The USS Abraham Lincoln is in town and leaving tomorrow, but downtown was very busy tonight and there was a line out the door at the Irish Times pub. Lots of sailors walking around and also large groups of eligible females not far behind. According to my friends, the Canadian navy doesn't have any aircraft carriers, and certainly nothing as big as this one. I'm going to see if I can catch a glimpse of it tomorrow. This picture was taken in San Diego. Jason (my landlord) is stationed there with the Canadian Navy. I have no idea what it is that they do, and he has never volunteered any info. I think they mostly travel around to nice places and sip umbrella drinks.

Tonight a bunch of us from work and formerly from work went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant where they cook at the table. The last time I did that was when we went to Okinawa eons ago. It was fun. Faustin said he was getting in touch with his Japanese roots again (he's African) and ordered some sake. He said his karate instructor had once told him that he was more Japanese than a Japanese. I had a drink called "The Karate Kid" which had vodka, guava juice, and coconut milk. It would be very easy to drink too many of them. The chef cooked our meals on the big grill and flipped stuff on the plates, and did a juggling act with the salt and pepper shakers. Lots of people were there for their birthdays and periodically the waiters would go by beating a drum and singing "Happy Birthday" off key, and the Birthday Child would get to wear a samurai wig and a kimono and have their picture taken.

Earlier today at work I heard Roger exclaiming some profanity across the hall in the printer room. I think it was done for our benefit because then he came over and said that the budget for some acronym project is 5 million dollars for the next two years, and it involves several forest industry groups, and his group is also involved and gets a big piece of the pie. It's unclear what they actually do, though. I decided I'm in the wrong business.