by Todd Goldman, whose works you might have seen before — he’s the “Boys are stupid – throws rocks at them!” artist. I took the photo outside an art shop at the Fashion Show Mall in Vegas.
Tonight marks yet another Ruby on Rails Pub Nite, the monthly gathering when some of Accordion City’s brightest lights in the software development sphere gather together to hang out, enjoy some beers and burgers and chat about Ruby on Rails as well as life in general. It’s falling distance from the office and the Ginger Ninja’s away on a business, so I plan on being there tonight.
The event takes place at The Rhino (1249 Queen Street West, a couple of blocks west of Dufferin) and starts at about 7. Organizer Pete Forde writes:
At this point there is a core group of about twenty folks that come out regularly; we expect about fifteen heads per outing. The Rhino affectionately refers to us as “their nerds”.
We often receive emails from people that wonder if they know enough about Rails to come. The answer is that if you know what Rails is, you should come. At the very least, we can answer your questions and get you even more excited.
If you’ve got the time this evening, come on down!
One of the niceties of being a half-Canadian, half-American couple: two Thanksgivings!
Earlier this evening, I enjoyed a very lovely dinner, much of which was comprised of food that after all these years, I still find a little bit exotic: turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin bread and stuffing. Of course, what I think of as comfort food — adobo, pancit, lumpia — a lot of people might call exotic.
(My parents didn’t acquire a taste for turkey until recent years, and Mom doesn’t like the texture of mashed potatoes; they remind her too much of baby food. For the longest time, Thanksgiving at our house was rock cornish hens and wild rice, which are nothing to complain about.)
This was a particularly special Thanksgiving, as we were celebrating the Wendy’s brother’s engagement with him and his fiancee. Congrats, guys, and welcome to the family, Sue! (It’s hard to believe that two Thanksgivings ago, we were celebrating my engagement to Wendy. How time flies.)
Also joining us was J, who worked at Harvard with Wendy and whom I met at the Berkman Center’s blog group and over my many visits to Boston. It was good seeing you again, J!
As you might expect, posting’s going to be a little spotty until the end of the week. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the best Thanksgiving segment on a sitcom ever, the WKRP turkey debacle:
Before Wendy’s friend Liz took us to Mama Dip’s for some good ol’ unhealthy-but-yummy southern cookin’, she took us to Carr Mill in nearby Carrboro. Carr Mill is a mill that’s been converted into a shopping centre for offbeat and “alternative” shops. One of the shops in Carr Mill that we visited was Wootini, which seems to be Carrboro’s answer to the Magic Pony store on Queen Street West here in Accordion City.
I was looking at the art on the walls when I saw a painting I thought I recognized:
“That looks like Robot Johnny’s work,” I thought. I looked at the card beside the painting and saw:
Scary Monsters, Super Creeps
John Martz
“It is Robot Johnny’s work!” I said. “How’d it get down here?”
The answer, it turns out, is in a blog entry from May.
It was preety neat seeing your artwork travel far and wide, John. Maybe you should do your next “fear” piece on chicken fried steak — some people find it scary.
The Ginger Ninja and I spent the weekend in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where we attended a family friend’s wedding on Sunday. The day before, we toured about town with her college buddy Liz, and we had lunch at Mama Dip’s, a restaurant specializing in good old-fashioned American country cooking. Here I am outside Mama Dip’s:
You may have heard of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes (which is based on the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, but you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted one. The dish is made of green tomato slices, which are then battered and fried. Here’s one that I had as an appetizer:
I rarely get a chance to eat one of my favourite southern dishes: good old chicken fried steak (a.k.a. country fried steak). If you’ve never heard of this unhealthy-but-yummy dish, it’s a thin slice of beef steak, pounded until tender and then breaded and pan-fried like chicken, then smothered in gravy. Here’s what my meal looked like:
Dishes at Mama Dip’s come with your choice of sides; I went with macaroni and cheese, turnip greens and biscuits. Let’s get another look at my plate:
Oh, yeah, that’s the good stuff.
And for dessert: chocolate pecan pie with a scoop of ice cream:
I also helped Wendy finish off her dessert, which was Mama Dip’s banana pudding.
It was so good that we ended up there the next day, bringing along Wendy’s parents and aunt and uncle. We got to sample the corn bread, sweet potato fries, fried okra and fudge pudding. All terribly unhealthy, all great tasting. If you’re ever in Chapel Hill, go to Mama Dip’s!
I think I’ll be atoning for this one at the gym for some time.
Here’s a preview of an upcoming post — a photo of the appetizer for my lunch on Saturday, a fried green tomato at Mama Dip’s Traditional Country Cooking Restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. These things are delicious!
Southern cooking will probably kill me slowly, but I’m not in a hurry. More photos to come later today!
My schedule’s been rather busy for the past week, what with flying down to San Jose last Monday and then taking the early bird flight on Friday from San Jose to Raleigh to attend a wedding in Chapel Hill, and then back to Accordion City last night. I’m going to be knee-deep in Star Alliance points from this trip.
As I said in the title, blog entries are forthcoming. Let me get some real work done, and then I’ll start posting.