Voting Notes

Election Day tomorrow. Maybe I should figure out what I'm doing...Note that I don't really know anything about politics.

Let's see. What's on the ballot?
◆ President/Vice President
◆ US Senator in Congress
◆ US Representative in Congress
◆ Governor's Council
◆ State Senator
◆ State Representative
◆ Question 1
◆ Question 2
◆ Question 3

Actually Massachusetts makes it very easy to make these decisions as barely anyone runs against the democratic candidate. I had to look up what I'm actually voting on tomorrow (maybe you Germans don't know, but it's not just one check box). There are always surprises on the ballot, for example on the Presidential ticket there are actually 6 choices:

John McCain/Sarah Palin, Republican
Bob Barr/Wayne A. Root, Libertarian
Chuck Baldwin/Darrell L. Castle, Constitution
Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzales, Independent
Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Democratic
Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente, Green-Rainbow

If you thought McCain was terrible, check out Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin. Wow.



President/Vice President : Obama/Biden
US Senator: John Kerry
US Representative in Congress, District 8: Michael Capuano (unopposed)
Governor's Council, District 6: Michael J. Callahan (unopposed)
State Senator, Middlesex, Suffolk, Essex: Anthony D. Galluccio (unopposed)
State Representative, 25th Middlesex District: Alice K. Wolf (unopposed)


Question 1: State Personal Income Tax
Summary: This proposed law would reduce the state personal income tax rate to 2.65% for all categories of taxable income for the tax year beginning on or after January 1, 2009, and would eliminate the tax for all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2010.
Dan's Vote: No. This is the worst idea I've heard in a while. Are people going to be so selfish to get back ~$3700 and cut about $12 billion from state funds? I assume this will pass.

Question 2: Possession of Marijauana
Summary: This proposed law would replace the criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, to be enforced by issuing citations, and would exclude information regarding this civil offense from the state’s criminal record information system. Offenders age 18 or older would be subject to forfeiture of the marijuana plus a civil penalty of $100. Offenders under the age of 18 would be subject to the same forfeiture and, if they complete a drug awareness program within one year of the offense, the same $100 penalty.
Dan's Vote: Yes. Although an ounce of Marijauana is a lot of pot. Seems like this should be more like 1/16 of an ounce...

Question 3: Dog Racing
Summary: This proposed law would prohibit any dog racing or racing meeting in Massachusetts where any form of betting or wagering on the speed or ability of dogs occurs.
Dan's Vote: Yes. Don't have a strong opinion here, but I think they treat the dog's pretty badly, and we don't need that.

Is it exessive or just another day in New York?

Last weekend we went down to visit Alan and Mary in NY. Over the last couple years we've had quite a few adventures when we head down there...this trip also did not disappoint. Let's start with the ride down. I looked at a lot of options. I hate the bus, so we took a look at the train. But at like $400 for the two of us, I decided against it. We actually tried something new, and went with the BoltBus. The BoltBus was great. You get Wifi and a regular electrical socket at your seat. The seats are also more comfortable, with more space, and the clientele is all college students on their iPods. It was the quietest ride ever. Good thing too, because we got stuck in traffic and it took about 6 hours to get down to Penn Station. That night we took it easy, just a couple of drinks and a little Wii tennis and bowling.

Saturday

Breakfast at the Miracle Grill. Brooklyn really has some great places. This was fantastic mexican breakfast. Heike's scrambled egg fajitas were delicious, and my breakfast burrito was filling and tasty.

After breakfast we just hung out and let it rain outside. More Wii was played, a little football was watched.

Around 5 we took the train into Manhattan and grabbed a drink at the Hudson Hotel. This place is so Manhattan. It doesn't even have a sign outside. There is just a doorman, and a lighted entry. Up a small escalator is an expansive lobby with a couple of slick bars and a huge outside terrace. We opted for the Library bar (inside, cause it was starting to rain), and treated ourselves to a $22 martini.

We had 7:15 reservations at Bar Boulud. I had read about Bar Boulud in Esquire. Esquire said it was one of the best new restaurants in the country. So how bad could it be. I looked at the menu, and they focus on Lyonnais food. Sounding better and better. Boulud did not disappoint. I had Tagine d'agneau, and Boeuf aux Carrottes. Heike had Pate grand pere, and Loup de Mer. Everything was fantastic. Alan ordered a beautiful bottle of 05 Burgundy to wash it down with. Note from Alan: Every bottle of 05 French wine is great...good to know. Dessert of poached pear and a plum tart, followed by a bottomless cup of excellent coffee ended the meal.

10:30pm. Arturo Sandoval at the Iridium Jazz Club. I had seen Arturo twice before, but always at big venues. This was something special. The music was fantastic. Arturo is getting older now, and didn't really play that much trumpet. It was his second set of his second night so he played a lot of piano, which is fine, because he might be as good a pianist as a trumpeter. They played an hour fifteen set of smoking music and came out for an encore (again on piano).

Midnight. Some woman walks right in front of Alan and takes the cab he was hailing. This happens every time we go to NY. Do you think Alan was gracious and let her have the cab in peace? No. Screaming and swearing and making menacing gestures with his oversized umbrella Alan graciously told the woman what he thought about that move. We get a cab quickly and are off to Brooklyn. Should we go home and sleep off the long day? or should we continue the excess? Off to Blue Ribbon for a snack. Chicken Wings that you reheat on a Pupu-platter-style grill, 6 oysters, Perogies, and the most decadent bone marrow you have ever seen. Wash this all down with 2 Zyr dry martinis and you've got yourself a nice little late night snack.

From NYC Arturo and Alan

A $5 cab ride home. Some more Wii bowling. And good night.

Sunday:
Got up, frisbee in the park, Peter Luger steak bagel from La Bagel Delight, and back in the BoltBus (only 4 hours this time, and we watched Hot Fuzz on the laptop)

So you tell me, is that excessive or just the right way to do NYC?

Palin Again

Too funny, not to share. Worth the 10 minutes.

Sundays with the Globe

On Sundays I like to wake up, go down to Darwins get a couple of coffees and the Globe. I like to then come upstairs, put on NPR and read the paper. Basically I like a whole morning of no computer and no TV. Unfortunately, the radio doesn't turn on anymore. I had bought this great Onkyo T15 analog radio, and now it just doesn't turn on. The question is whether to get it fixed (at least $50) or buy a new one. I really like it but it only cost $100...so I'm torn. Anyway, back to the paper. I don't really read the news sections of it, but I really like the local sections. It does a good job of letting me know what is going on in Boston. There are always good ideas of museums, art shows, concerts etc. This week there was a spot about weird museums. I guess there is a guy in Portland with a museum of Cryptozoology in his house. Heike sounded interested...maybe we'll go.

Two weeks ago the Globe magazine had a great recipe. Cooking with grapes. I don't usually like mixing fruit in with real food, but we had a bunch of grapes around, and I thought we could try it. Since then, we've had it twice. We hardly ever repeat a recipe, so you know it must be good.





In case the link goes away at some point I'm pasting the recipe here:

SAUTEED CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH LEMON, CAPERS, AND GRAPES
SERVES 6

1 large lemon
1/3 cup flour
6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, 6 to 8 ounces each, cut in half horizontally to make 12 thin cutlets
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 large shallot, finely chopped (about 3 tablespoons)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup homemade or packaged low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup (about 6 ounces) green seedless grapes, halved
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Cut the lemon in half crosswise; cut one half into thin slices and squeeze about 2 tablespoons juice from the other half; set the slices and juice aside. Place the flour in a wide, shallow dish (such as a pie plate). Dry cutlets and season each liberally with salt and pepper. Working one at a time, dredge each cutlet in flour, shake off excess, and set on a large wire rack.

In a large, heavy skillet set over medium-high heat, heat 2 teaspoons of oil until it just begins to smoke. Add 4 cutlets to the pan and cook, undisturbed, until bottoms are lightly browned, about 2 1/2 minutes, then turn cutlets over and cook until second sides turn white, about 30 seconds. Transfer cooked cutlets to a plate, tent with foil, and keep warm. Add 2 more teaspoons of oil to the empty pan and repeat process to cook 4 more cutlets; finish with 2 more teaspoons of oil and the remaining 4 cutlets (adjust the burner if the pan drippings darken or burn).

Reduce heat to medium and add remaining 1 teaspoon of oil to pan if it looks dry. Add the shallot and cook, stirring constantly, to soften, about 40 seconds. Add wine and broth, increase heat to high, and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add lemon slices and any accumulated chicken juices and boil vigorously until the consistency is slightly syrupy and the volume is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add lemon juice, grapes, capers, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste, stir to distribute, and simmer until grapes are heated through, about 2 minutes. Off heat, add the butter and stir to incorporate it into the sauce. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary. Add the parsley and stir to distribute, then spoon the sauce over the cutlets, and serve at once.

Homer and Palin

Alex pointed me to his hilarious blog, and I just had to share it.

Homer Simpson vs. Palin

This one is good too. I think Tina Fey delivers the nonsense a little better.


Unfortunately we can't watch the debate tomorrow. We're off to Cirque du Soleil.

Alan on the upcoming debate:
me: Biden is intelligent

Alan: yeah

at least with McCain and Obama its a fight

you have two guys that have their strengths and weaknesses

9:53 PM but their debate was a fair fight

this is going to be like the Boston Red Sox playing the SHaker junior High school baseball team

Busy Week

The week started off with me going to Pittsburgh for NESUG, a SAS conference. Probably not that interesting for non-SAS programmers, but I was asked to present, and here is my paper if you are interested. Motivating Clinical SAS Programmers not the best paper, but it was well received and the presentation itself was fun. Pittsburgh, itself is actually quite nice, small and easily walkable. On the Monday we went to the Pirates Dodgers game (Pirates got killed). But PNC park is worth seeing, and a night at the ballpark is always fun.

I got back to Boston on Wednesday, and Heike had to give a presentation to Forsyth on Thursday. Her presentation went well, and I think everyone was impressed. Someone asked her if she was from Scotland (because of her English), which she took as an insult (if you've ever heard the scots talk you'd understand). It's like when someone asked me if I was Swiss...because of my German.

Friday, we went over to the Zahn's for Inka's book party. Her thesis was published , all 525 pages of it (Jason did the cover, you can check out his stuff here). Quite an accomplishment. As always dinner was delicious and the company was extremely interesting...some Germans, some Algerians, a couple Americans...basically you had no idea what language to speak to anyone there.

Saturday. Started with cleaning the kitchen. Doesn't sound like the best use of a Saturday, but it really needed it. Went through the fridge and threw out everything we hadn't touched in a year. It's amazing how stuff piles up. I had been putting this off for, well, about a year. I always think "Maybe we'll use this sometime" so I never throw anything out. But today it was all "executive" decisions. If I didn't want to look at something anymore...Gone! in the trash.
On to the fun part of the day. Margo turned the big 28 on Wednesday so we went over to their place to celebrate. Great food, good company and a couple of Dos Equis/Margo-ritas at 3 in the afternoon = a good time. We got home around 7, and were looking for a movie. We found something that Frau Schundler was talking about at Cris'. A skiing documentary by Warren Miller. Unbelievable. Awesome soundtrack, incredible skiing and boarding. I've never wanted to move to Steamboat Springs more. Let's start looking for a couple of weekends in the winter where we can go and find some of this powder. Anyone know anywhere good (within driving distance)? Vermont?

Tomorrow, Heike has brunch with the girls at Union Cafe. I'll try to get her to put a review of it up on the blog. Afterwards we're going to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and go for a walk at Crane Estate.

That was a busy week.

Crepes

Hi all,

we have a lot to post now that the summer is winding down. Eventually we will put up some pictures of our trip to Germany, 2nd anniversary, Karina's wedding, and other adventures we've had over the last couple months. But instead of waiting for us to get organized and do them all in order, I think I'll just post something now and then do the rest as the pictures trickle in.

Heike and my new thing is to have breakfast every morning. It worked very well this week, especially with the jet lag. (it's easy to have breakfast in the morning when you wake up wide awake at 6am). I think we'll have more problems as we get over the jet lag, but the idea is to establish the pattern now and hope for the best. On that front, this morning I got up early and made crepes. I just purchased a really cool book (cool if you like to cook) "Jaques Pepin's Complete Techniques." This book goes through, step by step, how to do eveything in the kitchen. He's got recipes along with stuff like "How to truss a chicken 3 different ways." Anyway, I decided to try the crepe recipe that he suggested.

Recipe:
1.5 cups all purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups milk
2/3 stick sweet butter, melted
1/2 cup cold water

Combine everything but half the liquid, whisk, add the rest of the liquid (I forgot the water), whisk until it has the consistency of light syrup, cook like pancakes.

The two interesting tricks here were:
1. Use melted butter in the batter. This way you don't have to grease and regrease the pan. The butter in the batter combined with using a non-stick pan is enough so that nothing sticks. None of the 20 crepes I made stuck at all!
2. To disloge the crepe from the pan, let it cook over medium (8 on my electric stove) heat for 50 seconds, then bang the pan on a dishcloth on the counter. Really hit it, and the crepe will loosen. Then wow your friends by flipping it in the air.

Delicious. Eat them sweet or savory.