bedeviled mojo slop

I woke up for a 9 AM - 11 AM sushi class at the local Williams-Sonoma. The class was limited to 10 people and was taught by Saso of Saso's Japanese Noodle House. This class taught me many things, 3 of which I'll share with you this evening.

1. Saso is hands down the best sushi chef in the Capital District. As far as I'm concerned, he is the best sushi chef. He has a wit and banter that you'd never know from seeing him work at his restaurant. A true craftsman in the art of making sushi. Tip for cutting rolls: Dip the tip of your knife in vinegar water, tap handle on countertop, and use the Push-then-Pull technique to cut your roll. The dip and tap ensures that your knife is moist to cut through the roll and the push-then-pull technique ensures that you don't tear the roll to bits.
2. I know for a fact that I'd have absolutely no problem sustaining myself on sushi, even if that meant sushi for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You've gotta be creative. And there ain't nothing wrong with a Philadelphia roll (Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, Avocado) on a Sunday morning. It's probably what you'd nosh on anyway. Would I try and find a way to work in Rice Krispies in a roll? Probably. For all you haters out there, sushi literally means, "vinegared rice" and so has nothing to do with the fact that there's fish in it.
3. Williams-Sonoma is over-priced ... way, over-priced. I don't need my rice cooker to act like my Mr. Coffee Maker.

The nice thing about these type of cooking classes is that they're a great way to see another side of chefs and cooking that you love.

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delicious-java

delicious-java is a Java API for interacting with the del.icio.us social bookmarks service.

Changelog.
Download.
Javadocs.

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I went to my local liquor store to stock up on Hangar One this evening when I noticed a new vodka on the shelves, 44 North. A unique American potato vodka made with Rocky Mountain Spring Water and natural huckleberry flavor. Huckleberry is a unique flavor. It's not as bitter a berry flavor as say the 99 Blackberries, but the bitterness there could be that the 99 is 99 Proof and 44 North is 70 Proof. All in all, 44 North seems to be a very well-rounded vodka. Also interesting is the fact that their "debut" vodka is a flavored vodka and not a conventional flavor. I'd be interested in purchasing a "neat" 44 North if one is in the works.

And, we now know what the next next codename for you know what will be

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JDBM is a transactional persistence engine for Java. It aims to be for Java what GDBM is for other languages (C/C++, Python, Perl, etc.): a fast, simple persistence engine. You can use it to store a mix of objects and BLOBs, and all updates are done in a transactionally safe manner. JDBM also provides scalable data structures, such as HTree and B+Tree, to support persistence of large object collections.

There's a good chance that my mother is now reading my blog. I know this only because I get an e-mail with, "Good to hear from you, it is hard to believe that it is two years in the house ! " Only that I hadn't called this week, I had just e-mailed a photo down to her and my e-mails now include my signature that has a link to this blog.

I hadn't mentioned anything in the e-mail about the 2nd Year Housiversary. That was only a post made to the blog.

BUSTED!

Today is the 2nd anniversary of closing on the house. I present a photo montage of the entire process, beginning to end ... nothing to something.

In the beginning ... there were trees. And basically, there still are around 3 sides of the house providing a great deal of privacy even during the winter months when there are no leaves on the trees.

Uh oh, a maze of concrete. At this point you say to yourself, "There is no way in hell this is going to be enough space!"

BEHOLD! THE FOUNDATION! Also take notice of the jut out on the right-hand side of the house. That is where the Bilco doors to the basement will eventually go. If you're building a house and someone tries to tell you that you don't need Bilco doors to get bulky items in and out of your basement, promptly hit them. Couches and pool tables do not bend!

"Hehehehe ... wood."
"You said wood."
Even if it didn't make it much further, at least you could lay down some plywood and pitch a tent

But, walls are much better. The wall/box on the left is where the fireplace exhaust is located.

All in all they were all just nails in the wall.

The true geek now starts to develop Half-Life 2 or Quake levels incorporating the current state of the house noting that the open windows provide a convenient location from which to snipe spawn of hell enemies.

It is now looking like a really, really large and expensive doll house ...

... with windows!

TIP: Photograph every single wall while the plumbing and wires are exposed. Down the road when you want to know where certain pipes run or where the cabling is installed, you can go back and pinpoint exactly those things.

Two words: whirlpool tub.

Sheetrock goes up and all of sudden the place is habitable ... and dusty as hell.

Gratuitous "buttshot". Oh, and there's siding too.

Hardwood ... lots and lots of hardwood ... and kitchen cabinets.

Two tier crown molding with dental molding insert. 'Nuff said.

Basement under the breakfast nook. This will eventually be closed off and made into a wine cellar. It will have a few chairs, a wine barrel with melted candle, and cheese.

You can't say that the tile guy isn't resourceful.

Beautiful ... hardwood ... so ... dusty ... can't ... speak.

Kitchen island with bar sink. If you're going to add a bar sink to your island, also add the garbage disposal.

Whirlpool tub accent tile. Surprisingly enough, Target had a few bathroom rugs which had the colors of the tile. SCORE!

Oak staircase. Had to request everything be oak on the stairway ... posts, risers, treads ... EVERYTHING!

Is this the basement or some sick NASA experimentation room?

The taped sign on the mantle reads, "STAIN THIS AND DIE!"

Three words: Stainless steel appliances.

2nd floor laundry (pre washer and dryer arrival). No more trekking up and down stairs with loads of laundry.

Walk-in closet with closet savers. Notice the closet saver shoe racks. Sadly, two racks doesn't come close to providing adequate shoe storage.

Don't tread on me (for at least a week or so).

Basking in the evening sun.

Pre-grass, weeds, flowers, etc... but it's a start.

Alcohol table at the housewarming party. Wish you were there.

'Twas the night before sometime in January, and all through the house ...

Off to bed.

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4 AM - Our Lady Peace

Just finished beating Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. Forget the challenge mode and other extra goodies that come along with the video game. There's always time for that later on down the road.

I now need to prepare for the forthcoming release of We Love Katamari (previously blogged here). It looks like it'll arrive from Amazon.com on or about its release date in-store.

We Love Katamari, I am ready to receive you.

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It could be the game titles of the Ratchet & Clank series or it could be the game play, but damned if I'm not hooked on these games. I'm almost finished with Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. I just picked up Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal after returning an extra PS2 controller I had gotten for my birthday. True, one can always use more controllers, but I really only need two. It remains to be seen whether or not I need more games.

I'm expecting a call any moment from my college years asking for their lifestyle back

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One thing I've always hated about the Apple "experience" is sometimes you open a disk image and you get an End User License Agreement (EULA) screen that accidentally gets hidden. Maybe you click some other place real quick or whatever. Either way, something happens and the EULA box is hidden. In this situation, I've always had to manually minimize the other windows I've got open just to get to Finder to then get to the EULA window. Clicking on Finder and then using Command-~ (cycle windows from the specific application, in this case, Finder) doesn't seem to do it. Maybe I'm just dense. Right now it's the only thing that annoys me about the Apple "experience".

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Remember back to that $500 check? I donated it to the American Red Cross to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

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• Asciiquarium
  Asciiquarium is an aquarium/sea animation in ASCII art.
  (tags: ascii humor perl screensaver )

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