New Candies Reviewed

Yet another new Snickers has emerged. It's a rocky road flavored Snickers that they have dubbed the "Rockin' Nut Road Bar". This is perhaps the best Snickers incarnation ever. It has almonds, caramel, and marshmallow-flavored nougat and is covered in dark chocolate. If I have any complaint, it's that that almonds could better be described as "tiny almond bits".
Recommendation: Buy

The next new candy is the marshmallow filled Hershey's Kiss. This sounded like a sure winner to me, because I love marshmallow. I was sad to discover that it isn't actually filled with marshmallow, but rather a thick, partially hydrogenated coconut oil and corn starch paste that really doesn't have any marshmallow flavor to it. The texture is unmarshmallowlike. The flavor is off. Great concept, horrid execution.
Recommendation: Avoid

Little French Place in Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood, NYC

Brasserie 52

A pretty good place. You could do much better in NYC of course but you could do much worse as well.

The Bathroom Floor Project

We finally finished the basement bathroom floor project tonight. Steps included cutting and laying tile, then lining it with sanded acrylic caulk and adding quarter round along the walls. I also repainted the sink cabinet and added more modern handles and knobs. The first picture is "before", the second is "after.

The Grand Gobbler

Yesterday we heard a tapping, a quiet tapping at the door.

Turns out our turkey friend had come to say hi. Though he became shy as we approached we snapped this shot as he reproached.

(click to enlarge for a better view of the bird)

New Mellencamp gets Decent Reviews; Dad's Birthday Gift "Taking Shape"

80/100 Billboard
Searching for a ray of lyrical light in John Mellencamp's latest treatise on the state of the world proves consuming—but largely fruitless. That, however, makes the album all the more compelling.

80/100 Rolling Stone
Mellencamp teamed up with producer T Bone Burnett to create a whole new sound--a set of textured, atmospheric folk and country blues that adds up to one of the most compelling albums of Mellencamp's career.

80/100 The New York Times
It’s a brave album in the way it sets aside all his old consolations.

80/100 Boston Globe
Eschewing any concept of "radio ready" and singing with a gruff immediacy, Mellencamp tackles all of the titular concepts on this folk- and blues-based material with a sense of liberation that is keenly palpable.

Yuki's Best Walk Ever

Yuki and I were on our typical night hike tonight when I heard him snatch something up in his mouth. It looked like a piece of trash so I told him to drop it, which he did. Turns out it was an unopened bag of teriyaki beef jerky. I examined the bag and saw no evidence of tampering. The bag was dry and clean, and the expiration date was safely in the distant future. I considered saving the bag to eat myself since I was 99% sure it was safe. Someone probably just dropped it by accident. Then I realized that it wasn't my jerky. It belonged to the rightful finder, Yuki. I ripped open the bag and dumped it on the sidewalk. Yuki ate it all in about 20 seconds. He proudly carried the empty jerky bag the entire way home.

The Yuki Plate

We were driving around town this weekend when we spotted this amazing personalized license plate. "Yuki" is not only a fine name for a dog, but it is also a fairly common name given to Japanese women. The word also means "snow" in Japanese. A logical assumption then, would be that this Toyota Corolla is owned by either a canine, a snowman, or a Japanese woman.

Public Safety Announcement

Please keep in mind, lions and tigers are not the only dangerous zoo creatures. ¡Las focas tambien te puedan morder!

Winter Does Cameron Park!

July 8, 2008 - Starbucks Everywhere Blog

After winning $300 in the Late Bird, I dropped Rebecca off at the airport, I headed out at 1:03 PM. My mission seemed Herculean. Get as close as I could to 30 stores a day in an effort to reach and clear Florida before any new stores closed. An so began The Implosion Blitz.

Got "frazzled" right away. I-80 was backed up in Truckee so from Tahoe City I went south to US-50 since I had to visit a store down that way, in Cameron Park. But I lost 15-30 minutes when the highway was reduced to one lane. Grrr...

Product of Arkansas

I bought a package of tomatoes in Nebraska this weekend and noticed this sticker proudly hailing the fruit's Arkansas roots. If you slap this sticker on enough stuff, maybe the "Product of Arkansas" slogan will achieve the fame of the big three: "Made in Taiwan", "Made in China", and "Hecho en México".

New York City Lowlight...M&M World

Generally speaking, we had a great time in New York City this past week. The low point came when Stephanie and our friend Kelly insisted we stop by the M&M's World Store. What a waste of valuable Times Square real estate! All this place does is sell M&M's Candies in various colors and containers. Really, the only difference between M&M's World and your typical gas station quick shop is that M&M's World's candy selection is worse, and they don't sell gas. As you can see from the photo, I wasn't having any fun!

Steph and Kelly were pretty excited though...

M&M's World

Generally speaking, we had a great time in Vegas this past weekend. The low point came when Erin insisted we stop by the M&M's World Store. What a waste of valuable strip real estate! All this place does is sell M&M's Candies in various colors and containers. Really, the only difference between M&M's World and your typical gas station quick shop is that M&M's World's candy selection is worse, and they don't sell gas. As you can see from the photo, I wasn't having any fun!

Patriot Pups

The beagles donned their red, white and blue bandanas once again for the Fourth of July and Kodak showed his agility by climbing up and down Jack's play structure.




Meanwhile, Steph snapped this shot of a turkey through our back fence! Fattening himself up for Thanksgiving no doubt.

Jack's First Emergency

Jack fell at daycare and took a gash to the head last week. We both left work and ran him to an urgent care type place. We opted to durabond the wound closed vs. stitches.



In the end, he handled the whole thing better than we did!

Camp Bow Wow

As we head out of town this weekend, Yuki will be spending a few days at Camp Bow Wow. This exclusive doggie camp will allow the animal to "play all day and sleep the night away". If you would like to see Yuki playing with his other doggie friends, here is a link to the bow wow web cams. The best bet for camera choice should be "indoor play area three" and "outdoor play area three". I think that is the area where the large dogs like Yuki play. Best Yuki viewing times should be during these business hours:

Mon-Fri: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
Sat, Sun and Holidays: 7:00 am - 10:00 am &
4:00 pm - 7:00 pm

I'm dropping Yuki off the morning of the fourth around 9:30ish. See the big drop off in the lobby cam! Yuki can be viewed on the Camp Bow Wow cams until I pick him up Monday afternoon.

Terrified of Door Dings

Some guy at the gym seems awfully fond of his 1993 Mitsubshi Eclipse. I'm concerned that if he buys an even sweeter ride, say a 2002 Hyundai Tiburon, he might start roping off the entire parking to keep dangerous Buicks at a safe distance.