PeteCarpenter.com

4/21/2009

Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Some minor construction done, a major improvement to the kitchen, a birthday for yours truly, a bunch of sick people, and some damn tasty food.

• Yes, I turned a year older last week. 33 to be exact. The Year of Larry. Yes, I still have a poster of Larry Bird in my office, I still speed up every time one of those police signs that tell you how fast you’re going until it says 33, and now, I will live the 33. At least I will know how old I am this year without having to do the math.
• We celebrated with a fantastic meal at our old Formaggio BBQ friend Jason’s place in New Haven, Caseus. Part cheese shop, part bistro, completely awesome. Three words: Foie Gras Poutine. Nuff said.
• We also made our traditional stop at Pepe’s on the drive down to CT, and for the second time in a row, they were out of clams. No clams at Pepe’s? Again? That’s like Fenway being out of Fenway Franks. Or the Clam Box being out of clams. Oh wait, that happened to us too. In addition to the lack of clams, they also screwed up our order of a Tomato Pie and brought us a regular cheese pie. Still, outstanding pizza, so I can’t complain too much.
• Speaking of which, I’ve now seen three separate articles in the past week about making pizza at home. Do you think the gods know that we finally got a new oven?
• Yes, after much hardship, we finally have 400 pounds of shiny stainless steel culinary awesomeness in our kitchen. Our BlueStar arrived last week (while in the middle of a conference call that I had to put on hold BTW), and was finally moved into the house a few days later by some very strong men who could beat me to a bloody pulp if they chose to. This thing is a beast. It’s now all set up with a new hood above, and we’re really cooking with gas now. 22,000 BTU’s of it to be precise. Does that really make a difference? Well, how about boiling a big pot of water for pasta in, um, 7 minutes? Yeah, it’s powerful. I hope I don’t burn the house down. We also had to take down our potracks to make way for the hood, and thanks to the Lovely Suse’s excellent cabinet arranging skills, we don’t miss them at all. Of course, she now wants new cabinets and new countertops, but that will have to wait for now. Baby steps.
• And speaking of baby steps, the Lovely Tess can now climb up onto pretty much any piece of furniture, including her highchair, her crib, and our bed. So I got woken up on Sunday morning (the very lovely Lovely Suse let me sleep in) by the Lovely Tess barging into our room, climbing up on the bed, and waving at me 2 inches from my face while saying “Hi Dadeeee!”. Funny girl.
• By the way, did you check out this slide? This thing is sweeeeet.
• The Lovely Tess got me a very appropriate birthday gift of a car detailing. Seriously, she’s intentionally trying to trash my car these days. I should cover everything in plastic once it’s clean.
• Everyone in the house has been sick in the past weeks. The Lovely Tess was the star performer by projectile vomiting all over herself, her carseat and the Lovely Suse’s car, just as they pulled into the parking lot at school. That’s a tough one to recover from. Instead, she spent the day with me, our contractor, and an electrician overseeing the kitchen renovations.
• Want a great little vegetable peeler that is such a Swiss icon that it has been featured on a stamp? The Star Peeler is a classic.

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4/7/2009

• Opening day. This is the year that I teach the Lovely Tess to be a Sox fan. Bring it on!
• I thought that I may have a slight addiction to Trader Joe’s dark chocolate edamame. Until I talked to my sister-in-law. It’s taken me three weeks to go through one package of them, about 5 or 6 edamame at a time. She, on the other hand, will finish off a package in a day and a half. Her addiction was so strong that my brother had to ban them from the house. So I’m not feeling so bad anymore. In fact, I need to go buy some more.
• My music is currently living in the cloud at Lala.com. Now I’m just waiting for the iPhone app to come out. Not that I’m really listening to my own music that much anymore. I’ve pretty much been listening exclusively to Pandora and podcasts these days. How is terrestrial radio still in business? And satellite radio’s days are numbered as well.
• I didn’t catch the norovirus last weekend. So that’s good.
• I currently have a 400 pound stove sitting in my garage. Anyone want to come help me move it in the house? Preferably some one with a forklift. Speaking of which, it was delivered while I was home, in the middle of a work conference call with a customer, while I was leading them through a report. I literally had to put them on hold while I dealt with a barking dog, the pouring rain outside, and a honking hunk of stainless steel on a pallet that I had to convince the driver to put in my garage instead of leaving it on the sidewalk. That was fun.
• If Pepe’s doesn’t have clams this weekend, I’m throwing punches.
• Is it just me or has the rest of the world discovered Twitter in the past few weeks? Which means that all of the cool kids will move on to something else now.
• Does anyone have any recommendations for TV shows to watch? We literally have nothing on our Tivo to watch. It’s sad. Otherwise, I have to spend my Friday nights watching Wife Swap. Seriously.
• God, I love this video. This man understands what pizza is all about.
• I may or may not have broken my 3-month-long self-imposed peanut M&M ban last week. I’m just saying…

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