Archive for February, 2006
February 27, 2006 at 8:35 am
- oh yes, new photos are on the way…
- we’re just not normal people. most people spend their sundays relazing, but our sundays are not for the faint of heart. yesterday saw us (take a deep breath) go to target, russo’s, bed bath and beyond, marshalls, a brief pause at baja fresh, and whole foods. this is followed by hanging a giant mirror, installing a sirius radio, making fresh pasta dough, marinating chicken and making jicama slaw, doing laundry, making fresh ravioli and fettucini, cooking dinner, putting together a table and a lamp for our sunroom, and making a big batch of frogurt. by the end of the day, our bodies started shutting down and stopped working. like i said, we’re not normal. my body is getting tired just thinking about it again.
- we were sad to learn that our favorite indian place, udupi bhavan, has closed. but just down the street, dakshin has quickly taken its place.
- spring training has begun. is the winter over already?
- god, we’re sucked into american idol again. i’m embarrassed to say it, but its happened for the second year in a row. it’s already on three nights a week, and i could do more. i’m just ashamed.
- i have some special caputo 00 pizza flour and fresh mozzarella curd on the way from pennmac. guess what we’ll be doing this weekend? who wants to come?
- i think that theshort track speedskating relay is the craziest and most exciting event of the games. you can barely follow what’s happening, but there’s a lot of guys pushing each other, and there’s potential for a crash at any second.
- i think our vacuum heard us talking about it last week. it’s making bad smells and starting to die. oh no! might be time for a new one. although i have the feeling that our new one won’t last 35 years.
Tags: 2006, topten
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February 26, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Tags: 2006, food, pasta, photos
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February 25, 2006 at 12:32 am
Tags: 2006, food, glass, photos, wine
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February 25, 2006 at 12:31 am
Tags: 2006, food, photos, plates
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February 25, 2006 at 12:23 am
Tags: 2006, cooking, food, knives, photos
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February 25, 2006 at 12:21 am
Tags: 2006, cooking, food, knives, photos
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February 25, 2006 at 12:20 am
Tags: 2006, cooking, food, peppermill, photos, red
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February 25, 2006 at 12:20 am
Tags: 2006, cooking, food, peppermill, photos, red
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February 25, 2006 at 12:18 am
Tags: 2006, cooking, fishsauce, food, photos
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February 25, 2006 at 12:13 am
Tags: 2006, cooking, food, photos, tools
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February 25, 2006 at 12:08 am
Tags: 2006, cooking, food, photos, spices
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February 25, 2006 at 12:01 am
Tags: 2006, cooking, fennel, food, photos, spices
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February 21, 2006 at 9:44 am
- i know i’ve said it before, but this time, it’s for real. i made the best pizza i’ve ever made this weekend. i was completely happy (ok, not completely, but as close as it’s ever been) with the way the dough came out, i finally figured out where in the oven my pizza stone should go, and they came out all nice and charred and bubbly, crispy and chewy, with the toppings done just right. i’m now ready to go into business!
- if you ever get letters in the mail from a carpet cleaning service offering you free rug cleaning, chances are, it’s actually a front for these guys. however, if you’re really good at saying no to a strong sales pitch, you can get all of the rugs and all of the furniture in your house cleaned for free. we’ll need a new vacuum sometime soon. our current electrolux is about 35 years old. it still works, but it’s starting to struggle a bit. i highly doubt that our next one will last that long.
- speaking of free, after a 4 month ordeal, our cooktop downdraft fan finally got fixed. of course, a call to them the day before the service call revealed that they hadn’t actually ordered the part for it, so they overnighted it to us in time for the appointment. fortunately for us, they forgot to charge us for it. nice. of course i then tried using the grill insert for the cooktop which promptly stopped working. oh well. at least i won’t set off the smoke detector anymore.
- i can sharpen my knives all i want at home, but nothing is as good as a professionally sharpened knife. the fine folks over at tags did a fine job. and they have free popcorn!
- susanne really likes her new car. and i finally got to ride in the passenger seat for a weekend.
- for some reason, i’ve worn holes in the left elbows of all of my shirts. seriously, every single one. i can’t figure out if it’s from the way i sit at work or the way that i drive, but it’s getting a bit ridiculous. luckily, i buy all of my shirts for $5 apiece, so it’s no big deal.
- it was a parent-filled weekend for us. hilights include visits to the spot cafe, a visit to concord and the concord museum (featuring paul revere’s lantern!), and another visit to domenic’s.
- we saw 3 oscar nominated films this weekend. munich, good night and good luck, and walk the line. of the three, only walk the line really did it for me. amazing performances, great music, and a really engaging story.
- soma fm’s indie pop rocks. what i’ve been listening to for the past week. all of the indie pop i can handle.
- i haven’t watched any olympics at all. every time i try to find something, it’s either not on or it’s frigging curling or women’s hockey. i can’t decide which is more boring.
- some new gym equiptment is on the way. my chin-up bar and dip bar will get me looking just like ed. when i ordered it, i accidentally entered in my credit card info incorrectly, so they called and left me a message. when i called back, ed actually answered. honestly, i really didn’t know how to speak to him seriously.
Tags: 2006, topten
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February 13, 2006 at 8:30 am
- just when i though we might have made it through the winter without getting pelted with snow, we get dumped on with a foot of snow. and just last week, i was grilling.
- yes, i grilled for the first time this year. my grill setup will need some modifications, but my grill survived the move without any problems. by the way, a chili-marinated pork tenderloin on the grill is damn tasty.
- we started off saturday shopping for chairs, and ended up buying susie a new car. yes, after 10 years and 180,000 miles, lil red will be passed on, and susie will finally get a new, black car. ah, lil red, you were a good car. don’t be mad at us. it was just time.
- the annual carpenter family valentines dinner at tosca. this is usually the meal where we get fed to the point of discomfort, including multiple courses between our courses and 3 different dessert courses. thankfully, it was more comtrolled this year, and we ordered more appropriately, so we didn’t have to roll ourselves out of there and swallow a whole bottle of tums. but it was excellent as always. and it’s always nice to see your reservation in the computer hilighted in red with “VIP” next to it. nice.
- for some reason, i always get sucked into watching the opening ceremonies of the olympics. although there were some cool spectacles, including the lighting of the cauldron (does anyone use the term cauldron for anything but the olympics or maybe harry potter?), there was a huge amount of cheese as usual. and the broadcasters take it so seriously, it just ends up sounding a bit ridiculous. lines such as “these are the sparks of passion, which will appear throughout the night” when describing guys on rollerblades with flames shooting out of their helmets. um ok. but i still get a kick out of seeing the U.S. and the host team march in.
- our next door neighbor humphrey and his fantastic snowblower. thank god for him.
- this is the greatest gift ever for late night talk show hosts. really, does it get any better than this?
- continuing my klosterman binge, killing yourself to live: 85% of a true story. klosterman drive across the country visiting the sites of rock & roll deaths, although it’s mostly about his many relationship issues, nights of drinking and doing drugs, and pop culture and rock & roll manifestos.
- love monkey, we hardly knew ye.
- and speaking of cancelled shows, the final four episodes of arrested development aired on friday night. opposite the olympic opening ceremonies, thus ensuring that nobody would watch it, thus justifying them pulling the plug on it. bastards. it will go down as one of the smartest, funniest, most unfit for american primetime network shows ever. let’s hope it gets revived by one of the cable networks.
- for you real estate junkies, or for those who want to see what their house is worth, check out zillow.com. be careful though. it’s a bit addictive.
Tags: 2006, topten
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February 6, 2006 at 8:26 am
- inspired by last week’s visit to bianco, i had to make another attempt at pizza at home. after all of the mishaps of late, it was time for some success. I went back to my old standby recipe from american pie (also seen here), and used some of what i’d learned from the crazies at pizzamaking.com, and churned out 2 big batches of dough using slightly different techniques. i also finally outsmarted my oven and realized that i could crank the temp. all the way up, but had to move the pizza stone up from the floor of the oven (hence, the reason i was completely torching the bottom of my pies). yes, i’m a little nutty, but the dough came out probably the best i’ve ever made, and they were some of the best pizzas i’ve made. still not quite where i want them, but i’ll get there eventually. now if i just had a wood burning oven in my house…
- it’s amazing what a little rearranging furniture a couple of lamps, and a console table can do to a room. our living room was basically a room that we hated. we never used it or hung out in it because it just wasn’t comfortable, was hard to watch tv in, and just wasn’t cozy. well, a little reconfiguring of the room, and that’s all changed. i have a feeling that we’ll be spending a lot more time in there now…hmm, do we need yet another tivo? nah, i think i’ll wait for the series 3’s to come out.
- i think i went to target 5 times this weekend. yes, i said 5.
- i finally wiped my computer clean and started over last week. it had been a mess for about 6 months now, crashed and restarted itself all the time, and it was time for a new start. it’s amazing what a difference it makes. it’s like a brand new computer, all fast like.
- old cars have good ears. when you start talking about replacing it with a new one, it tends to get angry and start making bad noises and doing bad things. you have to whisper about these things do it doesn’t here you, i guess.
- i am now officially no longer a gym member. i actually quit a month ago, but it takes 30 days to kick in. there was no big bon voyage party for me though. i don’t even think anyone said goodbye. but i did manage to steal about 4 towels on that last day. they make great dish towels and car towels. so let’s see if i get all big and fat now.
- i would have never guessed it from the description, but the kite runner was an incredibly engossing and engaging story that sucked me in in a hurry. i’d heard so many good things about it, so i decided to give it a shot and it didn’t disappoint. check it out.
- remember congo bars? damn, they’re tasty.
- gordon’s been very active on the blog recently. keep it up!
- have i mentioned that this has been the best winter ever? early febraury, and it’s in the mid-50’s and sunny. i don’t think i’ve worn a winter coat in 2 weeks. of course, i’m sure i’ve just jinxed it.
Tags: 2006, topten
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