Dinner Party

I had a dinner party and it went very well indeed.

We had broiled eggplant/zucchini pasta cheesy thing; thai green curry with tofu, sweet potato and onion; garlic bread extravaganza; salad; and magnificent cheese. Also wine, and caramel apple slices. Yumminess was achieved by all, and Nick did a good job not mentioning how all the other people are my work colleagues. Ha. The kitchen performed like a champ and the dining room table was ever so grateful to have people sitting and eating and drinking.

Next time - we will have trivets, and possibly a salad spinner. And perhaps some real napkins.

Oh Fucking Hell

Melinda Gates, in her infinite wisdom, announced that the B&MGF will be setting a goal of eradicating malaria. No timeline, no specifics, no mention of how, given current capacity (human and financial) and the crazy high EIR of the disease, this is widely acknowledged BY ACTUAL SCIENTISTS to be in the same league as say, Cubs winning the World Series.

Even worse my boss's boss thinks this is a rad idea and partly due to our efforts. This makes me throw up in my mouth.

Prices

I wish the Honda Service Center had a pricing scheme similar to Radiohead's. I would much rather pay what I think a starter and a driver's side mirror and an oil change are worth, rather than $846 dollars. I would pay, let's see, $50 bucks for the starter, $30 for the mirror, and $10 for the oil change. We have health insurance for normal wear and tear on our bodies - why not on our cars? I would love to have a co-pay for this kind of thing!

New Radiohead

Their new album, In Rainbows, is superb. And you can download it for whatever you think it's worth. Some economist is going to have a field day with this, but I wonder what effect having to register your name, address, mobile number, etc will have on what people pay? I found it to be a little guilt-inducing. Not saying whether or not that resulted in my paying 'fair price' or not. After all, every price is a fair price in this situation.

Triple A basically rules

So I've had this problem with the starter on my car all summer, where it doesn't turn over and then you try again and it goes. Nothing major. I finally caved in last week and made an oil change appointment (my maintenance light has been on since June), but only after lightly bashing in my driver's side rear view mirror while parking in the garage. On Friday I was down in DC and Edith borrowed the car, as she is wont to do, to go see some friendlies down in Fells Point. Woe was her when the car finally gave up and refused to start, after having been parked illegally in a very narrow alleyway/street (the plan was to pick up the friendlies for transportation to an eatery). A chance parking spot right at the intersection of this alley/street and the next cross street appeared as if by divine intervention, but how to put the dead car in the spot?

Gravity saved the day, as usual. Edith simply let the car slide down the incline, used its inertia to pull a 90 degree left turn, and slide back down into the parking spot. Now that's a nice park job!

Off to the eatery they went. Next evening we spent two hours hanging with the friendlies waiting for the tow truck to come and cart off the car to the Honda Dealership, where I had conveniently scheduled an appointment for Monday (see above). But Tow Trucker Wayne did not show. Meanwhile, Carmen had to study for her Boards, Edith had a raging caffeine headache and a raging sushi craving, and I just felt bad making them all wait out on the corner of Patterson and Bank, although, as we conceded, there are worse corners in Baltimore to wait. We saw a professional dog walker and an androgyne-arm-swinger. Boy was s/he swinging that left arm of hers (his?). We left Carmen to direct the tow truck when he finally arrived and we hauled off for Kawasaki sushi in Fells, stopping in to see not one, not two, but three friends of ours, none of whom were at their homes/on their phones/in their place of business (John Stevens). Oh well. Then CBarks called, last minute as usual, wanting to do something fun and exciting like RIght This Hot Minute. Instead we ate our sushi at home, fielded calls from "limited" Wayne, who did a nice job dropping the car and the keys in angled parking at the Honda Dealership, by the way. Some people just need a few more instructions than others.

Oh yeah they had to disconnect the battery because after tapping on the starter for a while, it got stuck in the 'must turn over and over' position.

Am mildly cheerful about this considering it will cost me about 9 meeelion dollars to get a new starter (and a new mirror). It was just nice of Edith's Triple A to do all of this for no cost to me.

Stillness in Motion

This morning I had my first proper trackstand in traffic, no unclipping, no wobbling, just smooveness till the cars were all through and I could dart across like a needle.

Click on the picture for corporate/alternaculture guide to how to do this (and other things on your fixie).

Daydreaming

Tonight is climbing night. There are two routes I want to hit, a pinchy 11b with a great first move, and (finally!) a great route that makes the most of this long roof we have in the gym. Sort of like this picture.

But somehow more awesome.