Posted by bronson
Thu, 01 Jun 2006 03:03:00 GMT
5 May:
A useless dirt patch
There’s a nasty dirt patch in front of our place and I’ve been complaining about the lack of quality produce on the east coast. Whatever can be done?
Amazingly, the landlord gave us permission to do a little planting. Cassie and I went out and bought gardening stuff: seeds, shovels, and 40 lbs of cow manure. At 5¢/lb, manure must be one of the cheapest and most complex substances on the planet.
Because it’s icy cold in March, the garden started inside. We took an old Trader Joe’s egg carton, drove a hole in the bottom of each egg cup with a screwdriver, and suspended it with twine. Then we added a bit of potting soil, dropped a seed or two into each cup, and left it in front of a sunny window.
Thriving little plants.
We kept the soil moist and look what we got! It’s really satisfying.
When my dad visited we stuffed these little guys into the ground. It’s a good thing he was here. Cassie and I would have taken all day immaculately laying out our wide rows. Plants don’t care – just chuck them down.
The biggest problem we needed to solve was how to water our plants. The building no longer has a water faucet on the outside (apparently landlord books say that water usage is the best way to figure out how many people are living there). It’s too much water to move with buckets.
Water problem solved.
Now water flows from the T-junction under the sink, into the hose, through the living room, and out the 2nd floor window. living across from a hardware store has its benefits. I had to get the nonstandard adapter that connects the small sink/toilet flare to the big garden hose nozzle from Republic but everything else came from crappy Economy.
I did have one difficulty. It turns out the most common valves don’t work in reverse. Unfortunately, there’s no avoiding this with the adapter I got. 1/4 turn valves work but even they seem to leak a little. It’s easy enough to just relieve the pressure in the hose every few days.
Water, dirt, seeds. That should be everything. Come on, little plants, grow!
Farmer Cassie. You can barely see the little tomatoes in the back row.
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Posted by bronson
Fri, 26 May 2006 13:10:00 GMT
Aruba is OK. It’s just another desert island with nice water and poor hotel service. It’s worth going for a few days if you can’t go to Hawaii or Greece instead. Go snorkeling if it’s not too windy.
I loved hanging out with the NetScaler crew. They’re the right combination of nerdy and kick ass. Whoever brought the Balashis… That was brilliant. Just brilliant.
So, free snacks are just about the best way to get increased productivity out of an engineer… Company-sponsored booze parties in Aruba and Monaco are the best way to get increased productivity out of salespeople. Engineers, listen up. We’re settling for too little!
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Posted by bronson
Thu, 25 May 2006 21:48:00 GMT
My dad visited during the brief respite between Mammoth and Aruba. We took the Freedom Trail tour from the Common to Fanueil Hall, then continued on our own up to Bunker Hill. Our tour guide was entertaining and undid some of the damage caused by taking US history class in the 80s. For instance, Longfellow’s poem (“Listen my children and you shall hear; Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…”) makes better Yankee propaganda than any sort of historical account.
The
Wikipedia article is pretty good but doesn’t go on to describe how Revere and Dawes went drinking later that night and then were captured by the British. It’s a great story. Both Revere and Dawes wrote about that night first-hand in their memoirs, so why can I find
14,300 copies of Longfellow’s poem online but not a single copy of either man’s actual writings?
I think that Longfellow’s poem actually does Revere a disservice. Revere created the communication system that organized the colonial militia and was instrumental in defeating the British. He forged the bolts and plating used to construct The U.S.S. Constitution. He was influential in starting the United States’s industrial economy. He was an an amazing American. It’s a shame that everybody knows him for something that he didn’t really do.
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J.S. Copley’s portrait of Paul Revere wearing American linen and holding a silver teapot that he made.
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His hairline has changed and he’s holding a beer stein but why is Paul Revere’s picture on the Samuel Adams label?
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Because this is Samuel Adams. In fact, this picture probably rather optimistic. Adams was said to be fatter and uglier.
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Samuel Adams inherited the family brewery in 1748 and, mostly though incompetence and neglect, finally drove it out of business in 1764. He was a great patriot and revolutionary but a poor brewer.
So the picture is a little less than legit. And the name. So what? What about the beer?
Microbrewers tend to regard Jim Koch (creator of Sam Adams) as a wife regards a mistress: while they built breweries from scratch, he contract-brewed his beer in idle capacity at large industrial plants, then labeled it “microbrewed.” Not having to invest money in a brewery allowed him to spend more on advertising. “Samuel Adams is a marketing shell,” says Kurt Widmer. – Portland Weekly
The new, more festive label!
A few weeks ago, Cassie and I toured the local Sam Adams “brewery”. It’s small and cheesy because they don’t actually brew any significant amount of beer here. Most of the Sam Adams drunk on the East Coast is brewed at Anheuser-Busch’s St. Louis plant. Even the gift shop was devoid anything tasteful to buy. The best thing about the tour? 21 oz of beer at the end.
Ah well. I always did like Sierra better.
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Posted by bronson
Thu, 04 May 2006 16:15:00 GMT
It snowed the night of my birthday. How amazing is that? Here’s mark getting a powder shot and some fresh tracks at the top of Dave’s Run. On April 24th!
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Here is scariest jump I’ve ever seen in person. That’s a snowcat building the kicker. The speck in the foreground is a snowmobile. Far right is Mark dropping in on Dragon’s Back.
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The Vertigo Shot
To everyone who called on my birthday, you all rule! That meant a lot to me. Not many of you believed me when I said I had powder fields to destroy. See? See? I wasn’t kidding!
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Posted by bronson
Thu, 04 May 2006 15:34:00 GMT
19 Apr 2006:
L-R: Scott, a real alligator, James, Brinly
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The rightmost shots are an action sequence. Brinly’s left leg has already buckled and she’s on her way down. Keeping firm hold on the treasure, she slams into the ground. Quick systems check, consider crying, decide against, back motoring within seconds. Babies are bouncy. Wish I was.
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Posted by bronson
Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:57:00 GMT
Still catching up: 17 Apr
The Boston Marathon goes right past our house, somewhere around the 25th mile. So, about the same time as the runners left the starting line, we started warming up the grill and cooling off the ones.
The wheelchairs come tearing through first.
Then the women
Rita Jeptoo
Women’s Elite Winner
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Jelena Prokopcuka
Women’s Elite 2nd
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Then Robert Cheruiyot, the men’s elite winner, scorched through a minute ahead of the next elite man. He had been clicking down 5 minute miles for almost two hours and looked as fresh as if he’d just started.
Robert Cheruiyot out for an afternoon jog
Shame about the guy with the bullhorn.
This page allowed you to predict to within a few minutes when a friend would pass. You’d watch as they start off on an 8 minute pace. And you’d sympathize when you saw it drop to 12 as they hit the wall.
Kristi is training for a 5K in July. Sizhen is training for a 5K in, when, August? I did the Wharf to Wharf last year with a decent time but I’ve been getting pretty lazy since then. Time to change that. Running is great – you just need shorts, shoes, and a tolerance for pain. And it helps to have a goal in mind.
Finally, I admire this guy. The official clocks stop at 6:30 but he’s still charging it out of the Comm Ave tunnel. Athleticism is not just about elapsed time and who comes in first. It’s about personal records and not giving in. Go run.
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Posted by bronson
Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:18:00 GMT
still catching up, 25 Mar:
The biggest shock of moving to Boston was, no, not the weather. Not the tortured streets. Not even the Mexican food. It’s the lack of decent produce in the grocery store.
$4.99/lb for red peppers? $2.00/lb for mushy apples? The meat aisle is the same size as the produce aisle. How on earth do Easterners survive?
This is how. Head to Haymarket on Friday or Saturday during the day and buy produce from a market that has been going on for more than 200 years.
Thing is, look at all the Dole boxes… There are no farmers here! This is a low-rent wholesaler’s market. But so what? If you’re careful, you can still get great produce at great prices. If you’re careful.
Take your skepticism, reject stuff if it looks bad, and don’t be afraid of getting yelled at. And there are other farmer’s markets if this one isn’t quaint enough for you.
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Posted by bronson
Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:49:00 GMT
25 Feb:
Here’s Jacqueline celebrating Derek’s – I mean Diana’s – birthday.
Cassie and I baked a cake for them from this recipe. Recipes titles always exaggerate but it really was one of the better cakes I’ve had. It’s rich without being overbearingly sweet.
Some notes:
- Baking it for 25 to 30 minutes definitely wasn’t sufficient. The surface was springy but the inside was still goo. It took 45 minutes until our cake was finished. Use a broomstraw to determine when the middle is done (we just used a fork since the damage would be frosted over anyway).
- Make sure the cake is chilly before frosting it. We didn’t leave enough time so we assembled the cake warm. And we paid the price. The top half split into 3 pieces and smeared itself around the inside of the cake carrier. It was tragic. Some quick repairwork and a lot of frosting saved the day.
- You can read all the recipes you want but nothing short of actually baking a cake will let you truly comprehend the horrifying quantities of butter and sugar used.
- The batter is bitter when it goes into the oven and mildly sweet when it comes out. I’d like to know more about the chemistry of cooking.
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Posted by bronson
Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:59:00 GMT
11 Feb:
Kristi’s apartment threw a 21st amendment party. Apparently we celebrate well in advance. Why procrastinate for matters of such importance? A few pics of people looking good (unlike last weekend):
Kristi’s boy said he’d show up in an hour or two and then flaked without a word. Pulling that after only a few dates pretty much torpedos the relationship. Bummer. He seemed really cool at white trash. A few days later he phoned her up and invitend her out to Starbucks. To apologize, right? She paid for her own coffee and then listened as he spent his lunch break breaking up some more. Bizarre.
Our fine neighbor bested that performance last weekend. Moron that later. Guys, show a little more respect for your women?
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Posted by bronson
Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:11:00 GMT
Wow, it’s been two months since I’ve updated this thing. Life didn’t stop but it did get wedged for a bit when Cyberonic needlessly booted rinspin.com off the net.
Feb 5th:
I took Cassie to New York for her birthday. We saw Avenue Q, which kicked just as much ass as Mark said it would. Beware, though. One scene in particular is, ah, disturbing. Hilarious, yes! But disturbing.
Though I’m not an out of work comedian and I didn’t particularly like the Brian character, I did relate to this line:
BRIAN It sucks to be broke and unemployed
and turning thirty-three….
And, by the way, on top of the GE Building, the wind was not betraying any sort of receding hairline. I was just going for the Wolverine look that day.
Yeah Wolverine.
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