Familial Feasts and French Foyers

Thursday night, my dad and I went to see Murray Parahia in Page Auditorium, at Duke. The pianist's concert consisted exclusively of works by Beethoven, Bach, Schumann and Chopin. I enjoyed it a great deal. I need to get more recordings of Beethoven piano sonatas, because I believe I only have three of them.

Friday, I went to the Visualization Forum and saw OLA give a talk on visualizing code. That was awesome. It was like being in college again, except I got to eat while I was listening. He is just hilarious and I think the audience really had a good time.

My brother, KR, and DC arrived late that night, but not long after they got there, KR started telling me about the Fujitsu P1610 and the OQO model 02. They are adorable. I need one of each. Not really. I started thinking of various fanciful scenarios of ditching my treo and my current laptop and dreaming of having a real itty-bitty computer with me at all times and a real phone that you can actually hear people talk on. The warranty on the laptop that I use is about to expire and I need to switch cell phone carriers, so it's not completely crazy.

On Saturday, my dad and I made crepe pancakes and DC became thoroughly engrossed in my Geomag collection. Early that evening, we went to A&M Grill for dinner. I still think the food there is just ok at best, but KR wanted to show off a representation of North Carolina barbecue. The sauce and the cole slaw are just too sour for my taste. I tried a spoonful of their brunswick stew and I'll probably have that next time, if I remember.

Sunday, we went to Eastern Lights and it was almost as if having KR along was like bringing a celebrity. When a family has been going to an incarnation of the same restaurant for 25 years, the owners and staff are very happy when a kid comes home to visit. KR wanted to show off Duke's campus to DC. I figured that it made sense to check out the new French Family Science Center while we were there. It's pretty impressive and it makes the Levine Science Research Center look old and boring in comparison. I guess that's the result I would expect from a donation from the Gates Foundation.


That night, we went to ACME Food & Beverage Co., which lived up to its superbness. I had another duck confit empanada and shared another serving of warm lemon pudding cake with raspberry sauce. I could eat warm lemon pudding cake every single day for years.

Monday, we went to the Original Q-Shack and it was hard seeing the Thai Cafe from across the street, just wishing I could have some Thai Cafe baskets and some Thai Iced Tea. I had a baked potato with "all the fixins". With butter, sour cream, chives and bacon, it's really good but way too greasy compared to what I'm used to eating these days. I like their hushpuppies. I tried their jalapeño deviled eggs and they weren't as exciting as I'd hoped, but they weren't overly hot either, which was good. It was nice going to a place like that at lunch time, so I could have a nice quantity of sweet tea without its keeping me awake. The weather was perfect, so we got to eat outside, too.