Happy anniversary

Since I’m still on the road, I would like to take a moment to say a quick word to my wife on our 9th wedding anniversary: it feels like it was just yesterday, and it feels like it has been since the beginning of time. Happy anniversary, dear, and I’ll call later.

Calgary dining: Buchanan’s

During a conference call yesterday morning in Edmonton, we had a prospect from Calgary join us via videophone. At the end we mentioned we would be in Calgary in the evening and asked him for a restaurant recommendation. He said, without hesitation, “Buchanan’s.”

We got into town, settled into the hotel, and eventually made our way out to find Buchanan’s. After some initial confusion (downtown Calgary has a grid of numbered streets and avenues, leading us down to the corner of 7th Ave and 3 St when we really should have been at 7 St and 3rd Ave; sorry, Dan), we found Buchanan’s, and were thrilled.

It wasn’t so much the food, although it’s really hard to go wrong with thick cuts of Alberta beef; or the wine, although the 2001 superTuscan that we tasted was pretty spectacular; nor even the wall of over 200 different types of single malt Scotch behind the bar. What made it a great evening was the ambience and the staff. We ate in the lounge, which had the Yankees/Detroit game on (alas for all of us who were rooting to see the Yankees fall last night), and which had a wonderfully relaxed vibe, aided by the friendly presence of the owners. It felt a little like sitting in a quiet neighborhood bar.

Smite, Smoot, smite

It’s always good to see another MIT scientist winning the Nobel Prize. And this one, fittingly enough, is a Smoot (though not the Smoot). George F. Smoot’s work on the cosmic background radiation has significantly affected our understanding of the universe, and the findings are suitably dramatic as his official biography indicates.

On a related note, it’s interesting watching the media catch up, including Wikipedia. When I looked up smoot in Wikipedia late last night, the disambiguation page referenced only a stub article for George F. Smoot. This morning, his full article was there, and it continues to be expanded. Pretty cool.