Thursday after work I went with a few co-workers to The Rose and Crown in Palo Alto and Monster Sushi (formerly TGI’s sushi). I think TGIs sushi is a chain because there is a TGI’s in Berkeley, CA that may be called Monster also.

The Rose and Crown is your standard pub. It was quiet and has a small outdoor seating area (approximately 5 picnic tables). Beers are semi-expensive. A Guinness + a Franziskanner dunkel = $12.

Monster Sushi (formerly TGI’s sushi) is your standard sushi place run by Koreans. It is near the BevMo and 24 Hour Fitness. They have a value offering of $50 for a crapload of sushi enough to feed 3 people although it’s advertised as a 2-person meal. Meal for 3 people + 1 sake + extra salad + extra miso soup = $63 after tax.

Earlier in the day we went to the Mountain View 7 Eleven that was converted into a 7 Eleven Kwik-E-Mart as part of a Simpsons promotion. It was disappointing but interesting. On an unrelated note I got a 24oz “chelada” Bud Light can — that’s a Bud Light mixed with clamato juice. It was surprisingly refreshing, although I wouldn’t buy more than one can for a drinking session. The chelada basically tasted like a can of very light gazpacho.

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-raise-money-from-VCs-4661

Now here is a solid way to completely waste time. You haven’t truly wasted time until you’ve spent your morning at work thinking of words to spell with phone numbers. Or trying to convert your phone number into some type of phrase.

Phone spell does an adequate job of finding decent words and phrases based on 7-digit phone numbers.

Most cell phones have the T9 input that converts numbers into words as you type. I haven’t found a website that duplicates that functionality but it seems a little more creative because you can incorporate spaces and such into your phrase. Phone Spell tries to get the continuous words.

I was doing this because I was trying to pick a phone number for new service. It would have been real cool to spell something out myself but the limitations of the system granting numbers only let me search through combinations 5 at a time. i wanted either an easy to remember number or something that would spell out some dirty words. After about 2 pointless hours I gave up and picked a random easier-to-remember number — lots of rhythm to the number I picked. It has rhymes and the works.

Nevertheless, interesting phone number word fragments I saw:

• tougher = 8684437
• ad envy = 233689
• dope = 3673

• idiot = 43468