The South Beat Me

I pride myself on my stomach of steel.

I can eat just about anything without becoming ill.

Yesterday, however, I learned that I was no match for the Atlanta institution of The Varsity.

We've gone in the past (it's a tradition of E's extended family to lunch there on Christmas Eve) and I've enjoyed the entire experience.

But, apparently, on our other occasions I hadn't had a snack of bacon beforehand, and I definitely didn't munch my way through a cheeseburger, a serving of the world's greasiest onion wings, and half a serving of French Fries.

Just to let me know that I was out of line, my body revolted yesterday afternoon.

I was fine in time for Christmas Eve dinner (mmmm... leg of lamb, slow roasted on the Primo over indirect heat and bacon (of course) lentil salad.)

But next time at the Varsity, I'm going for the cole slaw dogs and will skip the sides.

Also, Merry Christmas, Happy Belated Solstice, and Happy almost New Year!

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Tech Support

So, my (new, under warranty) laptop died last night. Continuous Blue Screen Of Death loop from 1 AM 'til 2 AM or so when I finally called it quits and hard-powered-down.

I'm on the East Coast with E's family for the Holidays, but I still need to work. Ideally, I need to be able to work so seamlessly that it doesn't occur to my clients that I have a physical location, much less one that's changed since the last time I was helping them.

Today, after confirming via phone emails that I only had a couple of hours of work that needed to be finished by COB PST, I bailed on my workout and tried to drop my laptop off at the only Lenovo Service Center in downtown Atlanta. The friendly folks at the glass store in its place informed me that it moved to the burbs 3 years ago. (Interestingly, once I gave up on physical repair and dedicated myself to the toll-free solution, I learned that the call center is just down the street from us in Atlanta (Dunwoody), but that I couldn't drop off my computer with them because repairs are done in Memphis.)

Frustrated with the lack of an immediate Lenovo solution (meaning I would be without-computer for at least 1 day, and likely many more) I cried uncle, returned to Nolan's folks for lunch involving bacon, and went for the solution of least conflict.

A Netbook. On sale for Christmas. The perfect back-up machine. Today, I got the last $250 Asus 1005HB that was in stock from the closest Best Buy.

And, I'm up and running. I've got a disaster recovery plan. Today's work is done and I'm blogging from it, even.

Prior to today, I'd backed up through last week on one of E's servers in the cloud, so I only had 1 week of potential loss which E was able to pull off via a SATA enclosure despite the slow clicking protests of my hard-drive.

In short, if all goes well, my Lenovo will be safely in the hands of tech support while they diagnose the problem, and I will be freely using my super-light, super-small netbook until they figure it out.

Between regular self-done back-ups and hosted email/calendaring/tasks/notes via a hosted Exchange provider, it took me all of 5 hours to research repairs on my existing machine, locate and buy a new computer, get it up and running with my current situation and voila -- back in business.

Next time I won't even have to go shopping.

It is indeed a brave new world.

Now, please, keep your fingers crossed for a useful response from the diagnostics -- this is the second time in 3 months that my Lenovo has BSOD'd repeatedly on me. Last time it just miraculously recovered with no explanation, which is, of course, absolutely no comfort. This time, since it clicked and slowed and struggled through the SATA drive recovery, we thought we'd figured it out.

Yet, here I am, running my second hard drive diagnostic (since the first one passed with flying colors) and wondering what other surprises the computer Gods might throw my way.

Here's to figuring out problems...

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Holiday Stuffing

Last night, a client and his wife took E and me to The Plumed Horse.

The tasting menu was excellent as was the wine pairing. There was an amuse bouche with black truffles, AND a white truffle risotto. The truffle lover that I am was in heaven.

In the next couple of weeks, we've got 4 parties to attend, 2 nights with guests for dinner, dinner reservations at at least one more fancy restaurant and at least two food-filled days of holiday celebration with the family.

The holiday stuffing season has officially begun.

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Facebook Map of the World

This map is very cool.

This visual representation of the connectedness of the world as viewed through a subset of Facebook friendships looks surprisingly like the international flight route maps found in in-flight magazines.

The great circle representation of the connections certainly contributes to this impression, but I'm guessing the strength of the signal for connections at air travel hubs is at least somehow related to the in-person connections that have been formed via air-travel.

His blog post explains his methodology.

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The Halibut Chronicles

C sent us 8 HUGE filets of halibut from her fishing expedition in Homer, Alaska. It's the gift that keeps on giving -- every time we make a halibut recipe, she comes to visit and we make a meal and hang out.

On her first visit, we pan fried it and served it with tomato, caper, olive sauce. Mmmm....

The second dinner was poached over a spicy soba salad with a mustard cream sauce. Mmmm...

And this week, we went with Alton Brown's Chips and Fish Recipe.

You know, fry the chips once:



Fry 'em again at a hotter temperature for good measure and then spread them on a roasting pan and keep them warm in a 200F oven.



Dredge the fish in cornstarch:



Then coat with beer batter:



Put the oil to use, yet again for the third frying of the evening:



And enjoy a meal of nothing but brown (except for the homemade tartar sauce, thanks for the splash of color, C!).

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Winter Food

You know what's one of the great things about Winter in California?

Brussel Sprouts!

You know what makes brussel sprouts even better?

Pork Chops!

You know what makes pork chops even better?

BACON!



E, our two guests, and I were quite happy and full!

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Happy Holidays

This weekend, E and I headed to San Francisco to attend the annual holiday party hosted by my first professional employer.

This employer, showing excellent judgment, refused to hire me at my first interview. I showed up at their offices in the Financial District dressed in head-to-toe spandex on rollerblades (I had come straight from diving practice). They had just moved to San Francisco from Boston, and, while they were looking for a Californian college student to do library research, they weren't quite prepared for my oh-so-Californian attire.

They hired a guy who showed up in a suit. He was terrible. They fired him. I re-faxed my resume a year later and showed up for my second interview in a suit. I got the job and worked through my last year of school and into my first full-time professional job. I loved working there -- they were excellent employers, and I tried to leave on very good terms to follow the dot-com boom.

I guess I succeeded because I was hired back as a consultant when I became inevitably unemployed as a result of the dot-com bust. Happily, I've been invited to every holiday party they've hosted since.

Over the years, we've been their guests at some of the city's best bars and steakhouses (and one year, they flew us to Vegas!). This year's party was during Santarchy, which added an extra festive note to our drinks at the Comstock Saloon and the delicious multi-course private room meal at 5A5. Bonus, I was able to give a toast thanking them for introducing me the beauty of small business ownership and for being one of the inspirations for starting my own law practice.

Every year, E and I look forward to this event for great conversation during a big night out on the town and a stay at a hotel. It's become one of our favorite holiday events. Last year we enjoyed Union Square in all of its holiday splendor with the lights, Christmas trees, Macy's wreaths, ice-skating rink, and more.

This year, we stayed at the the Hyatt Regency and enjoyed the spectacle of the approximately 1500 hanging columns of light (E counted). Sadly, we missed the falling snow effects of the lights, but we were joined with gleeful children on every elevator ride, so that they, too, could enjoy the spectacle of lights and the view of the decorated atrium below. The hotel clearly knows that the hundreds of children riding the glass elevators are not guests, but employees pointedly ignore the transgressions in the name of holiday fun.

Today, I looked at the list of events our hotel was hosting in addition to the immense effort they've put into decorations (Photo opportunities with Santa, holiday dinners and brunches, and more), and I was impressed. There's obviously a pride and a desire to contribute to the communal holiday festivities that many of the larger businesses, as well as the smaller businesses and individuals in San Francisco feel. It warms my heart to be part of it.

Happy Holidays.

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