Friday Five

The Excuse

I blame Rock Band.

The Week

In an odd turn of events, I was both home and working this week. Like a normal person. Like I mean commuting to work in my own car, going to my own house after work, sleeping with my own wife, petting my own dog. It was as if I was just another San Diego resident.

At TechEd last week I had the chance to play Guitar Hero. After about 3 songs I was hooked. So on Saturday I purchased Rock Band. Now I really didn’t plan this out – I should have purchased the bundle right from the get-go. I was not expecting to hook both Karin and Jumbo, nor wind up entertaining a couple of friends on Wednesday night. So we now have the full set, and I am thoroughly addicted. I will be pre-ordering the Beatles edition tonight.

I did manage to drag myself away long enough to crash the LSU Alumni party in San Diego. Basically it’s a huge crawfish boil. If I believed in reincarnation (which I don’t), I’d be convinced that in a previous life I was born in Louisiana. I love me some good Cajun food, and I love me some crawfish. There were 8 of us that polished off a 50 pound box of crawfish. Now that’s a Sunday well spent, I tell you what. You can see the pics here.

The Exercise

Did I mention I bought Rock Band?

The Restaurant

Our neighborhood has been seeing a good number of fantastic restaurants open up, and one that opened about a year ago is The Ritual. It’s a very tiny little place, although they have a nice patio area and have really made the most of their space. They focus on finding organic and local food, with their signature dish being a shepherd’s pie which is just outstanding. As do most of the places on 30th street in San Diego, they also have a fantastic beer selection. This week they had a cask conditioned Pure Hoppiness, from a local brewery called Alpine. The beer was everything I thought it would be and more. Just out of this world. It’s another one of those restaurants that Karin and I don’t get to nearly often enough.

The Travel Note

I generally have pretty good luck when I’m flying. But as I mentioned last week, getting out of Chicago was a bit of a hassle for me. What really got me was I was on standby for an earlier flight. When they were just about to finish boarding, they got the first few of us who were on the standby list to stand over by the door. I was number 4 on the list. They cleared 3. Ugh!

Friday Five

Talents….

1. I acknowledge the fact that I have zero musical talent. I played trombone when I was in the 4th grade, only to learn that my arms weren’t long enough. I also performed in a couple of musicals in high school, but as like “3rd cop” or the like.
2. The one talent I wish I had was the ability to sing. Anyone who’s been around for my karaoke adventures wishes the same thing.
3. I’m always impressed with people who speak multiple languages. I did take French in school. I really haven’t used it since, as there aren’t many people speaking French in San Diego, oddly enough. I would like to take Spanish classes at some point. And Japanese.
4. Every now and then someone will comment on my alleged talent with technology. It’s really just a skill, like, well, speaking another language.
5. I can’t whistle. It’s more complex that putting your lips together and blowing.