September 24, 2007 at 9:50 am
- Happy birthday to the Lovely Suse. No one loves her birthday more than her, so it’s always fun to try to make it a good one. Please feel free to send her really nice gifts. Or cash.
- Repeating last year’s birthday dinner, we made a return visit to Neptune Oyster on Friday night. Last year, we found out that Susanne was pregnant about a day after the meal, so she felt a little bit guilty about the oysters and wine that she had polished off. This year, no such guilt! We went all out thanks to a gift certificate from Jon, Carolyn, Alex, and Rachel, and had a half doen oysters, fried cauliflower and white anchovies, languostines, both tuna and sea urchin crudo, a salad of salt cod, crispy lamb, pancetta, and mushrooms, and a bottle of prosecco to wash it all down with. God, we love that place. This was also our first dinner out alone since Tess was born, which was nice.
- Speaking of Jon, Carolyn, Alex, and Rachel, I’ve grown tired of having to say all of their names, so I’ve decided that they need a nickname. I’m pushing for either J-CAR or JARC, but the lovely Suse wants CARJ (spoken like a pirate, CAAAAARJ!). I think J-CAR has a nice ring to it. And if anyone wants to shorten our family name, i think the only way to go is PST (pronounced psssst).
- Congrats to Steve-o on the launch of Cake Financial. Now everyone go sign up and get some Cake!
- I mowed the lawn for the first time in about a month. I should be ashamed of myself. It’s so fried in some spots, but it was also jungle-like in other areas. I feel much better about it now. Hopefully the fertilizer will do good things for the fall grass.
- After growing tired of the nasty Brita pitcher in our fridge (not to mention the possible dangers of BPA) and begrudgingly having to buy bottled water for Tess, I installed an undersink water filter last week. $50 and 15 minutes later, we had fresh clean filtered water for all. The filters last for 6 months, there’s no real drop in water pressure, and the water tastes great. We likey.
- Tess hsa begun shoving her hand so far into her mouth that she’s making herself spit up. Nasty.And she’s starting to grab at stuff with her deathgrip, including George. Poor George. He’s just going to be abused by her for a while. Hopefully, he’ll forgive her.
- So the American version of Kitchen Nightmares premiered last week, and it was ok. Not nearly as good as the original British version, but that’s not a surprise. Fox makes it less about the food and logistics of the restaurant, and more about the personalities and conflicts and fights. And of course Ramsay plays the character of “Gordon Ramsay” rather than just being himself. He’s louder, more abrasive, and doesn’t act like he cares that much about the people or the restaurant, unlike in the original version. Plus, the show uses the same style of narration and editing that Hell’s Kitchen uses, which is really annoying. As long as they keep the outrageous fights coming, I’m sure it will be a successful show.
- I couldn’t figure out why my hits have pretty much doubled in the past couple of weeks. Then I looks at my stats page and saw why. Type “Mcdonalds” into google image search, and see what comes up on the first page. How ironic.
Tags: 2007, topten
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September 17, 2007 at 9:47 am
- I’m wearing socks for the first time in about three months, and I’m not very happy about it.
- I’ve fallen way behind on my TV watching, but last night, I had the Red Sox/Yankees game, that Pats, and the Emmy’s on at the same time. I had my remote control thumb working overtime. And I was also reading the Sunday papers and had both kids on my lap. If I only had a laptop nearby and a radio on, I would have hit media overload and my head would have exploded.
- My sushi rolling skills have seriously diminished over the years, but the Lovely Suse’s have dramatically improved. She even made one of those inside-out rolls with the rice on the outside, although each piece weighed about 3 pounds. I made up for my lack of skills with my deep frying skills. My first attempt at making tempura was a big success. I mean, what’s better than crispy deep-fried vegetables? I think they keys were using a combination of rice flour and regular flour and cold seltzer water. All of those bubbles make it extra crispy, I guess.
- I don’t want to name any names (but it rhymes with the Bubbly Booze), but it’s somebody’s birthday coming up this weekend. I just thought you should all know.
- I haven’t mowed the lawn in about 3 weeks. The rainless August and early September pretty much fried it, so it’s not looking too pretty right now. I need to get some fertilizer down and try to get the fall grass groing. Sorry for neglecting you, lawn. I promise I’ll be better about watering you next year.
- I spoken before about how much I love all things Method, but their customer service is also excellent. I recently broke my omop when the plastic handle snapped off, and I contacted them to see if anything could be done about it. Apparently, it’s a common problem that the designers have been working on fixing, and they’re sending me one of the brand new designs this week for free. They’re also changing their packaging to use a fully compostable bamboo-based package, which is also excellent. The customer service rep, Nancy, apologized that the new packaging wasn’t ready yet, so the omop would still come with the old packaging. This is the kind of company that I’m happy to support.
- If you have a Tivo (and every single one of you should), you can download a bunch of NBC’s pilots to watch early. A nice little marketing trick, but a very well executed idea. We watched Chuck, which was a little silly, a little funny, and pretty enjoyable. I’m not sure how it will hold up over multiple episodes, but I’ll give it a whirl. I guess I have a soft spot for computer geeks.
- I’m loving listening to old episodes of The BS Report. I mean, where else can you listen to two middle aged guys talk for an hour about the history of football video games or the current state of professional wrestling?
Tags: 2007, topten
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September 10, 2007 at 9:53 am
- Everyone in our house has been sick or is currently sick, so it’s just a matter of time before catch some sort of disease. Hooray for daycare!
- I watched my first episode of Top Gear this weekend, and it was just fantastic. Crazy cool cars, celebrities, and that kooky British sense of humor make for one entertaining show. I’m not a huge car guy, but it’s hard not to be entertained by this show. Instant season pass for this one.
- I actually said the words “I don’t really feel like grilling” yesterday. It was a bit of a shock to everyone, but after grilling chicken every Sunday since April or May, I needed a change. Plus, I had too much other crap to do to sit there and tend to a fire, so it was braising time. I sort of missed it. Talk to me in February when I can’t wait to fire up the grill again.
- I finally got around to switching all of my bills over to paperless billing. With the mountain of mail and papers that seems to accumulate in our house and the pain that recycling has become with all of the stuff that we now have to bag up (and despite my love for my new shredder), it was time. Plus, I don’t bother saving old bills anymore since they’re all archived online. Now hopefully, my online bills don’t end up in my Spam folder. I guess I should just set it up to auto-pay them as well, huh?
- We’ve watched a few episodes of Californication, and it’s quite entertaining. David Duchovny plays a writer living in LA who’s, um, got some issues. He’s miserable, he’s got writer’s block, he treats women like crap, he likes his booze, but luckily, he’s really funny, so it’s hard not to root for him. Plus there are a lots of boobies in it, so that’s always good.
- We watched a little bit of the MTV VMA’a last night, and we spent most of the time saying, “what the hell is this?” Of course there was the Britney debacle, but from what I could tell, all performances on the main stage were lip-synched, and the only real performances were done in these party suites in a different part of the hotel, and they only showed about 30 seconds of each. Of course the other question we kept asking was “who are these people?” I’m sure the kids know who everyone is, but they would just cut to these random guys rapping for a minute without introducing them, and then cut away. What the hell? And apparently, the only artists on the channel anymore are Justin Timberlake, Rihanna (I actually know who she is, I think), Kanye West, and Fallout Boy. Don’t even get me started on the current state or rock music on the channel. Here’s a little memo to the folks over at MTV: If they want to see how a music awards show should be done, go get a copy of this past year’s Brit Awards.
- We experienced our first restaurant meltdown on Friday night. We’ve had good luck taking Tess out to restaurants as long as we time it correctly. Get her fed, get her in her car seat, and then get to ther restaurant while she’s passed out in a post-meal coma. This usually works, but on our way over to Punjab, she was not a happy camper. Her wailing continued once we sat down to dinner, and she was so loud that we had to pick her up and take her on a walk around the restaurant to settle her down. Of course as soon as we got back to the table, she’d lose it again. She did enjoy watching the Sox on TV and watching the guy work the tandoor oven, though. Hopefully, this will be the exception rather than the rule, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed. I feel bad for the poor people sitting near us out on dates. They’re never going to have kids now.
Tags: 2007, topten
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September 4, 2007 at 10:16 am
- I must say that I enjoyed spending a long weekend doing no yard work, no household projects, and no painting. I needed that.
- Tess got her supermodel on by posing for our friend Tom. My photos are going to look like amateur hour after seeing these.
- Ribs are good. We don’t have them very often, but sometimes, it feels nice get all primal and get all messy and tear and gnaw on those bones. We made them at home, and we cheated a bit, buying the Niman Ranch ribs from Trader Joe’s that are already smoked and cooked, and they just need to be warmed up and charred on the grill. From fridge to plate In 15 minutes with some grill time in between. I would have loved to have smoked them from scratch at home, but I don’t have an easy smoking setup, and I didn’t feel like doing the whole cook them in the oven and finish them on the grill routine. I’m ok with that.
- Come to think of it, we ate a lot of crap this weekend. Ribs, sausage, pizza, more ribs… oh well.
- You know how there are certain thermometers that are only used for certain orifices? And you know how you really shouldn’t put those thermometers into your mouth after? Yeah, sometimes, you make that mistake. Whoops. We’re getting low on mouthwash.
- I can’t say enough about the awesomeness of Slacker. It’s basically personalized internet radio, but it only plays the artists that you like, if you want. You pick the artists, you can add other similar artists, and then off you go. You can create a bunch of your own stations, or listen to one of the dozens of genre’s that they already have. If you want it to play other similar songs that it thinks you may like, you can have it do that. You can always fine-tune your tunes to play more obscure or more popular songs from these artists, older or newer songs, and fewer or more of the songs that you like. Plus, they are going to come out with a portable player that the service will load up with your stations, and they will also have a satellite service to stream the music directly to your car. Awesome. I’ve come to realize that I don’t really have any need to own my music anymore and don’t want to choose what to listen to. I want some one to tell me what to listen to based on the artists that I like. I rarely listen to the music that I own, but instead listen to internet radio, Sirius, and services like Slacker. Never commercial radio though. I still listen to the music that I like, but don’t have to take them time to choose what to listen to, and I never have to listen to commercials. And I always like what I’m listening to. I love technology.
- Every single stupid annoying college girl was at Target this weekend. They came in droves in packs of 3 or 4, many with inappropriately short shorts and awful tans, and they wreaked havoc on the store. The health and beauty sections were stripped clean, they left their overflowing carts in the middle of the aisles, and have an unusual ability to yell to their friends, talk on their cell phones, chew gum, and walk in slow motion all at the same time. Tess is never allowed to be one of these girls.
- I watched the entire third season of the F Word, Gordon Ramsay’s show that airs on the BBC, over the course of the weekend. I think this is my favorite food show right now, and a show like this could never make it to US TV (except for BBC America). American’s just wouldn’t have the interest in it and couldn’t stomach the reality of it. Despite the character of “Gordon Ramsay” that he plays on Hell’s Kitchen, this is him for real. Yes, he’s an a-hole, but for the right reasons. But the certerpiece of the show revolves around Ramsay raising animals in his backyard with his kids, showing them where their food comes from, and most importantly, constantly reminding them that this will be their dinner and they’re not pets. From the birth of the animals up to their inevitable slaughter, everything is shown, and it would completely outrage animal rights people in the US. It’s tough to watch, it’s difficult for him to experience after bonding with the animals, but it’s reality. This is where your food comes from. He uses every part of the animal (even using the poop to make paper to print the menus on), showing respect that the animal that he cared for. Plus the show has lots of swearing, lots of laughs, and loads of tasty looking food. Check it out if you get a chance.
- It’s rare that we make it through a movie at night now, but we saw Breach the other night, which I hadn’t heard much about, but was excellent. I got the Lovely Suse to watch it by just pressing play without telling her what it was or what it was about, and hoping for the best. She obviously liked it because she stayed awake for the entire thing.
Tags: 2007, topten
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