(no subject)

Ahhhhhhh, deadline complete. Four projects due today *sigh*. Normally I stagger them, but external forces (a.k.a. my dumb clients) formed an unholy confluence. So, my engineers do a fantastic job, get everything done, then go home and start their weekend. I, meanwhile, have to pull all their work together and send it off to the appropriate clients.

All that is done, finally. 10 1/2 hours today, and I can relax for a while. I have more stuff due next week, but this hellweek is over! Maybe I'll have enough time to start posting things other than survey results! (not that there's anything wrong with surveys, IMHO, but my journal, in retrospect, has been survey and quiz happy for the last week or so)

I made a quick stop at the mall on the way home and picked up some more dishes in my one/two dishes at a time strategy. I have a full place setting for four now. I'd like one for eight, so I'm halfway there. While in Crate & Barrel, waiting for them to dig my plates out of the back room, I noticed one of those computer Bridal Registry kiosks. Because I'm a computer engineer and can't resist technology (and also just for the hell of it) I tapped out a random name and printed their registry. Samantha and Jason are going to be married in Ft. Lauderdale a week from tomorrow. I'm feeling good about my project, I'm debating getting them a little something with a nice card. Looks like they want a margarita salter. Just the thing for beginning a new life ;)

I have a list of the top-100 restaurants in Atlanta. I'm going to open it at random and pick one, and see if they can make me a vodka martini big enough to swim in, and a meal good enough to knock me nearly senseless.

Not too senseless, though, as I have a phone conversation to look forward to tonight :)

Oh. My. God.

Sambuca Jazz Cafe. Piedmont and Peachtree, outside of Buckhead, yet in one of the finer restaurant strips. Voted #74 in the Jezebel top-100 of Atlanta.

Live jazz, very good. Improv, with a bit of fusion. Guitar and bass, piano, a bit of brass. I'm not underdressed in jeans and a black shirt, but I may be the only one with sneakers. The music is hopping.

The food is better, almost unnoticed in the atmosphere.

Salmon carpaccio, cured with lemon and various dried herbs, some garlic toast. Warm sliced baguette with garlic herb olive oil. And one of the most truly original dishes I've had in a long time, Zebra pasta: An open pasta pillow about the size of a medium pita bread, semi-filled with pan-seared lobster, scallops, and shrimp in a blonde-roux and saffron white sauce. The pasta was striped with squid-ink in a (duh) zebra pattern.

A metallic statue of Kali behind the bar, full lotus, wire and pipe and sheet metal, multi-arms cradle libations. Abstract, yet instantly recognizable.

Paradox, my favorite of universal states. Jazz, the paradox of African and American, matching the majority of patrons. Italian food and American jazz, Indian decor mixed with Art Deco. A restaurant in a southern city, with the name of a Mediterranean cordial.