Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Heading to Japan

We're headed to Japan tomorrow morning. The whole family plus Kate's friend and her mother. You can follow all of the excitement at the Six Gaijin blog created just for this event.

Sayonara!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Ari Hest at DeepRockDrive

Ari Hest played at DeepRockDrive today. It was a really great show! He has a project called 52 where he is releasing a new song every week for a year. His show at DeepRockDrive was an acoustic set and was just fantastic.

You can check out my photos of the show here.

That's a lot of RULES for sushi...

I'm in Las Vegas this weekend for a couple of shows at DeepRockDrive including the Ari Hest show later today. Last night Kurt and I went to the Ashana Japanese restaurant at the Rio that had an all you can eat sushi menu option. Looking at the prices for regular stuff, this looked like it would actually be one of the less expensive options so we went for it. The sushi was actually pretty good. Not Nishino good, but the maguro, by which many restaurants can be measured was tender and fresh.

Apparently, this place was very concerned about only catering to the "clean plate club" because there was a sheet of rules that they left on the table once we started ordering. Rules! At a restaurant. Some of theme were:

  • All-You-Can-Eat is limited to 1.5 hours and begins when your server places your first order
  • All-You-Can-Eat may not be shared with others. If your All-You-Can-Eat order is shared, you will both be charged the All-You-Can-Eat price.
  • No "Orders to go" or "Take Home Bags" permitted
  • All of the Main Entree portion must be eaten before your next order can be placed. For Sushi Entrées, all sushi (including sushi rice) must be eaten before another order can be placed
  • Customer must pay for food items at regular menu price if

    • it is ordered but not eaten

    • it is ordered past the 1.5 hour limit

    • sushi rice portions are not eaten

Wow! I've never heard of a place that charges you more to NOT eat something! This takes the whole soup nazi thing to a whole new level. Kurt and I were immediately concerned about strict enforcement. If we didn't eat the edamame shells, would we get no more food? What about the shrimp tails? When the bill came, would stray pieces of rice left on the serving tray be used as evidence against us to justify an additional $30.00 and marked "incomplete spicy tuna consumption"? Did the bowl of rice count since technically it isn't sushi rice (which is called out in the rules) yet once placed on a plate with teriyaki chicken, it becomes part of a Main Entrée, right?

In the end, there was no strict enforcement. We could order our teriyaki while there was still a Dragon Roll on the way and the bill at the end of the evening (well before the 1.5 hour limit, I might add) the bill included no penalty charges or late fees.

Oh, and overall, it was pretty dang good.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Today I learned: Lincoln is my hero!

I just finished Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Fantastic book, but even moreso was the brilliance and goodness of Lincoln himself.  I knew most of the history, but this book really focuses on how he worked with his cabinet - his leadership style and deep understanding of human behavior and motivation.

I recommend this to everyone!

Hmmm... Lawyer from Illinois, from humble beginnings, one term in Washington, running for president.  Everyone counted him out, no one thought he had the experience to survive, let alone thrive, in Washington DC.  That sounds vaguely familiar...