Month: December 2005

Serious birthday dining

Today is Diane’s birthday, and so, as usual, we’ve invited some friends over for dinner and New Year’s Eve TV-watching.

Diane does most of the cooking (somehow, this seems unfair, but no one ever said life was fair); she made “Michelle’s Chicken” (from the IBM Research cookbook), Butternut Squash with Ginger, and Amaretto Carrots, all of which were delicious.

I made dessert; at Alwin’s recommendation, I made the “Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake” from America’s Test Kitchen. But, rather than make the Creamy Milk Chocolate Frosting that went with it, I chose Hershey’s “Especially Dark” frosting on the theory that a dark chocolate cake deserves dark chocolate frosting (that, and the fact that I’d’ve had to buy a whole bottle of Karo Syrup for two spoonfuls if I wanted to do the milk chocolate frosting). The consensus at the table was that this was a good decision — even Sam, who’s not a chocolate person, had a slice (though he didn’t have seconds, so I failed to convert him). I inadvertently modified the frosting recipe by omitting the vanilla (the phone was ringing a lot as I was making the frosting), but no one seemed to mind.

The diet starts tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

Game On!

The Tech Museum usually has a special exhibit; currently, it’s Game On, which was actually mounted by the Barbican Museum in London. But it’s very appropriate for Silicon Valley, since it’s an interactive history of the video game, both arcade and home versions. I knew I wanted to see it, but hadn’t gotten around to suggesting it until today (partially motivated by realizing that the exhibit closes Monday). So we spent the afternoon at the Tech.

Well, Jeff and I did. Diane got tired of the exhibit pretty quickly and went across the street to the San Jose Museum of Art, while Jeff and I enjoyed the exhibit. Especially playing the old games, like Pong and Spacewar and Space Invaders. I remember losing many quarters to those during college, but here, they were free. And I was able to compete with him moderately well, unlike the case with newer games (they had plenty of those, too, but they all blur together in my mind).

After an hour or so, we’d played all of the interesting games, so we joined Diane at the art museum. We took a quick look at the downstairs exhibition, Visual Politics, and then caught up with her on a small docent-led tour, just as they were starting on the Selections from the Permanent Collection. Touring with a docent was a definite improvement over wandering around independently — she asked us questions and forced us to interact with the works on display, instead of just looking at them (or, worse, reading the descriptions adjacent to the works and not really looking at the art itself, which I’ve been known to do). After the tour, Diane went to the museum shop and Jeff and I visited Sandow Birk’s Divine Comedy, which is a retelling of The Divine Comedy in images set in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Well worth viewing.

From there, it was a quick walk to Ben and Jerry’s, and then home. Not a bad way to spend what was, effectively, the last day of vacation (we have Monday off, but Jeff doesn’t, so we’ll be getting up at a ridiculous hour to get him to school on time. *sigh*).

Shabbat Shalom!