urban planning like we've all done it
LA reminds me of Sim City--Sim City 2000 that is, the last game if that noble line that I played, or even ever saw. On the flat, everything is laid out in a regular grid pattern; and in fact, the planners went even farther and adopted the most efficient form of urban development known to man and Sim: the long block. I can't say for sure that the long blocks in Santa Monica are exactly six property squares wide, but they're close. The RL blocks also have alleys down the middle of them; while there weren't alleys actually represented in Sim City 2000, we can imagine that they were there. And indeed, that answers the ever-pressing question of how did folks in the single-family houses in the middle of the blocks get to work? I could say more about the uncanny resemblances between life and game, but I'll leave them for perhaps another day.
Leah is at work today for a million hours, and I'm sitting at home waiting for UPS to bring my real computer, which I miss like an absent lover. Sammy the laptop is nice and all, but it's just not the same. The five packages, weighing in at over a hundred pounds ($282.20, boxed and insured), are marked as 'out for delivery' on the UPS tracking page, so I have high hopes of seeing them today. Expectations, too: I'm hosting a pop-pop tournament tomorrow (my first as a host!) and playing on the laptop would be less than ideal. Specially since I don't have a working mouse or a registered copy of the game. Er... here's hoping.
Leah didn't post yesterday so she didn't mention my ever delicious dinner offerings, but last night I made Carribean black beans and mango salsa. It was all even better this afternoon for lunch, in burrito form. I confess I didn't quite know what a mango was before I went to buy them, but by pure luck I picked the right fruit. Sadly though, the two I got were far less than ripe, so the salsa was a little more cruchy than I could have wished. Still tasted good though, and I'll save the other mango to make another batch a bit later.