Wednesday, October 15, 2008

odds...and ends

I had, perhaps, my most awkward dining experience ever this evening at On The Border. We ordered "Guac Live!", where they bring the avocados and fixin's to the table and make it right in front of you.

Have you ever made guacamole? Even with the ingredients prepped, it's not the quickest process. It takes a little longer when the girl who's concocting it has a grand total of three "Guac Live!" experiences under her belt.

First, she proceeded to wipe her hands with a moist towelette - this will be important in a second. While hap-hazardly scooping the avocados out with a spoon, she attempts to make conversation - just the one time really. The majority of our "live" experience was cast in silence between awkward guac-making mistakes and efforts to supress laughter between Adam and myself. On avocado half number three, she scoops the inside right down onto the tray next to the more appropriate bowl. A simple error we were willing to let go, if it weren't for her following statement: "Don't worry, that's why I put alcohol on my hands." I have to believe she was trying to alleviate our concern of germs from her hands transferring to the avocado, however the comfort we gained from ethanol as the "secret" ingredient in our guacamole was non-exisent.

We allowed her reprieve by requesting "chunky" guacamole to spare her the time and awkward silence while continuing to (not) mash the ingredients. By the time our "Guacamole En Vivo" was complete - which is what it should be called in a Mexican restaurant - our food arrived less than a minute later, which sort of defeats the purpose of an appetizer. I have to give her effort for trying, and I'm sure she will improve in time, but I suggest she get a lot faster or come up with other conversation starters than "I could eat a whole avocado, I like 'em so much."

In other news, technology is frustrating the crap out of me right now. First, I have been jealous about the iPhones for quite some time since two of my teammates own them, but then my sister has to go and get one. And now, Apple released their new line of MacBooks which makes my 5-month old model look like garbage.

These new laptops look unfathomably awesome and I want one. I won't get one, of course, because I still like mine very much and just don't need it, but it gets irritating when something new comes out that corrects the faults from before, enhances performance and costs the same. I suppose this will always happen with technology and I will have to get used to skipping generations of gadget coolness for the rest of my life. I can still pout though.

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