Aaah... bi bim bop

I do like Korean food. My big addiction is the bi bim bap (sp?) in the clay bowl.

When the rice cooks along the edges, it's like candy.

Mmm.

Since I'm more-or-less stuck driving this week, I opted to corral some friends at work to head out for a run to Korean yesterday.

Nummy food.

A better day

So today's better. Here's some reasons why:

* I ate a satisfying lunch at Zao's Noodles (followed by a couple of brownie cookies that I shouldn't have eaten)

* I'm not in SoCal for the 5.8 earthquake (though, to be fair, 5.8 isn't really all that impressive. It might wake me up out of sleep, but that's all)

* I completed my DVD collection of "Avatar: The Last Airbender", thus confirming a special place in geekdom for me.

It's the little things. Really.

Not the most fun day ever

I wasn't more than... oh... two, maybe three hundred yards from the office yesterday when I noticed an odd feeling as my bike hit a bump.

My flat tire.

Coming in early yesterday morning, my bike chain kept "skipping", making pedaling a bit of an adventure (and at 5-something AM, an adventure is not desired). The flat tire? That was just icing on the cake.

As my co-worker Mark pointed out, it was the gods punishing me for riding my bike.

Maybe Mark was on to something...

So there I am in pervert park (or whatever the place is actually called... it's some random spot that I didn't really want to stop in) trying to get the damn bike pump on the air valve (which was bent and not cooperative) while some random kid has decided to stop and watch the show (and making me self-conscious of my steady stream of profanity... so I couldn't even swear!).

And then there was the usual assortment of random crazy people wandering by uttering nonsense at me.

Whee.

I got enough air in the tire to get me going to a bike shop I knew of en route home. I knew they were open on Mondays and they'd tuned up my bike before. I stopped in to see if I could just get a tune-up and have them fix the flat. They said they'd get to it by Sunday.

Since the Bike Gods were already expressing displeasure, I just left the bike there. Who knows? Maybe they'll get to it early. Doesn't really matter to me at this point.

And I hoofed it home.

And that? That was a long walk.

A long walk.

And the sun decided to take that opportunity to come out and burn down.

Yesterday was not a terribly fun day.

Here's hoping today is better.

Le sigh

My frakking bike chain keeps locking up. Gah.

Makes my early morning bike rides more fun than they need to be.

Guess I need to take it in for maintenance.

Well, that was a read

So I finished "Toll the Hounds" by Steven Erikson. Good lord that took a long time to work through. Towards the end I found myself skimming the bits that I found I just didn't care about to follow the parts I did care about.

Even though there was a climactic-ish ending, I find myself disappointed at it. The ending felt rushed. There were far too many characters. The threads didn't tie together very well. The overall plot was confusing. The pacing was too slow. The overall book felt bloated and far too... well too much.

Erikson's great for epic fantasy, but it felt like he wasn't taking time to step back and read his own stuff. All his characters feel like they're cut from a handful of molds and just given different, random names.

*sigh*

First Robert Jordan's stuff got waaaay too convoluted and focused on minutae that nobody really cared about.

Then George R.R. Martin seemed to lose it with his last novel, a plodding beast that he even admitted didn't do anything to address the fan-favorites of his readership.

Now Erikson's showing signs that his mythology is getting away from him.

It saddens me.

That was fun!

So I just got back from a fun evening with Erik and Jen in honor of Erik's birthday.

We hit Scala's Bistro for some delicious Italian food then cabbed over to Bourbon & Branch to finish off the evening with a variety of drinks.

While I'm a little bit fuzzy-headed, I'm hesitant to say I'm drunk. I'm closer to somewhat tipsy. I wouldn't want to be driving right now, but I feel pretty level overall.

I suspect the drinks will hit me as I sleep tonight. Whee!

In all, it was a fun evening. Erik seemed to enjoy himself thoroughly, which makes this a mission well-accomplished.

And, damn. I dressed up and everything and still those two looked better.

Halfway point

Okay, since I have Friday off, I guess I'm more than halfway done with the week.

Yay!

I'm debating seeing "Dark Knight" again on Friday. With one startlingly-hostile exception, everyone I know loved it and even that one exception seemed more like someone who just wanted to pick a fight for some bizarre reason than a hater.

So do I deal with Berkeley's insanity again or opt for a different theater? I hear IMAX is still running it...

Though this weekend is gonna be a bit crazed. Maybe I should just take Friday and veg.

Eh. I can decide on Friday.

So... Bourbon & Branch on Saturday! Woo-hoo!

I don't do a lot of fancy outings in the City, so this should be interesting. Dinner at some Italian place I've never eaten at followed by fancy drinks (which will somehow involve getting a cab... that should be fun).

Yay!