Adventures!

Sunday: Hung out with our friend LA. Saw an asparagus tree, had sweet peas fresh off the vine, saw a very pretty chicken with black-outlined white feathers, went to Half Moon Bay where it was overcast and freezing and SC got attacked by the ocean, leaving her soaked. We'd gotten halibut at a nearby fish market (next to the Flying Fish Grill) and we grilled those on the beach. Unfortunately the freezing wind made it near impossible to cook anything, but the "seared" halibut was quite good. We also had beets, fresh out of the ground that morning, and they were the sweetest beets I'd ever had. Until then, I'd never understood how you could get sugar from beets; I thought there must have been some sort of enzyme conversion like in HFCS.

Tuesday: Got the car smog checked at Fair Oaks Smog check. Was worried because it almost failed HC last time, but it passed with flying colors. The tech said the CC was probably cold that last test, and that does seem consistent with the test results: high HC and CO emissions along with non-zero O2 would indicate there's something not right with the CC.

Hung out with LA again before he flew back to Princeton. Ate lobster, discussed the brutality of lobster cooking vs. other forms of animal slaughter, played Settlers of Catan, watched stupid YouTube videos (scraper bikes), discovered that a certain plastic mug catches fire in the microwave, got very nauseous from burning plastic fumes.

Thursday: Went to Sultana in Menlo Park. Had an awesome appetizer plate: various dips (Ezme, humus, babaganush, tabuleh, dolmas, kizartma and garbanzo salad) with a very soft bread. The entrees (kofte and adana  kebab) were...meh. Ground meats in a vaguely cafeteria-esque presentation. 

Started season 2 of The Wire. We didn't realize how good season 1 was until we watched another cop show. The Wire doesn't feel as dumbed-down, and it showed off some new facets of life and crime while developing a relatively complex set of characters. Season 2 is getting off to a rough start in that regard...we get quick little updates of all the characters; not enough to really see what is going on, and we got introduced to a real villain-y kind of guy who was set up in a third-degree-interrogation-of-henchmen scene. So I hope there is more to his character than just that.