Winter is back

After a few weeks of days in the 60s, winter came thundering back in Pittsburgh. It decided to announce its return with a lightning and thunder show last night, turning the freezing rain into ice as it quickly layered the ground with its missing white cover.

Last week, I made this risotto for dinner, and it was delicious. From my Jamie Oliver cookbook, I selected the Risotto with Lemon Thyme, Prosciutto, Pecorino and Goat's Cheese. Try it out! I don't usually like risotto in restaurants because its always too crunchy (undercooked) for me, but when you're making itself, you can have it at whatever level of doneness you want it (obviously)! This was the first thing I'd made from this cookbook that I got on the honeymoon. Thanks to Paul for reintroducing it to me! Mine had a different title since I have the British edition, and it has all the ingredients in odd measurements.

Midwinter in San Antonio

I just got back from the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio. I discovered the IFC Privacy Subcommittee which I will try to get on, or at least start hanging out with. I also got tons of free books and some bags. I held myself back this year because there's no reason to pick up more than I'll ever be able to read/give away.

In San Antonio, I had the best mole sauce in my life at Rosario's in the King Williams district. Rich and I also went to this really nice tea shop called MadHatter's which had free wireless. The River Walk is nice, but it's overpriced, over-commercialized, and the food really isn't that great. (You've been to one Hard Rock/Dick's/Eat at Joe's, you've been to them all.) I really wish we'd known about these places when we were down here for the Alamo Bowl in 2001. It probably would've been more fun than then 2 hour wait we had for the Lone Star restaurant during New Year's Eve.

Sydney!

I finally got around to posting some more pictures. Here's Sydney.

Math Will Rock Your World

This article from BusinessWeek mentions how awesome math is, but how, in its robotic librarian data gathering algorithm capabibilities, it has a "dark side" - the errosion of privacy. (It's fun to use learning for evil.)

Home and Back Again

After my last final, I hit the South Side for the first time. I went to a NU EPP's holiday party, where we talked hopefully about the upcoming Northwestern vs. UCLA game at the Sun Bowl. (We now know how that ended. We SHOULD have won. It was a totally winnable game, where we should've scored 2 amazing touchdowns in the last 5 minutes. (Who else but NU can get an extra play after the clock has run out at the end of the first half?) Unfortunately, our kicker was not at his best that day.) After the party, I met up with friends at Fat Head's where they have an extensive selection of beers on tap, including my favorite Belgium-style raspberry beer.

The next day, I headed to California to meet up with Rich. We had a great time, especially since his sister received word that someone had found her 2 lost dobermans in the woods. They'd run off in the hills a week earlier. They came back skinny, thirsty, and a bit bruised and cut up, but alive and well. In their absence, they'd gotten a 3rd doberman. Several people were around: we met up with Daniel and Massie in Berkeley, and we saw Rose and Josh, Chris, and Guillaume of Rich's Livermore crowd. A great time was had by all.

A few days later, we headed to Chicago. We met up with Xcott and saw King Kong. We headed into the city to meet up with Julie, Paulette, Jeremy, Dargan, and others. I highly recommend Kiki's Bistro, and I even got in some Ethiopian food at Mama Desta's on NYE (my former favorite place, Addis Abeba, is not closed). To celebrating 2006, Julie, Rich, Xcott and I headed to Schuba's to see the Changes. A good time was had by all.

Oh, Paulette's boyfriend Carl's band Charlemange is heading out on tour. So, check out their website, and if they're in town, go check them out!