alivehere

recovering Kitchen knife Snob

d.h — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:55:47 +0000

Until very recently I would have considered myself somewhat of a kitchen knife snob. I liked knives by Wusthof and Shun. This is easy to say when you have gotten great knives as gift, but it is another thing when you have to buy your own. When I was in the market and began to shop one brand of knife performed without the price.

And so for 1/8 of the price of the competition I thought it was worth a try. I bought the 10″ Forschner Fibrox Chef Knife.

Its a great knife that cuts as well, if not better, than the other brands and if I ever need a new one its only $18!!!

I’m no longer a kitchen knife snob, but I will not give up my pocket knife… Benchmade is the only way to go.

If I were a reader I’d be an eReader…thats cheesy.

d.h — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:11:38 +0000

If I were a reader I think I would want an eReader, but I don’t really know why. I think its because they’re the newest thing and when I played with a Kindle it was really easy on the eyes. They are really on the eyes and you can carry all your books with you all the time. Here is a chart I found on CrunchGear


Device	Kindle	Kindle DX	B&N Nook	Sony Reader Daily Edition	IREX DR800SG
Price	$299	$489	$259	$399	$399
Screen Size	6 inches	9.7 inches	3.5 inch LCD/6 inch epaper	7 inches	8.1 inches
Touch Screen	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rotating Screen	No	Yes	TK	Yes	Yes
Storage	2GB not expandable	4GB not expandable	2GB Expandable up to 16GB	2GB expandable via Memory Stick and SD	No on-board memory, comes with 2GB SD card
Wireless	Sprint	Sprint	AT&T 3G and Wi-Fi	AT&T	Verizon Gobi chipset for worldwide use
Bookstore	Amazon	Amazon	Barnes & Noble	Sony eBookstore	Barnes & Noble
Content Availability	350,000+ books newspaper, magazine, blog subscriptions	350,000+ books newspaper, magazine, blog subscriptions	750,000+ books “Users can purchase books, newspapers or magazines from a wide variety of sources”* *not available over 3G unless purchased through built-in bookstore	100,000+ books One million public domain books via Google* Participating local library rentals* *not available over 3G	750,000+ books “Users can purchase books, newspapers or magazines from a wide variety of sources”* *not available over 3G unless purchased through built-in bookstore
Natively Supported Formats	Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible, MP3, MOBI, PRC	Kindle (AZW), PDF, TXT, Audible, MP3, MOBI, PRC	ePub, “multiple DRM solutions,” PDF	ePub, PDF, JPEG, BBeB, RTF, TXT	ePub, “multiple DRM solutions”
Formats Supported via Conversion	PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP	HTML, DOC, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP	Word, more to come	DOC, HTML, “other text file formats”	Not sure yet, will update when more info is available
Web Browser	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Other Features (lists may be incomplete)	Bookmarks, annotations, dictionary, Wikipedia, search, audiobooks, iPhone sync	Bookmarks, annotations, dictionary, Wikipedia, search, audiobooks, iPhone sync	Dictionary	Highlighting, annotation, dictionary, handwritten notes with included stylus	Bookmarks, search, included stylus, “users will have the ability to download content to the device while traveling abroad next year”
Available	Now	Now	Nov 30 ‘09	December ‘09	October ‘09 (Europe in mid-2010)

Planned Coffee Addiction!

d.h — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:02:33 +0000

I’ve never claimed to know anything about marketing, but will occasionally notice when it works on me. For example, Caribou has $1 medium coffees on Monday mornings. This may not work on me if I had to get out of my car or pull off the road to go to a drive thru, but I work at a place that has a Caribou that I have to walk right by everyday. Anyways, this is a pretty good deal. The problem is that it allows me to, almost every Monday; see how convenient it is to buy coffee rather than make it at. I had no problem passing up Caribou until I broke down for the first time and bought coffee on a Monday morning. The main problem with this is that I find myself tempted, but resisting, the urge to spend a little more and get an Americano or buy on the other days of the week. They give you a taste of “the good life” and know that you will be tempted to push your limits a little to buy a little more or a little more often in hopes that you don’t even notice what you are doing.

Vroom-Vroom go bye-bye

d.h — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:11:11 +0000

The other day I was playing with my daughter, driving a toy car on the ground, saying, “vroom, vroom”. In the near future I may have many more options. With the increase of electric and hybrid cars has come an increase number complaints of people getting hit or almost hit because they can’t hear the car coming. Many major car manufactures are working on ways to pipe sound out of the cars to make people aware that they are coming. They may even let us pick our car tones much like a ringtone on your cell phone… that could be fun. I would choose a the sound of the jumbo jet to be piped out of an electric Smart Car… funny.

You can read the whole New York Times article here.

j.b — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:32:34 +0000

I am standing in line right now with my wife waiting to get into ‘Where the wild things are.’ I used to read the book when I was a kid and now I get to see it not only in movie form, but in IMAX!! I like the things that make me feel like I’m a kid again! Maybe after the movie I’ll go home and play Legos!!

j.b — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:00:12 +0000

My wife is about to spend her first winter in Minnesota. I have been shopping for snow tires for her Mini Cooper. The first quote at tire store #1 was $418. The second quote at tire store #2 was $376. The third quote, back at tire store #1 one week later was $343! Tire store #2 is now matching that price. I plan on adding a few other stores to the mix.

As confusing as it is, I think I enjoy the game of negotiating as much as we will appreciate the tires.

Really soft leather…

j.b — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:04:09 +0000

I enjoy cars! I love to see, feel, and smell the features of high end luxury and exotic vehicles. Today I stumbled upon an article of a new Russian SUV with Very unique interior… Whale Penis leather.

Check it out…

http://www.gtspirit.com/2009/10/06/exclusive-dartz-monaco-red-diamond-edition/

Dog training

j.b — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:48:50 +0000

So today I went to the pet store to return the 79 dog ‘pee pads’ that were left from the original 80 pack. I bought them thinking I was doing the dogs a favor by letting them roam the kitchen while I was at work.

A few days ago I was telling a ‘pro dog trainer’ about my issue with the dogs not using the pad, but using the floor next to the pad, he proceeded to inform me of the proper methods in properly training a dog. He also said one of the worst things I could do is ‘train’ a dog to go on a pad inside. I have been working with my dog for three days now. My dog hated its kennel, and already I am seeing improvements. A few minutes ago I set her kennel 2 feet off the ground so not only did she have to go into it but she had to jump up. This is exciting because three days ago I was putting half of her body in the kennel and tapping her with the training stick until she would go in…. it took a while. Tonight… I just said the word kennel and off she went.

This has been very fun. It is cheap entertainment and it is exciting to see my dog excel in her training process.

Soon we will begin the ‘here drills.’

A lesson in sipping Tequila.

d.h — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:52:31 +0000

Since my wife, daughter and mom were out of town this last weekend my dad and I thought it would be a great opportunity to go out to eat together. We didnt settle on a restaurant until we were in the car and driving, but picked a good one when we decided Barrio. Barrio is a great resturant that serves Mexican street foods and all levels of Tequila. The food is served as small plates and so you can try all sorts of things. I really like the atmosphere, its what I image a trendy New York restaurant would be like and makes you feel like you made a good choice before you even sit down. After trying 5 or 6 dishes we thought it would be a good to get a lesson in Tequila. We had a great waiter that taught us well.

“True” Tequila is made from 100% agave, distilled and bottled in Mexico and has three major categories:

Blanco - not aged at all, its distilled and bottled
Reposado- Distilled and aged in oak barrels any where from 2 months to 1 year. This gives it an slight oaky flavor but stills allows you to taste the agave.
Anjeo – Distill and aged over a year. This gives the Tequila a slightly more oaky flavor.

Based on the waiters recommendation we tried Sauza Tres Generaciones Reposado. The waiter said that it would be smooth, which I didn’t understand until I tried it. It was very smooth and very good. I love having the opportunity to learn new things from people that know and then trying out what learned to see if I can identity what I learned. Sometimes you just have to ask for the education and you will get a good one.

Getting Muddy

d.h — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:20:40 +0000

Ever since I got my Toyota 4Runner a few months ago I’ve wanted to take it off road to prove to myself that it was more of a truck than a mini van. Yesterday I had the chance. Josh and I went to a friends property and drove the trails. Up and down some steeps hills, across the fields, through and over the trees. It was a blast but a little dry, so we found a puddle on a construction site and drove through it a few times just to get a little mud on the tires (no, I’m not a huge Brad Paisley fan). Sometimes its important to get outside and get muddy and drive your SUV like a truck even it the result is a minor scratch or two.