DustRhino

We recently started frequenting Vit Goal Tofu Restaurant (2107 Allendown Dr, Durham, NC 27713 – 919-361-9100). The place was packed Friday night, and we had to wait about twenty minutes for a table. We were there, of course, for the Galbee (beef ribs), as well as Bibimbob (rice topped with vegetables and an egg). While it is very tasty, I just like saying Bibimbob. Bibimbob…Bibimbob…Bibimbob. The meal is typically served with Korean iced tea, cold miso soup, as well as rice and banchan (small side dishes of Kimchee, either bean sprouts or potatoes, cucumber).

The clientele of Vit Goal is predominantly Korean with a few Anglo faces, always a good sign in my book! Finally, you will get a kick out of reading the menu which expounds on the “endless health benefits of tofu” among which is that eating tofu reduces hot flashes. Depending on what we order to eat (and drink), dinner generally costs us between $30 and $50 (for two, including tip).

As much as we enjoy Korean food, we aren’t terribly taken by Hite Beer, a Korean beer that claims “from naturally fresh water.” More accurately, it tastes like water. I think we will stick with Kirin Ichiban.

Suzanne Dining, General

I’ve dappled informally in yoga for several years, but recently have become much more interested in it. My newfound interest is probably due to a recent unfortunate experience of pinching a nerve in my left shoulder. It was a very painful injury that interrupted my ability to sleep for several weeks. Getting better involved several months of physical therapy and high doses of ibuprofin and muscle relaxants.

The experience made me realize that I really needed to get serious about taking care of myself. Physical therapy largely revolves around doing strengthening and stretching exercises. So, since this is pretty much what yoga is, it seemed like a perfect, low impact exercise to supplement walking, bike riding, and weight lifting. Also, yoga has a large meditation component, which is very good for stress relief.

Check out the latest pose I’ve learned!

Suzanne General

Not sure if it is something to be proud of, or embarrassed by, but with a final $511.68 payment, I was able to discharge the last of my credit card debt. I won’t say what I was up to, but I ran it up when I wasn’t making much when the business was starting up.
There are a number of different statistics as to the number of Americans carrying debt, and what the mean and median amounts are. No matter what the real numbers are, I am very happy to leave the the group.

Why is it only “sort of?” This was just credit card debt, we still owe money on our house, one car, and one Duke University undergraduate education.

David General

I had what must be the worst birthday ever yesterday—the hard drive in my PowerBook decided to die yesterday morning. Well, not die completely, in the words of Miracle Max, it was only “mostly dead.”

Miracle Max: See, there’s a big difference between mostly dead, and all dead. Now, mostly dead: he’s slightly alive. All dead, well, with all dead, there’s usually only one thing that you can do.
Inigo: What’s that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

Since the drive was only mostly dead, with much coaxing, I was able to pull 10GB of data that was more recent than my last backup. I was able to buy a new drive and install it in my PowerBook, and get it up and running again by about midnight. I am still installing applications, but I was able to get back to productive work this morning, with only one day lost. It could have been much worse…

The irony, of course, is I decided a few weeks ago to start doing full drive clones (after a close call with Suzanne’s PowerBook), to allow for restoring all of the files from a failed drive, including the OS and applications, and the JBOD case and drives arrived—you guessed it—yesterday morning about an hour after the drive failed. More details on the hardware and software solution in the near future.

What made things worse is the drive I was using for my backups was full of files from Suzanne’s computer, in case what we thought was the cause of her problem (a bad RAM module) was only another symptom of a greater issue.

And, as a warning to everyone out there depending on the drive’s embedded S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) to provide an early warning before a drive failre, my “mostly dead” drive that abosultely does not work correctly does not report any problems. You have been warned.

David Computers, General

I drove to Philly over MLK weekend to attend the engagement party of my friends Michelle and Adam. On the way up, I stopped in DC overnight and very much enjoyed visiting my cousins, Jeff and Tracy Dlott, and their 3 daughters. The next day, I set out for Philly. The engagement party was really nice; 96 people attended to congratulate Michelle and Adam. Michelle’s parents prepared a very tasty spread of Askenanzi Jewish classic dishes: bagels and lox, blintz souffle, kugal, etc. I enjoyed chowing down since the Triangle area is not known for “Jewish Soul Food.” Sunday morning, I drove back to Durham in one relatively easy drive which was aided by the fact that I drove David’s Acura and not my aged 14 year old Subaru.

Suzanne General, Travel