Roger

Got Wilco tickets today. Guess Boston isn't so bad...

Also went for dim sum lunch in Chinatown with Champy. The name of the place was Pacific Gardens. It's in the basement, on the corner of Beach and something or other...

The way it worked at this place is that they give you a dim sum menu, like an a-la-carte sushi sheet. You mark down what you want, then they bring it fresh from the kitchen. So while you don't get the pleasure of watching the carts roll by, and choosing from unknown delights, you do get the extraordinary pleasure of eating fresh, hot, made to order dim sum. Definitely a fair trade-off.

We had big eyes, and ordered ourselves up a nice little spread.

- Baked pork buns
- Shrimp and chive dumplings
- Shrimp and pork dumplings
- Clams in black bean sauce
- Salt and pepper shrimp
- Rice noodle roll ups with shrimp (they call them fajitas!)
- Fried sesame shrimp spring rolls

I'm just noticing now how shrimp-heavy our choices were. We would have made Benjamin Buford 'Bubba' Blue proud.

Everything was good. The stand-outs were the salt and pepper shrimp, the pork buns, and the shrimp and pork dumplings. The salt and pepper shrimp are fried whole, with shells, tails, and heads intact. At first I was squeamish about not removing the head and tail fins, but then I got over it. They tasted very good, heads and all.

Walked home from there, talking to Champy about our respective job situations. We're both kind of at crossroads, so it comes up often.

I couldn't avoid the pull of Newbury Comics. Had to buy some cheap CDs. So much music that I want. Hard to resist albums that I'd like when they are $8.99 or $9.99. I'm a bad boy. But I did buy my very first Pixies CD. Rinweeney will be proud.