Still here, still hanging on...

It's been cold and rainy here, and we've both been neck deep in paper writing, interning, and practicum wrapping. Dreary,damp chill and brain-saturating grad school work have made us heartsick for the summer, for sunshine, for lazy afternoons in the hammock, and plentiful blooms around our little parcel in suburbia. I took a peek through our old photos and found a few that we never shared over the summer. I feel warmed just looking at them.

A couple of years ago we wrapped one of our downspouts in twine, and we planted a clematis next to it hoping that the clematis vine would hike its way up. It takes a bit of coaching each spring, but eventually it shimmies right up and kicks out some pretty royal blooms. One day the vine is literally just a a leafy bramble, and the next day it's gorgeously afire.

We grew several types of sunflowers this summer, my favorite being the really rich, deep burgundy and rust ones. Most of those beauties bloomed while we were in Lake Tahoe, but we were able to catch a few unfurlings. We hope to try these again this coming spring.

We dug through a bunch of old landscape planning books a couple of weekends ago in an attempt to brainstorm creative layouts for our little backyard for next season. I love the French potager, which is pretty close to what we created this past year. But I also love the idea of growing this wild and wooly back patch of veggies interspersed with flowers interspersed with herbs. I want this vibrant patch filled with little paths. I want the whole backyard to be a wild display of food and flowers and birds AND NO GROUNDHOGS. Part of me wonders if we should check out a landscape architect, but that offends my DIY spirit.

We've been putting all of our seed catalogs and garden magazines in a tidy stack, saving them for our winter break when school work is no longer a distraction, at least for a month or so. We've been saving our egg cartons and our hemp milk cartons for future use as places to sprout seeds.

I'm working full-time at the hospital during the days, and then working at the mental health hospital across the street in the evenings for about 5 hours for my internship. Nick has been holding the fort down at home, staying on top of the household chores, running the furry ones to the vet and the groomer, AND balancing his grad classes and practicum. This semester has been, in a word, NUTS.

Hurry spring!

No, it wasn't an April Fools joke.

I'm not sure we ever shared with you, our faithful [2] readers, our story about the letter we received last April from our city building department. I was rifling through a bunch of old files recently in search of an old paper when I stumbled across it again, and I chuckled quietly to myself.

Nick had called me at work one day last April and told me that we'd gotten a little note in our mailbox indicating that we had a certified letter than needed to be picked up at our downtown post office. He had run down and picked it up and told me I'd never guess what it was. It's not often that one gets a certified letter, but these letters fall in only two categories: really, really bad news or really, really good news. Ever the optimist, I wagered on the good news.

Wrong.

It was not the fun you've-got-unclaimed-money-and-loads-of-it! letter that I'd imagined. Instead, it was a rather formal letter from the city advising us that we had 10 days to cut our grass or else they would send someone over and cut it for us and then charge us a penalty fee for doing so. The letter was complete with a highlighted photocopy of the city code pertaining to the rules about "weeds, grass, and other foreign growth." Apparently, someone had determined that our grass was taller than 12", and this, faithful [2] readers, was punishable and certifiable violation. I'm wondering if they were measuring with some kind of trick ruler, or if the individual who measured it actually passed a high school math class. I'm also wondering if said individual actually knows what parsley, rosemary, lavender and the such look like because those really were the only things at that point measuring over a foot tall.

To put it gently, I was irate over the letter. Livid. Not only was this April (the letter was dated 4/15/2009), but nary a single person in our neighborhood had cracked out their lawnmowers for the first mow of the season. It was that early in the season, and already somebody was complaining? We spoke with another of our neighbors about this (he hadn't received a letter and his yard looked just like ours) and the three of us hatched a conspiracy theory about which of our other neighbors had it out for us. Grrr...

I had a few choice colorful words to say to my dearest Nicholas about this ridiculous letter, and then I composed this letter to the jerkface who had mailed us our certified stinkbomb of a letter:

April 22, 2009
Re: Weeds, Grass and Other Foreign Growth
Dear Mr. XXX,

It is with frustrated bewilderment that we submit this letter in response to your Notice of Violation dated April 15, 2009. We have resided responsibly in this city for 10 years, and we frankly find your Notice to be an affront and a joke.

We hope that you enjoyed the "physical inspection" of our property: the flower pear and cherry trees; the weeded and mulched front garden filled with new spring irises, snap dragons, and clematis; and our side herb garden filled with strawberry crowns, parsley, cilantro, lavender, etc. Clearly your "physical inspection" would have suggested that our property is not one of neglect or dereliction. Nonetheless, we do hope that you provide another "physical inspection" of our property to observe that this "violation" has been addressed. While in the neighborhood, possibly you or your associates could inspect the abundance of other parcels in our neighborhood that have enjoyed April's rain and sun and then proceed to waste additional tax payer's money with costly certified letters to their homes as well.

Should the City of XXX feel so motivated to address "weeds, grass, and other foreign growth" within the city limits, it would be markedly wise and appropriate to consider shedding some direly needed attention on the Canal Path that most assuredly is "bounded in whole or in part by improved and occupied property." This area is routinely grossly overgrown and scattered with letter, not to mention the various shopping carts that find their way into the actual canal. We realize that the conditions of properties tend to fall below established standards for many reasons, and we suggest that you inspect your properties regularly for possible violations.

Genuine thanks for your time and attention.

Kind regards,

R&N

P.S. Happy Earth Day!

We never heard a peep back from them, but we made our feelings quite clear. And that, dear [2] readers, was immeasurably therapeutic.

Our Trick or Treat Recap

Remember when we talked about having made some schwanky reservations for Halloween? (Remember how we also told you we'd give you some clues along the way about where we were going, but then never did?...Ooopsie! We're total [busy] idiots.) Well, we spent All Hallow's Eve eating super yummy food and drinking amazing wine at...

Volt!

We love Top Chef, and when we found out that contestant Bryan Voltaggio's resturant was about an hour a half from us AND was a big supporter of local farms, we knew we had to go.

And with a neighborhood primarily comprised of octogenarians and, therefore, pretty low on Halloween excitement (well, last Halloween someone did steal our Obama yard sign...), 10/31 seemed like the perfect opportunity for an indulgent TREAT. We had been ticking the days off on the calendar with anticipation.

When Halloween finally arrived, we were stoked! (Okay, maybe one of us was really stoked.)

Nick made our reservations for the chef's kitchen, which was a smaller, more intimate room with front row seats of the kitchen. We were a bit giddy to see our fave Top Chef up close, but it was just another day at the office for him. It was fascinating to watch the chefs work in nearly silent harmony and with each other, like a fine-tuned gourmet orchestra.
That's the back of Bryan there that you see. One of the other guests asked him about the outcome of Top Chef, and he kindly replied that he wasn't at liberty to share any of the details. At that point, season six was a bit more than halfway through with (I think) seven chefs left. I had a feeling that our inner nerds might sneak out of us, and we'd geekily ask for a picture with him. However, eating in a fine establishment instead brought out the composed adults in us, and we just admired our delicious nosh and vino as we soaked in the whole experience. Seriously, it was a good time.

The chef's kitchen had two menus, the kitchen menu and the market vegetable menu, comprised of six courses each with its own wine pairing. I got the kitchen menu, and Nick got the market vegetable menu. (We did, however, geek out and ask for a copy of our menu.) Our meal lasted three hours, and it was utterly enjoyable and relaxing. :)

Course One

R: clam chowder with mock root vegetables and dehydrated applewood smoked bacon

N: shitake veloute and pinenut sabayon with chili oil and basil

wine: Kungfu Girl, Riesling

Course Two

The same for both of us: Cherry Glen Farm Goat Cheese Ravioli with butternut squash and chanterelle mushrooms (This was our fave!)

wine: Huber, Gruner Veltiner

Course Three

R: Alaskan Halibut with forbidden rice, yellow oyster mushrooms, cardamom spiced carrot and pinenut sabayon. Wine--Botani, Muscatel Seco

N: yellow oyster mushrooms, pea leaves, farro risotto, cardamom spiced carrot broth and ginger glazed carrots. Wine--St. Cosme, Syrah

Course Four

R:Iberico-wattle pork belly with cannelini beans, carmelini beans, petite red ribbon sorrel and mostarda. Wine--St. Cosme, Syrah

N:Chickpea gnocchi with cannelini beans, carmelini beans, and sage brown butter. Wine--Botani, Muscatel Seco

Course Five

R: Wagyu beef with ratte potatoes, golden raisins, dragon carrots and glazed Tokyo turnips (these turnips were awesome).

N: Eggplant caponata, parmesan, zhatar, roasted pepper and beluga lentils.

Wine: Hall, Cabernet Sauvignon

Course Six...DESSERT!

Textures of chocolate, cinnamon spiced chocolate ganache, milk chocolate ice cream and chocolate caramel. Served with Graham's 10 year tawny port

Really full and slightly inebriated: