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Last night on a whim, I called up a cab and went to my favourite restaurant in the city. Well, not the city. Fortunately, it's close to me. Only $15 in a cab (considering how close it is, that's expensive. But that's another story).

When I arrived, the place was rather full. But there was a table for two right next to the oyster bar, and I asked to be seated there. The table actually overlooks the prep area for the kitchen, and a soux chef was right there, so I asked him what was good from the oyster bar. Instead of answering, he supplied me two samples. mmmmm.

Of course, I promptly ordered half a dozen of an oyster called Pacific Orchid. While I was waiting, the chef and I were having a great old talk. He asked me if I had tried a certain type of oyster, whose name unfortunately escapes me. When I said no, he was off again and came back with one for me. It was the biggest oyster I have ever seen. And delicious.

After the oysters, I had a nice salad of mixed garden greens with grilled pears, candied pecans, and blue cheese. And the main was swordfish. A Matanzas Creek chardonnay from the Sonoma Valley washed everything down.

Unusually for me, I even got talked into a dessert, although I couldn't finish it. But I certainly could finish the double espresso and Remy Martin XO.

Ahhh luxury.

One month, in exactly 450 words (including these):

I went to Atlanta Georgia for HP World 2003. It was great. I learned a lot about upcoming features in the operating system, bits about hardware, and other stuff. I met up with the leper colony, unfortunately conspicuously missing one of its members this year. We had a blast anyway. Hope to see our missing member next year. We really should have got Brian some bunny ears, right Bill?

While in Atlanta, my computers here at home stopped reporting to the Uptimes Project web site, which had me rather worried. Fortunately, it was only caused by a standard blackout. Nothing unusual in California in the summer.

When I returned from Atlanta, I had lots of fun doing performance type stuff on the machines at work. It's still going on. Working a fifty two hour week the first week back was not what I was expecting.

I'm having a bit of a problem at the moment. It's based on ability to discuss things, I think. I have always dealt with issues by discussing them, and being told "just do it this way" doesn't work for me. I need a reason to accept things. Even if I don't agree with the reason, or if I have to be shown the reason hiding behind a fog of politics and red tape, I still need to see it. At least glimpse it.

I know I can be argumentative, but I'm generally arguing because I believe that the idea I'm supporting appears to be the best way to do something. I'm certainly not arguing just for the sake of it - I don't need that additional frustration. If someone has a better suggestion, tell me what it is and tell me why it's better.

To add to my stress level, my apartment manager got it all wrong. I was told my rent was going down due to direct billing by a sewage/water/services company. Makes sense, and I was happy because it's a lot fairer than divvying up fees between all the rentals (that is, having to subsidize a four person family is rather unfair to me). However, I come back and find that I am being dunned for 80 bucks. I ring them up and it's a complete mistake. But also my rent dropping is a mistake. The rent is going up, and I have to pay the services company. What's up with that?

However, a nice way to finish the month is to have the first day of the next month off for the Labour Day holiday. Unless you're on call or backup the entire weekend.

Next weekend, San Francisco. But that's another month...