Last Wednesday, Barbara and I had dinner at Fahrenheit, a new restaurant at 437 Granby Street in downtown Norfolk. It was quite good - I had a salad with grilled portobello and a honey-balsamic drizzle and penne with tomato sauce. Barbara had chicken marsala, which was served on mashed potatoes rather than the usual noodles. She enjoyed it.

Oddly, we were the only people in the restaurant. It’s only been open for a few months, so maybe it needs to find a following. The server told us that the chef used to be the chef at Velvet 25. So check it out - it was very good.

I recently got a new cell phone - the VX8100 from VerizonWireless and have found some sites with downloads and info on getting the most out of it. So here they are:

• Forum re: ring tones, etc.
• Info about the VX8100
• Josh’s VX8100 Resource Site

I’m thinking of making a shrimp or lobster bisque to have with Christmas dinner, and came across this site as I was looking for recipes: Fine Dinings

Some great-sounding recipes from this site that I might want to make sometime:

• Cucumber Gazpacho
• Shrimp Bisque and Brandy Flambe Soup
• Shrimp Cocktail in a martini glass

I heard a really sickening story on NPR the other day. Can’t get it out of my mind. It was about “honor killings” in Iraq, where, if a woman is raped, or even *suspected* of having been raped, the men in her family can murder her, with no repercussions. To maintain their “honor.”

Here’s a link to the story: Concern Grows over Iraqi ‘Honor Killings’.

Is this what we’re fighting for in Iraq? These people whose values are so alien from our own? What on Earth could have possessed Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Feith, et al, to think that starting a war there was a good idea?

No matter when we pull our troops out, I think it will end up as a civil war, with Iran helping the more conservative elements take control. For this, we sacrificed thousands of American and other troops, not to mention the tens of thousands of Iraqis who were killed or traumatized by what we have done to their country. It’s just disgusting, the entire thing.

My dad sent me this, from Andy Borowitz, humorist:

Bush Calls ‘Plan For Victory’ Slogan A Success
Vows to Create Additional Slogans to Defeat Insurgents

One day after making a speech on Iraq at the United States Naval Academy in front of a giant placard reading “Plan For Victory,” President George W. Bush pronounced the “Plan For Victory” slogan an unqualified success.

“Much time, thought and effort went into creating the ‘Plan For Victory’ slogan,” Mr. Bush said today at a White House press conference. “I think we can all agree that the hard work that went into that slogan has really paid off.”

Read the rest.

More at The Borowitz Report

I found myself yelling at the TV again this morning. There was a story on the Today show about Saddam Hussein’s trial and how he refused to go to court this morning, “throwing his trial into chaos.”

Why are they letting him run the show like that? Dan says they should gag him. Not a bad plan. I think they should lock him in his cell and show him the trial via closed-circuit TV. But it’s ridiculous to let him carry on like he does, insulting and lecturing the judge, disrupting things by telling his lawyers to walk out, etc. Time to show him he’s really not in charge anymore.

Interesting: I just discovered that Richard Engel, Today’s correspondent in Iraq, is doing a blog: http://baghdadblog.msnbc.com/. I really admire him - he’s been in Iraq for months, if not years. Really tough job he’s doing, and I think he does it really well. Way to go, Richard.

I don’t have time to comment on this right now, but I wanted to save the URL, so check it out:

No Paper Trail Left Behind: the Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election