Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Supplements

I has been a while since I thought about the supplements I ingest on a daily basis, usually referred to as my breakfast of champions. What are these things? What do they really do? Does the note saying that the FDA doesn't support the claims made on the bottles really mean that none of them are proven to do anything? Couldn't I get all of this by eating regular food on a regular schedule? Since the holidays are over, the answer is yes, but no. I am never eating again so the supplements will ensure that I don't cross the line between undernourished and malnourished.

The B vitamins are eight water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism. Historically, the B vitamins were once thought to be a single vitamin, referred to as vitamin B (much like how people refer to vitamin C or vitamin D). Later research showed that they are chemically distinct vitamins that often coexist in the same foods. Supplements containing all eight are generally referred to as a vitamin B complex. Individual B vitamin supplements are referred to by the specific name of each vitamin (e.g. B1, B2, B3 etc).

Vitamin C or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for a large number of higher primate species, a small number of other mammalian species (notably guinea pigs and bats), a few species of birds, and some fish. The presence of ascorbate is required for a range of essential metabolic reactions in all animals and plants. It is made internally by almost all organisms, humans being a notable exception. It is widely known as the vitamin whose deficiency causes scurvy in humans. The pharmacophore of vitamin C is the ascorbate ion. In living organisms, ascorbate is an anti-oxidant, since it protects the body against oxidative stress, and is a cofactor in several vital enzymatic reactions. The uses and the daily requirement amounts of vitamin C are matters of on-going debate. People consuming diets rich in ascorbate from natural foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are healthier and have lower mortality from a number of chronic illnesses. However, a recent meta-analysis of 68 reliable antioxidant supplementation experiments involving a total of 232,606 individuals concluded that consuming additional ascorbate from supplements may not be as beneficial as thought.

Vitamin E is the collective name for a set of 8 related tocopherols and tocotrienols, which are fat-soluble vitamins with antioxidant properties. Of these, α-tocopherol (also written as alpha-tocopherol) has been most studied as it has the highest bioavailability, with the body preferentially absorbing and using this form. It has been claimed that α-tocopherol is the most important lipid-soluble antioxidant, and that it protects cell membranes from oxidation by reacting with lipid radicals produced in the lipid peroxidation chain reaction. This would remove the free radical intermediates and prevent the oxidation reaction from continuing. The oxidised α-tocopheroxyl radicals produced in this process may be recycled back to the active reduced form through reduction by other antioxidants, such as ascorbate, retinol or ubiquinol.

Chromium Picolinate is the chemical compound that is sold as a nutritional supplement to prevent or treat chromium deficiency. This bright-red coordination complex is derived from chromium(III) and picolinic acid. Small quantities of chromium are needed for glucose utilization by insulin in normal health, but deficiency is extremely rare and has only been observed in hospital patients on long-term defined diets. No biochemical basis for the human body's need for chromium has been identified.

L-Carnitine is a quaternary ammonium compound biosynthesized from the amino acids lysine and methionine.[1] In living cells, it is required for the transport of fatty acids from the cytosol into the mitochondria during the breakdown of lipids (or fats) for the generation of metabolic energy. It is often sold as a nutritional supplement. Carnitine was originally found as a growth factor for mealworms and labeled vitamin Bt. Carnitine exists in two stereoisomers: its biologically active form is L-carnitine, while its enantiomer, D-carnitine, is biologically inactive.

A multivitamin is a preparation intended to supplement a human diet with vitamins, dietary minerals and other nutritional elements. Such preparations are available in the form of tablets, capsules, pastilles, powders, liquids and injectable formulations. Other than injectable formulations, which are only available and administered under medical supervision, multivitamins are recognised by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (the United Nations' highest authority on food standards) as a category of food.

Interesting to see that my multivitamin counts as a category of food, but man cannot subsist on that category alone, there is also the beef category. That one, although already represented, should be well covered in the neighborhood soon. Despite the link between Pearl Street Grill and the Cherry Cricket, the burgers at PSG are nothing to write home about. Down the street at Hanson's, the only thing they have going for them is that their burgers are cheap on Monday and Tuesday, but you get what you pay for.


The new place is supposed to be called Park Burger and has some pretty respectable Denver restaurant folk behind it. I'm hoping their liquor license hearing went through without much neighborhood static. This part of South Pearl Street is much less busy than a few blocks to the north where parking issues have created home owner complaints about violation of their imagined right to park on the street in front of their house. As Park Burger progresses, I'll provide more detail.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Finally

I've been waiting on good weather, enough of a window to get some concrete poured for the apron between the alley and my garage . . . you know, that little piece required for me to be able to drive my car into said garage. It was formed up a little while back and there were a few days that were marginally warm enough, followed by some days in the teens. Yesterday it got poured and then blanketed to keep it warm enough to cure properly, fortunately between the warm and wind, it should be good to go. Now, I will really be able to park in the garage next time the snow comes down.

The time has come to book the ticket for Masters' Worlds in Austria for 2009. Amazingly, I am back up to over 50,000 frequent flier miles on United so I might as well book it before they change the requirements and/or get rid of the program all together. Once again, I'm headed back over the pond for a couple weeks of riding, racing and being a tourist. That should provide another couple days worth of motivation to ride the trainer.

Really now, is there anything else I could ask for prior to the end of '08?

Monday, December 29, 2008

Crazy Times

Sunday was supposed to be warm and windy, it ended up being sort of warm and not so much windy. I headed out for a ride with Joey Brenner, intending on hitting the flat to rolling parts of town to the south and east, before looping back home. We headed from my house towards Cherry Creek Reservoir and onto Meridian. From there, we kept going south to Daniels Park which has some lovely, larger homes sitting on postage stamp sized lots and quite a few of them are unsold due to price, location, and the economy. There are some unique statues scattered throughout the neighborhood, likely to replace the wildlife displaced by the development of the land.

I promise you would have had the exact same thought as I did approaching this one and you would have acted on that thought, just as I did. I'm not sure how the scale was on this buffalo compared to real life, but it was big.


There were some caribou/elk looking things a few blocks later, but we decided to pass them by and checked out the rest of the 'hood before looping back through Highlands Raunch. We worked on some power, hitting the Highline Canal path which was still snow covered and muddy in places. Nothing like trying to ride through peanut butter . . .

When we got back to my house, I thought Dempsey was feeling left out so he put on his jersey, but dogs don't ride bikes. Nice knowing that new clothing is on the horizon.


I have been having fun looking at the new construction jobs in the neighborhood, seeing who is doing what. There is one that caught my eye in two different locations on Pennsylvania. The developer is doing the exact same duplex twice, separated by about four blocks. It is pretty decent looking with some stone and wood on the front, but their use of standing seam roofing on just the front face of the roof is so cheesy, I can't help but laugh every time I pass. Joey summed it up perfectly yesterday, saying, "Wow, that's the architectural equivalent of a comb over . . ." Well played sir, bravo.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Icing on the Cake

The icing on this cake is pure evil . . . 1 lb butter, 1 lb cream cheese, 4 cups confectioners sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 3 tsp bourbon.


By my calculations, the frosting itself is in excess of 5000 calories.


The mixer actually struggled (only for a moment) with the amount of butter and cream cheese, but in the end, 575 watts prevailed.


Some toasted pecans later and the cake is ready to go. Hopefully it tastes good . . . time for the birthday celebrations.

Murder Was the Cake

I double checked the lyrics from Snoop Dogg's 1993 hit . . . turns out it is murder was the case that they gave me, not cake, my mistake. I still cranked it up while making the cake for this evening's festivities and the pictures will tell you why. As I dumped the entire bottle of red food coloring into the wet ingredients for the red velvet cake, it took on the appearance of batter that had a cap popped in it.


I had to do some ducking and dodging while mixing to avoid the few random drops flung by the beaters of the hand mixer as the batter took on a uniform color, red, very red.


After 20 minutes in the oven, the cake was still red, now a little more solid. This is no trick of photography and there is no Photoshoppery going on here, just one fluid ounce of FD&C red, numbers 40 and 3.


A closer look with some more lighting show the cake for what it is, red.


I haven't been able to find a good answer as to how and why on this cake, but it appears to be a Southern tradition of sorts, with the possible explanation being that originally the reaction of the acids in the cake with the cocoa lead to the reddish hue. Now, there's no monkeying around since food dies are perfectly safe, so they say.

Since I'm about a year behind the times apparently (please tell me somebody appreciated that one), I decided to give it my own little twist. How could you possibly go wrong with a chocolaty cake and bourbon cream cheese icing? I don't think you can, but the taste test will tell tonight.

In other baking news, I fired up the oven this morning to turn out this lovely looking loaf of bread.


I have to wait until tonight to cut into it, but it is one of the prettiest loaves I have made to date. Hopefully the inside will have that nice, light, airy texture that it should.


If not, there's always next time . . . besides, who are you to criticize, what did you bake today? I'll put up pictures of the iced cake as soon as it is complete.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Slow Day

Nothing like the day before a holiday to sap the motivation and productivity from everybody in the work place. Not much work has been going on today, people keep asking what time we get to go home. Rumor has it the day and week for that matter will be ending at noon . . . if the weather holds, I'll be able to ride outside for once.


I guess I can consider that as my gift for the fourth night of Hanukkah. With any luck, I might be able to ride for the next few days, having the luxury of work not getting in the way.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Early AM

My gift for the second night of Hanukkah was one of giving. Brian and Jessica were heading out of town this morning so I offered up a ride to the airport since nobody should have to deal with parking at DIA ever.


I got a call from Brian at 5:14 this morning, six minutes before my alarm was going off. He called to say they were at the front door already, so much for the 5:30 rendezvous time. I got dressed and ready in record time, thankfully Brian was providing the coffee. Now, all I have to do is remember to pick them up whenever they get back into town.

There is a forecast of snow for much of the last half of the week. I was thinking about heading out for a ride on my birthday, but looking like snow and cold. I'm almost done with this winter thing . . . any day now the days will be getting longer or something.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Excuses, Excuses

I would have done more blogging on Friday or over the weekend, but I had my hands full with an unruly patient. Fortunately for me, in her current condition, between the Vicodin and the bad wheel, Deb is going no where fast. I'll have to stop taunting her sometime shortly before she becomes mobile again. She had her surgery on Friday to give her a bionic foot after hers was cut off as she was trying to escape Cloud City, wait, that was from The Empire Strikes Back.


Everything appears to be healing as it should, no signs of infection, blood poisoning, or growth of extra toes. Like the wonderful brother I am, I have been waiting on her hand and foot, but mostly foot. Besides bringing her ginger ale and soup and other nourishment, I have been giving her answers for her medical concerns.

Deb: My foot hurts.
Seth: Well no shit, they cut off part of the bone and stapled it back together, it is going to hurt.

For sympathy and bedside manner, I give myself a 7 on a scale of 10. It would be lower, except I do actually provide hot soup when she is hungry and I don't make her get it herself. She has a follow up appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday. I'm assuming after then she'll be a little bit more mobile and a little less hooped up on the junk.

Sunday, after Deb started nodding off, I headed for the hills for some snowshoeing with Joey Brenner and Dempsey. For a change of pace, we headed to Kanosha Pass to see how the snow was there. The sun was shining and the snow was plentiful. It made for a good day out and about.


Dempsey had not been snowshoeing since last season so it was good to get him outside. Judging by how quiet he was on the ride home, I think the snow and fresh air tired him out. Always ready for a photo op, he stood still long enough for me to start piling snow on top of him while Joey readied the camera.


I made it home in time to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah.


I decided not to torture Deb who is stuck in the house, on the couch for a few more days. I held off on making latkes and will wait until she can escape the smell of fried potato before firing up the first batch. Happy Hanukkah . . .

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Bummer

Number one, it is snowing again. I know that's what it does during the winter time, but with the cold coming this weekend, any moisture now means, there probably isn't any way I'll be riding outside.

Number two, Mixwit is soon to be no more. Some of you have enjoyed my mixes and frankly, I enjoyed the opportunity to waste time it provided. I, like the other members on the site, got an email stating that they would be dismantling the site.


I can only imagine that the pesky RIAA had something to do with the demise of Mixwit, again, bummer. Hopefully the coding that went into the site will serve a purpose elsewhere. I'd like to be able to make my own mixtapes for my own use. Sure playlists on iTunes work, but where's the spinning tape?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Fill 'er Up!

The fun never stops around here. I got the UPS email notification that my wine had been delivered and mere moments later, I got a call from our warehouse manager saying there was a heavy box by the dock for me.

When I get home, the wine fridge will get a quick 12-bottle transfusion, 6 bottles each of the Penfolds Bin 28 Shiraz, vintages 2001 and 2003. From my experience, this wine is tasty with hints of "grapey" and "good" while displaying a nice "red" color. I have just displayed my wine tasting knowledge in its entirety. If anybody has any questions about the "juice", I probably can't answer beyond, "I like it!"

As the countdown to Hanukkah continues, I'm prepping for the inevitable latke making session. Brian was nice enough to forward this link, there are some good hints, especially "Step 1: Open kitchen windows or else when you begin to fry your house will stink up." The greatest Hanukkah miracle ever would be a house in which latkes were fried, that didn't smell of fried potato for the next eight nights. As a matter of principle, I can not support the food processor method for grating potatoes for latkes. It should be done on a grater that looks like this:


They are often sold as safety graters, but I can say from first hand experience that you can lose a good chunk of knuckle skin if you get greedy and try to grate down to the smallest nub of potato possible. Food processor latkes have no soul . . .

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Lost in Translation

Jeg kom over en link til en fransk oversettelse av bloggen min om dagen og mente det ville være morsomt å utforske litt mer språk. For de av dere som fant veien til dette og vet hva som skjer (eller hvis norsk er bra), kos deg. Tanken er å skrive det på engelsk, å oversette norske, og deretter se hvor dårlig Google Slaktere den på vei tilbake til engelsk.

Denne morgenen passer inn i kategorien av ridiculously kaldt igjen, men minst Dempsey var klar til å møte den dagen denne gangen. Jeg la merke til på veien til parken som de laget av snø på alt restaurert et nivå på rolig som jeg ikke har "hørt" i en lang stund. Siden bladene falt, det virker som at utenfor har vært ekstremt høyt med alle slags lyder som frakter ganske avstand. I Wee timer, jeg har vært i stand til å høre lydene av motorveien, tog i det fjerne, hunder barking. Dempsey stopper på anledningen, midt hente, midt i parken når hans canine sanser plukke opp noe. Utfordringen for meg det å prøve å finne kilden før Dempsey beslutter å undersøke på egen hånd.

Jula sesongen partiet fortsetter i kveld med enda en feiring. Jeg har ikke hatt helt den sosiale kalenderen for noen år tilbake, men jeg har fått inn nok ferie hurrarop for å holde meg i eller ut av trøbbel.

Jeg har ikke begynt å samle dukker ennå, men tydeligvis er det nok et marked der ute for Mattel å skru ut noen Spesiell Edition Barbie.


Jeg vil gjerne se en fullstendig Hitchcock samling, mulighetene er ganske ubegrensede. Hvis de var smarte, de ville pakke DVD med dukke. Denne biten var bare en diversionary taktikk, tilbake til oversettelse del av bloggen. Utforsking av linkene nedenfor bør være ganske morsomt. Velkommen til mitt vanvittige spill av flerspråklige telefon.

Engelsk, Fransk, Hebraisk, Tsjekkisk

Oversett på egen hånd. . .

Monday, December 15, 2008

Too Cold

New rule, I don't blog when it is below 5° Fahrenheit outside. The morning walk with Dempsey was so cold that even he showed no desire to play at the park. When I took his leash off, he just sat there and looked at me. Eventually he ran around a little bit and did some sniffing, but it was not long before we headed for the home front. As soon as we got home, he headed back to bed, curled up in a ball and buried all exposed appendages under his tail.

In the news from yesterday . . . one of the most amusing movie parodies has been parodied in real life. Back when the Austin Powers franchise was funny, they wrote stuff like the scene below:

It is their take on Oddjob from Goldfinger and his hat throwing skill. Below is the Iraqi press version of the same scene.



The reporter is being praised as a hero throughout Iraq for his actions. With the first shoe came the exclamation, "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog!" With the second, "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq." I'm assuming in the first example, he wasn't using "dog" as in the street vernacular (see: What up dog!?). Had Bush been a real man, he would have defended himself with a flying wingtip of his own, but instead maintained a look of shock and awe. That would have been the greatest lame duck move in the history of time.

Hats off to the caption writer at Fox News, "Pres Bush ducks when Iraqi man throws his shoes at him" . . . even with the sound turned down, I was able to figure out what was going on in the clip thanks to that one. It is no wonder the world thinks we are stupid.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Weekend Look Ahead

In a break from my usual riding habits, I'll be getting out during the chilly hours for a group ride with the new teammates up in Boulder on Saturday. My rule of thumb in the past has been if it isn't above 40 and the sun isn't out, I'll go to plan B during the off-season. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it) my new teammates are either tougher than I am or they come from climates that make Boulder in 25 degree weather look downright balmy. The plan is to hit whatever roads aren't icy for a couple hours and then drink some coffee, discuss the upcoming season, and whatnot. The highlight of the day will be checking out the Louis Garneau clothing for next year. The sizing kit came in, so we can figure out how the new clothing fit will be and what to order.

The team has done a great job lining up sponsorship and getting the details hammered out for 2009. It is nice having a positive source of motivation for the long trainer season in the basement. I've quietly been getting in my nightly workouts done, cursing loving every minute of it. We'll see what the next test results show, but in the end it should all be worth it.

Speaking of the end, the end is near! The weather promises to warm up enough for me to pour the remaining bit of concrete for the garage project and not have it freeze before curing. With any luck, I'll able to park my car in the pretty building in the backyard. With any more luck, I'll have permanent electricity in the garage shortly, then it is party in the garage time.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Working Hard . . .

. . . or hardly working, you make the call!!!


I like to interject a little humor into the workplace every once in a while, just to keep everybody sane. As I was taking this picture, the owner of the company walked by and totally would have been shaking his head. Except for the fact that he is currently wearing a neck brace, post vertebra fusing surgery.

The office just got decorated for the holidays, the gift baskets keep flowing in. How are you supposed to focus on work when you really just want to kick back and drink in the holiday cheer?

I need to do some holiday food planning with Hanukkah on the horizon, the time has come to get ready to fry up some latkes. Sure it will stink up the house for weeks and everything I own will smell like fried potato, including my dog, but for the hour of eating pleasure, it is all worth it.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Foiled

I got a postcard/coupon in the mail for a new Mediterranean place over by DU called Garbanzo and started thinking about how many Middle Eastern places there are within a one mile radius, centered just east of DU. Dinking around some with google maps, I was able to create (so I though) a map with place markers for the eight existing restaurants. The map didn't save unfortunately . . .

Doing some more digging, I found out Garbanzo is a Panera venture. Now why would I want to eat there when I could go to any number of places very, very close by (as close as across the street) and have the real thing? I took a look at the menu for Garbanzo and wasn't really impressed with what I saw, especially knowing the menus at Jerusalem, Pita Jungle, Marrakech, Damascus, and so on. I wish them the best of luck, in the mean time, I'll wait for somebody else to be the test monkey.

Speaking of monkeys and knows quantities. In the latest woot-off, there was a detour over to Wine.Woot for the Penfolds Shiraz I picked up a few months back. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to pick up some more.


Some of the bottles have become a bit more difficult to find, at least that was my justification for the purchase. I do have a birthday coming up, if I don't treat myself well, who will?

On the cycling team front, things continue to get more exciting even though it is the off season. There is talk of getting together to meet the new teammates, including some new additions just inked. Everything is coming together very nicely thanks to a lot of hard work that everybody is putting in this year. Much more to come, the ordering of goodies is about to begin!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

In the Holiday Spirit

I made it far beyond the morning hour when I sort of know what I'm going to write for the day. A few minutes ago, I got my inspiration while checking in on the stock market for the day:


My muse was the little innocuous bit in the center of the page, take a moment, zoom in for a closer look. I said to myself, "Self . . . you have to read that one." The more I read, the less I could believe that this was a true story. I checked the calendar and nope, nowhere near April Fool's. You don't have to read the article if you don't want to, but it is funny and the little puns and thinly veiled euphemisms were true genius. Here's the Chuck E. Cheese police blotter if you just want the summary:


As the holiday party season kicks into high gear, I am going to take some of these stories to heart. The next time somebody does anything to upset my balance of fun, it is on! If there are two things I enjoy they are 1) a celebration and 2) beating somebody down. There's nothing more festive than a donnybrook, a rumble, a scuffle, or a full on brawl.

I hope having an armed guard at these eatertainment venues cleans thing up. Speaking of, do you know how hard it would be to clean up when one of these guards unholsters his pistol and takes down an 8 year old in the ball pit? And how are the police supposed to draw the chalk outline on that one? None of this is really a laughing matter . . . oh wait, yes it is. Way to represent, Middle America, nice work. Sorry, it could happen anywhere, but it is a curious geographic spread.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Cool Stuff

In sifting through magazines while being lazy this weekend, I came across some really cool design stuff from modern to what was modern. I have a stack of Dwell Magazines sitting around that have been partially read, partially skimmed. I did some more page flipping and one of the articles that caught my attention was about Hugh Ferriss. Ferriss was an architectural delineator, back in the days before fancy CAD programs, when everything was done by hand.


You can see more examples of his drawings here. His drawings had a huge impact on modern architecture as well as art and culture and that which is considered "Gotham". I'm trying to track down a copy of his book The Metropolis of Tomorrow for kicks.

I came across this one in Food & Wine, flipping through recipes and whatnot and I can say it is nothing short of kitchen porn. You can get more information on a product that isn't really available in this country yet so far as I can tell (but I did see a $2000 price tag) at Fisher Paykel.


As it always seems to do, one bit of browsing led to another and I was reading through all the posts on Appliancist and then their other sites covering interiors, design, outdoors, etc. It is pretty amazing what can be done with a limitless budget . . . the rest of us can always dream.

Friday, December 5, 2008

My Dog Satan

Between the glowing eyes and the demented smile, distorted further by the frost on the whiskers, my dog looks like some sort of hound of hell.


The visit to the park this morning was not even remotely what I would consider warm. I did some extra bundling and broke out the overmitts to try and keep the hands warm. Overmitts make it very difficult to a) hold onto the coffee mug and b) pick up and throw the ball. Dempsey was bother neither by the cold nor the snow. Last winter he'd start limping around because his toes were cold, that is until he got distracted enough by playing fetch.

Keeping with the dog theme, I'll end the week with this gem . . . way to drop the ball on that one PETA . . . too busy putting the smack down on the Colonel's chicken?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Uhh . . .

Despite the tragic nature of the impending doom of the American Auto Industry, I can't help but laugh when reading articles like this. I don't even know where to start . . . It is a good thing the heads of these companies have not had to worry about their compensation packages being based on performance measures with any bearing. At least their financial futures are secure, likely at the expense of all of us. I can only hope that the industry will be thoughtfully restructured and the executives will be hung out to dry.

The slide show on the WSJ site has a lot of images that indicate this was all a long time in the making. Detroit has not been hit by a sudden decline, nor is it news that US auto makers have been churning out terrible product (possibly trucks excepted) for years. I might have to go back and watch Robocop again to see how many elements of the 1987 film are applicable to Detroit on 2009's doorstep.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Early Start to the Season

It might be that Hutchison got me paying attention with his blog yesterday, but I saw more than one house this morning that not only had their outdoor Christmas decorations, but also their tree . . . up and fully decorated. I'm not the most experienced when it comes to tree scheduling, but it strikes me as a bit early, given that it is only the first week of December.

There is one holiday tradition that can't come soon enough, no not the annoying music all retailers find it necessary to play . . . the holiday gift baskets that show up at work from the vendors saying thanks for spending your money on us.


According to this tasty gem, as a company, we are worth $69.95 (retail) to Intermountain Hardware. The moose munch rocks the casbah. I don't really care for the red apple caramel balls, they taste like wax. There are some other companies out there we have big accounts with, I expect the next few weeks to be very snack filled.

Note: Whoever preemptively took the Aged Sharp Cheddar Cheese Straws is going to pay . . .

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

New Toys

Sometimes the impulse purchases are for me, sometimes the dog has his day too. Dempsey was treated to a new ball yesterday for his good behavior and for being a good pal. That and I feel trapped, being confined to the strip of well lit park when there is plenty of other park space where we could play in the morning and evening hours . . . if Dempsey didn't lose the ball in the dark.


The ball, besides having some of the cheesiest packaging I have seen in a while, is pretty well made. It has a nice weight to it, so it doesn't feel like you are throwing a ping pong ball. Unlike some of the other lighted balls out there, it has a rubber shell so it bounces like a ball should. I'll work on getting some action shots, but Dempsey tends to disappear in the shadows.

The new "toys" I have coming my way aren't nearly as exciting. I've been doing a bit of light fixture shopping for the garage and backyard lighting. These just came in for either side of the "man" door:


And this one is on the way for above the door on the back of the house:


I was shooting for something in the neighborhood of a classic barn light, but anything under $300 basically looked like a trash can lid on an arm with a light bulb coming out of the bottom. Word on the street is that I'll have the concrete apron by the end of the day.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Food and More

We were treated to some snowfall in Breckenridge over the Thanksgiving holiday, but thankfully, we got out of town before the madness started. With heavy snow falling and blizzard conditions thanks to the winds, sections of I-70 were closed yesterday, stranding people in Silverthorn, Vail, Copper and other areas. I was sitting comfortably at home, enjoying a light snowfall in Denver, Dempsey enjoying his first romp at the park in the snow.

A couple weeks back, I made yet another woot.com impulse purchase, this time a Breville indoor grill. I have long sung the praises of the Black and Decker griddle/waffle iron combo, but it is relatively flimsy in its construction. The griddle also has an impossible to clean non-stick coating that is microns thin and scratches when you look at it wrong. The price of the woot was just plain silly and then became even cheaper when they realized they sold the grill as new but it is a refurb, subtract another $20! Refurbished appliances don't scare me, expensive electronics on the other hand . . .


The trusty appliance has been the go to for anything griddle worthy in the past. It makes a pretty mean grill cheese, it can be flipped open for maximum surface area for pancake making or the plates can be set to waffle for some waffle making. I avoid the waffling for the most part because despite the non-stick coating and a heavy dose of cooking spray, the batter inevitably gets stuck and waffles butchered.

The Breville 800GRXL is essentially the same as the boxer hawked indoor grill, but prettier and a bit better built. Like the Black and Decker, it opens flat for maximum surface area, but the plates are fixed so the grill is always a grill and likewise with the griddle. Don't let the pictures fool you, the thing has a footprint of about 19" x 15" so there is plenty of pancake making space.


And pancakes it made . . . very surprisingly the griddle temperature was consistent from side to side, edge to edge.


And pancakes I ate . . . well, just a couple. The remainder hit the fridge for weekday morning consumption.


The grill got put into service later last night as well when it came time to make the grilled cheese to accompany the soup I decided to concoct. Being trapped within the comforts of my house, I decided it was a perfect day to make use of the remainder of the pumpkin sitting around by making some soup and some more pumpkin muffins. The soup recipe was pretty basic, start with some aromatics, dump in some broth, pumpkin, corn and spices. I added a few extra ingredients and it could have used a few more.

This batch of pumpkin muffins got a dose of blueberries for a change. The recipe calls for dates, but I find them to be too sickly sweet for my liking. Unfortunately, I lost the cash register receipt from the Co-op in Nederland that had the recipe for the pumpkin blueberry muffins with flax seed and spelt flour. Those hippies make a mean muffin. I am almost out of pumpkin, except for the stash in the freezer for use at a later time. Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I'm never eating again . . . what's for lunch?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Rapid Redecorating

Thanks to Deb, I have some new roman shades and some curtains and some blinds and whatever else fell off the truck and nobody wanted. I have wanted to replace the window coverings in the bathroom for a while, but never really got around to it. Having a sister that works for a company that does nothing but window treatment got the ball rolling a little faster. I should have taken the before and after, but I'll say it is a definite improvement with the new blinds. Having the sheer portion at the top and the opaque portion on the bottom allows some light in while maintaining the necessary privacy.


The front window in the living room got a very sheer roman shade that dresses the window up a little bit better than the Dempsey's nose prints ever did. Unfortunately I'll have to leave the shade pulled up enough that Dempsey can't munge it up while taking a look out at the world.


The office got the full treatment, roman shade and new drapes that match everything nicely. Deb is much better at picking out colors than I am. It is amazing I can even dress myself in the morning. I need to do some serious cleaning in the house since it has been neglected while the backyard and garage get all the attention.


Speaking of . . . here's the garage with the trim painted. The pure white trim really does pop out and give the garage some detail and definition. I did some preliminary window box shopping online and looks like I'll be going with a basic cedar box that will get planted chock full of something or other.


The door is all that's left to paint really, but I need to pick out the color first. I'm thinking something in the blue or black family will work out nicely, although during my jaunt around the neighborhood this morning, I noticed a house that is a similar color (although they went for a cream color on the trim) that has some redish, rust colored accents that could work. I'm open to suggestions . . .

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Color

There was paint flying yesterday! The weather was warm enough for Marty to break out the sprayer and get the first coat on the body of the garage. The trim should get painted today as well. It will be Pure White (SW 4005) and should provide lovely accent to the Mink (SW 6004) which is a greyish, purpleish color.


I think I will achieve what I was shooting for which was a relatively non-obtrusive backdrop created by the structure of the garage. Landscaping will soften the edges of it all and hopefully at the end of it all, I will have a backyard that I can actually enjoy.

The good news yesterday was that the roofing inspection passed. I couldn't remember if I was supposed to leave a ladder out for the inspector to climb up on the roof and inspect . . . evidently it didn't matter. The inspection card was signed when I got home and that was that. The only inspection that remains now is the final . . . if I ever get the remainder of the concrete finished.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Weekend

With the parents in town I was planning for a slightly different weekend than usual. The only things that really changed were that I ate more and got suckered into helping out with some stuff at Deb's house.

Saturday night, we hit up Bistro One for dinner after installing a ceiling fan (this install went pretty quickly, but there were more to come). After many Hoegaardens, I finally got around to eating real food off of the menu, not just appetizers. Their food does not disappoint! I kept it simple with the Bistro Burger and I have to say, it was one of the best burger and fries plates I have had in a while. Of course after riding for 4+ hours, I'd probably eat anything and find it to be one of the best.

Once it warmed up enough to get outside, I headed west for a ride in the hills. The weather was perfect for this time of year and this is probably one of the last weekends where the roads will be clean higher up. I got it in my head that I wanted to ride up and over Shadow Mountain from the Evergreen side, since I hadn't done that ride in quite a while. The ride out to Morrison wasn't really anything special, for variety, I cut through Red Rocks to see what was going on. They had some sort of event happening, but I didn't slow down enough to find out what it was. As I got further up Bear Creek Canyon, I started running into just about everybody I know who rides bikes. I had a nice visit with Richard Rodriguez somewhere in the middle of the canyon. After catching up for a bit, I kept heading up and somehow managed to get past the Tin Star without stopping for an apple fritter. I made the turn on to Brook Forest or whatever the road is called at that point, it only changes names a couple times without any turns, and continued the upwards grind.


You can see from the profile that there are some areas that aren't messing around when it comes to steepness of grade. Fortunately pain is only temporary . . . until you crack and go into complete and utter limp home mode. I didn't get to that point until I was back at the bike path on the homestretch from Chatfield. I tooled along the path at a nice, mellow, broken man's pace and made it home in time to go do stuff at Deb's house. Hanging ceiling fans doesn't promote recovery.

On Sunday, I was able to work in my own backyard for a little bit, cleaning up some of the piles and getting everything ready for whatever the next step is. Then I got the call that they were ready for some more fan installation action at Deb's . . . great news! She decided she didn't like the fan we installed yesterday, so the two fan install job turned into a three fan install job. I don't mind installing ceiling fans, it is usually pretty easy, except when the prior work is half assed. It is relatively horrifying when a fan is installed sans bracing or a proper junction box. I did my best to ignore all of that (there is no real attic access) hoping that the lath behind the crumbling plaster was solid and throwing out my waiver of liability every three minutes. Fan #2 wobbled so badly with the downrod that I had to take it all back down and do a flush mount to give the fan more stability. After some cursing the fan was rewired and rehung, all was well.

The fan for the dining room should have been easier to install. At least there was modern wiring at this hole in the ceiling as opposed to some brittle knob and tube stuff. The only tricky part on this one was that the holes in the canopy didn't really line up with the holes in the ceiling bracket, requiring some wrestling with the fan overhead, trying to get everything to line up closely enough for a screw to catch. In the end, all fans were hung securely and they operate properly . . . Deb owes me a lot of sushi dinners.


I think Dempsey had the right idea. He played some more than usual this weekend and when the time came, he tucked his paws under his tail for warmth and sacked out on his bed. Good thing there's some holiday relaxation time coming up soon.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Lipstick on a Pig

I'd like to revisit the back addition on the house, the one that allows me to go from the house to the basement without walking outside. Most of the houses built around the same time as mine have this feature. Some were built well and look respectable on the back of the house and some are like mine . . . a giant pile. I decided to do some side by side, before and after comparison to see what was and what is.





What was (still is I suppose) on the thing as siding was hardly an exterior grade material and weathered terribly. The corners of the sheet material were peeling up slowly and the seams were coming apart. No amount of paint could have made this look better. You can see on the bottom where the covering of the access to the crawl space had essentially rotted itself out of existence.

The window layout makes little to no sense, until of course you see how the windows were half-assed to begin with. Instead of installing a window properly, the previous owner put in a fixed sash with some sort of pocket in which said sash could slide, thus providing the operable effect. I briefly considered replacing these windows as well, but had little to no desire to get into the structure of the pile, hence the lipstick on a pig/whipped cream on a turd analogy. It is all for show, but as the old republican adage goes; an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.





It really did clean things up nicely. A coat of paint to match the garage, some landscaping, and a little time will make the backyard attractive and usable instead of the wasteland it has been since I bought the place.


I'm thinking the color selection process will happen in the next day or so, taking advantage of the forecast for warmer weather next week. If all goes well, this project should be out of the construction phase in a week or so.

I have some dirt coming to get the sides of the garage to the appropriate grade. In the coming weeks, before the ground is frozen solid, I get to rent a trencher and dig a trench for the electrical feed between the house and the garage. I would also like to get my planter boxes at least laid out and started so they will be ready for a spring planting. Any and all planting suggestions are welcomed. I will be putting some window boxes under all of the windows, house and garage.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Roof . . . The Roof!

The roof is almost done. There are a couple rows left and the ridge cap, but otherwise the roof is looking pretty good. The best part is that it was dried in before the sudden change in weather between yesterday and today. I am really looking forward to the day I don't have to scrape the frozen drizzle off the car in the morning.


I got the ball rolling on the electrical work necessary and it should be a little less painful than expected. I don't have to add a second sub panel to the house service to get more circuits as needed, I just need to switch out some of the breakers to duplex breakers and call it a day. It would be very nice having a few things on separate circuits instead of having half the house on one and the other half on another.

During all of this excitement in the backyard, I have still been keeping up with my riding for the most part. Manual labor seems to require a bit more recovery time since the muscles have a hard time remembering that they used to do stuff like "lifting" and whatnot. I have my monthly fitness test in the lab this afternoon, we'll see what the results are.

The parents are supposed to be flying in tonight. Hopefully the freezing drizzle keeps to a minimum and there are no delays at the airport. They are supposed to be getting in pretty late anyways, further delay would make it pretty miserable. Fortunately Deb is on airport duty . . .

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Yup

It's starting to look more and more like a finished garage. As I was hoping for, the siding work was done as of the end of the day yesterday. The siding and trim is ready to be caulked and painted if the weather stays warm enough for paint to stick. I am collecting some bids now for painters since time is short and getting it done while there is a warm day or two is going to be critical.


If I had more motivation, I could do some Photoshop work on the pictures and give more of a finished look, but my Photoshopping skills are rusty and the garage will be done soon enough anyways.


The side view of the building is rather lovely. There isn't too much space between the garage and the fence, but just enough for Dempsey to be able to sniff around and do whatever it is he does.


The last bits of the old fence can come down soon since there isn't a pile of material sitting around waiting to be stolen. I have an order in for some more dirt to bring the grade to where it is supposed to be. All that's lacking now is an apron so I can drive the car from the alley into the garage . . . oh and power. Nothing like having an automatic garage door opener with a cord floating free with nothing to plug it into. Details, details . . . still no word from Jeld-Wen on my grid inserts.