Jun 2006, 149 entries

This post almost never came to be. The decision of where to eat lunch turned out to be one of the most divisive yet. Unable to come to a generally accepted suggestion, we strayed uncomfortable long into the lunchtime hour. As the pangs of hunger became almost too much to bear we finally departed to separate destinations. Some last minute negotiations, however, brought four of us together to Cafe Septieme. Dr. Brain was the last holdout, enjoying instead a tasty burrito on his own at Tacos Guaymas.

The focus of the lunch conversation today was favorite places to eat. Josh recounted his disappointment with date night at Cremant. The food was, by his own account, excellent but the service and atmosphere seemed a bit off.

What is it about a restaurant that encourages you to return time and time again. Is it the quality of the food, the variety of the menu, the familiarity of the staff, the type of clientele seated next to you, or the prices of the dishes? Can you look forward to going to a restaurant that consistently delivers lower quality food? Do you find yourself resisting attempts to visit a restaurant even if you know the food will be well prepared and delicious?

Daniel asked me for my favorite restaurant and I didn’t have a ready answer. I didn’t even have an unready answer. I suppose I’m more of a utilitarian eater. Go in, eat food, and get out. I rarely go to fancier restaurants. Sometimes I think this is because I tend to eat alone and the time between when the order is taken and the meal arrives can be uncomfortably awkward without the diversion of talking with friends.

Even more casual restaurants aren’t necessarily any better. The Robot favorite Baguette Box doesn’t hold much fascination for me. It’s small, the seating is relatively uncomfortable, and let’s face it, after all it’s just a sandwich. Todd reeled in disgust at this outrage, but truthfully, I think I actually prefer the less pretentious sandwiches at The Honey Hole. This drew even more shock from Todd. “That’s one of the most wrong things you could ever say” was his only response.

I actually enjoy the quick service and mostly ordinary (although some might argue in actuality rather bad) food of the typical take away fast food from your average food court at the local mall. When I need a bite to eat on my way home from work, I would much rather grab some phad thai or chicken curry at Westlake Center than fancier fare at El Greco or La Spiga.

So where do you like to eat?

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Oh, yes, and we also continued the discussion of whether money can make you happy. If happiness is eating at fine (and usually very expensive) restaurants, then maybe yes it can….

Mizrobot posted a photo:

My picnic views.

View large!

Bob paid for pizza at Piecora’s today where we happened upon some of the folks from Bryght and Raincity in town from Vancouver for a Drupal meetup (as linkalicious a series of shout-outs as I’ve ever written).

Much of today’s conversation revolved around the book Get Out of Your Mind & Into Your Life, the universality of human suffering, and how identifing your personal suffering can help you to move beyond it. Josh has to finish the book before we know the punchline so I steered us to the always fascinating money question—how much would it take to make you happy? Reflecting on the fate of most lottery winners and friends with money we agreed that money can’t make you happy (in fact, often does the opposite). But everyone held up their hand when asked if they’d hold onto the winning lottery ticket given the opportunity. Hair of the dog that hasn’t bit you.

After our meal (they accidentally gave us an extra half pizza for free) Bob said, “pizza is my cryptonite”. We took a lap around Cal Anderson Park to walk it off.

I suppose the lesson here was best summarized by Eric who matter-of-factly claimed that $2,000,000 would make him 10% happier … at most. Pushed to clarify, he claims it would likely make him 2 to 5% happier. I have to agree.

One of the rules of Credit Card Roulette’s new blogging amendment is that the person assigned to write a blog post gets punished if they renege. Yesterday, Bob flaked on summarizing our lunch conversation. Today, he paid. My enthusiasm for enforcing this rule earned me yet another blogging assignment. Touché, Bob.

There was no central theme to today’s chatter. We covered the philanthropy of Warren Buffet, the politics of Seattle University, and the exclusivity of Mormon temples. We also discussed life at Development Center Scotland, the Amazon.com subsidiary at which Bob will be leaving the Co-op to work. That’s right, our senior software developer is officially leaving the company this summer. We like to think of it not as losing a robot, but gaining a free place to crash near Edinburgh. Still, just like Bob’s old clothes, his shoes will be hard to fill. If you know any really, really, really smart software developers willing to amplify their own and others’ lives via the code they write, send them our way.

erikbenson posted a photo:

erikbenson posted a photo:

Jen Graves wrote a slog post about the opening night.

I’m inspired again to start this up. I think I can start small and make it a book and other media club. I have twelve themes for twelve months, and I think each month will have a book and a movie and maybe a speech or essay on the topic. I’m going to formalize this a bit more and send out invitations within the next month or so. I’m excited about it. Let me know if you want to join (though, I’ll probably invite you even if you don’t want to).

Buster McLeod went to this event.

There will be prizes and beer specials.

erikbenson posted a photo:

This place just opened today. A few of us snuck in around 4:30 and we were our waitress’s first customers. First impressions: quite favorable.

• Happy hour had $2 pilsners in nice tall glasses
• Interesting upstairs, interesting entrance (from a parking lot)
• Granada blue bathrooms and entry hallway
• Big windows
• Nice booths
• High ceilings

It’ll be interesting to see which demographic this place attracts. In the short time we were there, the Gary Manuel girls took a booth, then us nerds, and some businessy plaid-shirts-tucked-into slacks guys came in. It’s right in the best part of Capitol Hill, and only 1.5 blocks from our office, so we’ll definitely be back to watch the narrative unfold.