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February 26th, 2012
07:33 pm - portland, final day
chop charcuterie: hot porchetta sandwich
love my bento: hawaiian kalua pork, rice, mac salad
cascade barrel house: 15 sour beers (john and i split 15 2 oz. tasters, so i really only had like 15 oz. of beer), clam chowder (sadly better than many boston versions)
potato champion (for the second day in a row): fries
pyro pizza: margherita pizza
whiffies: bite of fried berry pie
waffle window: 3B waffle (bacon, basil, brie)
chiang mai: sai oua sausage, khao soi, gang om (beef stew) pad thai wrapped in omelet
THE END
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October 2nd, 2011
12:07 pm - costa rica!
costa rica photos now on facebook!
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May 22nd, 2011
10:29 pm - mi gato es blanco y negro
john and i are learning spanish! we spent most of the weekend doing rosetta stone and are currently on level 1, unit 2. it's pretty entertaining, so i expect motivation to continue won't be a problem. my major complaint is that it's not challenging enough. the majority involves either clicking on multiple choice options or repeating after a voice, and you can kind of blow through most of it without true understanding. the most valuable segments, in our opinion, are the ones that ask you to say an original phrase (answering a question or describing a picture) or listen to a sentence and transcribe it correctly. but these are only about 5 percent of the tasks, and throughout unit 1 i kept wishing they were more frequent. sure enough, the "milestone" at the end of unit 1 demanded we say all kinds of shit, describing what was happening in some frames of a family going camping. we both failed, despite scoring 97-100 percent on all the previous lessons, which hadn't appropriately scaffolded us toward this capstone at all. i really hope successive lessons grow more complex not only in grammar and vocabulary, but also pedagogy. i also wish the program were adaptive, logging what types of questions are most frequently missed and altering the course to focus more on those.
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February 2nd, 2011
04:19 pm - craigie on main six-course tasting menu
i'll post about the tournament soon, but first: birthday dinner!
i'm still not clear on which were considered the six courses. i kept thinking we were done and then they would bring more dessert.
1. three chilled seafood preparations: house-cured salmon with miso-mustard viniagrette, squid noodles with nuoc cham, and fried essex clam in squid ink. all superb, but the clam was our favorite.
2. salad of hiramasa sashimi with red onion-shiso salsa, yuzu and green goddess viniagrette. this was my favorite thing all night, but it was really small, so i think it may actually have been an amuse-bouche. they mentioned an amuse, but that usually comes out first, so it was confusing.
3. daikon milk-poached tilefish with bulgur and fennel. john said "daikons don't have udders"
4. i don't remember what they said this was called, but it was the chef's interpretation of some traditional jewish dish: house-made rye pasta spirals with duck confit. i didn't care for it.
5. vermont pork belly with black trumpet mushrooms. so rich i gave half of mine to john.
6. organic veal two ways: slow roasted short rib and sweetbreads with hedgehog mushrooms and tangerine in foie gras jus. this was fantastic, but so much richness after the pork belly.
7. little ball of house-made ruby grapefruit sorbet topped with champagne foam.
8. two desserts: john got an excellent sour milk panna cotta in brown butter and i got chocolate cremieux topped with homemade marshmallow and caramelized mini popcorn (or something like that). there was also some other ball of something on the plate - chocolate ice cream?
9. valrhona hot chocolate spiced with ancho chile. they were serving this to everyone because it was so cold out. i imagine it similar to the chocolate in the movie chocolat that was giving everyone orgasms.
10. chocolate almond clusters that came with the check.
drinks were 750 ml gouden carolus ambrio and an excellent cocktail with some house-distilled vodka, sage, juniper and lime. can't wait til the next time!
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December 11th, 2010
08:44 pm - 1-1-1
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November 7th, 2010
04:24 pm - liked at yesterday's belgian beer fest
haverhill ruby bruin
st bernardus abt 12
090909 stone vertical epic
watch city beejezus belgian botanical ale
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August 2nd, 2010
05:55 pm - nationals?
is it really this weekend? i haven't had too much lj time with busyness at work, but i'm getting excited to see everyone. i'm probably more prepared than i ever have been, which is still pathetically underprepared.
i have a reservation at two hotels and still can't decide where to stay. staying off site would save a good bit of money over the intercontinental, and the off-site hotel is tripadvisor's top-rated hotel in addison. when i booked it i was actually looking forward to the walking back and forth because i hate when i go to a tournament and end up never leaving the hotel. but i was actually just in dallas for work two weeks ago and it was rather unbearable. damn you texas. it's 102 degrees in addison right now. i guess i'm still leaning somewhat toward the off-site hotel, though, because it has a kitchen and the intercontinental doesn't. i don't really expect to cook anything, but having a fridge is nice.
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June 27th, 2010
12:24 pm - oregon tile photos
well, i didn't remember to take any photos at the actual tournament, but pictures of the unspeakably delicious things we ate are here on facebook.
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June 12th, 2010
01:34 pm - saturdaying
we took chico to jp animal clinic for our first checkup today. getting him in the carrier this morning involved much more drama than our practice run a few days earlier, perhaps because he now knew what was coming. after chasing him around the house, scaring him out from under the bed, etc. we finally captured him. the vet and tech were really nice. he got his dirty ears cleaned and nails clipped, as well as rabies and distemper vaccines. i asked about his runny eyes and they said his eyes were a little inflamed, probably a result of some incurable eye virus he might have contracted while living on the streets. lysine supplements would help with the runniness. other than that he's great. i did learn that his scarred ears, which i assumed were from a catfight, were probably self-inflicted from when he had ear mites back in the day. a pleasant surprise was that they gave us a huge ($55) discount for adopting a rescue cat and another $20 for him being neutered, which covered the entire cost of his exam! when we got home he scampered under the couch, but now he's in my lap and appears to have forgotten about the whole thing.
we also went to the farmer's market and scored lettuce, chard, garlic scapes, strawberries, bacon and chorizo. after we bought the meat they said we could have anything from the "free" bins, which were full of bones, kidneys and fatback - chinese chef heaven! i took bones for stock and kidneys, but john said he didn't want to make lard.
heading off soon for scrabble and soccer.
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June 9th, 2010
05:36 pm - haha
it seems this question has been conveniently decided for me. last month's bill from verizon just arrived with $40 of data charges on it. when i called about the charges, the rep said i had downloaded 10 ringtones on may 26. she said there's no way it could have happened by accident because you have to go into the "media center" area of the phone, select ringtones and download them, which i simply did not do. despite that this was the first time this has happened in six years with verizon and that i have never before accessed the media center, she wouldn't remove the charges (even banks will waive your overdraft fee the first time). at the end of the call when she asked if there was anything else, i said i wouldn't be renewing my verizon contract because of this, and she said "i do apologize about that, thank you for choosing verizon," which was funny.
i'll go with t-mobile or sprint's common cents, which should save about $1000 over the next year compared to the droid option. more than the savings, though, i like spurning some of the excesses of modern life (so i can buy more extra-large lattes, i suppose). my descent into hermitry continues.
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wisemonkey's journal