Cram It All In

For the post-marathon recovery week, I did very little, physically.  Lots of rest, approximately 7 miles of walking, a Bikram session (much harder than expected as the first *real* workout I attempted the Wed after a Sunday marathon), a 30 minute session of cardio at the gym including a 1.25 miles on the TM, and I capped it off with a glorious weekend of walking around San Francisco and a 3 mile Sunday AM run on the Embarcadero with my husband.

I love running with my husband.  I was so happy to enjoy the weather, the views, the people watching and the experience of breathing hard and moving well together.  Such a privilege.  I very much hope he is willing to continue to do this with me, because it is awesome.

Around these minimal workouts, I stuffed everything and anything that would fit in the holiday season last week.

Tons of work from clients frantic to get things done before the holidays?  Check.

End of year billing and accounts receivable hurdles? Check.

Mandarin night dinner of Peking Duck with the Mandarin Ladies?  Check.

The usual mixture of professional lunches and coffees for networking, potential new clients, and maintaining relations with people in my field?  Oh, at least 3 of those.

Good friend going into labor causing obsessive phone status eval?  Check.

But wait, there's more.

The friend had a very happy and healthy baby girl.  Go baby RB!

Saturday AM, we tried to fit in a NAR high power rocket certification for both me and E. Unfortunately, the fog ceiling disagreed, so despite our rockets being ready to go, the weather won out (as it often does with respect to rockets).

After that, we checked into our hotel and hit up 3 holiday parties in SF in less than 24 hours where we reconnected with old friends and made new ones.  Plus, in addition to the run along the Embarcadero, we also fit in a a brunch with friends we hadn't seen in a long time to catch up at the delicious Gracias Madre (Vegan mexican food? I know. I was suspicious too.  But it was amazing!).

All told, I think I had the most social interactions I've had in 48 hours since a very long time (probably sometime last holiday social blitz).  If I was good at names, I could tell you the names of the 10-15 new people this weekend (but I'm not, so that's a bummer...).

In short, this introvert is exhausted.  But proud.  It was a very productive week.

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San Francisco Weekend

A long time ago (a decade ago, in fact), E and I moved down the peninsula and told ourselves that we'd take a hotel room when we were missing out on stuff in San Francisco. That was how we justified the loss of a true culturally diverse city in exchange for our plot with a garden and good, sunny weather, and a shorter commute.

We haven't taken ourselves up on our promise to return and stay in hotels as much as we should have. But we've done it more than most. In fact, we do it at least once a year thanks to my first post-college-employer, who invites us to their holiday party every year.

This year, we crammed as much as possible into the weekend. I started with Friday business meetings and lunch with a law school friend at Claudine followed by tea with another lawyer at the Ferry Building and late afternoon work at Ritual. We swung by Aldea Niños to buy a baby gift on our way to our friends before they drove us to dinner at A47 (in an unplanned coincidence, each of us had driven the route in France within the last 6 months, which was pretty cool -- the map on the menu made sense to all of us and we discussed our favorite stops).

So, really, could I have a more stereotypical SF Friday?

Why, no. And how grand was that?

Wonderous. Like driving down Lombard Street.

Which, for some reason, I also did this weekend. As a passenger. Damn, that's cool...



We stayed at the Embarcadero and enjoyed views of the holiday ice skaters (the majority were ice wobblers, actually), Christmas lights, and holiday shoppers.



We attended the holiday party at Alexander's Steakhouse and we had brunch twice with friends, once at Kingdom of Dumpling (how can you argue with that name?) and once at Just For You Cafe.

Overall, it was a whirlwind of social activities with some work squeezed in between. But the weather was perfect, the views were amazing, and we were reminded, once again, why San Francisco really is one of the greatest cities.

P.S. Sometimes, San Francisco looks like Tron:

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Sonoma Gluttony and Week -6

I was 1 lb away from high race weight before we left for Sonoma. (woot!)

And yet, just a simple trip to Sonoma later, here I am, 2.8 lbs back from the goal... (le sigh)



It was worth it.

You see that picture? That's what happens when you are lucky enough to be born in the right place and the right time to have the former sous-chef of a Michelin star restaurant (who was there when they were awarded the star) as a childhood friend (best friend's little brother and very good friend of my little brother).

Okay, so you have to be lucky enough to have all of these things happen, and then you have to come visit the hotel attached to his restaurant, and he has to arrange for an "employee-favor" rate/room, and, the next thing you know, the head of front desk guest operations is leaving a hand-written card next to this ridiculous cheese-board.

Just in case you weren't in enough awe, when you show up for dinner with the former sous-chef, at said restaurant, you will be privy to the best treatment and service at a meal you've ever your life. And the discount on the bill will make you cringe because, honestly, you've never left a tip that was 200% of the bill. But, in this case, anything less should be insulting.

Basically, our trip to Sonoma was perfect. Slept in the car while E drove (yay!). Lots of reading (double yay!). No computer or work for at least 30 hours. That's a record for the last 4-5 months. I'm going to try to break it soon. I do love arbitrary goals.

And, in running news, I hit 47.53 miles for the week. Approximately 15 miles more than I did this week last cycle. It includes 5.6 unscheduled extra miles of walking. I dialed a couple of the workouts back, but I actually added unexpected walks in SF, Infineon raceway (hills!), and after the short-cut tempo run such that my overall mileage was higher than expected.

Overall, I'm amused to be high on mileage despite my inability to do 9 miles at race pace. I did 7. Painful Miles. On a treadmill. While trying to watch TV on 6 different channels at the gym. But everything was horrid. When I called it a day, I guiltily walked an extra mile to cool down. It was a strong effort, but nothing close to what was on the schedule.

I'm very interested to see how this all plays out. Part of me thinks this training schedule is insane for any adult with a truly demanding job or family (and gasp, what if you have both?). This part thinks that even my paltry efforts at sort of sticking to it are crazy.

The other part of me knows that while this schedule probably doesn't make sense, I've done more mileage per week than ever before in my life. I'm more fit than I've been in at least 3.5 years. I'm being reasonable about cutting myself slack on the recovery days and just trying to hit quality workouts in a reasonable fashion (even if I have to drop 2 miles from a tempo run).

Did I mention the post-Sonoma gluttony long run was cut from 10 to 6? Yeah. That happened. But it was a non-quality workout, and my hips hurt in the car, so it seemed like I made the right call.

I still hit 47+ for the week.

Wish me well for 51 miles on schedule for this week. I'm definitely in the thick of things, now.

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London

Almost home, but not. Quite. The English Language. But different. Summer. But raining intermittently.

The hip hotels here make me feel like my ordinary self on vacation at home, but for some reason I want to call it "holiday" and there are different toilet flush buttons, odd power outlets, and 0 is the ground floor.

To start our British adventure, we spent a beautifully stereotypical British Night and Day with two of my college roommates.

First, E and I missed our Eurostar train from Paris. This should say something about how laissez-faire Europe had made us. And, in fairness, we didn't really miss it, but we didn't arrive before they closed boarding, so we stared at our train from the platform above for 10 minutes before it departed. They wouldn't let us even try to board. Eventually, they gave us seat assignments on the next train. They did not seem to think the hour between trains should matter. And, since we were on Holiday, they were right.

Note to self, while much has not changed in the decade I've been gone, the Eurostar between France and the UK is much more complex, process-oriented, strict-like-TSA, and takes much more time to manage. If time is of the essence, be sure to arrive with at least an hour to spare for security, customs, etc.

We left the rainy overcast skies of Paris, and after passing through the chunnel were surprised to find London to welcome us with sunshine and an arch covered with Olympic rings that seemed to proclaim the great discovery we quickly made: St. Pancras has free wireless! Ahhh... the sweet sensation of sliding towards home -- the Internet is necessary and ubiquitous here, unlike at Gare du Nord, where we couldn't even pay for access.

After an email to our hosts explaining our delay, we took a quick tube ride to V's house, we walked a Kilometer or so and there we were: Guests in a beautiful Northern London home with dinner reservations for N's birthday at Veeraswamy.

Veeraswamy was easily one of the best meals of the trip, and definitely the finest Indian dining experience of my life. Yummmmm! Thanks to N's friend in LA who sent the recommendation!

Sunday, we slept in, had a big breakfast of toast, coffee, fruit, ham, and cheese. Except the ham was turkey, because our hosts were Jewish. But their kids still called it ham, because they are British and have hefty British accents (despite a German-American-English accented mother and American-English speaking father).

At around 11:30 AM, we finally motivated to move the entire group quickly through one of the breaks in the rain -- we walked through a local park, enjoying a zoo with ring-tailed lemurs, a secret garden, a pergola, a pond, and, in a surprise to all of us, a street fair in Hampstead.

A friend came out to join us for a pint at a good old-fashioned English pub (The Duke of Hamilton), followed by a late lunch at the oh-so-British chain of Pizza Express, then more walking, a Pimm's (although it was overcast and rainy), a relaxing afternoon of catching up and take-out sushi dinner, and a tube ride to our hotel.

Today, we did lunch while enjoying the river views with W (a friend and client) from the restaurant on top of the Tate Modern. We toured W's company's offices in Bankside, did a bit of work, enjoyed the displays of the Tate, took a leisurely walk through St. James Park, Green Park, and Hyde Park (despite the intermittent rain), and treated ourselves to a delicious Moroccan dinner on Edgeware Road.

Tomorrow promises to be more clients, a trip to the science museum, a good-bye dinner with one last college friend (and client), and then it will be time to return to the U.S.

This trip has been one of the best two week periods of my life. I'm the most relaxed I've been in at least 5 years, perhaps longer.

It's as if the return to Europe after a decade of absence was a reset button on my stress levels allowing me to return to a life before law school, before my father died, before my brother was injured, before much of the major stresses in my life. Somehow, my aged self, when put in the face of these slightly foreign cultures that are reminiscent of habits and approaches I freely experienced in my younger days allowed me to let go of my current life and reconsider it in a way I haven't done in quite some time.

I have learned, that at its most basic, I love my life. I love my husband, my family, my friends, and that I've structured my life such that I can travel, because it is extremely important to me.

Here, in these cultures, I've found myself thinking regularly about how important it is that things be done well. Since becoming a lawyer, and likely before, I've always tried to do things both quickly and well, despite the inherent conflict.

Europe seems to understand that conflict, and, if I may be so bold as to generalize, appears to have erred on the side of doing things well. If I lived here full-time, I suspect I would rant like many of my friends have done to us, extolling the virtues of the American end-product-based analysis and service-based economy (when you are a consumer). But, this vacation has allowed me to see and enjoy the benefits of a non-service oriented economy (e.g. a process-based commitment to quality).

Here, my brain feasts on languages I can understand but that are not native, my nose and mouth feast on quality local specialty foods and smells that could make anyone swoon in delight, and my eyes feast on the colors, light, and beauty of Europe's gardens, architecture, and art. How could I not feel blessed? I am happy to say that I took the time to pause, meditate, light a candle and/or say thanks in no less than three of the most beautiful places of worship in the world.

Of course, this rose-colored view of Europe is unfair. Unlike most of my EU friends, I have a big refrigerator and freezer at home. Our gas is cheap and highway tolls are essentially non-existent. When I sit in a restaurant, I don't have to wait 15 minutes wondering if I will be served at all. And, the dollar goes *much* further at home.

But, on balance, this trip was just too much tipped in favor of Europe. In addition to all of the linguistic fun and positive different world-view experiences that gave me things to think about, emotionally, I was able to fit in several visits to friends I hadn't seen in a long time.

And, I was able to share the entire experience with my husband and best friend. At times I wanted to pinch myself with joy. He waited uncountable times while I took just "one more picture." And, even better, he patiently listened and joined me in the verbal rehash of each day as I savored the wonderful remnants of its experiences.

I'm already planning our European return...

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My Husband Is a Genius

On technical matters, I never forget. He's a freak of nature in how smart he is.

But tonight, we had the best date night we'd had in a long time. And I'd forgotten -- he's also a genius when it comes to enjoying steak.

At least 2 months ago, he'd identified John Howie Steak as the one big celebratory date night splurge meal he'd like to do before we left the Seattle area.

We'd been a few times for their Happy Hour and while I agreed that their offerings were good, I was not sold.

First, their menu was *very* expensive.

Second, with such a great happy hour menu, I found it hard to justify going all out.

But, E was insistent. He'd scoured their ever changing menu and drooled over drying cuts in the cold cellar. This was his one request while we were here.

So, of course, we made plans to fit it in (and, we wanted to do so with enough buffer before our trip to Spokane/Coeur D'alene/Yellowstone that we wouldn't want to avoid steak on our trip -- 'cause if she hasn't yet popped out the Kid, my pregnant sister has plans to treat us to steak, too! Yay!).

Turns out, tonight ended up being the night for steak. So, we made reservations and walked on down.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Best steakhouse I've been to in the United States.

E knows how to pick them. That is no joke.

Plus, we deployed the trick we learned in Argentina and opted to share. The 3 (4 oz.) filet sampler. USDA prime vs. American Wagyu vs. Australian Wagyu. We blind tasted and laughed -- telling the USDA prime from the Wagyu was a piece of cake. Telling the Wagyu from each other was an acquired taste.

Add a glass of bubbly for me and a syrah for E plus a half bottle of Sequel 2006 Syrah, salads beforehand (plus a breadbasket full of awesomely decadent bread selections), and sides of macaroni & cheese (to die for) and polenta with American Wagyu bolognese (too much, to be honest, we didn't even pack it to go) and we were in heaven.

All in all, it was a perfect date night.

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Cooler Than We Thought

Thanks to my plane delay, tonight, we ended up showing up for one of our local late night happy hours for dinner at 11:15 PM. Pearl's free valet parking, mussels, tuna tartar, sautéed wild mushrooms, tenderloin bites with blue cheese and an extra side of bread? Oh, hell yes. We were spoiled rotten. And we devoured every bite amongst the cool digerati.

We were also out 'til after midnight, which for us is a serious rarity. Last night, I fell asleep at 10:30 PM before my 23-yr-old roommate in CA even made it home from his workout.

Add the pretty people in town for business in their gorgeous clothes and we were very happy with ourselves this evening. We felt like perhaps we were not seriously lame and old.

In fact, after our impressive late night performance on a Thursday (before a Friday and Saturday of ridiculously good behavior to prep for Sunday's race), the only downside was, by the time we got back to our building, all of the useful parking was taken and we had to park 2 floors down, far from the elevators.

All-in-all, given the scenery and delicious food, it was worth it. At least this once. Next time, we'll likely skip it, but at least we now know what it's all about and that next time we'd prefer a slightly less hip establishment.

Mmmm... I'm so happy to have butter sauce soaked bread (mussels with bacon and a separate mushroom dish???) in my belly. It's a rare option these last 4 months, since I've been committed to healthier eating and training. But, boy-oh-boy, when it's available, the hind-brain is all too happy to indulge in the high calorie protein/fat feast. Yummm!!!

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The Unhappy Hour

One of the great things about our temporary relocation is the opportunity to try new restaurants. When E's folks were in town, we ate out for every meal, both in the greater Seattle area and in Whistler.

We still have plans to hit up Salumi, Mario Battali's dad's deli, one of these days, but that will likely need to wait for a weekend so we can make a full Seattle day of it.

Due to the economic downturn, many of the fancy restaurants in the Seattle area have taken to having happy hour menus with small plates in the restaurant's theme and lower priced drinks. Since we live within walking distance of downtown Bellevue, we can walk to many of these options in less than 5 minutes. Additionally, some of the restaurants have taken to offering the happy hour menu again, after the traditional dinner hour. This results in the interesting side effect that the happy hour menu is available from 3 - midnight in many of these restaurants with only a short break from 6:30 to 9 or so.

So, we've taken to eating only during happy hour (or avoiding the "unhappy hour" as I like to call it) at some of our favorite restaurants like Seastar (a walk to an early dinner of half-priced oysters, deviled eggs, and raw fish?), Daniel's Broiler (early or late deliciousness with a view of Seattle from the 21st floor), and John Howie Steak (Did someone say *fried* gnochi?).

There are several more options we're looking forward to trying like Pearl and Monsoon.

Unfortunately, my favorite local restaurant, Din Tai Fung does not have happy hour, nor do they take reservations. So we go there at odd hours to avoid the 1.5 hour wait as well. E's favorite restaurant, Sushimaru is so reasonably priced that every seat along the conveyor belts are full with a wait on the benches along the wall during workday lunch and dinner hours.

In short, the traditional eating hours are not a good time to be eating at restaurants in the Seattle area. But if you're flexible on time, you can get quite a great deal.

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40 Hours in Argentina

We arrived in Buenos Aires at 7:40 AM. The bonus of renting an apartment vs. staying in a hotel is that you can check in whenever you arrive, then take a nap, then a shower, and finally head out to sight see right around the time when you'd finally be checking in to your hotel.

The first meal: walk to build up an appetite and view local plazas. Finally sit down to 2 hours of sparkling water, wine, bread, pickled grilled eggplant, a huge grilled serving of skirt steak and a salad (you pick each ingredient and the size of your salad -- a brilliant approach) at Minga.

As an aside, I almost cried at the deliciousness of my Cafe Americano -- the best coffee I'd had in years. I've had 3 since we arrived: no sugar, no milk, just deliciousness. Anyways, big shock -- the meat was juicy, delicious, and flavorful, as promised. The chimichurri was different than anything I've ever had -- it seemed like a mixture of oil, dried oregano, vinegar and salt (delicious, but very different). The pace was slow, the servers were amazingly friendly, and overall, we decided we were in love with this Country within 8 hours of arrival. E even went so far as to compare it to Australia, "I'd love to move here if it wasn't so damn far from everything..."

We walked about 7 miles between the nap and sleep that first day, exploring Palermo, getting lost, grocery shopping, and getting our Argentinian Spanish bearings.

And, today, the next day, was a whirlwind tourist day typical of folks who are over-eager to make the most of their vacation. Upon arrival back at the apartment, we gmap'd it, and it looks like E did his first half marathon today!

After sleeping in and some brief work efforts on both our parts, we walked from our apartment to 5 banks (count 'em). Finally, we found an ATM with cash. I am now quite proficient at the Spanish necessary to figure out if someone who is leaving an ATM has actually received cash or is leaving in dejection -- oddly, this is a set of figurative phrases I'm not sure I could translate as I've never had the opportunity to experience this situation in English (much less 5 times!). E's theory was an early morning run on the banks before the Portenos woke up. Or, he pointed to their history of poor currency management. Me, I was just totally confused, most of all by the looks of understanding and expected failure by locals who realized there was no cash to be had at a particular bank (as in NONE of the ATMS had any left).

Thankfully, we found a bank with money and acquired enough for a noon stop at a cafe (mmm... Cafe Cortado, or whatever they say when I order my Americano, I thought Cortado had 1/3 milk, but ordering an Americano gets me what I expect even when they correct me). An hour later, after sipping our coffees and nibbling the pastries they served alongside, we marched on.

The Floris Generica.

Lots of plazas and gardens.

The Recoleta Cemetary and Evita's tomb.

An amazing lunch of empanaditos gratis, Provoleta a la Napoletana served over a piece of wood charcoal, brochette de lomo, bookended by 1-inch thick pieces of bacon, intermingled with red pepper slices and onions, and served over its own piece of wood charcoal, at the table, and, of course the salad you compose from the menu (did I mention tomatoes are in season here? YAY!). Amazingly, we eventually roused ourselves from the table (post-Americano for me), fueled for the remainder of our half-marathon.

The Teatro Colon (closed for holiday, but gorgeous from the outside).

The Plaza de la Republica.

The Widest Street in the World (three light cycles to cross).

The Casa Rosada.

Half the trip to San Telmo, and then a stop at a cafe for water, and then, defeat. Maybe we'll fit it in before we move on, but if not, we're still in love with BA. So, rather than press on to the historic district, we took our exhuasted selves in a cab to a square that's a mile from our rented apartment and we walked home from there.

Relaxation.

Walk to dinner at Ceviche. Watch the electricity go out on the block where we are to eat. Enjoy a candelit dinner of amazing ceviche and sushi while patrons sing and play violin by candlelight (why did he bring a violin?). When it is time to leave, laugh with the server about needing to pay in dollars since the credit card machine won't work. Leave a generous tip since the majority of the reservations opted not to show up due to the dark restaurant.

Walk almost home. Get lost. Get un-lost.

Sigh in contentment to realize your apartment building is not without power, which means glorious air conditioning.

Yay Argentinian half marathon!

(Photos to come)

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Happy Holidays

This weekend, E and I headed to San Francisco to attend the annual holiday party hosted by my first professional employer.

This employer, showing excellent judgment, refused to hire me at my first interview. I showed up at their offices in the Financial District dressed in head-to-toe spandex on rollerblades (I had come straight from diving practice). They had just moved to San Francisco from Boston, and, while they were looking for a Californian college student to do library research, they weren't quite prepared for my oh-so-Californian attire.

They hired a guy who showed up in a suit. He was terrible. They fired him. I re-faxed my resume a year later and showed up for my second interview in a suit. I got the job and worked through my last year of school and into my first full-time professional job. I loved working there -- they were excellent employers, and I tried to leave on very good terms to follow the dot-com boom.

I guess I succeeded because I was hired back as a consultant when I became inevitably unemployed as a result of the dot-com bust. Happily, I've been invited to every holiday party they've hosted since.

Over the years, we've been their guests at some of the city's best bars and steakhouses (and one year, they flew us to Vegas!). This year's party was during Santarchy, which added an extra festive note to our drinks at the Comstock Saloon and the delicious multi-course private room meal at 5A5. Bonus, I was able to give a toast thanking them for introducing me the beauty of small business ownership and for being one of the inspirations for starting my own law practice.

Every year, E and I look forward to this event for great conversation during a big night out on the town and a stay at a hotel. It's become one of our favorite holiday events. Last year we enjoyed Union Square in all of its holiday splendor with the lights, Christmas trees, Macy's wreaths, ice-skating rink, and more.

This year, we stayed at the the Hyatt Regency and enjoyed the spectacle of the approximately 1500 hanging columns of light (E counted). Sadly, we missed the falling snow effects of the lights, but we were joined with gleeful children on every elevator ride, so that they, too, could enjoy the spectacle of lights and the view of the decorated atrium below. The hotel clearly knows that the hundreds of children riding the glass elevators are not guests, but employees pointedly ignore the transgressions in the name of holiday fun.

Today, I looked at the list of events our hotel was hosting in addition to the immense effort they've put into decorations (Photo opportunities with Santa, holiday dinners and brunches, and more), and I was impressed. There's obviously a pride and a desire to contribute to the communal holiday festivities that many of the larger businesses, as well as the smaller businesses and individuals in San Francisco feel. It warms my heart to be part of it.

Happy Holidays.

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Happy Solstice!

Summer is here and bringing its usual treats: lots of social stuff.

Last weekend's trip to Sonoma with E's family was gluttonous, relaxing, and wonderful.

A 1999 Barolo we'd been storing was an excellent complement to the meat and dessert courses we shared with E's family for the father's day celebration at Cyrus.

Our wine fridge is restocked, and I have new favorite winery in Sonoma: Passalacqua -- gorgeous grounds, excellent small production wines that you can only buy on site, friendly staff, discounts for wine club membership, and reasonable prices, what's not to like?

Next weekend, I'm off to Seattle to run the rock 'n roll half marathon with a friend I haven't seen in several months. It'll be her first half, and I'm excited to share it with her.

And, of course, the end of the fiscal quarter is doing what it does: burying me with work.

So, I'll probably be fairly quiet on the blogfront until July (when I hope to have ripe tomatoes!).

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Happy New Year!

My plan was to drop brother at a party, enjoy a good meal with E, and to sleep my way into 2010.

I accomplished all of these things, and more, except the sleeping through.

First, we arrived to the growing threat of a party at T&H's construction lot and later, their current house. Brother's grin grew bigger with each new guest, and we smiled to leave him to what promised to be a huge party of his friends (many of whom haven't seen him in 6 months) in his honor.

As for the meal, I think BigDon may have intervened. We had reservations, but they were 6 blocks away and I was tired and without a coat. So, we called the nearest Italian restaurant to our hotel and were pleased to learn that they had room for us on no notice (of course, we were a bit early -- "yes, I would love a 6:45 PM reservation, thank you!"). The decor was modern and the smells delicious when we entered, but it was the appropriately decadent menu and the awesome people watching that really made the night of celebration.

Why yes, I would love to start my meal with a light appetizer of burratta and prosciutto di san daniele [Mmmmmm.... salty, fatty, goodness]

Wow -- I had no idea sequins were so popular right now!

I think I will have the hand made gnochi with chanterelles, lobster and truffle oil in a cream sauce

Talk about comfortable in your own skin ... don't look now, but at the table next to the party of men in suits and women in strapless dresses, there is a woman wearing a mu-mu that has a mustache...

And I will have the hand made pappardelle with beef sauce

As you can imagine, between the food's quality, good service, all the views, and the reasonable prices, we were having a lovely night. But then, (and this is where I think BigDon intervened) in walked the V's! We were thrilled for the opportunity to catch up with them before their meal, and then joined them when we were done to enjoy fun conversation about our families, friends, and the impending arrival of their new little one while they finished their dinners. What a coincidence! Of all the restaurants in the entire Sacramento area, even though they live in Folsom, they elected to dine early, downtown, at the restaurant we chose by nothing other than proximity to our hotel.

As promised, I was in bed and asleep long before midnight. I believe I put my book down and kissed E goodnight before 11 PM. So great!

At midnight, the revelry woke me so I could join E at the window and watch the fireworks over the capital building through our window with E's arm around my shoulder.

And then, I promptly returned to sleep to start the New Year this morning rested, relaxed, and with motivation to hit the gym bright and early.

Here's to 2010!

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On a roll

Friday was one of the more self-indulgent days I've had in a while. After a morning of working from home, I took the afternoon off to have a long late lunch with T. We met at the ice-skating rink by the sparkling sky-scraping Christmas tree in Union Square. Between that and the tell-tale wreathes in every window at Macy's -- there is no denying it, Christmas is right around the corner.

We sat for two hours at Metropol, eating, sipping wine and chatting. Eventually, we moved the gossip and discussion of changes in the legal industry and what it could mean for our careers, long-term, to the salon, where we relaxed, sipping tea and coffee and watching the world walk by in Union Square from the windows while I got my hair done (if I'm only going to get it done once or twice a year, best to make one of those times before all the photographic preservation of the holidays, that's my motto!).

From there, we did a super-quick dress shopping run to Macy's, which thankfully had tons of reasonably priced dresses in stock (yay for shopping with an expert -- 1 party dress and 1 work dress in less than 1 hour, thanks T!).

And finally, I picked up E, and we checked into our hotel for our date night. After a drink at the hotel bar (complete with traveling singers in tuxes stopping in with an accordian to sing some Holiday Carols) we -- all dressed up, so proud -- took a cab in the rain to one of our all-time favorite restaurants -- Acquerello.

I cannot say enough about this 16-table restaurant. It is, without doubt, the best high-end Italian food I've had in the U.S., both on our last visit 2 1/2 years ago, and this one. Every morsel is phenomenal, and at least half bring back memories I've forgotten of my time spent in Italy (anchovy-stuffed deep-fried olive amuse bouche? Right. Not only can you stuff olives, you can bread them and fry them. Brilliant. How did I forget that?), the service is amazing, and the Italian accents of half the staff just add to the I-swear-I'm-in-another-country feeling of the experience.

Additionally, Acquerello always has a special imported ingredient that tries to steal the show. Last time, it was the burata. This time? WHITE TRUFFLES!!! (Okay, so the cheese cart was absolutely amazing, as well, and I savored every bite. But for me, the truffles won. E probably prefers the soft cow's cheese in walnut leaf he swooned over.)

But the truffles? Did I mention I love truffles? The tagliolini with butter, egg yolks and Parmesan cheese was one of the best dishes I've ever had in my life (not just best pasta dishes, mind you, best dishes ever). I need to learn how to make the butter, egg yolks and parmesan sauce even if I don't have truffles.

And tagliolini? How did I forget about this awesome pasta? I'll leave the making of it to the pros, but I plan to be buying some for simple liquid sauces.

Light pastas. That is one of the things that America makes it easy to forget about Italy. I shall try to remember...

Yes, Acquerello is an expensive restaurant, but it's probably less than most bay area 1-star Michelin restaurants, and, the food is absolutely worth it. Not to mention that it's much cheaper and easier than going to Italy if you'd like to feel as if you traveled.

In true Italian style, E and I slowly enjoyed all of our food and wine 'til after midnight (I didn't fall asleep or even threaten to do so), and then, upon arrival at our hotel, we fell, completely relaxed, into bed.

Saturday, I managed to get up and hit the gym for my first run since the awesome big-sur half marathon experience, and then we came home to enjoy lunch with sister and brother before I knocked out many of the chores that I often don't have time to finish before the end of the weekend (hello, all laundry is DONE!). Today, after an early bedtime, I woke to do 40 minutes of yoga before the day began in earnest.

In short -- a decadent Friday followed by a productive weekend? And I've still got half of Sunday ahead of me? I feel on top of the world.

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Never Seen Before

Work is blowing up. If my experience is any indication, the economy should be starting to recover.

Tonight after a ridiculously long day at work when I was staffed on a new emergency fast track deal at 1:30 AM, I came home for a quick dinner before making myself available for additional document review and disclosure, if necessary.

E asked for Sushi. I obliged, because I'm trying to be a good wife (especially when I know I've been slipping on that front lately).

Our local Sushi joint is close. Good. Relatively reasonably priced. And tonight, there was a female sushi chef dressed in a red tunic with wide black color trim behind the sushi boat "U".

It really shocked me.

I don't think I've ever seen a female sushi chef before (but I can't be sure).

Anyone else? Am I just forgetting other encounters I must have had, or is this one of those things that doesn't usually happen?

Regardless, I like this place just a little bit more for bucking what is at a minimum a cultural norm, and may be, for all I know, a sexist prohibition.

E, of course, got no end of enjoyment out of accusing me of being sexist for liking the place more simply because it had a female chef...

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San Luis Obispo Food

This weekend, E and I went to the central coast of California to visit my gran for her 83rd birthday.

We left the fog and clouds on Saturday morning to arrive to perfect blue skies, warm weather, and, of course, given that we were in the heart of farm and wine country, the best food and wine that California has to offer, fresh from the local farms that grow it.

Saturday birthday brunch with Gran in Morro Bay at a long-term local institution (where of course, everyone knew her by name) was delicious. Mmmmm... calamari steak...

For dinner, E and I decided to try a new restaurant, The Gardens of Avila.

The chef has amazing credentials, so we had high hopes, but you never know...

Before we headed into the restaurant, we stopped to enjoy the property and walk and relax in the labrinth and gardens -- so relaxing and tranquil. Our commitment to stop and enjoy nature rewarded us with a gorgeous sunset as we entered the restaurant:





We were, I must admit, a bit under-dressed (shocking). But the hostess paid no heed to my flip-flops, jeans, and tank top or E's 15-yr-old t-shirt. Instead, she graciously seated us without a reservation and the entire establishment proceeded to treat us to wonderful service.

The menu was simple but elegant, and amazingly reasonably priced. Chorizo was an ingredient in more dishes than I ordinarily expect, but I considered that a plus.

The wine-by-the-glass selection was full of great local selections at reasonable prices. We both selected a glass and they were happy to bring it to us to sip while we perused the menu. I selected snapper, with mussels, shrimp, fennel (and of course chorizo). E selected duck breast flanked by duck confit spring rolls.

While we sat in our booth after ordering, multiple bus-boys and servers came to our table to re-fill our water, and everyone treated us very well despite what I sheepishly realized was the apparent disparity between our attire and the majority of the patrons. Sometimes, Silicon Valley makes you forget that most people actually *dress-up* to go to a fancy restaurant. We laughed at our mistake, and enjoyed the fact that they did not seem particularly concerned with our choice in attire (granted the property has mineral springs hot-tubs, and people outside were walking around the property in bath-robes, so that helped with our level of comfort as well).

About half-way through our glasses of wine, our server arrived with a complimentary amuse-bouche from the chef. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that he had some spare pork belly and had prepared a marinated pork-belly kimchee-inspired bite for us. It arrived with a fully complimentary glass of Cambria pinot noir for each of us as well. I'm not certain how we were selected for this gift, as I watched the other tables to see if it was the norm and determined that it was not, but we were not complaining.

The only pork dish on the menu that I recalled seeing was Kurobuta pork loin. And, I suppose, if you order pork loin for the kitchen, there could be some spare pork belly in the mix. And, if I were I chef, I'd hate something that decadent to go to waste. But man... the wonderous creation he made with it... it was more than just salvage. It was by far the best pork belly preparation that either E or I had ever had (and trust me, E is a man who has eaten more than his lifetime allocation of pork belly during the time I've known him). Spicy. Tender. Rich, but cut with soy and citrus and ginger and pickled tiny bits -- just delicious. And, the wine was a perfect pairing:



From there, we were prepared to be wowed. As a testament to how well it was prepared, we were actually more hungry *after* the lardy-goodness of the treat than before. And, our excitement was not the least bit overzealous.

My snapper seafood plate was gorgeous, light, with oh-so-fresh tomatoes in the broth, some roasted fennel and chorizo to add contrast, and, well, it was just a beautiful array of flavors and tastes:



E's duck platter was nothing short of perfection. We agreed that it was in contention for the best prepared duck-breast either of us had ever enjoyed (and the spring rolls were excellent too!) and I come from a family that exhausts their duck tags every season:



After our entrees, we were certain we were full.

But then we ordered the cheese plate (because how can you say no to cheese?) and we were amazed yet again:



The far left is a goat, sheep, cow's milk cheese called La Tur. Really? Can you go wrong with a blend of three animals' milks for cheese? I think not.

The hard cheese is a parmigiano reggiano. Simple. Classic. Always great.

The soft cheese on the right of the parmigiano is a triple cream brie. Triple. Cream. Brie.

The big surprise was the blue. We tolerate them. Occasionally, we even like them (particularly if we've had a bit much of the wine). But this one, even without too much wine, was in contention for my favorite cheese on the plate. And E loved it too. To find a blue that is tangy, delicious, rich, complex, clearly a blue, and yet not so stinky as to evoke the locker-room memories -- well, I call that success. To have it be one of the best cheeses on the plate? That's nothing short of a cheese miracle, I tell you.

So, the 4 cheeses were winners. But the side items to dress the cheese were even more amazing.

Look closely -- the one in the middle? Yes, that's a local honeycomb. How cool is that? And delicious!

The left? That's blood orange preserves without sugar. It was perfect with cheese but would be terrible as a simple preserve on its own. I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a preserve that was clearly made with the intention of being served with cheese but would be terrible with anything else--what a pleasure to enjoy the tang and avoid the extra sugar!

And on the right? The preserved local cherries? I could have eaten a pound, no problem.

In short, we had one of the best meals we've had all year, the dining room was *extremely* well run, the service was polite, unpretentious, and attentive, and the total price was so pleasant that we were disappointed we couldn't come back the next night. We agreed -- this is the best bang for the buck meal we'd eaten since dining in rural Italy in 2001.

So, quick, we beseech you, plan a trip to the central coast of California and hit up the Gardens of Avila.

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Pasadena's Good Eats

R, J & I had the pleasure of a celebratory meal at Bistro 45.

We showed up at 5:30 -- they weren't really ready to seat folks but treated us extremely graciously and made us comfortable until our server was ready for us.

We all had salads, each of which were delicious, 2 house salads, and my beet and goat cheese salad (mmm... I swear, I order at least one of these each week during spring... I love beets, and I love goat cheese, how can I resist?)

R loves rose´s, and since it was her big day, we ordered one of their inspired selections, The Jacaman 2006 vin gris de pinot noir -- probably my favorite rose that I've ever tasted (of course, it's sold out!).

Our entre´es were all amazing. J is a vegetarian, so he ordered the Baked Polenta with Fennel ratatouille, fondue of spinach and Sonoma goat cheese. We were blown away with the presentation (of course, J is throwing signs, perhaps to compensate for his non-blood-thirsty vegetarian ways?):



R ordered the trout, and it came so delicately prepared that I couldn't believe it was the same fish I ate growing up camping -- not a single bone to be found, so moist, so well-pared, and, most-importantly, so not-fishy.

I ordered the ahi and salmon tartar. It was excellent and had the extra-special bonus of being the right size to leave room for dessert.



For dessert, R ordered the crème brule´e en cage. Damn. First, it came with a celebratory message on the plate for R's graduation and a candle -- such adorable service on a Saturday night for under-dressed patrons without a reservation.

Plus, the cookies with which the dessert was served were so good that R later admitted she almost didn't share. It wasn't 'til the final bite of the oatmeal flour cinammon heaven cookie that she finally realized she wanted to *talk* about how good it was, and in order to do so she'd have to let us have a bite, so she grudgingly handed us each a small morsel. Amazing!

The only slightly below-average offering was the cheese plate. The blue cheese was a huge ball of salt. The cow's milk cheese was just okay, as was the sheep's milk. But the dessert was amazing and the coffee was perfect, so just skip the cheese and you'll be thrilled with the entire experience.

Overall, I was very impressed and sincerely enjoyed the meal: ambiance--great, service--friendly and excited to share the celebration for R's graduation with us, wine selection--impressive, food--delicious, pricing--great value (approximately $77/pp including generous tip for a leisurely meal of 2 amazing courses each, a shared dessert, a cheese course, an excellent bottle of wine, and 3 coffees).

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