Adventures in Shadyside, and Fun with Meatloaf
Last night we came to the conclusion that although my musical memory is quite extensive and accurate in terms of tunes, its segmentation and file handles are really awful. I was listening to a piece Eli had on his CD player (which turned out to be the second part of Winter, from Vivaldi's the Four Seasons). I was convinced it was Air, by Bach... this is basically because in my head the two pieces are actually segmented together. No joke. I listened to both of them and realized exactly where they had gotten spliced. It's kind of funny, actually.
Today Eli and I went out in the afternoon, which was fun. We started by going to the post office so I could get a certified letter (I don't even know who it's from - GRR!) and it turns out the post office closes at 3 but the mailroom closes at noon. Sigh. After that we went to Sushi Too in Shadyside and I'm remembering why I don't like eating there very much as compared to the Carson street Sushi Two. The sushi was totally subpar. The tuna in the tuna rolls was light pink and of a slightly odd consistency, the red snapper was almost downright crunchy, the avocados were quite squishy, etc...
After that we strolled around Walnut Street. We went to a certain store that Ralph had recommended to us, and looked around at stuff. We ran into people I know there, who were there for similar purposes. (I hate to be vague but it's not my place to say anything about them, this is mostly for my own reference. I think I already spilled their secret to someone I maybe shouldn't have.) We went to a bunch of stores, actually. I still like the Shadyside hardware store. I asked them about gaffer's tape and ended up with some weird non-residue masking tape that I will try out in a bit to tape down DDR pads with. I also got another power strip so I can actually hook up all of my consoles and hook them all into my RCA switchers. Yay.
Went to geagle, picked up more ingredients, then realized we were going to make meatloaf for only three people since we had screwed up in inviting people over. Recruited more people. Made meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Whee!
I worked in the meantime on getting this PS-USB converter to work with my computer. It works okay for a normal playstation controller, but the fucker doesn't work with DDR pads. This makes ABSOLUTELY no sense whatsoever. It also won't let me install the drivers that came with it. Sigh.
So we had dinner.![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mrpeck and dlatimer and our friend Alex came over, and as it turns out we made enough food for 6 (now we know how many people a meatloaf serves) which means we have leftovers for lunch one of these days. It was fun, after inviting Tal and Mike, and trying to figure out who else I might be able to recruit, I thought Alex would get along with them pretty well because he's also a grad student (like Tal), also very Catholic (like Mike), and into D&D (like all of us). I think it worked out pretty well - we had a lot of talking about grad school and D&D after dinner. I even went and got out my 3rd and 2nd edition books and we were comparing a lot of stuff and trading silly gaming stories. It was fun. I at first was wondering if I should have planned something for after dinner, but it turned out we were okay at making conversation for 3-4 hours. That was cool.
It's wacky, I have 74 people on my friends list. (Hey, to those of you randoms who have friended me and I haven't returned the favor - in most cases it is because I can't figure out if I know you or what to think of you... so drop a line or something!) And even better, most of them are still people I know in real life! And the ones I don't, are mostly people I think I'd like to meet! That is so cool. Maybe I should go visit a lot of the ones not in Pittsburgh. Hopping E-savers and all, or whatever. It's like the Travelling Salesman Problem... the LJ-Friends-Visiting problem.
I wanted to mention that sometimes I just want to gush about how awesome some people are. I don't really know how much anyone would want to read it except those people in particular though. Maybe I should just say something like "YOU ARE AWESOME! You are so cool, and I am so glad to have you as a friend. I will miss you so much when I leave Pittsburgh (or I already do)." and so on and so forth, so nobody will feel left out. :)
Today Eli and I went out in the afternoon, which was fun. We started by going to the post office so I could get a certified letter (I don't even know who it's from - GRR!) and it turns out the post office closes at 3 but the mailroom closes at noon. Sigh. After that we went to Sushi Too in Shadyside and I'm remembering why I don't like eating there very much as compared to the Carson street Sushi Two. The sushi was totally subpar. The tuna in the tuna rolls was light pink and of a slightly odd consistency, the red snapper was almost downright crunchy, the avocados were quite squishy, etc...
After that we strolled around Walnut Street. We went to a certain store that Ralph had recommended to us, and looked around at stuff. We ran into people I know there, who were there for similar purposes. (I hate to be vague but it's not my place to say anything about them, this is mostly for my own reference. I think I already spilled their secret to someone I maybe shouldn't have.) We went to a bunch of stores, actually. I still like the Shadyside hardware store. I asked them about gaffer's tape and ended up with some weird non-residue masking tape that I will try out in a bit to tape down DDR pads with. I also got another power strip so I can actually hook up all of my consoles and hook them all into my RCA switchers. Yay.
Went to geagle, picked up more ingredients, then realized we were going to make meatloaf for only three people since we had screwed up in inviting people over. Recruited more people. Made meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Whee!
I worked in the meantime on getting this PS-USB converter to work with my computer. It works okay for a normal playstation controller, but the fucker doesn't work with DDR pads. This makes ABSOLUTELY no sense whatsoever. It also won't let me install the drivers that came with it. Sigh.
So we had dinner.
mrpeck and dlatimer and our friend Alex came over, and as it turns out we made enough food for 6 (now we know how many people a meatloaf serves) which means we have leftovers for lunch one of these days. It was fun, after inviting Tal and Mike, and trying to figure out who else I might be able to recruit, I thought Alex would get along with them pretty well because he's also a grad student (like Tal), also very Catholic (like Mike), and into D&D (like all of us). I think it worked out pretty well - we had a lot of talking about grad school and D&D after dinner. I even went and got out my 3rd and 2nd edition books and we were comparing a lot of stuff and trading silly gaming stories. It was fun. I at first was wondering if I should have planned something for after dinner, but it turned out we were okay at making conversation for 3-4 hours. That was cool.It's wacky, I have 74 people on my friends list. (Hey, to those of you randoms who have friended me and I haven't returned the favor - in most cases it is because I can't figure out if I know you or what to think of you... so drop a line or something!) And even better, most of them are still people I know in real life! And the ones I don't, are mostly people I think I'd like to meet! That is so cool. Maybe I should go visit a lot of the ones not in Pittsburgh. Hopping E-savers and all, or whatever. It's like the Travelling Salesman Problem... the LJ-Friends-Visiting problem.
I wanted to mention that sometimes I just want to gush about how awesome some people are. I don't really know how much anyone would want to read it except those people in particular though. Maybe I should just say something like "YOU ARE AWESOME! You are so cool, and I am so glad to have you as a friend. I will miss you so much when I leave Pittsburgh (or I already do)." and so on and so forth, so nobody will feel left out. :)
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Kiku, in Station Square, is the best Japanese restaurant in Pittsburgh. They always have good fresh fish, but they are a little more pricey and a little more random in their sushi specials - they don't have any where you can choose what you get. On the other hand, if you want tempura, sukiyaki, shabushabu, etc, they are the place to go to. Their sushi/tempura or sashimi/tempura specials are really awesome. (Carl will probably chime in that their Chirashi is good too.)
Sushi Kim, down in the strip, is hit-or-miss. Their main thing is that you can get a lot of sushi a little cheaper than the other places, without it being AYCE. Sometimes their sushi is really good. Sometimes it is mediocre. Their other benefit is pretty decent Korean food, although their management kinda sucks and you should never go there with a group of people larger than 6 or so - they tend to screw you over with weird incomprehensible checks and all.
Kotobuki up in the north hills is pretty awesome, but you can't get there without a car, and it's like 30 minutes from here even so.
Chaya, in Squirrel Hill, is a cute little Japanese restaurant. They have a pretty good "traditional Japanese" menu. I kinda want to go back there sometime soon. Their sushi is decent as well, although they serve weird-ass stuff (last time I had some mirugai, giant clam, which was incredibly freaky). The main problem with them is that there are only 28 seats in the entire place, which makes the wait around dinner horrendous.
(forgetting what other Japanese restaurants there are... I haven't been to Sushi House since the Board of Health came in and told them to shape up, but people say it's gotten much better...)
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