August 29, 2005 at 7:49 am
- you can now transfer video directly from your computer to your tivo. such an incredible idea, and long overdue.
- Five-Star Bars may very well be the best candy bar ever created. The hazelnut one especially could bankrupt me. They cost $2.69 apiece at your local whole foods, and yes, they are absolutly worth it. of course, we have the ability to make one last 3 days.
- probably one of the best traditional-style thin-crust pizzas we’ve ever gotten at regina’s in the north end. the key is to order your pies well-done, so they’re all blistered and charred, and ordering them either plain or with one topping at the most. otherwise, they get really heavy and undercooked. trust me.
- my first bike ride in about 15 years around fresh pond. and i didn’t hurt myself. and mad mad props to the folks at harris cyclery, who got our bikes back in working order after spending 10 years in a garage for only the cost of a tuneup. the jokers over at another bike shop wanted to charge us three times the amount and replace a whole bunch of parts that didn’t need replacing. jerks.
- a visit from mark and maureen. congrats to them on closing on their first house this week. i’m looking forward to seeing their sausage-making production go waaaaay up.
- a saturday morning private screening of wedding crashers. private, meaning that at an 11:20am showing on a saturday morning when it’s 80 degrees and sunny, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be the onlyones there. I think 1 or 2 other people came in later, but we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves, which is a bit freaky. as far as the movie goes, like others have said, the first 3/4 of the movie are tremendous, with the last 1/4 a bit of a letdown. still, vince vaughn and owen wilson should exclusively do movies together for the rest of the careers.
- the question we kept asking ourselves while watching the MTV VMA’s was “who?”. my god, i suddenly feel really old when i don’t know who 50% of the people they introduce are. i think they were all some sort of rap or r&b guys. is this what popular music has become? it’s really weird that coldplay looked really out of place there? i think i’d much rather watch the brit awards.
- speaking of brits, bon voyage to gordon and karen who leave for london in the next week.
- i’ve been meaning to write this for month now, but i keep forgetting. i spend a fair amount of time at the gym. the the gym i see a number of young females wearing one of two things: 1) shorts with something written on the butt. 2) shorts and tops that are way too tight and their bellys and “back-fat”hang over the edge. ladies, ladies. please, for your own good, stop this trend. no one, and i mean no one, looks good with words scrawled across their ass. it just makes it look really big and misshapen. and if your fat is being pinched by your clothes, guess what? they don’t fit. when did it become acceptable for girls to show off their big bellys? it’s weird, i’ve noticed this at the beach too. these skinny teenage girls with buddah bellys. is it their diet? some sort of genetic defect in this generation? now i’m not some sort of old codger and i’m most certainly not some conservative prude (if there’s an opposite of that, i’m it), and i’m not saying that everyone needs to be super-skinny (not that i’d be against that), but please, have some respect for yourself, and more importantly, the guys who have to look at you. thus concludes this public service annoucement.
Tags: 2005, topten
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August 22, 2005 at 8:07 am
- i guess these are the dog days of summer. not a whole lot going on. and i can’t get enough of these 3-day weekends.
- another visit to duxbury beach. i’m pretty sure this is a record for most beach days i’ve ever had in a summer. not that i’m complaining.
- i’m about a third of the way through Candyfreak : A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. Steve Almond’s (yes, his real name) examination of his own ridiculously funny candy obsession and the world of candy in general.
- and because of the book, i had a crazy craving for peanut M&M’s. actually, i wanted some of the new mega M&M’s, but i couldn’t find them. they sure hit the spot though.
- pizza of the week: grilled baby squid, homegrown sweet-100 tomatoes, garlic, chili flakes, oregano, basil,and olive oil.
- frogurt flavor of the week: coconut. yes, i said coconut.
- our bikes are in the shop getting fixed up, our helmets have been ordered, we have a pump. expect major cycling injuries this coming weekend.
- i did some bidding on ebay this week. i’ve determined that there’s nothing you can’t buy for really cheap on ebay.
- crash. i had heard a lot of great things about this movie but never really paid attention to what it was really about. a really intense and thought-provoking film about race relations and such with a number of intertwining storylines. and who knew that ludacris could act?
- i managed to smoke some chicken on the grill without setting the entire grill on fire. third time’s a charm, i guess.
Tags: 2005, topten
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August 15, 2005 at 8:48 am
- if you’re a fan of entourage, or a fan of 70’s and 80’s tv stars and wrestlers, check out these ads. here, here, here, and here. by the way, we started rewatching the first season. every bit as the first time around.
- orb let’s you access pretty much any media on your computer from anywhere on the planet. you can stream your music, photos, videos, tv (if you have a tv tuner hooked up to your computer), and yes, tivo. you can stream your shows recorded on your tivo anywhere you are without any additional hardware. check it out.
- we went out to an italian restaurant on saturday in CT where the served the pasta in gigantic troughs/bowls. and each had about 35 cloves of roasted garlic in it. my stomach was not a happy camper. but it was tasty.
- playing my first round of golf of the year on sunday. i started out pretty well by sinking a 30 foot putt on the first hole and chipping in from off the green on the second, but it was pretty much downhill after that.
- we now have 2 mountain bikes. this will be interesting. hopefully i won’t crack my head open. i haven’t ridden a bike in about 15 years.
- did i mention that we’re growing sweet 100 tomatoes? we’ve been growing them in pots on our back patio, and they’re just ripening this week. we’ve gotten about 15 or 20 perfect ones so far, with about another 40 or so left on the plants. some of the best, sweetest tomatoes i’ve ever tasted.
- we saw a free screening of the aristocrats on thursday. a really funny and incredibly dirty documentary about a joke. this old joke that’s been a sort of secret handshake amongst comedians isn’t really that funny, but what these comics can do with it is pretty amazing. and when i say dirty, i mean dirty. guys will love it, but women will either love it or hate it. but this is one of the funniest movies i’ve ever seen.
- before the movie, we made a quick stop for dinner at the original pho pasteur in chinatown. this is perhaps some of the best vietnamese food we’ve ever had. this location is now not associated with the other pho pasteurs, and it blows the rest of them away. not as americanized, much fresher, tastier, and authentic. it’s taken me years to finally try this place, and i’m so glad that i did. we’ll definitely be making another visit soon.
Tags: 2005, topten
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August 8, 2005 at 8:43 am
- it was quite a weekend of firsts on the cooking front. The grill got an extra heavy duty workout, and it only caught on fire once.
- grilled lobsters. My first time attempting to grill the tasty suckers, and my first time killing them with a knife while still alive. Yes, i know this sounds cruel, but it’s actually much less painful for them than dropping them into a pot of boiling water. at least this way, it’s a quick and relatively painless death. a quick driving of a knife straight through their head and body, splitting them in two. I’ll be honest, they still squirm and twich a bunch after you do it, but that’s just their nervous system doing funky stuff. once halved, their brushed with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then thrown on the grill. about 5 minutes per side (for 1 pounders), a brush of some chive butter, and you’re good to go. These were some of the most tender and tasty lobsters I’ve ever had. Not all tough and overcooked like they often can be. We’re definitely doing these again. And yes, it was the thrid time we’d had lobster in a week. It’s a little overindulgent, i know.
- continuing with the grill experiments, we made pizza on the grill, but not grilled pizza. we actually places our pizza stone directly on the grates and cranked up the heat to high for about half an hour to get some serious heat going. The most important thing to cooking a great pizza is an extremely hot oven, and our grill gets up to about 600+ degrees. This is the part when our grill went up in flames as all of the leftover grease in it caught fire and burned up. No worries. It might create a lot of black smoke and flames, but it just burns off and you end up with a nice clean grill. The pizzas were a success, but it will take some work to get them right. The first one burned on the bottom a bit before the top was done. The second one had perfect charring and a nice puffed up crust, just like I always hope for. I finished both of them under the broiler as I usually do to get that nice blistered top. I’m still waiting to find a house with a wood burning pizza oven.
- i watched a lot of movies this weekend. The best were harold and kumar go to white castle and comedian with jerry seinfeld. harold and kumar is definitely one of those movies that i’ll watch a bunch of times, sort of in the road trip genre. Really funny and well made and just stupid enough. Comedian is about seinfeld’s effort to get back into doing standup after the end of his tv show. he completely abandoned his old act and started fresh, so it’s really interesting watching him, one of the most successful comics of all time, struggle to get back his A-game.
- the fine folks at eugene thomas salon. yes, i got my hair cut. This is my third haircut in about a year and a half. surprisingly, this one was the least expensive of them all, which a fine salon cut for $20. yes, for $5 more than a barber, you get the full salon experience, complete with the shampoo and head massage.
- kam man marketplace in quincy. An asian megamarket with pretty much any service the asian community could need. much cleaner and nicer then super 88, and a very nice selection of fresh and frozen seafood.
- FX is becoming one of the best and most cutting edge tv networks out there. two new shows are adding to the fun. starved, about a bunch of people in NYC with eating disorders, and it’s always sunny in philadelphia, about a bunch of dudes running a bar in philadelphia. check them out.
- digg.com. This site has lots of links to interesting tech stuff. i’ve found all sorts of fun tricks and treats over there.
- waiter rant. a funny and insightful site written by a waiter in NYC. very well written and amusing.
- somehow, giant pumpkin/squash/zucchini vines have planted themselves in our front yard. this is apparently the first time they’ve ever been there, and most likely came from either the compost in our backyard or from our pumpkin that got attacked by a band of squirrels last year. However it got there, it has taken over the sade yard, and there are plants everywhere. large pumpkins have already formed, and there are flowers everywhere. luckily, we know that these flowers are not only edible, but incredibly tasty when deep fried. so that’s just what we did. dredge them in a light batter made with flour, soda water, salt, and pepper, dropped in some bubbling oil, and a few minutes later, you get a crispy, golden seasonal treat. we’ll definitely be doing these again.
Tags: 2005, topten
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August 1, 2005 at 7:46 am
- our now annual summer visit to maine. this time, for doug and steph’s wedding at the quite lovely cliff house.
- a weekend of lobster. beginning at chauncey creek lobster pier in kittery point. i just love this place. a barebones lobster shack on situated on the water that serves all of the classic lobster shack fare. lobsters, steamers, mussels, etc. and everything else is BYO. people come with huge coolers filled with sides, bottles of wine and beers, tablecloths, candles, napkins, you name it. not such a bad way to spend a friday afternoon. a couple of 1 3/4 lb. lobsters and a bottle of whales tail pale ale.
- and since we couldn’t spend a weekend in maine without a lobster roll, a trip to barnacle billy’s was in order. located on perkins cove in ogunquit, it’s another of those places you have to go if you want to get the true maine lobster shack experience. and as you can see, we hit 2 of the ten best main lobster shacks. i guess we’ll have to try to hit the other ones next time.
- since it seems that we can’t pass a mini golf course without stopping, we played a round at the mountain course at wonder mountain. i was on fire. i played the back 9 lefty, and still won by a healthy margin. a much better performance than last time when i had the yips.
- waking up at 5:30am on sunday just as the sky was this incredible orange and red glow. i woke up susanne just as the sun peaked over the horizon to watch one very cool sunrise over the ocean. not a bad view without having to get out of bed. we prompty rolled over and fell right back asleep.
- we are semi-officially a mac family as susanne finally got her 12-inch powerbook G4. let’s just say that this one will probably be making frequent trips home to play.
- don’t worry, i’m getting my hair cut this weekend. i think 4 months is a sufficient time between trims, don’t you?
- i’m really glad that the sox didn’t trade manny this weekend.
- a visit from steve, lisa, and hudson. damn, that boy is growing up quickly.
- by some unknown miracle, our plants and herbs are flourishing. this past week, we picked our first ripe cherry tomatoes, and yes, they were the best tomatoes we’ve ever eaten. all 5 of them. looks like we’ll be getting about 40 or 50 more before the summer is done.
Tags: 2005, topten
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