And then there were two

Wow it's been awhile since I've posted so the ten-second summary of what's been going on:

• Saw Tim Finn live at the Triple Door with Milly and her boyfriend Sean; great gig even though we were probably the youngest people there by at least 10 years! Triple Door seems like a great venue though -- it's a dinner theatre but aimed more at music shows. And the food (think pan-Asian with a Thai emphasis) was actually pretty good.
• Welcomed Lost back to the small screen at Phil's place, even though ABC misleadingly advertised it as a 2-hour episode when the first hour was just recap!
• Been busy at work getting to code complete this week (even though much of the code had been done, and now it was just a matter of sorting out deployment issues).
• And just now came back from a fantastic late late lunch with Hyejin at Tamarind, a Vietnamese restaurant in the International District that you would never know existed because it's set back from the street. The decor was very upscale, but the prices characteristically were not. We had huge bun cha on a platter, some of their special Tamarind Salad Rolls (think rice paper rolls with walnut and thin sticks of rolled-up deep-fried rice paper sheets as well as the usual assortment of lettuce and rice noodle) and another platter of eggy cake thingy whose name I've forgotten but was also delicious. Did I mention this all cost $15/per person after tax and tip???
  

And in other news... politics-wise I haven't posted lately both from the point of view of not having the time, and not having the motivation (especially after watching the pathetic coverage on CNN and so forth, where it's easier just to show talking heads than anything particularly meaningful about the campaign).

I guess the Democratic race is now down to two, Hillary vs. Barack, and so either way we're going to have some history being made there. The media has decided on the narrative already -- black vs. white, or black vs. female. In some ways I feel sorry for Clinton, who is eminently qualified and has been patient earning her stripes in the Senate, and was always the assumed nominee. Now Obama has fired up the base as a symbol rather than a candidate which may be enough to get him through.

As for the Republicans, it looks like it is now McCain's to lose -- a very John Howard-esque Lazarus with a triple bypass. America is not ready for a CEO as President of USA Inc. They would rather stick with the war hero even if his policies may not align with a significant proportion of the Republican base -- something the base reconciles by acknowledging that it is only McCain who could beat Clinton or Obama when the real election comes and wider America gets to vote.

Now it's onto Super Tuesday (or Woozy Tuesday as I've also seen it referred to as). The results should tell us with a high degree of certainty who the nominees will be... then the real mud-slinging can begin! Hooray for politics American-style!