Thai Peacock

General, reviews

Had lunch at Thai Peacock (up on SW 9th and Oak). Hadn’t eaten there in a while. They’re really good, and they used to be very random. What do I mean by random?

  • There’s a dish called (I’m not kidding) “Evil Jungle Noodles”. Once, a friend ordered it and got wide noodles; the next time, it came with thin, angel-hair-pasta-sized noodles, which, when complained about, caused everyone who worked there to come out, one at a time, to apologize.
  • One time when ordering the spring rolls, we got fish sauce to dip them in. The next time, we got peanut sauce.
  • The types of vegetables in some of the stir-fry dishes changed without warning, oftentimes not matching the listing in the menu.

These incidents all occurred over a couple of months of time. Each event was cause for much questioning from the staff, and often times they would deny that it was ever any different. “Oh, no, it’s always been the thin noodles.” “Oh, we never give out fish sauce with spring rolls. Sorry.”

It got to the point where I would wonder, before going there, what would be different this time.

At any rate, the randomness has stopped, which may be because the friend I used to go with doesn’t go there with me any more. I’m not saying it was entirely my friend’s special curse or anything. I’m just sayin’.

At any rate, the menu at the restaurant has changed. I mean, the actual items are all the same, but the new menu has pictures and is much fancier, which I would hope would make it harder for them to switch around ingredients randomly. Maybe that was the point. But the individual item descriptions are the same, including the tag line on the Evil Jungle Noodles: “It so good.”

No pics (yet)

Smacky

Crap. It’s Wednesday already, and I don’t have any new pictures of Smacky. Since he’s been so bite-y lately, maybe I should take a picture of him with his wickedly sharp fangs drawing blood from the tender parts of my underarm?

Nah. That’d be too hard to frame and light properly.

Ah, well, I’m working on it.

New Long Winters music

Music

This just in:

Over on the Long Winters’ forum, someone called “unremarkable” has announced that Barsuk Records has announced that:

  • The Long Winters’ new album will be released in early 2006 (OK, we knew that already!)
  • And that there will be a Long Winters EP out in September of this year.

Yay! New music!

PS: Sorry for the cruel (or maybe just “not funny to anyone but me”)Long Winters joke I played a while ago. Couldn’t resist. I stole that joke from the above-mentioned forums.

Awful Dreams

General

Awful, awful dreams last night. The worst ever. I’d describe them, but I’d have to hide them somehow, like they were spoilers for a movie, because they were gory and horrible.

I almost took a sick day from work, due to lack of sleep, but then realized that if I stayed home, I’d probably just sleep all day, and probably have more nightmares. Yes, I’m choosing work because it means I’m not in any danger of dreaming.

Apple Store Opening Pics

Tech

Merrit posted some pictures of the Apple Store Pioneer Place grand opening. I’m not in any of them, although if you can see the two guys in white t-shirts in the middle of this pic, I would be behind them and a couple of people back in line.

And there’s more pictures of the opening over at ifo Apple Store, which is apparently a blog devoted entirely to Apple’s retail stores. Again, no pics of me.

When I get batteries for my camera, I’m going to post a picture of the box that my free Apple t-shirt came in, simply because the design of the box, a box fer cryin’ out loud for what is normally a free give-away item, demonstrates Apple’s commitment to detail. The box unfolds like a piece of origami. There’s probably picture on that ifo Apple Store site linked to above.

Morning to Beat the Burnside

General

I beat the Burnside this morning. I started out around 8:06 by my watch, and I found out at the end that my watch was about a minute behind the official clock, which means I had to run 5.1 miles (8 K) in at least 53 minutes to make it before the bridge went up. Translates to a 10:39 pace or better.

Well, I did it in 48:17, or a 9:42 pace. I could do better, but… I think I hurt my right heel. It’s been sore all day. I hope it’s not plantar fasciitis. I’ll start doing my stretches again this week, and I won’t run until… um… Tuesday. Late Tuesday. OK, OK, I should probably stay off it for longer but, dammit, I’ve got Run Hit Wonder next weekend.

My good mood from beating the Burnside faded as I ran into problem after problem the rest of the morning. My phone stopped working, taunting me with four full bars of signal… and a “No Access” error message. WTF? Rebooting and reseating the SIM card didn’t help. I had to walk a ways to the gym to shower and change and every single Starbucks I found had a long line – lack of food post-run (the bagel with peanut butter and the water they fed me afterward didn’t really fill me up) and my sore heel didn’t improve my mood.

Once I was showered and changed, I went to pick up the FlexCar I had checked out for the day… and realized that I had checked one out clear out in Northwest Portland. It was a “special”. I had thought it was closer. I then had to walk for another half-hour or more to get the car. I was holding out because my reward for finishing the race was to be a Burgerville raspberry shake… Mmmm.

But when I got to the car… .my card wouldn’t open it. And my cell phone was still kaput. I couldn’t call and complain or find out what was wrong. I had to traipse all over NW Portland to find a free WiFi spot to email FlexCar about the problem.. and by that time it was nearly noon, I was nearly keeling over from hunger, and thinking of all that I had wanted to get done while I had the car… and having to cancel most of it. Argh.

I then had to find the nearest T-Mobile store, to get my phone situation taken care of. The closest place was the one at Lloyd Center. Another long walk, and a light rail train ride, and more walking. However, when I approached the store, in a distant corner of the mall, I found a long line of people. Turned out it wasn’t just my phone; the network was down. The customer reps at the store apologized and let us know that if we contacted T-Mobile after our phones were working again, we would be credited for the lost time. They expected the network to be back up in several hours.

My day was shot. After I got some food (finally made it to Burgerville! Mmm… raspberries are The Kings Of All The Berries) I went to see a movie, to get off my aching foot and out of the heat.

They Applauded Us In

Tech

There was actually a line of people waiting to get into the Pioneer Place Apple Store this morning.

Sheesh, maybe Apple computers really are a cult.

I got downtown a little before 9:00 AM. After picking up a soy chai (grande, no water, no foam) and a cinnamon scone (thanks, Starbucks! Wow my life is filled with cultish behavior), I wandered down to the lower level, and encountered the line.

I knew that the store had 1000 t-shirts to give away, and there was only about 50-60 people in line, so I figured I could go away and come back and still get a shirt, but I joined my fellow Apple-loving-folk and waited it out.

Sadly, there were no hot girls near me, just a family with three boys on one side, and an older guy on the other, and other assorted non-single or non-hot trendy geeks, so I plugged in my iPod to while away the half-hour. (The Blues Brothers’ original soundtrack, for those wanting to know what I was listening to.) At one point one of the boys in front of me counted the people in line and announced that he was #55. Good to know.

The manager for the store kept coming out and whooping it up and shouting, and because we were in the tunnel between the two sections, which was enclosed a bit, it was very loud and annoying.

But, somehow, when at 9:30 AM all of the Apple Store employees came rushing out along the line, whooping and hollering and high-fiving the people in line, it didn’t seem as loud nor as annoying. Go figure.

It took me a while to actually get into the store, because they seemed to be enforcing the fire code or something, which was apparently around 40 people (not including staff, which was at least another 20). When I was at the head of the line, I chatted with a guy wearing a black fleece vest with an Apple logo and “Security” on the chest. Yes, he was, in fact, Apple Security, and he normally worked down in Cupertino; he had flown up for the opening of the store. Funny. He warmed up when I mentioned that I’d worked for Customer Relations in Austin for a brief while. We traded Steve Jobs stories. I can’t repeat any of his. Probably shouldn’t commit any of mine to the internets, either.

I did get a shirt, and was going to buy something but didn’t because it was all full-bore retail price, no “Opening Day” sales or anything.

Almost heaven

Tech

On my lunch break, I and a friend went to scope out the new Apple Store at Pioneer Place.

The windows were all papered over, but I could peek through the gaps.

Inside were a bunch of young, hip kids, in black t-shirts, lounging amidst all the oak, white, and chrome.

It looked like tech heaven.

Friday Cat Blogging 5

Smacky

Only two new ones this week. Even though the pictures look rotated, he was, in fact, laying on the couch arm with his feet on the wall/windowsill. He looks like he’s defying gravity…

…and here’s some more!