California!
Dec. 20th, 2006 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eruthrosBoom, in this case, in the literal sense.
3.7 isn't big at all, but it was a sharp enough shake (and preceded by enough forewarning rumbling) that my mom and I dropped our forks and said "doorway!" in unison and headed off for safety. (Then, of course, the sharp shake turned out to not be the beginning of anything else, and it's only being scored a IV on the Mercalli scale by people in our zip. I'd give it a III, me, because nothing fell off the table except the newspaper, and we weren't panicked. But others are not so conservative.)
Also, I love the USGS. Back at Loma Prieta, we had to go turn on the radio and sit outside under the beams of the carport (I played candyland with the neighborhood kids) and wait for news to trickle in. We didn't even know how big the quake was for an hour or so. Now? Presuming you've still got the 'net, you'll get a report in about thirty seconds, 1500 Mercalli scale personal responses compiled into an intensity map in a minute and a half (more than that, of course, if it's a big quake), a preliminary Richter scale measurement in four minutes, and the whole shebang will be reviewed by a seismologist fifteen minutes after the quake. How's that for sweet?
***
I know I'm back in California because I fall asleep with a little tune stuck in my head. Not a Christmas song, no. It goes like this: "Approaching outbound two car M, M in one minute followed by one car L in two minutes two car N, N in four minutes. The next inbound train is going out of service. Do not board."
***
I think I'm still a San Francisco foodie at heart.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
friede asked me about good restaurants in Philadelphia, and I could name several, but I couldn't do what I did today.
See, this morning before work, I was going to the Ferry Building to get an apple-pear crostada and a mocha for breakfast (because drinking a mocha and eating a crostada and doing the crossword puzzle out on the walkway over the water, watching the ferries come in as the sun comes up, is about the best breakfast ever).
And also to get Frog Hollow fruit conserves for a gift basket form_shell's parents. I'm unofficially dubbing it the "Picnic in January: Ten Fabulous Reasons to Live in California" basket, and it's going to include Frog Hollow nectarine conserve, and two seasonal Cowgirl Creamery cheeses (the muscato-washed, herb-wrapped Pierce Point, available only in Fall and Winter, and burgundy-washed one with a currant layer at the bottom that I can never remember the name of, available for about three weeks around Christmas), and seeded flatbreads, and a bottle of wine (I'm thinking the Dry Creek Fume Blanc). And a map of Wilder Ranch with directions to the so-secret-only-ten-people-know-it's-there bluff with the highest concentration of California coastal wildflowers in the Bay Area. And then I thought, well, it needs fruit, but that doesn't really keep (still pondering that), and it definitely needs chocolate.
Local chocolate. So, okay. I haven't been back in California in six+ months, and yet I riffled through the list. Scharffenberger's been sold to Hershey's, and anyway I think their chocolate's overrated. Joseph Schmidt's also been sold to Hershey's. Charles Chocolates is excellent, still local, and uses local dairy products. Oooh, and they do an excellent-for-the-holidays dark chocolate bar with hazlenuts and candied orange peel. Charles Chocolates it is!
Only they don't have a retail store. And they're not sold at the Ferry Building. And the Chocolate show's not at the Academy of Sciences on Howard anymore. And they're not sold at Rockridge Market, which just caries the Charles pate des fruits (kick-ass, btw, if you need a not-chocolate boxed gift). Whatever is a not-from-around-here-anymore girl to do?
And then I remembered that, of course, the Virgin Megastore Cafe on the third floor of Virgin at Fourth and Market isn't just the Virgin Megastore Cafe anymore. It's Citizen Cupcake, a satellite of Citizen Cake, whose pastry chef was nominated for a James Beard this year. And Citizen Cake carries Charles Chocolates. (And also nummy cupcakes). How cool is that? I remembered who'd bought out whom, and where you used to be able to buy products, and where you can now, and I even remembered Citizen Cupcake. ROCK.
3.7 isn't big at all, but it was a sharp enough shake (and preceded by enough forewarning rumbling) that my mom and I dropped our forks and said "doorway!" in unison and headed off for safety. (Then, of course, the sharp shake turned out to not be the beginning of anything else, and it's only being scored a IV on the Mercalli scale by people in our zip. I'd give it a III, me, because nothing fell off the table except the newspaper, and we weren't panicked. But others are not so conservative.)
Also, I love the USGS. Back at Loma Prieta, we had to go turn on the radio and sit outside under the beams of the carport (I played candyland with the neighborhood kids) and wait for news to trickle in. We didn't even know how big the quake was for an hour or so. Now? Presuming you've still got the 'net, you'll get a report in about thirty seconds, 1500 Mercalli scale personal responses compiled into an intensity map in a minute and a half (more than that, of course, if it's a big quake), a preliminary Richter scale measurement in four minutes, and the whole shebang will be reviewed by a seismologist fifteen minutes after the quake. How's that for sweet?
***
I know I'm back in California because I fall asleep with a little tune stuck in my head. Not a Christmas song, no. It goes like this: "Approaching outbound two car M, M in one minute followed by one car L in two minutes two car N, N in four minutes. The next inbound train is going out of service. Do not board."
***
I think I'm still a San Francisco foodie at heart.
friede asked me about good restaurants in Philadelphia, and I could name several, but I couldn't do what I did today.See, this morning before work, I was going to the Ferry Building to get an apple-pear crostada and a mocha for breakfast (because drinking a mocha and eating a crostada and doing the crossword puzzle out on the walkway over the water, watching the ferries come in as the sun comes up, is about the best breakfast ever).
And also to get Frog Hollow fruit conserves for a gift basket for
m_shell's parents. I'm unofficially dubbing it the "Picnic in January: Ten Fabulous Reasons to Live in California" basket, and it's going to include Frog Hollow nectarine conserve, and two seasonal Cowgirl Creamery cheeses (the muscato-washed, herb-wrapped Pierce Point, available only in Fall and Winter, and burgundy-washed one with a currant layer at the bottom that I can never remember the name of, available for about three weeks around Christmas), and seeded flatbreads, and a bottle of wine (I'm thinking the Dry Creek Fume Blanc). And a map of Wilder Ranch with directions to the so-secret-only-ten-people-know-it's-there bluff with the highest concentration of California coastal wildflowers in the Bay Area. And then I thought, well, it needs fruit, but that doesn't really keep (still pondering that), and it definitely needs chocolate. Local chocolate. So, okay. I haven't been back in California in six+ months, and yet I riffled through the list. Scharffenberger's been sold to Hershey's, and anyway I think their chocolate's overrated. Joseph Schmidt's also been sold to Hershey's. Charles Chocolates is excellent, still local, and uses local dairy products. Oooh, and they do an excellent-for-the-holidays dark chocolate bar with hazlenuts and candied orange peel. Charles Chocolates it is!
Only they don't have a retail store. And they're not sold at the Ferry Building. And the Chocolate show's not at the Academy of Sciences on Howard anymore. And they're not sold at Rockridge Market, which just caries the Charles pate des fruits (kick-ass, btw, if you need a not-chocolate boxed gift). Whatever is a not-from-around-here-anymore girl to do?
And then I remembered that, of course, the Virgin Megastore Cafe on the third floor of Virgin at Fourth and Market isn't just the Virgin Megastore Cafe anymore. It's Citizen Cupcake, a satellite of Citizen Cake, whose pastry chef was nominated for a James Beard this year. And Citizen Cake carries Charles Chocolates. (And also nummy cupcakes). How cool is that? I remembered who'd bought out whom, and where you used to be able to buy products, and where you can now, and I even remembered Citizen Cupcake. ROCK.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-21 06:16 am (UTC)And since I got to say hi to Michelle today, I would feel quite remiss in not doing the same here. Hi! *hugs, remotely*
no subject
Date: 2006-12-24 06:03 pm (UTC)