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I spent most of today just relaxing in Hersch and Liana’s house. This morning I helped Hersch prep beef in a red wine and tomato sauce, very similar to a beef burgundy. I helped with the broth, watching the water boil before added a stock base. For the most part, I watched him put it all together and do the knife work. He tried to teach me what he was doing, but I knew a lot of the basics already from the many hours of Food Network I have watched, wishing I could do those things myself. After mixing all of the ingredients together by 10:00 a.m., we left it to simmer the rest of the day. I think I have the basics for the dish down, and I might try to make it when I return to Schaumburg. My attempt at it probably won’t taste anywhere near as good.

For the rest of the day, I ran a few errands at the local market between Rock Band sessions and No Country for Old Men. I thought the movie was very well made, but not one that I would watch again any time soon. With Rock Band, I continued playing the drums today and got much better at it. I’m only on medium difficulty right now, but I’m progressing with just about every song I play. I found out that Rock Band has a PS2 version, but there is also a Wii version on the way. I won’t necessarily have to drop $300+ on an XBox 360 or PS3 to enjoy Rock Band later on.

I looked up some things to do in Vancouver, but I am not seeing much I want to do other than general sightseeing up there. I don’t know yet when I’ll head up there, but I think either Thursday or Friday. I don’t think I’ll have time to go on Saturday, and going tomorrow is just too rushed. I think I will try to head downtown and walk around a little. The 10 day forecast says that it will be mostly cloudy tomorrow. That should be OK for walking around.

I think I’ve finally adjusted to Pacific time. I’m going to head up to bed and read before I fall asleep with my laptop burning my legs.