Michael's Pictures

Bacon of the Month: Balinese Long Pepper Bacon

2018-05-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

The final bacon! This bacon is made for Zingerman's, with a wet cure featuring Balinese long pepper. What's that? It's like black pepper, but not. It's an artisanal spice, but had no one told me it was there, I'm not sure I would have realized it wasn't regular black pepper. But it has a more complex set of flavors, with a lingering tingling that you don't get with regular black pepper. And the bacon itself? It's really nice! I might invite my favorites from the club back for a side-by-side tasting. That would likely mean the Nueske's, Ozark Trails, and the Long Pepper. (That would also mean 2¾ pounds of bacon, though.)

cold and windy beach party

2018-05-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

At long last, Anders had his birthday party. Last year, we had a beautiful warm party on the beach in Pacifica. This year, we had a cold and windy party at Ocean Beach. The kids still loved it.

Bacon of the Month: Benton's Dry Cured Tennessee Bacon

2018-05-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

Month 5 of the Zingerman's bacon club brought the second dry-cured choice. It's very meaty, but I think too salty. Perhaps it would be good in a BLT or some other use where the salt would be less prominent. But for a Bacon of the Month tasting, I really just want to try the bacon on its own. I mean, I'm not throwing the rest away, but if I bring a few varieties back after I'm done with the club for a taste-off, this is not going to be part of that.

camping with the fourth graders (and an anniversary celebration)

2018-05-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Anders's class had its fifth annual camping trip. We couldn't get sites at Memorial Park, which had been our camping site four three years running, so we went to the KOA at Costanoa. Our family has been to Costanoa tons of times, but this was our first time putting up a tent!

As camping goes, it was very easy. The Pine Tent BBQ & Brew is right next to the campground, so on Friday we took the easy route and got a pizza and wings. And some of the families tried dinner at the Cascade Bar & Grill, which the Costanoa restaurant.

Some of the SFS crew rented cabins or other accommodations, but a good chunk of us pitched tents in Ohlone Garden.

For the second year running, the camping trip fell on the same weekend as our wedding anniversary. Sigrid and I snuck away for a champagne moment on the lawn at the lodge—the spot where we got married. We celebrated at about the same time we were pronounced married eleven years ago.

Saturday s'mores.

Sigrid and I went to watch the sunset on Saturday night, but didn't take into account that when we've watched the sunset at Costanoa before, it's been in the fall. In May from our usual spot, the sun sets behind a stand of trees. It was still pretty, though.

Kwun Bhansali Lazarus LLP

2018-05-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

There's a new law firm in town...

I've started this new venture, Kwun Bhansali Lazarus LLP, with Asim Bhansali and Kate Lazarus.

That means that after 9+ years of counsel at Keker, Van Nest & Peters (formerly Keker & Van Nest), and a previous 3+ years as an associate there, I had one of my few experiences of having a clean desk.

forty-something

2018-04-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

I'm still in my forties! Sigrid and I went out to dinner at Frances on Friday. It was our second dinner at Frances, the other time being for Sigrid's birthday in 2011. We should go more often! This is a "market shot," a spiked shot of something they found fresh at the market (in this case, blood orange with a couple of apertifs tossed in).

For my birthday itself, we had roast chicken and vegetables...

...with cupcakes from Roseann afterward.

Ten!

2018-04-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in ten years!

Spirited Away

2018-04-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

exploring

2018-04-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

Anders and Soren came up with a new use for the air cannon at the Exploratorium that normally is used to send a beach ball into the air.

We also spent a bunch of time in the Tinkering Studio, which has a great vending machine...

...that sells electronic components and tool kits.

The Tinkering Studio also has a wall of trophies, featuring disassembled toys.

egg hunt

2018-04-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

The boys found fourteen eggs (twelve that they had decorated, plus two that we got at a dinner last night) in the backyard.

The Easter Bunny rewarded them for their efforts.

Food Bank - apples!

2018-04-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

For our second family shift at the Food Bank, we lucked out and got to pack apples, rather than the far more common shift of portioning rice into bags.

We packed 2+ pallets of apples into smaller boxes. Here Sigrid is, celebrating the bottom of the first pallet of apples.

Soren tried to escape this pic, but you can see his head peeking out from behind some boxes.

It was a small crew today (instead of the 80 volunteers they expected, we for some reason only had about twenty of us), but we managed to box up 12,600 pounds of apples in our two hour shift. You work up an appetite when you're surrounded by apples for two hours, so we went to Little Chihuahua for an early lunch.

Pagan Eggs

2018-03-31T14:59:00.001-07:00

My contribution, in honor of Michigan playing in the Final Four later today.

Bacon of the Month: Underground Bacon, Juniper & Thyme

2018-03-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

April arrived a bit early, with installment #4 of the Zingerman's Bacon Club arriving yesterday. Wet-cured with juniper and thyme, and smoked with hickory and apple wood. It's pretty interesting. Perhaps not a good candidate for a go-to everyday bacon, but it's delightful nonetheless.

Vivaldi Club

2018-03-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

Midday performance for the elementary school.

Here is one of the several pieces they performed.

apple pie

2018-03-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

Anders and Sigrid made a pie.

Happy Pi Day!

2018-03-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

We ate the whole thing!

leftovers for lunch

2018-03-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

hair salon

2018-03-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

Until today, I was the only one ever to have given either of the boys a haircut. But they've been on a mission to grow their hair out (exactly how much is unclear), and I wasn't sure my skills were up to the longer cuts, so we went to Great Clips in the Diamond Heights Shopping Center.

Voilà!

new fence

2018-03-07T12:25:00.002-08:00

We (and our neighbor) got a new fence for the west side of our backyard. We're told the old fence lasted 25 years, and the design on the new one is a bit better, so hopefully it will last even longer!

Step one was taking down the old fence.

The new posts went in next

The old fence had used pressure-treated wood for the posts, because they went straight into the footings. The new design has metal brackets in the footings, so that the posts are above grade. This is the improvement I mentioned above, which hopefully will extend the life of the fence.

Here is the nearly completed fence. The change in grade between the two yards is addressed using 2 x 12 pressure-treated wood along the bottom of the fence.

The other notable design difference is that the fence is symmetrical, so we and our neighbor see the same pattern of overlapping boards (a "picture frame board-on-board" design).

Bacon of the Month: Ozark Trails

2018-03-03T09:44:00.004-08:00

This month's bacon selection from Zingerman's hails from Arkansas. It's wet-brined, peppered, and probably the lowest on the sugar (and salt) so far. It's also the thinnest cut, and the smallest package (12 oz. versus 16 and 14 in the previous two months). To me, it tastes the most "bacony" of the three varieties. The pepper kicks in slowly, with a delayed aftertaste that I noticed several seconds after my first bite. I'd have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure, but I think I like this better than the Nueske's!

bedtime reading

2018-03-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

mathematical thinking

2018-03-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

The fourth graders are sometimes given a "problem of the week," which this week asked them how many more minutes there are with at least one 5 in them than minutes with at least one 6 in them in a 12 hour period (using a digital clock with no seconds). They are allowed to have an adult help them work through the problem.

One notion I've been trying to work with Anders on is that for a problem like this, figuring out the answer is only part of the solution—you also need to be able to explain your reasoning. Anders quickly figured out that there are "matching" minutes for 5s and 6s. That is, just as there is a 1:05, there is a 1:06. Then we explored the 5 o'clock and 6 o'clock hours, where every minute has a 5 in one, and every minute has a 6 in the other. Finally, we talked about the minutes from :50 to :59, where every minute has a 5, but only one (:56) has a six.

After all of that, we figured out the answer (there are 99 more minutes with at least one 5 than with at least one 6)—in fact, we figured it out three times, using slightly different techniques (two of which are on the left page below). Finally, we worked out a way to express the solution (right page). Once we had hashed that out, Anders wrote up the answer himself.

Big White: Seattle detour, Saturday

2018-02-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

And we're off! Oh, except the second leg of our flight has been canceled due to whiteout conditions in Kelowna. So... quick, book a hotel in Seattle!

The Hotel Max is super hip, with retro games like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.

It's also right next to the United States District Court.

We arrived a bit before 4, and our room (which we had just reserved online) wasn't quite ready. We went down the street to a coffee shop. Let me tell you, Seattle hipsterism makes San Francisco look staid.

We were three blocks away from Seattle's Pacific Place Din Tai Fung...

...so the boys (and Sigrid) tried xiao long bao for the first time...

...and some kimchi dumplings...

...plus orange juice with sprite...

...and some red bean buns to close dinner out.

Big White: Seattle detour, Sunday

2018-02-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

We couldn't get rebooked to Kelowna until Monday, so we spent Sunday checking out Seattle. We started off by checking out the Pike Place Market.

Soren had two corn dogs for breakfast...

...while I went for the fried chicken hearts and gizzards.

After a more normal breakfast start, Anders joined Team Corn Dog.

Next, we went to the Space Needle. Sigrid is thinking that maybe we're done with tall towers with long lines. She and I went up the Eiffel Tower on our honeymoon; we went with the boys, Miran and Haraboji up the N Seoul Tower in 2016; and now the Space Needle. Whether it's because it came after the others or because it's under a lot of construction right now as they add a glass floor, we were underwhelmed...

...but we did get this fantastic souvenir pic. (For the record, I told everyone to make a funny face, but Soren seems to be the only one who did.)

After all the crazed travel and last minute arrangements on Saturday, we needed some downtime, so after lunch we went back to the hotel room, where Anders did some homework. He looked a lot like I suspect I do when I'm working from my hotel room while traveling.

While Anders was working on his homework, Soren and I went down to the lobby and played games...
...checked out the lobby art...

...and enjoyed the afternoon happy hour (well, I did).

We originally tried to come up with a cool dinner plan, but eventually decided that was too ambitious. Instead, we ended up going to an Il Fornaio, of all places. (There's an Il Fornaio in SF, and another in San Jose.)

Big White: Seattle detour, Monday

2018-02-25T18:40:00.000-08:00

Alaska Airlines had rebooked us on a Monday evening flight with a layover in Vancouver. But Monday morning, I noticed that there were seats that morning on a direct flight to Kelowna, so I called the airline up. Unfortunately, there were only two seats, but there was another direct flight that evening with two seats. So we split up, with Sigrid and Anders going on the morning flight. Soren and I continued on with our Seattle adventure. We made it to the Crumpet Shop for breakfast. (We had tried to go there on Sunday, but it was too crowded.)

Soren had a nutella crumpet and a fancy hot chocolate.

After that, we went to a candy shop to buy some gum, so that we could go visit the gum wall. What's the gum wall? Well...

Soren's addition to the wall...

...and mine.

We spent a bit more time in the Pike Place Market, including visiting this nice viewpoint.

Then, we went to the Pacific Science Center. We got there around noon, and at first I thought it was just like visiting the Exploratorium, except that we didn't have a membership here, so had to pay to get in. But we had a great time, and stayed for over four hours!

Naked mole rats. They had a big habitrail-style burrow, but they seemed to like to hang out together all squished up.

There was a tropical butterfly room, but Soren didn't want to wait in line to get in, so I had to content myself with this pic that I took through a window.

After the science museum, we still had some time to kill before heading to the airport, so we went back to the Hotel Max (where we had our bags stowed). Soren worked played with the Jenga blocks...

...and I enjoyed another happy hour.

And then, it was back to the airport...

...and, finally, to Kelowna.