It sounds rather impressive to say that I’ve lived through both an earthquake and a hurricane this week. In years to come, I can tell people of the terror and the panic. In truth, though, Stacie and I were down at the Eno river during the earthquake, not feeling even a shudder, and the only trial of Irene was the power going out for most of today.

(although, that did mean that I’ve only just starting downloading Doctor Who. So perhaps the ‘terror and panic’ description is somewhat deserved)

Week 2 has been consolidation, learning that I should stay the hell away from eBay until I have a job, and getting downhearted after being rejected from a job. A job that I never even applied for, no less - the HR person contacted me for it, so I shouldn’t feel quite so bad about it, but they had a slide! A SLIDE! It sounded like an xkcd cartoon come to life. I have also started putting a plan together for Fallout Durham chocolates and confections, so expect more news on that front in the next week or two.

And then there’s the food. Firstly - Beasley’s Chicken & Honey, part of Ashley Christensen’s triptych of restaurants and bar in downtown Raleigh (Chuck’s will be a burger joint, and Fox’s being the bar aspect of the venture). Chicken! Honey! Waffles! A great chef! What could go wrong? Well…nothing as such, but it never caught fire, either. The chicken was good, the sides were rather small, but tasty (although I was very disappointed that the mac’n’cheese custard was actually mac’n’cheese, and not, you know, a custard). We left with the feeling that it was good, but there was better chicken at Dame’s Chicken & Waffles in Durham. Cheaper, too, once you add in the sides (quick tip for Dame’s: don’t plan on eating anything else for at least 24 hours. Oh God, the chicken. THE WAFFLES).

However, the real discovery of this week was Broad Street Café. When most of Durham’s eateries seemed to be without power, it was a shelter from the storm. They brought us wonderful wood-fired pizzas with pineapple, coriander and jalapeños, garlic, bacon, and sausage (not all on the one pizza, mind you). We hadn’t eaten in hours. We were debating who was going to be eaten first or have to play board games (strangely, all three of us seemed to prefer being dinner). We drove all over Durham, settling for the Café due to a Groupon deal and not being all that optimistic…how wrong we were. We’ll be going again!

No crazy parties this week, but BBQ tomorrow! And then another interview on Monday…