It's Christmas time in the city with record high temps...

Rigoletto restaurante

Amazing north end Italian, get the calamari.

Al fresco Christmas Eve

North end Italian

Happy Birthday

The first web page went online 25 years ago today.

http://timeline.web.cern.ch/timelines/The-birth-of-the-World-Wide-Web

Ponies in the Park

We apologized for not having any carrots. The Ranger asked why no one ever thinks of bringing him a steak.

Good to be home

Finally American food

Are cats flammable?

#bostonstrong

All is bright. 2 of 3 are calm.

Edible Tea Party

The Taj's gingerbread masterpiece commemorates the party the Sons of Liberty threw on December 16, 1773.

This is how Boston sees itself

We are thankful for memories left by those who are not with us today.

Sad

Pretty sure the pilgrims had beer.

Blue Apron

Tired of the repetition in your meals? Tired of being forced to buy a bag of carrots when you only need 2. Tired of buying a jar of some spice you only need a teaspoon of? Tired of driving to the grocery store? If "yes" to any these say hello to blue apron. Once a week a refrigerated box arrives to your doorstep whose contents are the raw ingredients for 3 fabulous meals for 2, plus left overs.
If the recipe only require 6 capers, you get a small container of 6 capers. At a cost of less than $10.00 a meal delivered. The recipes are not only things I've never cooked, but generally very healthy and no processed food. They supply everything you need except salt, pepper and oil.
Perfect for someone wanting to learn how to cook. In two meals I've already learned a bunch.
Sturdy splash proof recipe cards come in each box.

Look ma, no hands!

Recently the car company Tesla opened a showroom just around the corner. This was practically an order to come test drive the new models.
The latest version has a feature called auto pilot. Basically once in this mode the car will maintain speed, auto adjusting for cars in front of you and also automatically steering the car to remain in the current lane. You can also request the car to change lanes by engaging the turn signal.
It seemed to all work magically for several miles going 70 mph on I-90. While a bit scary at first, it's clear it's a better driver than you. It "sees" all around you and makes strategy adjustments faster than your early morning commute mind can compute.
While this is impressive, I found the fact that the hardware for auto pilot had been installed on every car for the past few years and remained dormant until a few days ago even more astonishing. The new feature was downloaded over the air to your car's brain and every owner woke up to a new car that could drive itself. That takes vision. There was no need to go back to the dealer, it just happened.
This morning I decided to take the train to work, while the interior does not have the elegance of a Tesla, I have even more freedom to do tasks other than steer the car down the road.

Why didn't we do this before?

Fireplace works great!

Late harvest apples

Some of the best apples I've eaten. The D'arcy spice is especially good.

Why I don't donate to the arts

Salvation Army donations

i think i taw a puddy cat

Massachusetts state of mind

Caramelized onions, bacon, pasta, greens. All from Massachusetts.

Mary Mac's

Not around the corner...

Blue Lobster

A rare blue lobster was caught near Beverly Harbor. Full story in the Boston Globe here.

Fall in the city

Boston book fair

I

Alway something to do. Listening to authors of speculative science books in the trinity church sanctuary. Ironic

Don't buy your beer in the south

Paella al fresco

It's the little things

On my brief walk to my car, just before sunrise, I pass a patch of sky that has a wonderful opening to the ecliptic. This morning was particularly clear. Saturn, Venus and a handful of stars were visible even with streetlights. I took quick picture with my phone. You can clearly see Jupiter and Venus in this photo.
Have a great day!

There is hope

It's easy to find fault in the world, listen to the news and you can easily become depressed. Even though study after study shows most if not all pundits on tv are wrong with their predictions, we still find it easy to be swept up in the artificial drama we call the news. This week a TED conference was held just down the street. The first 2 hours was an open exhibition of several local startup companies showing their stuff. Older companies also had a few booths showing their technology and looking for talent. Everything from hand made post cards to robots to dairy free ice cream was on show. The main event was six speakers each having a 15 minute talk on their research. Both Cindy and I were "blown away" with the ideas. A data scientist from the city of Boston talked about how they use data to make the city better. I had no idea all the solar powered garbage cans actually call in to report how full they are each day, so they can be emptied when necessary. They use Waze data to dispatch police to hand out tickets for double parking. He showed the dashboards they use to monitor and control many parts of the city. Forget the news, forget going to the opera, these TED talks gave us a brand new healthy outlook on life. It was transformational. Yes Virginia, there are people doing great things for this world.

Privateer Distillery

A beautiful fall drive up the coast to Ipswich, lies a boutique rum distillery, with a wonderful history.
What the building lacks in charm is made up by passionate people telling you their story of how they make the best rum in the world. The tour starts with everyone doing a taste comparison between the raw products they use versus what the big distilleries use. There is a big difference between domino brown sugar and well made brown sugar.

Lobster Reuben

Just up the the road a bit in Ipswich, is a wonderful little gastro pub named Salt Kitchen and Rum bar.
It seemed like the perfect place for a late lunch after our distillery tour.
Wonderful food and beer selection, along with a long list of rum and rum cocktails.

Beautiful day for a walk on the river

Italian Asian Fusion

Last night we decided to get a pizza from the worlds best pizza place, and bring it home. Don't argue with me on the quality of pizza, cause around the block is Picco, and it is the best pizza by a long shot in the entire known universe. After putting in our our order (broccoli rabe, Italian sausage, olive) we decided to walk the neighborhood while our pizza baked in the wood fired oven. We wandered into our neighbor's restaurant Banyan (small asian plates) and discussed their latest restaurant review. We were invited to have a seat outside and a drink while we waited for our pizza. After sitting for a bit on our personal outdoor sofa, we were told, "hey if you stay, just bring your pizza hear and eat". So thats what we did, and soon another couple (brother/sister so they said) joined us. Of course Cindy instructed them on exactly what they should order. Winks from the owner as it was a win-win experience.

It was one of those magical evenings, perhaps the last warm sultry night of summer, good food, good drink, and good friends.

Ciao

Go Bananas!

The only downside of online grocery shopping is messing up the quantity desired. Oh well, at least there will be banana bread in our future!

Cuisine recon

Grilled avocado, pickled daikon/carrots, garlic aioli, jalapeños.
Your turn mom.

Spotlight: Banyan Bar and Refuge

To celebrate our anniversary and birthday, we tried out a new restaurant. Yep, just around the corner is a new one, taking over the classic  Hammersley's of Boston. This was advertised as Asian small plates. Walking in, it was like old home week. We knew practically everyone. Ok thats a bold face lie, but were greeted by many friends. The owner our neighbor just down the street, and patrons of the south end were all around. We had earlier chosen the chef's table, just next to the kitchen.

Without going into detail you will never read, it was perhaps the best eating experience I've ever had, and that is statistically significant. The picture above is a Kirin beer slushy, the top is frozen beer, made in a machine, of which there are only three others in the US. The cocktails and food were things you would never make yourself, and outstanding.

Most memorable, are the wontons, and grilled avocado. I promise a picture with our next visit.

Cape Cod Drone View

Hot times!

Whale of a good time

Touristy whale watch turned into a whale exhibit. I think they were all trying to show off.

Boston does the 4th with a passion

Spotlight: Babbo Pizzaria

Just because you are famous and have a cooking show does not mean you have a great restaurant. On a recent walk along the waterfront we stumbled upon Mario Batali's new restaurant in Fort Point. While the service and ambiance were great, the food was average. The tastes were commercial more like Olive Garden, than a quaint neighborhood restaurant.

Morning walk

Cindy discovered a wonderful walking path along the harbor. Beautiful views of the city. Below is the site where we celebrate the Boston tea party, I think we are still fighting the same battle today.

There are some interesting restaurants along the way

Beautiful view back at the financial district, and the North End.

The commons is decorated with 37,000 flags in memory of each Massachusetts fallen serviceman.

Moore's Law

50 years ago Gordon Moore (cofounder of Intel) predicted that for the next 10 years, the number of transistors on a chip would double every year. He later adjusted his prediction to a doubling of every 2 years. If Gordon gives you a stock tip, you should probably take it, cause his incredible prediction was right on, and continued to be so for the next 40 years. Doubling every year is a powerful force. If you doubled the number of pennies you give me for 50 years,  I'd have 1,125,899,906,842,623 pennies. I suspect you would have to pay me in large bills cause there would be no pennies left in circulation.

Unfortunately about 10 years ago, the speed of chips stopped increasing at the same rate. What does this mean? Even on your smart phone instead of a single computer, you have 4. Each one not really faster than the ones of prior years. We must distribute the tasks among computers. With great challenges comes great opportunity.