what would michael powell say?

michael powell and public policy students last fall are pictured left. Michael said to me, "you must be one of the last people alive still using an antenna." sorry michael, this is no longer true.

comcast is very tricky. we signed up for high speed internet at a promotional rate. promotional rate ended, and a shockingly high bill for internet came. comcast lady said if i signed up for basic basic cable, it would be cheaper. basic basic basically is only the free channels plus espn and cspan. so, no big change for us, and a tiny tiny reduction in price.

BUT, comcast "accidently" signed us up for full cable. they are supposed to come put a box on our tv to limit the channels we get. i think this is all a ruse-- they are trying to use these 2-3 days of full cable to hook us. i have been hooked to shows on food, weddings, cable news, sex in the city, law & order 24/7, live births, etc. it is so tempting to just NOT call comcast to tell them to adjust our service. but, we will. antennas have many merits: you can still watch the news, friends, seinfeld, and law & order QUITE often; less channels to choose from means you actually will watch an entire program instead of forever channel surfing; and, you will impress michael powell. oh, and you can watch the daily show for free on the internet. so why do we need cable?

2 degrees of separation from SRK

I am now only TWO degrees of separation from Shah Rukh Khan. Natalie interviewed A. R. Rahman who works with all of Bollywood all the time. and i've got pictures to prove it! A. R. is in the white, and the other picture is an unsure-looking Arjun being kissed by a qawwal.

In other news, my strategy of overloading my schedule to get owrk done has backfired. i am sick. so this morning i have not done much, but managed to make and eat some fantastic miso soup.

guddu is busy returning baby clothes we bought for our nieces in India. all of a sudden, everyone has requested Wrangler jeans. so he went back to wal-mart to get them. thank god, for our wallet's sake, that levi's are not "in."

recipe for motivation

i have found the best way to get work done is to make yourself as busy as possible. if i minimize free time, i maximize work done. last weekend we went to c'ville. this week I went to DC and we will do a lot of shopping and maybe catch a movie. sounds like i have a lot of leisure time? exactly the opposite is true.

it has been a busy 2 weeks. i had one paper on the Tamil Tigers due, exams to grade, and i have to write two papers this weekend. one on whether or not to legalize/decriminalize prostitution, and the other on performance budgeting.

oh, and we are leaving for india next weekend. we have to do some more shopping. we spent about 3 hours in walmart looking at baby clothes for out nieces in the village.

speaking of wal-mart, you should all check out what THEY were doing during Hurricane katrina while FEMA was sitting around. if i find the link, i'll post.

perhaps the scale of urgency and clear goals has something to do with how efficient we act (we MUST re-open the wal-marts and save our employees; i MUST finish this paper before i get on the plane; we MUST deliver water to the tsunami survivors NOW, etc.)

Dining Experiences of Late

I think I have two regular favorite places in Richmond.

For lunch or dinner or just a cafe con leche, Kuba Kuba is the place. I love the avocado salad there, and sharing some tostones and hot sauce. I went there for lunch with my old carpool-mate a week or two ago. But, I have to say that this is where Lucy and I would often go during the college and post-college days when we were both in Richmond and both working at our Aunts' small businesses (we had all the inside info on which haute diner was buying arugula and who was ordering super-expensive wedding invitations).

Friday night I went to another treasure of Richmond's: Emilio's on Broad Street. This place usually has someone playing latin or jazz, and they have an extensive martini list and tapas. Very laid back, not too pretentious, but with character-- like c'ville but more mature.

Today I had lunch at the Blue Talon in williamsburg. This is a wanna-be-expensive-french-bistro. Caroline and I both do not eat bacon, but she wanted a salad with "lardons." I suspected this might be a fancy word for bacon bits, but the waiter told her they were "like mild spring onions with a garlic taste"-- did he mean shallots??? anyways, I asked if the eggs meurette had pork or beef, and he said "the stock might, but there are not chuncks of meat in the broth-- it is like a soup!." so i said i would take it... our plates came with out itsy-bitsy frenchie portions. caroline's salad was indeed sans any type of garlic-onion-shallot ingredient but well stocked with bacon. as soon as I broke the yoke of my poached egg, the waiter came bumbling up to the table-- "actually, there IS bacon in the stock!" so i reordered the "goat cheese cake," which he assured me was like a salad and not a dessert... the goat cheese cake was tasty, and i am sure it was a million grams of fat. the poor waiter apoligized endlessly and offered us free coffee (we should have pushed for dessert!), and insisted we not tip him. but i did, i felt so sorry for him. he is lucky we were not some old retirees who would give him attitude about his ineptitude. blue talon-- thumbs down unless someone else is treating you. a much better french bistro is river bistro in shockoe bottom-- with a french canadien maitre d' and food with a morrocan twist!

Market Place, RVs

sometimes when i listen to Market Place , I feel like every story was meant for me. The other night, there were 2 stories in particular that stuck me.

1. The price of gold is over $500. Indians have more than $200 billion in gold in the form of jewelry that is "under the mattress" and not in the financial system.
   
2. College students now do ritalin and aderol (sp?) to stay alert to perform better. Quote: I don't feel weird, I just feel like doing all of my work. Maybe we are all ADD???

Weekend plans: RV Expo. For Real. Maybe we'll buy one? That would really annoy the shit out of our old lady neighbors-- a big RV parked in front of the house in addition to our 3 cars. It might just be worth it.