October 31, 2005 at 7:57 am
- we bought a house last week. and we’ve spent every minute of the past 4 days scraping, spackling, sanding, painting, cleaning, installing light fixtures, learning wiring, plumbing, and carpentry, all the while trying to pack our old place and move stuff over, and generally destroying our bodies in the process. on the bright side, i think we had the fastest closing in history. in and out of there in 40 minutes, and not nearly as many signatures as i thought. is this what it feels like to be an adult? in any event, we are now happyish residents of the town of belmont.
- painting celiings sucks. for the love of god, please don’t ever paint your ceilings any color other than white, so thh next poor schlub who has to paint them won’t require 5 coats to cover it. i guess i should have used a primer, huh?
- i’m keeping a running count of the number of trips to home depot and lowes i make. since thursday, i’m up to 6, not including the paint store.
- we ordered a new washer and dryer and had it delivered yesterday. unfortunately, they didn’t fit down our basement stairs, even after i ripped apart the railings. i might be in the market for a reciprocating saw to do some damage to some stairs. that’s covered in the condo documents, right?
- i think susanne should be one of those hot carpenters on those design show on tv. she’s good.
- the grill insert for our cooktop that i was hoping to get for chrismukkah magically appeared in the cabinet under our sink. yay for me!
- i’m too tired to think of anything else right now…
Tags: 2005, topten
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October 24, 2005 at 8:38 am
- expect to see me covered in paint, spackle, toilets, light fixtures, tools, boxes, tape, and junk for the next month. god help me.
- the first annual oslerwurst. great fun had by all, and lots and lots of sausage and mustard. the surpise hit of the day was the mole sausage. and the other surpise is that many oslers read this site. hello oslers!
- after packing the pantry and dining room and living room shelves, we already have about 35 boxes. remember all of those fun dishes and glasses and bowls and platters that you get for your wedding and all of the thousands of boxes that they all come packed in that you throw out. well guess what? you get to pack them all up again. having full sets of all of your glasses and dishes isn’t nearly as much fun to own when you have to pack them all.
- ugly americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions. a partially fictionalized story of the young guys who went wild in the far east markets in the mid-90’s. they made a ton of money, lived like rock stars, and got wrapped up with the japanese mafia. a quick and interesting read.
- sometimes, you look around at your life and realize that somehow, you grew up and got old. remember those dinners that your parents would have when you were young and they would be having these really boring conversations about mortgages, taxes, home repair, cooking, and car maintainance? well suddenly, you’re having them. i came to that realization on friday morning at 5:30 while riding the bike, watching a bathroom renovation on tv, and getting excited about watching them put in the new toilet and laying tiles. stick a fork in me. i’m old.
Tags: 2005, topten
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October 14, 2005 at 8:04 am
- if you thought that some of the stuff in the back of your fridge has been there for a while, check out the world’s oldest noodles. these were uncovered intact from a chinese earthquake/landslide from over 4000 years ago.
- our anniversary dinner at lala rokh. persian food is tasty. and we ate some garlic cloves that had been drying in the sun for 2 years.
- we ate really, really well this weekend.
- making moules frites on firday night. for those of you non-french-speaking folks, that’s a classic brasserie dish of steamed mussels and crispy fries. and yes, we made real fries at home. cut ultra-thin, fried twice (once at 325 to cook them through and again at 375 to crisp them up, sprinkled with salt and rosemary, these were some of the best fries i’ve ever had. let’s ignore the early mishap of loading too many fries into the hot oil and having it spill over all over my stove and floor.
- the felafel at sepal in watertown continue to amaze. fresh ingredients, killer felafel that are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, pickled turnips add a nice crunch and tanginess, and it had been far too long since we had last had them.
- determined to get my pizza dough right once and for all, i went back to an old recipe that i had tried before from american pie. it was a complete disaster. the dough wouldn’t hold together when stretched, and it seemed like the yeast wasn’t doing much at all. unwilling to eat crappy dough, we ran over to armando’s to buy some of their dough, and find out once and for all whether it was my oven or my dough that was the reason for my not-so-crispy-chewy crust. well, it was the crust. the armando’s stuff came out beautifully. ever-determined, i mixed up another batch on sunday afternoon, just for the hell of it, this time using our electric mixer and another brand of yeast. finally, success! screw that instant yeast. the active dry stuff works so much better. and definitely splurge for the extra $0.30 for the fleischmann’s yeast” over the store brand stuff. i will test my theories in the very near future.
- in preparation for our soon-to-be-homeowner status, i bought a tool set with all sorts of stuff. cordless drill with all sort of bits, stud finder, rachet sets, all sort of pliers and hammers and stuff i’m not really sure what it does. but it makes me fill just a little more like a man.
- the fine folks over at ralph pill electric supply company. we ordered some lighting there, got some good advice, and found an electrician.
- we will also be getting some furniture from evergreen furniture. they sell unfinished furniture, but will also finish it for you. very nice stuff for about half the price of other places.
- who wants to see me with my own cooking show? ah, i’d be better off getting a camera, shooting it myself, and making a video podcast out of it. that way i can swear and trash-talk those sucky food newtork shows. everybody likes swearing! ok, who wants to loan me a camera?
- murderball. a completely inspiring and kick-ass movie about quad-rugby. these guys are hilarious and tough as nails.
Tags: 2005, topten
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October 10, 2005 at 7:42 am
- we spent the weekend watching jamie’s school dinners, a 4-part documentary about our good friend jamie oliver trying to change the food in Britain’s school systems. It’s really an incredible and inspiring and disturbing look at how kids today eat, what they’re served in school, how they’re taught (or in this case, not taught) at home about food and nutrition and making good choices, and how important is it to change it. and to watch a celebrity chef who isn’t doing it for the money, strains his family life and his restaurant, and isn’t doing it for any self-serving reasons, put himself throught the misery and hardship that it took to accomplish it is really impressive. his feed me better campaign raised awareness in Britain and started a huge online petition signed by over 200,000 people. the government ended up banning junk food from the schools and increased the funding for healthy school lunches, retraining workers, etc. this has to happen here now. ooh, and there’s lots of swearing in it too. how come the brits are allowed to curse on tv and we’re not?
- a shout out to squid and denise for being my most loyal readers. i think i’m like a celebrity to them or something. oh, and i got to utter a sentence that’s probably never been said before: “um, i think you have some sweet potato on your watch.” and i can never look at ina garten without thinking of a man with a mop and bucket again. ew.
- we all knew the sox weren’t the same team as last year, so nobody seems too disappointed. at least i’ll get some sleep this month.
- susanne’s 3rd 30th birthday dinner at hamersley’s. it was our second time eating there, and once again, it was an outstanding meal. the room has a great rustic warmth to it and the food certainly backs it up. the refined country french cuisine was perfect on a miserable rainy night, and in a surprising turn of events, neither of us ordered fish. duck and quail were the orders of the day, and they were terrific. susanne’s duck was the big winner, and my first-ever quail were very tasty.
- it went from summer to fall in the course of 2 hours on saturday night. when we left for dinner, it was in the 70’s and humid and rainy. when we finished, it had dropped 20 degrees and was still rainy. i don’t think it will recover. good god, i’m not ready for winter. at least we’ll have a garage and a driveway this year.
- tomorrow is our 2 year anniversary. so if the first year is “paper”, is the second year “house”?
- a return to delux, my old stomping ground. this place isn’t the same crowded smokey joint that it once was, but it’s still a great place for a cheap meal and a cheap drink. it’s never been the same since smoking in bars was outlawed, but that’s ok by me. no waiting and no smoke.
- i might hate the weather, but i love the food of this time of year. i hate to say it, but i’ve had enough of grilling and summer foods. there’s something to be said for the warmth and aromas of a nice braised chicken on a sunday afternoon. up next, soups!
Tags: 2005, topten
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