Dinner at Fins

Today Tom and I got together for an outing to Fins. Fins is a restaurant that has really great fresh fish. We always ask the proprietor what he recommends for that day and so far we've been pleased with his suggestions. Halibut was the suggestion for our meal today. The meal comes with coleslaw and rice, or you can have vegetables (Tom's preference) and a garden salad for an extra charge. The portions are generous and the quality is very good. We really enjoy eating there. To top it all off we had a discount coupon from the Sacramento Bee, so the cost was very reasonable. Fins - a great place to eat fresh fish.

After dinner we ventured over to the new Costco store, to check out their 60 inch Vizio Plasma HD TV that is currently on sale. With a three hundred dollar discount it is selling for $2,600. That is a low price for that size screen. CNET and other online reviewers have not rated it as high as other Vizio models, but the picture looked pretty good to Tom and me. Tom has two Vizio HD sets and the picture on both TVs is exceptionally good in the HD mode. This one looks like it should be able to produce a similar quality picture in the home. It's always hard to tell in a well lit store like Costco. So, I'm not sure what to make of the CNET review. When the time comes for me to make a purchase of that type of HD TV (60 inch or larger) I think I would be inclined to get a slightly larger screen then the 60 inch models. Size wise, we saw a 63 inch Phillips model that looked interesting. The prices will have to drop considerably on large screen HD sets before I'll be in the market, however.

We also spent some time at the new Wal Mart Super store (next to Costco). Mainly we checked out their prices on groceries. I can now understand why other grocery chains are concerned when Wal Mart comes into their territory, Wal Mart prices are considerably lower on many products and they really do meet a need for "one stop" shopping. However, they do make it tough to compete, as they have tremendous buying power.

When we returned to Tom's place we checked out some new software that Tom had purchased and then did instant messaging with his girlfriend Wendy. Wendy lives in Chengdu, China. Tom will be making a return visit to see Wendy in a few days. I chatted with Wendy for several minutes. Her English is really coming along quite well. It's amazing to instantly converse with someone on the other side of the planet. Today's technology is truly amazing.

It was a fun outing today. I noticed that the movie American Beauty was on TNT while I was over at Tom's, so I decided to watch some of it when it was repeated after I returned home. I saw the movie when it first came out, but I have forgotten a lot of it. I saved it to the hard drive and will try to finish watching it this week. Annette Benning and Kevin Spacey both give outstanding performances. I think I will enjoy seeing it again. Unfortunately, that is not something I can say about too many movies - so the exceptions are appreciated.