it was an exciting weekend here, since steve and i got to spend quality time together doing geeky things.

on friday we went to the crosstown classic cubs v. sox game at comiskey (or whatever they're calling it now). man, was it hot. it was like a zillion degrees. and the funny thing is that we went with a group from weather.com. i mean, you'd think they would have worked that whole weather control thing out by now. sheesh.

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another sheesh: on saturday, we went to wired's second annual 'nextfest', which is like a world's fair of geeky futuristic stuff. the highlight was a demonstration of a korean robot named hubo, who was really amazingly lifelike with his arm movements and gestures, but who fell over once he started walking. doh!
the chicago tribune had a blog about the event, which i will now excerpt here:

Straight from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology comes a
robot that can recognize and respond to speech and is envisoned to be a helper
for humans some day. During a demonstration the smooth-walking wonder fell to
the stage with a thump.
"Medic!" an audience member yelled to a few chuckles. "Man down!"
"Robot down," someone corrected.
Almost immediately, people ringing the stage five deep began peeling away,
disappointed they didn't get to see the MTV-like syncronized dancing of Hubo
robots as depicted on the two large plasma screens.

a friend told me that hubo was no longer on display on sunday. doh!

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on saturday night, steve and i finally saw revenge of the sith, which i truly loved. thank god my bladder held out through the whole thing, 'cause it pretty much kicked butt.

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sunday i was extremely lucky and was able to not only get caught up on the boatloads of crap i had to get done since i've been traveling so much, but i also got to hang out on our lovely little landscaped deck, mellow out, and catch up with my two best buds, ann and keenan. ann just got back from a crazy spa-touring trip to japan, and keenan just moved (with his lovely wife carrie) back to michigan to start his residency. man, i felt really lame only having my dorky life to report on. still, i felt loved. and to those of you who have emailed me and admitted that you actually read this lame blog, THANK YOU, because it really does make my day to know that you're thinking of me. steve and i miss you all so much...

feck.

wow. for as crazy as this week has been, at least we don't live in north dakota.

i just LOVE this quote (which i'm probably mangling a bit) by the pistons' rasheed wallace: "a lot of people thought we'd be out tonight -- they had their crystale ready and all that stuff -- but hey, we're gonna pop it thursday."

i hope they're right. go pistons!!!!

thoughts from my trip to montreal:

- i have apparently forgotten how to understand any spoken french. :( i comforted myself with the thought that maybe i'd be able to understand french that is spoken with a parisian accent, which is apparently what we were all taught in college. on the plus side, i could read pretty much everything that i saw (granted, signs and menus aren't usually that difficult)
- i can see why my dad thought he might want to go to mcgill university in montreal. it's a damn beautiful campus.
- apparently they have a new fish sandwich titled MEGAPOISSON at burger king. i didn't get one, but i was tempted to, just because it's fun to say.
- i flew air canada on my return trip, which was my first time on one of their flights. the aircraft's rows jumped from row 3 to row 12, so even though i was in row 14, i was only six rows from the cockpit. that was weird. but then again, maybe they explained it in the french announcement prior to take-off.
- the next time i'm there, i'm visiting both the biosphere and the biodome. despite the hipness of the sphere, i think i'm actually more into the idea of the biodome. what do you think?
- i can't figure out who buys cigarettes at duty free. is there anyone out there that can explain this to me?

i'm in montreal this evening. i am one of the program committee members for an advertising conference on audience measurement. the conference starts on monday, but i have rehersal tomorrow, and i thought i'd come into town early.

when my grandpa passed away, i debated whether or not i should keep my plans to come here early. however, what i realized is that i've become quite adept at traveling to big cities alone, and that it calms me like few other things do.
over the past few years i've been fortunate enough to travel to some pretty great places for work, and i've often stayed an extra day or two and explored by myself. i've explored london several times, been to geneva, and spent time in san francisco, seattle, miami and new york. yes, i know people in the u.s. cities i listed, but for one reason or another i've had plenty of time in them by myself the past few years.
i used to be uncomfortable being alone, and i admit that i still struggle with it. it's fine when i'm walking around, but harder to sit in a restaurant, and i think i've only been to the movies alone once in my life (and it wasn't to a film that was easy to watch by myself!).
well, it turned out perfectly to have today just for myself. after spending a good portion of this past week in michigan with my family due to my grandpa's funeral services, i was feeling a bit down and quite overwhelmed. i always feel swamped when i get back home after a trip (laundry! piles of mail! screens and screens of junkmail in my inbox!), and that particular trip was very emotional. not only was it very difficult to see my family so sad (especially my grandma, who was very strong and only really broke down at the military funeral, when they handed her the flag), but it was hard to know how to deal with my mom during this trip. she still isn't really talking to me, and kept that up even this week, when she only answered "yes" or "no" to my questions. i didn't want to push her to talk with me about our problems while she's mourning the loss of her father, and helping her mother, so i just let it go for now and laid low... (sigh)

so after that, some sort of head-clearing was called for. and today was perfect: i was totally unreachable (i left my cell phone in my hotel room, since it's still quite expensive to use your US-based mobile plan in canada), and i walked around saying as little as possible since i didn't know anyone and didn't want to either attempt to speak french or make quebecois speak english. it was a cold and cloudy, which unintentionally helped my introspective mood, and kept the shops, restaurants and parks less crowded than they would have been otherwise. i spent the whole day leisurely walking around the old city and along the riverfront.
most of you know that i'm a big fan of inuit culture and art, and so i spent a good deal of time today browsing some galleries here, and marvelling at the grace of their unadorned, simple sculptures and graphic prints. if we weren't buying a condo this month, i am sure i would have broken down and bought a sculpture, even though steve wasn't here. i was particularly drawn to sculptures of dancing bears, although they're quite common. i was also really fascinated by this scupture of an eskimo riding a snowmobile and this unusual scupture showing a community playing 'blanket toss'. i know most of you have no idea why i get so into these, overall, but i'd love to hear what you think of these ones in particular. :)

i guess the best part of traveling alone is that i have no need to worry about boring my companions when looking at art, admiring churches (which steve is weirded out by, but the architecture of which fascinates me!), and chilling out in parks -- all things which help ground me, relax me, and inspire me. i probably need to find the time and mental space to do these things more often when i'm at home, since they're all readily available.

well, the buzz from my chai tea (indian food for dinner!) is wearing off (finally!), so i'm off to bed.

my grandpa lived a long and full life. he was married to my grandma for over 60 years, had 13 children, and many, many grandchildren. we're all figuring out how to get back to montrose for the funeral services on tuesday and wednesday.

i haven't properly given a shout-out to my bff, keenan, who just finished med school. i hear the hard work on his new home has really buffed up his cloits and dloits. sweet!

also, per reader request, i have enabled the comment function, so you can now post snarky comments.

man, this sucks. if only this site listing speedtraps had been around when i was 16 in washtenaw county. i got tickets at two of these sites (and to put that in context, i've only received four tickets total. not a stellar record, but hey, i'm fighting inborn leadfoot tendencies.)

man, those pistons didn't look good tonight. we must rally for game two! maybe if steve hadn't been stuck on a plane from detroit to peoria (!) they would have won.
and i think that dave matthews song that they're using to promote the finals sucks. ick.

this is crazy, crazy, but true. apparently, the ohio liquor board actually used a woman's identity (instead of making one up) to have a woman studying law enforcement to go undercover and pose as a stripper. i wouldn't believe it, but i'm actually connected by only a couple of degrees of separation from this poor girl whose identity was stolen.

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steve and i took a mini-vacation this past week. we went to san francisco for my friend melissa's beautiful wedding (she looked awesome, too! you go, girl!), which not only was really moving and lovely, but which produced the best photo yet of my friend ann and me. there was also a a crazy fun dinner at a chinese banquet hall with all of the out-of-town wedding guests.
steve and i had a little extra time in the city, so we spent a lovely day walking around various neighborhoods (it was 80 degrees and sunny!) and touring alcatraz, which surprised me with how beautiful the vegetation was. we also loved going to the ferry building, which is my fave place in san francisco, and is a haven for foodies. we ate there two days in a row, and i bought a bunch of yummy stuff at the farmers' market, even though i had to shop carefully to buy stuff we could eat there or take home. :)
after our time in the city, we headed up to napa valley. i'd only spent a day there previously, and i have to admit that i was really anxious to get up there on monday morning, but it ended up being perfect that ann + andy weren't as antsy as i was (and of course, steve wasn't either). i think we only stopped at four wineries for tastings, and then we did the obligatory photo opps at hall winery (let me know if you want to see the photo album i've uploaded to snapfish.com).
then came the other (non-wedding) big event. it was the reason that we didn't drink more on monday (and THANK GOD). we had a four hour tasting menu dinner at the french laundry, which is one of the most awarded (and also probably one of the most expensive) restaurants in the country. we had to make our reservations exactly two months in advance, to the day, at 10 am pacific time. and even though we were calling for reservations on a monday night, it took two of us hitting re-dial for 25 minutes before we got through and scored a 6 pm reservation. (!)

soooo... you're probably wondering: was it good?

i couldn't sleep afterward.

i didn't eat until dinner the next day.

and yes, our credit card bill will hurt this month. other than taking out steve's brother when he visits this weekend, we can't eat out for awhile. and i mean that.

however, every single thing was amazing. i wasn't excited when i first read the menu that night. i was actually quite tempted by the vegetarian tasting menu, which ann had, and which also looked (and by her admissing, tasted) completely wonderful. i want to share the craziness with you, so here's the menu we ate, with my comments in italic. we had a few bottles of wine, which we took their full recommendations on. other than remembering that we started with a dry white, moved to a pinot noir, then had dessert wine, i don't have any idea what we had. i think the first two were from sonoma, and the dessert wine was definitely european. i was obviously really entranced by the food!

chef's tasting menu - june 6, 2005

"oysters and pearls": "sabayon" of pearl tapioca with point reyes oysters and russian sevruga caviar
i had no idea what to expect, since i've only had caviar as part of a sushi experience, and think of tapioca as nasty pudding or bubble tea. however, this was so creamy smooth and wonderful. the caviar added a lovely texture to the tapioca and the oysters were amazingly light.

salad of broccolini "florets", marinated gypsy peppers, daikon radish, navel orange "confit" and young ginger "aiger-doux"
i have no idea what "aiger-doux" is, or why they insist on using quotes in the description of each course, but this ruled. i don't really know what makes gypsy peppers any different than other peppers, and the pieces were very artfully carved out of some larger pepper shape, so i wouldn't recognize a gypsy pepper if introduced to one. however, the orange "confit" somehow brought it all together, and the ginger "aiger-doux" (whatever that is) just added a tiny bit of warmth to the sauce/dressing/marinade.

crispy skin fillet of japanese suzuki, grey morel mushrooms, sacramento delta green asparagus and white asparagus "puree"
i had no idea what suzuki tasted like, but it was a pink fleshy fish like salmon, and the skin was amazingly tasty and perfectly crisp. i probably could have eaten a plate of just the skin! the morels were lovely too. asparagus (when it's nice little asparagus and not creepy huge stringly stalks) is always good, and i guess they grow it just fine in sacramento.

"warm spinach and lobster salad"
maine lobster tail "cuite sous vide", wilted arrowleaf spinach, applewood smoked bacon "wafer" and hard boiled hen egg emulsion
mmmm... bacon

"aiguillette" of liberty valley duck, melted belgian endive, grilled field rhubarb and "foie gras"-garden mint "vinaigrette"
i'm not a huge fan of duck. i don't dislike it either, but i don't usually choose it. however, i do like rhubarb. it's best in pie, but it makes a damn tasty duck accompaniment, i've now learned.

snake river farm prime beef "serve en deux facons", heirloom carrots "vichy", marble potato "rissolee" and "sauce perigourdine"
i don't have any recollection of anything other than the beef, which was superb. especially the big "facon" that was served quite rare. because most of the tables were ordering the tasting menu (i have no idea how there could possibly be regulars that order anything else, and there probably aren't a ton of vegetarians willing to pay that much for dinner), we kept wondering what the butcher had done with all of the other jillion cuts of meat after the french laundry chef ordered just this one particular cut to be served that night. things that make you go "hmmmm..."

"brebis des pyrenees"
sweet basil "pain perdu", san marzano tomato "marmelade" and french laundry chorizo-infused extra virgin olive oil
holy crap, i have no recollection of this course. i will have to use a lifeline and get back to you all about this.

hayden mango sorbet, "yuzu scented genoise", goma "nougatine" and black sesame "coulis"
seriously, i am tired of typing these damn quotes, but they are all on the souvenier menu. sheesh. this was actually a really awesome dessert. ann (the aforementioned vegetarian at this feast) got a chocolate dessert delivered to her at the same time, so i was bit worried that we were getting the short end of the stick. however, the mango sorbet was so rich and smooth, and the little black sesame "coulis" were sprinkled all over as a lovely accompaniment. mmmm... i could go for a dish of this right now...

"tentation au chocolat noisette et lait", milk chocolate "cremeux", hazelnut "streusel" with madagascar vanilla ice cream and sweetened salty hazelnuts
wow, i vaguely remember something awesome that was chocolate, but i think i was pretty much in a coma at this time, and was trying to decide if i could fit in more food or dessert wine. i fit in a little of both, and ordered coffee. i decided that the meal had beaten me at this point, and decided to surrender.

"mignardises"
i guess this means petit-fours, because once i had given up and was sipping coffee so that i could walk the measley but difficult two doors down from the restaurant to our b-and-b, they brought out the most charming tray of petit-fours. someone at the table had one, and insisted that i try the shortbread. they were right.




so that's the scoop.

...fin...

debbie, if you don't go to avon to check out The Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival, i'll be really disappointed.