Sunday Serial: Callsheet, ExtraBar, and Georges DuBoeuf Beajoulais Nouveau

There’s nothing like the last Sunday at the end of a vacation to inspire the Sunday Scaries! Here’s a list of things to check out to ease your re-entry into the world of work, if that awaits you. I kept up my exercise routine but I do need the routine to keep me on track!

Today’s Joey’s 21st birthday too!

Callsheet

I was enjoying Upgrade’s Upgradies episode over the break, and they mentioned Casey Liss’s Callsheet, which I had tried a while back but never really took to. The truth is, though, that like books, I do need a place to park a kind of TV Show/Movie wishlist. I’ve been trying Sofa for a number of years, and I like it, mostly, except it doesn’t lend itself to the most obvious setup for my use case: a list of things I’d like to watch, and then an archive of things I have watched. Sofa has branched out from TV and Movies to books, restaurants, and all manner of other interests.

Callsheet is a more focused app, showing you popular television shows and movies, which you can pin for later viewing. Callsheet will help you find where to watch a show or movie, and you can dig deep into an actor’s oeuvre if you’re curious about where you saw what’s-his-name before.

Interestingly, Mike and Jason crapped on Tapestry, which is an app category that, too, initially found mystifying, but found myself returning to time and again. As I’ve written, I’ve set up the New Reeder and subscribed to it, as it’s a lot less expensive than Tapestry and I still love the original Reeder.

ExtraBar

I’ve really been enjoying Amerpie by Lou Plummer; his tech-focused blog is an endless stream of app recommendations. He highlighted ExtraBar, which proposes an alternative to utilities like Bartender, Ice, and Barbee.

There’s no way to test drive the app, which seems a little scummy to me. I did buy one seat to try it out, and it’s not a simple swap from, say, Bartender to ExtraBar. You have to know a bit out apps that support links, such as OmniFocus, to start setting things up.

This is one of those apps that I’m going to want to get a lot of use out of, but will struggle to find a place for. Just a hunch.

Georges DuBoeuf 2025 Beaujolais Nouveau

I coworker gifted me a bottle of this just before the holiday, and I was terribly excited to try it after many years. I do believe this varietal was my introduction to red wine, and it really is a great place to dip your toes into the sea of red wine. It’s not to be drunk aged, just glugged after bottling. It’s a lighter, fruitier red, without being a sweet wine. We had some with our grilled chicken thighs last night in fact. Such a fun wine.

Atlantic City in the Week Between: Knife and Fork and Renault Winery

Rhonda had a great idea the other night… let’s abscond for a night! We’ve been scheduling things around the family for a couple of weeks, which is always a treat, but we hand’t really gotten a chance to do something together besides the quotidian running of errands, etc.

I’ve been wanting to set up and overnight trip to nearby Atlantic City for a while, because it’s a great restaurant town, your opinions about gambling notwithstanding.

Atlantic City is a pretty bombed-out town; it’s incredibly poor, with a heart-breaking stratification between the haves and have-nots. The haves, I don’t think, live in town at all. Whatever money the restaurants, hotels, and casinos pull in must, through financial tricks I could only fathom, remain with the businesses. It’s pretty wild, when you consider the relative affluence of towns like Ocean City, Avalon, and Stone Harbor.

But this isn’t a treatise on Atlantic City or the socio-economics of South Jersey shore towns. Because for however much I hope for a more equitable distribution of wealth in a town like that, I still enjoy the fuck out of the nightlife.

First thing’s first: there are great–and I mean great–restaurants in Atlantic City. You can discount the casino-based places if you like and it’s still a great restaurant town.

We’ve been going to the Knife and Fork since it reopened back in the early 2000s, and it’s always an experience. We’ve wanted to go down and stay over and make a long night of a visit, though; we’ve been down for many dinners over the years, but we have always returned in the same night. So there’s 45 minutes or so each way before and after dinner, or a 90-minute commute, however you like to calculate it. How fun would it be to get a room, have dinner, and make a night of it?

A lot, unsurprisingly.

We hit Renault Winery in Egg harbor City on the way down. Their bottled wine prices are outrageous, but it’s quiet a place: a resort, ice skating rink, outdoor fire pits, little huts and igloos you can rent, a nice bar… We remarked that we’re lucky to live near one of the best and most affordable wineries in NJ in our local Bellview. But we like to try them all! Renault is way out in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a long road. The sign on the street is huge and really old; you get that it’s an old place with subsequent upgrades.

Anyway, we tried their Chardonnay, which was excellent, and a sip of the Meritage, and we took a bottle of each to go. We also split the charcuterie for two.

I found a newly established Marriot in AC for a decent rate, right on the boardwalk, and within walking distance of the Knife and Fork. It wasn’t so cold that we couldn’t stroll down there, so walked we did. We had a great meal and then got lost in the Tropicana for a while.

Breakfast the next morning was at a cute little diner called The Little Goat, which I found when we both realized we wanted some breakfast. They had a special omelette which included ham, avocado, tomato, and Cooper sharp, and I ate the home fries too.

Little Goat omelet and hash browns with ketchup.

Then: it was errands.

New Years Day Roast

We did a rib roast again last night; Shop Rite always has a sale on them prior to the holidays, and it’s been Rhonda’s habit to grab one in the rush up to the holidays, and then freeze it until New Year’s Day. I chuck them in the sous vide tank all day and finish on the grill. We’re always impressed by how good they are for the price.

Rib Roast Going Into the Sous Vide Tank

Rib Roast

We’re gonna bug out of town for Atlantic City tonight. I got a reasonable rate on a Marriot room and we’ll have dinner at Knife and Fork.

Tonewood Brewery During the Week Between 2025

It’s officially 2026, but besides making some eggs and ham, there’s not much to say about the new year yet. We took the boys up to the House of Fun in Barrington yesterday so they could blow some Christmas loot and we could try some pints from round-the-way Tonewood. We did exactly the same thing one year ago!

I had the Blackbird Schwarzbier, which is a low-alcohol, darkly roasted lager. It had a great roasty flavor and a tasteful, gentle hop profile. I was keen to try their Blipstream ESB, but it was can only. I ordered their Biergarten Marzen for my second pint, which was excellent but I thought that I hadn’t had it before; checking my posts here on Uncorrected this morning revealed to me that I had, in fact, tried it before.

Where my tastes skew German and English, Rhonda tends to go for more juicy, hoppy selections. She tried a pint of their Slopes Pale Ale, which was a moderate 5.2% ABV and “hopped heavily with Talus, Simcoe & Chinook,” with “notes of dank resin, honey & orange.” The hops put me in mind of Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale, of which I have very fond memories, especially the time I turned 21 and my friend, Mike, took me to a German bar in Kutztown, PA, and we had many pints of it in a fireplace-heated, low-ceilinged bar. It was a great night. Her other selection was the Chilly Bin, which we have in cans here at home. It’s a West Coast Pilsner, which is kind of wild: you get the assertive, bitter hop bite that I grew to love with Sierra Nevada’s original Pale Ale, but the smooth body of a lager.

Tonewood’s Chilly Bin West Coast Pilsner

The bartender pouring yesterday mentioned that they have the ESB on cask at their Oaklyn location, so I’m gonna obsess over getting to that location until it happens. I love cask-conditioned ale pushed via hand pump.

Best wishes for a great 2026 for you. This has been the best year for my readership on Uncorrected; it’s peanuts compared to the internet-famous, but I can’t be anything but thankful that I get a fairly regular number of hits each day, week, and month. Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Sunday Serial: The Week Between 2025

It’s been a quiet few days since Christmas here in our bucolic corner of South Jersey. Friday was just lazing about, and yesterday was a quick trip to Bellview for some wine and cheese before sushi with Aaron (Joe was working). My morning have been punctuated by reading a bit and then farting around with my Mac before exercising. We’re going to cook our “free” ham from Shop Rite today, since we didn’t need the turkey when we qualified for that.

Fishwife Slow-Smoked Mackerel with Chili Flakes

I’ve been grabbing all manner of canned fish for our winery trips; it’s a chance to pile on some protein and avoid some of the carbs that might otherwise tempt me. I’ve see this Fishwife brand at ShopRite a bunch of times, and while the art on the box is fetching, the price has put me off. They’re on sale right now and I grabbed a can of the mackerel and the sardines; Aaron and I split the mackerel yesterday at Bellview while Rhonda watched in horror. Simply the best canned fish I’ve had to date. I’m going to stock up today when we run over for some provisions.

Apple Fitness+ Yoga

I have an estranged friend who used to swear by yoga for both fitness and mental health. I tried it a few times by awkwardly watching workouts on my iPad in the basement, and I liked it enough to get a cheap yoga mat. I tried a few workouts back in 2022, and the idea hit me a couple of weeks ago–this would be a nice diversion from the usual rowing grind. I tried a 40-minute workout and loved every second of it.

I recalled being impressed at the reported calorie burn back in 2022 when I tried some Yoga workouts, and was disappointed with the report from my most recent workouts. Maybe being 230+ pounds makes that kind of exercise more calorically intensive. Still fun though.

Fitness app screenshot showing workout sessions and calorie burn for December 2022 and November 2022.

Fitness app screen showing workout sessions and calorie burn for December 2025 and November 2025.

Melty Brie Plates

Rhonda’s been making these melty brie plates since we had one at Cedar Rose winery not long ago. It was our favorite at Bellview until they stopped serving it. We got some brie at Bagliani’s yesterday, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we had one later today.

TWB25 Commences

It’s the day after Christmas, so that means The Week Between has commenced. December 26th for us is usually just hanging around the house, eating leftovers, and watching TV.

We hosted dinner last night and I was annoyed with myself for forgetting to take a pic of the rib roast after it came off the grill. But I just check my E-PL5 and that was not, in fact, the case: I did take a pic! Thanks afternoon drinks!

My dad has been ordering from Pat LaFrieda for a long time, and even when we switched over to Rhonda and I hosting the holiday dinners, he continued to buy the star of the show in the form of an aged roast. This was a 30-day aged roast, and I can see from previous entries in Day One that this has been our go-to roast for years. I will confess to wanting to try it low and slow in the spare oven upstairs next time; I’ve been sous viding and grilling the roast, which I like, but I would really like those chewy, well-done bits that you get with a dry roast. They are also hard to wrestle into a bag. I split the roast and the bones into two bags and everything worked out fine! I will say that this is surely the best meat I’ve eaten. We’re lucky to be able to host with such a superstar centerpiece!

I always make breakfast on the griddle for the family on Christmas Day; our tradition has been pancakes forever, and it’s nice to be able to use all the space on the Blackstone to make a big pile of pancakes at once. Bacon too, of course.

Aaron said something about making egg nog earlier in the week, so I looked up a recipe on Serious Eats and gave it a shot. The first batch I made featured some cheap cognac we’d gotten for making sidecars; Aaron really liked it. I made a bigger batch yesterday, and made a virgin portion for Joe and Sorayah, and then used Goslings Black Seal Rum for the big-kid version. Aaron preferred the rum version, and it was also very good.

Aaron and I were talking about photography a bit yesterday since we got him a cheap point-and-shoot. He asked about aperture and I snuck this pick while grilling because of the sun and its angle against the cars, and what the whack TT Artisans might do with all that sidewise light. Serious lens flare but interesting in its way.

Bellview Winery had, for a long while, a melty brie platter on their menu. It featured DiBruno Bros brie, and we loved it and ordered it many times. They don’t offer that one anymore, which is heartbreaking, but we manage. Our recent trip to Cedar Rose winery, however, revealed their take on the dish.

Rhonda’s been making a version ever since we went there, and made it at home both Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Grilled Ribeye, Hold the Sous Vide

Rhonda mentioned that she wanted to have grilled steak, a cut that hadn’t spent the afternoon in the sous vide tank, since it had been a while. (It was a veiled complaint for sure.) We happened to have a frozen ribeye on hand, as well as some chicken, and were trying to use up some frozen foods, so onto the meal plan it went.

I gave it a quick trip on the Weber over some hot lump charcoal, and we were both really impressed. Sous vide is nothing if not consistent, but it’s hard to beat the char you get from a nice dry cut of beef. They don’t always come out like this, but I’m glad when they do.

Sunday Serial: TineeOwl Arctic Case foriPad Mini, FastScripts for macOS, and Bellview Winery’s San Marco ’23

There’s a slow, steady fall of snow outside today: it’s a dense, heavy snow. Rhonda and I enjoyed dinner at Greenview Inn Friday night; I had the duck. Yesterday, we check out Bellview’s December cheese plate, which was “Santa and Friends.” We supplemented with some salami from Bagliani’s and some sardines for me.

Greenview Inn’s Game Special–Duck Breast

TineeOwl iPad mini

My general rule of thumb is that an apple-branded case or folio is probably the best for my usage; I’ve largely stuck to Apple iPhone cases (most recently, a Beats case) and Apple’s Magic Keyboards and Folios for iPads. I have a nice green Apple folio for my iPad mini, which I like a lot.

The thing about the mini is, it begs to be carried around and not stuffed in a bag. I like to keep it in the car with me, on the passenger seat when it’s empty, and put it on the counter when I’m making drinks and things.

Apple’s folio has a great texture, but you don’t want to get it wet or stain it. One of the things that make their folios great–magnetic connection to the device–keep it from being reliable protectors in the event of a drop.

Enter the TineeOwl Arctic case. It’s more of a wrap-around phone cover, a clear rubbery plastic case that protects the back and sides of the iPad, with a decent lip to keep the screen from contacting a table or desk surface if you lay it face down.

The TineeOwl Arctic has grooves for the iPad’s TouchID wake/sleep button and the Apple Pencil, so it doesn’t interfere with the Mini’s helpful touch features.

It can feel a little rubbery when you’re reading and holding the device from the side; the edge of the case will pull away from the device, depending upon how you’re holding it. That can feel cheap and one imagines serial removals of the case will one day render it too stretched out to be useful. On the other hand, in a landscape of overpriced accessories, TineeOwl’s pricing is such that you don’t worry about it.

And hey: now I can see the six-color logo sticker on the back!

FastScripts

FastScripts is a utility from Red Sweater Software (purveyor of Mac-assed Mac apps, including the excellent MarsEdit) that collects your AppleScripts and gives you access to them via Finder’s menu bar. You can set a global keyboard shortcut to expose the menu, and even per-script shortcuts, and search your scripts. I’ve tried pushing a lot of my favorite Applescripts to Shortcuts, but in cases where I’m just executing scripts via Shortcuts, why bother?

One of my favorites is this script to create what I call a “classic” Finder window: no sidebar, toolbar, nuthin.

tell application &quot;Finder&quot;
    activate
    if (count of Finder windows) = 0 then
        make new Finder window
    end if
end tell

tell application &quot;System Events&quot;
    tell process &quot;Finder&quot;
        try
            -- Toggle the Toolbar
            if exists menu item &quot;Hide Toolbar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1 then
                click menu item &quot;Hide Toolbar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1
            else if exists menu item &quot;Show Toolbar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1 then
                click menu item &quot;Show Toolbar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1
            end if

            -- Toggle the Status Bar
            if exists menu item &quot;Hide Status Bar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1 then
                click menu item &quot;Hide Status Bar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1
            else if exists menu item &quot;Show Status Bar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1 then
                click menu item &quot;Show Status Bar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1
            end if

            -- Toggle the Path Bar
            if exists menu item &quot;Hide Path Bar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1 then
                click menu item &quot;Hide Path Bar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1
            else if exists menu item &quot;Show Path Bar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1 then
                click menu item &quot;Show Path Bar&quot; of menu &quot;View&quot; of menu bar 1
            end if

        on error errMsg
            display dialog &quot;An error occurred: &quot; &amp; errMsg buttons {&quot;OK&quot;} default button 1
        end try
    end tell
end tell

Bellview Winery’s San Marco ’23

Bellview owner Jimmy Quarella said the ’23 San Marco was just bottled, but it’s not for sale in said vessel as it has to settle a bit. It is, however, on tap at the winery, and after a taste yesterday, I couldn’t help but commit to a growler to take home. It’s a dry red, medium-bodied by my tastes. I’ve had San Marco blended into other reds they concoct, but this is my first time having the pure distillation.

Sunday Serial: Cape May, NJ Edition

Rhonda and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary this weekend. We both took off on Friday and headed down to Cape May, NJ, for an overnight. My mom was generous to send us for our 20th anniversary in 2023–we stayed at the comfy but swanky Virginia Hotel, and dined at The Ebbitt Room. We liked it so much that we went back and stayed at Peter Shields Inn and Restaurant the following year, and then again last spring at the Buttonwood Boutique.

Christmas in Cape May is a busy time, and it’s hard to find a room period, let alone one at a reasonable price. Because we decided on this trip a bit late for planning purposes, we ended up staying at the Cape, which is a nicely converted motel on Route 9, just outside of the historic downtown area. I would totally stay there again, especially if Cold Springs, Cape May Winery, and Hawk Haven are your points of interest. If you want the historic downtown experience, it’s a bit of a drive and a crowd to navigate to boot.

Cape May Winery

Our visit to the Cape May Winery was not our first, but we were excited to go back, as we really enjoyed our visit there last April. Sadly, they did not have their excellent rosé available. We ordered the brie plate, which was a menu special. It was kind of disappointing; for eight bucks, you got three pieces of cold bread smeared with an uninspired brie. The charcuterie plate was good, though. We tried their Chardonnay and White Blends, and I preferred the latter. The Chardonnay was pretty bright and tart for a barrel-aged specimen. We took a few bottles with us so that we’d have some choices to take with us to dinner.

Il Riccio

I made a rez at Ił Riccio , which is a BYOB in the heard of the madness that is Cape May at Christmastime. It is a charming old house, a la Peter Shields and the Washington Inn, and we dined in a dim corner of a small back room. We split the fried calamari, and then one of the whole fishes, which was filleted and served table side, with a side of spaghetti. Everything was great, and the dessert we split was excellent as well. Eight bucks will get you some bread, too, which made us roll our eyes. But hey: limoncello shot on the house after dinner.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

We came back home via Route 47, which is always how I got down to Wildwood when I was younger. We had omelettes at Mel’s Place, a nice diner in Villas. We had some of our own salami and cheese, and Rhonda redeemed yesterday’s brie let down by making her own version. So that was dinner!

Sous Vide Duck Confit

Dad was kind enough to ship eight duck legs to us. With Aaron home for a holiday visit, we figured it would be a good time to make them. Rhonda vocalized an idea, briefly, that we could just nip out for a bite with him, but he had mentioned to me over text that he hadn’t had home-cooked food for a spell. So I voted for the duck legs.

I did a little research on Serious Eats and found some compelling articles on the value of sous vide for this particular version of preparation, but used this one as my guide. I put the legs in on Saturday afternoon at 155 after a quick sprinkle of garlic and salt, and let them go for about 26 hours.

I lit the grill using Kingsford briquettes, hoping for a slower, more stable burn that I get with lump (my personal favorite for most applications).

While the grill came up to temp, Rhonda roasted some Yukon Gold potatoes in some duck fat (which Dad also generous to send along with the legs), some beets, and broccolini.

I checked with Kagi Assistant for the grilling instructions; it recommended (without obsequiously complimenting my intentions or taste) that indirect heat, covered, for 10-15 minutes would be good. I sprinkled some apple wood chunks from Thursday’s turkey on the grill and covered about 10 minutes before I put the legs on.

I would have left them on the grill a bit longer, but we didn’t want to delay dinner since Aaron was getting picked up around 5 pm. In hindsight, we did have a bit more time, but we all enjoyed every bite.

Sunday Serial: Black Friday & Cyber Monday Software Deals

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and with that, another birthday. In addition to hosting Thanksgiving, my parents took Rhonda, Aaron, and me out to Rocco’s Townhouse in Hammonton to celebrate my turning 51. It was, once again, excellent. I have some duck legs in the sous vide tank right now, which we’ll have around 4 pm before Aaron heads back up to New Brunswick for the final act of his first semester as a Freshman.

Black Friday is a great time to score some deals on software you’ve been ogling. The other side of that coin: It’s also an opportunity to drop some virtual coin on apps you don’t need, but want. All good! Here are some notables for you Mac nerds. I also ordered a Samsung T9 to replace Rhonda’s iMac’s spinning hard drives, which I’ll repurpose for something else.

Unclutter App Editors Choice

Unclutter has a collection of very cool utilities. It’s also a great way to update your Cleanshot X sub if you’re due soon. I grabbed Downie, which was featured on the latest Talk Show, as well as Forklift 4. I like apps like Forklift for interfacing with Google Drive instead of running the native app.

Take Control Books

Take Control Books is offering 25% titles, and 50% off their subscription-ish Premium tier (free updates to books after iterative updates). I grabbed these:
• Take Control of Photos – Ebook
• Take Control of iPhone Photography – Ebook
• Take Control of Notes – Ebook

Supasend

I tried Supasend when it first came out. I reminds me a bit of Drafts and Remind Faster, both of which apps prioritize input and quick filing to another application (in the case of Drafts, just about any app, and in the case of Remind Faster, Apple’s Reminders).

Acorn

Acorn competes in the same creative space as Pixelmator, and I’ve owned a license since it came out. It’s a photo editor for people who don’t need or want the complexity or expense of Photoshop. Developer Gus Mueller has been creating great Mac software for decades, and Acorn is his crowning achievement.

Retrobatch

I also have been trying out Retrobatch; I take a lot of pics for Uncorrected, and would very much like to streamline my resizing workflow (WordPress doesn’t like photos above a certain size). The excellent MarsEdit will take care of this for you, but I often post from Ulysses, because I like to be able to use my iPad to post as well. Retrobatch’s layout reminds me of Audio Hijack, with modules you string together into a module and save for batch processing images.

MailMaven

I’ve been using MailMaven since it came out in beta earlier this year, and I have a great affection for it. I can’t stop using MailMate for work email, but I do like having all of my accounts in this productivity beast. I figured I’d pay the first year introductory price and decide if I wanted to continue the subscription after that, but this price was hard to pass out.

DevonThink

DevonThink is an impossibly feature-rich document manager and note keeper. The most recent version, version 4, is available for a 25% discount. I stopped using DevonThink after moving to Windows for a spell, and now that I’m back in the Apple ecosystem, I’ve been using Notes because I love handwriting notes and Notes’ amazing Smart Script.

Thankful for Turkey

Dad got a fine turkey from Butcher Box for Thanksgiving. I did the dry brine thing and smoked it on the Weber Bullet. The bird, near the end of the dry brine, was a grim sight. It produced a great dish after a leisurely smoke on the Weber, though. As good as could have wished, happily. Stuffing, Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, mushroom gravy, family.

Turkey, Dry Brining Just Before the Cook

Sunday Serial: Metuchen Inn, Crossroads Chardonnay, Tab Finder, Hitman Absolution, and Matiz Mussels

This past Friday, Rhonda and I lit out for another visit to New Brunswick to visit Aaron. Our tradition around this time each year is to take the ferry over to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and stay at the excellent Hotel Rehoboth. Instead, we decided to visit Aaron again, since the boys don’t have a fall break for the New Jersey Teachers Convention now that they’re both in college. Rhonda and I both remarked though that we’re missing our annual visit and might try to work something out for later in the year. That’s always a fun trip: ferry, hotel, dinners out, ramen at Miyagi, and outlet shopping.

We stayed at a Marriot closer to his dorm, and I made a nice dinner rez (see below), and had some phô for breakfast on Saturday. I got to try a Peloton bike in the fitness center in the wee hours, and got an hour in the pool, too.

Metuchen Inn

Dinner on Friday was at the Metuchen Inn, which was reasonably close to our hotel. Friday night was incredibly dark, with cloud cover that made navigating difficult. We were driving in the new WRX, and it was my first serious trip with CarPlay; I didn’t realize that I wasn’t zoomed in sufficiently, so I often missed the small turns that I needed to attend to in such unfamiliar territory. Thankfully Aaron was in the passenger side and helped out.

We made it on time, though, and the manse itself was tastefully lit from inside, with a welcoming, soft amber light. Coming up to it on Middlesex Avenue, in the dark after many hours of driving, was a welcome sight indeed.

I had clams with black beans and chorizo, and then sea bass. I was tempted by the wild boar tenderloin, which Aaron ended up ordering, so I was able to try a bite, and it was delicious. My sea bass was excellent, with crispy skin and perfectly moist flesh. Rhonda’s lamb chops were similarly good. Service fell off at then end after being most attentive; Rhonda flagged someone down so we could pay our tab after a long wait for desert.

The Crossroads Chardonnay from Stokelan Estates Winery

Rhonda and I stopped again at Stokelan on the way up to visit Aaron; we take 206 up and veer off on Route 70 to Medford for a light lunch and some wine. We’ve tried both version of their Myra rosé as well as the Catspaw Chardonnay. The Crossroads is bit richer than the Catspaw, with vanilla, melon, and pear notes to my taste. We stopped for another bottle on the way home yesterday, and took one to go. Aaron got a turkey and brie sammich on a croissant, which was delicious (he decided to come home with us and stay overnight, and will catch a ride back to school with a local classmate later today).

Tab Finder

I found Tab Finder on Bundlehunt, and for a couple of bucks, thought I’d give it a try. It’s another utility that lets you view and search your open browser tabs. I’ve taken to using TabTab, which doesn’t restrict itself to searching browser tabs; the search is quick and I use it a lot on all of my Macs. TabFinder is a more focused app, but I love the appearance and the search feature works great. It doesn’t support Firefox if that’s your jam, but it does work with Chrome, Brave, and Opera.

The only feature I haven’t found on any of these utilities is the ability to close tabs from the menu.

Hitman Absolution for iPadOS

This is an old game that I played on the Mac years ago, but didn’t get very far. I don’t game on my Mac that much, save sometimes on holidays (my birthday is coming up, and that usually means another go at Firewatch). It runs great on the iPad, and I am very much inclined to dip into a game when I’m on the sofa for a bit after cleaning up from dinner. I’ve played a number of stealth-style games, including all three Space Marshals titles. I think I developed an appreciate for this style of game starting with the original Metal Gear on the NES; I remember trying to barrel into screens in that game and getting my ass handed to me. Nintendo Power to the rescue!

So yeah, it’s fun to sneak around in this game, and the solutions to each level are many, allowing you to replay levels to meet goals and try new strategies.

Matiz Mussels in Olive Oil and Vinegar

I mentioned the Piri Piri sardines in a previous Sunday Serial, and since I enjoyed them so much last time, I figured these might be good too (their other tinned fish is pretty expensive in comparison to the sardines and the mussels). I could do without the vinegar but they’re still really good with some white wine and other bites at the winery.

Wine Pics and Some Glass

Rhonda and I had to take the title for the old WRX back to the dealership, so we stopped at Bellview for a glass of wine. I took both cameras, the E-M10 Mark IV with and the EPL-5, the former with the 20mm 1.7 Panasonic lens, and the latter with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 UFO.

I was pretty sure I’d managed to outclass the Lumix 1.7 with this pic from the e-pl5/TT artisans combo:

But an accidental ev setting and the E-M10 proved too good to beat:

Cocktail Pics with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 UFO Lens

I took a couple of pics of my preprandial Manhattan yesterday with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 UFO Lens. There’s nothing milky or cloudy about the drink (see the second pic), but again, the weirdness of this lens enchants me.