Arrived Alive

Second leg of the trip, I'm On Vacation! Yes, I'm now officially on vacation. Life is rather nice. Picked up from the hotel by salamet, off to dinner with betnoir and Himself (most excellent Italian, happy toungue). Then down the Pacific Coast to SD, arrived in good time at The Cabin. wedschilde had predicted a later arrival. We fooled her.

Sitting now schmoozing with several and flat out enjoying life.

Tomorrow... Dresden! Butcher! Vacation is good.

(no subject)

After a delightfully uneventful drive from LA to SD, we arrived safely and before midnight. Thus am I vindicated in my faith telling wedschilde we would do so... despite salamet's undoubted bad-traffic-fu.

Brought bags in and sat and schmoozed for a bit, catching up with odds and ends. Then off to feed the salamet. Well, and me. Tajima, no I couldn't find it again without looking it up. Stays open late and on three days a week after 10:30 PM serves ramen specialties... they make their own ramen. See zompus's comments here about parking and crowd, think I semi-forgot that for being slightly tired and enjoying ramen. Was crowded; popular place.

Ramen is a comfort food for me. On the other hand, I can't claim I've ever had anything other than commercial-made ramen, out of the packet. Don't very often use the 'flavour' packets that come with them, we usually use spices about the kitchen, and occasionally some other odd thought creeps into my head. Oh, and vegetables. Or chicken. Sometimes tuna out of a can (if you can believe that).

I got the spicey ramen, thick-cut noodles, and Tajima house soup broth. Yum! The standard bowl is a fairly good sized bowl, the spicey is indeed exactly that, not overbearing hot pepper but a great blend of spices waking up the tongue and leaving a gentle pleasant afterglow on the lips. This one included pork as a meat (Why, No, tassie_gal I didn't know this pig... ate it anyway *G*) and a soyu egg.

This got me through the rest of the night happy; though I'm starting to think it's time to go contemplate food again.

Jax is now rolling on the rug and snorting disgustedly. It's post-bath time, you see. Or maybe not, as he and I are the only ones in the room. Yes, damp dog on toes. Good morning.

Butcher Signing Sighting!

We rolled out the door in plenty time to be early, and a good thing that as the place filled up. I mean, standing room only. Copy of book waiting for us, thanks to both goth_huntress and wedschilde. Mysterious Galaxy is a very dangerous place. I walked out with far more books than I should of, except one of them is a gift for someone else.

At any rate, a copy of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch, Niven & Lerner's Fleet of Worlds, The Zombie Survival Guide, and of course Jim Butcher's new one, Small Favor. Oh, and a copy of their newsletter, but that's free. Felt pretty good with that as a limit when one of the staff at the store set in my hands World War Z.

They are evil there. Evil, I tell you.

( And Introducing... Jim Butcher. Photos behind cut )

( Following Which )