February 2009
4 posts
Get Rich Slowly is a good personal-finance site. Some of his posts are snooze-inducing (like today’s Fashion on a Budget), but I find most of the content and links to be interesting and useful. I also like Motley Fool, where I can check my CAPS page to see how my picks are doing against the other players.
Check out the Unalaska Advertiser police blotter. It contains all the illegal, semi-legal and questionable activities in a small Alaska town. It is (unintentionally) hilarious.
So the father-in-law was here all weekend. Friday night we had an excellent dinner at Arroy Chop House, right down the street from my place. I think the wife’s veal chop was the best thing we ordered. Saturday we went to the Grammy Museum, which was really good. Best thing there? The interactive music-genre-thing when you first walk in. Saturday night we went to Old Kiev Restaurant, which...
*I edited this again on Wednesday morning to add the vinaigrette on the chicken. I keep realizing things I forgot to add here.
This is my roast chicken recipe. The wife and I have this for dinner probably every other Sunday. I try to time it so that it is done right when we sit down to watch 60 minutes.
I started with a recipe in The Joy of Cooking and added my own touches. You can use any mix...
January 2009
7 posts
On the bookshelf: Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity.
So I missed a few days of posting while I was in Reno. I’m doing my best to update this blog daily.
We had our first official CouchSurfer last night, and got a little bit of education on Celiac. She was very sweet, and I was very happy to have someone to play Upwords with. I also wound up cooking the first all-vegetarian meal I have cooked in a while (potatoes with yogurt sauce, sesame...
Positions I would add to: WU, WMI, CL.
New positions I’m looking at: JNJ, MMM, KO, VFC, HNZ, DOV, EMR, NSC, PPG, SWK and TPP.
I am focused these days almost exclusively on solid companies, with a 10- or 25-year history of steadily increasing dividends, trading at or near 12.5 times earnings.
I recall a Friday afternoon back in the early fall of 2000 when I was riding the elevator in the...
Last night, Clippers victory over OKC. Today, story time at Eaton Canyon. Tonight, Roller Disco. Tomorrow, Lakers vs. San Antonio courtesy of my good buddy Paul E.
Monday, headed to Reno to visit some clients and staying at the Nugget, which has the nicest staff of any hotel/casino I have never stayed at.
This week the father-in-law comes to visit. More on that later.
On the bookshelf: The Elfish Gene.
On the bookshelf: Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue.
OK, it’s been a month since I posted. I will try not to let that happen again. I’ll start this year off with my pineapple fried rice recipe.
This is my easy go-to recipe for Saturday lunch or whenever I have leftover meat and vegetables from the day before. Typcially, anytime I am cooking some kind of meat like flank steak, grilled chicken, roast chicken, etc., I make 2 cups of rice...
December 2008
7 posts
On the bookshelf: The House at Sugar Beach.
My favorite pizza in the whole world, hands down, is St. Paul in Turin. Amazing pizza, paper-thin crust, with a thin layer of salt on the bottom. Unfortunately, they do not deliver to my place in Pasadena, so tonight we are going to eat pizza at Zelo’s in Arcadia. Now, normally I am not a big fan of deep dish pizza, but this stuff is amazing. All the ingredients are made fresh at the...
On Saturday I’m headed to see The School of Night at Mark Taper Forum with my friend Erin. I encourage all my readers to support local theater and arts.
Today we’ve got a recipe that is part my own and part from the Joy of cooking. I’ve tweaked it enough that I can give it a new name. It is a one-pot dish - vegetables, meat & seafood, all in a tasty broth. For those of you trying to stay healthy, it is also (relatively) low-fat, high-fiber, high-protein and easy to change up for people that don’t eat ham (Muslims and Max L)....
The best description of the credit crisis I have read or listened to is The Giant Pool of Money on This American Life. I strongly recommend you take a listen - I downloaded the podcast for 95 cents and listened while I did cardio.
Spent last week in Memphis for the Thanksgiving holiday. In addition to the normal Thanksgiving feast (see link below) I ate Payne’s barbeque several times. When I’m coming in town, my mom usually just orders a whole pork shoulder so that we can save ourselves the trouble of multiple trips. We made a trip to the Hi-Tone (now run by my old buddy Jonathan Kiersky) to see my...
Noodle Kugel
This is my kugel recipe, which I got from my grandmother. It tastes like December, like my grandmother’s house, like the Hanukkah when I got a game boy, like dinner with the Goldsteins and the Goodmans on Shabbos. The first time I made this was the spring of 1999, for my International Management class party at the professor’s house. We all had to bring something from our...
November 2008
14 posts
Thanksgiving 2008 Pictures →
On the bookshelf: The Cornish Trilogy.
Last week I was in DC and Baltimore, visiting clients. I flew Virgin America for the first time. True to their promises, it was very nice, with comfortable seats, mood lighting, and a great personal entertainment center with satellite TV and movies. On the downside, the food was not quite what I had expected. You can order it from your seat on a little intranet web site, pay for it with a credit...
On the bookshelf: Telex from Cuba: A Novel.
I love fresh, mustardy vinaigrette. It’s good on salads (especially salade niçoise), or as a marinade (especially for chicken or salmon) and once you get the basics down you can make small modifications to do a whole bunch of stuff.
Note that the proportions here are rough. Not everyone likes their dressing the same mix of oily/acidic/garlicky/etc.
Make this 5 or 10 mins before you need...
On the bookshelf: The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom.
Last night was Brooke’s birthday party at Blue Velvet Lounge. We had a great time. Thanks to everyone for coming out. Special thanks to Paula for the delicous cupcakes.
Also, the Clippers got a win today. I am totally going to gay-marry Baron Davis.
Brooke's 30th Pictures →
Halloween 2008 Pictures →
A timeline of blogs.
I have had 4 blogs in my life. This is the 4th. Here, a chronology of my blogs:
2000: My pitas blog. I forgot how cool Group X was.
2004: Back to the Boot, my Italy blog.
2006: My myspace blog.
2008: My tumblelog.
I plan, for now, to keep using tumblr. It is easier to use, and can also be used by people that don’t have Myspace accounts.
Busy week.
Monday we watched the Clippers lose to Utah. It was the first time we got to see Baron Davis play, and he was awesome. Marcus Camby, not so much. Had Prop 8 not passed I might have considered gay-marrying Baron. We swapped our regular seats in 109 for seats in PR12, the “Premier Section.” Aside from the fact that you could get a Nate ‘n Al’s corned beef...
October 2008
1 post
Canada & Steampunk
It has been mid-90s here all week. Headed to Calgary and Edmonton today, where it will be getting into the 20s.
Also, why didn’t I rebalance my portfolio a few years ago when my Fidelity Real Estate Investment holdings zoomed from 25% of my portfolio to 50%? I think I broke even, but lesson learned.
Costumes coming along nicely. Brooke and I will be steampunk. Still not sure what it is?...