Solid Italian Food With Bad Singing

I had the pleasure of joining my co-worker John and his wife Sara for dinner on Friday night in downtown La Jolla. Being that it was a hoppin' Friday night and we neglected to make reservations, we had to visit a couple of places before finding a spot where we could get in with less than an hour's wait.

This is how we ended up at this quaint Italian place. John and Sara had been there before and noted that the food was pretty good. However, when we walked in, the place had live Italian singing, which I thought was marginal (at best). We took a quick seat and enjoyed some bread with this phenomenal tomato-basil/olive oil dip. This dip was probably worth visiting the restaurant in and of itself.

However, as we continued to chat and wait to place our order, I noticed that the singing continued, with varied singers getting up to make their contribution. Some were notably worse than others (translation - some were tolerable and some were outright horrible). Our table wondered if we would get kicked out for turning off the speaker that was (unfortunately) facing our table, blaring the hideous music in our ears...

So overall the restaurant was pretty good - outdoor seating, righteous tomato-basil dip and quality entrees. I did, however, make one critical ordering mistake - including calamari steak in my order. Sara tried to forewarn me that calamari steak was not as tasty as the calamari you get as an appetizer. Despite this warning, I proceeded to order it as part of my seafood meal. I found out that Sara was being too nice - the calamari steak reminded me of the smell of cat poop.

Please, take this advice: never order calamari steak. Also - take note of any live singing that is going on before you commit yourself to spend a meal near a large speaker! Fortunately, I had great company...

Don't Open Your Yahoo! Finance Homepage...

Today was the ugliest day in the market I've ever seen. Don't look now but the DJIA was down almost 780 points (about 7%) and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were even worse...eek. Don't look at your 401(k) statements for the next couple of quarters. I'm kind of glad I invested in a Crossfire and didn't put all that cash into the market. Ouch!

Not Too Shabby on the Training

Saturday's 12.5 mile run was at an average pace of 8:31/mile. Not too bad, particularly during the 8 mile stretch when I was running at about 8:24/mile pace. This morning I did a seven miler at about 8:21/mile. I'm feeling a bit under the weather so was happy to get in a decent run, although I need to be about 20 seconds/mile faster...the legs were definitely feeling the cardio kickboxing this morning.

My New Favorite Food: Butternut Squash

After abandoning the blog and finishing up a couple of back logged posts, I can't stop blogging without posting something about one of my favorite subjects, food. My new favorite food (okay one of several) is butternut squash. I had some tonight and it was amazing. Simply rinse off the squash (ask your local produce guy how to pick out one that's ripe) and pop it in the oven whole at 400 degrees for about an hour. It will begin to burst open when done (and it will be easy to cut through). It is amazing and healthy!

Downtown La Jolla - The Place To Find An Ascot Shop

What is an ascot, you ask? According to Wikipedia, "an ascot tie, or ascot, is a narrow neckband with wide pointed wings, traditionally made of pale gray patterned silk." It is something obnoxiously wealthy people wear to show everyday people that they are obnoxiously wealthy (or at least that's my understanding of them). I think the best potrayal of my definition is the use of the ascot in the movie Igby Goes Down. In order to have a full appreciation for it, you'll have to watch this movie. It is one of my all-time favorites, so check it out.

But back to the topic - downtown La Jolla, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, is filled with random stuff like ascot shops. They also have several really exotic rug stores, ridiculous jewelry shopping and plenty of other things to check out. However, an entire store dedicated to ascots really made me take pause. I haven't actually seen guys out here wearing them, but I'll be on the lookout now.

Shout Out to Elle Belle, A Musical Genius (Among Other Things)

New my favorite song is "Fortress" by Pinback. How did I find this fantastic (but perhaps a bit obscure) song, you might ask? My lovely sister Alicia is apparently a musical genius. Thanks, Belle! I listened to it about five times during my long run Saturday. My second favorite song right now might be "Mr. November" by The National. I love The National...will probably blog an ode to them shortly.

WaMu...Another One Bites the Dust

I have very little commentary about this other than "scary." Three hundred billion plus in assets up in smoke. The fact that a private equity consortium led by someone as savvy as TPG (with David Bonderman leading the charge) flushed $7 billion in five months is mind boggling. The gravity of this situation and the surrounding mess in the financial markets is why I stick to blogging about food and working out - these topics are much more fun to blog about!