Hamden, CT Food

Tonight I had dinner at Mickey's in Hamden, CT. Hamden is a pretty small township in southern CT. It was a bit of a suprise as I was expecting Burger King or Micky D's to be among the fine dining choices in Hamden. the hotel desk clerk recommended Mickeys. I went with the Alaskan Sea Bass fishsticks with Yucca fries and Chimichurri.

Not too bad, especially given the location. the fish was pretty good and the fries were quite good. I was a little short on chimmichuri, but all in all, paired with a Conundrum white, it was pretty good.

So, if you're in Hamden, CT, I can highly reccoment Mickeys on the corner of Whitney and Dixwell.

Food!

Ok, enough bitching about my phone. Lets talk about something important, FOOD!

I've been stuck in Philadelphia since last night and the next flight out isn't until tomorrow morning. Burning 36 hours in Philly isn't really too bad, but tonight was a real treat. On a whim I went to the Capitol Grill expecting a solid steakhouse and little more. What a surprise.

I had one of the best Fillet Mignon I've ever had -- and I've had a more than a few. I'm pretty much a Fillet guy. I'll pass up the intense flavor a strip, the sublime marbling of a rib-eye for the absolute smooth tenderness of a Fillet anytime.

I can tell you that the guys at the Capitol Grill in Philly turn out a
Fillet that ranks among the very best. Tonight I went with the Vidiala Onion Rings and the big (14 oz.) Fillet Mignon. The rings were perfect, crisp and super sweet and a parfect compliment to the tenderness of the fillet.

Paired with a 2004 Lyeth Meritage, it was a truely spectacular combination. However the star of the evening was the Fillet itself. It was so tender that without the cpisply charred outside it would be dificult to tell it was in your mouth -- it was that tender.

All in all the cipatol Grille was a real suprise and a real treat.

Highly recommended.

Another poor iPhone "upgrade"

With iPhone v1.X you could sync music, movies, and photos each with a different iTunes library.

This feature appears to be lost with 2.0.

Thanks for the "upgrade". Maybe the Blackberry isn't so bad.

Goodbye iPhone

After a 2+ hour call with Apple Tech Support last night (that cost $100) I have confirmed that I can no longer use my iPhone with 2.0 software as a business tool. Apparently the feature that allows synchronizing with Outlook calendars through iTunes is no longer supported. The only supported method is Active Sync push.

Since my employer doesn't (and wont) support Active Sync, I am out of luck.

Here is a thread on Apple's support site where many others are venting their frustrations about this flaw.

I guess it's back to the Blackberry that I hate.

I am really fucking glad I didn't buy a 3G iPhone.

Tattoo session #12

Session #12
Date July 13, 4pm

I've decided that this is really one tattoo on two sides so I'll be counting sessions that way now. Yesterday afternoon Joel finished the outlining and began the shading in another two hour session.

Yesterday was another tough session. I'm not sure why, but this side sure seems to hurt more than the other did. Maybe it's working on a new area, or maybe I just forgot how bad the other side was. Either way, these first two sessions were pretty hard. This photo shows some line-work around the nipple area. This is one of the most difficult areas.

These little moments frequently makes me think of the acid-burn scene from the movie Fight Club. I'm Edward Norton trying to get to my "happy place", but instead, as Tyler was, I am "in the moment" and embracing the pain.

When the outlining is finished the shading begins with the grinding of the Sumi ink. Here is Kathy grinding some of the Sumi herself.






















The last two photos show the extent of the shading done during this session. Shading definitely feels better (OK, hurts less) than line-work. I'm still pretty sore this morning but it's getting better and the swelling has come way down.

iPhone 2.0

I installed iPhone 2.0 today. It's great. Downloadable applications deliver on many of the things that have been but a tease since the iPhone release.

My new favorite is an Apple application that make the iPhone a remote for iTunes or AppleTV. It works great, It brings up all your play lists and songs on the phone and does your bidding.

The best thing is that its free. I also downloaded a game from the App Store called Enigmo. Its a really cool physics game involving redirecting falling water drops into containers. Even a day early everyting worked perfectly.

I'm not sure I gonna race out a score the new tomorrow, but i can live vicariously with new 2.0 features.

Quick Update

I haven't posted in a month, so I'll add an update now.

The last few weeks have been a blur of friends visiting, track events, and work. Kathy had a friend in town of the the 4th so she spent the weekend doing "girl" stuff. I spent it doing "guy" stuff, bleeding brakes, rotating tires, and other race car things.

The high point of the weekend was buying beer and wine on Sunday. This is the first Sunday that this is legal here in Colorado. Ahh.. progress.

Kath is at a conference in Vegas this week and I'm getting ready for an open track event at Pueblo on Saturday and my second koi tattoo session on Sunday.