2005-01-09, 9:17 p.m.
Had dinner at Fringale on Friday night with a friend and a Basque man who'd just arrived 3 days ago from Bilbao, Spain. Started with the beef carpaccio with mustard emulsion and mustard greens, foie gras confit on baguette with onion, apple and tamarind marmalade, and spicy Monterey calamari � la plancha with jalapenos and chorizo ...I prefer my foie gras seared. I need to keep my eyes out for that next time. For dinner, I had the veal sweetbreads with mushrooms and capers (although I don't remember any capers!!) and the others had �Marmitako� Monkfish with a potato, Piquillo pepper and tomato stew and New York Angus steak with green peppercorn sauce and pommes frites.
It was all alright. Not bad, but not as delicious as I'd hoped. The one thing that was delicious was the side of saut�ed spinach with Roquefort and dried figs . For dessert, it was layers of hazelnut mousse and genoise topped with roasted almonds (basically just a tiramisu with almonds sprinkled on top) and a flourless chocolate cake served with a mint sorbet. The flourless chocolate cake was tasty. All in all, not a bad meal, but I had expected better. Tonight, I'm heading to Piperade for another Basque meal. Hopefully it will not disappoint. Aside from tonight's meal, it is back to the weekday plan of greens and proteins...
Also saw Beautiful Boxer--based on the true story of a Thai ladyboy champion kickboxer. It would have been better as a documentary. But it made me want to train muay thai again.
The perils of getting dressed in the dark: I just noticed that you can see my hot pink tanktop through my oatmeal heather sweater. At least my (Joe's) jeans (2nd pair) are cute. Had them hemmed this weekend and they fit perfectly.
Yesterday, my dad proposed a four-day family trip to Las Vegas. I imagined spending four days trolling around Las Vegas with my parents, and my blood pressure instantly skyrocketed. Spending an hour with this man is an act of frustration, but being trapped in Sin City with my cheap uber-Catholic parents? AGH. All that fun that I can't partake in? My parents bickering, my brother grunting out of frustration, my mom complaining about the cost of everything, my dad judging all the "evil" people surrounding us, did I mention the bickering? And he wants four days of this!! You'd probably find me in a crumpled heap at the foot of the Stratosphere.
Besides, one should never spend more than two days in Vegas. Only after I'd uncovered the fact that they'd found this travel deal through a fax advertisement was I able to convince him this was a bad idea.
So many huge projects on my plate that I don't know where to begin. Thus, I just shut down and think about cookies. Eating healthy all week long is certainly not fun...but I do have dinner at Fringale on Friday to look forward to. A good long run this evening will be nice.
So I'm supposed to write a script for work...basically a voiceover/narration with related video (which I'll get to stage & supervise the filming of). Unfortunately, I have major writer's block. All the scenarios I'm supposed to script involve a patient and a doctor...which inevitably leads to porn scenes. *Bow chicka bow wow* Agh...and now I've got that scene from Will & Grace in my head...where Jack & Karen film a sexual harassment scene. Anyway, this is going nowhere.
Ran 4 miles yesterday. Couldn't feel my left foot during the last 10 minutes because I tied my shoe too tight.
Today's...:- challenge: trying to find good restaurants in Dallas (that don't specialize in steak or serve "pan-Asian" cuisine)
- addiction: obsessively checking the evite to see who has responded, viewed, etc.
- jeans: AG Legend.
Yesterday I had to go pick up a package at UPS, so I took a different way home. This route took me past SF General Hospital, which I hadn't passed since my aunt was recovering from cancer surgery there...this got me thinking about her and the days we spent in her recovery room (and her idiot roommate that wouldn't stop moaning because she jumped off a roof)...and I started missing her laughter. There was more joy at my parents' house when she was around. Now, it is just two old people living in gloom. Then I started thinking about this time last year...I do miss her lots.
Earlier today, I went to a recording studio to supervise a voiceover for one of my projects at work. My first time...pretty interesting...but the entire time, I couldn't stop thinking about Moviefone.
