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Dinner in about half an hour

I have found a favorite cooking show. I have never really watched any cooking shows because I don't have the time, and most of the recipes seem too elaborate for weeknight cooking. However a couple weekends back when we were visiting Maryland, we flipped by a show where the host was making something with balsamic vinegar, which caught my attention because I love balsamic vinegar but never know what to do with it beside salad dressing. I missed most of the episode, but when I got home I TiVo'd 30-Minute Meals, and so far I've been impressed.

For starters, the host really does everything within the half-hour. Ingredients are not laid out pre-chopped and pre-measured -- she actually gets stuff from the fridge or pantry as she is making it. About the only thing she cheats on is pre-washing her greens, which she purportedly does on Sunday when she brings her groceries home. The only other caveat is that she is much faster slicing, dicing and chopping than I am. If she says, "OK now I'll sautée those shallots for about one minute while I chop this parsley," I better be sure I chop the parsley ahead of time or my shallots will end up carmelized. I also like that she has some interesting recipes that don't require a lot of exotic, hard-to-find ingredients or special kitchen gadgets.

Anyway, this has had me on a bit of a recipe binge lately. I'll post about them individually as time allows...

Kids these days...

Here's a tip: When writing a virus, do not have the virus contact your own web site, which you registered under your own name and address. For you non-computer-savvy readers, that's kind of like robbing a bank by passing the teller a "this is a stick-up" note written on the back of your own personal check. Minn. Teen Faces Internet Attack Charges. I think it's safe to say this kid didn't bring down the power grid.

Cycle of Pastry

One thing Granite Rants didn't mention in his post about the 1683 siege of Vienna: One night during the siege, bakers inside the city were working late when they heard strange noises coming from underground. They alerted the Viennese military and discovered that the Turks were secretly tunneling under the walls. The tunnelers were repulsed, and shortly thereafter the seige was lifted and the Turks went home. To celebrate, the bakers created a light fluffy pastry shaped like a crescent (the emblem of the Ottoman flag). Today, Americans call this Austrian pastry by its French name, croissant.

Pinot Gris, not for me

I think it's official: I don't like Pinot Gris. A few weeks back I mentioned seeing Dottie Gaiter and John Brecher of the Wall Street Journal on CBS Sunday Morning reviewing favorite wines for summer. One of their picks was Rancho Zabaco Sonoma Country Pinot Gris 2001 Reserve. I hadn't heard of Pinot Gris before, but they seemed really enthusiastic about it, saying it was "like a bowl of fruit." I was anxious to try it since it sounded like a great wine for a hot summer day. Well, I picked up a bottle of the Rancho Zabaco a few weeks ago, and I did not like it at all. I also picked up a bottle of Edna Valley 2000 Pinot Gris, and did not care for that either. We didn't finish either bottle. I guess "a bowl" is just a little too much fruit for me. My favorite white of the summer, also suggested by Dottie and John, is Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc Private Bin 2002 which luckily is easily found in the NH State stores. (If you go looking for it, pay close attention to the exact name. Villa Maria makes several Sav Blanc appellations).

There, but for the grace of Allah, go we

I just finished The Kite Runner, a new novel which begins in Afghanistan 1973, around the time the King was overthrown. This is the third work of fiction I have read based around this period: The other two, Kabul and Kara Kush were both written before the Taliban. One thing I find striking in these books is that someone always says something like, "God help us if the crazy clerics ever get control of the country!" and it is always said as something that would be the worst possible scenario, but could never really happen. But indeed it did -- and a couple of these authors didn't even write that in hindsight. Reading these books makes you realize how much Afghanistan lost. Sure it had some tribal areas, but the cities were quite cosmopolitan, modern and moderate once upon a time. It was a tourist destination for hippies in the 70s!

Quick Afghan history: 1973 they bloodlessly oust the King and form a republic. 1978 some Afghan Communists take control. 1979 the Soviet Union invades, wreaks havoc. 1989 the Soviet Union retreats, Afghani warlord in-fighting ensues, which just about flattens the country. Around 1996, the Taliban gain pre-eminence, although fighting continues with the warlords. You know the rest.

It really is chilling to think how a country on the cusp of modernity lost it all. And could it happen here? Could some firebrand mullahs (Falwell and Robertson? they did blame the gays and the "abortionists" for 9/11 didn't they?) whip up some ignorant fundamentalist tribesmen -- racial supremacists, backwoods militias -- into a rough alliance to bring down a morally corrupt government... restore God's law, purify the race, punish the sodomites, enforce the right to life, jail the liberal professors corrupting the youth... and then start warring among themselves for supreme leadership? Scary. Maybe I've just been reading too many history books... In any case, if this country really is being run by a secret global corporate hegemony (headed by Halliburton) which rigs all the elections and controls the politicians -- I'll take it. You guys are doing a swell job. As long as I get my Starbucks, reality TV and Brittany Spears CDs, I'll keep quiet. Could you just maybe ratchet the economy up a few notches though?

Recent poll shows 99.999% of bloggers find blogs interesting

Here's a Fair and Balanced™ poll: Would you believe 98.54% of the visitors to the Presidential Prayer Team web site believe that the studying of passages from the Bible should be permitted in public school literature classes? Stunning. I wonder what percentage believe in God? Maybe they'll do that in a future poll. [For the record, I believe the Bible should be permitted as long as other faiths' religious texts are also permitted. But I still answered "No" just to shake things up.] SaveDover has these ridiculous polls too. What exactly is the point on polling a question that your entire membership already agrees on? Is it a way to exposes the dissenters? "Ah-ha! Block that IP! He's not presidential prayer material."

NH to Mass Toll Free!

Well thanks to Govenor Benson's idea of doubling I95 tolls Northbound and eliminating them Southbound, our trip to the Cape this weekend was toll free! We sailed through Southbound Friday night with no backup, and on our return trip we wanted to check progress on our house construction in Stratham, so we got off at Exit 1. I think this is a great plan! Also, with so little notice (about 24 hours wasn't it?), I thought it was impressive with how well the NH DOT reconfigured the Southbound toll approach.

As I understand it, Benson came up with this idea after being stuck in Southbound toll traffic. Now if we could only get him stuck in Little Bay Bridge traffic and see what develops...

House construction update

We have a foundation! Can they get the rest done by November...?

Weekend in Whitefield

We spent this weekend in Whitefield, NH where my wife's Aunt and Uncle live on the side of a mountain. They have a large house (mostly self-built) with horses and a spectacular view of the Presidential mountain range. My wife's grandparents spend each summer in Whitefield, so we usually visit at least once a year. My wife's parents were also visiting in their "camper".

Whitefield is a nice quiet New England town with some great old Victorian architecture (in varying degrees of repair and disrepair), and even boasts a picturesque bandstand on the town green right across from The Village Gun Store. If you are interested, I found a few photos of downtown, although it was slightly less snowy when we visited this weekend. It is also home to the historic Mountain View Grand Resort which has just gone through an amazing restoration:

I don't usually do much when we visit besides eat, sleep and read -- so it's great. I wouldn't mind doing a little outdoorsy stuff (I did hike up the mountain one year), except that I have an unreasonable fear of bears and fisher cats after hearing one too many stories from our hosts... The one that really did it was about a neighbor who was jogging down their road one day when a bear leaped out of the woods and attacked him. I'm not alone in this; Grandpa stopped going out alone to get the mail.

My car looks like we spent the weekend off-roading -- which I guess we basically did. The Aunt & Uncle's house is on a dirt road. It's dusty but pretty decent to drive on. But the trips to and fro were a little messier: We took US4 to I93 to US3 on the way up Friday night (driving by where the Old Man in the Mountain used to be, but it was dark so we couldn't not see it) and found a long stretch of Rte 3 is currently unpaved. Nothing like cruising along at 55 mph on a dark road, watching for moose, and suddenly seeing a sign that says "PAVEMENT ENDS." Not only was the road unpaved but it was scattered with a good collection of softball sized rocks. On the way home, we figured we'd try to avoid the softball field by taking US302 to NH16 -- but whatever they're doing on 3 they're also doing on 302, so we went through another several miles of very muddy unpaved road.

We successfully skirted the traffic in Conway. Approaching the Rochester tolls, Route 16 was backed up to Exit 16, so we got off there, visited Aroma Joe's and then I put my arcane knowledge of Rochester back roads (gathered during many a Ctron exploratory lunch trip -- I didn't read much in those days) to good use and avoided the Rte 16 backup. From there we took Rte 125 all the way down to 101, and visited our house site in Stratham, where they have dug a hole and poured a little concrete. No foundation yet, but some footers!

They Came Like Swallows

My latest book is They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell. Does anyone know anything about this book? I put it on my Amazon Wish List back in January, and just recently ordered it used -- and I have no idea why. I do this all the time. Usually it's something I heard about on the radio or was referenced in another book. I need to start using the Comments field on the Wish List to leave notes to myself.

Media hype

Give me a break: Mass chaos 'echoed 9/11' says the BBC. Here's a report on "the chaos": The city was mostly calm overnight, but sporadic incidents of looting were reported in Brooklyn, with 20 people arrested after breaking into a shoe store, five arrested for looting an equipment rental center and one for breaking into a phone store, police said. Sheer chaos: Thousands of people stranded overnight in a powerless NYC, unable to get home... 26 arrests.

As James Lileks put it: The Fox news guy was outside Penn Station, where thousands of people were - brace yourself - patiently waiting for electricity to return. He seemed a little annoyed that there wasn’t a brawl or a riot...You can't wonder if a TV producer was looking at the feeds, seeing the people just walking along, the cars waiting their turns, and the producer's thinking: God help me for this, but would someone please throw a brick? We're dyin' here. I think the biggest crisis caused by the outage is that the networks had to suspend their Arnold and Kobe coverage.

Indecent Public Exposure

Did anyone else catch this thoughtful letter to the editor in the August 8th Dover Community News? For some reason it did not make it on to their web site in the Letters section.

I couldn't help but notice your letter "Dems have responsibility" in the August 1 community newspaper. The one bashing George Bush in favor of John Kerry. That's the end of me reading your one-sided paper.

You are probably in favor of that homosexual bishop being installed in New Hampshire also, and you are probably also sad the child molesting priests are being prosecuted.

This paper states that it is the voice of the community. It is the voice of stupidity. By the way, John Kerry will just screw this country in own Democratic way. I wouldn't be surprised if he was one of your child-molesting friends. Lets see the 'voice of the people' publish this letter. Oh, I see, you are the voice of the people who vote for democrats, I forgot.

Thanks for your time, the intelligent part of Dover community.

James Roberts
Dover

Kudos to Mr. Roberts for shedding light on the Anglican-Democrat-Catholic homosexual child-molestation ring which the paper has secretly been supporting. I'm sure Howard Dean is in on it too -- Dean's govenor in Vermont. Gay marriage is legal in Vermont. Coincidence? I think not! And don't even get me started on the Democrat-Kennedy-Catholic connections. I think this guy would be a great addition to our dysfunctional city council.

Geek Eye for the Hacked Guy

Am I hacked or not? I'm pretty sure I'm not... I patched our Windows 2000 server for the RPC DCOM exploit on Aug 4. On Aug 7, I noticed some weird errors in the Event Log which mentioned "RPC" and IIS was acting a little weird. Was I hacked? Was a hack attempted but failed? Is it just normal Windows flakiness? At this point I am leaning towards "not hacked" -- I mean the various Blaster worms didn't show up until this week so... And right now I have the firewall locked down pretty tight so... Yeah yeah, I'll probably still rebuild the server just to be safe. It could use it anyway. It'll give me a chance to chase down all those other chronic errors in the log. What I really need is five fabulous sysadmins to come in and give my server a complete makeover.

I thought it was dogs that didn't like the mail man?

I picked up a new CD yesterday: Give Up by The Postal Service. I got it home and started it up, only to discover that something about the first 20 seconds of the first track [396k mp3] absolutely terrifies our middle cat, Felix (he's the gray tabby here). He jumped up from a sound sleep on the couch, crouched low, looked around in a panic, both ears swivelling around. He wouldn't allow us to console him, and instead darted under the bed. Even after turning off the CD, we could not coax him out. Subsequent tests have produced similar results, all though if I turn it off fast enough he doesn't head under the bed. This is pretty out of character for him -- he's usually brave enough to even face down the vacuum.

You mean the civil war is over?

I admit, Central/South America is a big hole in my historical and current events reading. I didn't even realize that El Salvador's civil war ended in 1992: El Salvador sends troops to Iraq. (Makes me wonder what is going on with the Contras and the Sandinistas.) The latest members of the Coalition of the Willing (or as someone called it, the Coalition Of Those Willing To Help Afterwards) to send troops include Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. There's an official list here. It's an interesting list.

Weekend in Maryland

August is a long month this year -- five weekends! We're taking full advantage of these extra weekends by spending every single one away from home (which I'm afraid really stresses our cat-feeding-friend support network). This past weekend we visited my wife's sister and her husband in Rockville, MD. My wife grew up in Maryland, but she and her parents have now moved away, leaving her sister as the sole representative for the family in the mid-Atlantic states. [Sorry, this is a long one, but I promised I'd post all about it. Keep reading if you have some time.]

I love the flights from Manchester to Baltimore on Southwest -- short, cheap, and decent leg room for everyone! My Delta flights to and from Portland, Oregon were some of the most uncomfortable I have ever been on; the leg room was absolutely abysmal. No more Delta for me if I can avoid it. On Southwest, we had what appeared to be brand new and spotlessly clean planes.

We started the visit off with a bang Friday night, making the requisite pilgrimage to the nearest PF Changs. I think that makes my PFC status 5 cities in 4 states. (Still no word on my campaign to get one in the Portsmouth area. No, no, instead we get yet another steakhouse, a BBQ place and a pizza place.) After dinner we headed back to their place for a few after dinner cocktails.

Saturday morning (late morning, which was great) my brother-in-law made us all a excellent breakfast, to prepare for the long day ahead. Although the fun part of the trip was just to visit, the stated purpose was for the sisters to equitably divide the stash of furniture, pictures, antiques, etc that the parents left in storage when they moved to their retirement home. We had an inventory list, but no one seemed to quite remember what was what. (Example: My wife: "Dad, your list says five end tables. What five?" Her father: "Well, the one that was in the hall, the two in our bedroom... and you know... two others.") So we'd have to make a trip to survey the inventory in person. This was not something I was looking forward to; I helped pack all this stuff into the storage unit, and I knew it was packed in there tight.

Off we went to the U-Haul Rental and Climate Controlled Self-Storage Center. We walked into the storage area, opened our unit's lock, slid open the bolt -- and somehow tripped the alarm as the Klaxon started wailing. We headed over to the rental side of the place to check in at the front desk, only to find a very long line of very tired looking people who'd obviously been there a very long time, and of course only one clerk behind the counter. We headed back outside and intercepted one of the guys working on the trucks:

"Excuse me, we just opened our unit and the alarm went off. What does that mean?"

"Nuthin."

"Oh.... so we don't have to worry about it?"

"Nah, it just does that every once in a while. We ignore it."

Greeeaaat. How much do we pay for this?

Once back in the "climate controlled" (by which they apparently mean "tropical climate") storage unit, the sisters began the negotiations, while my brother-in-law and I tried to stay cool, awake and look appropriately interested whenever our wives asked our opinion on furniture. (You can see from the picture I didn't pull this off so well.) Except for the blaring alarm every 13 minutes or so, the negotiation process actually went very smoothly and did not take as long as I had feared.

That night we took in American Wedding which I enjoyed, and dinner at Hamburger Hamlet, which I also enjoyed. We could actually use a Hamlet around here too. Changs and The Hamlet.

Sunday we slept in again, watched some TV (and discovered a new favorite for me, 30-Minute Meals), patched and upgraded the OS on the iMac, and then headed to a place called Chipotle for lunch, which was sort of like Subway except with burritos instead of subs. I love Mexican, so this was great stuff. On the way to the airport, we stopped to see the under-construction townhouse which they'll be moving to in September. Very nice place. Three floors with more finished living space than our house will have, but no basement or garage (not that they really need a garage in Maryland -- no snow). There were even a pair of dear grazing just beyond their backyard.

All in all it was a fun trip, although it went by too quickly. Amazing to think, next time we visit, we'll both probably be in our new homes!

ADV: Live Free and Spam ~*~ V1AGRA! ~ yes u can be BIGGER

Well here's another reason to be proud of our state: Apparently one of the bigger and more successful spammers is based in Manchester, and happened to leave some customer info laying around on the web: Swollen Orders Show Spam's Allure. The real news in this story is how many friggin' idiots respond to spam. Since July 4 [one site] would have grossed more than half a million dollars [selling] penis pills. Read the story, it includes some unbelievable profiles of people who have actually ordered this stuff. [Via LYD] Update: NHPR profiled this guy this morning (available as text or audio) -- complete with a neo-Nazi connection.

Does someone need TiVo?

I don't know what you two are complaining about: Summer TV is great! Our biggest problem is finding time to watch everything we've got on the TiVo. First we have the year-round daily standbys: Letterman and The Daily Show; then we catch up on all the shows which conflict with or primary viewing choices during the winter: Scrubs, 8 Simple Rules, The Practice, Malcolm, Queer Eye, Road Rules, Real World; finally, lately we've been filling in any leftover time with nostalgia: I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Dick Van Dyke and The Bob Newhart Show. And then there's the Netflix queue...

Everything you always wanted to know about time travel

Granite Rants report of odd spam from a supposed time traveler piqued my curiosity. I Googled a few key words in the spam [time travel GRC79 galactic] and came to this page with everything you could want to know about it, like links to the people that have actually corresponded with the time traveler, set up an online store for time travel equipment and even actually shipped the guy a unit. Amazing. Bizarre.

Is the EU the next superpower?

Interesting and humorous article from Bruce Sterling in Wired: Barbarians at the Gate - Europe wants to be the other superpower. There are just four problems. I think he makes some valid points. My favorite quote, when discussing Europe's lack of military might: It's one thing to talk softly and carry a big stick, but it's another to talk endlessly and have no stick at all. Well, the US seems to have forgotten how to "talk softly," but at least someone has a big stick. As much as Europe complains about our "go it alone" attitude, their stability still relies on the projection of US superpower, even after the demise of the USSR. Kosovo was instructive to emergent Eastern European countries with old grudges to settle: The EU may stand by, but the US will only let it go so long before it sends in some smart bombs. Compare and contrast to Africa, where the US does not (thus far) project its superpower.

But is it Mac compatible?

George Foreman USB iGrill: The low-fat, high-bandwidth solution to your networked cooking needs is finally here. The George Foreman USB iGrill conveniently connects to your home or office PC using USB 2.0 technology, and provides a sophisticated web-based cooking interface. Looks neat, but personally I'm going to wait until Linksys comes out witha 802.11g wireless version. [Via NW Compendium].

William Gibson: Pattern Recognition

Pretty cool: I never knew William Gibson had his own blog until I saw Salam Pax make a reference to it in his blog. Gibson, for the uninitiated, is somewhat famous in cyber-techno-net-geek circles for his 1984 novel Neuromancer in which he first coined the term "cyberspace".

I just finished Gibson's new book, Pattern Recognition, and I have to say I am a little disappointed. Without giving away too much of the plot, I'll just say I felt like it fizzled at the end. He really had me hooked as the end approached and I expected something more. Maybe I am missing the point; maybe Gibson's not so much about being a thriller as... something else; maybe I've read too much Dan Brown. I do like Gibson's writing style though. He uses "google" as a verb and expects you know what it means, and he expects you understand the implications of a site you didn't visit showing up in your browser history. He also had me looking up "Zaprudered" and "Calabrian" (and I'm not the only one).

Hey, I'm gonna get you too

Another one bites the dust. Came home the back way today (that'd be up Broadway from Rollinsford) to find a big commotion under the railroad bridge. Ah yes, another rental truck wedged under the bridge with its top peeled off like a sardine can. This guy was really in there. He must have thought he could make it through if he gunned it. Old U-Hauls never die, they just get sent to Dover.

The scene was actually very topical; that bridge had been on my mind since the conference in Portland. One of the speakers had a humorous slide in his presentation of a very low bridge. Several yards in front of the bridge hung a banner reading: "If you hit this sign, you're gonna hit that bridge."

Victory 96 State Street Restaurant

Fosters: New Portsmouth restaurant offers creative American cuisine with New England influence. I haven't tried it yet, but they get points for having an attractive, informative and easy to use web site. It's great to see a restaurant "get it": People use your web site as a gauge of how nice the place is, where exactly it's located, and whether there is anything on the menu that your vegan friend can eat. One of my favorite places just doesn't get it.

Billingsgate Island: Cape Cod Atlantis

Just a little bit of neat history, if you're interested: Cape Cod Atlantis - Summer tours highlight history of island settlement washed away almost a century ago... Billingsgate Island once had as many as 35 homes, a lighthouse and a school before it sank nearly a century ago. Billingsgate Island was just south of the tip of Great Island which you can find on this map. The article also discusses a few other lost islands, like "Sluts Bush," although they don't explain the name.

Wacko site of the day

Wow. Trance Formation of America: ...the first documented autobiography of a victim of government mind control... Tracing her path from child p0rn0graphy and recruitment into the program to serving as a top-level intelligence agent and White House sex slave... If you can stomach it, this sample chapter has graphic details of how the current Vice President allegedly abused this woman complete with laughable dialog and descriptive imagery that sounds like it came straight out of one of those amateur (very amateur) erotica newsgroups. I found this site while surfing some of the new Iraqi newspaper sites. Someone had linked to it as proof of how corrupt the American government is. Great, that's all we need.