Lunch at Mikuni Sushi

Marty and I had an errand to run week ago, so we timed it to end around lunchtime and ate at Taro's by Mikuni. Here's what his "plate" looked like. It took up the whole width of the table!

We often used to eat out on my day off, since it was a work day for everyone else and the kids were in school. It's been a while since we did that, and so these last few weeks have been a treat! My workweek now is Sunday - Thursday, so Friday, if we have something to do "out", we generally look for somewhere interesting to eat.

A few weeks ago, we ate at the Persian Garden, which was highly recommended by one of our librarians. She was known for her elegant presentations and gracious manner (she's now working for another library), and said the food was excellent and authentic. Marty and I stumbled on it by accident, and decided to give it a try. This is the kind of place we would take special guests to, or visit on a special occasion. The food was flavorful, plentiful, and reasonably priced.

This past Friday, we were planning to do Mexican, since we'd eaten at several Asian restaurants recently, so we were heading for Viento's, a couple of miles from where we live. Right next door, we saw a new restaurant, called Plan B Restaurant and Cafe, liked the menu, and stopped in. What a treat! It has a Scandinavian ambiance, French-style cooking, and reasonable prices. Marty had calamari, and I had a portobello burger with matchstick fries to die for!

Continuing Ed in Second Life

Okay, so my daughter asked, "You're paying that much real money for a virtual class that will be taught in an imaginary place by characters in a game?" So I responded, "Well, I'm not the only one who's interested. The first section is sold out, and they've opened an additional section." The course is called "Virtual World Librarianship, Your Second Life," and will take place in Second Life on six Fridays, beginning May 25, and will count as continuing ed units offered by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

This means, though, that I'm going to be a very busy person in a few weeks, with at least one other online course plus two in-person workshops that will be happening in May and June, plus continuing to work full-time. It will be almost like being back in school!

I've been a sometime tourist in Second Life for a couple of months, and my avatar is a Goth librarian named Annot8 Greatrex. My greatest challenge has been navigation and travel - my mousing skills don't translate well enough, and sometimes I walk into walls or fall off embankments. It is interesting to meet others in the Second Life Library, though - mostly they're curious, or they're bleeding-edge professionals who are looking for ways to make the space relevant to today's young people, and to create virtual library applications and programs that exist in that sort-of gaming world. (Second Life is not actually a game, because there is no objective, no "levels" of play, and nothing to win or lose.)

Since I'm probably not going to Internet Librarian this year - boss wants to share the opportunity with librarians who haven't been to that conference - this will give me my professional technology "fix" for the year.

Queen Fifteen Blows 'em Out

Laurel's birthday ended late - I forgot I was working the night shift - so we had to wake up Pat. He came over about 8:45 p.m. so we could have birthday cake and ice cream and open gifts. Laurel is now officially fifteen years old, and already talking about taking driver's ed in October, the soonest she can qualify, according to California law.