Up St. Louis!

For sure, St. Louis has been seeing some great strides in urban progress. I'd be remiss not to mention the news of Centene moving their corporate headquarters from Clayton to downtown's Ballpark Village, which gives the BV a new direction in, and impetus for, life. It has been mentioned in almost every urban blog in the city:

Urban Review STL
St. Louis Business Journal
STLtoday.com
Mayor Slay's Desk
PUB DEF
clearview
STL Rising
Vanishing STL


In other news, the Power House is about to be renovated:

At Home
STLtoday.com


Lumiere Place is almost finished:

Lumiere Place's website
St. Louis Business Journal

In other news this week, Wachovia bought A.G. Edwards, and is moving their headquarters to St. Louis. Admittedly, whether they actually move to the city of St. Louis, or out to a suburb is still unknown, and if they move A.G. Edwards's [significant] staff out of the city, it will be a major blow to the city's economy. However, it would seem more practical to move into A.G. Edwards's existing infrastructure, which was expanded by 1,000,000 sq. ft. in 2003. There is plenty of land nearby the current headquarters that can be further developed if necessary. Hopefully we'll see an influx of new jobs and residents in the city. Although losing a large corporation like Wachovia is a major event for a city of any size, Charlotte has seen unprecedented growth over the past decade, so hopefully they'll absorb the loss with little trouble to their city's economy.

Also this week, Pyramid Companies announced a $450 million dollar project to renovate and develop 6 blocks downtown (an area completely encompassing our old offices... man I wish we still worked downtown!) into a mixed use district to be called the Mercantile Exchange (presumably due to the nearby Mercantile building which anchors that area):

KSDK
STLtoday.com
Pyramid's website
Dawn Griffin
UrbanSTL
life as interns


Also huge downtown revitalization news that is the less recent, but still worth mentioning, Crown Village development, which has been going like gang busters ever since they got their funding a little more than a month ago.

What's New in Old North
Crown Village website
UrbanSTL
Ecology of Absence

Wow, what a great time for the city of St. Louis! I can't wait to see all of these projects at their completion. St. Louis is really becoming a destination city again.

UPDATE: For the record, STLtoday.com has published an article today that sums up this great week of announcements... but in a more professional, thorough, journalistic fashion than my lowly 'blog. The blog being a device so informal its very name is derived from a contraction which was adopted immediately after it was invented. [I strenuously object to Wikipedia's claim the the word blog is a portmanteau. It's not a portmanteau, it's a contraction. Web log... weblog... 'blog. A portmanteau would be like wog or something.]

Mattel Apologizes to China

And it's about time. Mattel has issued an apology via its executive vice-president for worldwide operations, Thomas A. Debrowski.

From the article (the italics are mine):

On Friday, Debrowski acknowledged that "vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers."

Yes indeed, folks. That is mighty big of Mattel to admit that they hung the Chinese manufacturing sector out to dry for several high-profile toy recalls, while all along they knew the problem rested primarily with their own designs.

Isn't it weird how the US mass media published almost nothing to the contrary this entire time? They obliviously went along with letting everyone swallow the implication that China's manufacturing centers are unscrupulous, third-world dungeons that would do anything to squeeze an extra yuan out of their piece of the supply chain.

I don't want to sound like I'm some kind of advocate for the Chinese manufacturing industry, because I'm not. I think it would be great if Mattel did not move its factories to another country to begin with, since all they're doing is shipping the toys right back to America. I mean, if they opened up a factory in China to produce toys for the Chinese market, that would be completely different. All they've done is outsource their manufacturing jobs.

However, I do have a strong respect for the Chinese and I believe them to be an honest, hard working people. It disturbed me to see Mattel, and subsequently our own sycophantic media, drag China's good name through the dirt when clearly the responsibility was at least shared, and as it turned out, primarily Mattel's.

Cardamom Porridge

Porridge is just a generic name for some grain boiled in water until it thickens, like oatmeal. I have always just called oatmeal oatmeal, but porridge sounds more quaint, so there you have it.

I decided to try McCann's Steel-cut Oats when I saw them on a shelf at the Schnucks on Arsenal. It turns out they are quite different from the Quaker Quick Rolled Oats I was raised on. For one thing they have a much more robust texture than quick rolled oats, and they have a stronger, and much more distinct flavor as well. They are oats, so they taste like oats, but the taste is more structured than quick rolled oats. They also take much longer to cook - about 45 minutes, between boiling the water and then the oats.... but it's definitely worth it.

I left the above picture unscaled, so you can see what they mean by steel-cut oats. Click on the image to see the up-close-and-personal details of the oats.

I've tried a number of different combinations of flavorings before I finally devised one that preserved the excellent flavor of the oats, and the traditional presentation style, as well as bringing in something new and exciting (at least to me it is... you may not be able to get as excited about oatmeal as I can).

This serves 1-2 people, depending on how much of a main course you make it:

3 cups of water
3/4 cup of McCann's Steel-cut Irish Oats
1 tblsp. unsalted butter
4 tblsp. sugar (to taste)
1 tblsp. ground cardamom seeds (cardamom powder)
1/2 cup red flame raisins (or raisins of your liking)
3 cups milk

Bring the water to a brisk boil, add the oats, and stir until they begin to thicken, then reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes (the can says 30, but that's always been too much for me... might only need 20 minutes really). Stir the oats occasionally while they're simmering to keep the water and oats thoroughly mixed, and to prevent them from burning on the bottom of the pot.

Once they oats are done, remove them from the heat.

Add the butter, sugar, cardamom, and raisins to the oats, and stir until mixed well. Then let it cool for about 10 minutes. This will give it time to set up nice and thick, so it will hold up better in the milk.

To serve, spoon out a portion of oats into a bowl, then pour about 1 cup of milk over them, or until the oats just peek through. Serve promptly, so the oats are still hot underneath the cool milk. The milk will cool each bite of oats, but the oats will retain their natural consistency and flavor. Yum!

This dish is really outstanding comfort food. It would be great to have for breakfast, but since I don't get up early enough to spend an hour making breakfast, and you really can't re-heat oatmeal (so I've learned), I make it for dinner.

You can really deck this dish out by sautéing the raisins in the butter with almonds, and just admit that it's actually the Indian dessert, Kheer, served as breakfast (or dinner, in my case), but with oats instead of rice.

Here is a video from Off the Shelf Cooking with Ameena for a simple, easy Kheer: http://showmepods.com/kheer.html.

How I Benchmark Postfix

The goal of benchmarking an MTA can be to determine the number of messages that can be relayed through it under ideal conditions, and also under realistic conditions.

Ideal conditions means without bottlenecks. Bottlenecks for a MTA include network and I/O latency, and concurrency. Under ideal conditions, the MTA would never be blocked on reads and writes to/from its peers on the network, or its queues on disk. It would also be able to accept and establish as many simultaneous connections as needed at any given point in time.

Of course, having those kind of resources is unrealistic, but understanding how they affect the MTA's performance is important. When benchmarking the MTA, it is easy to identify the aspects of each element by introducing them individually, or one at a time. For instance, we can start a series of benchmarks by wiring the MTA directly its peers, NIC to NIC, eliminating any latency introduced by going through external network devices such as hubs, switches, or routers. Likewise, we can practically eliminate I/O latency by setting up the queue in RAM. Eliminating concurrency as a factor is much more difficult, since it depends on multiple factors, like CPU, OS, and MTA throughput capabilities. However, by slowly ramping up (or reducing) the concurrency parameters, we can plot a chart depicting performance increases or decreases with relation to concurrency.

Once we've established baseline numbers under ideal conditions, we can methodically introduce realistic bottlenecks until we get to a state that is representative of the actual production environment.

To begin, you need 2 boxes with Postfix installed, including the smtp-source and smtp-sink utilities, which are included w/the Postfix source code. We'll call the host you want to benchmark hostA. Modify hostA's main.cf file to relay everything directly to the other host, hostB:

relayhost = [hostB]

On hostB, leave Postfix down. To eliminate latency that would be introduced by relaying to another MTA, we will run only the smtp-sink process, a SMTP bit bucket, on port 25 on hostB, with connection caching and high concurrency enabled:

# smtp-sink -4c :25 1024

On hostA, the spool directory should be on a RAM disk. On Solaris systems, /tmp is a virtual RAM disk, so you can just copy the queue dir over there, and then modify the queue_directory parameter in main.cf to point to the /tmp copy. On Linux systems, you can create a virtual RAM disk by using the tmpfs file system. To determine if your system supports it grep tmpfs from /proc/filesystems:

# grep tmpfs /proc/filesystems
nodev tmpfs
#

If you don't see any output from your grep, you don't support it... otherwise, just create a virtual file system like so, copy your queue directory over to it, and then point Postfix at it by modifying the queue_directory parameter in main.cf:

# mount tmpfs /mnt -t tmpfs -o size=128m

To ensure maximum concurrency, you will probably want to jack up hostA's MTA's default_process_limit value in main.cf. I set mine to 1024, but that may be too much for your system. I'm benchmarking with a pair of 4-core Sun T2000s, which are designed to support very high concurrency.

If you can, make sure the two hosts are wired directly to each other, NIC to NIC. Depending on your NICs, that may require a crossover cable. The NICs on the T2000 are auto-sensing, so a regular 8P8C cable will do.

Now the fun begins... On hostA, we will use the smtp-source command to inject 10,000 25 kB messages with 256 concurrent connections, and connection caching.

# date; smtp-source -4dNcm 10000 -s 256 -l 25000 -f foo@bar.com -t bar@foo.com localhost:25

This series of commands will display the exact time, then send 10000 messages, then display the time again. The command exits when all 10000 messages have been accepted into the queue by Postfix. The benchmark is not over until every message has been relayed to hostB. To determine the exact second that happens, you will need to repeatedly check the mail queue:

# mailq |tail -1; date

When the mail queue is finally empty, the benchmark is over. Calculate messages per minute (MPM) by taking the number of seconds between the first date call (from the smtp-source call) to the last date displayed when the mail queue was finally empty, divide 10000 by that number, and multiply that quotient by 60.

Typical results for my T2000s are between 14600 and 16200. Moving the queue directory to a real disk gives results in the mid 5000s, and then changing from a straight shot MTA->smtp-sink to MTA->MTA->smtp-sink (i.e. starting Postfix on hostB, and having it relay everything to the smtp-sink process) results in numbers comparable to what is actually seen in the production environment, which is between 4500 and 4800 MPM.

I'm cutting this blog entry short now because, although I haven't done anything yet to scale down the concurrency factor, that would only be an exercise in methodology, and for all practical purposes I've already provided sufficient evidence that I/O is by far my MTA's lowest hanging fruit in terms of upgrade potential. Since I'm only operating on a pair of mirrored 15K SAS drives, which are also the same drives that every other file system on the box is on, so I have to make sure routine I/O outside of the MTA is minimized, including logging only to a remote host, except for possibly low traffic logs like the system log. It is obvious that if I ever need more performance out of the box, an upgrade to a high-speed array would be the way to go.

Big East - The B'east!

The Big East is continuing their strong campaign to prove their worthiness of an automatic BCS bid. We now have four teams in the top 25, in both the AP and Coach's polls: WVU, Rutgers, Louisville, and now... South Florida!

I knew it was only a matter of time until the rest of the NCAA realized the potential SF has down there. They are currently the second-highest ranked team in Florida, which is saying something. Above that, they got their 23/24 ranking by beating #17 Auburn, who is no slouch. Congrats, Bulls!

WVU made an outstanding showing against Maryland, running for 353 yards, and allowing only 269 total yards of offense. There was also a special appearance by future Mountaineer great Noel Devine, a true freshman who came in just to run 5 times for 136 yards, and let me tell you, that young man has some MOVES! He juked to the side so far and so fast on one of the runs, that two defenders went to tackle him, and they tackled each other! It was so freakin' classic! He shot out through the lane like a lightning bolt. It was really something to behold. It definitely makes me feel good about our future, since Slaton is about to collect his Heisman and move onto the next level.

Louisville lost to Kentucky, which hurts, but Kentucky was already known to be good, with their star quarterback, Andre Woodson. Wildcats fans believe he should be on the Heisman watch list. If Kentucky goes on to beat Arkansas next week, that will only help ease the pain of Louisville's loss to them.

Cincinnati is actually smoking their competition, chalking up a total of 140 points to 16 over the past 3 games! Krikey! The Marshall Herd are next on the Bearcats's list... another potential feast for the viverrid beasts.

Rutgers, like Cincinnati, has amassed an embarrassing number of points over their opponents, going 138-27 over the past 3 games. Sure, neither team is facing ranked teams yet, but still, that's a lot of points, no matter who you're playing. Between the two of them, 278-43... wow. That's 20 touchdowns (w/PATs) for every 3 of their opponents.

What about Pittsburgh? Why can't the Panthers participate in this Big East Feast? The consensus for their loss against Michigan State this past weekend is turnovers... they had two picks and a fumble. On the bright side, their frosh running back, heavily-recruited LeSean McCoy rushed for 174 yards, and even played QB for much of the second half. So, they may still be able to pull it together for UVA and Navy in a couple weeks.

Cavemen

Apparently, someone else likes the Geico "Cavemen" commercials, because they're going to try making it into a TV sitcom.

Yes, I will admit, I think the cavemen are hilarious. They are so over the top! They are parodies of hyper-sensitive 30-something metrosexual men. They are so politically correct, they're the kind of people that you feel are always criticizing what you say, no matter how careful you are. What's not to love about making fun of that?

If you think about it, the cavemen are a perfect platform for a parody of that demographic, because if they were using real people, it might be more difficult to make them loveable. For instance, take the website that they have created for the cavemen, "Caveman's Cribs". In it, you're encouraged to snoop around his impeccably decorated modern apartment, learning about the depth of his shallowness through the hilarious details left out for you to discover. In the bathroom vanity, you pull open a drawer to find an expensive-looking set of hair treatments by "Beaucoups de Cheveux" (French for alot of hair - haha!), which includes an anti-frizz treatment, a "cleanser" (known to the layman as shampoo), a "hydrating conditioner", and a volumizer. Of course a caveman would spend extra dollars on this! But you know, even if he wasn't a caveman, he would still buy it, because he's just that kind of dick.

I haven't had a chance to look over the whole apartment yet, but my part favorite so far is the magazine on the coffee table. It's called "HIM" magazine, and in small print it reads "The quarterly magazine for men of means". Dude, that is too much. Who would subscribe to that!? You can actually flip through it, and discover an article about another caveman named Joe Dyton, an aspiring actor, and of course several ads that further the pretentious metrosexual stereotype.

I can't wait for this show to come out. I just hope other people will see the humor in it. I'm afraid most people will not have a sufficiently characteristic point of reference to understand it. If you have friends like that, you will probably love it. If not, you might still be able to appreciate it, but more likely you just won't get it.

I could see this show going on for at least two seasons, but it will be important to bring in a couple highly personable spoiler characters who will serve to counter the cavemen's highfalutin personalities with earthy, frank dialog that the average Joe can identify with.

Actionable Information

If you use the word actionable, you suck. First off, it's not even a word, it's a nominalization. Normally, a nominalization is what you get when you take a verb or an adjective, and use it as a noun. However, it works the other way around too. If you use a noun as an adjective or a verb, that is also considered a nominalization.

action: noun
actionable: adjective

Actionable is actually a legal term. If you're not a lawyer, you should know that you especially are misusing the term actionable. It is a term used to describe something that can be legally acted upon. If you're not a lawyer, see if one of these other words is actually the adjective you're looking for: usable, useful, helpful, worthwhile, important, valuable, urgent, interesting.

This is usable information.

This is actionable information.

Egh, it makes my stomach turn. I can just imagine the nincompoops wagging their slobbery tongues at the sound of such an important-sounding word. Its prestige brightens the room, and they all feel a bit smarter, even though they've just thrust another witless, rusty spike into the side of our modern language.

Please stay away from the term actionable. It does not make you sound smarter. It does make you sound like you're trying to sound smarter.

This picture demonstrates what may be an actionable wedgie. According to this legal blog, Bino's Blogoroni, some wedgies may be actionable, depending on their severity.

I found this photo by searching Google for the term "actionable", and then checking the image results. I think it's perfect for this blog entry, because not only does it provide an awesome visual reminder of what actionable really means, but it also shows exactly what I want to do to people who use the term actionable.

Ski Racing in St. Louis

Hidden Valley Ski Team's dryland training starts next Saturday. I'm helping coach this year, and I'm very excited to be getting back into ski racing.

In Missouri, we're in the CUSSA region, Central USSA. HVST skis in both CUSSA races and WIJARA, the Wisconsin-Iowa-Illinios Junior Alpine Racing Association. Back in WV we raced in PARA (the southern region was later split out into its own region, SARA) when I was growing up, which is strictly USSA. WIJARA is not strictly USSA. On May 10, 2007, WIJARA officials announce that racers would no longer be required to have a USSA membership to compete in WIJARA races. That means kids who do not want to pay the USSA fees, or who can't justify travel expenses for distant CUSSA races, or simply have not decided if they want to compete at the USSA level, can compete in WIJARA races to sort of test the frozen water crystals.

HVST has a team of around 40 kids. Like most teams, the level of talent is varied from outstanding to total beginner. I was really amazed by just how good some of the kids on the Hidden Valley Ski Team really are. I mean, how did they become such good racers living here in St. Louis? I'm going to find out.

If you're reading this, and your parents moved you from a nice mountainous region to Flatlands, USA (a.k.a. St. Louis), listen up! There is quality racing here, and you should check it out.

One of our racers, Matthew Klein, a J4, went to JOs last season (2007). He finished 16th in the first slalom, 4th in the 2nd slalom, and 24th in SG. Yes, I said 4th! We also had two girls, Kelsey Spidle and Cayla Weber, compete in the FIS Championships, which, just raching that level is amazing. They competed against some of the best female racers in the world there, from ages 15 to 32.

Some of the parents here are really into it. They plan training trips for team members to Colorado and even New Zealand in the off-season, where the US Ski Team trains.

I'm really excited to get the season started, and to get back on the hill with some real competition.

Pure Genuis

You can't make stuff like this up, or improve upon it. With an uncompromising devotion to the precise and accurate demonstration of a mind-numbing, unblinking degree of silliness, these Finnish performers show themselves reaching the zenith of gauche 70s imitation pop.



I found this gem on my first trip to Boing Boing, which is apparently a very worthwhile blog.

11 Days and Counting!

WVU kicks off the season against Western Michigan at 3:30pm EDT on September 1st, 2007.

Keep track:
http://www.wemustignitethiscouch.com
http://www.msnsportsnet.com

Note: MSN stands for Mountaineer Sports Network, and always has. Period.

Lee Corso is an ass, and his opinions will always be nothing but irrelevant drivel. Not even his own co-anchors take him seriously. Why is he even on the air? He neglected to include Steve Slaton in his top 5 Heisman candidates. More sensationalism, no doubt.

This picture always puts a smile on my face.

755

http://www.755homeruns.com/

Barry Bonds makes me want to vomit. Yeah, he's got talent, but big deal. It takes more than talent to hold the all-time home run record. It takes endurance. Nobody can ever say Bonds has natural endurance, because he's polluted the statistics with his selfish, and presumably ongoing, use of illegal drugs to break a landmark record in baseball.

Let's see, where are we now... our federal government is descending into a Sargasso sea of unchecked corruption, 1836 Americans die in New Orleans because the government can't be bothered to give a damn, our international image and credibility has been utterly maligned by our own hand, and the environment is spiraling out of control while self-important money-grubbing nitwits continue to pave over the countryside, and now... Barry Bonds, that lying sack of shit, is going to have his filthy name rang out as the new holder of maybe the most prestigious record in the Great American Sport that defines us.

Egh.

As far as I'm concerned, I do not have to even acknowledge this atrocity. In my mind, Barry Bonds does have a big fat asterisk next to his name. As a matter of fact, it follows him all over the baseball diamond every night. Everything he does is infected with his guilt, and illuminated by that bright red asterisk following him everywhere he goes. Long may it shine!

And long may 755 Steroid Free Home Runs be the benchmark for honest sluggers to be compared against.

Provincial Landscape Redux

After noticing that the link in my May 7, 2007 blog entry was broken, I stumbled onto this new link offering prints of the picture I love.

You can even get it on a T-shirt!!! I'm so down w/that!

Enjoy!

Now THAT is a Saw Blade!

I don't think that's going to fit the saw...



Actually, the man is helping to position the blade for sharpening. It's a picture from Gary Katz's article about the Hull-Oaks Sawmill in Oregon. It's the last steam-powered commercial sawmill in the country.

Qabili Palau

Sameem has AWESOME food... at least that's what I've heard. I can tell you that they have AWESOME Qabili Palau, because that's the only thing I ever get there. I've never moved past it. It's too good. So that I can get my fill of it, and move on to other dishes at Sameem's, I've decided to bring the dish into my own repertoire.

For starters, Sameem makes theirs with a leg of lamb. It's totally amazing, but in order to make it a more affordable dish, as well as one that can be cooked in a large skillet, since I don't own a casserole, I'm going with 2 defrosted, boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

This recipe requires parallel processing. Be prepared. To minimize pipeline stalls, go ahead and prepare your carrots in advance, because that is the most time consuming part of it. Julienne two carrots into 2" strips, and set aside.

Start by browning the two chicken breasts in about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil with about 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Grind some fresh pepper over them, and a bit of kosher salt. It should take about 3-5 minutes per side.

Oh, by the way, I just came across this website is like Youtube for cooking. There are some SERIOUSLY good looking recipes to be had here... http://www.videojug.com/tag/indian-recipes

Anyway, while the chicken is browning, bring 3 cups of water to a boil in another pot, and add 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Then cut up 1 large sweet onion, or two small ones. The water should come to a boil about the same time the second side of the breasts are done browning.

Put the breasts in the boiling water, and reduce to a simmer. Put the chopped onion in the oil the chicken just came from, and cook until the onions are golden brown.

Once the chicken has simmered in the water enough to make a fine broth, remove the chicken, and set aside. Add 1 tsp of saffron to the water, and let simmer or lightly boil.

To the oil and onions, add about 1-2 tsp of cumin, 1 cinnamon stick, 1/2 tsp of ground cloves, or a few whole cloves, a few cardamom pods, if you have them (I actually did not), a bit of nutmeg, 1 tsp of sugar (I used turbinado), 1 tsp of kosher salt, 1 tsp of ground coriander. You can jack up these values if you think there's not enough spice in there.

Now add two handfuls of raisins to the onions and spices. I used the Sun-maid Jumbo Mixed Raisins, as always.... they're sooo good! Cook that until the raisins are plump, then add the carrots, and let it all cook until it looks and smells too good to be true.

Meanwhile, you'll need to rinse off about 1 1/2 cups of basmati rice, and bring the broth to a boil, if it's not already. Once the onion, raisin, and carrot mix is ready, drop the rice in here, and turn it in until well coated. Then pour the boiling broth in there, and cover it up, and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the chicken breasts into cubes. I guess you could've put them in with the rice, or not. I didn't.

That's all there is to it! Serve with a tall glass of lightly sweetened Darjeeling iced tea. Dishes like this prove that God does love us, and wants us to be happy. Sorry for the out-of-focus pictures. I'll try to put better ones up there next time I make it.

Homemade Spalted Maple Boards

I bought a Powermatic 14" band saw a few weeks ago. It took a while for the 6" riser block to come from Amazon, and then I had to get a 3/4 inch Timberwolf blade, and then get it replaced because the weld was slightly off (more than acceptable), and finally, last night, I got to do some meaningful work with the saw. I ripped a log that I had salvaged from a neighbor's dying red maple (Acer rubrum) into 1 1/4" boards. I managed to get some really sweet boards out of it. They're now in the basement drying.

It wasn't all good times though. It took me a while just to get up the nerve to even rip the log, because it had rather large holes from some kind of wood boring insect, and I did not want to be the idiot that let loose a termite infestation into his own house. But I could see by the end grain that there was some stunning spalting to be had, and after some careful consideration, and preparation of the work area with a clean canvas to catch any falling insects, and a large can of Raid, and a respirator, I started into it.

I started by cutting it in half lengthwise as well as I could - it was a very irregular log - so I could quarter saw half of it, and flat saw the other half. I anxiously parted the freshly halved log, and to my great relief, I didn't see any signs of termites, or any insect. So, I started flat sawing one of the halves. . .

After the first cut of the half, I parted the cut to reveal something black wiggling in the wood. My stomach sank, and I got a sick nervousness that can only be brought on by seeing something totally foul, ugly, crawly, and disgusting in front of you. Luckily, I had that can of Raid on hand just in case, and I happened to saw into the hole at an angle, so whatever it was, it was not able to get out. I had control of the situation. I got a pair of needle nose pliers, and started slowly widening the hole, so I could get a better look at the wriggling mass. . .

To make a long story short, I pulled the thing out, dropped it on the canvas, and doused it heavily with Raid. It promptly died. There were many more, and it turned out that about half of the log was infested with what I later identified as Pigeon Horntail Wasps (Tremex Columba), and their larva and pupae. That's a type of wood wasp that infests dead or dying wood. Nothing to be afraid of. They do not harm humans, or finished wood, but it was definitely disturbing for a person with an aversion to unidentified creepy crawlies.

I can only hope that the boards I have drying in the basement now are free of the horntails, but if not, they are harmless to finished wood and humans, so it's OK.

Here are some pictures of the harvested boards. Note the incredible color variation, and almost pixelated effect of the spalting on the one board I have in my hand. Here are also some pictures of one of the hibernating wasps I extracted. Many more were either sawed in half, or left in wood and taken to the dumpster. I can't wait for this wood to dry so I can plane it, sand it, and make something with it!

All in all, I have to say, the Timberwolf blade lives up to the billing. I am very pleased with it, however I'm not quite as pleased with my saw, because it took some serious manipulation to get the blade guides properly aligned to take the 3/4" blade, which eventually resulted in manually machining the trunnion bracket with a file, even though it's supposed to be able to handle 3/4" blades out of the box. I've read forum posts by other people complaining of the same thing. I guess quality control in consumer-model band saws is just not what you might think it should be. It's definitely a tool you have to be willing to get in and make serious adjustments to, in order to get it to do what you want.

Now that I have it set up, I could really not be much happier, because I can rip my own small logs from fallen trees. It's a good feeling, both in terms of self-sufficiency, and environmentalism. Plus, I know there will be an unending supply of logs, since I live a couple blocks away from a large park, and terrible storms blow through St. Louis every summer, like the derecho that tore through here last summer, peeling half my roof back, and leaving most of the city w/out power for several days. It got up to 102 degrees the day after the power went out. It sucked, but I was lucky. It could've been much worse, and my insurance paid for the roof. Anyway, Tower Grove Park was in terrible shape. There were fallen trees everywhere. It took them weeks to get it cleaned up.

Andrew Bird

For anyone who hasn't seen Andrew Bird in concert, but is interested in new and exciting music, it's a must-see. Seriously, it's one of the most interesting and exciting concerts I've ever been to. My friend Rich and I got to see him play with Martin Dosh at the Pageant on my brother's recommendation. I had never seen or heard of either of them before...

The opening act was kind of like Mazzy Star, but with a voice like a cross between Bjork and Nico. It sounded good, don't get me wrong, but we didn't come to the show to get a good night's sleep. So as you can imagine, Rich and I were getting ready to curse my brother's name.

The stage went dark, and 15 minutes later a single light shined down on Martin Dosh, who, in his short sleeved button down shirt with a tie, looking rather like your local IT guy, slowly, over the next 5-10 minutes built up a series of loops, using different instrument sounds, until he sounded like a small ensemble himself. Then, out came Andrew and the bassist (Jeremy Ylvisaker), and he played a couple notes on his violin, then took his shoes off, and started building up his own loops using pedals on the floor. They kept building layer on layer, until finally, after several minutes, Andrew stepped on something that started two enormous horns spinning in the back of the stage. As they were spinning, flashing rhythmically in the lights, it was positively hypnotic, but exciting too, and growing cacophonous, until finally they stopped everything, and fell to silence... then started right into playing Imitosis.

You can find videos of them on Youtube, but they're completely inadequate representations of the show. In person, you can actually see, very clearly, how Andrew was using his pedals to create a new loop, and then release it to repeat, and then make another, and another. His whistling is so loud and clear, exactly like the whistling on spaghetti westerns like the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and he switches from guitar to violin constantly (just pushes the guitar around his back, out of his way, and picks up the violin). He also had a small glockenspiel mounted next to his mic stand that he would play along with his whistling sometimes, in perfect pitch. Really, he'd strike a key on the glockenspiel, and whistle the same note at the same time in perfect pitch. It was truly remarkable. This is an extremely talented musician.

We had a perfect vantage point for watching Martin as well, as he used his keyboards to create loops of his own, with his drums, cymbals, and other percussion instruments, as well as the keyboards themselves, to a lesser extent.

After the concert, I went over to the media stand to buy a CD. I asked the guy working the stand "which CD has that solo Andrew did right after the break?" "I don't know, you'll have to ask him yourself." At that moment, Andrew came out from behind the stage. "Andrew, which CD has that solo you did right after the break?" "Oh... Who?" ("Who" is apparently the name of the tune...) "That's on this one: Fingerlings." "Excellent. Thanks! Andrew, it was an absolute pleasure. Great show." "Thanks!"

That obviously made my night.

Thank you, Sean, for telling me to go to that concert. I know it's killing you to read this. Sorry you couldn't be there too!

Andrew has a website here: http://www.andrewbird.net, and a MySpace profile here: http://www.myspace.com/andrewbird

His latest album, Armchair Apocrypha, is so infectious, I am actually a little surprised by how much it's taken over my listening lately. I highly recommend it.

Planing Board by Hand

A couple posts ago I wrote about how I am saving space in my basement workshop by using hand planes in place of a jointer to flatten boards. I also said it will take a little extra manual labor. I'd like to revise that initial assessment. It takes a LOT of manual labor.

Over the past few nights, I've put in about 3 hours flattening a 43" x 9" x 1" piece of canary wood. I'm using my 4 1/2 smoothing plane. Granted, it would probably go faster with a jack plane, and this is the first time I've ever tried to do this, so I'm very much in the early stages of refining my technique, but still. I'd say I have at least that much more to go.

To create a reference line, I jointed one side of the board, then placed my 48" level on the wide face of the board right above the newly jointed side, and used my Incra T-rule to slide on the level, scribing a straight line along the jointed edge. To make the scribed line more visible, I placed a flat rule along the scribed line, and colored in the short space (the part to be removed) with a black wax pencil (a glass marking pencil).

I've been slowly working my way down through the black line using diagonal strokes with the plane. Every so often, I'll cover the face of the board with loose chalk, and scrape it off with a straight edge to reveal the bumps and valleys. That keeps me on track for now until I get close enough to the goal to get out the true bar, and really be critical of the flatness.

Good Eating in Sunset Hills, MO

Well, I must admit, I've found two shining oases in the desperately bland suburban landscape I've been cast out to. Growler's Pub, and O'Leary's are both within a mile or two of my office, and they both have some unique culinary delights that should not be missed.

O'Leary's is the first place I learned about. On the outside, it's a completely uninspired strip mall occupant on Lindbergh Blvd, about 1000 yards south of the Comp USA that is shutting down. On the inside, it's a nicely decorated Irish-themed sports bar with good lighting. They have the best hamburgers in town! The beef is fresh and juicy, and the buns are thick, soft, chewy, and delicious. My favorite burger is the fried jalapeño burger. Glory be, it's absolutely brilliant! The fries are very good too, and are served with a tasty dip, like ranch dressing mixed with a hint of ketchup. I guess it's kind of an Americanized version of Mary Rose. It works. This is my kind of soul food.

Now on to Growlers... This place is one of the quirkiest little buildings you'll find. I think it's like a Tudor-style cottage, with multiple gabled roofs, dark exterior wood trim. And it's sitting on the side of a 4 lane highway. Inside, they've done some truly whimsical decorating, with what appears to be authentic old Victorian wood trim on the windows, probably salvaged from an old St. Louis mansion. It is not really installed correctly, and it's much too big for the windows it surrounds, but I can't tell if that was intended or not.

Anyway, it's interesting to look at, but the important thing is that they have a sandwich called the Banana Cured Pork Sandwich. It's a succulent, juicy pulled pork sandwich topped with swiss cheese, and this stuff called banana ketchup. I had never heard of the stuff, but there is actually a Wikipedia article for it. To me it tastes kind of like a strongly flavored, thick apple butter. The bun is just outstanding, and the much better than average sliced pickles and unlimited fries served with it combine to make this a memorable sandwich.

Red Flame Salsa

This may sound weird, but it's really really good, and you need to try it... Next time you're eating a tomato-based salsa with chips, mix in some Red Flame Raisins! I don't know what made me think of it, but I was eating some Tostitos Gold with Pace chunky salsa the other day, and I wondered what it would taste like if I threw in some raisins. I was hesitant to try, because it doesn't seem like a good combination at first, but I am so glad I did!

I mixed in a hefty portion of Sun-Maid Mixed Jumbo Raisins (a mix of Thompson, California Golden, and Red Flame raisins). At first I couldn't tell if I liked it or not, but slowly I realized that if you narrow it down to just the Red Flame raisins, it sings! Use lots of raisins, not just a few. It's difficult to overpower the intensity of the salsa with the mild sweetness of the Red Flames, and the chewy texture the raisins add to the salsa is really exciting.

Enjoy!

Getting Started in Woodworking

I've decided to make my own wood products because the ones that I like on the market are waaaaay too expensive for me. I want new kitchen cabinets, radiator covers, screen doors, bathroom cabinets and vanities, book cases, cabinets for the basement, teak planters, a nice desk, a couple of beds, some benches, etc. Of course, building this all myself will cost money in tools and wood.

Developing a collection of tools to make all this happen requires no small investment in both time and floor space. Here I'll list some of the modern power tools you're expected to own, and then how I cut costs and floor space by using alternatives.

For starters, in order to make straight, square boards with parallel faces, which is absolutely essential, you need a jointer and a thickness planer. With the jointer you can get a flat face and side. The planer can then create a parallel and flat other side.

The jointer is part of the triumvirate of modern shop tools. Table saw, jointer, and router. Good jointers for under $1000 are only 6" jointers, which means you can only flatten boards that are 6" wide or less. They say you should buy the biggest jointer you can afford. Instead of buying a jointer, you can save space by investing in a good set of hand planes. This approach requires more manual labor, and time. The standard three are a smoothing plane, for smoothing surfaces and jointing or flattening small boards, a jack plane for flattening and jointing medium to large panels, and a jointer plane for jointing and flattening large or long surfaces.

You should NOT go cheap with hand planes. The cheapest you can go is antique Stanley Bedrock or Bailey planes (preferably Bedrock) found on eBay, Craigslist, or a yard sale or flea market. Expect to pay upwards of $100 for ones in good condition. You can be guaranteed quality steel by buying new planes. Lie-Nielsen and Veritas are your only choice for new ones, IMHO.

I'm going with the Veritas bevel-up jointer plane, and the Lie-Nielsen 4 1/2 smoother and low angle jack plane. Altogether that's more expensive than a decent 6" jointer, but you can joint and flatten boards much wider than 6", and you save floor space. ...and you have some really, really nice hand tools that, if properly cared for, will last you the rest of your life (and then some, which is why it's perfectly OK to buy high quality used ones off of eBay).

You also need a good table saw, and by good I mean one that you can count on for accurate, reliable cuts, and a table that is sufficiently flat and designed to handle after-market jigs and fences, and a zero-clearance throat plate. I bought an el-cheapo Ryobi $100 table saw last year, and immediately realized why it was the cheapest table saw in Home Depot: The blade is difficult to keep perpendicular to the table, and it's designed in such a way as to not take a zero-clearance throat plate, and the table is too cheap to work with after-market fences. It's crap! It did get me through the projects I bought it for though, and I only had $100 to spend at the time, and it fit in my car's trunk, so...

To save both space and money, you can sub in a modern guide system for a table saw. The Festool Rail Guide system is regarded as the best on the market. It comes with a high-quality, highly adjustable circular saw and lots of accessories, for about $500-$700, depending on how much you trick it out. Probably a worthwhile investment. I already have a good circular saw, so I went with the less expensive, but not as integrated, Eurekazone EZ Smart Guide system. It was $300 with the square attachment and shipping. It is not as good a system as the Festool, but hopefully it will suffice.

You'll also need a drill press. To cut both costs and floor space, you can limp along with a portable drill guide system, which turns your drill into a drill press. I've not tried one yet, but I've been told they are adequate for small projects, but after a while, you'll get sick of it.

You will also need a router, and there's really no way around that, but luckily routers do not take up floor space... just the router table. Routers are used to create decorative edging, dadoes, flushing up an edge with a template, rabbets, mortises, etc. You will use one in practically every project. There's two basic kinds of routers: fixed base and plunge. I won't tell you which one is the better buy. Just Google "fixed base vs. plunge router". There's plenty of debate on that topic.

Oh, by the way... You're also going to need a router table. And router bits, which aren't cheap.

And a band saw, to resaw your own lumber, cut book-matched panels, tenons, curves, and do a bunch of other nifty things. I think the band saw is a must-buy. There's really no simple way to do the things it can do with less expensive tools. A good way to save money on wood is to break down fallen trees from after a storm. If you're going that route, you'll want a riser block for the band saw, which adds an extra few inches (6 in the case of my band saw) so you can saw through 12" diameter logs.

You will need the thickness planer. I can't think of a way of getting a parallel face by hand without one. How did they do it in the olden days? Anyway, a bench planer is actually a relatively cheap piece of equipment (relatively), and will probably save you a lot of time you're going to want back after hand planing and jointing all your boards.

Now it's time to start organizing your work space. You're going to need to build a workbench. Follow the instruction Franz Klausz laid out in this article to build a classic cabinetmaker's bench. But first, Martin, you will need to make room in the basement to work. Raise the basement ceiling by tearing out the drywall ceiling, and lifting all the utility pipes up into the joists. Then reclaim some valuable floorspace by replacing the water heater and boiler with compact high-efficiency models. Or maybe it would be better in the long run to just build a two car garage, and make it the workshop...

Provincial Landscape

This article about a booming St. Louis suburb speaks for itself, but the photo by Karen Stockman is priceless. I might have to purchase a print and have it framed. Enjoy!

Lamb Stew w/Dumplings

Well, I've recycled my venison stew recipe, and made some modifications for using fresh lamb, and I think it was another success. This time, I was using fresh lamb cut into cubes (labeled and sold as stew meat at the supermarket... not sure what cut it came from), and I also did not have any fresh rosemary, so I used the dried stuff, and I didn't have any milk, so I mixed up some dry milk, and I didn't have any celery, so I just put in a couple more carrots, and didn't have any vegetable stock, so I just used water, and I now wish I had used the fresh cauliflower I have, but forgot about it, because it would've really given the stew some serious vegetable presence, but the real winner I discovered with this stew was the use of... Turmeric!

Yes, I added about a tablespoon or two of Turmeric, and it really brought the stew to life with a rich yellow color, and, combined with the coriander, a very slight reference to curry, which of course goes hand in hand with lamb. The use of dried rosemary actually helped the recipe, I think because it came through stronger than before, and it really did nothing but improve the bouquet.

To start this stew, I browned the meat in the oil and butter, then removed the meat to a bowl, and continued with the venison recipe, making an onion roux. Then deglazed w/water, added the meat and the rest of the veggies, added the spices, brought to a boil, and then reduced to a simmer for about an hour or so. Then made the dumplings, cooked them 10 minutes uncovered, 10 covered, then removed the stew from the heat to let cool for about 30 minutes, then served.

Deeeelishus!

Venison Stew with Dumplings

I got pretty lucky with this one, because I didn't use a recipe. Turns out stew is pretty easy when you have the right ingredients...

1 large jar of pressure cooked venison (thanks Katie & Tim!)
6 celery stalks
4 carrots
3 potatoes (Idaho Russets are probably best for stew... that's what I used)
2 onions (I used Vidalias)
3 bay leaves (I used fresh, but not sure if this matters)
1.5 tbsp unsalted butter
1.5 tbsp oil (I used canola)
about 1.5 cups of regular flour
about 2 cups of Bisquick (regular or Heart Smart)
about 1/2 cup of milk (your preference of fat content)
about 2 cups of stock (I used vegetable stock)
some kosher salt
some pepper
some fresh rosemary
some mustard seed
some coriander

Clean and chop the vegetables. I like them all in small chunks except for the potatoes, which should be large chunks. Make a light roux with the flour, butter, oil, and onions (how to make roux shown here and here). Deglaze with the stock, and put in the rest of the vegetables. Let that cook down for a little while, then add the meat, with its juices, about 4 quarts of water, and the salt, herbs, and spices.

Let that whole thing simmer uncovered for about 1-2 hours. If you feel like you added too much water, you may need to let it cook off longer. I didn't actually measure the water, but I think it was about 4 quarts. You don't want the stew to become too thick while it's cooking because believe-you-me, after spending a night in the refrigerator, it will be twice as thick as it was when you put it in there.

About 25 minutes before the stew is done stewing, mix up your milk and Bisquick to make a thick dough (if it's too thin, it won't hold up well in the stew) per the directions on the box for "dumplings", break off a random piece about 2 inches in diameter (don't roll it up too much, the irregularity gives it more visual appeal), and drop it in the stew. Continue dropping slightly spherical chunks of dough into the stew until the top is covered. My pot takes about 8 dumplings to cover. You'll notice the dough expands fairly quickly to about three times its size in the stew. Let that cook for 10 minutes uncovered, and 10 minutes covered.

Turn off the heat, and let the stew cool for awhile. You may want to pull the dumplings off the top with a slotted spoon and set them aside so the stew can thicken faster (steam escapes faster that way).

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most important leaders in our country's history. He was also one of our most eloquent and inspirational orators. If you have not seen his speeches before, watch his "I Have a Dream" speech: http://www.mlkonline.net. It is truly amazing. They say he started off with a scripted speech, but about halfway through, started improvising.

What boggles my mind today, on Martin Luther King's birthday, a national holidy, is the lack of television content regarding Dr. King. I thought BET might have something going on today, but actually no, they don't have one solitary program dedicated to the man on his birthday! Just the regular Monday lineup! So, then I thought well if BET doen't have anything, surely CoLours would... wrong again! Zilch. Nada. The Biography Channel? Nope, but there's two hours dedicated to Burt Reynolds at 9am and 3pm. The Documentary Channel? No, no, no.

Am I really such a couch potato that even the networks think that since everyone will be out of their houses honoring the late civil rights leader at local events, there's no point in even putting on any programs? I kind of doubt it.

I did find a couple assassination documentaries on The History Channel, as well as a documentary that talks about his life and times. Also, PBS is going to run a major film tonight called "Citizen King," so I'm looking forward to that.

It is completely absurd that of the 200 channels I get, there will only be two programs today that I could find that will talk about Dr. King's life and worldview. The two assassination documentaries only get partial credit, although they are interesting. BET is the biggest dissappointment. I am completely floored that a channel dedicated to African-American audiences will not make room for one solitary hour in its schedule to remember one of Black America's brightest, most ardent, and beloved leaders, on a national holiday dedicated to the man.

Well, BET has been criticized by many highly regarded African-American institutions, so I guess it shouldn't suprise me that much... but it just seems wrong. Same goes for CoLours.

Traditional Irish

There's a new Irish restaurant here in St. Louis called The Dubliner. Before my office was moved out to soul-crushing suburbs this month, we ate lunch there a few times. I quickly became a huge fan of the boiled bacon with parsley sauce, and I think I'm finally approaching a quality reproduction at home. To begin with, it's not actually boiled bacon, like you're thinking. This was actually pulled pork loin, I'm pretty sure.

So I bought a pork tenderloin today, and went home and made a vegetable stock. I had to get rid of some old veggies anyway. I used baby portabella mushrooms, zuchinni, boston lettuce, a bunch of parsley, some celery, about 4 carrots, and three bay leaves. Covered it all with water, and then simmered it for about an hour. Then I strained, and threw away the vegetables.

Next, I put the tenderloin in with the stock and about a tablespoon of kosher salt, and started that on a boil for 30 minutes, covered.

I wanted some potatoes to go with this, so I peeled four russetts, and started cooking them like I talked about a couple posts ago.

With about 5 minutes left on the tenderloin, I got out my sauce pan, and started making a roux by melting about 1.5 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a tablespoon of canola oil. I brought that up to medium high heat, and started adding flour until it looked pretty thick (but not too thick). I'm still learning the whole roux thing. It takes practice. Anyway, here's where the magic happened... when the roux was ready for liquid, I took about three ladles full of the broth that the loin had cooked in, and put it in with the roux, stirring furiously to break up the ensuing lumps, and then added about three or four cups of milk, continuing to stir and stir to get those damn lumps out.

Once I had the sauce pretty well blended, I brought the heat up to bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, I washed off a bunch of fresh parsley and chopped it. Use a lot of fresh parsley here. After chopping it, it filled both of my cupped hands. About that time the milk came to a boil. I backed the heat off, and put the parsley in. Then I stirred and stirred and stirred until the sauce evaporated enough that I could turn off the heat to let it thicken by standing.

I pulled the pork by combing it with two dinner forks (one to hold it, one to comb it). Everything turned out really well, but I think the tenderloin would've been more flavorful if I had let it sit overnight in that stock before cooking it. I'll try that next time. Or, maybe an herb marinade with a dash of salt overnight would be better. It seems to be a dry meat, and needs some kind of flavor infusion beyond just boiling it in stock.

Venison Tamales

Making tamales is fun, and the results are delicious. I found an instant masa flour in Schnucks called Maseca Instant Corn Masa Mix, and next to it a bag of corn husks called Palenque Corn Husks, so I figured I'd give it a try.

After attempting to make tamales for the first time a few days ago, I have learned a few things. There are some tricks to rolling tamales. The dough, or masa, can be difficult to work with, and folding up tamales in corn husks, and having them stay that way, a bit of a challenge. I don't claim to know much, but I'll share what I have learned.

First thing I've learned is that the tamale filling doesn't have to be anything remotely Mexican. Sure, if you want to make traditional tamales, you should probobly stick to the recipes you find online, but really a tamale can be stuffed with anything meaty, or maybe even some kind of vegetarian filling using tofu, and it will be good. The key thing to think about is if the flavor of the filling will go well with the strong corn flavor of the masa.

The second thing I learned is that folding the corn husks like the Maseca package suggests is not as tractable as tying the ends with strips of corn husk. This is a trick I picked up from a Mexican co-worker. It solves the problem of the husks wanting to lay flat after you're finished packaging the tamale.

Next, I figured out that it's much easier to pick out a good, smooth corn husk, get it nice and damp (not dripping), and use it to press the masa into the candidate corn husk that you're rolling in. That's because the masa will not stick to it. Pressing the masa with your hands is too messy. You could probobly use many things for this, but that's what I came to.

Also, I've found that you can pick out another nice, smooth corn husk, and use it to roll every tamale, then transfer the perfectly rolled tamale to a lesser husk for packaging. So, you have your husk you use for pressing, and the one you use for rolling, and the one you'll use to actually roll the tamale up in.

So, the process goes like this... You have your bowl of meat mixture, and a bowl of masa, and a stack of cleaned, dampened corn husks, and your two really nice big, smooth, damp corn husks, which I'll call your working husks. You put a portion of masa in the one of the working husks, then press it down flat with the other working husk, then put the meat in there, and roll the tamale up like a cigarette. The working husk acts just like a manual cigarette roller, if you've ever used one. Hard to explain in writing. Anyway, you then transfer the tamale to a husk for packaging, roll it up, and tie the ends with nice, sturdy, thin strips of corn husk, and put it in the steamer, then repeat until the steamer is full, or you run out of some resource.

Now, for the recipe...

3 cloves of garlic
1/2 large Vadalia onion
2 stalks of celery
1 tsp of olive oil
1 tsp of unsalted butter
1 jar of pressure cooked venison
2 cups water
1 tsp of kosher salt
1 handful of fresh oregano
3 fresh bay leaves

I chopped three cloves of garlic, half of a large vadalia onion, and two stalks of celery, then lightly sauteed (it was an aggressive sweat, really) that in a medium sized pot with a teaspoon each of olive oil and unsalted butter. Then I put in a jar of canned venison which was pressure cooked in its own juices (thanks Katie and Tim!). Added water until it was barely covered, threw in some kosher salt, and brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer until it was nearly cooked down. Then added three fresh bay leaves and a handful of chopped fresh oregano, and let that simmer until there was very little juice left. Then removed it from the heat, removed the bay leaves, and strained it to remove any fluid that the meat couldn't hold. I wanted it moist, but not messy.

Now, get to rollin' those tamales! It takes a few to get into the rhythm. I use a bamboo steamer, so once it's filled, I've rolled all I can. Steam them for an hour, refrigerate (or eat) the finished product, and refill those steamers until all the masa is gone.

Good and yummy for lunch, dinner, or snack. My tamales were a bit dry the first time I made them, so I used the parsley sauce I mentioned in my last blog, and that worked pretty well (they were made with ground beef and green serrano peppers). I did make the masa with less broth (chicken) than the recipe called for, because I thought the dough was not supposed to be so soft, but this time I used the whole two cups it calls for, so they're nice and moist. Anyway, a tamale with sauce is better than one without. I think for the venison tamales, a robust wine sauce would be nice, but I don't have any wine, so I'll have to come up with something. OK, timer just went off, time to eat!

Update: These are seriously good tamales. Even without a sauce.

Potatoes

Mmm... potatoes! I've come up with a new way of preparing these little critters that is deeeelishus. Start by peeling about seven potatoes. Half them, and then quarter the halves. Boil until well done, then drain. In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp of butter (or so). Throw in the potatoes, and start frying. Toss them in the pan every few minutes until they are flaky golden brown. This will take a long time - maybe 20 minutes - because they will not start turning golden until most of the water is evaporated.

If the potatoes were not boiled long enough, they just end up like home fries, but slightly softer, creamier, on the inside. However, if you get it right, they get rounded like river stones while you toss them because they're so soft from boiling, and the golden skins are very flaky and delicate because they are broken and recreated by the tossing action.

I serve them with a parsley sauce that I have not mastered yet. I'm open to suggestions. The best I've done so far was to make a light roux with unsalted butter and flour, then add milk and let thicken, then remove from heat and stir in kosher salt and parsley. I can't remember how I did it the first time, but it was bland both times. I think some good vegetable stock is needed...

Sure would be great if I had a digital camera, I could photograph the golden flakey goodness for y'all. Maybe later this year I'll get one... the good ones have to come down in price some time!

Coach Rod is Staying!

YES!!! Thank you, Rich Rodriguez. You've truly proven that this old world still has some light left in it. You've made the right decision. I could not be more proud that you are our head coach. The Mountaineers will continue to build and impress, and we will lead this conference to a national championship.

Believe it or not, the news only gets better! Greg Schiano also turned down Miami to stay at Rutgers, and Jim Leavitt says he's happy at South Florida. Earlier this year, Bobby Petrino decided to stay at Louisville after the Oakland Raiders made him an offer. I feel like we all got a huge early Christmas present this year! We have some really great coaches comfortably entrenched now. Rodriguez, Petrino, Schiano, Leavitt. Let's face it: we are one lucky conference right now.

What a great time for the Big East. We have the most desired coaches in college football, and they most desire to be right where they are. Thank you to all.

Climatologist: Alps warmest in 1,300 years

That's right, everyone. Better enjoy what little snow we have, because it's getting more and more difficult for ski resorts to produce a viable hill. We're actually doing pretty well in the rockies, but the Alps are not. So far this year, the FIS has had to cancel several races in Europe due to a lack of snow. Val Gardena is getting a weak green for next weekend, presuming they can keep the hill covered.

FIS men's tour director, Guenter Hujara talked about how it sneaks up on you. "... all of a sudden the World Cup starts and you need the white stuff. And to produce it, you need the cold temperature and the water."

How much human migration will take place over the next 20 years? Will people be driven by the heat to move towards the poles? Will old resorts have to close down, and new ones emerge in once-frozen regions?

Here is a striking example of just how much our planet has warmed up over the past 60 years. It's a pair of pictures of Muir glacier, in Alaska. One was taken in 1941, and the other in 2004.

A PB&J for the Holidays

I've been perfecting a Christmas sandwich recipe. It's basically a fancy-schmancy PB&J. Try it, change it, enjoy it, and let me know what you think...

Requires:
Couple slices of French bread
Some peanut butter
Some raisins
Orange marmalade
Ground nutmeg
Ground cinnamon
Ground coriander
Honey
Butter or margarine

Slice some French bread, and very lightly toast it. On one side, apply peanut butter, and sprinkle on some cinnamon, nutmeg, and coriander. Pour on a minor amount of honey. Toast in toaster oven until spices are activated, but before the honey melts too much. You may want to put some aluminum foil down to prevent honey from dripping into the oven. Remove from toaster, and then place the raisins on top. On the other side of bread, put on a very light layer of butter or margarine, and a decent portion of orange marmalade. Put it all together, and enjoy!

I used coriander because to me it has a kind of bright, lemon-like smell that adds to the spiced citrus theme. Some lemon zest would be a good substitute, maybe. A very delicate treatment with ground cloves and/or ginger would probobly add to the Christmas-iness of it. Also some toasted almonds would be a welcome addition, if you have them. I used a dark honey from Gibbons Bee Farm here in Missouri. I think the rich flavor works better than a light honey would. I also use light margarine instead of butter, but I'm not really convinced that that part of the recipe is even necessary. You could probobly omit it altogether. I've been using the jumbo raisin mix from Sunmaid. I'm thinking I like the flavor variations in the sandwich, but if you only have the regular dark kind of raisins, I'm sure it would still be pretty good.

This sandwich is great w/a glass of milk!

Get Your Grubby Hands Off My Coach!

Seriously. The Big East is making its move to the big time. We have so much potential right now. WVU, Louisville, and Rutgers have all shown a lot of talent and heart this year, and the nation has noticed. When we lost Miami, BC, and Virginia Tech, everyone thought the Big East would quietly slink into obscurity, lose its BCS bid, and eventually dissolve.

Welly welly welly welly well! South Florida is now showing promise, and with a BCS bid stably assured to our conference for the forseeable future, I think they'll start drawing some of that amazing Floridian football talent. Pittsburgh is just having a couple down years. Wannstedt will have that program in the top 25 consistently soon. Hell, even Syracuse may creep back out of the basement some day, back to their former glory as a respectable football program, which produced such greats as Art Monk, Donovan McNabb, and Larry Csonka.

So, of course, everyone wants to strip the Big East of its most prized assets: its coaches. I am literally getting sick of reading articles saying how Rich Rodriguez, Bobby Petrino, and Greg Schiano are all candidates somewhere else. And if Rutgers fails to step up and pay Schiano to stay in New Jersey, I may feel compelled to take matters into my own hands... not sure how I'd do that, but I'd do something... and it probobly wouldn't be pretty. Louisville's already given Petrino a pretty sweet deal, and he's commited to them, according to this post. WVU has also stepped up and given Richie Rod what he asked for. Hopefully they'll keep heaping it on. Investing in these coaches now will pay off big for all these programs in the future, even if the coaches do choose to leave. As long as we can keep them here long enough to build up the conference's reputation as a whole, we'll all benefit from it.

Consider the fact that when the Big East was abandoned by Miami, VT, and BC, we still had WVU and Pitt, but even though those were both good programs, our BCS bid was under serious scrutiny. Without it, a top coach would obviously have doubts about moving to, or staying in, the dying conference. Thankfully, we've come through with some clutch wins, and shown the world that we're not a dying conference, but one with incredible potential for long term growth and improvement. Who knows, maybe we'll even be able to get Penn State to take notice. If we can keep these great coaches here long enough to build the conference up into a powerhouse conference, like the SEC and the Pac-10, we would be able to more easily afford losing them, because other great coaches will be more attracted to the conference.

Miami, Alabama, Florida State, and UNC, I'm talking to you when I say...

Get your stinking hands off my coaches, you damned dirty apes!

Vive St. Louis!

I really do love living in St. Louis. I live in St. Louis City. Shaw, to be precise. St. Louis's neighborhoods are distinct entities with well-defined borders, which is pretty cool. However, I'm not from St. Louis, I was raised in rural West Virginia. Yes, rural West Virginia. I say this because I've found that most of the people I know who live in St. Louis proper are also not from St. Louis, or even the St. Louis area. Like me, they were raised in rural America.

Over the past seven years I've lived here, I've learned that there's some sort of stigma felt by native "St. Louisans" against living in the actual city. It totally caught me by suprise when I first moved here, because I had no idea that when you live in the city, you're not actually supposed to live in the city. Nobody told me.

My neighbors are from places like northern Mississippi, southwest Missouri, northern Pennsylvania, northern Utah, etc. Rural places. I guess nobody told them either. It's an interesting phenomena. As it turns out, the most fervent proponents of City Living in St. Louis that I know of were raised in rural environments (not suburbs). It seems to me that most "St. Louisans" take pride in saying they're from St. Louis, but only about 1% of the people I work with actually live in the city. About 1 in 100. Most people live about 30 minutes from Downtown, or more. Why would you want to live so far from where you work?

The City of St. Louis is a great place to live. It has some of the most unique and beautiful buildings - both commercial and residential - in all of America. The natives generally don't appreciate that. These houses are relatively inexpensive, to boot. Why someone would want to live out in the 'burbs, in a house with hollow doors, vinyl siding, and that cheap 1" wide painted wood trim, when they could be living in a solid brick house with solid core doors, stained glass, hardwood floors, and real oak and pine wood trim, for the same price or less, and be much closer to work, is totally beyond me.

Living in St. Louis has made me firmly believe that supporting the city, any city, is a great way to preserve the environment. Urban sprawl is a sickening waste of green space. Sure, everyone wants to live in their own private Idaho. They stretch infrastructure out into the prairie, or the [insert sensitive ecosystem here], and then complain about the cost of gas, and traffic, and taxes. Man, get a clue. If more people had the notion to make America's urban areas strong, safe, and vibrant places to live, imagine the money - and scenery - we could save.

I'm not saying every city should be like Tokyo. There's definately a point where you can have overcrowding. However, the endless fields of McMansions sprouting up across the plains and valleys is just atrocious.

This coming from a person who loves and respects the American landscape too much to block the view with cheap vinyl siding, and stacks of gables.

Another thing about urban sprawl that irritates the shit out of me is how people who live in suburbs like to consider themselves simple country folk. Ok, just because you own a pickup truck, and you actually do live in the country, does not make you simple country folk. Dude, we all know that truck has never seen more than an inch of mud, and the number of times you actually used it to haul something definately does not justify the cost of owning it. I know you want to be a simple, manly man, in an ever-increasingly complex world, but get real. Owning a pickup truck doesn't make you a man. Independent thought, integrity, and wisdom are what make you a man.

Sorry this turned into a rant about suburbanism, but it did, and I'm not taking it back.

Republicans vs. Democrats

How is it that the U.S. is split perfectly in two by the two reigning political parties? How can it be that voters vote almost exactly 50% vs 50% each presidential vote? It seems preposterous to me that a country of 300 million people would somehow find themselves split directly in twain, opposing each other.

In following with the populus, the rest of our government is likewise split. The Senate, the House of Representatives, the Judiciary. Every branch is split nearly in half, except for the Executive, which can only be controlled by one party.

The only explanation I can speculate is that the tweaking of each party to suit voters' preferences, as well as the time-honored tradition of gerrymandering, over time, has gradually developed this impenetrable parity. I believe a balance this perfect can only serve to perpetuate the two parties currently in power, which is exactly what I do not want.

I would love to see a new party rise to power in America that is based on rationalism and social responsibility. However, I'm afraid that will not happen, because with two parties so perfectly opposed, a voter is always obliged to vote for the lesser of two evils, else deal with the anxiety of feeling the vote was wasted.

How does a third party become a viable alternative? I'm really asking, because I know very little about political theory, which is probably already evident to anyone who does know.

1) There must be a secession of powerful politicians from the two encumbant parties to draw voters to it. Of course they must be motivated to secede, and there must be an entity, or idea, responsible for uniting them.

2) There must an extremely strong grass-roots movement to mobilize unprecedented numbers of voters in favor of the new party. This seems practically impossible.

3) One of the two major parties must become so crippled by dissention among its voters, that it either redefines itself, or is overtaken by a third party.

I just don't understand how I, as a voter, can only have the choice of voting for the bible-thumping Republican party, with its fear mongering, and its disgusting corporate handouts, or the fumbling Democratic party, with its uninspired, syrupy, legislative ineptitude.

No matter who the candidate is, they all become the same person the further up the ladder they go. They're forced to by their obligations to the party. It's a fact of life. We need more idealistic rationalists in government. Seems like the only kind of people in Washington D.C. are extremists. How about some extreme rationalism?

EOF

Well, we're back. It was a grueling journey to get back. 27 hours in the world of the living before our flight from Chicago to St. Louis was cancelled. Luckily the people in our travel dept. reacted quickly by rebooking our flights for Tuesday and getting us rooms at a hotel near O'Hare. We did finally make it back to STL, where it was a shocking 95 degrees outside, but nonetheless it was nice to be home.

Friday night we went out to dinner at a German restaurant in the Pudong area called Paulaners. It was really good. I'm not sure what the deal is with all the german influence in Shanghai, but it's clearly there. Everyone is driving VWs and Audis, and there's the Bund, a German word, which is an old business district in Shanghai, and there seem to be a lot of German people around town. Anyway, I got a couple decent night pictures of the Jin Mao tower, which is really an absolute marvel of a building, in my personal opinion.

Golf on Saturday was really cool. It was the first time I've ever played with caddies. They were two girls who were very focused on our game, and really tried to stay in the background. They were just there to give yardages, keep score, and manage the clubs. All I had to do was walk up to my ball, reach out for a club, hit it, give her back the club, and walk on. It was a very nice course, albeit very short. I shot an 85, which sounds great, until you consider that there was only one or two holes over 300 yds. Mostly par 3s and 4s, but we probobly lost about two dozen balls to all the water, between the three of us. We had a great time though.

After golf, we went to a local dim sum joint, and that experience made me a new devotee to dim sum. They were awesome! We got two bamboo steamers filled with steamed dumplings, one kind with pork, and the other with a pork/crabmeat mixture. In the dumplings was also a portion of broth. They were fantastic. Apparently not many dim sum shops have the skill to get the broth in the dumpling. It was something special.

Sunday we got our shopping done. We went to a place called the Yuyuan Garden. Apparently there is actually a garden there, in fact a 400 year old classical garden that some consider the best in China, but unfortunately we never saw it, because we got hung up in the little shops leading up to it.

The Chinese National Holiday had officially started by Sunday, so there were people everywhere. Even more than usual in Shanghai. Let me tell you it was a very intense experience to be descended upon by all those shop keepers. They were hungry to sell, and the bargaining continued until money was exchanged.

I think I actually got some pretty good deals, because I was not really in the mood to spend money. I felt a little guilty after one exchange because I think I actually bargained too low. The lady had hit me in the chest in a friendly way saying "you no money!" It was like a wierd reverse buyer's guilt. Oh well, other deals were good for both sides I think. After about an hour of that shopping we had to step outside to get some air. We did go back in after a little mental preparation. It was a pretty fun, albeit frenetic, experience.

Thanks to everyone who posted comments to the blog while I was in China! Hope to see you all soon.