3 solo and other ramblings

Hello sir,

I’ve been lax in writing, partly because we haven’t had lunch together in 3 weeks, and also because I’ve been busy with track (practices and meets - now over), and French (final exam a couple nights ago).

On my last three trips to Cupertino, I’ve had lunch solo. The first two I opted for quick and picked up a tuna salad bagel sandwich from Noah’s which I took to my office. I’ve had plenty over the years, always on a sesame bagel, toasted with everything. They’re pretty good - tasty. The first week, I was down there on a Wednesday (which is why we didn’t hook up that week). The sesame bagels didn’t look great (minimal sesame seeds), so I went for a whole wheat sesame bagel (which also has sunflower seeds on it). When I got back to my office and took a bite, it was not good. It wasn’t bad, but it was far from what I was used to. I believe the problem was that the bagel wasn’t toasted, which is key to it being good. [There is also the possibility that the bagel had been toasted, but I ended up standing around the parking lot talking to Alex for too long (who I ran into sitting outside Pizza my heart next door), and the bagel got soggy. I don’t think this is the case however, as I’ll explain shortly. The other possibility is that whole wheat sesame rather than sesame changed the dynamic, but I don’t think so.]

The next Monday I stopped in for the same thing again (but went for a regular sesame bagel). Made sure I said “toasted, with everything”. Despite saying “with everything”, they always ask you item by item, whether you really want everything or not. Noah’s employees must be trained to do this because I’ve said “toasted with everything” at every Noah’s I’ve ever been to, and always get the “lettuce?, tomatoes? onions? ....” routine. This time the sandwich/bagel was as expected (tasty), and also came wrapped in a little sort of foil wrapper. [The one the previous week didn’t come wrapped in foil which is why I’m more convinced they didn’t toast it - though I don’t remember ever getting one wrapped in foil, but that may be because I don’t usually get them to go - they are better more freshly toasted.]

Finally, the most recent Monday, as I pulled into Cupertino I felt like eating a burrito and had this vague memory of a chain burrito place near Hobees. Chain burrito places are usually disappointing, but I had no idea where else to go and was once again in a hurry. Sure enough there is an Una Mas there. Like most chain burrito places, they had stupid names for each and every burrito, so you have to read them all to find what you want. I prefer authentic taquerias that have straight forward menus. You start with a rice and bean burrito, perhaps cheese comes on the base model. If you want guacamole or sour cream pay extra. Pick the kind of meat you want on it, done. It took me awhile, but eventually I found the rice and bean model. It took longer because it wasn’t listed first or last (like at most chain places), but about 3/4 of the way down the nonsense burrito list. I think it was called the fresca (why call it the “fresh” burrito? are the others not fresh? the whole cutesy name thing for burritos is dumb.) I asked them to put cheese and guacamole on it too. My competent server asked if I wanted sour cream - no thanks. Turns out this mean “the works” which is listed on the menu, but with no explanation of what it is - dumb. The burrito was okay. Not bad, not that good either. They have a salsa bar there which is a great idea because I like lots of salsa, and can get it myself, I don’t have to keep going back up to the counter to beg for more. Unfortunately the salsa wasn’t all that great either. I tried two, the spicy red and the (un-labeled) tomatillo? The red was the better of the two, but a little bit odd, I’m not sure how to describe it. The tomatillo had way too much garlic in it (at least I think that was the problem). I love garlic, but this just wasn’t good. All in all, every thing was okay - it was the burrito equivalent of Starbucks (almost).

Other bits of random info. On the Wednesday I was in Cupertino, I stopped by and ate at Tommaso’s in SF on the way home. This was a treat - they’re not open on Monday, so I don’t get in there much. I didn’t have to wait long for a table, maybe 10 minutes. There were two guys standing behind me waiting for a table as well, I didn’t get a look at them on the way in but as they walked past me to be seated, my brain noted “hey, that’s John Waters”, and just to drive the point home, as he was standing right in front of me, a woman that was joining them for dinner arrived and he put his hand out to shake hers and said “Hi, I’m John Waters.” I had the special pizza of the month, corn, tomato, cilantro, (which I’ve had before and also make myself). It was good all around. It is a good combo, and the particular pizza I had was good by Tommaso’s standards, which means great compared to the rest of the world. The one thing I think I figured out is that they make the pizza slightly different than I do. I mix the corn, tomatoes and cilantro together and let it sit in a bowl. The flavors sort of mix together and I bake everything on the pie. I think Tommaso’s bakes the corn and tomato on the pie (but keep them separate before baking) and then add on the cilantro at the end. I like my way better.

I do from time to time listen to KFJC online. When I was in high school in the late 70s, I listened to the station a lot (they had a few punk/new wave shows), and then in the 80s, Alex was the art director for the station (and I had a pile of station t-shirts). I remember we were excited when one of the early Police? (someone else?) albums (singles?) came out and there was a KFJC button on the cover. I just googled it to see if I could find it, but no luck. Anyway, radiodavidbyrne is good this month. Usually he has a theme, but none listed this month. I think it is a random sampling of recent (diverse) pop hits. Most are really good, the only bad one is a BSpears number. I’m not picking on it because it is BSpears, it just happens to be really bad independent of who was responsible. The show is only ever two or three hours long, and he only changes them once a month, so I do have to move around to other stations (his recent Nino Rota show was great.) I often pick WNYU or WFMU because they’re right above his show in iTunes if you sort by bitrate. They’re typical college stations - a variety of shows, some good some bad. If the show is bad, I just click on another station. I also listen to piratecatradio, or KPOO if I can actually get them online (their biggest problem is that they broadcast via Windows Media Player which last time I checked was a POS on the Mac, and when I try via iTunes, it usually says the server cannot accept any more connections - stop the presses, they have a new live feed which works via a web site, not perfect - it drops out too often, even with buffering set to max. Way better than nothing though.) When I lived/worked in SF, KPOO was what I listened to most (via a real radio). It is a super station, and if you’re a Coltrane fan, they have a weekly 4 hour show which is in some way connected to his church. KPOO also has great blues, reggae, and soul shows. The Saturday Latin show is also great. I’ll say it again - KPOO is a SUPER station. Used to listen to wefunk a bunch when they let you download shows (very good - I’d listen to them riding). Two hour shows, live DJs (as in turntables). There are many good choices.

The Queen bought the new Gnarls Barkley CD a few weeks ago - I’ve taken it off her hands and it is excellent. I also popped Mingus Plays Piano in the other day and I think it may be my favorite album of all time. At least right now it is. Spectacular. I think I bought it for you a couple years ago. Pop it in and play it.

The Dipsea is less than 20 days away and it is on my mind way too much. My right achilles it not quite right which is less than ideal. I’ll ramble about that (the Dipsea) later. Enough for now....