Y'know, I never thought of myself as the sort of person who was online all that much, or all the used to being online all the time but a couple of days of limited connectivity and I've found it really odd. Even though I know I won't be able to get a connection, I keep checking. And for the most part there's nothing much in my email when I do get to check it but comment sp@m announcements. But the inability to be regularly checking email or fbook updates is more upsetting to my sense of how "regular" days are supposed to progress than I'd expected. I imagine that means that what I need is to spend more time away from the intertubes. If only one could get paid for that...
I gotta say that, given how much comment sp@m is out there and how much time I spend deleting it, it comforts me a bit (and reminds me that the MT set-up that Sarah's worked out is amazingly effective) when I find sp*mmy comments that have snuck onto actual bigtime blogs and sites. I can't remember which ones but I know it's happened a couple of times in the last few weeks. At least all that crap ends up held here so I just have to go in and delete it every once and a while.
Something else I've noticed (probably this is old news to most people but I just twigged to it recently) is the school o' comment sp#m that includes references to topical news items. Last week there was a spike in Cordoba Institute/Burlington Coat Factory mentions. Yesterday there were several Roger "Big Head" Clemens mentions. iPhone cases have been getting lotsa play as well. I also like the ones that complain about comment sp&m. And the ones that complain about what a crappy blog this is (a nice contrast from the much more common "how great this blog is").
Recent winners in the names category include Bulah Reichenback (points deducted for not knowing how to spell Beulah) and Cornelius Ganesh. Which is fabulous and I'm going to have to steal it.
Been reading up and trying to get ready for start of Premier League season. Still haven't developed a rooting interest in a team yet. Well, except Blackpool. Tangerines! But fondness for a plucky underdog, while always fun, doesn't provide much entertainment value later in the season. Chelsea is loaded with players I like from the World Cup but for reasons I haven't quite been able to unpack, I have a somewhat irrational dislike of Chelsea. Rooting for Man U or Man City seems too much like rooting for the Cowboys or Yankees. I get why people from there with traditional attachments do it and that's fine for them. But for an outsider it feels too much like front-running or bandwagon-jumping. Maybe Arsenal. Do I have to bring my own house bricks? Probably I'll watch a few matches and see if anyone clicks. With my luck it'll be West Bromwich or Wigan. Maybe I'm a sucker for lovable losers. Hell, it took years of living here and watching ex-Durham Bulls move on to Tampa for me to shake off the chains of Bawlmer O's fandom and start rooting for the Rays.
Yesterday's lesson in perspective was that, yeah, it kinda sucks to have your car bumper get all scratched up. But it could be worse. Like say, it could be your car that got snagged by a semi-traller and dragged along the parking lot (torquing the frame enough to shatter the rear windshield) and into a car which only ended up with a scratched bumper. Or you could be the guy driving the semi.
Tonight we went to the tomato dinner at Zely & Ritz. Very good food but we were expecting something like the Panciuto community dinners and this was more wine-centered than food-centered and the vibe was much more high energy (ed: he means "loud"). Partly a function of the sell-out crowd and partly a function of the design and where we were sitting. I think. When we were there during Restaurant Week it was almost as crowded but not nearly as noisy. Still, it was a good night out. All the dishes were excellent. Produce was from Coon Rock Farms, who were there to talk a bit about tomatoes. But the absolute standout dish was the dessert, a SunGold tomato panna cotta. zomg! I must figure out how to re-create that. So good and sweet and tomato-y. But the texture was straightup panna cotta. Nothing that hinted of tomato texture. Maybe they pureed and then strained the tomatoes. Or maybe they used tomato water. Like I said, I'm intrigued. Will report back if I meet with any success.
