Holiday season: eating and shopping

[mdlbear]

First the food. Last night was the $work holiday party, at a restaurant called Lavanda in Palo Alto. The open bar (Sarticious gin -- score) and hors d'oevres (wonderful olives, assorted dry sausages) were good, though served at the bar where they blocked the entryway and didn't give people enough room to circulate and converse. Good conversations, though. The flower_cat and I were at the LJ table: roanf, mr_kurt, saffronrose, finagler, fairyshaman, and only I think three people not on LJ. Service was slow, though, and the dinner only good rather than as good as one would have expected from the restaurant's reputation. The loud and soulless lounge lizard providing the "entertainment" didn't help.

Today, though, was much better. We'd gone to the Stanford shopping center only to find that our favorite restaurant, Bravo Fono, had vanished without a trace. Grump. We bounced around between various of our other choices (closed on Sunday) and streets that once had plenty of good restaurants and now held nothing particularly appetizing, and ended up at a place Colleen had passed a couple of times (across from one of her favorite fabric stores) and found intriguing, with a mix of Persian, Italian and "American" cuisine: Arya, 19930 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino. (Be prepared for an all-flash site with background music: I never said their website was great.) The food, on the other hand...

They have a weekday lunch menu, but it was Sunday. So we had the "Mediterranean Platter" off the appetizer menu (fabulous dolmeh stuffed with lentils, hummus, borani "bademjoon"), the "Arya Salad" (greens, a couple of roasted bell peppers, pine nuts), the koobideh plate (chicken and beef, with basmati rice). Desert was a Persian ice cream with a hint of rose and pistachio. Made of delicious win.

The other parties in the restaurant (this is 2pm on Sunday, remember) appeared to be mostly families. Many of them appeared to be familiar to the staff -- repeat customers are always a good sign. We'll be joining them.

OK, now to the shopping, which mostly involved looking for luggage.

Yesterday's shopping took me to Santana Row, where I started at the Container Store looking for stocking stuffers. Mostly successful, although one of the items in their holiday flier that I wanted was sold out. Also spotted new freestanding Elfa brackets: filed the information away for next month when their 1/3-off Elfa sale starts. Also looked at carry-on luggage, but didn't find anything.

I then walked up and down the three or four blocks of Santana Row, because it was far too nice a day not to do some walking: cool, crisp, and bright. No luggage that fit my current carry-on requirements (actually there might have been some in the Tumi store, but I'm not about to pay $300 or more for a carry-on).

This morning/afternoon I went to the Stanford shopping center with the Cat, who wanted to get out of the house and spend some time with her normally-reclusive husband. Can't imagine why. She was mostly looking for a passport wallet for the chaoswolf, but didn't find any she liked. I was still looking for a carry-on that can handle a computer, my facehugger, a set of large headphones, my shoulder bag, and a couple of magazines and still can fit under the seat in front of me on an airplane.

I may have found one: the Brookstone XpressCheck Ballistic Rolling Office. It's a tad larger than their Rolling Computer Brief, but narrower because it rolls upright with a suitcase-like aspect ratio. Actually, they both look good. I'm going to go over to the Brookstone in Valley Fair Mall, maybe next weekend, with my gear in a backpack and see if it fits, and which bag gives me the fastest security-line access to it all.

Added: I find I have neglected to mention the lamps. I've been looking at floor lamps for the living room, so that the Cat and whoever is sitting next to her in the blue fanback chair can have light to read by. Looking in every store that looks as though it would have lamps, in fact. Found some in Williams Sonoma Home that would have been great: brass, adjustable arms, standard sockets that would fit compact fluorescents -- only problem is that they were $400 each. I'd have bought two of them at $150. I may have to go to a hardware store and buy some brass tubing.

Comments

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

Facehugger on plane - be sure to get a doctor's letter explaining what the bloody thing is, or you may have trouble getting it past security.

[mdlbear]

I seem to have misplaced the prescription -- I expect I'll find it before my next trip -- but there's plenty of other material including the sales receipt and the manual.

The only real question is whether it counts against the 2-bag carry-on allowance. Apparently that varies with the airline.

luggage

[webmaven.livejournal.com]

The repeated mauling (ie. squeezing under a seat) has not been kind to my rolling computer brief from Samsonite. I think I might buy a hard-sided rolling carry-on instead (because if it doesn't fit inside, I won't be able to squeeze it in anyway, and thereby create a problem later) to pair with my Swiss-Army laptop backpack.

The airline rule I've always heard is 'one carry on bag, and one personal item'. The personal item can be a purse, briefcase, or laptop bag. Obviously a rolling computer brief stretches the definition of 'personal item' a bit, but I've only had problems and had to check a bag when the plane actually runs out of room.

Another interesting alternative I've recently come across are these rolling carry-ons engineered for flight crews: http://www.luggageworksonline.com/

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

I have not seen saffronrose in person in much too long. Is she coming to the wedding? Hugs!

Curiously, I have found some good lamps at Big Lots [the former Pic 'n' Save] recently. None over $40, one good reading lamp with a fluorescent bulb included. If they have those stores in your area, give them a peruse, back in the back with the furniture, far away from the loud Christmas Explosion that looks like Santa's workshop threw up.