Foxbat and Fandom

10:04pm: Adieu, Anjou, Adieu
Anjou, one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, closes its doors for good tomorrow. It's sad; Anjou was my go to place for dininig with friends around Union Square and was also one of parent's favorite places. I also enjoyed recommending it to friends who were looking for an excellent bistro for a special meal.

My parents and I enjoyed our last meal at Anjou on Tuesday. Though they had less than a week to go, Anjou was firing on all cylinders. The place was full; I think there were a lot of customers saying good-bye with a meal. I started my dinner with some excellent artichoke and roasted pistachio soup, which was a smooth broth made without any cream. It was like the essence of artichoke, green and flavorful. I also split the Toasted Brioche of Duck Foie Gras with Heart of Leek Salad and Sautéed Apples with my mother (hey, she offered and I never turn down foie gras). Ah, tasty and rich, the sautéed apples provided a nice sweetness to counterbalance the dish. It was a tough choice, but selected the Confit of Duck Leg with Sautéed Wild Mushrooms, Frisee Salad, and Sautéed Rousset Potatoes. As you may know, I'm a big fan of duck, and I love confit. So healthy, so good for you, so tasty. Well, one of those is true! I finished off with the cheese course, which consisted of a nice brie, a blue, and a slice of Petit Basque, which is one of my favorites. I also had half of a raspberry tart foisted on me by my mother. (I didn't protest too hard, even though I was planning on skipping the sweet course.)

It was a good meal in excellent company, a fitting farewell. Now I need to find a replacement bistro.

1:56pm: Posting About Politics
This election is getting me all worked up.



(Thanks to iamnikchick for posting this.)

12:08am: Random Jottings

• 10:08 Our hot spell seems to be cooling off. Yay! Tomorrow is supposed to be 69 degrees, just what they ordered for a nice September day.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:05am: Random Jottings

• 13:38 It's warm outside... what better time to roast some coffee, I ask you?

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

2:44pm: Back to the Basics: Roasting Coffee
Since it is "beastly hot" outside (which means about 85 degrees here in San Francisco), I decided it was a good day to roast some coffee beans. I hadn't done that in a while; I didn't realize quite how long it had been until I looking at my roasting log and saw that the last time I had roasted some beans was well over a year ago!

My stash still holds a lot of green beans, so I pulled out some Brazilian I'd gotten a little while back and set up the HotTop and got the whole production rolling. Fortunately, I still remembered the moves and after about 25 minutes of setting up the equipment, weighing the beans, warming up the roaster and roasting, I had a half-pound of very nice looking coffee bean, roasting to a just-about perfect Full City+ roast.

I suspect that much of my green bean supply has gone "sacky" as some of it is quite ancient at this point. I should probably toss what I have, hop over to Sweet Maria's website and restock with some fresh greens.

I'm really looking forward to giving it a try on Monday.

12:07am: Random Jottings

• 11:31 Late start, but good day so far. Mmm... Friday!
• 21:03 That was a fun little earthquake.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:08am: Random Jottings

• 18:56 No traffic, Giants game on the radio... That's a good commute!

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:05am: Random Jottings

• 09:49 I love my job but... 3-day weekends are the best!
• 21:48 What a nice dinner! And what a beautiful view. An excellent way to celebrate my mom's .. err... 29th birthday! Yeah, that's the ticket.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

3:45pm: My First D&D 4th Edition Game
I ran a one-shot 4e game last night for my friend codrus, animated_max, seathan, Ray, and Garry. I've been playing in a 4th Edition game run by the excellent Dave Eckelberry and I wanted to give running the system a try. I created a little setting, wrote up a adventure designed to get the characters from 1st level to 2nd level (if we could get through it all), and did some prep work.

I found the prep work a lot of fun! I like the mechanics of building encounters; the system in 4e seems a lot easier than dealing with CRs as in 3/3.5. And it was a blast working up people's characters for them, printing up ability cards, and getting everything ready for a mixture of new and semi-experienced players. I also really like the concept of skill challenges and threw a couple of those into the adventure. Not for role playing situations; I think those should be handled by the players actually role playing, perhaps backup by skill rolls if needed. But I threw in a tracking challenge and a digging challenge, just for fun.

I really like the way treasure is apportioned in 4e; it makes a lot of sense and was pretty easy to do. It was fun picking out magic items that would be useful to the party, both for specific characters and in a general sense. And again, I enjoyed creating the magic item cards to hand out to the players when they found the loot; it reminded me of the old "card items" from our early D&D games.

( I'm going into a long, semi-detailed write up of the game, for some reason. Under a cut to prevent boring people who don't care. )

We all had a good time in the game. I really liked running 4e and I look forward to doing so again. I'm starting a game up at work for some of my fellow designers at NCsoft and I'm looking forward to that.

My take-aways:

• Print out the monsters. It's easier to run them that way rather than constantly be flipping back and forth in the monster manual.


• Make sure to get role-playing involved in the skill challenges, otherwise they are just borning die rolling exercises.


• Using status markers for things like marking opponents helps remind the players to use those abilities.


• The game flows well, and combats are fun.


• Prepping for runs is still a bunch of work but a heck of a lot of fun. (OK, so I'm weird that way.)


• I like the feel of the new magic items.

Yeah, I've rambled on way too long on this. That's about it. More thoughts about 4e as I have them.

12:06am: Random Jottings

• 16:26 is heading off to run a 4e game.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:07am: Random Jottings

• 09:48 Even My Car Is Cynical: Switch from Convention coverage to music. Radio plays "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who. Appropriate.
• 15:37 Oh Lord, it certain is hot here today.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

9:50am: I need this...
Oh, I SO need this.

12:09am: Random Jottings

• 10:53 Sexual Harassment training today. Somehow, I don't think that says what they mean...

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:08am: Random Jottings

• 02:42 Fast tracking campaign arcs: fun stuff!
• 07:12 Ah, Monday, Monday...

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

10:30pm: Stupid Quiz Time

Your result for The Geektastic RPG and Miniature Wargame Test!...

RPG GEEK GOD!

You Scored 90% RPG Knowlage!

Take The Geektastic RPG and Miniature Wargame Test! at HelloQuizzy

11:08pm: Random Jottings

• 15:25 Go Giants! Nice outing by Zito.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

11:09pm: Random Jottings

• 08:15 Mach Dice for the iPhone. Get it, love it.
• 19:06 It is official: I hate concerts in Golden Gate Park
• 19:39 Go Giants!
• 20:22 That's what I call a GOOD inning!

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

8:52am: Neighborhood Flavor
Last night I went to a local restaurant, The Richmond for dinner. This place had been highly recommend as an excellent, quiet, reasonably-priced neighborhood restaurant (and in my neighborhood), so I was looking forward to trying it.

I met my friend, Pamela, there for a late dinner last night. At 8:30, the place was pretty full but still quiet. The Richmond has a couple of different small dining rooms with alcoves and that really helps keep the noise level down. We were seated immediately; no waiting around for our reservation. The service was good; not over-the-top but skilled and attentive.

The Richmond's menu isn't long, but it has a nice assortment of dishes. I selected the Whisky Braised Oxtail with a Maine Diver Scallop on creamy polenta for my starter. This was an extremely well-conceived and executed dish. The delicate scallop was perfectly complimented by the rich and rustic flavor and texture of the oxtail. I really enjoyed it. Pamela had the Potato Leek Soup with Crab Dumplings, which was creamy and tasty.

For the main course, I went with the Roast Pork Tenderloin with Macaroni & Cheese with white bean puree & Spring Vegetables and Pamela opted for the Braised Monk Fish with heirloom tomatoes, white wine, & oyster mushrooms. My pork was flavorful and juicy and the mac & cheese was very good -- a nice combination of cheeses. The monk fish dish was well-composed, the fish delicate with a great mix of flavors.

The Richmond gives you a lot of food. I had leftovers from my entree, which is very unusual for me! The entire meal, with two glasses of wine each, came to just under $100 for the two of us (before tip), which was an excellent price for a thoroughly enjoyable meal.

I'll certainly be going back to the Richmond; it is hard to beat the price, quality, and convenience.

12:06am: Random Jottings

• 14:21 I wish D&D Tiny Adventures would work.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:08am: Random Jottings

• 08:10 Driving by bison in Golden Gate Park on my way to work is cool
• 22:16 Orcs... I hates those guys.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

1:41pm: Game Designers Show Up In Oddest Places
Mark Rein-Hagen of White Wolf fame has been living in Tbilisi, Georgia with his wife and child. He, along with some others, has started a web site about the conflict there.

Interesting -- and depressing -- stuff.

12:06am: Random Jottings

• 08:15 Need coffee...
• 12:02 Is it time to kill yet?
• 12:35 Pub lunch... Yun!

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:24am: Random Jottings

• 09:11 Ah, there's nothing quite like Mondays. I'll wake up soon... like maybe around Wednesday or so.
• 10:13 I have no short term memory today... WHAT was I just doing?

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:18am: Random Jottings

• 15:28 Good day for the company picnic
• 17:45 When Louis Armstrong sings, it makes me smile.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

12:19am: Random Jottings

• 11:14 D&D on Saturday? Unthinkable!
• 21:10 Just came up with the perfect City of Villains character... now to go see if the name is free.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter