Gillian Clark is the chef and co-owner of Colorado Kitchen in Washington, D.C. Inan open letter to the Washington Post, she explains why she refuses most every request for special service at her restaurant. It’s quite a good read, and the resulting MetaFilter discussion is worth checking out as well.

The servers often hate to say no to the customer that insists that I broil the crab cakes or deep fry their flounder. I explain to them that they are in my restaurant. And they must have the flounder the way I make it. Personally, I prefer the way Herbert von Karajan conducts Beethoven’s Third Symphony. But I would never ask Zubin Mehta to finish the Adagio with the hesitant 3/8 that Herb finishes with. Nor would I stop a production of Hamlet and ask them to insert a couple of lines from Macbeth because I think they go well in there.

“First Day at Market”

This past weekend saw our first day at market for the year. We didn’t have much – just radishes, carrots, parsnips, and seedlings – but it was good to be back. Amazingly, I sold all 50 pounds of radishes. I got many great comments, too. My favorite: “I’m glad you’re back. You always have the most avant garde table!”

“Bee Condos” This week’s Photo Friday topic is shadows.

You know how a tooth way back in the back cracks some (because you have too many teeth in your head for how much jaw you have [but you can’t cough up the several thousand dollars the dentists want to fix the problem because the dental insurance you used to have got canceled when the parent company went bankrupt right after you paid up through the 24 month waiting period required for major oral surgery] and the pressure finally caused the tooth to snap) and little pieces have fallen off exposing the nerves a bit, and how “some discomfort” arises, but you just have to put up with it because the dental discount plan you found doesn’t take effect until May 1st (and on top of that you have to find a new dentist nowhere near you because no dentists within 60 miles accept the plan, meaning you’ll have to transfer all your records from the good local dentist you like and spend half a day driving for several appointments)? Yeah. I hate it when that happens.

“Rainy Morning” This week’s Photo Friday topic is water.

Proof that you can find anything and everything on the internet, exhibit #18529: “Hello, and welcome to my homepage. My name is Ulrich Haarbürste and I like to write stories about Roy Orbison being wrapped up in cling-film.”

“Bear Skin: A Puppy’s Hunting Trophy” This week’s Photo Friday topic is skin.

The play I was drafted into finished its run a week ago, and it had a very successful run. I spent most of the week since then decompressing. The weather was cold and wet. We had another ten straight days of rain, but unlike the last time the rain was gentle. The cool air kept the ground from drying, so there wasn’t much I could do around the farm. I did manage to work like a madman over the weekend, though, as the skies cleared and the temperatures rose. All seven spring beds have now been prepped, and three have been planted. The other four will get their seeds and seedlings this week, and then next weekend I’ll get to work like a madman again to get the seven summer beds ready. It will be a lot easier to prep them, though, as they were the spring and fall beds from last year, and so have no sod to bust. I also need to start the tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings in the greenhouse. Several weeks behind schedule, yes, but I’ll get caught up soon enough. On top of that, I had one of those amazingly productive weeks at work, which kept me from writing even a few words here. It’s cutting edge work, using XSL stylesheets to transform complicated XML data into very flexibly defined PDF documents. How-to books on this new technology are just now coming out, but what I’m doing is well beyond much of the tutorials (and in some cases beyond the technology itself). I’m making it work, though, and I find it very satisfying, like a grand logic puzzle. Also, my Friday Photo “Spring” entry was deemed to be “noteworthy”, which was nice. My spirits have lifted, just in time for my body to come down with a cold. Or SARS. Whichever… I’ll work right through it.

“A Time to Plant” This week’s Photo Friday topic is spring.

Welcome, students enrolled in the University of Washington’s COM 480 class: Ethnography of On-Line Roleplaying Games.