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Love: Water Right's Made in America (Oregon's Wilammette Valley, to be precise) garden hose.  It looks and works better than any other hose I've ever tried - strong but thin, light-weight and easy to move around - and it's nice to support a company that describes its mission as: "to make great garden hoses, take exceptional care of our employees and customers, and promote an American standard of quality, safety, and innovation."

Like: Modelo Especial, particularly in the can, as post yard-work refreshment.

Discovery:  Comal, Berkeley's swanky new Mexican joint, has a very cool back courtyard patio where you can wait for your table with a drink by a fire pit.  Surrounded by other buildings, it has that NYC back patio feeling, a rarity here. 

Obsession: Badminton.  I went crazy for it when it was a gym class unit in high school, and couldn't get enough of it when, back in the day, GSP had a badminton court on the 3rd floor of our office.  We finally ordered a set for our backyard where, granted, the width of the play area is likely half of regulation, leading to a doubled-up, ghetto-looking net.  Now I'm counting down the days until our daily evening fog bank gives way to Indian summer for sunny after-work matches.

(Alice Waters-Approved) Complaint:  Deep planting boxes plus kick-ass compost from American Soil = out of control cherry tomato plants.  It's hard to even get in there to water them and pick the ripe tomatoes.  On the bright side, our Meyer Lemon tree, which we had to cut way back a few years ago as it was blocking our view of the Bay, is finally beginning to produce lemons again, with green buds popping up all around its branches. 

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Love: My lovely and amazing father, Terence Evans, aka T, who passed away quite suddenly a year ago this Friday.  I've got a pretty big hole in my life and my heart now, and am only just beginning to comprehend the finality of the loss.  The best way to fill the void is to remember, so I love it when my friends who knew him bring T up, and the old stories and memories are trotted out. 

Like: The orange movie theater marquee letter I bought on etsy and keep in our kitchen as a reminder of the great man.

Discovery: My Sopranos- and Green Bay Packers-loving guy's-guy of a dad had a softer side.  One compelling piece of evidence: his deep love of David Lean's epic romance-cum-historical drama Dr. Zhivago. (T might have appreciated The Selby's recent train trip from Paris to Shanghai on behalf of Louis Vuitton, which involved many days in Russia, a more glamourous version of the horrible train ride Zhivago and his family take as they flee Moscow for a cottage in the Urals.)
The Selby Part 1    The Selby Part 2

Obsession: T was a Democrat through and through, but he couldn't help but find constant amusement in Howard Dean's self-destructive 2004 Iowa Caucus election night speech.  Dad bought a novelty "Scream the Dream" bottle opener which plays the meltdown speech every. single. time. you. open. a. bottle. The opener, still going strong, is my fondest inheritance and makes me smile whenever I use it.

Complaint:  With T gone, and my mom moved to Seattle, where my sister lives, I miss Milwaukee. It's strange to no longer have a place or family to return to in the city you grew up in and visited regularly, for decades. 

When will I ever see its (modest) skyline and lovely lakefront?      

When will I walk through Lake Park then down to the lakefront, looking at all the big houses on Terrace, Wahl and Lake Drive along the way?

When will I catch a movie at The Oriental Theater? Bowl and drink next door at Landmark with Admiral Ackbar (David) and Big Sal (Erich)?

Count mullets and mesh shirts in the crowd at Summerfest?

Eat greasy but delicious Mexican at Conejitos or a burger and frozen custard at Kopps?

Go to that antiques store I liked in the Third Ward? 

Spend an afternoon at my beloved Milwaukee Public Museum amidst the dioramas?  

Milwaukee, I sure hope I don't lose you too.

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Love: Dirty Beach's melancholy, low-fi "True Blue." Alex Zhang Hungtai, originally from Taiwan, has claimed Wong Kar-Wai as an influence, and it's easy to imagine this song playing in the background of one of his films.

Like: Saigon Export beer, which I had for the first time at Oakland's Hawker Fare, Commis chef James Syhabout's newish Southeast Asian street food spot. It merited being tracked down at BevMo the next day.

Discovery: The Walrus & The Carpenter oyster bar in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood. The interior design was spot on and they offered a great oyster selection, not to mention a very yummy steak tartare, with plenty of roses, sparkling wines, and cocktails like The Porch Swing to wash everything down.

Obsession: Cold summer soups. Aside from a traditional gazpacho (the Barefoot Contessa's version is really nice), I had a wonderful Chilled Sweet Corn Soup with Avocado & Cilantro at Solage in Calistoga, and in Seattle, from a Farmers' Market, a Cool Cucumber & Melon soup, spiked with coconut milk, mint and chili oil. These soups can be the very definition of refreshing and I want to develop a good repertoire or recipes to try when the summer whether finally arrives in the Bay Area this month.

Complaint: I tore through Dances with Dragons, the fifth book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and am deeply distraught that it will likely be half a decade before another volume is published.

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Love: The Packers. How can you not root for a community-owned team from a small town like Green Bay?

Like: Wisconsin may be known more for big brands like Miller and Pabst, but New Glarus' Spotted Cow is my home state beer of choice for the big game, assuming I can track some down.

Discovery: I had no idea that a "Little Wisconsin" hotbed of cool restaurants has sprung up in New York's West Village, thanks to Gabriel Shulman (a fellow UW Madison alumni.) Next visit I definitely want to check out Joseph Leonard, Fedora, and Jeffrey's Grocery, which the New York Times described as "it's as if Mr. Hooper joined Slow Food, took a charcuterie class, and developed a taste for Willamette Valley pinot noir."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/fashion/27close.html?_r=1&src=twrhp

Obsession: Wisconsin is known as the Dairy State, and Packer fans as Cheeseheads. Generally one thinks of basic chedder, quantity over quality, but Wisconsin has been enjoying an artisan cheese explosion. In Milwaukee over Christmas, we were massively impressed by a high-end Wisconsin cheese plate at La Merenda restaurant which included such varieties as Foengreek Gouda.

Complaint: Most of the time I love our mild Bay Area climate (sunny and 60s lately.) But I confess to longing for a blizzard and the accompanying snow days after seeing these pictures my mother took of the front and back of their house this week.