My route is right through Bad Staffelstein. Oh dear. At least it's not near Leuzendorf in Unterfranken.

Things look grim on the testing front. I had a horrible dream about RAID levels last night. I know what you are thinking, there are only five RAID levels so how hard could it be to memorize them? Well, I too thought that there were only five, but it looks like there are a lot more. Like RAID level 53 perhaps. Or RAID level 1+0. Raid levels, schmade flevels I say (which is basically my problem). anyway, I've been having dreams that I have been using the wrong prep material this whole time. Or they have switched the test location without telling me. I can't wait until this is over (so I can start studying to take it again because I know that I will fail).

I just had another closing meeting. I will never get over people's ability to discuss and discuss things, come to total agreement and then attempt to make me look like an ass during the big conference call. On two separate items, Mr. IT Manager acted like he'd never heard the question before and he just shouted out that they had a control for it. Well that's real nice, Mr. IT Manager. Real nice. Maybe you could have told me about it the first 73 times I asked you. That would have been even nicer. Now I look like I've been doing nothing for the last two weeks.

We had a lovely dinner with Davidde and Katy last night at Cuisine. For some reason, Leo convinced me that it was as expensive as Agave, but it was definitely in the $28 entree range, not Agave's $15 entree. In fact, Katy had a $25 appetizer (a seafood tasting) which was the most expensive appetizer I think I've ever seen. But the food and the company were lovely. I started off with a shredded celeriac salad with daikon sprouts and a strawberry/basil/truffle oil dressing. It was a rather daring flavor pairing (I mean, strawberries AND truffle oil?) but it worked well. I like the flavor of both the celeriac and the daikon sprouts, but I found the shape and the texture a little monotonous. Then I had some seared scallops with fois gras butter, lobster whipped cream and pomegranate molasses. They came with some creamed leeks and portobellos. Despite the rich ingredients, the scallops were well balanced. I love getting scallops at restaurants because they are so hard to do well at home. Not because there is any secret chef technique to their preparation, but because almost all grocery store scallops have been soaked in a phosphate solution and are therefore impossible to develop a decent crust on. I skipped dessert, which was definitely for the best after fois gras butter and lobster whipped cream!

I need to come up with a birthday present for Leo's soon-to-be 13 year old sister tout de suit! Any ideas? She carries a purse now, so I thought that maybe I'd do that. She's also very into hats. There is a lady at church who wears a Coach logo pink bucket hat and I think she'd like something like that (but in blue) but I'm having trouble finding it. She gets nice jewelry from her parents, so I don't think I'll do that. Help!