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I had a few days off this week. My good friend Burke was coming in to visit from Germany (he’s not German) so I took Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off from work and we spent a bunch of time driving around doing various things. Seems like now we didn’t really do much at all but it was well spent I think because I was tired at the end of it for sure. Burke is a bit the opposite from me, terminally skinny, eats constantly. I gained 2 pounds back while he stayed at my house, mostly because we ate out so much. It was fun though, we managed to go to Yapona and had some good sushi even though we made the newb mistake of going on Monday night. I broke Anthony Bourdain’s cardinal rule (more or less). Fortunately I seem to have lived to tell the tale. Honestly it was pretty good though I could tell the difference. Amusing anecdote: I have had a similar experience everywhere in Utah when ordering the ama-ebi (sweet shrimp) sushi. Every time they take my order, and then sullenly return to the table a couple minutes later with the news that they are ‘out’ of sweet shrimp. I love sweet shrimp because it is delicate and succulent and pretty, but mostly because it is elusive and rare, apparently. So at this last trip to Yapona I was joking to the cute waitress (who did a great job by the way) that every time I order ama ebi anywhere in Utah they are always out and I have come to suspect it is some kind of inside joke for sushi joints to put it on the menu but never actually serve it. She assured me that they did, in fact, have ama ebi and would bring it to me promptly if I were to order it. So I did.

She took the rest of our order and headed back to the kitchen, only to return seconds later with the hang-dog look of a person defeated. She reported the sad news: no ama ebi.

In any case, everything else was good. We also ate at a great new taco place in Provo, at Brigham’s Landing. I can’t remember the name right now but it was quite tasty and very different from what I expected. I ordered basic chicken tacos and was rewarded with five little fresh made corn masa tortillas with grilled, marinated chicken, red onion, and cilantro and a well stocked salsa bar to compliment them. It was quite nice. I went for lunch, which for me usually consists of a Larabar, so I was looking for something light and not too filling. This was about perfect except I ended up giving the fifth one to Burke because I had eaten enough already. I think they would do better to let people order the tacos as they wish a la carte, I would have ordered 3 of different variety (they had a spit roasted combo of what looked like ham, pork, and chicken that they were shaving slices off of for some other type of taco). I can imagine people would probably actually order more that way, given that most people tend to be a bit gluttonous when presented with small individual portions available for variety ordering.

In between eating all over the place, we also went to see Iron Man. For me it was my second time and Burke’s first. I think he enjoyed it though he didn’t really say so. I loved it almost as much the second time around. It’s quite a fun show and the only thing I would change would be to make it slightly longer so as to give Jeff Bridges more screen time as Obediah Stane. He really did a great job, I seem to enjoy him in pretty much anything I have seen him in. Plus, Gwyneth Paltrow is very cute as a redhead, probably her role I have enjoyed the most in recent memory.

I have to say I’m quite proud of myself, during this short vacation I managed to not miss a single day of my normal schedule of exercise. If I had I probably would have gained five pounds instead of two.

Now it’s back to the grind to catch up on all the work that needed me while I was away, actually I caught up on a lot of it yesterday so today shouldn’t be too bad as long as no one pulls a standard ‘Ooops, it’s Friday and I left everything till now but it has to be done by Monday. Sorry, Jon, you bail me out!’ kind of move. I’m not holding my breath though.