The Hobbit
Wednesday November 23, 2005 at 9:08 pm | Filed under General
For my birthday, instead of a party we decided that we’d have a nice dinner out to a place we’d never been before. Monique had remembered that we used to drive by a place in Orange that we always wanted to try, but never had. It’s a place called The Hobbit. We didn’t know too much about the place but after checking out their web site, we found out it’s even more interesting than we thought. We learned that they only take reservations. They have a rotating menu where they feature a different main dish each week. The place isn’t really themed to Lord of the Rings or anything. Sunday night after we dined, we learned that it was the best meal we’d ever eaten.
When we got there we were greeted at the door and they immediately asked what name the reservation was under. They had one of those tiny sliding doors on the door as if they ask “what’s the password” too. At least we didn’t get that treatment. The man explained that we would be ready for hors d’oeuvres in the wine cellar in a few minutes and we were free to enjoy the lounge or the bar upstairs. So we did. As we made our way upstairs we figured out that the restaurant seemed to be a big converted house. The bar and the lounge were bedrooms in the house. We went into the one with the bar, which was just a few comfy places to sit and a small bar in the corner. We each had a drink and hung out a few minutes until we were told that hors d’oeuvres were were being served in the wine cellar.
We made our way down two flights of stairs and found ourselves in a chilly wine cellar. Not a very roomy space for the 30-40 people that were in there. We were greeted by two men pouring glasses of The Hobbit’s own brand of champagne. Good stuff! We were told that we could pick our wine for our dinner from the selection of bottles in the cellar. There were hundreds of different kinds of wine, and some snacks to eat. My favorite was the baked brie (could have been feta) with pruscitto in it. Man that was tasty! After deciding that we would do the offered wine pairings that would bring us a different glass of wine with each course, we were told they would be seating for dinner.
I was really glad that unlike some of the fancy restaurants I’ve been to, this was not the type to give you an itsy bitsy artsy bit of food that leaves you wanting more the minute you leave. This was a 7 course meal that didn’t have one thing I didn’t eat. I even had some mushrooms that were really tasty! Needless to say I was stuffed afterwards. Whoever the chef was really outdid themselves. Whoever paired the wine was impressive too as the wine with each course just made it that much better. I’ve scanned the menu for the evening for those of you keeping score at home. It was amazing!
Wondering why the place is called The Hobbit? You got me. I can only assume it’s because Hobbits love to eat, eat a lot, and eat well. The only reference to the Tolkein-folk in the house was a few framed words in the entryway:
HOBBITS… are little people, smaller than dwarves. They love peace and quiet and good-tilled earth. They dislike machines, but are handy with tools. They are nimble, but don’t like to hurry. HOBBITS have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary every day sort. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colors (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes because their feet grow natural leatherly soles and thick brown hair (which is curly); have long, clever brown fingers, good-natured faces and laugh deep, fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it.)
You can check out some photos of our evening here on flickr. Monique and I were joined by Tim and Shana and the four of us had a great time.
Oh yeah… The Hobbit restaurant was built in 1972, the same year I was built! 33 years ago today for me, actually!
Xbox broke! Good timing?
Monday November 21, 2005 at 10:23 pm | Filed under General
Here it is, just two hours before the Xbox 360 goes on sale (at least in my time zone) to geeks all over the planet. Today went to fire up my Xbox to play some Half-Life 2 and the thing doesn’t turn on. I unplugged it and tried another outlet and still nothin. So I do some troubleshooting online and figure I have to buy some part or something. Then I realize that I may have purchased the replacement plan for it when I bought it.. but then I think that it might have expired already. So I go hunting for the receipt and by some miracle I find it. I DID buy the replacement plan! So I quickly check the dates and, lucky again, the plan has 7 days left on it.
So the deal is that I should receive a mailing label for the Xbox in 5-7 business days, then 10 days after they receive it they’ll send out a Best Buy gift card in the amount that I paid, plus tax. With which I’ll probably go get an Xbox 360, as it would be getting one for 50% off. I had actually planned on waiting until I heard a few things…
1. if the 360 would play nice on networks other than one powered by Windows XP Media edition
2. More details on the Sony PS3 (launch date, online strategy, LAN features, actual game play videos)
I still might wait, especially if Sony keeps the “Spring’06″ launch date. Decisions decisions!
I know some of you have had issues with Best Buy in the past, so I’m hoping this goes smoothly for me.
Chip & Drifty site launches!
Saturday October 22, 2005 at 4:33 pm | Filed under General
The new Chip & Drifty site is live! For those of you not in the know, Chip & Drifty is my buddy Tim’s band and we’ve completed the web site for them.
ChipandDrifty.com is actually built on the Wordpress playform, but mangled enough so we’re just utilizing the Wordpress core news posting and commenting system. I built a similar site with MovableType back in the day (Movie Club) and overall I’m pretty pleased with how it all came together. With every new project I learned a bunch on this one. This is the first time I worked with FLV (Flash Video) which we wanted to use to eliminate the need for any video plug-in on the site. Flash is all you need at ChipandDrifty.com, and you really don’t need much of it! I learned more CSS too, of course, as all formatting is done via CSS. By the way, I worship the Firefox Dev Toolbar, as it was a lifesaver in many CSS cross-browser troubleshooting. Getting CSS-based sites to look good on IE on a Windows machine is not easy.
This thing has kept me busy on my nights and weekends for just over a month so you really should go visit. Tim would also appreciate it if you buy the album. I’m not kidding. Did I mention that besides being my friend and all that, the band is actually really great? Go. Visit. Buy.