Reno

Reno. I spent a lot of time in Reno this last trip to Burning Man. Pete’s flight was delayed about 11 hours, so Anna and I had a lot of time to wander around the place.

– Casinos. Sure you can get a hot dog and a beer for $1.50, but your hotel (El Dorado, supposedly 3.5 stars) gives you a crappy smoking room instead of your pre-paid non smoking room.
– Driving in Reno sucks. It is always under construction (same section of highway has been messed up for the past 3 years), missing or erroneous signs, and the drivers think a turn signal means accelerate into my blind spot.

Its not all bad though. We went to the “#1 voted Basque Restaurant in Nevada”. How hard is that? We were suspicious, but just then walked by 2 more Basque restaurants. It was an interesting place. Everything is served family style on a big table, you eat with other people. We got there and started to chat up the locals. It was a great time. My neighbor offered me some sweet bread in wine sauce (sweet bread = thymus glands), which I liked. I was feeling adventurous, so I ordered the tripe.

Well, I ate a bit of it. It tasted good, the texture was ok (sort of spongy), but I could not handle the smell. It still had a very strong ‘internal workings’ aroma that I couldn’t get over. There was plenty of other great food to fill me up though.

We watched Hero while waiting for Pete at the local meglo-plex. I liked it. It is the same sort of style as Crouching Tiger (which I also liked), but the visuals in Hero are quite amazing.

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Wow, check this out: Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital’s chic 16th arrondissement.

It won’t be long now… Poor credit history can doom job offers

“The basic story is that San Diego has become a thoroughly corrupt community in which the power players cut the deals, you don’t ask any questions, and everybody gets what they want” More San Diego fun, Enron-by-the-Sea style.

This is a really great read: Fear Itself – Learning to live in the age of terrorism.