Sweetbread

It had been a very long day. I had had a few meetings, quite a bit of driving in the bay area and a cocktail networking event. Plus, I was in the PST zone, which meant it was already about midnight my time. Paul, Mark, George and I went to this fancy restaurant called Boulevard (http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/) for dinner.

I was more than hungry and was looking for a good meal before hitting the bed. The menu offered not much respite. Everything was heavy on meat. I eat poultry, sometimes, and nothing more than that. This menu did not have chicken on it. I decided to order lamb, which I had tasted once, a few years back. The appetizers section, however, threw me an option - Sweetbreads. the description did not talk of any meat. It contained terms like eggplant parmigiana and some vegetables. I was more than happy to order it. A few minutes later, George asked me what I had ordered. Once I told him of my choices, here's how it went -

George: "Wow, that was brave of you!"
Me: "Why's that?"
George: "You know what sweetbread is made of, right?"
Me: "Well, Uhhh... What is it made of?"
George: "I think it is either the brain or pancreas or something like that, of either a cow or a pig"

I could sense my appetite vanishing really fast. Our extremely friendly waiter was nearby. So, we asked him about it. He looked at me and said - "Sorry, man. I should have told you. It is made from the neck portion of a veal". Thankfully, we were having this conversation before the food had arrived. I let Paul and George take it once it arrived, while I played with the veggies. I was not really in mood to try out the entree either. But I did well enough to participate. The others did enjoy the dinner. I enjoyed the lively atmosphere.

Later, I looked up my appetizer (or, was it my de-appetizer?) on Wiki, and here's the definition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetbread.

Moral of the story: There's something new to be learned every single day!

Nice November

I always approach the last quarter of the year cautiously. Traditionally, Q4 tends to be slow, what with the unavailability of budgets and the holidays. But I perpetually end up getting those out-of-the-blue phone calls/emails in Q4, which end up leading to big opportunities. While it is too early to say, this November gave me so many such calls/emails, that it looks like another big Q4. I wish every quarter was like Q4!

Home Sweet Home!!!

I got back home late last night, after two hectic weeks of traveling. Even though the second week was a vacation, I realized that it was a bit too much for me. It had been quite a while since I had been away from home for this long at a stretch. I guess I am getting old! I do not feel like doing this any more!

$100/barrel

It is still very fresh in my memory. It was the last week of the year 2000. I was driving a rented Ford Mustang from Virginia to Florida. We stopped near Savannah, GA for the night. I filled gas at a gas station right off the highway for 93c a gallon. I told myself that it was the lowest I had paid for gas, till that date. I had been in the US for about a year and was accustomed to paying about 99c per gallon. I wish I had preserved that receipt! I could have shown it to my son at a later date. Little did I realize that the prices were going to go only north from that point. Nowadays, I pay about $3.20 per gallon. I have seen the price go up by about 50c over the last three weeks. Price of crude oil is set to cross $100 per barrel tomorrow, having risen by $35 per barrel in about six months. How this is going to affect other aspects of our life, is anyone's guess. Welcome to economy 2.0!!!

LinkedIn

I had heard of LinkedIn from several friends, but stayed away from it for the fear of getting spammed. I resisted despite the fact that it was one of the top ten sites in terms of traffic (even myspace and facebook are on the list, but I am not on them). I gave in and subscribed to LinkedIn after a few of my respected acquaintances spoke about it. I like it very much, and I realize the business value of it. Many people use it as an important tool, integral part of how they do their business. But for me, the biggest value from LinkedIn was that it helped me trace a few of my old friends from my school days. These are the guys that have meant a lot to me - they were there when my father needed blood after his cancer surgery. Getting back in touch with these buddies has been a big highlight of the last month. I do owe something to LinkedIn.