The Ekpyrotic Universe

I can't recall if I've made Thanksgiving plans with anyone this year.
If I haev, they're on LJ so please let me know.

My thanks and apologies.

I'll post more about Worldcon later. Yesterday we came home from the con and it was something of an ordeal. We got in a cab to go to the airport at 8 AM (10 AM EST). We arrived home at 1 AM EST today. We were supposed to arrive home around 9 PM yesterday.

If it were just weather problems it wouldn't be so bad. Part of our delay was because they had to reboot the plane. Yes, you read that right, they had to Reboot The PLANE. At first it was just one system they tried to reboot a few times. When that didn't work, they shut off everything in the plane and then turned everything on again in sequence. This too did not work so we all had to get out and get back in again. Seriously. In between our getting out and getting back in, maintenance came and fixed things.

Fortunately our connecting flight was also delayed and we managed to get home without renting a car. Others on our flight, including a family with 2 18 month olds, were not so lucky.

To demonstrate how tired I was, as I was lying in bed, trying to go to sleep, the following popped into my mind.

Why does it take a lot of balls to touch someone in various ways to see if they laugh?

Because they're test tickles.

I saw this over aliwings's shoulder on the plane back from Origins.
I think I may actually want something from Skymall!

What I ate at the Refectory.

Bread
Beer
Pheasant Terrine
Kobe Beef and Veal Duet
Diet Coke
Water
Lemon Bombe
Lemon Merangue Martini
Congac

We've been raving about this restaurant for almost 15 years. I'm so glad we went back. Jon was nervous as he didn't want his memories of the place tainted by a sub-par meal, but it was as good as our memories in every way. The food was exquisite, the service was perfect and the atmosphere wonderful. While the above list is what I ordered, we all sampled each other's food. head58 was correct when he raved about his salmon. I've never had salmon so good.

The bread was warm and delicious. Rather than provide us a basket of bread, they came around and gave us each bread. When we finished, they came in and gave each of us more if we wanted it. There was soft butter on plates and this was replenished as well.

I heard aliwings order a Heffeweissen and that's my afvorite kind of beer, so I got one as well. It had a pleasant hint of banana to it. I should try to find it again. Would that I could remember the name.

The Pheasant Terrine was as delicious as I remembered, but not as intense. I thnk that's more due to my having eaten a more varied and spiced diet in the intervening years than to any lessening of the taste of the terrine. Once again, thank you Lenny Henry for inspiring me to try this dish. Sure, I have it around once every 15 years, but I thoroughly enjoy it and I'd never have thought to try it if it weren't for Chef. There were different sauces and garnishes on the plate and each brought out a different flavor. It was like a dozen appetizers in one.

I almost didn't order the main dish that I got because it has veal on it. I haven't had veal in over 15 years. I finally caved in because it was something I wouldn't normally get, feel free to yell at me. It was delicious. There were different sauces on the Kobe beef and the veal, but you wouldn't know it to look at the plate. Both were as rare as I like them, tender and delicious. The sauce on the Kobe beef was smokier and each sauce complimented its meat perfectly.

The LemonBombe was light pastry in a dome shape with raspberry on the side There was a small amount of arspberry filling and sticking out of the top was a round, very flat almond cookie with the sides curved forward. It looked like the Phaeroh crown of desserts. It too was delicious and the lemon martini went well with it.

Finally, I finished with some 20 year old Remmy Martin XO Congac. It was quite good and gave me a strange buzz. Drunk without really feeling drunk. It was quite nice. This too I have around once every 15 years. Last time I had the more expensive kind, but this was still quite nice. This was the middle level.

As an added bonus, on the drive home we had a cabbie that thought I made funny jokes.

I'm so glad I packed my suit and we went to the Refectory. It was truly a lovely experience.