Thank GOD I don't have one of those fancy teleconferencing camera phones of the future.

One of our contractors is long distance, and when he can't be onsite for meetings, he hooks up his webcam and they project it onto a huge screen in the ops room. And they leave it up! So you'll wander in and there will be his giant head, fidgeting and muttering and...gah. Unless you make a lot of noise, he doesn't even know anyone is in the room. I'd so turn off the camera were I him.

I thought that the women's challenge was stupid.

Okay, watching my first women's challenge, and I think you are right.

I'd so turn off the camera were I him.

No kidding! I value the lack of video during phone calls like you wouldn't believe. Even at nearly 39, I still get painful bouts of phone shyness -- if it were all visual too, I don't think I could bear it.

This is why we don't all have video phones -- who'd want one??

Timelies all!

Good luck and healing thoughts for tomorrow, ita.

In other news, I'm watching Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Inside the Actor's Studio, and she just seems like someone I'd like to be friends with. She's so regular, but interesting.

Okay, so, I'm going to post about Charlie Trotter's now, and it's going to be long. And then I'm going to make myself something not nearly as good as what I ate last night.

She's so regular, but interesting.

And a billionaire heiress.

And a billionaire heiress.

Well, sure. Too bad she's already married!

Charlie Trotter's doesn't have a sign out front except to quietly note valet parking. It's small and dimly lit, posh in a way that doesn't need to advertise its opulence. There aren't any price tags to be found but for the wine list, because I guess even Charlie Trotter's needs to inform people that they might be spending $8,500 on a single magnum.

We had a 6:15pm reservation. Charlie Trotter's rarely opens on Mondays, only when large conventions are in town. I believe we had the oncology crowd. Not very festive people, but I hardly noticed. After about five minutes inside, I didn't feel uncomfortable being there. I think I was appreciating the place more than some of the oncologists.

If you're aren't an adventurous eater, you probably shouldn't go to Charlie Trotter's. The food is crazy, there's presentation and combinations of flavors that don't seem like they should work, but if you have faith and eat it anyway, you will be rewarded. It's not worth the money if you're going to be a pussy about it, oncologists!

The entire wait staff was quiet, competent, attentive, formal without being snooty, and knowledgeable; if they didn't know it, they went into the kitchen and asked the chef. (Seriously, we sent them in there several times with weird questions about what type of herb was in that dish, and what kind of olive oil are you using? Oil made from arbequina olives, apparently, which taste peppery and buttery.) Best wait staff ever. We got ours to laugh. Go team.

We were presented with two menus: the Grand Menu (carnivore) and the Vegetable Menu (vegetarian). The menus change every day. Our wait staff assured us that we could make requests and substitutions. I swapped in a dish from the Vegetable Menu. My roommate asked for no fish. Dude, they aren't kidding when they say you can request anything. They'll just make up stuff on the fly in that kitchen like magic. After we settled on the menu, we asked for the Sommelier because neither of us wanted to attempt the novel that was the wine list (like a Norton Anthology of wine lists, no lie), and the guy is paid to tell you what will go with your meal, tailored to your own wine preferences. We chose one white and one red, one glass of each. The white was Selbach-Oster Riesling Kabinett, Mosel 2005, and it was kind of fabulous. The red was an interesting Cabernet Sauvignon that even went with dessert, and I kick myself for not writing it down.

They take your plates and your flatware away with each course. A roving waiter kept bringing us different types of bread, little loaves, mini-baguettes, mini-bagels, something grilled with an herb I couldn't identify. The waiter who brought each course described what was on your plate and answered any questions you might have had. My meal looked like this (minus the white asparagus liberated from roommate's plate), although there were herbs and spices and sauces and garnish on each plate that weren't listed on the menu:

Salad of Fresh Almonds & Thyme (Oh. My. God. Yum.)

Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Orange Rind, Fennel Pollen & Trout Roe Vinaigrette (Fabulous. And I don't even like roe that much, but it was fuckin' fabulous roe.)

Casco Bay Cod with Picholine Olives, Artichokes & Stinging Nettle Sauce (Stinging Nettle Sauce? Okay! It's bright green and I don't care! Must go in my mouth!)

Arkansas Rabbit Loin & Leg with Turnips, Fingerling Potatoes & Mustard Greens (BUNNY, with a rich liver sauce. Turnip tasty, made compulsory Baldrick jokes.)

Summerfield Farm Lamb Shoulder with Garlic, Aged Manchego & Parsley (Seriously, how can you go wrong with garlic and cheese?)

Cantaloupe Sorbet with Feta Cheese & Spearmint (Also with olive oil. And ridiculously good.)

At some point one of the wait staff came by with an envelope containing our menus from when we first arrived. They were personalized. It was kind of crazy awesome. After the Cantaloupe Sorbet, we got coffee. Fabulous coffee with cream and brown sugar.

And then, well, we got a dessert explosion, possibly because we told them that (continued...)