Towse: views from the hill

It’s a long ways up … and a long ways down. 

Moody Monday‘s mood: Anxious.

1. Uneasy and apprehensive about an uncertain event or matter; worried.

2. Attended with, showing, or causing anxiety: spent an anxious night waiting for the test results.

3. Usage Problem. Eagerly or earnestly desirous.

This shot was taken at one of the higher tree platforms along Explorama’s canopy walkway. The walkway is strung up to 115′ above the ground and goes from tree platform to tree platform (a total of fourteen tree tops) for a total “walk” over a third of a mile in the Amazon jungle.

I probably would’ve been okay, well, more okay, if I’d been able to walk my section by myself, but we each were paired with a partner so the trek wouldn’t take all day. His nibs and I were paired and we’d start off from each tree fine and then … the walkway would start to sway from our walking and pretty soon I’d be thinking of the Tacoma Narrows disaster. I’d reach the next platform and calm my nerves then set off again.

Didn’t help that staff told us to make sure we didn’t have DEET on our hands as they’d found that DEET rots the supporting nylon ropes and …

Anxious? You bet.

The Amazon meets a black water tributary. 

Carlo Ferroni’s Macroday is up and running with its first Sunday photo challenge: Fluid

Fluid:

adj 1: subject to change; variable; “a fluid situation fraught with uncertainty”; “everything was unstable following the coup” [syn: unstable] 2: characteristic of a fluid; capable of flowing and easily changing shape [syn: runny] 3: smooth and unconstrained in movement; “a long, smooth stride”; “the fluid motion of a cat”; “the liquid grace of a ballerina”; “liquid prose” [syn: flowing, fluent, liquid, smooth] 4: in cash or easily convertible to cash; “liquid (or fluid) assets” [syn: liquid] 5: affording change (especially in social status); “Britain is not a truly fluid society”; “upwardly mobile” [syn: mobile] n 1: a substance that is fluid at room temperature and pressure 2: a continuous amorphous substance that tends to flow and to conform to the outline of its container: a liquid or a gas

This photo is not a macro (obviously) so it won’t be headed off to competition, but I liked Carlo’s effort and am herewith making a plug for his site to the photographers out there who might’ve been hankering for a place that catered to macrophotography.

Today is our youngest niblet’s twenty-first bday.

[SFX: Sal fainting]

It’s also Kos’ bday, but he’s older than dirt (meaning … slightly younger than I am — I being even more slightly younger than his mum).

Happy bday, kiddos! Both of ya!

The speech accent archive “examines the accented speech of speakers from many different language backgrounds reading the same sample paragraph.”

Site currently has 404 speech samples including dutch, catalan, gujarati, kazakh speakers (and more!).

Gujarati speakers hail from Ahmedabad and Bombay with a third born in Ireland.

For each speaker the site provides information about place of birth, native language, other second languages, age, sex, age of English onset, type of English learning method, length of residence.

Fascinating.

Theme Thursday — “VACATION”

(Break, Rest, Travel, Beach, Visit, Out of Town, Relaxation,… )  

Friends caught unaware, relaxing on their private deck as the sun sets behind them and dusk sneaks in. Ah, this is the life. Dattilo in the distance. Basiluzzo and Stromboli off photo to the left.

At the Hotel Raya Alto

Panarea, Aeolian Islands, Sicily.

So. How’s the house coming, you want to know?

Last Friday I emptied out a wicker trunk in the back bedroom and sorted through the contents. I’ll take the yarn to my friend Caroline who knows a senior center that needs yarn for their afghan projects. I kept some of the trunk contents. I offered a family member the rest of the contents and the trunk.

From there, I moved on to a bigger, metal trunk next to the bed in the same room. Cloth! Cloth! and more cloth!

I sorted through the cloth. Saved out the bits I wanted to keep. Trimmed up the gangly edges of leftover bits from previous shirts, dresses, skirts and other what-not sewing projects.

I will be recycling a large pile of scraps at the curb next week. Alas, if only I had the time to play with my handmade paper makings. These fabric shreds would be perfect for mixing in with the pulp goop to create some interesting effects.

After trimming everything up, I stacked the now-neatly-folded pieces into piles. I sent this picture off to the family member who’s getting the wicker trunk and asked, “Interested?”

  The stuff on the left side of the bench are chunks of cloth, “folds” — as they say in the fabric biz, pieces of cut cloth large enough for real sewing projects. Various colors and types. Some flag motif. One Christmas. Solids. Stripes. &c.

The box on the bench has smaller scraps of cloth. Useful, perhaps, for making doll clothes or something. I’d give them to my aunt for her quilting projects but they aren’t all quilting sorts of cloths. The box on the floor is larger pieces of cloth, but not so large as the ones to the left of the bench.

… and that’s what I’ve been up to. Fun, eh? Multiple trunks to go …

Rubicon

558 Sacramento St. SF 94111

415.434.4100

Lunch: W

Dinner: M-Sa

We walked into Rubicon last May shortly after Chef Stuart Brioza and partner and pastry chef Nicole Krasinski came on board. Yummy! we said, but pricey. We went back with our Berkeley buddies Steve and Paula in June but hadn’t been back since, what with this and that and the expense and all the other places there are to eat.

We decided last week that as the grande finale of January’s Dine About Town deals, we’d eat at Rubicon Monday night. The $31.95 deal for dinner cut the usual Rubicon pricey prices in half or more. The wine, of course, would not be cheap. Rubicon is known for its wine list and its prices reflect the wines it carries.

We walked over and arrived a few minutes early and were seated at the table Willie Brown was given when we were there in June. We checked out the menu and told the staff that we’d do the Dine About Town menu and have one of each. We asked for the City’s finest Hetch Hetchy water in lieu of the relatively pricey bottled Fiji water the next table over was drinking.

The kitchen sent an amuse bouche with a sliver of cured meat and a bit of the cumin (I think) crème fraîche and we began …

Dine About Town menu

====================

First Courses

1) Preserved Yellowfin Tuna in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Cannelini Beans, Dandelion Greens, Cumin Crème Fraîche.

2) Sake Steamed Bouchot Mussels. Marinated Melon & Shiso

Both of these were delicious. Who would’ve thought that a tuna bean salad (for that’s what it was in effect) could taste this good?

The mussels were also delicious, and were not as tiny as we’d been told they’d be. The cantaloupe garnish was four or five pieces, carved into grape-sized barrel-shaped pieces, and just the complement the mussels deserved. We had to ask for a spoon to scoop up the broth, which was delish, a buttery, mussel-y sauce with little strands of shiso.

The dish had eleven mussels. I, being the generous, sharing sort that I am, let his nibs have six.

Principal Dishes

1) Nut & Seed Crusted Petrale Sole. Butternut Squash, Swiss Chard, Sweet & Sour Reduction.

2) Confit of Duck Leg. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Polenta, Prunes & Olives.

The sole crust included not only nuts (pistachio?) but also crushed cumin and gave some crunch to the fish. The sole was curled and set on its side on top of the chard. The butternut squash was to the side, a madeleine-shaped puree. Delicious.

The duck confit was tasty. A combination of prunes and tart green olives sounds questionable, doesn’t it? But it all worked. The times we’ve eaten at Rubicon, we’ve never had a dish that wasn’t remarkable. I trust the kitchen and Stuart Brioza to provide yummy food.

Dessert

1) Earl Grey Tea Crème Brulee

2) Frozen Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Napoleon

Guess who had the crème brulee? The bergamot flavoring added an unusual touch. Delicious.

As for the frozen milk chocolate hazelnut Napoleon, well. The milk chocolate was light enough that even his nibs said he could eat it. The flavor was more like a light sweet coffee cream than milk chocolate. The nuts added the right bit of toasty flavor. The layers of puff pastry kept the filling in place. Yummy. Scrumptious. A fine finish to a fine meal.

For wine, we had the Elizabeth Spencer Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. Tasty. Pricey! But we’d known it would be. There are no inexpensive wines on the Rubicon wine list. The Chardonnay costs $23+ in the stores. Add in Rubicon’s markup.

We wandered home and sat on the deck watching the lights and thanking our lucky stars. Maybe next year we’ll have more time to take full advantage of Dine About Town, but this year our restaurant tastes were a treat and Rubicon was a perfect finale for the month.

… or “what we had for dinner last night”

Put rice in rice cooker, add water, turn on.

While the rice is cooking, take skinless boneless chicken thighs from Costco out of freezer and zap in microwave until thawed or even still a little frozen.

Cut into chunks.

Heat olive oil in large pan. Add garlic, sliced onion. Cook until onions soften. Add chicken chunks. Cook until chicken is done and excess moisture is evaporated.

While chicken is cooking, prep and cook carrots in the microwave.

Stir a jar of Trader Joe’s Thai Green Curry sauce in with the chicken and continue cooking until sauce thickens.

Serve chicken with rice and carrots.

Usually served with a mixed green salad but had no greens in the refrigerator yesterday.

We live at the edge of the Bay and can watch planes taking off from the Oakland Airport and SFO.

There’s something about a sunrise, especially a sunrise cut by a plane, heading off to places unknown. 

Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.

… and traffic is moving east to west across the upper deck of the bridge. The Alameda ferry is already heading back for another load of passengers.  

(Taken this morning as the sun rose.)