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In just a few days, I’ll be headed out with the guys for a little Okay Samurai reunion out in San Francisco, where Dave lives. Also, my paper that was due on the Monday after we get back, got pushed to the following Monday. A whole 7 more days to procrastinate! It’s just nice because I won’t have to be worrying about it all weekend. We’ll be out there Thursday night through Sunday, and I can’t wait to get out there. There are so many things to do, but here’s a list of things I really hope we get to do:

• Visit Alcatraz
• Watch Dave perform at O’Neill’s Irish Pub
• Visit Minor Studios‘ office on Fremont
• Rent bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge over to Sausalito or Tiburon
• Wii Sports showdown
• Burritos from La Taqueria the Mission District
• Ride a cable car at Powell St, have a Beard Papa creampuff in the food court

Those last two bullet items, I have no idea anything about, but Dave put it in the list of possible things to do, so we’ll see what happens! You can bet that Dave and I will be taking tons of pictures and videos to document the weekend…

It was like watching Pee Wee kids versus…well, the Patriots.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=271028017

The growth of new restaurants in the N. Arlington area has somewhat slowed down as builders continue to put up new condos and apartments. Welcome Restaurant 3 to the Clarendon night scene. Restaurant 3 is the latest creation of involving the owner of one of my favorite burger and beer spots – Whitlow’s. It occupies the lot that, thankfully now defunct neon-green eyesore Mama Quan’s used to claim. The old building was knocked down, and a new, very nice looking structure was put in its place about a month and a half ago.

I finally got around to meeting with some friends for dinner there, and so far it got off on the wrong foot…At first sight, the place looks very nice, the menu a little sparse, but all the essentials were represented (beef, chicken, vegetarian, duck, etc.). We sat in the bar dining area, which turned out to be very loud, but bearable. Average entree price ranged from $14-$28, pretty standard. I started with the grilled Brie platter for the table, and noticed a very strong charcoal taste. It wasn’t bad, but turned out to be a theme with everyone’s dinner later…

It turns out that I’ve become a huge fan of pork chops. It’s such a simple thing to order at restaurants, but when you get a pork chop done right, it’s amazing. (yeah, I said it – amazing.) I ordered it medium as usual, and it came with a side of mashed potatoes, and diced apples. Here starts the bad news, the chops were dry. Nowhere near medium, and also had the strong charcoal taste. Two strikes. It wasn’t just me, the fillet mignon that was ordered was cooked correctly, but had the same overpowering smoky taste. Not good.

I’ll have to give it a “just ok” and temporarily withhold judgment as it’s less than two months old and they still have some kinks to work out, but in the highly competitive N. Arlington restaurant business, you don’t have that long to get things working right. Some suggestions: clean the excess residue off your grill, check the temperature of your meat before you serve it, and put in some noise muffling in the bar area somehow and you’ll be ahead of the game. Until then, for those in the Arlington area, I’d recommend another favorite of mine, Tallula. It has similar prices, superior pork chops and better ambiance. If you’ve been to Restaurant 3 and disagree, let me know what you thought!

Website: Restaurant Three

Update 01.05.09: I’ve been here 2-3 times now, and still haven’t been impressed.  I plan on only going here for drinks and not much else.  For another excellent restaurant in the same family as Tallula, check out Evening Star Cafe in Del Ray/Alexandria – haven’t had a bad dish there yet.

NY Times: AOL to Trim 2,000 Jobs in a Continuing Overhaul

I’m still here.  The next few months should be interesting.