Well, it looks like I must have just missed getting the bag of crap.  I had my order in, and saw a confimation page, but the other day I realized I had never gotten a confirmation email.  I checked my account, and there’s no bag of crap.  My credit card was also never charged.  So, there will be no bag of crap for me.

I had a farily uneventful weekend.  Alex was in New York visiting Angela, and Brian was out of town until late Friday night.  On Friday I checked out the Nordstrom Anniversary sale.  Anyway with a remote interest in trendy jeans should at least check it out, although this year I was fairly dissappointed.  None of the jeans blew me away, and the Nordstrom in Santa Barbara wasn’t carrying any of the shirts I was interested in.  The one thing I did want is a navy courdoroy blazer by Hugo Boss, which almost none of the stores are carrying.  I ended up just ordering it off the website, and if I don’t like it I can return it in store.  I did find some deals at Banana Republic, including a blazer for only $60.   That night I swung by Lazy Acres and got some sea bass and a steak.  I had the steak on Friday, along with some Byron Pinot Noir 2004.  I cooked the sea bass with a salsa fresca and southwestern rice pilaf on Saturday.  It turned it pretty well, and I even had a decent presentation.  I started with rice on the bottom, then the sea bass, then some asparagus, then the salsa. Everything I’ve heard about food presentation is that you always build up, which is what I did.

The rest of the weekend I spent relaxing or working.  I attempted to watch Aeon Flux, and as hot as Charlize Theron is, that movie is horrendous.  I remember the cartoon, and it being weird as hell, but I still liked it.  The cartoons were always short, and never tried to do too much.  I felt the movie was long, even at only an hour and a half, and tried too hard to be like the cartoon.  That was pretty much it for my weekend.   I think I just needed a little time to relax, so hopefully this upcoming weekend will be a little more exciting.

The weekend turned out about as I had expected it on Friday. We didn't have a happy hour, which was fine with me since I was tired and didn't feel like driving downtown. I made some dinner watched a couple episdoes of House. We didn't have any concrete plans. Friday was the screening exam, but since no one in my group was taking it, I didn't have any reason to hit up the bars with the people that had passed. Instead we stayed at home and a couple friends came over. We played asshole, a drinking game that I hadn't played in about a year. It was good times. As always, I never remember to take pictures. I had a CAO Italia cigar, which was pretty good. I woke up a little hung over late Saturday morning. I did nothing the entire day. I played some Elder Scrolls, one of the most addictive games I've ever played. For dinner I cooked some elk filets from my uncle who shot said elk on Ted Turner's ranch in New Mexico. My plan had been to make a Jalapeno-Mango sauce to go with the elk. Unfortunately, I don't know shit about mangoes, so I the ones a picked weren't ripe enough. I scratched the idea of the sauce, and made a peppercorn crust instead. I cooked the filets the same way I would beef, by searing them on the stove the cooking them in the oven. I've mastered this technique to the point that I know longer am disappointed I don't have a good grill to cook steaks on. We had a bottle of Quintessa, an absurdly good wine also from my uncle, to go with the elk. On Sunday, I worked. Recently I've been working 6 days a week, which isn't as bad as it sounds since I've been enjoying my research a bit more and feel like I'm making progress.

This week is the week we hopefully get nanoLEDs. I said that a month ago, but this time I'm serious. Getting devices would be a big accomplishment, and something I will no doubt be writing about. I'm hoping to take a trip to Texas this weekend if Howard can find me a ticket. He'll be visiting my parents for Easter, and since it's also my Dad's birthday on Sunday, I think it'd be fun to be home. That's it for this fairly boring entry. I'm just trying to keep updating it, and hopefully I'll think of something amusing to write about, or something funny will happen to me before the next one.