Where Did the Big Flame Go?

We went out to dinner this evening with my brother Matt and his wife and kids. We went to Tokyo Steak House, which is one of our favorites.

Tokyo Steak House is a hibachi-style restaurant, with table settings around a large central grill. The food is cooked in front of you by a chef who mixes-in showmanship, knife tricks and egg-juggling. He slices. He dices. He sprinkles-in spices. The food is very good; the chef’s show is a large part of the fun.

It used to be the case that that show started with a great cloud of flame. The chef would create a puddle of some flammable liquor (Sake?), light a smaller puddle off to the side, and connect the two with a final squirt of the liquor. A flash of flame would rise up into the vent-hood starting the show off with a bang.

This evening, and the last time we were there a few weeks back, there was no introductory flame. I have to wonder, why?

Are there safety concerns? Was there an incident? Did someone loose a substantial hank of hair to singeing? I just don’t know.

I have to say that I miss it. They won’t lose our business; we like the place very much.

But I do miss the flame.

Because You Never Know What the World Will Offer You

Question: Why do you always carry your camera with you?

I found myself behind this truck running lunchtime errands in Dover the other day. Thank you world.

Dead Bug

Dead Bug
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

When I got into my car this afternoon, the car's thermometer read 102 degrees. It had been sitting in the sun in a barren parking lot for four hours, so no surprise.

When I got in I found this insect lying dead, spreadeagled on the armrest between the driver's and passenger's seats. It appeared to have been overwhelmed by the heat.

I think it was a mosquito, in life, so I didn't shed any tears.

Portraits of Bert

I've been trying to capture a decent portrait of our older cat, Shoe (aka Shubert or Bert).

He's a handsome cat, but that glossy black coat is tough to photograph.

Finally, I went to the Canon web site and downloaded a copy of the PowerShot S30 User's Manual (I have one on a shelf somewhere; I'm just not sure where). I think I found some settings that might work.

So I took a few photos and added them to my cat collection.

A Return?

The person who was behind Delatacit, which shut down and almost re-started under curious circumstances last year, is apparently sitting in as guest blogger while Mike, author of Down with Absolutes!, goes on vacation.

It's an interesting idea: bringing in someone to keep things going while you refresh and recharge.

I don't think it would work in my case here at Mike's Musings. Who else knows enough about the minutiae of my day-to-day life?

Where's Christina?

Sunday afternoon, we dropped Christina off at Camp Pecometh, a Methodist summer camp on the Chester River, outside of Centreville, Maryland.

Camp Pecometh seems a nice place. Colleen had done a few sessions there and Christina did her first sleep-away -- a mini-camp -- last year. She's a perfect camper; she jumps right into the society in the cabin and makes friends easily. I think she'll have a very nice time.

Odometer Milestone

I rolled 22,222 miles on my Prius today. I noticed while on a back road, so I was able to safely snap a photo. When I rolled 20,000 the other week, I was out on the highway and not able to pull off in time.

Declaration of Revocation, by John Cleese

We can take refuge in humor, and satire such as John Cleese's Declaration of Revocation is a good example. In it, he revokes our independence and provides a prime example of poking fun at both sides of an issue. In this case, the common language that divides the US and Great Britain, along with other factors.

It appears to date from the innocent, pre-9/11 days after the first Bush election. It should be taken as nothing more than a pleasant bit of biting social commentary.

Found by a Fountain

I was taking photos of the fountains in the courtyard at Delaware Technical and Community College, in Georgetown, when I found this sailboat. It was one of two that someone had been sailing in the fountains before I got there.

I wonder what knowledge and notes were soaking away into the paper as it sat there?

I was at Del Tech to pick Colleen up from her first Academic Challenge class. This is a program for Sussex school kids that lets them take advanced level courses and, if they stay with the program from eighth though twelfth grade, earn college credits.

Some Lyrics I Like

I like music with tight, poetic lyrics in language that sings even without the music or the vocalist.

Here's an example that's been in my head lately. It is the middle section (give or take) of Sarah Harmer's Lodestar:

Out in the night,
out on the water,
We pull the boat back to shore.

Breathing the air
in the stillness of the bay.

Intensity of stars
reflected in the water,
Silently ignite.

The oar dips in
to oil like water
and we,
Are away.

Under the moon,
In the great black night
with no lodestar,
In sight.

It helps that the music and the singing are lovely, but I think these lines stand pretty well on their own.