Post-dated for easy reference for the hot chocolate project:

boYO, 175 Cambridge St., Boston
L.A. Burdick, 52 Brattle St., Cambridge
Cafe Fleuri, 250 Franklin St., Boston, on the second floor.
Paris Creperie, 278 Harvard St., Brookline.
Upstairs on the Square, 91 Winthrop St., Cambridge.
Canto 6, 3346 Washington St., Jamaica Plain.
Pete's
Caffe Vittoria, 294 Hanover St., Boston.
Simon's Coffee Shop, Porter Sq, 1736 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
Diesel
Espresso Royale, 736 Commonwealth Ave., 264 Newbury St., and 44 Gainsborough St., Boston.
+Sofra, 1 Belmont St, Cambridge

Posted with no comment other than my added italics from the 5A5 website:

5A5 is San Francisco's first 'steak lounge' - a sleek & modern take on the traditional steakhouse, blending the ambience of a contemporary restaurant with that of a vibrant cocktail lounge.

We serve top quality steaks from around the world - US Certified Angus Beef, American and Australian 'Kobe', and 100% A5 Wagyu imported from Japan (highest grade of beef in the world). Our menu is also very gender friendly with several non-red meat options and different sized portions available.

I put the _________________________ in _______________________.

If this upcoming snowstorm delays my departure to California, I am going to make a big, pointless stink.

Just so y'all know.

What's your tiny superpower?

I would like everyone to go read Kristin Cashore's post today about fear. Well, technically, it's a post about trapeze lessons, but also about fear. Go read the whole thing if you're even slightly interested, and I'm quoting my favorite part here:

Anyway. Realizing this was a revelation for me, because while I couldn't do much to change my strength or athleticism before my next swing, I could deal with the fear. I've talked about fear on this blog before, especially when it comes to writing. Fear likes to keep writers company while they write, trying to convince them that they're going to fail. Whatever. He can hang out with me if he wants, but I'm never going to let him stop me from writing. And once I knew I was dealing with fear in my heels off, I realized I just needed to do it and damn the torpedoes, just like I do with the writing. Fear can swing with me, but he can't stop me from flinging myself into thin air. Next time up on the trapeze, when I heard the command, I exploded off that bar as fast as I physically could -- and apparently it was good enough, because when it was time to try it for real with the catcher, we made both catches. Yay!

If you feel like a wimp or like a person with no courage, don't forget that sometimes, courage feels just exactly like being terrified. The photo above is proof, actually. That's me practicing exploding off the trapeze. In addition to looking very silly indeed, my face also looks scared, doesn't it? But do you see what I'm doing? You're not going to tell me that throwing myself off the trapeze into the air was a cowardly thing to do, are you? In determining whether you're courageous, what matters more, how you feel or what you do?

Reading this made me happy and tearful. Thanks, Kristin!

Because the first couple of sources for the boston.com top 10 hot chocolates in the Boston area have been lackluster, I think I'm going to shift the hot chocolate project. Not only will I try the top 10 provided by boston.com, but I'll try others, and at the end, I'll provide my own top 10 list. Recommendations of places to try are welcome!

Last week, after the disappointing Upstairs on the Square hot chocolate, I tried a regular old Starbucks hot chocolate on Wednesday afternoon, near my office. I'm sorry to say, it was the best yet: This hot chocolate was rich and chocolatey with a decadent mouthfeel. I had it in my awesome contigo mug, so it was easy to shake it up periodically (which I do out of habit), so I don't know how much, if any, precipitate there was, but overall, this was a very solid hot chocolate. B+

I also had high hopes for Espresso Royale, whose coffee and sandwiches I know and like, and because it's a cool cafe, I thought for sure the hot chocolate would be tasty! So veek and I went there Friday afternoon, but it was a bad sign when she took a sip of hers first and said, "Well, that's disappointing." So I tried mine, and ... it was, indeed, disappointing. It would have been much better to call it a moderately steamed milk with a hint of chocolate. In fact, if it had been called that, I might even have enjoyed it! As it was billed as hot chocolate, though, it was pretty lackluster. It was milky, thin and barely chocolatey at all. C-

Normally, I do this a little closer to Valentine's Day, but a variety of factors have come together to make today the day for this year's confessional, yay! Feel free to point people to this post if you're so inclined. You know the drill:

Tell me a secret! Tell me a not-secret! Whisper sweet somethings in my comment box. Express your maddest crush or deepest curiosity! Expound upon the fabulousness of your friends or lovers or would-be friends or lovers! Or people you know or want to know. Do it anonymously or with your name attached; anonymous commenting is on and IP logging is off.

You know you wanna.

(Play nice!)

[ETA (Saturday at 5:30pm): I'm going to start deleting new comments that are mean or critical without adding content. I probably won't bother to go back and do the same on old threads, but no guarantees.

Constructive criticism is fair game, but don't use anonymity to let your inner asshole off the leash, ok?]

(For historical reference, links to: special edition 2009 confessional, 2009 confessional, 2008 confessional, 2007 confessional)

Last night, fennel and I hit Upstairs on the Square for their Valrhona Hot Chocolate, billed thusly by the Boston Globe: "It's made with fluffy housemade marshmallows and sweet vanilla Chantilly cream on top." It was also listed as $8 per, so we had high hopes.

The excellent company notwithstanding, the entire Upstairs on the Square experience was a big disappointment. fennel ordered the HC with dinner, while I decided I'd like to have mine as dessert, so I ordered a Violette Royale -- a sparkling wine mixed drink, which might be my favorite category of mixed drink these days, but the violet liqueur had a bit of a chemical aftertaste that really detracted from the pleasure of the drink. The bread was a great, chewy texture that I loved, and the herby oil dip was great, but that's as good as it got. We ordered two appetizers to share, both of which we pretty bland and uninteresting!

But you're waiting for the hot chocolate review. It was similarly disappointing. In fact, after one sip of fennel's, I decided I didn't need to order one of my own. It was thin, not particularly chocolatey, with an unsatisfying mouthfeel and no real sense of decadence. I make an unusually good hot chocolate, so I feel it's an unfair comparison to say I could do better at home, but I could do better at home. I could even do better at home with Hershey's cocoa powder, sugar, and milk, though, so that's a more substantial statement. The one pleasant surprise: the price was merely (*cough*) $4 rather than $8. And there were no marshmallows! Perhaps one has to go in the afternoon for the really good stuff? Unfortunately, I won't be going back to find out. C-/D+

My mom sent me some pictures this morning. ( There's a snake behind this cut: )

One of my favorite trivia triptychs:

The population of Canada, California, and greater Tokyo are approximately the same*.

*about 35 million, give or take

Poll #1517875
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 73

Burning Man 2010:

Last night, moominmolly and I went to Sunset Cantina, which she had heard contains a veritable city of tequilas, and with my super bad mood yesterday, clearly, tequila was the answer. And, indeed, it was.

They offered flights, but none of them looked interesting to us, so we decided to build our own flight. We settled on reposados, kind of arbitrarily:

Oro Azul: This is your bad uncle who drinks too much. He shows up at family holidays unshaven with his shirt untucked and hair uncombed. He kind of creeps you out and stands too close. We didn't like it, though we did finish it, because, hey, tequila.

Tierra: I have never had an organic tequila before this, but it's exactly what you would expect if you were imagining it. It had a clean, simple, straightforward taste, not smooth, not rough. This tequila doesn't lie to you and does wear rag wool socks with Berkenstocks on the back porch of the cabin in the woods.

Purasangre: How could we not try a tequila called "pure blood"? It was smoky like scotch and is the macho guy at the party who wears a lot of gold and puts on an attitude and an accent and struts around. Deep down, he's a good guy, and he would never hurt you, but he would definitely lie to you, and you know he's fooling around behind your back. But you don't really mind.

Lapis: This was among my favorites of the evening, smooth, caramelly, and incredibly cultured. This tequila sounds like Sade when it sings.

Casa Noble: Textured and prickly on the tongue, this tequila pushes you around a little bit, and you like it.

Chaya: Sweet, carmelly, and a little bit pokey, this tequila is the friend you go to when you need to have some sense talked into you, but nicely.

Tenoch: This is George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven, or Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair. It's smooth, stealthy, and incredibly smart. Stay on its good side and it will treat you extraordinarily well. Piss it off, and it will rob you blind with incredible panache.

Asombroso: I did not know that tequila could be pink! This tequila is pink. It is the gum-snapping, ditzy-seeming valley girl who tosses her hair and is secretly way smarter than you. This tequila is Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde, until you pair it with sangrita, when it also develops Buffy's fighting skills. It's gonna kick your ass, and you'll come back for more and love every minute of it, even though (or maybe because) it's so disorienting.

Poll #1517386
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 76

Are you stealthy?

After failing to get the hot chocolate project onto my to-do list for the first couple of weeks of the year, on Saturday, I visited Paris Creperie with spike where we tried the raspberry nuttella HC and the mint nuttella HC. (Sorry, _sabriel_; we'll have to find a different place to try together!)

Both were, I thought, disappointingly low on the chocolate scale, and both the raspberry and mint flavors didn't really make any effort to pretend not to be artificial. On the other hand, they were a pleasing texture/mouthfeel, and at $2.50 each, the smalls were reasonably-priced. They were a little overly sweet, even to my fairly sweet-friendly taste, but they didn't leave unswirlable sludge on the bottom of the mug, so that was good. Still, as the first of the "top 10" I've visited, I fear I'm in for a number of rather lackluster and disappointing HCs this winter. Overall: C-

My god is located in the high desert. Where's yours?

I have historically not listened to music when trying to fall asleep, because when I've tried, I've found that while it feels restful, it actually engages my brain and keeps me awake.

For a variety of reasons that aren't that interesting, I ended up feeling like music would help me sleep last night, after a couple of hours of not being able to, and I found something quiet and dreamy, and, indeed, I did fall asleep soon after putting it on. And I'm pretty sure the music was the reason, not just that I had sat up and kind of changed gears.

ANYWAY, this has me thinking that I should have more music to hand that I can experiment with for sleep; this is where you come in: advise me!

What I'm looking for is music that's pretty quiet and drifty. It absolutely must not have English or Spanish lyrics, and I really prefer a minimum of words at all, except perhaps for very slow chanting. If it has a beat, it should be very slow: less than 60bpm, and preferably less than that. Watery, foresty, windy sounds are great.

Beyond that, I'm kind of curious to hear what's out there. Do you have any recommendations? Leave them here! I'm more interested in artists and/or albums than particular songs, unless the songs are very long.

What's a simple activity that consistently makes you happier?

I'm pleasantly surprised to find myself loving this morning's weather. The warm temperatures feel like a bit of a break from winter, and I even like that they're wrapped in the wet of impending rain; it makes the air feel soft and round, a nice change from the sharp cold of winter.

I was unpleasantly surprised, after a pretty idyllic day yesterday, to find myself with insomnia last night, which has me bleary and slightly sick to my stomach this morning, so the sweetness of the weather is welcome. Today would be a good day to have some time previously filled the trial prescription I wrested from my doctor for Provigil for my occasional post-insomnia days. Not only have I not done that, but I don't even have the script with me to fill today. Instead, I'm torn between coffee and simply planning to go home and nap after lunch.

Poll #1516021
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 69

Pick your favorite

Today's poll about toothbrushing and walking around came out of a conversation also about levels of "intimacy" of certain actvities, and how differently people can draw those lines. So, for example, I'm always a little amazed when I see someone putting on makeup in public (not a restroom), because it's such a mismatch with my individual, "Hey! That's personal..." scale. I feel similarly about clipping or filing nails: these things are okay to do with friends, but not strangers. On the other hand, I'm happy to brush my hair in public (or my equivalent, anyway, which doesn't involve a brush or comb.)

Then, there are more intimate things, like peeing with someone else in the room (no stalls), or being in the room while someone else is peeing -- I feel fine about doing either with a reasonably close friend or lover, but it's a definite mark of a more "inner circle" relationship. And crying is a VERY inner circle activity for me.

What are some of your relative markers of social intimacy?

Poll #1514683
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 98

Do you ever walk around the house while brushing your teeth?

Dear food producers,

Please stop sneaking sucralose into foods that are also sweetened with sugar. I don't like it, and I don't want it, and I really, really, really hate when I discover it in the food or drink that I was hoping to enjoy.

Calorically,
aroraborealis

HEY, everyone!

Happy National Cheese Lover's Day!

Go out and eat some delicious cheese today. And love it!

And then come back here and tell me about it. What was it? How was it? Was it brilliantly paired with anything?

You know you want to.

Poll #1513745
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 86

I (the responder) am:

Although it's early in the day to decide this, I think this video might be my favorite thing on the internet today:



Thanks to the always awesome Kristin Cashore for the link.

I have a bone to pick with the person who does my shopping. Tonight, she bought a bunch of vegetables and some eggs. No cookies. No ice cream. No cupcakes.

WTF!

Totally gonna fire that chick.

* burning man tickets!
* dried mango
* feeling warm
* music that I can't help but dance to, even when I'm sitting in my seat
* donating money to Partners in Health
* sunshine
* silk-wool long underwear that keeps me warm

What's on your happy list today?

Although I didn't go to Burning Man last year, I did go in 2008! And although I don't really take pictures, I have friends who do! spike posted his top 100 from 2008 here.

( Cut for dusty me. )

Poll #1510660
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 55

Is it more difficult to hear someone tell you:

Is it more difficult to hear someone tell you:

Is it more difficult to hear someone tell you:

Do you live in the Boston area and have a large-ish carport that I could borrow to test an art project idea on? I only need the frame structure, not the canopy.

One of the things that fascinates me about my experience of nonnative language is how literal my understanding of things people say in Spanish is. It doesn't make me pause to hear someone in conversation in English say, "Oh, I was so angry I could have killed him!" I understand that to be figurative at a very unconscious level. But when someone says the same thing in Spanish, my gut reaction is utter shock at the violence of it. I presume that if I spent more time deeply immersed in a Spanish speaking culture with lots of this kind of colloquialism, I would develop more of an instinctive understanding of what those things mean.

This makes it hard to read some kinds of stories in Spanish, even though I'd like to.

Today, I ran into a slightly parallel problem, which is that I'm most accustomed to hearing the word for "heart" in poetic and romantic contexts: popular music, movies, etc. But I'm translating a piece for work in which "heart" refers to the organ. In Spanish, as in English, the word is the same, but it just feels wrong!

I think I might be predictable:

Ten years ago, I worked on a study exploring the effect of efforts to get people to change their health habits if the information they received was given personally rather than through impersonal means like PSAs and posters. (I left the job before the results came in.) One of the things we were advising people to do to improve their health and the length/quality of their life was to take a multivitamin. At the time, research suggested that taking a multivitamin had a measurable positive effect on lifespan.

More recent research, though, suggests that it doesn't, and, in fact, that taking a multivitamin can decrease your lifespan.

It's hard to keep up with research results about health, and boy, doesn't it seem like we're given different recommendations every week? But in case you, like me, and like, I fear, those thousands of people who participated in that study I was involved with, had taken the "multivitamins are good" message and stopped paying attention, you may want to reevaluate your choices. Even if you end up deciding that what you're doing now is the right way to go, it's good to do so with updated data.

This Slate article has a bunch of good links to help you do that.

I can never resist _________________________

The German word funktionslust refers to the pleasure of doing what one is made to do, or what one does best, as the pleasure of a bird flying, for example, or a cheetah running or a monkey swinging branch to branch.

What is your funktionslust? What pleases you in itself and as a thing that is essentially a part of who you are?

Hey Bay Area People!

I'll be out your way February 10-16. Let's do something fun while I'm there!