Matters of Taste

I have to say, that West Coast Plato Workshop really hit the spot. Restful, restorative, challenging, and fascinating. Wish I could do that in the middle of every term of teaching!

(Yes, even though it meant coming home to over 200 items in need of grading...)

And the folks at Stanford played no small part in making it such a success. Well done all!

Also enjoyed that my hotel was, by sheer coincidence, north of campus, so I walked through this handsome entrance each day:


All of it was made extra fun when Geoff came up from Oakland for dinner after the Workshop was over.

Hopefully next time won't be quite so many years!

If I have one regret about the trip, it's that I didn't notice Coupa Café sooner. I'd never heard of a marrón before, but apparently it's like a latte but much stronger and, perhaps as a direct result, much better :)

Also loved the breakfast arepa:


Later this week, once I was finally home with Franklin, I had the pleasure of learning that he's a huge fan of the pastries at Than Brothers:

Thanks to Pete for the great photos!



Finally, many of you have probably already seen the awesome video Emily took while I was in California, but I think it's worth at least one more look:

Road Trip Stage Four: MO, KS

Back home now enjoying the temperate climate of Seattle! I've got a paper due (doesn't that sound weird? oh well...) on Friday, but I'll try to post a few more photos from the trip in between paragraphs.

Once we left Indiana, we started making our way back west. Larry and Deb, Emily's aunt & uncle, were terrific hosts.

Great with the baby, and full of trivia on Emily's dad's family :)

They're outside of St. Louis, by the way. Route map of this stretch:



Also saw their son Todd and his kids (their mom was sick, unfortunately, but last we heard she's feeling better):

Caiden and Blaike, beautiful girls.

Todd's sister Angie and her husband Rob came by to make delicious sandwiches:

Thanks again!

And then it was on to the great state of Kansas. Haley and Franklin really hit it off:

I haven't gotten through all of our photos yet, but we may have failed to capture Lonnie and Barbara Lee on film. We won't need any help remembering their wonderful hospitality, however. Thanks, and congrats on the beautiful new house!

Also drove in to Lawrence, which of course meant lunch at Zen Zero:

Can't wait until Franklin can try their curry!

Note, he did _try_ to try it the other day... hope that stain comes out of my shirt! :)

Franklin enjoyed meeting Tom:


And seeing the beautiful KU campus:




I also tried to explain to him just why I love La Prima Tazza's espresso so much:

Probably have to return when he's old enough to sample it... Likewise the growler of Free State beer we picked up for the road :)

Wonderful to see the town, and especially nice to hang out with Deron and Haley!


And as you probably know, Franklin cut a dashing figure in his new KU onesie as we approached the Colorado border:

More from our trip back west coming soon!

Yes, It's True: I ♥ NY

Among the many things we enjoyed in New York, maybe what I liked the most was simply walking around surrounded by millions of people, and surrounded by some of the best food, theater, art, and literature in the world.

Not the best coffee, though: turns out there's at least one thing we do better here :)

Originally I'd planned to split this into multiple posts, but I'm hoping that putting everything in one place will help convey some of the feeling of being in Manhattan, where it really does feel like just about everything is in one place...

Anyway, we enjoyed a interesting and impressive exhibit about Mark Twain at the Morgan Library.

They also had some cool Lichtenstein drawings, but we'd taken the overnight flight, and it was around then that I started day-dreaming about checking into the hotel for a nap...

Our main reason for visiting was the annual meeting of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy (SAGP) with the Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science (SSIPS). It's a huge, inclusive, and fascinating conference. I organized and chaired a panel about Plato featuring myself, my current department chair, and my dissertation advisor. From my point of view, it went very well, but my paper was about how things might look different to different people, so I suppose you never know...

Meanwhile, Emily spent the day with her college roommate, Jessica, Jessica's husband Jer, and their daughter Susannah:

I wish I could have seen them too, but at least Emily got some great photos!


Just a few days before we left for New York, we happend to see the play Alphabetical Order reviewed in the Times.

A positive review of a play about a newspaper archive? I mean, the two of us really had no choice. Was in the very tiny and very cute Clurman Theater.

And it was very good.

On our last morning in town, we took the ferry over to Ellis Island. The whole experience was fascinating and I'd even say awe-inspiring.

We were especially interested in the travelling exhibit called Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America, which featured some items from Providence Archives.

Cool exhibit--impressive what these women accomplished.

On either a lighter or a grimmer note, here's an excerpt from an ad for one of the orders:


Okay, I'll end where we began, with a few more photos from the High Line.


An amphitheater overlooking what must be, what, 9th Avenue 10th Avenue?


More park on the way, not quite ready:


I love how they left the rails:


Okay, when can I go back?

Tweets, Frams, and More

Look at the too-cute pre-xmas gift Emily got me. Better get that tree up soon!


Speaking of things that tweet, I've recently started putting posts up on Twitter. (It's like blogging, but you can only type like 140 characters, including spaces.) Mostly just curiosity . . .

Anyway, in case you want more frequent updates, I've added a feed over on the side there.

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Oh, so Eric and Christy did make it; you can see photos of their t-day over on woodland-ave.blogspot.com, including this gentleman offering his "Fram Fram" to the world:

As Emily explained in the comments, "it is part of the motto of St. Olaf College (the complete motto is "Fram! Fram! Kristmennn, Krossmenn" which means: "Forward! Forward! Men of Christ, Men of the Cross")."

She goes on, "For better or worse, "Fram! Fram!" is overshadowed, at least in my experience, by "Um Yah Yah." I learned on Wikipedia that "Um Yah Yah" is the only college fight song in 3/4 meter!"

Good to know.

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What, more photos of me by the mirror in the morning? Sure:




Was getting ready for my super-fun last day of classes. Took my students out for coffee at Vivace, where they make the best coffee I've ever had. And they have a study room you can reserve to talk about Aristotle! Works best if your employer picks up the tab.

Yeah, I love my job.

Coffee, Phone, Blog

A list of all a guy like me really needs? Or just a lazy catalogue-style post title? We may never know.

First off, take a look at this:

One of the prettiest cups of coffee I've ever been served. Even the barista seemed slightly surprised at how nice it looked. From Vivace, my favorite, favorite place here (and trust me, there are a lot of options).

Alas, that location is now closed. But don't worry, it closed for a good cause--there will soon (just eight years!) be an underground train line here. And Vivace will reopen, in the unfortunately-named Brix condo building, expected to open in September.

In any case, a lovely (and delicious) cup of coffee.


Now about that phone
Here's a photograph of a handsome couple, taken with my phone a couple of weeks ago:



So anyway my _new_ phone (okay, my old phone with it's new software--whatever) does many, many wonderful things that that old phone couldn't, and it even has a shake-to-operate restaurant finder, but what I like the best right now is what the upgrade's done for my photography.

(Too many Times links? Sorry. If it makes you feel any better, their iPhone app is pretty lame (maybe my saying so in this widely-read forum will encourage them to work on an update?))

Notice anything different in that photo of the Apple store the from the other day? Take another look:

The super cool thing going on there, but not when I took the photo of Fran and Dave (invisible to the naked eye) is that my phone now knows where it is when it takes pictures. Click on that photo and be amazed by the map that should show up alongside it, showing you almost exactly where the Seattle Apple store is. Awesome.



Lastly, look: I'm top ten!
Now, I've only done a handful of posts there (compared to 100+ by that jseattle), but top ten at anything isn't the sort of thing I'm inclined to ignore. Huzzah.

Ah, Arbor

We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon exploring the Washington Park Arboretum yesterday. Quite an impressive park in the middle of town.

E on bridge



With, I believe, some sort of birch



With ferns and such



Afterwards, we had some coffee at Victrola. It's pretty, and the place is nice and cozy and all. . . but like almost every independent coffee place here they insist on pulling ristretto shots. I've given it like six months (!), and I'm quite sure that I'm not saying this because I went to Starbucks a few times in the Quad Cities--I just prefer traditional espresso, and that's all there is to it.



Compare, if you're so inclined, this photo of Mimi's coffee taken with the iPhone camera



It wasn't just yesterday, though: it's been pretty sunny pretty regularly lately. I may need to buy sunglasses (apologies, my midwestern readers).

View from Emily's place of employ


Oh,
and my Nalgene bottle has gone funky, so on Braxton's recommendation I've invested in a Sigg bottle:

My new bottle
So far so good--it's aluminum (or is it aluminium?), so it's light, cute, and isn't made of oil . . .

Yep, Snow

Merrica and Jeff drove in from Helena for the weekend. Was fun; and we got to see a rare snowy day in Seattle. (More on their drive home below.)

Cal Anderson Park, Saturday afternoon

Maybe the weirdest part was that as soon as they arrived Merrica (yes, Merrica!) suggested Japanese for dinner.

At Hana


Then it was off to a show:

Les Savy Fav

It was pretty good, but I may be getting a little old for it . . . (no comment on whether or not that also applies to the lead singer.)

Next morning, we took them to B & O, which was great as usual.

Isn't my cappuccino cute?



Merrica was a little tired at breakfast on Saturday (did I mention that the band didn't go on until 11:30?)


And it snowed!

In the snow


Jeff is a fan of beer (so of course I like him): we sampled the fare at Elysian Brewing Company on Saturday, and then at Pike Brewing Company later the same day.



I think there is a subtle clue in the photo that should enable you to provide your own caption . . .


As for the drive home, they made it, but it took a little extra time, since the weather was pretty rough. I hear they had to wait like an hour for the avalanche crew to work on the pass outside of Seattle. (Us? At a bar watching Kansas basketball, obviously.)

Taken from the Washington State Department of Transportation's webcam on top of Snoqualmie Pass right around the time Merrica and Jeff were up there on their way home


In other news, we started getting into the December spirit.

Mimi with our tree



First ornament on the tree



And just in time for her birthday (or maybe for Christmas?), Amelia's cape is almost done; and it *almost* fits Emily