No Levitation this Evening

I neglected to mention a few things in my last post.

We had a lightning storm during my phone interview on Friday and I seriously wondered if I were going to be struck by lightning while on the call. One strike even provoked me to say "yikes!". I did survive, as you might have noticed.

I also forgot to write all about my radiator problems. For the past several months, my dad had been noticing that he's had to provide my van with extra beverages. He thought perhaps there was a leak in the reserve tank. When I visited JJ and JA a few weeks ago, my van actually leaked anti-freeze over their new concrete. I was horrified. It was like my baby had spit up all over a new silk blouse. My dad took the van into Braxton Tire and they did a pressure test on it, but they didn't see any problems. They suggested that there was a part that expanded in the heat occasionally, but was perfectly normal. Well, last Tuesday, on the way to Oishii, we smelled a strong coolant smell. Sure enough, there was a leak in the radiator itself. I had my dad take it to Bull City Radiator the following day and they fixed it immediately.

Tonight JJ, JA and I went to Penang, in Chapel Hill. It's located where Pyewacket used to be, in the Courtyard, on Franklin Street. Pyewacket used to be my favorite restaurant and I still miss it a great deal. It just occurred to me that I should take a look at Anotherthyme, a relative of Pyewacket's. They do, indeed, have the same salad dressings! They are even for sale. I've missed the Lemon Tamari and the Umeboshi Plum. I haven't been there in a while and I don't know why I don't think of it more often.

So, Penang completely gutted the old Pyewacket location and it's barely recognizable. It does look cool, but it's not quite as elegant as it used to be. The food, however, was very good. We started off with roti canai, which was a big pancake with a delicious chicken curry sauce. We also had pork, chicken, shrimp and tofu pancake things with hoisin sauce and a sweet and sour type sauce. That was good. For my entree I had Penang curry with shrimp. That, too, had a delicious coconut curry sauce with large shrimp and vegetables. I have lots of leftover sauce to add to something in the next few days. The rice is not included with the meal, but it's recommended, which is odd. Of course, that gives you a choice and the coconut rice is better than the plain steamed version.

We debated what to do for dessert, because we could easily get something there or we could go somewhere else. We decided to use my Treo 650 and Google Local to find a dessert cafe. We saw the Inside Scoop and thought we knew where it was. After we drove there, we determined that we, in fact, did not. Ironically, this article mourns the loss of Pyewacket and announces the going out of business of the Inside Scoop in the same paragraph. I actuallyed passed its old location on my way to the erroneous one. We decided head to Caffe Driade.

We had a good time sitting on their back patio among their beautiful trees while drinking milkshakes and, in my case, a decaf cafe mocha with skim. I hadn't been there in many years. The last time I was there, I had my first and hopefully only experience with two shots of espresso in mocha coffee. I uncomfortably levitated back home that day. Decaf is much more enjoyable by comparison.