Thank you to all of my friends and family who made this birthday a great one. The little cake in the photo was perfect. Everyone knew I wanted a small party with a few friends and family, so the tiny cake was right on theme. And you know the saying about having your cake and eating it too? Well that actually happened since I got to take the whole thing home by myself :)

It's a bit out of sight, tucked away in the 240 Plaza strip mall just south of I-240 on Western, but I'm really glad I found this place. One of the things I miss about traveling to larger cities is the variety of food we used to find. Mediterranean Grill gives me back a little of that 'fix' I crave now and then. The food is always fresh, made to order, tastes great, and the owners are friendly. Some of my favorites are their Dolmeh (or Dolmades), pita bread with tzadziki sauce, kubedeh kabob (seasoned ground beef) with grilled vegetables and saffron rice, and the tabouli and Greek side salads (still need to try the others). Hopefully they'll be able to add lamb dishes to the menu someday (grilled, sliced lamb on pita with crisp, roasted potatoes would be great). Although the food says "dinner table service," the interior is setup like a nice sandwich shop, with orders placed at the counter. This setup is both good and bad. The good is that I can quickly come and go without any fuss, and I love the self-serve ice machine. The bad is that it just won't attract a dinner crowd, which is why I think they close early most nights. Check them out if you're in the area and want to try something a little different.

Over the last few days I revisited a pair of popular fractal programs to see if I could come up with anything interesting. Apophysis generates flame fractals and is mesmerizing to watch as you animate through formula and color variations. UltraFractal is probably the most popular and feature rich application for creating fractals. Most of the images here are flame fractals generated in Apophysis, then rendered with UltraFractal and finally edited in Photoshop for compositing and color manipulation. Click the image to see the rest of the Fractal gallery.