I am told that people still look at this blog

So it has been quite a while since either Jason or I have posted anything here, but I am told that people still look here for updates every now and then, so I thought that I would post something to let people know what we have been doing until I forget or it is time to go to bed.

Life has been busy working too much, but until the summer rains started this past week, I had been riding my bike to work a few days a week. It is an old British three speed which is perfect for Boston-- cushy seat, upright handlebars, and as many gears as one needs in a place as flat as Boston. I have also been getting out on the weekends and found some hills (much smaller than in San Diego). Now I just need people to ride with. Most of the rides seem to go out around 9:30 or 10:00 AM, which is fine in the winter, but a bit warm at this time of the year. I am sure that fall will be here before I know it and it will be cool enough that riding at 10:00 AM feels good.

This past weekend was a bit hectic. We went to my parents' house where my nieces had spent the night, had lunch, drove to my sister's house and learned that you should not let children have zip ties before long rides in the car (especially if you have nothing to cut them off of their wrists with), spent the afternoon with my sister as Jason put in a wireless network for them, off to Tanglewood (the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) for a work function, back to my sister's house for the night (a one hour drive rather than three), and then back to our houses the next day. It is fun to be able to see my nieces more than once or twice a year. They are both far too much fun, but I could not disagree with Jason when we were driving from my parents' to my sister's on Saturday and he said "I am making an appointment for a vasectomy tomorrow."

Friday night we went to see the new Batman movie at the IMAX theater. So worth it seeing it on the REALLY BIG SCREEN.

A few weekends before that we went to see Amanda Palmer, lead singer of the Dresden Dolls, play with the Boston Pops. (Yes, two fully functioning symphonies in Boston. It really is lovely.) For those of you not familiar with the Dresden Dolls, they bill themselves as "punk cabaret." Amanda (Wesleyan class of '99) treated Symphony Hall as if it were some cabaret. Her personality is as big as the space so she could get away with it. Quite a fun night, and too hard to explain in any sort of a satisfactory manner.

One of our friends Srikar is trying to teach me to make Indian food. He came over one night and we cooked together, but by two days later I had forgotten it all. There will be another lesson when there is enough time for me to take notes.

I have been getting back to the climbing gym again and even lead two climbs a few weeks ago (5.5 and 5.6, but considering that it was my first time on real rock in 2 years, I was happy). When the weather stabilizes there will be a trip up to Rumney in New Hampshire-- multipitch bolted climbing. There should also be climbing up in Maine at Arcadia National Park. Our friends Julie and Rick just moved to Bar Harbor, Maine. As happy as we are that they moved to such a cool place, it was much more convenient to hang out with them when they lived in Brookline. They moved to Maine to take jobs at Jackson Labs which they are very excited about. As they were almost always the source of interesting new beers in our house (e.g., Dogfish Head), we will have to visit them frequently to find out what they are drinking.

We spent the Fourth of July with John and Emily who are also leaving for new jobs in San Diego. Since they are not going to be close enough to easily visit, we are happy that they will be living some place that we visit. Fortunately, they will not be leaving until October or so which leaves time for climbing, cycling, and eating before they go.

We went camping a few weeks ago with my sister, her husband, and the neices. There are some photos here http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=A9BF953C5C4&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

Yes, that is a picture of a bear, and yes it was that close. No bear boxes or any other real precautions. It was the first time that the girls had been camping and they found it to be completely satisfactory. I am sure that there will be more trips in the future.


We went to Pooja and Neeraj's wedding in Houston on Memorial Day weekend. A substantial contingent of the San Diego crowd was there-- Karan, Kusum, Kira, Sunil, Shilpa, Anu, Manish, Shruti, Sahil, and other people who I am sure that I am missing. There was lots of dancing, eating, and socializing. We all stayed on the same floor in the hotel and it felt sort of dormish in a good way. We decided that we need to see each other more often and hope to get together to go skiing at some point this winter.


The departing friends have been swapped for some friends who are now more local. Bob Brown, climber and cyclist is now living in the Boston area during the week. Karan, Kusum, and Kira will be moving to the Newark area so that Kusum can start a job at Rutgers. We were hoping that they would move to Boston, but there is always hope. Manish will be visiting in a few weeks for a meeting, so we will lobby him when he is here.

We have finally found good places to food shop, and I found a local farm on a recent bike ride. There are tomatoes growing on the deck and the cucumbers are starting to flower. Gardening is not encouraged in Somerville because there can be lead in the soil. Apparently when they scraped off the lead paint, they were not very good about cleaning it up. We also have a very shady back yard, so even if the soil were good, I am not sure that anything would grow.

We are going to be heading up to Maine this summer/ fall, both to see Julie and Rick and to spend some time at Sara's family's place in York. It is right on the water, and we have been there enough times that if we never make it further than the chairs in the front yard, it is not a problem. It is a weekend away that is truly relaxing.

Time to call it a night. There are four biologists who went to law school at night who are out for the month studying for the bar. It has made me more certain that I do not ever want to go to law school. As a result, work is crazy. It should return to normal in a few weeks though which will be nice.

I got out on a sail boat twice this summer, but both Jason and I would like to find a boat to sail on regularly. We really miss it.

In between trips

FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL
The first Chargers game of the season is on tv, and the crowd is, unsurprisingly, equally distributed between San Diego and Chicago fans. That bothered me to no end in San Diego, that the community doesn't support it the way they do in other cities. A little distance makes me more sentimental for the Chargers and the days of Air Coryell, the way that I would take for granted if I still lived on the west coast. So maybe these Chicago transplants support the Chargers when the Bears aren't in town.

We're off to Yellowstone and parts midwest on Friday. San Diego was great, but we took hardly any pictures. We were too busy zipping from place to place and catching up with people. That's a nice thing about visiting a town you know--you don't need a map and travel is scarcely any time overhead at all.

We'll definitely post some Yosemite/Grand Tetons (one of the few or only mountain ranges named for female anatomy)/South Dakota pictures when we get back. I will also see about changing the name of the blog. We just got a Somerville parking permit, so we're local now.

Ice cream

One of the things that is notable about Boston is the ice cream shops. There is the occasional Cold Stone or Ben and Jerry's, but for the most part they are local chains or individual shops. People tend to have strong opinions of which one is the best and which flavors one should get at any of the particular shops. Jason and I just got back from a walk up to the Square and there was a line out the door of the JP Licks ice cream shop. (There was a power outage which may have gotten a few extra people out of their houses, but I do no think that there would have been that many fewer people even if there had not been.) It does not seem to matter the time of day. As the temperature was creeping up on Monday evening when I was walking back from the T, it seemed that everyone that I walked by had an ice cream cone.

Yesterday all of the terrible things that people say about Boston summer arrived-- heat, humidity, mugginess-- blech. As I stumbled out of bed this morning and into clothes to ride to the office, I promised myself if I rode my bike in I could stop at Chrstina's on the way home. All day long I had been thinking about getting ice cream. At the end of the day, I negotiated my way through the pedestrian traffic (which I have decided is far more aggravating than the car traffic in Cambridge) up to Christina's. There was a sign in the window that they had fresh rose ice cream. (Excellent-- I had been hoping for that.) The big decision was what would the second scoop be? I wanted to get something that would complement the rose, but nothing too heavy. I decided on the jackfruit sorbet (hints of orange, pear, and pineapple, or that is what I taste at least). There would be other nights for the super mocha, chocolate banana, and ginger molasses.

There was plenty of people watching while I was eating my ice cream. There were the four people at the table closest to the door in their business suits, one brave enough to get a cone. There were the people walking in the door looking at the list of ice creams which change regularly. Some people were clearly regulars, walking up to the counter without looking. Others were more like me, much more careful in their choices. There was one little girl who looked to be about 3 years old. She was still blissfully unaware of the effects of gravity on ice cream in a cone on a warm day. As she waved the cone back and forth in one hand, her father suggested that he hold the cone while she sat down and that she was not allowed to put it on the table. There was never a line out the door, but the shop was continually busy the entire time that I was there.

Tonight I was saying to Jason that there would not be nearly enough time to eat all of the places that we need to eat. There is the new grill as well that needs to get used. (The Minimalist is brilliant again -- go to the NYT and find his article on burgers. Again, it is a wonderful, simple food made even better.) We have reservations at Hammersley's, the cool place to eat in the South End. We will report on the weekend and the food next week.

Our Neighborhood

Our local movie theatre now serves beer! They have four screens that show second-run movies at a slightly lower cost, so the liquor license should give them a nice healthy profit and keep them afloat for awhile.

A recent event at Davis Square was the Zombie Shuffle, where made-up zombies congregated and "shuffled" down to Harvard Sq (a good distance) to "promote zombie awareness." I'm sure it was just students looking for a fun way to blow off steam. It was hilarious when the counter-zombie protesters showed up with signs like "Life for the Living" and other slogans that echoed those of right-to-lifers.

Here's me with a zombie Ben Franklin:








In other news, we now have a collection of bikes in the cellar. I just picked up a Trek 930, in addition to Colleen's two. We are now virtually set for the summer, and I have new tools to play with in further customization. Stay tuned for more details.
-jason

morels and goat milk butter

One evening Jason said to me something like "I saw Savenors (Julia Child's neighborhood grocery store) out the window of the T at the Charles/MGH stop." It could only go downhill from there.

I have unfortunately realized how easy it is to just pop off of the T and pick up something at Savenors for dinner on the way home (assuming that I am heading home early enough to go to a place tha closes at 8:00) , or to take the long way to the T, up Newbury, through the Common and Public Gardens to Charles St, and stop at Savenors and pick something up for dinner. (The pork tenderloin stuffed with dried fruit, pistacios, and cilantro that Jason made was lovely. So nice to have someone at home who is willing to work with the ingredients at hand.)

The flank steak with chimmichuri was perhaps less expensive than the morels (mmmm... morels). I tossed the morels and shallots with the pasta and goat's milk butter. It was the same (potentially mundane) preparation of two weeks ago, of shallots and morels cooked in butter with just salt and pepper, and tosssed with the cooked pasta and goat milk butter. (If you do not have any in your fridge, go out and buy some NOW so that you can put it on your toast in the morning.) I shaved some kind of cheese onto the pasta when I made it last time (a manchego maybe?) and it was a bit overwhelming with the mushrooms, but lovely with the wine (again, I forget, but another of the blends made by the same people who make the Laughing Magpie -- Aurenberg?? some New Zealand winery- -I know the label when I see it). We ended up picking the cheese out of the pasta and enjoying it as a separate taste with the wine. Tonight was a crianza from Spain, that was yummy with the pasta, and a bit light with the steak. We are still lamenting that there is no Parmagiano Reggiano that cam compete with the wheel that our friend brought back from Italy. Maybe we just need to buy our cheese in the North End, or go back to Italy.

Dinner at Komi

(Pictures will be added soon)

I came to DC for the weekend to visit with friends. Phyllis, being a big foodee like me, immediately suggested place it eat. It is call Komi and is a short walk from the Dupont Circle stop on the Metro (1509 17th St; www.komirestaurant.com), but you may want to wander a bit further after dinner to walk of a bit of the food.

We decided that we would treat ourselves to the degustation, or tasting menu. There were no suggestions on the menu as to what we might be eating or drinking. It simply said “degustation.” The pictures are a bit blurry because I did not want to use the flash. We were silly in that we did not note the wines or take pictures of all of the courses, so you will just have to stop by and see for yourself. A new wine would come every few dishes, starting with a lovely sparkling wine to cut the richness in the first few courses, followed by a few whites, proceeding through to some carefully selected reds with the meat courses and finally to some interesting dessert wines. We were impressed with how carefully the pairings had been made, especially with the red wines that came with the later courses that just did not taste as good with the other dish of the course. At the end of the meal I told the sommelier that he made me want to quit my job and go to sommelier school.

The courses were (not in order, but as close as we can remember):

House cured green olives with fleur de sel
Little slices of white halibut like fish with olive oil and some other tastiness
Warm Medjool dates stuffed with mascarpone and yogurt, again finished with fleur de sel
Small pieces of radish with butter and salmon roe (see picture)
Grilled baby (potentially hot) green chilis with a sunchoke panna cotta with quail egg, topped with small caviar (the waitress said that about one in 10 of the peppers were hot)
Deep fried foie gras balls that were coated in something that seemed to include ground almonds. We were encouraged to eat these meltingly wonderful balls of tastiness in a single bite.
Octopus, quail egg, and avocado on a bed of lentils with pig’s knuckles (see picture)
Sardine filets on carrot ribbons, currants, pine nuts, and capers (see picture)
Deep fried taramosalata balls a red pepper aioli (see picture)
Oxtail gyro with lemon tzaziki and winter squash on warm pita (see picture)
Slow cooked egg with home made yogurt
Celery soup with deep fried sea urchin and sweetbreads (I tried to convince myself that it was sea urchin with sweetbread crumbs)
Foie gras baklava- rounds of foie gras and phyllo dough, wild arugula, caramel, hazelnuts, and fleur de sel

Then Phyllis and I each got different dishes that we would eat half of, then swap wine glasses and plates, and eat the rest.

Some lovely crackers showed up at the table at this point. They had herbs and cheese and tasty things in them. We could not tell. They kept trying to take them away, but we eventually took them home.

Scallop ravioli (see picture—so dainty and cute) with cauliflower and house made chorizo; Baby lamb cooked in milk on pepperadelle

Squab with figs, some kind of interesting sausage, croquette, mushroom (see picture); Rare venison with fennel pollen, petit mousakka, and spicy fennel and red pepper slaw (see picture).

Cheese course – some firm, aged cow cheese from New Jersey, Mt. Tam, and a very strong blue cheese with toasted brioche and meyer lemon marmalade

Dessert #1- blood orange granita home made yogurt that must have been made from heavy cream.

Dessert #2- again, Phyllis and I got different dishes, flourless chocolate cake with olive oil gelato and an olive oil crisp; panna cotta on chocolate crumbs with fruit compote and other tasty fruit gelato (we were in a food stupor by then)

They also gave us some lollipops to take home with us. We forget the other flavor, but one is saffron-banana.

The dessert wines were lovely. I had asked the sommelier about a spiced red dessert wine that I had tried in Italy but could not find over here (for lack of knowing the name and a few other small technical problems). What he brought was a bit too much like sweet vermouth, but it was tasty.

We should have taken notes on the wine, but now we have an excuse to go back. There was a wonderful Reisling that was from Western Germany near Strassbourg/ Alsace. It had a rich, Muscat-like mouth feel, but not the cloying or lingering in anyway. It was a lovely clean finish. We think that it was paired with the egg through to the baklava.

If you want to go, you should make reservations. There are about a dozen tables, and most of the people were there for the tasting menu. It seems that they have seatings at 6:15 and 9:00, but it took us over three hours to eat, so it was not a bad idea to start early. Although it seems like an insane amount of food, it really was not. Most of the courses were just a few bites. We were full at the end, but not unreasononably so. Each course was a surprise. The evening was an incredible, and completely worthwhile, indulgence. Unquestionably the most interesting and best food that I have ever had.

Is it spring yet?

It snowed on my birthday:


The calendar says April, but New England shows no signs of warmth. Today there is a nor'easter sweeping up from the gulf of Mexico, which caused tornadoes and suchlike destruction down in Texas. It's interesting to look out and see this same system that caused a lot of damage, many miles away. I'd much rather be here, though.

We're settling. Colleen's flight to DC was cancelled Thurs night, so she had to re-book for a 6inthegawdawful A.M. flight the next morning. Fortunately, a taxi ride beat out the husband for driving. Our house is astonishingly close to the airport, once you've figured out where to get on the expressway (not freeway. That's a San Diego term that I have not shed.)

After picking C back up from the airport, we moseyed out to Brighton to shop for a tv. We went to Best Buy, me armed with the Costco ad showing the tv at a sale price and high hopes for a price match. They went for it, and we got incredibly good service from the AV dept, trumping the last, crappy experience I had with their Geek Squad. Never, ever use the Geek Squad. If ever I meet a more hapless failed IT person, it will be in another lifetime.

So...the specs. It's a Sharp 42", 1080p. Hay mucho resolucion. I initially bought a panasonic DVD player that advertised upconverting to 1080p, but never got above 480p. I think something was flawed in its automatic resolution detection. Plus it seemed to struggle to put the picture onscreen. I took it back (great service again) and got a Denon for about $75 more. Much better.

Comcast is coming out today to upgrade the cable. What a sad corporate state they live in. They wanted to charge me $20 to come out and "install" my DVR box. I told them that I can install it myself, I just want someone to come and remove the limiter on my line. And I feel that because Comcast stuck it on the line in the first place, I shouldn't have to be charged because someone has to physically remove it. Stupid way to do it, IMHO. They shouldn't be able to charge me $20 whenever they feel like it. BUT the creme is that all of their service people have to propound the corporate lie, and pretend that I actually need them to install the box, etc. From the 2 (two) phone sales people to the counter woman who helped me, I had to let them all know that I would not be paying for a service upgrade and clarify my position. They gave me a free HDMI cable, so that was worthwhile. I'll be watching the Sopranos tonight.

-j