Typing meme

I don't usually do memes, but I was curious about this one. I used to do secretarial temp work many and many a year ago, so I knew my typing speed. In the years since, I have done tons and tons of typing on nice soft computer keyboards, but I don't know how fast I type. I was sure I must be typing much faster than I could type on those old mechanical typewriters. It feels way faster. Well guess what? My typing speed on my high-end electronic keyboard is almost EXACTLY what my typing speed used to be on an old Underwood electric typewriter: 74 wpm. Go figure.

Try your luck here.

Fun evening: old lights, new restaurant

Great news for lovers of holiday lights! The computerized light show at 41st Ave S and 32nd street is back again this year! This is a must-see for lights lovers. Last year the 2 young guys that live in this tiny little house invested 9 months of work and no doubt a considerable portion of their income on a magnificent computerized light display that dances and pulses in time to the music, which is broadcast at 97.9 FM on a local transmitter. It got a lot of attention last year, but absolutely none this year, despite the fact that they've created a new program to new music (my, but we get jaded fast). Here's a link to a report on last year's show. A nice twist on this year's show - through the unshaded house window you can see a video of the house display running on a large screen TV while the same show is running outside.

After determining that the show was in fact on again this year (thanks to next door neighbor Aaron's weblog), Richard and I drove over to see it. Then we ate dinner at the Longfellow Grill, a fairly new restaurant in the "urban diner" mold. We really liked it, but then, we like garlic a lot. If you don't like garlic you might want to skip this place, or look very carefully at what you're ordering. The decor is an artful blend of cozy retro and sleekly modern, with floor-to-ceiling windows sneaking a slantwise view of the river. The place was bustling, but the service was snappy and almost unnervingly friendly.

We started with hot cocoa and herbal tea, followed by a big plate of sweet potato fries, cut thick and served with an ultra-garlicky aoili. The fries were warm and tasty. I couldn't decide if I liked them better with or without the sauce, which was delicious but slightly overpowered the delicate taste of the sweet potatoes. We were just finishing up the last fries when the entrees arrived. Both were excellent, but they couldn't have been more different. My eggplant parmesan was firmer and meatier in texture than eggplant parmesan usually is, which surprised me a little but won me over completely. It came with a pleasant mixed green salad on the same plate. Good combination. Richard's steak and pierogi platter didn't mess around with anything healthy like green vegies but made up for it with a garlic sauce that would keep any marauding vampires in the next county. The pierogis were a bit bland (as pierogis tend to be), but the marinated steak medallions were perfection. Mmmm. I'm sure the desserts are fantastic, it being the sort of place where they would be, but we were too stuffed to even think about that.

So all in all, a successful date night. Now we're going to top it off by watching the copy of The Incredibles somebody bought somebody else for Christmas.