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Arigato in Santa Barbara

After running a 10k race at Griffith Park ( I was a bit disappointed with my time of 59:45), I joined my brother and his friends Dan and Jen to visit my Grandpa George. It is always a please to see him and Eileen at their Town House along the Santa Barbara beach. However, futher incentive to visit is that we often go out to eat at a fabulous sushi restaurant - Arigato Sushi. I have to say it is the best sushi I have ever eaten, not that I am some great conniseur or anything. I encourage other sushi lovers, if you plan to be in Santa Barbara, don't miss Arigato - its right on State Street.

Purim

Today is Purim, the Jewish festival that celebrates when the Jewish people where once again saved from destruction. (The official holiday is today, but most parties and celebrations will be Saturday.) The story goes that around 650 BCE Queen Esther of Persia, the unexpected heroine, triumphs over the evil scheming of the Vizer Haman. To celebrate, Jews tradiotionall dress up in costumes, play games, read the story, and get really, really drunk.

Here is a cool artilce on why Purim vs. Halloween.

Rashi's Daughters out

It is time for me to promote Rashi's Daughters, a new historial romance by a very talented author, Maggie Anton (aka my mother). It is hard for me to be an objective critic, but I will say it was a fast read and a good story. I also know the author has put alot of time and effort into researching the historial details and getting the novel published. So please pick up a copy, and BTW - I know how to get it autographed for you.

First Crash

I experienced my first "new shoes" bike fall just the other day. I had heard it is only a matter of time before you have a mindless fall. I had managed to go three weeks, making sure to twist my foot out of the pedal in time to stop. Saturday, my third week with clipless pedals and new shoes, I crashed.

I was down in Orange County for Dungeons & Dragons at Mike's house. Since Gary was playing fantasy baseball for a few hourse first, I figured I would bring my bicycle along and go for a ride while the guys rolled dice.

Fortunately I was only going about 2 miles per hour when I hit the ground. Just forgot to get my foot out of the pedal. I did knock the computer sensor out of place, but otherwise only my ego was bruised.

The scariest moment of the ride was when a pickup truck ran a red light as I was making a left turn. Three seconds different and I would have been flesh and guts on the pavement. Crazy.

Netflix

Signed up for Netflix last week. I was talking with my intern the other day (yes I actually have an intern eventhough it seems like only yesterday I was an intern. Where does the time go?) and she was telling my how much she enjoys it. Also, alot of Gary's friends subscribe and get alot out of it.

Since Gary usually uses our stairstepper-exercise machine while watching DVDs, it seemed like a good investment. $18/month for almost unlimited movie rentals by mail vs. Gary wanting to buy new DVD's all the time. Also, there are so many films I'm curious to see, but not interested enough to own. The final incentive is the laziness factor - rental by internet and mail is so much more convinent that driving to the movie rental store.

It's been working out pretty well. We've watched a few movies, one of which was quite disappointing (but also reassuring since we had only rented in it and not actually bought the terrible thing), but most were pretty good. I'm looking forward to watching lots of old classic films that are so hard to find in stores on DVD. Gary's looking forward to seeing the entire seasons of X-files and Star Trek DS-9 in chronological order.