Work

So, I've been on-site with a customers, developing stuff with them, helping, etc. It's gone pretty well all week (or as well as can be expected). Really can't say any more or I would have to start insulting the part of the project that is not anything to do with the partner's competency. Yes, that sentence was quite oblique. :P

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Travel

Tips:

• Do not eat crap food in the airport just because that is the only thing at your connection without a line that won't clear until your plane takes off. And you are very hungry and don't want to wait until after midnight to eat Taco Bell in South Philly.
• Do buy tickets having you land late in the evening if you want your pick of the more expensive models at the economy rate. (I got the choice of a minivan or a ridiculously huge pickup truck. I chose the minivan. Less stressful than last trip's Mustang).
• After a while, you will not care about eating out. So, just get large salads and other prepared stuff from Whole Foods self-serve bars.
• It is more comfortable to not let the housekeeping staff clean everyday (plus you will feel all environmentally conscious not demanding new towels everyday when you don't even use all of them).
• Kitchen suites are good. The presence of glasses that are, well, glass is much nicer than flimsy plastic cups wrapped in paper or plastic that hold like six ounces. Also forks and plates. See above regarding Whole Foods.

It turns out this week that I have so far eaten random Whole Foods stuff twice and Indian the other two nights (uttapam and veggie appetizers). Lunches have been mostly small sandwiches. Some notes on restaurants:

• Roly Poly is probably the best (largish) chain lunch/sandwich shop I've ever been too. Consistently good, lots of veggies (even on the meat wraps), and quite inexpensive. Also, nutritionally, they are quite good. Six-inch rolls all pretty much run 300 calories or less. Since I avoid the chips + drink combo, that is quite good.
• The indian place (Gagan) here is really, really good. However, mixed veggie appetizers and a veggie uttapam is way too much food for one night (hence eating leftovers).
• This being suburban south jersey, there really isn't a lot of choice around here, so I really just have no interest in driving really far to find decent places.

The Whole Foods here has great prepared food stuff -- ridiculously complete salad bar, chocolates made on site, random desserts (cakes, cobblers, fresh made ice cream, brownies), the standard random entrees and side dishes for re-heating, and ... wait for it ... Smokehouse Bar. Which is lots of smoked and barbecued meats (and some sides like mashed potatoes, cole slaw, corn bread, etc.) I had that tonight and quite good. I've had worse BBQ in actual sit-down restaurants "known" for it. Considering I had zero interest in cooking (and little interest in the rigmarole of dining out), the Whole Foods is a great stress-reliever. I should really recommend the Whole Foods near us do this. But, naw, there are too many vegetarians in the area to support it. ;)

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Exercise

Not so much. I will probably re-hurt my butt on Sunday when I start riding again considering there has been none all week. It's just after being short-sleeped (timezone issues), being at the customer's office from 8/8:30 until 6/6:30, I have little interest in walking in a strange area that is not really pedestrian friendly.

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Random Self-Improvement

There shall be no social stuff this trip. :(

But, I shall go to the art museum tomorrow. Hopefully I can find some place I don't feel completely freaked out about parking the van with my bags in it.

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What I'm Reading

Stealing a section from TheophileEscargot, I brought with me three books:

• Bloodsucking Fiends: forgettable modern day (no one believes in supernatural things) vampire fiction. San Francisco insurance claims agent chick gets turned into a vampire for some strange reason, wakes up under a dumpster, finds "love" with some guy she was using for a Renfield. Best part (and what held my interest on the flight) was The Emperor -- a homeless guy who thought he was the Emperor of the city and needed to protect it. He talks to his dogs as if they are his dukes / soldiers / underlings. Unfailingly polite to everyone. But still a smelly homeless guy who digs thru trash on occasion. He realizes there is something up with the vampires and is hunting it/them down to save people in the city. With the Renfield character and some (adult) delinquents who are graveyard shift Safeway stock-boys, they hunt down the "bad" vampire who turned the chick for no good reason. Note that the chick is sort of a not-evil vampire, although she does end up killing some people.
• The Red Queen: pop-sci book on the problems in the field of sex and gender evolution. It doesn't take an absolutist tone with some overarching "this is the explanation", but rather explores competing ideas for explaining problems in how things are the way they are. Quite good so far (have maybe fifty pages left). I could give a flippant summary of some points, but that would be mean, as calling all of you guys immoral, rapists (biologically speaking) seems kind of mean. And also way oversimplifying. But it could start a nice flame war, no? More importantly, any book that reminds us that: there are gay animals, there are good reasons why homosexuality is natural, and oh by the way bonobos are fricking perverts (although the author just clinically lists of their behavior) pleases me.
• Tigana: I hadn't read any Guy-Gavriel-Kay books, but several have been highly recommended to me. I checked this one out at the library for this trip. A couple hundred pages in and this is probably the best fantasy book I've read in a long time. I've been reading a lot of "real world spec fiction" (my term -- no idea what it is really called) where fantastic or supernatural things are part of the modern world. This is not really that since it is set in a fantasy world (albeit apparently with conflicts and events based on pre-modern Italian peninsula historical events). Very good book. Good characters that aren't cliche, a fairly epic conflict, etc. Oh end, one of the "bad" guys isn't really bad. or at least he is sympathetic, even if he does some pretty nasty stuff.

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I think I'm copying someone's diary style with the "Week in Review" bit. Oh well.