V for Very Good

Home Alone
With K up in Napa this weekend I was left to fend for myself. This involves the usual foraging for food, trying to make fire, and not getting into much trouble. I spent half my weekend in at the office since there is a lot to get done before I go away for the wedding and the honeymoon. I have a feeling I will be spending more hours at work the next two weeks to get everything set. On the plus side work is going well. I am doing a lot of programming in python. This is a very powerful programming languange that's fun to write in. I am also helping with the bidding of new projects and some facility wide projects to make life easier. Like I said, things are good.

V for Vendetta

• Wow that was good. Part of Karin being out of town means the guys all go and watch movies our girls didn't want to see. V was such a good film. If you have not seen it yet, do so please. We watched a 70mm transfer to IMAX and it looked very good, the sound was great. Oh and it had the Superman trailer before it in IMAX res, that was super sweet. I think we have a plan for Halloween, if you have seen the film you will know why a whole crew of us coming as V would rock. I looked into it and I found a place online that sells the masks for $5, hats for $8, and the wig for $12. If you want the daggers it's $15. So for $25 you are most of the way done with the costume. A cloak is needed as well, they sell cheesy ones for $15 but I think I'm just going to have to sew my own cloak . I have done it before and it's a lot of fun. However this time I won't wait till the night of Halloween to sew it. Let me add this, RFID is a bad technology. It's a nice idea and all but frankly more bad than good is going to come from it.
  

My too favorite lines:

• "Remember, remember, the fifth of November, The gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
• "Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

props to Hugo Weaving for performing that second line so well.

In other news
My heart goes out to Erik this morning who was outside at 3am to watch his satellite go into orbit only to have it scrubbed for a third time due to a "refueling aircraft required to maintain the radar tracking plane wasn't available", that just sucks. Sorry Erik!

Vino

We just got back from a weekend of wine, laughs, and good friends. I will post more about it later but here is a picture from the weekend. We love spending time on the central coast, from the rolling hills of the vineyards to the crashing waves of the coast it's amazing. 

The Counter

The Counter serves up giant gourmet burgers at a reasonable price. It can be hard to find a place it sit but it's worth the wait. Apon arrival you should get in the order line as fast as possible. Just like California Chicken Cafe you order first then find your own table. If you have a party larger than two it helps to send some of them off to scout for tables of people finishing up. Ordering a starter is recommended as it takes time to custom make each burger. We did the 50/50, half fried onion strings and half fries, I would recommend you get the Sweet Potato fries, we tried both and the Sweet Potato won out.
You order your burger by filling out a Burger form on these little clipboards. It makes it very easy and all four of our complex custom burgers came out perfect. I ordered a 1/3 lb Beef Burger with Imported Swiss Cheese, Grilled Onions, Grilled Pineapple, Roasted Corn & Black Bean Salsa toped with Roasted Garlic Aioli Sauce on a Honey Wheat Bun. Yes there are pictures. Between the four of us we managed to cover a lot of ground on the burger menu. The premium toppings are $1 and arrive in very health amounts. The Avocado was just ripe enough, the Honey Cured Bacon crisp but not charred, and the Onion Strings where fried to a perfect golden yellow. These where great burgers. They come with a steak knife and you are going to need it. I managed to get the first bite in traditionally before having to chop it up. The only thing I would not get again would be the Roasted Corn & Black Bean Salsa as it soaked into the bun and caused structural problems. Everyone cleaned there plate off, the best compliment a restaurant can get from us. It has earned a rightful place in the lunch rotation. It cost us $12 a head for food, soda, and tip. It was well worth it.