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Friday, March 28, 2008

Quinn's

We finally went out to dinner on our own (an impromptu date!) in the capitol hill neighborhood. We have been wanting to try Quinn's - touted as a gastropub. We waded through cap hill hipsters for a fabulous dining experience.

We went early (around 6:30p) and we were seated right away (I should mention that later the place was insanely crowded, and there was a long wait). Quinn's has humongous windows which was great since it was still light out when we went (when we left, we actually thought the place was too dark, as they don't turn the lights on brighter after the sun goes down).

We started out with a appetizer of meatball sliders. They were deliciously savory and perfectly sized (a little bigger than a golf ball each).


We also indulged ourselves by getting the marrow appetizer. This was a huge appetizer btw - three large marrow bones! They were absolutely delicious and rich. Our only complaint is that they didn't have marrow spoons. Instead they used espresso spoons which don't quite fit as well into the bones.


I ended up ordering the housemade sausage, with kale and lentils because it seemed appropriately warming for a chilly day. This dish was so yummy! Whatever they cooked the kale in (maybe pork or duck fat) was just amazing. The sausage was great (especially with the dijon they served it with). And the lentils were cooked perfectly (just slightly al dente). I only with pictures of sausage didn't come out looking so... you know...


Evan ordered the hanger steak (rare) and fries. I love it when fries are done well, and Quinn's really cooks their fries perfectly. Although I didn't try the steak,Evan said it was amazing!


I didn't pay attention to what beer evan got on tap, but I went with the Flor del Montgo Monastrell Yecla 2006 which complimented the rich meal perfectly.

Weird ass weather!

Okay. See the pretty cherry blossoms across the street? They're blooming cuz it is spring. So why the heck is it snowing!?

KOMO news weatherman, Scott Sistek, breaks down the science of why/how it snows at sea level this time of year:

"HOW COME IT SNOWS LOWER THAN THE GENERAL SNOW LEVEL?

So I've just finished writing about how snow levels are generally 500-1,000 feet. So then, how is it possible to still snow near sea level?

If the intensity of a passing shower is strong enough, it can artificially lower the snow level a few hundred feet through a process called evaporative cooling.

When snow first begins to fall into drier air, that snow will evaporate. But the process of evaporation takes energy. Sapping energy from the air causes it to cool, dropping its temperature. So as this process churns away, the temperature will drop, but the humidity will rise as you add more evaporated moisture to the air content. The drier the air is at the beginning, the farther the temperature can fall during this process. (This is also known as "wet bulb cooling".)

But wet bulb cooling needs some help, and that brings up the second factor: precipitation intensity. We need to have a decent amount of oompf in the precipitation to get that cooling engine going. If it's a really light snow or flurries, it won't evaporate as much or as quickly, which means this cooling engine won't be very efficient and the temperature may not drop as much.

On the other hand, if you get a really heavy snow shower, that can really get that evaporation going and drop the temperature quite a bit. This is typically how snows in the Convergence Zone work when it snows in Everett/Lynnwood despite being in the low 40s across the rest of the region. The snow along the Hood Canal usually benefits from this as well.

That's what we're looking at in these snow scenarios the rest of this week. The one thing about this process is once the precipitation ends and the cooling mechanism goes away, the snow level usually quickly rises back to where it was before, and the temperature near the ground will rise.

Thus, it's not uncommon for the fresh-fallen snow to quickly begin to melt. And that's what we expect with these snow scenarios. Any snow that does fall should begin to melt as soon as the snow stops, as the general ambient temperature is expected to remain above freezing. The exception to this is area above the 500-700-foot snow level at night, where snow could stick around a little longer."


BTW, KOMO is my favorite local news for weather. The KING 5 guy just rubs me the wrong way, and national weather/or online weather places never seem to get the nuances of our weird weather climate down...

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Whatta cake!

Erica and uncle garrison's birthday dinner. Huge ass cake from costco

Ooh baby!

Oh my goodness. I cannot believe that companies make bikinis for newborns! This skimpy number is made by old navy for girls 0-3 months. Have your spawn attract the hotties from day 1.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Bready

This is a slice of my no knead bread accompanying my lentils and eggs.