Друзья, на этой неделе открылся Сиэтловский кинофестиваль – который уже третий год как является гигантским событием в нашей с Ириной, в среднем, размеренной жизни. На три недели мы бросаем все – и как последние идиоты, стоим в очередях по часу на каждый фильм, ложимся спать в полночь в рабочие дни, ну и проявляем другие симптомы абсолютного психоза.

Прошлый год был забит шедеврами французского кино – Two Days in Paris, Paris je t’aime, My Best Friend… Замечательные, легкие, стильнейшие фильмы. Были и более странные картины – румынский фильм Offset, плюс совершенно ужасная компиляция короткометражных немецких фильмов под названием Deutsch in Miniature… в общем, всего понемножку.

И вот, фестиваль в этом году только начинается. Первый фильм, на который мы сходили вот буквально час назад, называется Русалка - да-да, это русский фильм. Признаюсь честно, я большой любви к русскому кинематографу не испытываю. Продолжаю признаваться: я в Америке еще ни одного русского фильма в кинотеатре не видел. А тут, друзья мои, скажу вам честно – фильм сильный.

Отвлечемся на минуту: Ваш покорный слуга посмотрел всего-то пару русских кино за эти годы. Ночной / Дневной дозоры (ничё… не офигенно, но неплохо, особенно вторая часть). Хоттабыч (смешно, почти элегантно). Ожиданий серьезного кино, потрясной режиссуры - ничего такого не было.

Заставка на Русалку, признаться, слишком легковесная, балованая… Фильм сильный. Со многих сторон. Драматически, много, очень много классных идей. Съёмки – сильнейшие. Одна сцена с “домиком” из ладоней и шассе чего стоит…

Много хохм, хотя фильм достаточно мрачный… Умный, правильный сценарий – даже, казалось, самые предсказуемые моменты поворачиваются на голову.. Круто.

Молодцы. Очень рекомендую. Русские сделали сильный, очень сильный фильм.

In particular, the super-cool Aveda tea comes to mind: you might have tried it – they offer you a little cup of it when you come into any Aveda store.

The aromas are amazing, but the issue is, it has an enormous amount of little, ahem, pieces of crap that stay in your tea no matter how hard you try not to let any out through that metal filter -

The issue is that the holes are just too big. And don’t start on the whole “good teas have leaves in them and that’s it”. This one is a great tea, it just has lots of other non-tea additives in it, which are small.

So, this new tea kettle that mom gave us has a special compartment where you place the tea (essentially, a glass inside the kettle). Inside that glass, there are tiny, carefully made slits (in the actual glass material!) that are sooo much smaller than holes in the ugly metal thing above.

Anyway. Here are the results – no “crap” in the tea cup, just the way I like it (thanks again, mom!):

Man, 6 miles of walking a day is just TOUGH. My feet are designed to press the gas pedal of a sports car, come on.

And no, I don’t believe investing in good shoes. I believe in limos and airplanes.
Fiiiine. I do enjoy a good walk once in a while. I’ll admit it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad thing. It’s just an unusual, and rather cool. This means that the 6-story hotel we were at only had 30 rooms. And that, my friends, can either turn into a nightmare bed and breakfast, or a very pleasant tiny little hotel with personal service. I’ve done lots of research in advance – let’s just say I don’t like unpleasant surprises . And TripAdvisor reviews go a long way in helping with that.

440 Post is indeed an unbeatable address. Just look at the aerial map – the green stuff in the middle is the block of the Union Square; the building to the right of the red arrow is the Inn at Union Square hotel where we stayed:

Amazing breakfast. Beautiful, tiny room with the charm of an east-coast hotel. Aveda products in the bathroom (major score for Irina, and I – admittedly – am quite impartial to their stuff).

Man. Did we come to the right place.

Pictured, from top to bottom, are: hungry me; the best gorgonzola and pear sandwich I’ve had in my life (walnut bread plays a big part here); freshly squeezed orange juice well worth the $3.50.

The place is called La Boulange. Irina claims their Napoleon was just as good, but I was only mildly impressed by the fruit tart. I am quite spoiled, yes.

…..

Second place: Nordstrom near Union Square. Unlike our Downtown Seattle Nordstrom, this place has a fancy-upscale-dinner establishment. They get the spot for the location, amazing service, and the views. Food was just OK; Irina liked their seafood pasta; my asparagus and shrimp risotto was not bad.

But the views!

….

Honorable mention: mushroom soup on Santana Row. Nothing can compare to La Fontana’s mushroom soup. But this one came really, really close. Upside: the bill wasn’t the usual $120 you get for two people at your friendly next door La Fontana .

Here’s the video that I made (Windows Movie Maker is not that bad of a tool, btw):

So, Heiwad and I decided to co-host a party, and with lots of Irina’s help, here’s what turned out.

Evite:

Bar Menu (we had a few “signature cocktails”):

Some party pics (the rest is here):

We asked guests to bring their favorite bottle of hard liquor, so we had a few bottles remaining… I guess we’ll have to throw another party soon

No, no, I’m not planning to quit Microsoft and start a bar. But doing bartending at home-thrown parties is just the way to go.

So, a bit of history: my old-time UCLA buddy (and now a Microsoftie) Heiwad suggested we take the “Professional Bartending” class in the Bellevue Community College. And man, this was a good idea.

Some snippets of the class for you:

1) Bottles of alcohol. Everyone has two.

2) Water. Loads of water everywhere. Some in the bottles (did you think you’d be making cocktails from the real stuff? hah!), some on the floor – from successful experiences.

3) Small pieces of sponge are good for practicing your “garnishing” skills.

4) Metal shakers: real bars usually don’t have them, because bartenders steal them . So get used to having a “pounder” glass (why is it called pounder? cause it holds a pound of beer) and a plastic top to shake your martinis.

Do you really know what a classic martini is? Well, I personally had no idea that it’s just straight-up 2 shots of vodka. The few drops of vermouth don’t count (everyone in the US considers vermouth yucky, not sure why – Europe is completely different). Basically, when you’re ordering a martini, you’re just asking for two shots of vodka, but you’re too… embarrassed to call it just that – “martini” sounds so much cooler .

And don’t tell me that the olive changes the vodka taste.

More fun stuff from the class:

• Majority of the people taking the class work for Microsoft (uhhh, surprise) and Boeing.
• When looking for a bartending job, if you’re a Microsoftie, you have to say “I sit in front of the computer all day! I NEED PEOPLE!”. Apparently, bar managers relate to that very well. Computers give them a headache.
• More on the bartending interview: it’s almost encouraged to say things like “is it OK if my parole officer comes for a visit once in a while?”. Or, “I need to start working tomorrow – my car is about to get repossessed”. If you work in a bar, you need to be interesting.

The OpenDNS thing really works, I’m pleasantly suprised, and it was super-easy to set up – literally, 1 minute. And the net is noticeably faster. Enjoy!

By the way, about the mind camp: I took a picture of a funny drawing on the whiteboard, here it is:

Вообще говоря, за-амечательный город. Архитектура, приятные люди, какое-то европейское ощущение от всего. Я даже умудрился встретиться со старым другом Давидом (которые в Монреаль уехал, зараза) – было очень весело. Вот тут его впечатления от поездки.

Вот. Но! Самое главное-то я и не рассказал! Поездку эту огранизовал Миха – я даже рогом не пошевелил для ее реализации. За что ему большое спасибо. Мама, сам Миха, Наташа (Михина девушка), и я – все прилетели на разных самолетах, но все очень качественно удалось организовать. Вах, Миха маладэц.

Сняли кучу фоток; полной галереи еще нет, но вот вам парочка:

С Давидом, после ланча в Ruth’s Chris	Все в сборе	Рыба с во-о-от такими глазами

I’m sure you’re wondering what I’ve been up to. At work, I acquired ownership of the InfoPath Team Blog. It’s the Internet-facing portal of the team, where Office InfoPath folks write articles for customers of all sorts. I’ve written a few articles myself – take a look if you’d like. And hey, googling “alex weinstein infopath” now brings up very relevant search results

Yours truly is getting old – about to apply for Social Security anytime soon, if only they offered it for 23-year-olds. Hey, I do want early retirement! Primarily because there’s not gonna be any government retirement money left by the time I get to it.

In any case, couple days ago, I hit another milestone in the hunt for uncle Sam-sponsored living. I’m not particularly successful, admittedly, as I’m still the youngest at work. Damn, even the interns are older!

But… back to business

Allow me to say a big THANK YOU! to all wonderful people that didn’t forget about my humble day. In chronological order, thanks to

– editor: deleted an extremely cranky note about awesome people wishing me great things very early in the morning. moral of the story: don’t call alex before 10am –

Now that the editor left, I actually can say another thank you . I got a ton of awesome presents – including a pile of money, tons of gift certificates, cool clothes, FUNKY thingie for wine-tasting, and… and…

That’s a Movado Meza, in case you were wondering. Yes, Irina does spoil me . And we do exchange insanely expensive presents.

My birthday evening was very cool – we went to a funky italian place, it really is quite a Bizarro . The movie was fun, too.

Went kayaking on Saturday. Weather was awesome! So Irina and I drove down to Green Lake, paid $12, and got a kayak for an hour. It was very, very fun! An easy-going nature sport – exactly what you need to relax after a long week.

Film festival – saw two movies last week:

• First, Polish “Almost Happiness”. Not bad, interesting cinematography, dark… Yes, post-communist contries can have passion, too – and unlike the new Russian movies, they actually have a point, and the actors don’t look as if they’ve been drinking all their life prior to the scene.
• French “Four Stars”. Extremely witty, very, very funny, plain amazing. Best movie I’ve seen in the last year. Highly recommended!

So, I take the recipe and read it out loud onto my voicemail! Then I come home, listen to the recipe, write it down, and cook it. Allow me to say it was tasty! We actually liked it a lot! The recipe is attached.

Chicken with Asparagus wrapped in Cheese

4 boneless skinless chicken breast
kosher salt
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium onion, thinly slised
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed & chopped into 1-inch blocks
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
teaspoon paragon
4-8 thin slices of Fontina cheese

Use Meat pounder on chicken
Apply salt & pepper on both sides of chicken
Warm up oven till 300
2 sautee pans
 First pan:
  1 tbsp olive oil, medium heat, add onions
  cook, stirring occasionally, 8-10 minutes till onion becomes brown & soft
  Crank up heat a bit, add asparagus, peas + paragon, adding 1 more tbsp olive oil as necessary.
  Apply salt & pepper
  Cook, mixing a bit, until asparagus becomes soft – 8-10 minutes
  
 Second pan
  1-2 tbsps olive oil, medium-heigh heat in another, LARGE sautee pan
  Add chicken, reduce heat, cook, turning once, until brown on both sides
  about 10 minutes
  Remove from heat, keep chicken in pan
  Wrap chicken in cheese (1 layer), put stuff from first pan onto chicken under cheese.
  Put back into the oven, about 5 minutes, till cheese melts
 
Good wine with this: Sauvignon blanc

Oh! A bat ray (по-русски – электрический скат)! They were neutralized, of course, so that the number of people leaving the park alive would be approximately equal to the number of visitors

And! We also got to open an oyster and get a pearl out. So mom, you can do it in places other than Hawaii

So, Irina and I are driving to Hearst Castle, and we stop at some random rest area on highway 101 to pee and switch drivers. So, we’ve been driving for 150 or so miles, so we decide to turn some music on and dance to it to get the blood flowing. Naturally, Gypsy Kings come in, and we start doing some samba. Admittedly, samba is not our strongest dance, but we were in a great mood so we were doing OK. When we finish dancing and stopped for a moment to rest, this guy who was also parked on the rest area comes by, and hands me over a Budweiser!..

We keep dancing, and do a rumba (and man we’re not bad at rumba at all), and the guy continues watching, so he gives Irina a Mike’s Hard Lemonade

Our first dancing-earned goods

Here are some (out of 500+ pics)

Sooo, some pictures for you.

Before:

In the process:
 

After:

And, as a bonus picture – we also bought some extra artwork for the hallway. Irina is creative