We celebrated the rest of Herr’s birthday this evening with a hibachi dinner. Kyoto is a great local sushi restaurant we’ve had success with. The entertainment, meal, and company were excellent, up until the dessert. I asked for mochi ice cream, and it came out like a pancake and with freezer burn. Jun’s mochi balls were much better. Herr had green tea ice cream though, so he had a good meal.

Other than that, we didn’t do much to celebrate. In fact, he had orchestra rehearsal yesterday, so I saw him for about two hours, during which I made him dinner. It was a recipe I hadn’t tried before, apple sausage bake. My stomach doesn’t like sausage, so I don’t know much about cooking it. I picked out two sausages, a real sausage made with turkey, and breakfast pork links with diced apples in them. I should have used the breakfast links. But Herr liked it in the end, so all is happy. He received two books from me (Bridges of North America and Dining by Rail), some cologne from my parents, and the rest of a Christmas dishware set from his parents. I think he was happy overall. At least, I hope….

Last week my colleagues and I spent four days in Monterey, California for the Internet Librarian conference. This was my first real conference, so I stuck to my guns and attended as many sessions as possible. A lot of it seemed like review, but I do watch seven listservs and read over a dozen blogs. I want something I can dig my teeth into, but isn’t necessarily only open source. I love open source, but my library isn’t a big fan.

I enjoyed the aquarium and clam chowder though. Maybe next year I can get over my shyness and do some after-session networking. Scary…