gorgeous

considering tripp's desire for recipes, this widget might be just the thing. one more reason to install tiger.

so i'm sitting at lithium with the intention of working on coverletters when i get pulled into a discussion the owner is having with two customers who are thinking about buying laptops. the man is syrian-born and a recently naturallized american that has a business photographing people at a nightclub and then selling them prints for $10 each. the woman is half-persian lebanese with self-diagnosed OCD that is about to buy a computer to take to her accountant brother in lebanon. even though my plans were interrupted, i love getting drawn into the lives of strangers or at the very least, drawn out of my own private mental landscape.

paul just needed reassurance that the PC laptop his photographer friend was using would be the right choice for him too. he had considered an apple powerbook but he was shocked by the additional cost compared to the "averatec" brand that had similar specs. those of you that know me might be surprised that i suspended my apple advocacy and supported his purchase of the PC, but really he is not in the market for a powerbook for a variety of reasons, mostly cost related. plus i was in no mood to persuade him to change his mostly made-up mind. so i just helped him find a lower price online and told him to buy the ram separately to save money. he was very grateful and he offered to let me come over to his house to print anytime that i wanted.

the woman seemed to think that her brother wanted a 'pentium 4′ laptop (which doesn't really exist) and i explained to her that what she really wanted was a 'pentium M' if it had to be a PC laptop. again, rather than promote apple, which i'm generally inclined to do, all i did was support her idea that buying a dell at costco would be the most sensible purchase. given that the machine is meant to travel overseas with her next week all the way to lebanon for use by an accountant, it seemed the best purchase to me. plus, according to her costco has a lifetime warranty… which is unlikely, but i'm sure that their service/support would match the rest of the industry. she continually offered to pay for my coffee and when she found out that i already had, she bought me a bag of peanut crunch at mike's suggestion (he's the owner and he remembered that i was vegan!).

after the business talk we discussed the difference in life between syria, lebanon and america. paul likes america and has no desire to travel back to his home country. the woman misses lebanon and the lifestyle there where her family is closer together. her complaint about america is that people seem to just work for the money at the expense of the rest of their existence. the best part is that they both agreed that i need to go to "lolo's" on the corner of sunset and cherokee next to 7-11 for the best lebanese falafel.

sandy just called. she's in ventura already. i had forgotten that she was coming in this week. i'll drive up there tonight and have a drink with her at cafe fiore. sadly i have no birthday present for her…

tomorrow is father's day. so here's to you dad. i owe you more than i can ever repay.