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As one person remarked, everything should have a toboggan exit.
I'm going to Beijing for work for a week, leaving Friday. I won't have too much time for sightseeing, but our test lead in Beiing sent us these handy streetwise tips. It sounds a wee bit more challenging than crossing the street in Manhattan.
Top 10 tips to cross streets in China safely:
10. Don’t make assumptions.
9. The thick traffic regulation book eventually comes down to one line: don’t get hit.
8. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Danger can come from all directions.
7. Crosswalks are not necessary safer even if you have the green light.
6. Follow the crowd.
5. Position yourself in the safer part of the crowd.
4. Cars will not yield for pedestrians.
3. Don’t get hit by a car.
2. Cars are not the only thing on the road can hit you.
The number 1 tip to cross streets in China safely: A billion people are doing this day in and day out, you can do it too.
This past weekend they closed the SR520 Evergreen Point Floating Bridge for yearly maintenance. Although it's inconvenient to lose our easy route into Seattle, the closure provides us with a full two-day respite from traffic noise. We're far enough away from the highway that the traffic noise isn't bothersome, but there's a dull roar that you don't typically notice until it's gone. And it was gone all weekend ... so much so that the cat acted strange for two days.
WSDOT took advantage of the closure for a "quieter pavement" project. They closed down a longer stretch of 520 than is typical for the bridge closure and resurfaced half a mile of road.
They put down two kinds of "quiet pavement". The first is rubberized asphalt which has recycled tire bits added to it. The second, known as "polymer-modified" asphalt has cellulose fibers added to it. They also put down a stretch of regular asphalt as a control section. Road noise will be monitored along with wear & tear to see which will perform well in our environment. Some results are available already from a similar project installed on I-5 last summer.
Bridge closure weekend is a great time to take a walk in our neighborhood to enjoy a very peaceful time outside. Late Saturday morning we headed straight for 520 to see the resurfacing work ... because we're geeks. The crew had made amazing progress already, as we went over the pedestrian bridge we could see that they had already resurfaced much of the road going eastward. Lucky timing for us, they were working on the stretch of 520 that borders right along the pathway so we got right up next to the machinery in action.
The Wilder Construction crew didn't mind that we were observing closely and taking photos. Observers from the WSDOT were on the sidelines, including a photographer. A Wilder crewmember came over to ask if we had any questions so we talked to him for a few minutes about what was going on and what the machines did. The machinery was a bit noisy but the smell was surprisingly tolerable. It was nowhere near as bad as those roofing and parking lot projects that send a noxious hot tar smell out for miles.
We eventually walked to the car overpass to take a look at the bridge. The span was up as part of the maintenance work but we were too far away to observe any activity.
Here's the WSDOT's cost comparison of different road surfaces from the 2006 I-5 project:
Monday morning we drove on the new surfaces for the first time. So quiet. But you don't realize exactly how quiet it is until you hit the old pavement again and suddenly you are bombarded with road noise. It's a striking difference.
From within the house it's quieter too. It's not as quiet as when there is no traffic at all, but there's a marked improvement. It's a little more peaceful.
How does a two-year-old son of admitted super geeks know that in a store filled with television screens of all sort of huge, fascinating sizes and content he's supposed to throw a tantrum when we take him away after 30 seconds from the tiny, little, travel DVD player screen that is showing Star Wars? HOW? HOW DOES HE KNOW?
It was a nasty tantrum too!
My mom has been listening to English spoken by people in Connecticut (in person) and New York City (the broadcast media) for her entire English-speaking life (my parents moved here in 1965). Now that she's in the Seattle area she claims that there is a local accent and, more notably, that our 2-year old son uses it. I dug up an article I remembered on the existence of a Seattle dialect and the study it talks about is mainly about vowels. My mom says that people here lengthen their final consonants (I think that's how she was trying to describe it) and that she's stopped noticing it after being here for a couple years. Now, this may not be a Seattle thing but a West coast thing (after all, aren't we all just transplanted Californians?)... I'll have to start listening more closely to how people talk. But most of the day at work I'm with these aforementioned transplanted Californians (and everyone else isn't a native English speaker) so instead I'll need to listen to our son's daycare teachers since that's where he must be picking up this "accent" if that's what it is. For now I'm suspicious that what she's referring to is not really a Seattle area thing but a younger generation thing... that sort of lazy talking MTV-cool affectation that I sometimes use when I attempt to connect with teens (and I probably sound really stupid doing it).
Of course I know what accent he'll eventually end up with: an Internet one.
After many days and nights with no heat (and no electricity, but it was the cold that really did me in) we journeyed with our friends Pavel and Kathleen to the Belltown area of Seattle for a previously planned visit to Mistral. My husband and I had a bad reaction to the candle on the table since we'd been eating that way for the past few nights, but we got over it quickly as the experience began.
Mistral is rated #1 in Seattle by Zagat, the main reason we ended up there over our other selection, Rover's (which we'll get to one day also). Chef and owner William Belickis opened the restaurant in 2000. There's no menu at Mistral. You decide which tasting menu you want (# courses) and if you'd like to add the wine flight or order anything by the glass or bottle from the wine list. We decided to go for the big one: Mistral's Experience, 9 courses. Kathleen asked if they could write everything down for us and towards the end of the meal the waiter handed us a hand-written (and signed!) list of the dishes and wines. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...the four of us were the only diners in the restaurant the entire evening. I doubt the service and food would vary much with more patrons but we certainly had their full attention.
Breads served were from Macrina and very thinly sliced to help us leave room for the meal.
Courses:
Bluefin Tuna with watermelon radish, fennel, and celery froth: A nice little starter with a foam of celery sitting on top of the veggies. A refreshing way to get ready for the meal to come.
Seared Sea Scallop with sunchoke and vanilla soup: The scallop was perfectly cooked, crunchy on the ends and tender with the right amount of "give" on the inside. There was a bit of citrus dust on top. Kathleen thought the vanilla was a little sweet for the rest of the flavors. I thought the combination worked well since I consider scallops to be a "sweet" seafood. This was one of my favorites with the texture of the scallop and the wonderful flavor of the soup.
Black Bass with roast peppers, pinenuts, brussel sprouts, burnt leek and blood orange vinaigrette: The bass had great contrast with a crunchy skin and tender flesh. The peppers were in a small cube dice and very sweet with no bite, like how bell peppers really should taste. I've never been a brussel sprout fan but I can't say I know how to cook them properly. These were a few leaves and sauteed, so they were a nice accompaniment.
Roast Swordfish, abalone mushroom, bluefoot chanterelle, horseradish puree: The swordfish was fine, but boy do I love mushrooms. I could've just eaten more mushrooms for this entire dish and left everything else out.
Seared Foie Gras with acorn squash puree and passionfruit juice: I've had foie gras at Cafe Juanita a few times and, yes, I'm aware of the controversy over its production, but I'm not going to get into that here. I remember enjoying the foie gras at Cafe Juanita, but this was more memorable perhaps because the contrast of texture was very striking. The seared exterior and the warm fatty interior -- yummy.
Anderson Farms Lamb with fingerling potato puree, thumbelina carrots, red chard: What a lovely rack of lamb that must have been. The meat was dark pink and I believe our server said the exterior was coated with truffle salt. The potato puree tasted like it was 50% (or more) butter (not a complaint). The carrots and chard were lovely, not a hint of bitterness.
Cheese Course: Pierre du Jaquin, Tomme de Fedoo, Valle de Valdeon, Brillat Savarin, Beaufort. YUM. I LOVE CHEESE. All meals should have a cheese course. These were all excellent.
Blood orange granita with pineapple, passionfruit, and orange sorbets: A real winner. There were small shards of pinky red granita on the bottom of the dish and a sorbet quenelle pyramid resting on it (pineapple and orange on bottom, passionfruit on top). Everything tasted like the fruit it came from and the passionfruit flavor was especially strong and striking. We enjoyed each flavor separately and also all combined together with the crunch of the granita.
Almond Financier, Vanilla Creme Brulee, Coffee ice cream, Mint ice cream, chocolate croquant: The creme brulee was the star here with just the right amount of torched top (I dislike it when it's a thick stained glass window) and tons of vanilla bean; you could see black specks everywhere. The financier was a little mini-muffin and was tasty but didn't knock my socks off. The ice cream flavors held true to their origins with the mint hailing from the herb garden. And I used up my spare brain cycles wondering how to make a chocolate croquant; it was a crispy treat that the server said reminded him of Cocoa Crispies cereal (and he then confessed that the chef had asked him to please not repeat that out on the floor, but he did mean it as a compliment).
Kathleen and I got the wine flight, which you can hopefully read off the right side of the menu below. I'm not a very educated wine drinker so I'm not going to attempt to describe them. Pavel also got the Tokaji which was fruity and yummy, just his kind of wine.
Overall, we had a wonderful time and enjoyed the food very much. Service was attentive (easily so with the empty place) our bread was refilled, water kept magically appearing in my glass, and our server was appropriately chatty while being considerate of our own conversations and very knowledgeable about the wine. When he brought the bill he asked if we had Passport cards (which we did from our employer) and thus saved us a good chunk of change too!
A platinum Hello Kitty (with rubies, pink sapphires, and diamonds).
If you came with a warning label, what would it say?
Submitted by chris.
WARNING: Volatile when hungry. If the following symptoms occur: snippiness, bitchiness, general lack of compassion, offer food immediately. Chocolate preferable.
The Seattle downpours have made the front page of the NY Times. At least it's below the fold.
Oh, and, by the way, it's snowing right now.
What is your stupid human trick?
Submitted by Scarlett.
I can hang a spoon on my nose -- backwards (bowl facing out). And during the Twin Peaks craze I learned how to tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue and teeth -- a suitable trick for weddings and frat parties.
