For our big Parents Weekend visit at Rutgers, I made a reservation at Le Malt Lounge for Saturday night. I fully expected this to be the marquee meal of our trip. For Friday’s adventure, though, I texted Aaron to ask him if he wanted to go anywhere special. He didn’t express a strong opinion, but reiterated his interest in the Frog and the Peach, so I made a rez.

It was more expensive than Le Malt Lounge, and decidedly better–casting no shade on Le Malt, but there it is. It’s in a newer development that put me in mind of the Naval Yard in Baltimore: cultivated, consciously developed, and oddly quiet for such a busy city. There’s nothing kitschy, accretive, or quirky about the neighborhood, Hiram Square, in the same way that a McMansion development often appears, and like the Navy Yard, it bears its share of social scrutiny.

Rhonda and I each ordered the Black Manhattan, which added Averna to the classic cocktail. I’m often suspicious of substitutions or additions like this, but the herbal, licorice flavors paired superbly with the drink. It had an inky blackness I appreciated in both the title and the presentation.

For apps, Aaron tried the bone marrow, which didn’t surprise me. I expected a couple of cross-cut shins, with a spoon to scoop out the marrow. Instead, the bones were cut longitudinally, such that the marrow (and the mushroom stuffing) was easily accessible. I can’t say that I preferred it with the stuffing to straight gelatinous and umami-rich marrow, but it was still good. It came with bread for serving.

I had the oysters, which were billed as from nearby Fishers Island. They were briny and delicious, up there with Sweet Amalia oysters in my opinion. I don’t need mignonette with oysters when they’re good. The muddy Delaware Bay ones we often get in South Jersey require a flavor boost, but not these.

Rhonda had the the pumpkin ricotta gnocchi as an appetizer. These were fantastic, with only a hint of pumpkin (and not the cloying “pumpkin spice” version of things that assault the senses around this season). They were clearly hand cut, varying wildly from pillow to pillow in shape. They were firm for ricotta dumplings. The garlic mushroom broth and escarole added great flavor and texture. I adored my bite. Sadly, I neglected to take a picture.

Aaron and Rhonda both ordered the duck breast; they had steak on the menu, but it was eye-wateringly expensive (as was Le Malt, to be fair). This was an excellent preparation, cooked perfectly, and the baby turnips, almond spatzle, spicy duck sausage, dried cranberries, and a balsamic fig puree, which, composed, added a ton of flavor and textural contrast.

I have an fulsome appreciation for the humble monkfish since my college days, when I swore off meat but ordered (and prepared) fish as often as I could. The tightly wrapped loins evoked the over-worn comparison to lobster tails, but I can’t crow about that: their lightness was emboldened by the prosciutto, which imparted a nice salty crust to the delicate fish. The shaved squash offered a ribbony pasta texture and chew without adding unwanted carbs, and the lemon in the sauce was nicely balanced with a touch of fat. Monkfish and a glass of Sancerre… perfect any night.

I was in Friday fettle today at work, as Rhonda and I are off to visit Aaron for Rutgers Parents Weekend tomorrow. We plan to stop at Stokelan Winery on the way up. I made a couple of dinner reservations: The Frog and the Peach and Le Malt Lounge. I’m not sure what we’ll end up doing otherwise but it’s going to be a nice visit no matter what.

We nipped out with Joey and Sorayah for dinner at Cilantro, tableside guacamole and all. Rhonda and I split a bottle of Autumn Lake winery’s Alberino, which I read about at Uncorked. It was excellent. We all had ice cream after.

One thing I’ve been thinking about writing up is a post on making sure you put some joy in your to-do list app. For me, that’s OmniFocus: I’ve been storing wishlists of books, apps, clothes, and household items in projects that I keep on hold. And one that’s strictly for nerd endeavors. Tonight, I made a packing list for the weekend.

It feels like fall out there! Finally! I pulled some flannel out of the closet upstairs and swapped out my short-sleeve polos and shorts. It’s a good day to be inside, with all this rain and wind.

We met Teri for some snackies and wine at Bellview for one of the last soirees of the season Friday after work. Next weekend Rhonda and I will be in New Brunswick visiting Aaron at Rutgers for Parents Weekend. I’ll have plenty to share for sure. Tripsy is all loaded up with ideas and a reservation for Le Malt Lounge on Saturday. We’re planning on stopping at Stokelan Estate Winery on ride up.

Buena Connection’s The Backroads

Rhonda and I rolled up to Hammonton yesterday to restock our salami stash; they have these big unmarked salami that are identifiable as spicy or mild only by a rubber band. They are always excellent and will last you a while unless your salami lust is boundless.

We stopped off for a pint at the Buena Connection Brewery, which I’ve featured a few times here. I tried their Backroads IPA, which they describe thusly:

Pours like a pale yellow, almost straw-like color with a light-moderate haze. notes of fresh squeezed orange juice with a medley of citrus and tropical aromatics

It’s their take on the juicy, hazy style of IPA that has found favor among hopheads in the last few years. It was excellent. I was tempted by their Photon (kölsch) and Western Sky (West Coast IPA), and of course the Oktoberfest. I was really happy with my selection. A former classmate of Rhonda’s pours pints there and we love to chew the fat with him while we have a few sips. I actually cycled with him once, back when I first started riding with the group that would become Paramount Cycling Club.

Gerard Bertrand Gris Blanc

After the salami run, we stopped at Rocco’s Town House for an early dinner (are we that old now?) and it was once again excellent. We asked for a bottle of White Horse Winery’s rosé, but they were out. The waitress suggested this gris blanc, it was perfect: crisp, but with a touch of tart fruit on the palate.

I had scallops for dinner, and we shared their steamed mussels first. All really really good.

Tron 4K

I was a wee pup of seven years when Disney’s Tron debuted in theaters. It was the kind of special effects-heavy kid-friendly sci fi flick that us kids dug right into, including the five-points-of-aritculation Tomy toy line. Tron:Ares just came out in theaters, and while I don’t think I’ll see it there, I will as soon as it comes out on Disney+. I thought it would be fun to watch the original, which I’ve done many times over the years. I cued it up the other night and started watching, and the first thought I had was, “wow, the special effects really hold up.”

Rhonda remarked that it must have been touched up, and she was right:

The original Tron has been digitally scanned and meticulously restored by The Walt Disney Film Restoration team, which corrected the new digital master for dirt, warping and other source imperfections. Resulting, Disney claims, in “pristine image quality.” The Restoration Team’s work was all undertaken under the supervision of director Steven Lisberger, too, to ensure that the remaster remains true to the original artistic intent.

I’ve encouraged the boys over the years to enjoy Tron, as I did with DC and Marvel comics, Star Wars, and lots of other plastic pursuits. Diamond Select released a three-pack of Tron figures that borrowed the Tomy line’s colored translucent plastic, but with updated articulation and detail compared to the original line. I ordered it for the boys back then and Aaron was kind enough to let me display the Kevin Flynn figure on my desk.

There’s a lot to ponder on rewatching Tron: the nominal hero, Tron, overshadowed in plot and on screen by an impossibly young Jeff Bridges; the anthropomorphized “programs” that live in the Grid; and questions of identity and free will.

One of the central challenges (perhaps the challenge) of cooking at home is remembering dishes. You can easily get in a rut, or at the very least forget about some popular and easy dishes.

To this end, I refer to AnyList to see what was on the meal plan recently, but the problem with ruts is they can stretch out interminably. That means a lot of scrolling in AnyList.

Rhonda and I realized I hadn’t made this pressure cooker risotto, which everyone likes. I grilled some chicken last night to save for tonight to have with the risotto, in part to purge our memories of the terrible risotto we had at last Wednesday’s Wine Down Wednesday. Theirs was firm, loafy, with some uninspired chicken sliced up in there. Not so mine.

We went hard on the mushrooms.

I took the E-PL5 with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 lens with me to the winery yesterday and took some pics. It’s strange that I’m so drawn to taking that one with me instead of the E-M10 Mark IV with the Panasonic Lumix f/1.7, but I like wondering what I’m going to get. I toss a lot of the shots I take with this lens.

We learned that the rosé supply is running short, which is terrifying. I’m hoping they’ll offer it on tap again in December when the new supply hits, but I’m doubting it.

I figured the winery on a sunny Saturday would be a great time to take some pics with this lens, as its thirst for light is strong. I like how the trees around us darkened the foreground.

I was enchanted by the guy in the background: he rolled in, got a bottle of red, light a cigar, and dipped into a book. He was flying solo.

When you find yourself lost in thought: begin again.

We’re well into October but I’m in shorts and it’s pretty much summer outside (during the day at least). I did manage to wear a flannel shirt Friday, though. I’ll be grilling ribeyes shortly; they’re in the sous vide tank right now.

Not Your Desk

I see your desk: bespoke. the ultra-clean, organized set up. The RGB lights tastefully illuminating the cubbies. The small plastic potted plant with manicured pebbles. It makes a nice insta post for sure.

I don’t want your desk. I want my desk. My desk has a bunch of shit strewn atop it. I clean it up from time to time but I don’t obsess over it.

What’s this USB cable for? I don’t know. Do I need these headphones out all the time? Probably not. but they don’t get in anyone’s way. Black peripheral, white USB cable? Um, yeah. It’s what I had when the thunderbolt dock was delivered.

Unused laptop in a stand, not even charged? It is, in fact, pretty much unused. But hey! I know where to find it if I need it. I could put the sunglasses away in the drawer, but they’re right there, conveniently reminding me to wear them.

And that USB-powered tire pump? Why have that on your desk? Because I can charge it up using an mis-color-matched USB cord, that’s why. It’s not like I have a garage.

Your desk? Looks great. But I still like mine.

Touch: the AppleScript

I have a thousand reasons why I like to drop a test file into a location. Unix is a beautiful construction, where there’s a solitary app for most things. macOS does the same thing, it follows the same path, and the best macOS apps the Mac assed Mac apps all shine when developed in this way.

Sometimes I just want create a text file. Touch is a handy Unix app that I often turn to in such circumstances.

But let’s be honest: I’m not hanging out in Terminal all day. Or ever, really. Are there people out there who are? Seriously? If you say so.

Years ago I wrote a simple AppleScript to create a markdown file for me. It’s easy to fire it off with Launchbar, too. I gussied it up a bit using Copilot yesterday.

try     
    tell application "Finder" to set currentFolder to (folder of the front window as alias) 
    on error    
        set currentFolder to path to desktop folder as alias 
end 
try  
    set baseName to "new" set extension to ".md" 
    set counter to 0 set fileExists to true  repeat while fileExists    
    if counter is 0 then        
        set fileName to baseName & extension    
        else        
        set fileName to baseName & " " & counter & extension  
    end if  
    set currentFile to POSIX path of currentFolder & fileName   
    set fileExists to (do shell script "test -e " & quoted form of currentFile & "; echo $?") is "0"  
    set counter to counter + 1 end repeat  
    do shell script "touch " & quoted form of currentFile  
tell application "Finder"     
    select file fileName of folder currentFolder 
end tell

Logitech MX Master 4

Have you met a keyboard person? They will drop 200 bucks on a keyboard sight unseen if the kickstarter description hits all the right notes. How do I know? I’ve been one. We have rights.

The MX Master is something of a legend in the peripheral world. It merits its own reviews, and iterations are hotly anticipated It’s a big, heavy mouse that appeals to the same types of users. I’m one of them.

The MX Master 4 has more software affordances than ever before. It’s got more thunk and chunk than the 3S that preceded it. It is absolutely worth a spin if you enjoy using a Mac with a mouse, especially with a desktop Mac or a laptop in clamshell mode. And for me, that’s the best way to use a Mac.

The newest physical feature of the MX 4 is the Sense Panel with haptic feedback. From MacWorld’s review:

But, of course, it’s the haptic feedback features that are the star of the show, and the thumb rest now has a haptic ‘Sense Panel’ that sits right under the tip of your thumb. This is a button that you can program to perform a variety of functions, but it also provides tactile haptic feedback in the form of a brief ‘click’ sensation – similar to the haptic feedback on Apple’s Magic Trackpad – in response to a variety of actions or commands.

The update to the LogiOptions software includes their take on a radial launcher:

For home users or ordinary office workers, the Logi Options+ app provides another new feature, called the Action Ring, which is activated by pressing the Sense Panel button. The Actions Ring appears on screen when you press the Sense Panel, and displays a circular menu with additional commands that you can select. By default, the Action Ring displays a set of standard commands, such as launching the Notes app on a Mac or instantly locking your Mac.

LogTech is trying to Sherlock Pieomter.

Brown Loafers

They are almost always the best choice.

The Blog of Random on the split-brain experiment:

The split-brain experiments show the incredible ability of the human mind to adapt in any situation that it is placed in. They also show that all of those quizzes about being “left-brained” or “right-brained” due to being more “artsy” or “sciency” are completely false. In reality, both hemispheres are equally important to function as a normal human being, and tests have shown that both hemispheres are used equally in most situations, whether you’re painting or solving a math problem.

Sam Harris, in Waking Up:

What is most startling about the split-brain phenomenon is that we have every reason to believe that the isolated right hemisphere is independently conscious.

It is amazing to consider the outsize impact our left hemisphere has on our conscious perception relative to its importance. We live with a silent self that knows quite a lot about its chattier half–and that interest seems exclusive.

I might argue, too, that our left hemisphere is responsible for a considerable amount–if not most–of our suffering.

Aaron will alight for Rutgers in the next 15-30 minutes. We really enjoyed having him home, and celebrated with just the three of us (Joe is working) at Sweet Amalia. It’s a wonderful spot for any occasion, I have to say, although the anxiety of rolling up to the joint in anticipation of the shoobie attendance is nerve-wracking to say the least.

We got a couple orders of their fries (frites perhaps), a dozen Sweet Amalia oysters, the steamed clams, and the scallops (which come with corn, sausage, grilled romaine, potatoes, and some other goodies). Rhonda and I sipped some Adella from Bellview, too. It was hot in the midday sun for sure, but a transformative dining experience, as always.

I took these pics with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 lens, this time on the E-M10 Mark IV.

I took a half day Friday and rolled up to New Brunswick in Aaron’s Mini to pick him up for a weekend visit. He brought two friends back with him who live locally. We hit the Double Eagle for wings last night and had a fine time. He and I also grabbed hot pot again at the same place we went to when we visited last spring. It was once again excellent and I was both stuffed and over-salted by the meal. We both remarked we’d go back again when we stopped to refuel the squad at a Wawa in Vincentown on the way home.

Mudhen Wildwood Haze

The aforementioned Double Eagle has Mudhen’s Wildwood Haze on tap, and I tried it Friday when the four of us went out. I’m really loving the NEIPA style wherever I try it.

Cleanshot X

I take a lot of screenshots. I used them for this site, of course, but I send images throughout the day via email and Messages. The built-in feature in macOS generally works fine for me, and I’ve never had much to complain about the feature, especially considering the options it’s gained over the years, including screen recording and other options.

I grabbbed Cleanshot X when it was part of a software bundle deal a while back, and it’s definitely a worthy utility if you take a lot of screenshots. I love how the thumbnail of the image remains pinned to the corner of the screen until you do something with it or dismiss it, and the fact that you can hop right into your screen grab and edit it using Cleanshot instead of switching to another application. This even works for screen recordings.

You can do other cool stuff with screenshots, including hiding the documents on your Mac’s desktop when you take a screenshot.

Bic Gelocity Gel Pens

I always shop for pens whenever we end up at our local Dollar Tree. They often have Sarasa pens for a buck apiece, and once I got this Bic Gelocity, which I love for its smooth writing, giant barrel, and curvy appointments.

Home (Reprise)

As a psychologist, I’ve always been interested in our individual internal experiences. I wrote back in August, while we were on vacation, that I imagined both the hesitation and excitement of living in the space between graduating high school and moving away to college must be a dense space. I should know–I lived it, too.

But we’re all different, and can only know each other’s thoughts and feelings through the imperfect media of language and supposition. I wondered, too, about how Aaron might feel on his first visit home, after some time away: how it might feel familiar and comfortable, but also how this first momentous step towards independence colors the shelter and safety of home. It’s been great having Aaron home this weekend, and Rhonda and I are both looking forward to the upcoming parents weekend for a two-night visit.

LDStephens:

I didn’t do any of this to prove something to anyone but myself. I just wanted to see if I could. Looking back, it wasn’t about patches, jerseys, or times. It was about showing up. Riding through pain. Managing the mental battles after mile 150 or mile 100 when you’re climbing into thin air. And finishing, even when everything in you says to quit.

It’s not about the bike.

Cycling – Three Doubles and a Summit