Sunday, October 14, 2007

Anniversary 2, books, now in LA

So, the Saturday of anniversary weekend we also ate at Bamba Bistro. Marvelous food, thoughtfully prepared - elegantly presented and the perfect portion size. Great service. My favorite part, though, were the architectural elements of the interior. You enter to a dim hallway with a grand stair in gorgeous wood that you can smell. The main dining room has lovely vaulted ceilings. Very very cool.

Finishing a bunch of books lately - here's the latest:
Book #21 - My So Called Digital Life, a project coordinated by Bob Pletka. I hope to publish a post on 1000Words with my detailed impressions.

Book #22 - Blink: The power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. I found this fascinating. The case studies are great, though the war games case made me quite angry. Although Gladwell does discount much of the traditional aspects of my job - standard survey research - I'm not upset. Because I see the issues and it strengthens my determination to discover techniques to get around these issues.

Book #23 - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Powerful. Makes me want to read Brave New World again. Scary in some of things that are very eerily spot on. Scary to someone who loves books.....

Book #24 - Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I loved the movie. I loved the book. There were elements of each I would have liked to have seen explored in the other (Captain Shakespeare's quirks, the little hairy fellow), but much of it tracked and it was very fun and refreshing to read. Love the concept of a village guarding a gap between our world and Faerie. Wouldn't mind visiting the Market myself....

Have to go finish work things and get to sleep. LA awaits!

Monday, October 08, 2007

Anniversary weekend - part 1 of 2

One year! Wow, it's gone fast. We still need to get from 53 to 20 pics for the formal album and choose what to frame and get them hung! But it's been a very good year. J had a ton of homework (he's back in school full-time) that kept us from retreating (will have to do that some other, random time) - and I had an insidious cold that kept me from being very active. We still had fun.

Saturday afternoon we stopped by Designed Elegance to pick up our anniversary topper.
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They recently opened a new storefront and we were thrilled to hear that business is booming. We were easily lured in by rugelach (with really good quality cinnamon) and butter cookies with fruit topping, by tartlets and pastries. Oh, and they have cupcakes.
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It was good to visit with Jon, the owner, although he was busy crafting marvelous cakes. It's worth a special visit to Spencerport - our cake top was incredible and will keep me happily sugared for a few more days!
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