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Michael And Rochelle's Site We're crazy (in love) and we want to share it with you! |
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WEDDED BLISS The Newsletter for Michael and Rochelle's Marriage Volume III, Number 3 -- June 25, 2000 Table of Contents:
Memphis Minnie's! Last Spring, we researched all of the barbecue restaurants in the greater Bay Area looking for really good brisket, suitable for serving our guests at our wedding reception. It was a hard job and we had to suffer a lot of bad barbecue; We fed "Brothers-in-law" to the dog, and the only reason Everett & Jones gets any business is because the majority of people around here don't know any better. I was in despair until we got brisket from Bob of Memphis Minnie's. When I first spoke to him, he knew all of my favorite places in Texas and a lot more. He is a proponent of the long, slow smoke, and understood that meat should be able to stand on its own. Too many places use sauce to hide their mistakes; Bob's outstanding sauce just made great brisket even better. The only bad thing about Bob's barbecue is that after our wedding we couldn't get any more. Bob lost his lease two years ago, and has only been able to cater while looking for a location for a new restaurant (preferably in San Francisco). We've been waiting impatiently for a new location announcement, debating how far was too far too drive for great barbecue. The wait is over. Bob found a location and will be opening Memphis Minnie's at the end of June -- possibly in time for our anniversary! But we're agreed that it's not really a drivable distance...it's walkable! Memphis Minnie's new location will be at 574 Haight Street...almost directly across from our front door. Life is good. Bob's barbecue is great. [Editor's Note: When Rochelle learned the new location for Memphis Minnie's, she screamed at the top of her lungs; I thought the house was on fire. Then she announced plans to start the Atkins Diet (all protein) immediately...after Bob opens his doors, that is.]
Rochelle's New Job! On May 1st, I (Rochelle) started a new job doing database reporting and management for Old Navy Customer Relations. It's groovy. I find it challenging and interesting. I am learning some new programs, trying to decipher the what and why of my predecessor and making plans for building new, better metrics. Since I get bored easily, I am building in all sorts of long term projects to keep me entertained.
Cymerc Website Launches! On May 22nd, my (Michael's) startup company launched the new version of our web site, which is our main product. Just in time, too, as my co-workers and I were about to collapse, and our significant others were getting tired of being startup widows and widowers. Seriously, this is a major milestone for the company, and launching the site means that I get to have a Real Life once again. Rochelle tells me this is important during the first year of marriage! If you want to see the results of our handiwork, check out http://www.cymerc.com/. If you have a chance to wander around and give feedback, that would be even more terrific!
Lessons Learned From Our Weekend Away Memorial Day weekend was Michael's first opportunity to not work for three whole days in a row. We went up to Orr Hot Springs, to get out of town and spend some time relaxing together. Except our definitions of relaxing turned out to be different. We still had fun, and we learned a lot that will serve us well on later vacations. Important lessons include: Optimum vacation ingredients:
Preferred highlight of the weekend:
Most strenuous activity desired:
OK, so it wasn't quite so bad, and some of these lessons were learned on the honeymoon. But we do have really different ideas of what makes a relaxing, fun vacation. We decided to make one (reasonable) rule for the other person, that they had to follow for the next vacation:
Last, Michael prefers four star hotels and not rustic hippie resorts. Oh, well. Rochelle figures, if he wants a certain type of vacation bad enough, he'll plan it instead of leaving it to her.
Recent Feedings We've eaten at a few really yummy restaurants in the past few months, and thought we'd like to gloat, er, share with you. Gary Danko -- we went for my (Rochelle's) birthday. Wow!! Gary Danko just received the James Beard for "Best New Restaurant of the Year" Award. They certainly deserve the recognition. The service was excellent. The atmosphere was nice, your basic upscale SF restaurant (cell phone sightings: six, one glued to its owner's ear through dinner). We had a three hour, five course dinner, with the paired wine tastings. Rochelle
The food was exquisite. The worst thing that can be said about Gary Danko is that their portions are too large. After a big, rich dinner, I got three full-size creme brulees instead of the three small samples I was expecting. It's just freaking wrong to taunt a very full person like that. Elisabeth Daniel -- I got a hot tip that the 4-month old Elisabeth Daniel was going to be raising their prices on May 1st and since we needed to celebrate my new job, we got in under the wire and had dinner there the last week of April. Elisabeth Daniel is more quiet than Gary Danko, though the service was every bit as expert. Our waiter was (and still is) the husband of one of my co-workers. He very nicely comp'ed us a very lovely glass of champagne upon our arrival. We did the five course tasting menu, also with the wine pairings. Unlike Gary Danko, here the tasting menu is smaller portions so you actually have a hope of finishing your meal without falling into a food coma. We went with another couple (you know who you are). When the appetizers arrived, we all tasted our dishes and sighed with enjoyment -- and then began eyeing each other's food. Rochelle
Michael doesn't remember his meal in quite the same level of detail. The fact that he had two glasses of wine with his co-workers before meeting me for pre-dinner drinks at a wine bar might have something to do with it. He does remember liking his fois gras enough to eat the bite he dropped after I retrieved it off the floor for him... For me it was really the appetizer that stood out. I have never had caviar that I liked but Michael (our waiter) said that this was fresh caviar (Ostra, second only to Beluga), so I decided that I would try it and then I never had to have it again if I still didn't like it. It was marvelous. (Note that a month later at Gary Danko, I had the appetizer with caviar.) Now, you may or may not believe that Beluga and Ostra are worth the cost but my new motto is: "Give me the best or I'll do without!" Cheap caviar sucks! Our dinner lasted nearly four hours. We were the last ones to leave the restaurant. They had to kick us out. But, my co-worker still speaks to me, so we couldn't have been too badly behaved. In all we enjoyed this dinner, as a whole dining experience, a teensy bit more than Gary Danko. Michael and I both understand that we need a more healthy hobby (both physically and financially) but we decided that is something we will face after...
Chicago in October We were going to go for my birthday but between Michael's launch date uncertainly and my grad school and job uncertainty, we decided to put it off and go for Michael's birthday. Go where? "The Best Restaurant in the United States." Charlie Trotter's. In Chicago. Neither of us have ever been to Chicago, so we are building a five day vacation around our dinner reservation so we don't look like complete freaks. Of course, we're going to fill the other four days with more dinner reservations; this is an eating vacation. Between the time that we conceived it and the time we executed this scheme, Charlie won three more James Beard awards, so it was tough, but not impossible to get the Kitchen Table for Tuesday, October 31, 2000. Since our table is in, duh, the kitchen, we will get to watch them prepare everything, and will get a special 15 course tasting menu. Yee-haw. We can have up to six people at our table so if you're aching to blow a lot of cash on a memorable experience, let us know. Dan Misunas, the officiant at our wedding, is from Chicago and might be persuaded to bring the little woman (Hilda) and show us "his town," but nothing is set 'til we see the plane tickets. Want to come? Send us e-mail!
Home Network Changes We (Michael) recently installed a firewall for our home network. A firewall is the software equivalent of big fence around your house; it keeps the bad guys out, as long as they're not trying too hard. Background: since we have a DSL line for our Internet connection, that "pipe" is an always-on conduit to the Internet. The conduit is two-way, meaning we can surf the Internet, and the Internet can come into our home. This is good, because that's how you can visit our web site. But it's also bad, because some of the people on the Internet are not nice, and they can do damage to our computers, just by connecting to them in the right way. The firewall gives us some protection from that. Why are we telling you this? Two reasons. First, if you have any funkiness with visiting our web site, sending us e-mail, or otherwise trying to connect with us electronically, it's probably the firewall, and therefore Michael's fault. Send him e-mail at , and let him know. He'll try to fix it immediately. The second reason is a warning. If you have DSL or a cable modem, you need a firewall. Since installing ours, we've enabled some of the logging, and seen dozens of network scans, at least one a day. These are subtle scans than ordinary Internet protection, such as from Norton or McAfee, won't detect. By themselves they're not a big deal, but I've also logged more serious attempts to crack our home network. If you have DSL or a cable modem, the bad guys are scanning your network. It's guaranteed. Get some kind of protection, whether it's software running on your computer or some hardware protection for your home network. The computer you save could be your own. Recommended products:
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2002-2007 by Michael A. Alderete and Rochelle McCune. All rights reserved. |
