First CWO concert of our 25th Anniversary season is this Sunday, November 8th. 4:30 pm at Lake Merritt. We have some really neat pieces on the program and seeing all the kids enjoy the music is always fun. Plus, there will be a “special guest photographer” who will be taking pictures of the group for our new website! *wink, wink*

I’m now officially a wannabe web designer! Over the past few weeks I have spent many, many hours creating two websites. One for my Mom’s new tutoring business and redesigning my orchestra’s website. I knew nothing about web design when I started and I’m not sure how much more I know now other than trail and error will always get you to the correct answer.

Before starting these tasks this simple WordPress.com blog has been my only web publishing experience. I found creating “real” websites and learning more about coding very interesting. My Mom and I used WordPress.com to create a website for her tutoring business: Learning Rx Tutoring at learningrxtutoring.com. I think she’s pleased with the result and it will work great for her business.

The harder task was venturing into unknown territory with WordPress.org to create a more detailed site for my orchestra, Community Women’s Orchestra. I’ve always been impressed with WordPress.com but had never used WordPress.org. We wanted to use WordPress to build the website for ease of accessibility. Since one doesn’t really need to know anything about web design or coding or have any special software to edit the content of the website this was a good choice for our organization. We have multiple board members, conductors, and involved members who have input to the site. Before we were relying solely on one or two people to make changes and when they were busy the changes couldn’t be made.

WordPress.org really is a neat service. It’s almost identical to WordPress.com but has way more customizable features. This forced me to learn more about coding and CSS formating but I still don’t know much. my approach to the CSS was change one thing at a time, see if it did what you wanted (not likely) or broke something else (likely), revert the change, and repeat with a new item. I’m pretty proud of how the site turned out given my inexperience and the orchestra seems to like it too.

Both of these endeavors would not have been possible at all without the patient help of my college friend Andrew. Andrew, you’re the best!

After nearly 10 months of non-operation the Integra is back!

Our 1997 Acura Integra GSR had been having some serious oil burning issues (I blogged about it here) that we finally got fixed with an engine rebuild. It has been burning oil for years but finally got to the point where we were putting in a a quart every 100-200 miles and it was obviously smoking. We stopped driving it regularly back in February and spent a few months debating what to do with it.

We originally ended up deciding we would sell it and listed it on Craigslist. We got a few responses and then started researching what selling a car in California entitled. That’s when we found out couldn’t legally sell it with out a valid smog test certificate. Since the car was obviously smoking this was definitely out of the question. Sure, there are people that would still buy the car from you “as-is,” fix it, then smog it, then register it. The problem is you are still liable for the car and it is still registered under your name for that period. Plus, the buyer could come back to you looking for their money back at any time since the sale wasn’t legal. Any documents you have the buyer sign saying the car is being sold “as-is” without a smog certificate won’t hold up in small claims court. This is obviously a worse case scenario but it wasn’t a risk we felt comfortable taking. We could have sold the car as “parts-only” but then the title would get a salvage stamp and the buyer would have to go through the process of returning the car to normal status. Since we already weren’t thrilled about selling the car we decided to go back to the drawing board.

The second option was to have the car fixed. Since the suspected culprit for the burning oil was the piston rings this was a major undertaking. We could have replaced the engine but “in-kind” engines (B18C1) are very expensive (this is a rare version of the Integra) and there are no guareentees that the new engine (usually low milage Japanese motors) wouldn’t have the same issues. We decided to go the route of having the engine rebuilt.

We got a few quotes from some tuner shops in the Bay Area but they either seemed disorganized, uninterested in our business, or had terrible reviews online. People at work recommended I talk to one of my co-workers, Cliff, that works on peoples cars on the side. Practically everyone in my work group has had some part of their car serviced by Cliff and he is very reasonably priced. I think he does this for fun and a little extra income. The bad part is he’s a one man operation so it took awhile for him to have time in his schedule to take on our rather large project. Since we don’t “need” the car on a daily basis I was happy to wait my turn in his schedule to have someone who I felt would car about my car and the outcome of the work fix it.

He took the car in mid-September and finished it last weekend, working on it bit by bit on the weekends and after work. We also had him replace the clutch (it really needed a new one too, it was a “snails butt” away from the rivets according to Cliff), timing belt and water pump (when in Rome) and any other gaskets, fluids, etc that might be needed since everything was going to be apart anyways. He pulled the engine apart and apparently there was oil everywhere. It looks like the piston rings in cylinders 2 and 4 had failed and the exhaust valve guides in cylinder 4 were leaking. Luckily the cylinder walls were still in good shape so they were only lightly honed. We got new exhaust valve guides on all four cylinders, new piston rings, and a new head gasket. All said and done: $2,300. Great deal.

I took the car in to get smog tested on Friday as it is due for registration next month and it barely passed. It looks like we still have a problem with some aspect of the exhaust system (catalytic converter?, oxygen sensors?) or timing/fuel mixture as we had high tailpipe hydrocarbons. However, our NOx went down from last time which points away from a problem with the catalytic converter.  Here’s our emmission at 15 mph and 25 mph the past two times the car has been smog tested (2009 and 2007). In 2007 the car was burning some oil, but not smoking. The 2009 test is post-rebuild. What’s going on here?

Griffin and I finally made a trip to visit Nan and Juan in their new home: Dallas, Texas. We were lucky to have Leah and Brad there at the same time. It was a blast. I’ve never been to Texas before so it was great to see part of the state.

The weather was cold and cloudy for most of the trip so we didn’t “get to” experience much of the legendary heat and humidity but I got enough of a taste of it to know that I can’t imagine what living here is like during the summer. Just stepping outside was like walking into a wall of moisture. My hair was out of control with the high humidity.

In addition to seeing Nan and Juan’s lovely home we also visited the 6th Floor Museum in Dallas (chronicles the assassination and legacy of JFK, located on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository), the Texas State Fair, and the historic Fort Worth Stockyards.

Griffin with Boxster and Cooper

The Texas State Fair is FULL of fried foods. Anything you could imagine. We saw fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fried jellybeans, fried bacon, fried butter, fried peaches and cream, fried pecan pie, fried ice cream, fried Coke, fried Snickers bars, fried Oreos, fried cookie dough, fried banana split, and of course, fried Twinkies.I think most of the items are frozen before they are dipped in batter and fried to prevent them from totally disintegrating in the hot oil.

We sampled a few things including a corn dog, fried Oreos and a fried Twinkie. The fried Oreos were by far my favorite.

Fried Oreos

Fried Twinkie

One of the main attractions at the fair is “Big Tex” a giant animatronic cowboy that has been greeting fair-goers since the 50’s. Every half hour he starts talking in a very loud, very deep voice with a healthy drawl. He talks about the fair and then concludes with “Big Tex says Hoooooowwwdddyyy” in the most comical way. Blogging does not do it justice, you’ll have to take my word for it…

We also visited the historic Stockyards in Forth Worth which was a major hub for the sale and slaughter of cattle starting in the mid 1800’s and continuing to the 1960’s. It’s now a historic district with a twice daily “Stampede,” weekly rodeos, and tourist shops.

Fort Worth "Stampede" (AKA walking some big longhorns down the street.)

Leah and Nan enjoying an authentic horseback ride in Fort Worth

We had a great time visiting with everyone and hope to make another trip again soon!

Brad and Juan hunting a skunk in the backyard from the upstairs balconey with a pot of water. (They never found the skunk, only smelled him.)

I’m getting to be a pro at putting in eye drops… I went back in for my follow-up with the eye doctor after three weeks and she said two more weeks of drops and no contacts. Ugh.

The good news is that I got new glasses to replace my old ones with the horribly out of date prescription so I can see again! Can’t wait to have my contacts back though.

Apparently I’m allergic to the new coating on my left contact lens…

The eye doctor tells me that the reason my contact has felt like it’s been eating my eyeball for the past week is because I have “Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis.” Sounds fantastic? Let me tell you it feels fantastic too…

Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis is a condition when pockets of white blood cells develop on the inside of the eyelid. This causes red bumps on the inside of the eyelid that cause irritation of the eye and problems with contact lens wear. I’m not posting a picture of what this looks like for good reason, you’re welcome to Google image search at your own risk. The eye looks completely normal from the outside but when an eye doctor flips your eyelid up you can see the red bumps.

So my contacts are sidelined for the next three weeks and I’ve got two sets of eye drops to use (one mast cell stabilizer). There are two very bad things about this:

1. The only pair of glasses I have are ~8 years old. They are a -2.50 prescription, my eyes are currently -4.00. I haven’t updated the prescription because I never have issues with my contacts so they are only used when I take them out once a week at night. I can’t see much, driving is questionable, especially at night. I’ll be getting new glasses with a new prescription next week.

2. The two sets of eye drops cost $160! I was shocked when the pharmacist told me (and this is after prescription coverage.) I have two tiny bottles, one is 5 ml, the other 10 ml. They are 0.2% and 0.1% solutions. This means I have all of 20 mg of of active ingredients. That’s $8/mg. Just for reference, platinum is $0.05/mg. Ugh.

Now for an extremely tardy account of our lovely trip to Napa over Labor Day weekend…

We received Griffin’s birthday present in the mail from his Mom back in May which we excitedly discovered was equivalent for a whole years worth of birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays! They were planning to visit in September and we were invited to join them in Napa for the weekend where they would treat us to a meal at The French Laundry. Obviously a weekend in Napa is excellent enough but for those not in the know The French Laundry is one of the top restaurants in the US and the world. It has three Michelin stars and routinely ranks in the top ten restaurants in the world. We were excited to say the least.

Nan, Juan, and Griffin rescued me from work on Friday afternoon and we drove to Napa. Juan had made reservations for us at Opus One where we tasted on their beautiful terrace with views of all the surrounding wineries. Griffin and I were taking pictures of the patterns that sunlight cast through our wine glass until I let the wind blow it over. :(

 

 

After visiting Opus One we went to Cakebread where we got to watch a little bit of the grape processing. Nan and Juan are members so we got to taste on the member’s patio which was lovely. I would have loved to take a tour since they were actually processing grapes but unfortunately there were no more tours available, maybe next time. But as a consolation prize Dennis Cakebread (one of the sons) came a chatted with us for awhile. Really neat.

We enjoyed dinner at a cute little restaurant in Napa and stayed at the very luxurious Westin right next to the river.

On Saturday Juan had made tasting reservations for us at Duckhorn winery. I’m not a huge wine person but I LOVED this place just because it was the perfect spot to sit and enjoy the views and weather. They have a large wrap around porch that was absolutely wonderful to sit on in the shade and enjoy the views of the surrounding winery. I could have spent all day there! After tasting we got to go out in the garden/grapes and taste several different types of grapes for different types of wines.

On Saturday evening we had reservations at THE French Laundry. I’ve written about it in a separate posting here because, heck, it deserves it’s very own posting! The entire experience was incredible. It wasn’t a meal, it was an experience. I’m pretty certain it is the fanciest meal I will ever eat and enjoyed in greatly and I know Griffin did as well. Many thanks to Nan and Juan for treating us!

After gorging ourselves on Saturday night we got off to a leisurely start Sunday morning. We traveled back to Yountville to the Bouchon Bakery, just down the road from the French Laundry. It is owned by Thomas Keller, the owner/chef of the French Laundry. It was delicious and very cute. We enjoyed our pasteries and coffee in the warm sun and wandered around downtown Yountville a bit before heading back to San Francisco. In an old building that had been converted to a mall we found a photobooth that had pictures on the side of it that looked just like Griffin.

We wrapped it up with a little Guitar Hero “La Bomba,” but I want to be invited back so I won’t share that story here… :)

It was an absolutely wonderful weekend trip. A perfect getaway. Thanks Nan and Juan!

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As part of our fabulous trip to Napa over Labor Day weekend we were treated to a meal at the French Laundry by Nan and Juan. They had gotten reservations by calling incessantly to get through the busy phone line exactly 2 months ago at 10 am when they opened. We arrived in Yountville a little early and walked around the huge garden across the street from the restaurant where they grow a large portion of their vegetables. At 7 pm we were ushered inside to our table, one of only 17 between two floors, in the corner of the dining room. Almost all the other tables we already seated and enjoying different parts of the nine-course tasting menu. Although it is a very high-end restaurant, the atmosphere is quite relaxed and comfortable. Our napkins had wooden clothes pins on them printed with “The French Laundry” which were ours to take home. The lampshades have laundry symbols (like those on clothing tags) imprinted on them.

We had a choice between two different nine-course meals, a “Chefs Tasting” or a “Tasting of Vegetables.” Well all chose the chefs tasting and made our choices for the nine courses. The staff was very attentive, explaining each dish, and making sure our glasses were never empty. Two of us requested still water while the other two requested sparkling. Two crafts were seated on the table that looked identical. Of the half dozen different waiters that serviced our table every single one of them already knew who had sparkling and who had still water and which craft was which. It is quite the well oiled operation.

Our courses started coming and what an experience. I tried many different foods I’ve never had (oysters, caviar, sweetbreads). Each one was meticulously plated and delicious. Each time a course was served a team of waiters would come to place them in front of us simultaneously. One would then explain the dish and bid us “Bon Appetit.” Some courses were served with freshly baked bread from the nearby Bouchon bakery that was very tasty. Here’s a listing of our nine courses. The menu changes daily although there are many regular/seasonal dishes.

“Oysters and Pearls”

“Sabayon” of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar

____________

Salad of Hawaiian Hearts of Palm

Summerset Peaches, Fennel, Pili Nut, Cilantro and Espelette “Aigre-Doux”

Moulard Duck “Foie Gras en Terrine”

Celery Relish, Marcona Almond “Génoise” and Concord Grape Purée

____________

Atlantic Cod “Confit à la Minute”

Summer Squash, Nicose Olive, Pine Nut, Greek Basil and Saffron “Nage”

Sashimi of Japanese Bluefin Tuna

Cauliflower, Haricot Verts, Country Bread Croutons and Anchoiade

____________

Sweet Butter-Poached Maine Lobster “Mitts”

Hobbs’ Bacon, Little Gem Lettuce, Baby Red Beets and Tarragon Creme Fraiche

____________

Four Story Hill Farm “Poularde”

Yukon Gold Potato “Mille-Feuille,” Pearl Onions, Melted Leeks and “Sauce aux Pruneaux D’Agen”

Marcho Farms Veal Sweetbreads

Green Tomato Chutney, Golden Corn, Watercress and “Ranch Dressing”

____________

Elysian Fields Farm Lamb Rib-Eye

“Collier d’Agneau,” Tokyo Turnips, Sugar Snap Peas, Chanterelle Mushrooms and Paloise Reduction

____________

“Abbaye de Tamié”

Artichokes, Piperade, Spanish Capers and Arugula

____________

Honeydew Melon Sorbet

Compressed Watermelon and Basil “Nuage”

____________

“Gâteau Saint Nizier au Manjari”

Mango-Chili Relish, Mast Brothers Cocoa Nibs, Lime Foam and Coconut Milk Sorbet

Lemon Verbena “Vacherin”

Tellicherry Pepper “Panna Cotta,” Lemon Verbena Sherbet and Chilled Silverado Trail Strawberry Consommé

____________

Mignardises

The oysters and caviar were interesting, I’d had neither before, but I don’t think I’ll be seeking them out to have again. Take it or leave it in my book. Everyone chose the Hearts of Palm salad for their second course, no foie gras (which I old recently learned how it is made…). For the third course we all chose the Bluefin shashimi and it was very, very good. Juan had the cod in place of the lobster course due to a shellfish allergy. The rest of us enjoyed the lobsters “mitts,” which is the lump of meat in the claw and is very different from the tail. I don’t enjoy the texture of lobster tail but the mitt texture was a little more crab-like and very good (although being poached in butter probably doesn’t hurt anything). The Hobbs’ bacon was a piece of very flat, cooked bacon. I tried to cut a piece off of it (I figured picking up the whole slice with my hand wasn’t the most refined thing) but the piece shot off my plate and onto the floor! No one noticed so I pretended like it didn’t happen!

For the fifth course Nan and I ordered the chicken and Griffin and Juan ordered the Sweetbreads. The chicken was amazingly moist, tender and delicious, the best I’ve ever had. We had to look up was “poularde” meant after dinner – it is a chicken that has been spayed to fatten it. The sweetbreads were interesting. I did NOT know what they were (brains) and even questioned Griffin as to why the “veal” was such a light color when he let me try some of his. He merely told me that “some parts” of the veal were that color and I was not aware that I was eating brains! They weren’t all the tasty and now that I know what they are I don’t think I’ll be having them again.

The lamb rib-eye for the sixth course was very, very good and was served with delicious bread from the bakery. It was followed by a small cheese course and then a honeydew sorbet. The sorbet was delicious with a basil sauce. For the ninth and final course we all chose the “Gâteau Saint Nizier au Manjari,” a flourless chocolate cake. Following the nine courses (as if that wasn’t enough) we were served mignardises with coffee. A small silver box with many different hand-made candies was brought to our table to share and servers brought trays with a selection of different chocolates. My favorites were a salted caramel chocolate and a white chocolate with a lemon, olive oil center. My this point we were all stuffed and had been there for almost four hours.

As a parting gift we were brought packaged shortbread cookies to bring home and enjoy. We also requested a copy of the menu to take home which they gave us in a specially embossed folder. The (hefty) bill came on a laundry tag, very cute.

Following dinner we enjoyed the small courtyard outside the restaurant. There were large windows into the kitchen where we could watch all the chefs at work. It really is quite the coordinated operation to deliver nine different courses (sometimes more) to each table timed perfectly and plated beautifully. A server saw us watching though the window and invited us in for a tour of the kitchen! He showed us were we could safely stand out of the way and explained the role of each of the chefs and stations. There are different chefs for fish, meat, sauces, and pasteries. They all must coordinate to deliver their components to the plating table in the center of the kitchen where the food is arranged for presentation and then whisked away by a server.

The entire experience was incredible. It wasn’t a meal, it was an experience. I’m pretty certain it is the fanciest meal I will ever eat and enjoyed in greatly and I know Griffin did as well. Many thanks to Nan and Juan for treating us!

This was left on my car today…

I guess this means you’ve been warned too.

Still working on getting our wonderful trip to Napa and the French Laundry posted, hopefully next weekend. Also, I created a new website for my orchestra using WordPress. Community Women’s Orchestra I’m pretty proud of it!

My parents were in town this weekend so we ventured to Coit Tower, something that has been on my to-do list for a long time. We also wanted to see the wild parrots that live on the hill (we were only partially successful in this).

Coit Tower was built in 1933 with one third of Lillie Hitchcock Coit’s estate. The tower is 210 feet tall and sits atop Telegraph Hill, the site of the first West coast telegraph line. An elevator takes visitors to the top but we opted not to go given the line, a $5 fee, and a fear of heights. The view is nearly as good from the base of the tower.

Lillie Hitchcock Coit was quite the woman of her time. As a child she was saved from a house fire by the Knickerbocker Engine Company Number 5 and afterward became somewhat of a mascot for the group. She was also known to help fight fires. She was an avid gambler, smoked cigars, and wore trousers long before it was acceptable for women to do so. She often dressed like a man to gamble in males-only establishments in North Beach.

Telegraph Hill is home to a flock of wild parrots (cherry headed conures) that are descendants of escaped or released pets. We were hoping to see some of the parrots but we only caught glimpses of them as groups of two or three noisily chased each other around the sky. They sound cute but I imagine a flock of loud parrots gets old if you live in the area.