Pendleton 100% Rye Whisky

Pendleton 100% Rye

This will be in my next Sunday Serial for sure but I’m jumping the gun in case anyone is looking for booze suggestions for the holiday. Make a Manhattan:

  • 3 oz rye
  • 1/2 oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica if you can)
  • Dash of bitters
  • Maraschino cherry

Stir over ice for one minute and strain into a glass. Simple and classic.

Windows User Goes Mac on Mashable

As a person farting with Windows more nowadays out of interest than necessity, I greatly enjoyed this article on Mashable. There are some basics that Kimberly Gedeon gets wrong, only out of being a Mac newbie:

Snap Layouts

As someone who often works with several different apps simultaneously, having the ability to snap Windows into certain quadrants of the screen is incredibly helpful. I’d love to have Slack snapped to one side of the screen, Gmail attached to the top right, and Google Docs positioned on the bottom right. Sadly, macOS doesn’t have this feature.

This is both true and false at the same time: macOS doesn’t have an exact copy of Windows Snap, but there is an affordance in the windows controls on the Mac. Excellent third-party options exist, like Mosaic and BetterSnapTool (which is no emollient if you are allergic to paying for software). If you are more techie, there’s always Keyboard Maestro.

macOS does Snap layouts... kinda

I don’t get the gripe about having to tap the spacebar to pull up a preview of a file or photo in Finder.

Sunday Serial: The Oatmeal, Headway, and Blackstone Griddles

Here’s this week’s list of recommendations:

  1. The Oatmeal: I haven’t read the Oatmeal in a long time, but we were doing some shopping yesterday for Rhonda’s class and I chanced upon a collection of Inman’s cartoons in the book section. This one in particular, about running, made me laugh and see myself at the same time (see the cartoon below). I too am an introspective person full of self-doubt and insecurities, and the net effect of rowing for me does help with that (plus I look better, generally speaking). While physically rowing, I go into dark corners of my mind. I anticipate this, but the me that emerges from the basement is a better version of me. It’s a kind of est or cathexis or primal scream. I flipped open to this cartoon in a moment of synchronicity, perhaps, a delightful, ephemeral, human moment that only great humor can invite.
  2. Headway: I’ve seen the ridiculous Blinkest “Be the Most Interesting Person in the Room” ads and was wondering what Blinkist was. Turns out, it’s a kind of Sparknotes or summary service for books you want to read but maybe don’t have the time to. Headway is basically the same thing, and this month, there’s a big sale. So I took the leap.
  3. Blackstone Griddle: We picked up one of these four-burner models at Walmart a couple of years ago, and it’s the size of the professional grill at which I toiled in my long-ago part-time high school job at Atkinson’s Takeout. I make all kinds of things on it: eggs, stir fry, burgers, salmon, stir fry. They are great and worth having, even if you usually grill on a charcoal or gas grill most of the time.

The Oatmeal
The Oatmeal

Headway
Headway

Blackstone Griddle
Blackstone Griddle

Opinions are Like…

I wrote recently in “Thoughts on Turning 49” about the Stoic principle of not having an opinion. As Jungian synchronicity would have it, I chanced upon a TikTok interview featuring Pete Holmes ranting about the navigation app Waze, and he mentioned what I later leaned was the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen:

The Great Way* is not difficult for those who have no preferences.

Third Chinese Patriarch Of Zen

Here’s Marcus Aurelius on opinions:

“It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul; for things themselves have no natural power to form our judgements.”

Marcus Aurelius on Opinions

Professional explainer of all things Stoicism, Ryan Holiday, expounds further:

The point is: One of the most powerful things we can do in life is to limit the amount of opinions we have. To say: “I don’t have an opinion on that.” (Even if deep down we do!) To focus on the things in front of us that matter, or more importantly, that are in our control. There is plenty there for us. Plenty to keep us busy, and not miserable.

The Curse of Having an Opinion About Everything

Our culture places great value on deciveness and action, hot takes and big opinions. But maybe we’re betraying a healthier version of our potential in so doing. Ride the wave.

Yesterday’s 5k Row is a Personal Record

Between the weekend getaway and a toy show I promised to take the boys to, a 10k wasn’t in the works for me this Sunday. I did manage to squeeze in a 5k and set a PR by a hair. Behold:

5k-rowing-workout-December-10-2023

Nothing terribly exciting, although I will point out that I was able to pull with more power at a lower stroke rate;. If you look at the third split, most relevantly, today I pulled at 198 watts at a stroke rate of 25 strokes per minute, while I pulled 198 watts on my previous PR in November on the third split… at 31 strokes per minute. It’s a small bit of data but it’s exactly what I”m trying to do: row with greater power, but more slowly.

Sunday Serial for December 10, 2023

This week’s list of things to check out:

  1. Yoink: This is a digital note shelf application I’ve written about before in my Essential Software series. You drag files and screenshots into the sidebar on your Mac, and then drag it out into the document or other project you’re working on. I use it for screenshots a lot, and it’s one of the things I miss when I use Windows. I do, however, find the omission of Yoink-like shelf apps on Windows moot because of how Windows handles screenshots–Windows copies them to the clipboard. Hence my next tip.

  2. Screenshot: Introduced in Mojave (and passed completely over my head) is a built-in utility that allows you to more specifically control what happens to screenshots in macOS. You can change the default behavior to send screenshots directly to your clipboard, for example, emulating Windows’ behavior and obviating the need for something like Yoink (Yoink is still incredibly useful for shunting files around in emails and moving files from, say, Finder to Google Drive).

  3. Bleu Cheese stuffed olives: I had my first martini with stuffed olives Friday night at the excellent bar at the Ebbitt Room. Color me impressed. Remember when I wrote about having opinions? Sometimes you’re wrong about things. Bleu cheese-stuffed olives are one of them.

Yoink
Yoink

Screenshot on macOS
Screenshot

Bombay Martini with Bleu Cheese Stuffed Olives
Bleu Cheese Stuffed Olives

On the Way to Cape May

I’ve never been to Cape May for more than a day trip, so I was excited to experience this historic and quaint town, on the munificence of my parents (thanks!)

As is the case with most of my trips, things centered around food and drink, so that’s mostly what I’ll write about.

We stayed at the historic Virginia hotel, which is beautiful and emblematic of a different time’s design. Victorian I guess? We had a nice room, with a giant walk-in shower. I would very much like such a shower in my home one day.

The Ebbitt Room in the Virginia Hotel

Our Room at the Virginia Hotel in Cape May, NJ

We nipped out after check in for a cocktail (dinner was at seven) and tried Finn’s on a recommendation, but the bar was packed and it didn’t really comport with our notion of a cocktail bar (it looks like Tom Cruise should be bruising some gin in a shaker). We slunk back to the Ebbitt Room’s bar in the Virginia, which I spied on checking in and did happen to see two open seats upon alighting for our misadventure to Finn’s. The Preprandial Gods must have designed this, as the Ebbitt Room was exactly our speed. We each enjoyed the house Eighty Nine Manhattan (redemption rye, amaro averna, amaro nonino), and a cheese plate. The not-fishbowl-sized drinks left us room for two Martinis (Bombay gin, bleu cheese stuffed olives).

The 89 Manhattan at the Ebbitt Room in the Virginia Hotel

Bomay Gin Martini with Bleu Cheese Stuffed Olives at the Ebbitt Room at the Virginia Motel in Cape May, NJ

I’ve never been one for stuffed olives in a drink, as I always felt it blurred the line between snack and drink too much for my liking. But these were excellent! Color me enlightened.

Cheese Plate at the Bar at the Ebbitt Room in the Virginia Hotel in Cape May NJ

We retired briefly to the room to find the dining room jumping. It was really noisy, in fact. But we settled in for a glass of Prosecco to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, which paired nicely with some Sweet Amalia oysters. We ordered a bottle of Benton Lane Pinot Noir to go with my duck breast and Rhonda’s braised lamb shank. The restaurant comped us a glass of champagne, no less.

Duck Breast at the Ebbitt Room in the Virginia Hotel in Cape May, NJ

Benton Lane Pinto Noir at the Ebbitt Room

The Ebbitt Room at the Virginia

Breakfast is a limited menu but comes with the room, and you can have it delivered to your door. La Colombe coffee no less!

We strolled around the Washington Mall, which is a mix of odd and tony shops, and then rolled over to Willow Creek Winery for their Sip and Shop event. We waited in a long line then strategized to find a seat to enjoy some wine and a cheese plate (which was excellent and generous). We shared the Winemaker’s Choice flight and a glass of the Malvasia Blanca. (All supplemented with rest of the previous evening’s Pinto Noir because I wasn’t getting back in that line).

Washington Mall in Cape May, NJ

Rose at Willow Creek Winery in Cape May, NJ

Wilde Cock Combo Board at Willow Creek Winery in Cape May, NJ

Mugging

Yesterday’s 10k Row

Yesterday’s 10k row was not a personal record, but I would like to direct your attention to my stroke rate:

December 3 2023's 10k Row

While I was not as fast some previous efforts, I did keep my stroke rate pegged at 28 strokes per minute. Compare that to last Sunday’s:

Last Week's 10k Row

  • Last week: 10k at 30 s/m, 186 watts
  • This week: 10k at 28 s/m, 184 watts

My goal, besides rowing a 10k in 40 minutes, is to cap my stroke rate below 30 s/m, so that will mean keeping power up more consistently. Fewer, but harder, pulls. Feasible? Dunno. But I think the slower rate will preserve my aerobic capacity.

Quick note: Rhonda joined me again this Sunday, but instead of her usual 10-minute Apple Fitness+ workout, she opted for a 20-minute row. I did the 20 minute alongside her, pulling around 28 s/m with good power for the “hard” sections and ramping up the stroke rate to 33-38 s/m for the “all out” efforts. This means my warmup led to me having 5k in the bank before I even sat for the 10k. With a light warmup and cooldown, that’s 00:27:50 and 279 calories burned before the 00:41:17 and 640-calorie burn during the 10k.

Them’s some meters!

Sunday Serial for December 3, 2023: Freshies, Charlesworth, and Reframe

This week’s list of things to check out:

  1. Freshies: Freshies is Tonewood’s American India Pale Ale. It’s lower in alcohol than other IPAs, and correspondingly less malty. A nice break from their excellent Fuego, Glasstown’s 609, and Bonesaw’s juicy Swoosh.
  2. Charlesworth Hotel: This restaurant is in a remote corner of southern New Jersey, the otherwise forgotten Fortescue. The four of us and my rents celebrated my 49th birthday there, and my curiosity about the place was replaced by shock and awe at the excellent food. It’s otherwise quirky and remote, but the food was memorable. I can’t wait to go back. Fried oysters, a pork chop, and even key lime pie (on the house, no less) rounded out one of the best meals I can remember. They even sang happy birthday to me. My Yelp review is here.
  3. Reframe: Reframe is an app that will help you cut back on your alcohol consumption. I used it to quickly cut my martini and wine habit down to something healthy and manageable, and helped someone I love cut out drinks altogether. Affordable, feature-rich, and effective with varied levels of support.

Tonewood Freshies American IPA

Charlesworth Hotel's Pork Chop