restaurant review, shopping foolishness, computer argh, meme answers
Today was a most excellent shopping day.
I had a $100 gift card for Banana Republic, courtesy of my mom, and I discovered today (by trying to poke about online) that they were having a totally crazy awesome sale until Sunday. Since I'm all by my lonesome tonight with Mike up north and everybody else at B-Fest, I tried a new restaurant for dinner, and then went shopping.
Restaurant (Hana Asian Bistro) was a pretty good experience; I got there around maybe 6 pm, give or take 10 minutes, was seated promptly near the fireplace (which was good because even the best two-door systems in Chicago do not keep restaurants warm). The menu was mostly-Japanese with a sizeable number of Chinese dishes, and included sushi and such. I got goma-ae, an Alaskan roll (salmon, crab, and avocado), and sukiyaki.
The service was pretty good; my waitress was polite and friendly, though not as attentive as some of her co-workers were to their tables. (This was mostly fine, since I had a book and didn't need much in the way of fussing.) The goma-ae was probably the most generous portion of that appetizer I've seen, for about the same price as some of the places I've been that served only half as much. The dressing, in particular, was awesome, and I liked the presentation. The sushi was also delicious, although in the way of Alaskan rolls, the pieces were rather too big to eat in one bite but maki are resistant to being bitten in half (my teeth are apparently not sharp enough to cleanly bite through seaweed. Fail.)
The sukiyaki was very tasty, but it was not quite hot enough. Usually when I order sukiyaki it arrives at the table hot enough to burn my mouth and remains that way for a good 5 minutes at least. Mine arrived at a very comfortable eating temperature, which unfortunately meant it was too cold to be super-tasty within a few minutes. It was better than some I've had, but I have yet to find a place that makes sukiyaki I like as much as Sushi Arigato's, which was stuffed full of delicious vegetables and the kitchen sink. This had the usual noodles, beef, tofu, and green leafy things, but no mushrooms or other interesting veggie bits. Leaving aside my personal dislike of cooked green leafy things (I make an exception for goma-ae, but warm leafies are not yummy in my opinion), it was good. It was also a monstrously huge portion - I think I could comfortably have shared it with two other people and we all could have left stuffed to the gills. As a result, I have super leftovers in my fridge. Nom.
The price was very reasonable - mostly in line with what I'd expect from a restaurant like that (I paid $28 after a 15% tip for my meal; no dessert; only water to drink) and I thought the entree prices were very reasonable. Sushi cost was a little bit higher than what I pay at my favourite place in town, but I also discovered that Hana does carry-out. This is relevant to my interests, yes. It seems to be a pretty new restaurant - they had big "now open" signs festooning the front window, and it was not at all crowded when I arrived. When I left (around 6:40), it was starting to fill up a bit. They were doing a pretty brisk carry-out business - I think as many carry-out patrons came in while I was there, as dine-in. One last note: I definitely felt like I was in an American restaurant that happened to serve Asian food, instead of in a restaurant attempting to create an Asian ambiance. Which at least saved it from tacky overload of Hello Kitty like some places I've been, but also detracted a little bit from the experience as a whole.
After dinner, I wandered up to the mall and abused Banana Republic's sale. I got one dress that had been marked down from $175 to $18, another that sold for $52 from an original price of $150, and a shirt that was more than half off. I also got a pair of work pants at full price ($80), but considering I paid $182 for about $450 worth of clothes, I'm not complaining. And I love BR's pants and they are crazy durable, which is good. I saw a jacket I wanted, but I wasn't willing to fork over $175 on it just now, and anyway my workplace isn't quite formal enough to justify that expense. (If it had been a simple, classic black blazer, that'd be a different matter, but it wasn't.) I'm mostly impressed that the dresses I got were size 8's and actually fit; I have this problem where my bust is size 12, but my shoulders/arms, waist, hips, and legs are size 6-8, which is fucking obnoxious when I'm trying to shop for anything at all, but especially dresses. However, I lucked out today, apparently. (90% off! 90%!!!)
I had budgeted $200 of my own money to spend on top of my gift card, and I still had more than half of that left, so I went wandering down the mall to Victoria's Secret, since I have some things that are getting threadbare and developing holes and suchlike. I ended up spending the rest of my shopping budget there, but I really like what I got. Yay for comfy underthings.
Computer argh is here in the way in which I got all my data backed up, and dug through my box o'CD's in search of my recovery disks. I found the package marked "Taliesin." I opened it. I found only CD's for MS Money and Encarta. A little bit of rummaging in the Help feature on my PC revealed that no, I never had recovery disks. *headdesk* I have to make them from the recovery partition on my hard drive. This would be fine, except I don't have DVDs on hand, and I wasn't going to go back out into the sub-freezing temps in search of them. I'll have to do it tomorrow.
And finally, the pairing meme answers! Well done, everyone who played - I had fun, and I hope you did too.
1. If they could actually communicate, this entire mess would not be so bad, but instead they fence with shadows and nurse their wounds in the dark. Locke/Celes, correctly guessed by both sister_coyote and puella_nerdii.
2. "I'm better as a memory than as your man." - Balthier/Ashe, correctly guessed by venefica_aura
3. Immortality is not long enough. Every day it seems brand-new, yet they have known each other almost forever. - Kaim/Sarah, correctly guessed by first_seventhe
4. They really need to stop getting into fights that end with the bedchamber on fire. There are much more interesting ways to accomplish that that don't involve property damage, if only he could stop putting his foot in his mouth. Edge/Rydia, correctly guessed by first_seventhe
5. He thinks, often, that they are much the same: monsters beneath human-looking skin. Kain/Valvalicia, correctly guessed by first_seventhe
6. "Don't you get it? I'm your mirror. And all you do is chase in my footsteps, looking for a reason." - Final Fantasy VIII, Seifer/Squall
7. He's home, and he has what he wanted now, and everything is fine, except he can't get her out of his mind. - Avatar: the Last Airbender, Katara/Zuko. I haven't finished this show (up to 3:6), so PLEASE DON'T SPOIL ME.
8. The unlikely anchor in the midst of the storm; courtesan and guardian. Joscelin/Phedre, correctly guessed by puella_nerdii
9. How do you turn your back on the one person who is capable of exploring every corner of your soul? - Kushiel's Legacy, Melisande/Phedre
10. Even when the uniforms are gone, duty and honour are the barrier between them like a sword in the bed, and they cannot reach past it. Leo/Celes, correctly guessed by both sister_coyote and puella_nerdii
11. They've each lost the person most important to them, and all that's left is to pick up the pieces and rebuild. - Akihiko/Mitsuru, correctly guessed by astrangerenters
12. The shadows of the dead ever stand between them, and even when they reach past those ghosts, they are stifled and silent by the weight of the past and their positions. - Final Fantasy XII, Ashe/Basch
13. She knows what he is, but she does not think it is a violation of the teachings, when even now he fights on. - Auron/Lulu, correctly guessed by astrangerenters
14. And the hell of it is that they both remember everything, but what will happen when that's no longer true? - Final Fantasy VIII, Seifer/Irvine
15. Even the Queen can be sacrificed, if it will accomplish the goal in the end. Final Fantasy Tactics, Delita/Ovelia. Though, yes, it could have worked for Ashe/Vossler as well.
I had a $100 gift card for Banana Republic, courtesy of my mom, and I discovered today (by trying to poke about online) that they were having a totally crazy awesome sale until Sunday. Since I'm all by my lonesome tonight with Mike up north and everybody else at B-Fest, I tried a new restaurant for dinner, and then went shopping.
Restaurant (Hana Asian Bistro) was a pretty good experience; I got there around maybe 6 pm, give or take 10 minutes, was seated promptly near the fireplace (which was good because even the best two-door systems in Chicago do not keep restaurants warm). The menu was mostly-Japanese with a sizeable number of Chinese dishes, and included sushi and such. I got goma-ae, an Alaskan roll (salmon, crab, and avocado), and sukiyaki.
The service was pretty good; my waitress was polite and friendly, though not as attentive as some of her co-workers were to their tables. (This was mostly fine, since I had a book and didn't need much in the way of fussing.) The goma-ae was probably the most generous portion of that appetizer I've seen, for about the same price as some of the places I've been that served only half as much. The dressing, in particular, was awesome, and I liked the presentation. The sushi was also delicious, although in the way of Alaskan rolls, the pieces were rather too big to eat in one bite but maki are resistant to being bitten in half (my teeth are apparently not sharp enough to cleanly bite through seaweed. Fail.)
The sukiyaki was very tasty, but it was not quite hot enough. Usually when I order sukiyaki it arrives at the table hot enough to burn my mouth and remains that way for a good 5 minutes at least. Mine arrived at a very comfortable eating temperature, which unfortunately meant it was too cold to be super-tasty within a few minutes. It was better than some I've had, but I have yet to find a place that makes sukiyaki I like as much as Sushi Arigato's, which was stuffed full of delicious vegetables and the kitchen sink. This had the usual noodles, beef, tofu, and green leafy things, but no mushrooms or other interesting veggie bits. Leaving aside my personal dislike of cooked green leafy things (I make an exception for goma-ae, but warm leafies are not yummy in my opinion), it was good. It was also a monstrously huge portion - I think I could comfortably have shared it with two other people and we all could have left stuffed to the gills. As a result, I have super leftovers in my fridge. Nom.
The price was very reasonable - mostly in line with what I'd expect from a restaurant like that (I paid $28 after a 15% tip for my meal; no dessert; only water to drink) and I thought the entree prices were very reasonable. Sushi cost was a little bit higher than what I pay at my favourite place in town, but I also discovered that Hana does carry-out. This is relevant to my interests, yes. It seems to be a pretty new restaurant - they had big "now open" signs festooning the front window, and it was not at all crowded when I arrived. When I left (around 6:40), it was starting to fill up a bit. They were doing a pretty brisk carry-out business - I think as many carry-out patrons came in while I was there, as dine-in. One last note: I definitely felt like I was in an American restaurant that happened to serve Asian food, instead of in a restaurant attempting to create an Asian ambiance. Which at least saved it from tacky overload of Hello Kitty like some places I've been, but also detracted a little bit from the experience as a whole.
After dinner, I wandered up to the mall and abused Banana Republic's sale. I got one dress that had been marked down from $175 to $18, another that sold for $52 from an original price of $150, and a shirt that was more than half off. I also got a pair of work pants at full price ($80), but considering I paid $182 for about $450 worth of clothes, I'm not complaining. And I love BR's pants and they are crazy durable, which is good. I saw a jacket I wanted, but I wasn't willing to fork over $175 on it just now, and anyway my workplace isn't quite formal enough to justify that expense. (If it had been a simple, classic black blazer, that'd be a different matter, but it wasn't.) I'm mostly impressed that the dresses I got were size 8's and actually fit; I have this problem where my bust is size 12, but my shoulders/arms, waist, hips, and legs are size 6-8, which is fucking obnoxious when I'm trying to shop for anything at all, but especially dresses. However, I lucked out today, apparently. (90% off! 90%!!!)
I had budgeted $200 of my own money to spend on top of my gift card, and I still had more than half of that left, so I went wandering down the mall to Victoria's Secret, since I have some things that are getting threadbare and developing holes and suchlike. I ended up spending the rest of my shopping budget there, but I really like what I got. Yay for comfy underthings.
Computer argh is here in the way in which I got all my data backed up, and dug through my box o'CD's in search of my recovery disks. I found the package marked "Taliesin." I opened it. I found only CD's for MS Money and Encarta. A little bit of rummaging in the Help feature on my PC revealed that no, I never had recovery disks. *headdesk* I have to make them from the recovery partition on my hard drive. This would be fine, except I don't have DVDs on hand, and I wasn't going to go back out into the sub-freezing temps in search of them. I'll have to do it tomorrow.
And finally, the pairing meme answers! Well done, everyone who played - I had fun, and I hope you did too.
1. If they could actually communicate, this entire mess would not be so bad, but instead they fence with shadows and nurse their wounds in the dark. Locke/Celes, correctly guessed by both sister_coyote and puella_nerdii.
2. "I'm better as a memory than as your man." - Balthier/Ashe, correctly guessed by venefica_aura
3. Immortality is not long enough. Every day it seems brand-new, yet they have known each other almost forever. - Kaim/Sarah, correctly guessed by first_seventhe
4. They really need to stop getting into fights that end with the bedchamber on fire. There are much more interesting ways to accomplish that that don't involve property damage, if only he could stop putting his foot in his mouth. Edge/Rydia, correctly guessed by first_seventhe
5. He thinks, often, that they are much the same: monsters beneath human-looking skin. Kain/Valvalicia, correctly guessed by first_seventhe
6. "Don't you get it? I'm your mirror. And all you do is chase in my footsteps, looking for a reason." - Final Fantasy VIII, Seifer/Squall
7. He's home, and he has what he wanted now, and everything is fine, except he can't get her out of his mind. - Avatar: the Last Airbender, Katara/Zuko. I haven't finished this show (up to 3:6), so PLEASE DON'T SPOIL ME.
8. The unlikely anchor in the midst of the storm; courtesan and guardian. Joscelin/Phedre, correctly guessed by puella_nerdii
9. How do you turn your back on the one person who is capable of exploring every corner of your soul? - Kushiel's Legacy, Melisande/Phedre
10. Even when the uniforms are gone, duty and honour are the barrier between them like a sword in the bed, and they cannot reach past it. Leo/Celes, correctly guessed by both sister_coyote and puella_nerdii
11. They've each lost the person most important to them, and all that's left is to pick up the pieces and rebuild. - Akihiko/Mitsuru, correctly guessed by astrangerenters
12. The shadows of the dead ever stand between them, and even when they reach past those ghosts, they are stifled and silent by the weight of the past and their positions. - Final Fantasy XII, Ashe/Basch
13. She knows what he is, but she does not think it is a violation of the teachings, when even now he fights on. - Auron/Lulu, correctly guessed by astrangerenters
14. And the hell of it is that they both remember everything, but what will happen when that's no longer true? - Final Fantasy VIII, Seifer/Irvine
15. Even the Queen can be sacrificed, if it will accomplish the goal in the end. Final Fantasy Tactics, Delita/Ovelia. Though, yes, it could have worked for Ashe/Vossler as well.