My Dinner with Jeffrey
If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.
-- Samuel Johnson
Tuesday, July 18, 2000
One year ago: Darwinia
Three years ago: Summer's Lease
I had to dash to make my bus connection this morning! no dire consequences if I missed it, but it would be aggravating to stand on the downtown street for twenty minutes, just because my first bus had to stop at an extra red light!
I'm more cheerful today than yesterday, of course. These moods do pass. Plus, I sat down and thought about specific things to talk about with Jack, that would make stuff work better.
At work, our data contract is about nailed down. Rob the designer had some good comps for us.
* * * * * * * *
When I'd heard my old web-buddy Jeffrey Zeldman was coming to Seattle to speak at a conference, I'd suggested that we get together for a beverage, or maybe for breakfast. This mutated into dinner, which was fine by me. I've known Jeffrey's work since 1996 or so, and we communicated on IE 4 stuff, but I'd never met him in person.
It was a beautiful afternoon after a cloudy morning. (I'd said to the guy that gets off the bus with me, "I think it's actually sprinkling on us!") I left at four to catch the bus. I knew this might get me downtown early, but I thought it might be a good idea to actually find the restaurant I was thinking of going to. It was just a few minutes after five when I got off the bus, so I knew I had time.
I walked over towards the Pike Place market. Oh! There was the sign for Campagne, which is the restaurant in the fancy "Inn at the Market." I knew that the Café Campagne was one floor down, facing the alley. It's supposed to be the more informal, bistro-styled relative of the Campagne, but it's certainly not a cheap place! I went in and made a reservation for six thirty. The waitress, since I didn't have a phone number to give her, said, "I'll just put 'en route,' OK?" which made me smile, it was so toney.
I walked down through the market, where most merchants were packing for the day, or already gone. Did anyone still have Rainier cherries? yes! so I bought two pounds, in two bags. If Jeffrey liked them I'd give him some, or we could eat them for dessert, perhaps. If not, I'll take them to work with me.
I don't think I've ever actually been inside the Westin before. Sure enough, the floor was numbered 41 as Jeffrey had said, but I don't think there are really so many floors in the tower; they skip some from 5 to 10 or 20.
D'oh! NPS (Neurotic Promptness Syndrome) strikes again -- I think I was early. But Jeffrey answered the door in a few minutes, and gave me a hug. I think that's the best greeting for these long-time online-only friends. (See also: when I met Bluejack for the first time). Jeffrey is shorter than I had imagined -- where do we get these ideas? His room had a great view pf the Space Needle, Queen Anne Hill, and Puget Sound.
Cherries were a no-go. No problem; I'll take them to work tomorrow.
We walked a roundabout route to the restaurant. Jeffrey says he's liked what he's seen of Seattle! He was seeing it under great conditions -- marvelous weather, and he was done with his work for this trip.
The dinner was mah-velous. I had a half-quail on a warm tomato-vinaigrette salad. I'd never had quail before. It was tasty, but I don't know if I'd get it again. "It tastes like chicken." But I did enjoy the roti of the day -- beef shouler with herb gnocchi and roasted red peppers. Jeffrey had salade and salmon.
We talked about all manner of web stuff -- net radio stations, my current job, my former job on the IE team. Jeffrey said he didn't want to have a boss ever again -- independent all the way! CSS stuff, XML stuff, the latest hoo-ha on MetaFilter.
After dinner, we walked down the hill towards Victor Steinbrueck Park. (a QuickTime VR of the park) There were tourists and homeless folk on most of the benches. What was that pop-rock music drifting up from the pier below? Jeffrey recognized it right off -- Hall and Oates! Apparently he's listened to them quite a bit.
We walked back towards the hotel and said goodbye on the sidewalk. What a nice evening!
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