Where ‘ThePresentTense’ Came From

One of the drawbacks to working in our office in LA is that I can’t listen to my iPod during the day at work.  Back in D.C.  I listen to my iPod for most of the day every day.  Some of my music that I’ve been missing the most has been Pearl Jam.  Goofing around on YouTube, I found a video of a performance of the song where I got the name for this site.

Present Tense was one of the tracks off of the band’s fourth album, No Code, which was released in 1996.  I didn’t really become familiar with the song until I downloaded the official bootleg from their 2006 D.C. show and listened to it a couple of times.  What I love about this song is that the message is so simple, and something we hear all the time, but some of the imagery that they use in the lyrics is great.  The image of the tree bending to capture as much sunlight and take in everything that it can is really cool.  We, as people, can be as rigid as trees appear to be, but like trees, if we want to get everything we can out of life must learn to flex.  I’m still working on the whole flexible thing, but this song is good inspiration.

As if you couldn’t figure it out, the basic idea is that you shouldn’t waste your time worrying about things that you could or should have done in the past, and concentrate on what is happening now.  Looking forward to where you want to be and trying to figure out how to get there is a much better use of your time.  Because this blog is about what’s going on in my life now and some of where I’m going, I thought the title was quit fitting.

Below I included two videos of PJ playing the song in concert.  The first I included b/c they let the crowd sing the same portion of the song as when I saw them in concert, and it was one of those great concert memories you remember for a long time.  The second is just so you can hear them sing the whole song.

Present Tense - written by Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready, Performed by Pearl Jam

Do you see the way that tree bends?
Does it inspire?
Leaning out to catch the sun’s rays
A lesson to be applied
Are you getting something out of this all-encompassing trip?

You can spend your time alone, re-digesting past regrets, oh
Or you can come to terms and realize
You’re the only one who can’t forgive yourself, oh
Makes much more sense, to live in the present tense

Have you ideas on how this life ends?
Checked your hands and studied the lines
Have you the belief that the road ahead, ascends off into the light?
Seems that needlessly it’s getting harder
To find an approach and a way to live
Are we getting something out of this all-encompassing trip?

You can spend your time alone re-digesting past regrets, oh
Or you can come to terms and realize
You’re the only one who cannot forgive yourself, oh
Makes much more sense, to live in the present tense

World Cup Qualifying: US vs. Barbados

We got the win today, but a generally disappointing showing by the US today.  We are clearly a better team than Barbados, but we only really displayed that superiority for parts of the game.  We came out very strong and possessed the ball well, but we definitely let the game get away from us for a good chunk of the middle portion of the match.  We definitely didn’t show the professionalism of putting away the match as we should have.

Because we won so handily in the first leg of the home and home series there was virtually no way that Barbados could have advanced over us.  They would have had to have beaten us 9-0, and if that had happened I would have never watched another US National Team game.  That advantage gave Bob Bradley the freedom to try out some younger, less experienced players.  He did just that, which I do agree with, but what I don’t understand is why he played DeMarcus Beasley, a winger usually lauded for his defensive work, as the lone striker.  I would think this would have been a great opportunity to try out more striker options that we haven’t seen much of in the past.  I believe that was a missed opportunity there.

I think we played a good deal of patience during the game, which is usually a good thing, but I think we took it a bit far.  I don’t think we had the needed urgency when an opportunity presented itself.  There were times when someone made a run that would have been very dangerous if we had gotten the ball to them, but we didn’t even try to play them through.  I also think we need more people willing to take players on, on the dribble.  Our possession gets too predictable when we’re trying to penetrate into the final third to try to get a chance on goal and the defending team knows exactly where to clog things up.

I was a little disappointed with Freddy Adu.  I’m not one of those expecting him to be some sort of savior of American soccer, but I’ve seen him play better.  Perhaps he was having a little bit of an off day, but he didn’t seem to be doing some of the small things that would have improved his performance.  I thought some of his positioning when receiving passes made it too easy for the defender to get to the ball.  I also would have liked to see him be the player that tried to take defenders on on the dribble.  Again, I’ve seen him do it in games before and I think that it adds a nice dimension to the attack that we don’t typically have.

We don’t play again until September and a lot will happen between now and then in terms of personnel that’s available to play and who is in form.  The Olympics will also likely have an impact on who will be available to the full men’s team for qualifying.  Many of the younger players we saw today will be involved in the Olympics and Bradley will no doubt call more of the seasoned players back in to the team for the qualifying matches this fall.  Let’s all hope that we start to find some better attacking options between now and then.  Our solid defensive work is only going to take us so far.

Roadtrip Rewind: The Grand Canyon

Okay, this has been a really long time coming. I had a bad feeling that if I didn’t post on this right away I would get busy and wouldn’t get to it and I was right. So here I am, finally getting to it.

The Grand Canyon is incredible. If there was another way I could describe it that I thought would do it justice, I would try, but I’m pretty sure words alone can’t really do it. I also don’t think pictures can really do it either. Basically what I’m trying to tell you is if you want to know what the Grand Canyon is all about you have to go there. Talking to someone about it and seeing their pictures isn’t going to sufficiently communicate to you what the Grand Canyon is.

It was pretty cold when Cris and I were there so we didn’t feel the need to rush out there early in the morning. For anyone that’s never been there, let me provide a brief explanation of how the park is set up. You drive into the park and there are a handful of parking lots where you can put your car, and then right the Park Service shuttle service to a variety of point of interest. There are campgrounds in the park, a village with hotels, restaurants, and shops, and a series of scenic viewing points scattered along the shuttle route.

I’m really happy with how we approached our visit, and I would recommend others doing the same thing. It was pretty cold when we were there so we didn’t go out to the Canyon until late morning. We parked our car near the main ranger station and hoped the shuttle out to one of the point on the east end of the shuttle route. After spending some time there, we rode back in and went to the village and got some lunch in the mid afternoon, after the lunch rush. After getting some lunch and visiting some of the shops, we took the Hermits Road shuttle out to the scenic viewing points on the West end of the park. I remember the name of that route because I think its the best one. If you only have time to go down one route, its the one to take.

A couple of things that really struck me about the Canyon. Everyone knows the Canyon is big, but you have no concept of how damn big it is until you’re standing on the rim. Even though you’re standing there looking at it and experiencing it, it doesn’t seem real. Its a bit hard to maintain some kind of perspective about its size b/c of how expansive it is. One of the best ways to get a little perspective is to watch hikers go down one of the trails that goes down into the Canyon from the Village and see how small they look down at the bottom.

Another thing that was quite striking about it was how quiet and still it was. When you get out away from the crowd at the village, and if you can make it to one of the viewing points without alot of other people, it almost seems like the world stops. The only you can really see moving are the clouds, and if you can catch a glimpse of the river its moving, but its so far away that you can even really sense the movement and you definitely can’t hear it. You have to remember that you’re out in a desert plateau and there are very few living things. We saw a handful of birds and two or three elk near the village, but I honestly don’t remember seeing any other living creatures besides people while we there.

The weather was really crazy while we were there and I’d kind of like to go back when the weather is nicer. I never thought that it would rain, snow, sleet, and hail on us all in one day at the Grand Canyon. I sort of feel robbed, because I’ve always heard how amazing sunsets and starry skies in the southwest can be and I didn’t get either, so I might have to try to go back one day.

I’ve included a sampling of the pictures that Cris and I took while at the Canyon so you can see what we saw.

Euro 2008: Netherlands vs. Russia

I finally got to see some the Euro 2008 championships today.  Normally, I would record the games on the DVR and watch them when I got home, but we weren’t able to hook up the DVR here in LA and all of the games are played well before I get home from work.

Great match-up between the Netherlands and Russia.  The Netherlands has a greater tradition in the Euro 2008’s, getting the quarter finals a number of times in recent years, whereas Russia has only made the quarters on one previous occasion.  Despite their respective histories, Russia looked the better team today through most of the game.  Recognizing the strength of the Netherlands, they set out to look for counterattacks, but looked dangerous in build-up throughout the match.  Russia had less to lose in this match, and they played like it.  They created many more solid chances during the run of play, hitting the post and testing Edwin Van der Sar from start to finish.

Russia scored first ten minutes after the half on a nice ball crossed from the left side that was finished by Roman Pavluchenko making a textbook run to the front post.  The Netherlands looked most dangerous on set pieces and it was almost Russia’s downfall giving up the equalizing goal to Ruud Van Nistelrooy five minutes from the end of regulation.

The first overtime period was fairly even, but Russia dominated the second overtime, pinning the Netherlands back into their defensive third for the majority of the 15 minutes.  The Netherlands defense looked a bit sluggish, and their midfield couldn’t hold the ball to build an attack.  The Russians got a lovely, deserved goal on a service across the box to a wide open Torbinsky, when the Dutch defense looked like they decided to take a smoke break.  The final Russian goal was the perfect display of the Netherland’s lack of sharpness when a throw-in was allowed to run all the way into the box for a one touch finish by Andrei Arshavin.

What I appreciated most about the match was the speed and openness of play.  Both teams were interested in attacking, and the creativity displayed by both teams was a treat for everyone that watched.  Russia was easily the better team on the day and deserved the win.  They will go on to play the winner of the Italy/Spain match in the final quarter-final game.

Delta’s In-Flight Entertainment System

I mentioned in a previous post that I loved flying Delta Airlines.  Our trip this past weekend to Atlanta did a little to strengthen that love, though it wasn’t all pluses.  Another nice plane, flight left on time, and the in-flight entertainment system was pretty sweet.

We were on a 767, I believe, and there was a small monitor in the back of each headrest that was controlled through a touch screen. The system allowed you to watch about 15 channels of satellite TV, listen to the typical set of in-air radio stations that airlines usually offer, listen to a pretty decent selection of CDs covering all genres of music, or play a trivia game against other passenger on the plane all for free.  Additionally, you could pay a relatively small fee to watch HBO TV shows, movies, or play games.  The movies were $6, the TV shows $2, and $2 for games if I remember correctly.  Before anyone balks at those prices, keep in mind that a movie in the theater will cost you $10 in a lot of theaters these days.  One nice feature of watching the movies is that you could pause and rewind them as much as you want.

So the bad part of the flight was when we got to Atlanta.  Now I have to admit that I’ve had really good luck when it comes to flights and having my luggage meet me at the airport every time.  I didn’t have that luck this time.  I understand there are going to be issues sometimes, but coming off a red-eye with very little sleep had my patience way down, and the policy the airline had in place didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me.

My bag didn’t make it on to our plane and had to be sent on the one after us.  The problem I had with the whole process was they couldn’t tell me where it was for at least an hour.  They kept trying to convince me that mine was the only bag of over 200 passengers that hadn’t made it into the baggage claim from the plane at the gate yet.  After a half an hour, when all the other passengers were gone and I went to ask them about my bag, their only response was to wait another half an hour b/c they could see that it had been loaded.  What they either couldn’t see or didn’t tell me, was that it wasn’t loaded on to our plane.  Somewhere in the whole process was a breakdown in communication that I could have dealt without.

All that being said, Delta is still my favorite airline to fly and I’ll fly them every chance I get.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

This past weekend, Carissa and I took a quick trip back across the country to Atlanta for my best friend’s wedding. Overall it was a really great weekend, but we’re both pretty beat now that we’re back in LA.

The trip started with a red-eye flight out of LA on Thursday night. This was the second red-eye I’ve taken, and it really put a hurtin on me. Our flight took off just after midnight LA time, landed in Atlanta just after 6:00, and I think I got about 2 hours of sleep on the plane. Unfortunately, there was no time to take a nap when we got to Atlanta because I had to help my friend, Steven, set up for the wedding on Saturday. We picked up our rental, (crappy, thank you very much Thrifty) we went to Carissa’s brother’s house, I grabbed a quick shower and then took off.

Setting up for the wedding was no problem. For the most part, its easier to work with people who don’t get overly worked up about stuff, but it isn’t always helpful when you need someone to make a decision and your questions are responded to with a shared shrug and a “whatever” or “I don’t know.” After getting everything set for the wedding, we went and picked up Steven’s fiancee’s daughters and met Cris for dinner. (she spent the day hanging out with her brother) Good meal, good company, and fortunately for Cris and I, we got home early enough to get about eleven hours of sleep on Friday night.

Waking much more rested on Saturday, Steven came by to pick me up and we headed out to the church again. The wedding was a pretty small, intimate affair with mostly family and close friends attending. Now that I think about it, the whole deal is sort of odd in my head, in that it wasn’t odd. Let me try to explain. I always mentally put the people I know into a sort of a box, and when they do something that doesn’t fit in that box its really sort of weird for me. Normally, seeing my best friend at standing in front of a minister getting married totally wouldn’t fit in that box, but it seemed totally normal, which was sort of weird. In addition to seeing them together and interacting, it supports my belief that the marriage is a really awesome thing. To say the least, I’m really excited and happy for both of them.

I know someone will bring it up so I’ll get it out of the way by saying, a six year old having a crush on you is funny and cute for a little bit, but only for so long. I do think its pretty funny that she was giving Carissa the “I got my eye on you” hand gesture at the reception.

After the reception Cris, her brother, my sister’s family, and my parents all got together for dinner. Its sometimes hard on quick trips like this one to see everyone you want to see, so I’m really glad that we had the chance to get together. Everyone seemed to be doing well and we had a really enjoyable dinner, even if we did make my sister and brother-in-law go to a chain restaurant, which they prefer not to do. After dinner, I had the great opportunity to try to explain all of the underlying reasons for high gas prices to a 7 year old, who, surprisingly, liked my answers better when they were longer. She seemed to understand all the fundamentals, and I fear my explanation was going to fall short before her ability to understand ran out.

Sunday, we were fortunate enough to be able meet my parents for breakfast for Father’s Day. Because we live in D.C. and my parents live in South Carolina, I don’t get to see them that often, and I see them most often on the major holiday’s like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Seeing my pops on Father’s day was a nice treat.

The flight back was insignificant, which is what you always want in a flight. All in all a great weekend. Great to see Steven, great to see him get married, and awesome to see my family and visit with Cris’ brother a bit.

McCain and Obama Tax Policies Still Missing the Point

After reading this article on cnnmoney I’m kind of annoyed about the tax plans that Obama and McCain are putting forth.  At their basic level, the two plans aren’t all that different from stuff we’ve seen from the two major parties before, but its still nice to see the exact differences and how each one will effect you.  You can read all of the specifics in the article, but I’ve including the key portions below.

Under McCain’s plan

The net result: compared with their tax bill today, taxpayers on average would see their tax bill cut by nearly $1,200. That means their after-tax income would rise by 2%.

But those in the lowest income groups would only see their after-tax income rise by less than 1% (or between $19 and $319). By contrast, the highest-income households - those with incomes of at least $603,000 - would see a boost in after-tax income of 3.4%, or more than $40,000.

Under Obama’s plan

The net result: compared with their tax bill today, taxpayers on average would see their tax bill cut by nearly $160 under Obama’s plan. That means their after-tax income would rise by 0.3%.

But those in the lowest-income groups would enjoy the biggest after-tax income rise as a percentage of income - between 2.4% and 5.5% (worth between $567 and $1,042). By contrast, the highest-income households - those with at least $603,000 in income - would see a dramatic decline in their after-tax income - a drop of 8.7%, or $116,000.

For what its worth, I’m favoring Obama’s plan.  I have to support making it easier for people that don’t make as much to buy things they need like food and clothing, than giving the super rich people in this country more money to buy another boat or a second or third house.  I like capitalism, but I’m not a fan of the ridiculous excess that ends up coming with it.

That part of the whole article that just fries me is the portion below.

Under both plans, all American taxpayers could pay a price for their tax cuts: a bigger deficit. The Tax Policy Center estimates that over 10 years, McCain’s tax proposals could increase the national debt by as much as $4.5 trillion with interest, while Obama’s could add as much as $3.3 trillion.

The reason: neither plan would raise the amount of revenue expected under current tax policy - which assumes all the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire by 2011. And neither plan would raise enough to cover expected government costs during those 10 years.

We always hear politicians talking about fiscal responsibility, but none of them seem to get the concept that paying off your debts is a fiscally prudent thing to do.  I recognize that the economy isn’t as simple as I’d like it to be, but at least an effort needs to be made to pay down the debt.  I find it ironic that more than a few members of Congress and political appointees in government were successful businessmen prior to entering government and politics, yet they continue to run the government in a manner that would bankrupt their companies in a second by spending more money than you take in.

I wasn’t sure of all of the negatives of a huge national debt so I went to my Wikipedia crutch.  It turns out there is an argument for carrying a national debt, but given the example of Japan in the Wikipegia article, it doesn’t sound like the best idea.

I’m still in favor of paying down the debt, and at the very least not pursuing policies that are going to make it bigger.  Can anyone say Balanced Budget Amendment?  The CNNMoney article notes that the candidates’ plans will likely be adjusted some as time goes on, and as more information is available the analysis will change.  Let’s hope the changes that are made are positive, but I’m not going to hold  my breath that paying down the debt is going to be a part of that.

How Much Will American Life Change as a Result of High Gas Prices?

I don’t think its a secret to anyone that gas prices are painfully high for us Americans these days. Yes, I know, we pay nothing in comparison to much of Europe, but I’m not addressing that difference in this post. Sitting in my car in LA traffic, wasting lots of that really expensive gas, I began to wonder just how much high gas prices are going to force us to change how we live in this country. I also wonder if maybe the high cost of gas could have a silver lining to it.

The high prices have already started to force people to adjust how they live their typical lives. There’s been a great deal of anecdotal evidence that people are starting to drive less to try to conserve gas and save money. People are trying to find alternative modes of transportation like carpooling or riding their bikes to work. Sales of SUVs and trucks are down, while demand for smaller, more gas efficient vehicles has increased. The problem that I see is that these changes will take us only so far. Despite what many people may assume, the US isn’t completely to blame for the prices of oil, and in turn gas. There is a perfect storm of conditions that have brought the prices to where they are. I’m far from an economist, but my understanding is that 1) spiking demand from developing economies such as India has a large part, 2) low interest rates drive investors to put their money in commodities like oil as opposed to investing in the financial markets to seek better returns driving up demand and prices, and 3) our invasion of Iraq, in addition to other conflicts or threats of conflict in the region raise concerns about continued supplies.

Now some of these conditions can, and probably will improve, but I’m pretty skeptical that those conditions are going to improve to the point where gas prices are going to drop significantly. I’m pretty sure the growing economies that are largely driving demand are going to continue to grow, thus demand will continue to increase. So the question is, what can we change about how we do things America to improve our relationship with oil? Also, is it actually going to hurt us enough to really institute some significant change?

Things that I would like to see change:

True commitment to alternative fuel technologies. I don’t know which one should or will come out on top, but the only way that we’re going to be able to divorce ourselves from oil, is to find something to replace it. The world population is going to continue to grow, world demand for oil will continue to increase, and there isn’t really anything we can do about it, but find an alternative to using so much oil.

I’d love to see a change in the car purchasing behaviors of the country. I just can’t understand the mindset that brings people to drive Hummers. The only people that truly need Hummers carry assault rifles and wear camouflage for a living. If everyone drove smaller cars that were more gas efficient, the roads would be safer as well.

Increased use of mass transit in urban centers. One of the big things that many European cities have over many US cities is a well-developed mass transit system that uses a subway system as a primary component. Even in Washington, D.C. where they have a good transit system, its pretty inconvenient in large parts of the city. One of the most popular portions of the city, Georgetown, is still unreachable by the subway. Atlanta, one of the biggest cities in the south, has a terrible mass transit system.

The last thing that could improve our situation with oil, is something that I’m not so sure is a good thing, but I’ll throw it out anyway. Increased urbanization, would decrease commute times. We are the kings of urban sprawl in this country. People really like their suburbs and lots of land around them. I doubt that a movement back to the cities would ever actually occur, but it could help improve the oil dependence situation.

One basic thing we have to realize is that there isn’t an easy quick fix to the high gas price problem. I’m of the opinion that they’re never going to drop back to where they were. The way to getting out from oil’s thumb is probably going to be a long and painful one, but I’m pretty sure we don’t have much choice in the matter.

Thoughts on the US vs. Argentina

Great game and a great result for the US today.  Argentina is #1and the US is #21 in the current FIFA rankings.  After our last two matches, I honestly didn’t expect to see much from us today.

I was pleasantly surprised how we came out today.  The team looked great considering the effort that had been put forth in the last two matches.  It wasn’t the most attractive game, but I’ll take the result none the less.

Let me be very honest and say that there is no doubt Argentina is the better team.  They were more dangerous, more consistently.  They had better possession more consistently throughout the game.  That being said, we showed some quality play at times.  Our attack in general is still lacking potency, and our final third just still isn’t there.  While the Argentines were completely composed and confident during their possession.  Most of the time, we looked like we were “trying” to be confident and composed.  Our defense was solid for the most part, and we had to depend on them again in this game.

A few comments on individual performances.

Eddie Johnson was better today than usual, but that’s still not saying a lot.  I really wish we would start bringing in some of the younger strikers to see what they can do.  I’ll repeat what I’ve said before.  I just don’t think Johnson has what it takes to be a first choice striker for us.  Today, we didn’t give him much help, but we need more from our strikers in general.

I haven’t been a fan of Donovan’s for a while now, but I was pretty pleased with his performance.  He did a great job of being involved the entire match, even coming off of injury.  He pushed in attack at the right time and tried to slow it down and possess at the right times.  He seems to be playing with a maturity he didn’t have before and its encouraging.

Tim Howard is the freaking man.  Without him, we would have lost this game by a couple of goals.  Howard made two or three pretty incredible one-on-one saves in the first half that kept us in the game.  One place that the US has been consistently solid in recent history has been at goalkeeper.  I’m very glad that we’ve continued that trend with Howard, and appears that we have some pretty decent young keepers behind Howard.

I usually try not to complain about refereeing in games too much, but today’s performance by the referee can best be described as dodgy.  He called some pretty weak fouls throughout the game, and he fell victim to Argentine flops way too much.  The true crime of his officiating today was the red card against Pablo Mastroeni.  Unless something happened that I didn’t see, Mastroeni was given a second yellow and sent off for a foul committed by Maurice Edu.  Now, They are number 25 and 26 respectively, but they look nothing alike.  Its also incumbent upon the referee to keep his record keeping straight so that he gives cards to the right guy.  Maybe something happened that I didn’t see, but to me it looked like the referee just screwed it up big time.  I hope that FIFA reviews the tape and corrects the screw-up.

Next up for the US is the start of World Cup qualifying.  The start of this year and summer has been a pretty touch schedule for us.  Hopefully, the tough schedule will pay dividends and have us well prepared for the start of qualifying.  If we perform against some of the CONCACAF competition like we played against some of the European based teams, we should do really well.

Sapori Italian in Marina Del Rey

Cris and I went to a great Italian restaurant last night for dinner and I thought I’d share.  As we so often do, we set out from our place looking for food not really knowing where we were going to end up.  We hadn’t explored the far side of the Marina yet, so we decided to essentially follow the road around and see what was there.  We happened upon the Fisherman’s Village at Marina Del Rey.

The Village itself was a surprisingly subdued small collection of restaurants and what appeared to be shops that are no longer open.  You could also pick up boat trips and dinner boat cruises from the harbor there right next to the restaurants.  There was a Mexican, seafood, Mediterranean, and Italian restaurant there to choose from.  We obviously picked the the Italian place, Sapori.

Sapori was, in general terms, a great dining experience.  Their website describes the atmosphere as charming, and I would fully agree with that very apt description.  Its a pretty small restaurant that is right next to the water overlooking the Marina.  The setup of the tables and the lighting inside provided a nice atmosphere that was intimate without being too dark.  The one drawback about the atmosphere was that it seemed a little loud for the number of people that were there.  I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly, but I think the floors were tile which wouldn’t be very good for trying to dampen a cacophony of conversations on a full night.

The food was excellent.  Cris had a beef tenderloin and mushroom risotto in a red wine sauce.  The most simple statement of approval was Cris’ sentiment that “this is how risotto is supposed to be cooked.  Its creamy without being squishy or soggy.”  The tenderloin pieces were also tender and moist.

I got adventurous with my meal last night.  I had a square spaghetti with calamari, scallops, shrimp, muscles, and clams in a marinara sauce.  I had never had muscles or clams before, and I’ve always been generally suspicious of shellfish like that so it was going out on a limb a little bit for me.  I could have done without them bringing the clams and muscles out in the shells mixed in with the pasta (Cris liked it though), but the dish was excellent.  The marinara sauce was fantastic and all the mixed in seafood was really great.  The muscles and clams were a little bit chewy, but they were good.  One funny little thing about the dish was that the spaghetti was square.  If you’re like me you ask, “how can spaghetti be square?  Its a long slender piece of pasta?”  Well, when I looked at the end of the pasta I realized it was square long-ways instead of being round.

For desert we had one of the best pieces of tiramisu we’ve ever had.  The ladyfingers inside were nice and fluffy and the marscapone was the perfect amount of creaminess.  The espresso flavor wasn’t overwhelming, which is important to me because I don’t like coffee.

Sapori is definitely a place that we would recommend to people in the Marina Del Rey area.  While we were looking at the menu outside before we went in, a guy that was leaving gave a glowing recommendation of the lasagna.  With our positive experience on the first visit, we very well may be going back to try out that lasagna.