July 25, 2005 at 8:24 am
- fun new infinitely useful tool of the week: logmein.com. it basically lets you log into your home or office PC from a web browser, and it acts exactly as if you were sitting in front of your computer. very handy.
- due to some very poor radio reception at my office, i haven’t been able to listen to my favorite morning radio personality at work. well, using some more useful tools, i figured out how to stream it from the radio in my kitchen, through my PC, and on to my work computer. oh, and also to my tivo using galleon. yes, it’s been an incredibly geeky week for me.
- did you know that cleartype makes text on your PC much, much crisper and easier to read? i just found this out this weekend.
- shangri-la in belmont. great chinese/taiwanese food 4 minutes from our house. the minority of white folks eating there and the line out the door were a good tip-off.
- saturday afternoon at The Pool. jon and carolyn’s pool has become our “club”. “Oh, we’re going to The Pool tomorrow.” It’s where i practice my diving techinique, read US weekly, eat turkey burgers and asian slaws, and just relax.
- we’ve become such NPR geeks that i don’t mind driving a lot on saturdays. that’s when i get to listen to car talk, wait, wait don’t tell me, and only a game. god, when did i get so old?
- i’ve mastered the art of grilling chicken legs and thighs. well, except for thursday when my yogurt marinated chicken quarters instantly stuck to the grill causing me to loose all of my precious chicken skin. oh yes, if you haven’t figure it out by now, crispy chicken skin is what it’s all about.
- why do i get such a sick satisfaction out of washing my car by hand?
- lance is the man. we watched the final stage of the tour on sunday, and let me tell you, that cycling is a pretty crazy sport. now i’m not saying that i’m going to go out and buy a $5000 bike and some tight shorts, but it looks really interesting. plus, i hate bikers riding on busy streets. i always feel like i’m going to run them over. oh, and i don’t really like going fast. yes, i’m a big wuss.
Tags: 2005, topten
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July 18, 2005 at 8:11 am
- 4 days at 7 nickanoose. i could get used to island living.
- bartlett’s farm.
- cisco brewers. makers of some very tasty beer and spirits. their $5 tasting tour is the best deal on the island. for $5, you get to sample 5 different beers, 3 different vodkas, their gin, and their rum. oh, and they’ll keep giving you samples of whatever you want if you’re nice to them. a nice way to spend an afternoon.
- since we did the cooking at the house, i bought a knife bag to bring my knives and tools down. yes, i’m a bit crazy. but i love my knives.
- looking for a mindless, entertaining, summer movie? national treasure is a good one.
- The Know It All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. a smart, incredibly funny account of a guy trying to read the entire encyclopedia brittanica cover to cover.
Tags: 2005, topten
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July 11, 2005 at 7:50 am
- yes, this is the best picture of all time. That’s me on the right, made up like the little-known fifth member of KISS. I don’t know who was the genuis who decided to paint the faces of a 3, 5, and 7 year old like this, but it’s just pure brilliance. rock on. (note: it looks like we’re all holding harmonicas and rubber balls in our hands. what the hell?)
- is there anyone in the world who doesn’t love mini golf? it’s up there with bowling as america’s favorite family sport. and yes, i was victorious despite a very off day. i think all of the pirates threw me off my game.
- 2 very guilty reality show pleasures for me this week: hogan knows best, with everyone’s favorite Real American, hulk hogan. and last night’s premier of the princes of malibu, featuring a very angry and ridiculously wealthy record producer, his i’ve-had-plenty-of-plastic-surgery-hot wife, and um, bruce jenner’s sons. note when watching this show that the sons and their permanent-houseguest buddy created this show.
- bagels by US in arlington center. holy good god, we’ve found H&H bagels, the best bagels in the world, 5 minutes from our house. this is a very dangerous and fantastic thing. Yes, they are as good as the H&H you get from the stores in NYC. still warm even.
- in another weekend food discovery, angelato in belmont makes some of the best gelato i’ve had anywhere, including rome. featuring about 25 flavors, their stuff uses only the best imported ingredients, and the 10 minute drive from our house will become a common one.
- lunch from the harvard square farmer’s market. lettuce, english peas, baby fennel, and garlic scapes.
- we’ve watched all 6 star wars movies in the past month and a half or so. my conclusions: empire was my favorite. i like the “primitive” special effects of the old ones better. the new ones just have too much stuff going on so you don’t even know what to look at on the screen when you try to take it all in. my favorite characters are R2D2 and Chewbacca. Least favorite are annakin and luke. they’re both whiney bitches.
- have i mentioned entourage yet this year? i think this might be my favorite show on tv right now.
- just a day after visiting chatham and commenting about how the great cheeseball summer movie summer catch was supposed to take place there, what movie do you think was on tv? that’s right. it’s like the tv schedule is following us or something. freaky.
Tags: 2005, topten
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July 5, 2005 at 8:02 am
- is there anything better than a 3 day 4th of july weekend? yes. a 4 day 4th of july weekend.
- google does it again with google earth. this thing is just incredible. the hacks that people will develop for it in the coming weeks should be interesting. check out the 3-d buildings in major cities and the flyovers when you get driving directions.
- cubanos and mojitos at chez henri with tom and kathy.
- our good friends gordon and karen will be leaving cambridge this week for chicago and london. we will miss them, but look forward to visiting them across the pond. i better start working on my brit lingo.
- and speaking on fooled by april, their new album is out. definitely check it out. now.
- live 8 had great potential. unfortuantely, the coverage of it on mtv was horrendous. babbling DJ’s, pointless interviews with people in the crowd, flashbacks to the original live aid, and not nearly enough live music. for every hour of coverage, they showed at most 2 songs. and most of those songs were cut off halfway through. what the hell? surprisingly, the best coverage was on aol, where they streamed 6 of the concerts live. that is the future of live broadcasting. why should i be forced to sit through endless bantering and commercials when i can just pick what i want to watch on demand?
- fresh pond seafood. it may look like a run down shack, but it has the best seafood around. this weekend we got some beautiful soft shell crabs and some pretty idaho trout to throw on the grill.
- the view of boston from tavern on the water on a lovely summer night.
- duxbury beach is my favorite beach around. easy and cheap parking, it’s not too crowded, it’s nice and sandy, a good mix of families and young people, a bathhouse with bathrooms and food, and no traffic to get there. what more could you ask for?
- we discovered a new technique for making ice cream that keeps it from getting all icy. it involves from unflavored gelatin and some black magic. we were finally able to figure out how to make fresh mint ice cream with the technique, so we are just steps away from finally conquering our mint chocolate chip.
- you’d think that this weekend would be a busy one at the clam box in ipswich. luckily for us, it wasn’t. an hour after leaving our house, we were stuffing crunchy sweet fried clams in our faces. i eat fried clams maybe once per year, and ipswich is the place to get them.
- the jordan’s store in reading. they’ve made a model of boston out of jelly bellys. and they have an imax theater. and a trapeze school. huh?
- doing a leg of lamb on the rotisserie. holy crap that was good.
- and we just had to make another visit to blue ribbon.
- i have to preface this by saying that we clean our bathroom every week without fail. but last week, while standing in the shower, i noticed something growing out of the corner of the wall where it meets the tub. what was it? a mushroom. yes, a genuine mushroom growing in our bathroom. the combination of some bad caulking and extrememly humid and moist conditions made this happen. we fixed it this weekend with some caulk and some amazing goop. it’s really hard to walk into a store and ask where the caulk is. “excuse me, can you help me find some caulk?” or “i need some caulk.” or “i’m looking for some caulk.”
Tags: 2005, topten
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