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Dan’s bullets.

  • Thanks to all involved for the celebration on birthday +1 day. The Brazilian steakhouse was everything I had hoped. For obvious reasons, this is not something you can do very often.  And some of us were less excited about rare meat swooping this way and that around them as highly trained gauchos carved off the succulent morsels.  Around half our party opted out of the carnival (get it?).
  • Some covers should not see the light of day. I heard Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins lead singer) cover Landslide (one of Fleetwood Mac’s best) on the radio. Same guitar in the background, just replacing Stevie’s dulcet tones with Billy’s whiny, breathy croak. It added nothing interesting to the song.
  • A quick OAFE to In N’ Out Burger. There was one near my hotel in San Jose. I may have had one or two cheeseburgers over the week. Near perfection in the art of the fast food burger. Their menu offers only 3 burgers, fries in 3 sizes, and soda and shakes for beverages. A return to simplicity.
  • Watch for a redesign of forgetful.ca … it’s time to delve back into PHP and Cascaded Style Sheets, and freshen up this beast. It’s on the list after submitting tax return, transferring lease on truck, finishing the fence in the back yard, picking up a winter’s worth of Humph’s poop … oh, and ensuring the continued survival of the newborn. Can’t forget that.
April 4, 2007 - 8:56 am

Melanie - I will agree with you about In n Out Burger it might just be the best fast food place in the world.

April 4, 2007 - 9:08 am

contributor mark - I like Billy Corgan’s Landslide. It was a nice contrast to the rest of the Smashing Pumpkins library at the time (it was on Pisces Iscariot, a sort of Siamese Dream b-sides album), and when I hear it now, I’m reminded that Billy Corgan was once good. At the very least, it’s better than the Dixie Chicks version, which sounds exactly like the FM version in every way – if you’re going to release a cover song, at least change it in some way and make it interesting…

was your hotel near Larry Sellers’ house? did you order a 100×100 burger?

April 4, 2007 - 12:11 pm

dan - Hmm. I am slightly less angry knowing that it’s an old cover. But only slightly.  Stick to your knitting, Billy.

I’m actually a Pumpkins fan.  One of the best live shows I’ve ever been to was Pumpkins at Sask Place circa ~1997.  They played and played and played … encore after encore.  They were just having fun up there.  People started to leave as they got bored.

Re: 100×100 burger link. Wow.

I suspect the “100×100” is only one code in use at the In N’ Out. I noticed the customer after me asked for his burger “Animal Style” … I didn’t hang around to find out what that meant. I had some eatin’ to do!

April 4, 2007 - 12:58 pm

Sonja - I bet Contributor Mark is also a big fan of that Christmas carol the Smashing Pumpkins released.

April 4, 2007 - 1:05 pm

contributor mark - it’s probably the worst song ever.

April 4, 2007 - 1:26 pm

Melissa Walker - Happy Belated Birthday to you Dan!!! I will let you in on a little Inn N Out secret, as it is one of my favorite places to eat when in the state of NV. or CA. Animal style is made with grilled onions and they put pickles on the burger. Next time you are there order your meal meal with a “side of spread” (for your fries) its the best. I am drooling writing this…

April 5, 2007 - 1:08 pm

dan - Thanks Melissa 🙂 We should contact them to get exclusive franchise rights in Canada.

I’m definitely getting animal style next time. Side of spread … I’m not quite as sure about. Are there any other code words?

April 6, 2007 - 2:29 pm

Blizzie - Meat-fest was the bomb. Thanks for giving me an excuse to cause what may have been significant damage to my kidneys in one evening.

My Anti-spam word was “wankel”.

And…we’re back!

Dan, Jaia and I were in the US last week.  Dan had a business trip in San Jose, and rather than stay here alone with Jaia, we drove down all together to stay with my mom and Dave for the week, and Dan flew out from there.  It was win/win.  Dan got to go away on business and not feel guilty/sad about leaving us, and we got to spend a week with family.

We were lucky enough to be in Washington D.C. for the start of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.  It lasts for about a week each year, and is worth seeing.  This year’s celebration marks the 95th anniversary of the mayor of Tokyo’s gift of 3000 cherry trees to the city.  The pinkish white flowers of these trees bloom around the first week of April every year and though I thought we’d missed it by a week, the weather was unusually warm and it turns out that we were right on time.

Unfortunately, so were the 8 bazillion people who showed up around the same time we did.  Thankfully we were able to snap a few good shots, despite the crowds.

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April 3, 2007 - 11:50 am

contributor mark - so did Jaia take the 2nd picture?

April 5, 2007 - 1:13 pm

dan - No Mark. Jaia did not take the 2nd picture. She can’t take pictures yet. She’s an infant. For starters, how would she hold the camera? Or get up to our chest level? Can you imagine the combination of improbable events that would have to simultaneously occur for her to successfully photograph us?

Oh, wait. Re-reading your comment, I think you may have been kidding.

My mistake …

Birth Days.

Big Buck HippyDan turns 31 today. It’s a big day for him. One he gets to spend on a airplane, surrounded by people he has never met. Not exactly a prime birthday celebration situation. Especially because his flight is due to arrive at 12:00am, the day after his birthday. Bummer.

Good thing I get to give Dan a birthday present that he has been wanting for a loooooong time: steak! Yes, you read right. My sister told him about this Brazilian steakhouse awhile back and he’s been wanting to go ever since. Reservations are made and Dan will finally get to experience this ‘endless meat’ tradition. Apparently you have this little dual-coloured doohickey on your table to signal the waiters. Blue side up means ‘bring it on’ where the waiter knows to bring more meat to the table (on giant skewers, I might add) and red side up means ‘whoa, I need a minute to digest’.

The idea of this kind of dinner disgusts me, but it was a special request and I’m a birthday wish-granter. So steak it is. Dan will have to give the review once he gets over the meat sweats that he will no doubt experience. Ew.

Happy birthday, Dan. Fly safe. And prepare your belly.

March 30, 2007 - 12:00 pm

Jen - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN !

Sounds… yummy! Enjoy

Jen

March 30, 2007 - 1:43 pm

Sonja - Happy Birthday Dan!!! Roxy and Julius say hi!

March 30, 2007 - 1:49 pm

Kristin - Happy Birthday, Dan! I hope you enjoy your endless meat. I’m with Shannen on the whole idea, but Kurt is behind ya all the way. 🙂

April 2, 2007 - 9:42 am

contributor mark - what what?? where and how much?

oh yeah, happy birthday buddy.

April 5, 2007 - 8:51 am

mike machargo - I love the Brazilian Steak houses……they are incredible…please tell me where to find one in Ottawa!!
Mike