quoted: "i suppose if you have a hundred million dollars, you get a sexy boyfriend." -nick

yesterday involved lots of good seafood. for lunch, my parents and i went to a new restaurant here in spokane whose name i've already forgotten. i think it was on riverside, though, to the east of luigi's. across from the rocket bakery. anyway, i had some really good calamari, a delicious weissbier, and a salad with grilled swordfish and goat's cheese. the fish was a little overcooked, but not distractingly so.

after a trip to the home & garden show (don't even get me started on the hot tubs), we visited the local cheese shop, where we got a delicious blue cheese form some oregon dairy. mmmm.

dinner was at moxie, one of my favorite restaurants in spokane. we had their last bottle of chianti. i started with a pear/gorgonzola/wallnut salad and then seared rare tuna with a sesame seed crust. it was...delicious. and served with coconut jasmine rice with a mild curry sauce that tasted like it had a touch of mustard in it. delicious.

oh. yes. a post all about food. what a way to end the month of march.

quoted: "how do you get in the back door?" -anne

uh oh. i can hear the nordic track going. we all know what that means.

i forgot to mention this yesterday: i think we need an eleventh commandment: thou shalt not crowd the baggage carrousel. why do people do that? it really doesn't serve anyone's interests.

yesterday after a trip to the gym, i went to the dentist. yes, that's my dad. then to lunch with my mom and grandma. caffe marron. it was good. could have done without the pickles on the sandwich. but it was good to see my cousin jeff. that was followed by costco. in the evening, allison D came over for steak and my parents regaled us with stories of the series of crazy women who looked after us when we were little. sigh.

quoted: "i'd love to be intersexed" -james

ok, so i failed to update yesterday. but in my defense i was flying from LHR to GEG. my flight left at 3 from heathrow. at 11.30, still tapping away at my computer in my flat, responding to work emails, i realized i should probably pack. and get to the gym. gym took precedence. still not sure i packed enough clothing. or all the types of clothing i wear on a day-to-day basis. oh well.

my expo 74 decorative platter arrived, though. and my long-delayed gtown mesh shorts. thanks sister bear. it's like christmas all over again.

was trapped in a middle seat on the flight from london to seattle, but slept for about 6 or 7 of the 9.5 hours, so it really didn't bug me too much. then i was trapped next to a crazy conservative catholic on my SEA-GEG flight. he was nice enough, but you could see the crazy in his eyes.

ok. should get to...doing nothing. heh. hurrah. 3 more sleeps. hurrah!

quoted: "mind the duck" -four seasons

quoted: "i'm happy to sleep with her again. but not in stratford" -jo

quoted: "i burt arrived at tom's. where arm you?" -drunk text from keats

7 sleeps

ok. i know i almost never update on sundays any more. in fact, the last time i updated on a sunday was 10 september. so that's quite a while. but i have my computer at home this weekend (before you ask, yes i was up doing work at 1.30 friday night. sigh). so i thought i could update before eating some form of breakfast.

i'm excited to say that i will be heading home on wednesday. i just learned this at about 2.00 this morning. which suddenly and unexpectedly became 3.00. stoopid summer time starting and destroying the bliss that was only being 4 hours ahead of EDT and 7 hours ahead of PDT. surprising what a difference an hour makes. really.

friday night in addition to working until an absurd hour i went to a party at tom and sophie's. that was good, as tony, dottie, emma and boris were there. i left pretty early, but saw the usual suspects again yesterday afternoon at a pub near borough market, where we spent the afternoon (in the non-smoking section, thankfully) drinking and talking. very pleasant saturday afternoon.

james and i went to nobu for dinner last night, taking the booking that should have been for prom (sigh). but it was my best nobu experience yet...from a food standpoint, at least. we started with two sashimi courses: grey mullet in the first, followed by tuna and yellowtail. then two cooked courses: amazing prawns followed by seared rare steak. then there was a sushi course, followed by miso soup and a comparitively unimpressive pudding. we had a bottle of gewürztraminer with dinner, which really made the most of the flavors in the food, if i do say so myself. food: 9.5/10. service: 7/10. ambiance: 6/10. value: 7/10.

yes, my ratings are totally arbitrary.

today is the feast of the annunciation of bvm. in case you were curious.

quoted: "isn't there anything else going on in the world? anything more important than the wife of some ex-senator guy who ran for president in 2004 having breast cancer again?" -knob lane

after two weekends of going-going-going, i'm ready for some pretty advanced napping this time around. and let it be said that i'm a pretty good napper. especially after some gymming and a decent-sized breakfast. if i learned one thing at oxford, it was how to nap.

yesterday i bought a mirror at habitat. people are starting to tell me that i have a mild addiction to tottenham court road. i keep saying i can quit whenever i want.

after katie's interview yesterday she and i went to meet mikes for a quick coffee (big mistake--i was still up at 1.30 am because of it) and then dinner before i went to see duck hunting. which was good but depressing.

james posted photos of last friday's trash palace run on facebook, which reminded me: when we went head into the bar the doorman stopped us (fresh out of arbutus and all looking mildly respectable), asking "where are you looking for?". who knew so few people in button down shirts go to trash palace?!

quoted: "i'm trying to take you seriously but your face is framed by a monkey's legs" -tope

quoted: "she was rairing for the pole all night." -miranda about cat

quoted: "i want to slip it in during the crew announcement" -robin

there's no way to get around it: last week was dominated by two things: julie's visit and brennan's deportation. the lawyer, apparently, insists that it be called a removal rather than a deportation, but no one knows what removal means, and so i persist.

it's awfully quiet at 214 with just me. i'm trying to find ways to entertain myself that don't involve sleep or the gym.

so i suppose i should do a quick recap of the end of last week. on wednesday night 10 of us descended on hi sushi for an AYCE-stravaganza. AYCE, you'll remember, is my new acronym for all you can eat. anyway, that was good times. thursday julie and i walked 8.5 miles from hampstead to piccadilly. it was great. and mostly downhill. hampstead heath is beatiful. so is primrose hill, we had lunch at the golden hinde in marylebone lane. then we had tea at the wolseley. always nice, but i'm afraid we looked like scrubs and got a mediocre table. sigh. that night we had a dangerously late dinner at busaba.

friday, on account of a lawyer meeting, there was an impromptu lie-in only once interupted by an ACK moment...which quickly dissolved itself into more lie-in.

julie and i got a bit of a late start on friday. we picked up breakfast sammiches at pret before walking to westminster pier and catching a boat to greenwich. at greenwish we had a beer (of course) before climbing to the top of the hill to enjoy the profound wonder of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura

we got the DLR back to town, where we had lunch at a mediocre thai place on charlotte street before heading to the british museum. rosetta stone and mummies checked off the list, julie joined me in admiring our first ever real-life glimpse of cuneiform. super cool.

dinner friday was me, brennan, julie, miranda and james at arbutus. i'm not going to say i wan unimpressed, but i had rather high hopes. my terrine was good, my rabbit was delicious, but i wasn't blown away by the pudding options. the service was attentive if somewhat clumsy, but the wine was good and the company more than made up for the hiccups along the way. after dinner the two Js and the two As headed to trash palace for a boogie. all was well with the world, the there was lots of falling down, and i'm awfully tired of my clothes smelling of smoke. julie left at 5.30 but when i went to get a glass of water at 8, she was back asleep on the sofa, so i got her for another 30 hours.

saturday involved breakfast at richoux (always nice), a nap, a late appearance at women's head, a couple pints, wicked, sake bombs at satsuma with carl and anne, and the village, followed by packing and a very exclusive party.

sunday was, of course, very sad face-making. but it's only sad because things are going so well (recall coworker's comment tuesday: sometimes i wish they'd deport my girlfriend), so in the end i'm trying to be thankful. i am thankful. i mean that i'm trying to focus on that part of what i'm feeling.

there's a line in the first josh ritter song i ever heard (kathleen, which begins with "all the other girls here are stars; you are the northern lights") that i've been singing to myself over and over again lately: " every heart is a package tangled up in knots someone else tied". i'm not entirely sure i agree with it, but it's stuck with me. at one point in the past several not-quite-drunk-but-never-totally-sober days (thanks, julie!) i remember thinking about the relatioships of young adults. still grappling with our own sense of self and our own emotions, we bump into one another to see how these dynamic little balls of potential might fit together with those of another human being.

it's all so random and fraught with danger. (cue the refrain that it's not an adventure if no one gets a scar, but emotional scars count, and those can take years to develop). but how do we know when we've got it right? do things just click sometimes? it's scary sometimes for me to think that my mom was my age when she and my dad got married. how did they know? maybe they'll tell me sometime.

i'm going to stop this monster update now before i start sounding even more like carrie bradshaw. eek.

quoted: "it's been nice having you here...i think" -BA agent to AB on his being removed from the country

i had such grand plans for a long and eloquent update today. like so many days, though, the chaos of work stepped in early to interfere. so instead you get a rather brief go based on my current, frazzled state. i was just telling my fellow workers that i'm not firing on all pistons today. very very true.

i'll try to put together a full recap of the past several days when i'm at home tonight, and post it tomorrow. there's a lot to be said. sorry for being crap about doing it now.

quoted: "sexy face. now. now!" -fulham broadway

so remember that thing i said about deportment yesterday. ditto today. double today. biggest sad face ever. not really sure i want to write much more than that today. trying not to be mope-y, but that song "ain't no sunshine when she's gone..." just won't get out of my head. quadruple sigh.

only two bright spots in this dark day. the first, of course, is julie's visit. she came to [second] lunch at work today, and that was great. secondly: CONGRATULATIONS to my dear friend joe for adopting a beautiful baby boy: isaac. i'm pushing for antonio as a middle name. imagine that.

not working tomorrow or friday, so don't look for updates. and don't expect much sun on monday.

quoted: "go like this. no. like how you'd hold a chainsaw" -14 bus

there's some sort of state visit going on today. st james's park was chock full of police officers trying to look casual. they failed, in case you were wondering. but it was still a most beautiful morning. great to walk to work and not be wet OR cold.

i had the most delicious corn bread in the world last night.

i'm against deportment in all its evil forms. but i'm for all you can eat sushi, and all its wonders. anyone else?

people can't keep to schedules, but i'm trying not to let it get me down. sigh.

quoted: "i don't mind you giving me blow jobs being quiet. they're just as good." -kings arms

oh what a weekend. julie marie arrived on friday night (finding my flat despite my best efforts to hide it from her). we were running a bit late, so we missed the ice bar over dinner, but we made up for it by taking champagne in the flat while brennan went to dinner with paul and miranda.

saturday julie and i waited for my (damaged) furniture to be delivered before having brunch at inn the park and heading to oxford for what ended up being a very drunken afternoon and evening. those pubs, i tell you. they're so brutal. but it was great to see katie and tamson and alex and marcus and everyone.

sunday was a world of pain, but i'm off home now.

happy 26th, ian!
quoted: "i don't think i'd eat specifically beef anus" -keats

ongoing failure of lenten undertaking. sigh. sorry.

i was on the bus to work today when i saw a white stretch limo going down grosvenor place, along the western edge of the private gardens at buckingham palace. in america, a white stretch limo is a relatively acceptable form of transportation for someone with too much money. in london, thankfully, it's horribly naff. same goes for burberry plaid. i do like this city.

especially on days like today, when it's sunny and in the 50s. hurrah!

gym last night at the same time as (note: not with) brennan. perpetually embarrassed by my lack of physical fitness. situation not helped by post-gym AYCE sushi with james, keats, dottie, brennan and james's friend tara. very pleasant. very full, though.

and what thursday night could be complete without an episode of the hills? indeed! don't judge. i know you're jealous.

happy 22nd birthday, beckers! hope no-dak is great.
quoted: "i'm just recycling. you can't stand in the way of recycling." -ollie

sorry about the lack of update yesterday. rachel is really quite strict about closing down computers during meetings. which means i have a HUGE backlog of emails and i failed to update yesterday. sigh. but when i get back to london tonight, the last thing i intend to do is check emails. hurrah for going home!

and hurrah for julie coming in two days. and i'm really looking forward to meeting paul.

i think we can all agree that my short-lived flirtation with a jotspot blog was a step backwards. so now, with the help of dreamweaver, i'm trying to outwit this whole xml/xsl thing. when did i get so stoopid about technology? oh. yeah. oxford.

last night we had a team dinner at the unicorn restaurant here in dublin. italian food. very good. and good portion sizes. service was above standard, though i'd say it wasn't the best value upmarket italian i've ever had. i started with parma ham and mozarella, followed by a fillet (medium rare, of course) with a port & gorgonzola sauce. i also ate too much bread and anything left on my coworkers' plates. i'm totally uncivilised, apparently.

i was unreasonably hungry, though, after a trip to the "gym" at the burlington hotel. rather unimpressed. still, it was better than nothing.

quoted: "i mixed up freedom and liberty" -brennan

quoted: "who the hell are you? i'm looking for some vodka." -tony, to me

no update today. yes, i'm bad. but i just spent the past hour putting google analytics tags in most of my pages. sure it doesn't make for a much improved user experience...yet. but it does allow me to stalk you all on a more granular basis. or something. happy weekending!

quoted: "i'm going to stick it in your f*ing mouth. no. brennan would be jealous." -boris