Kerner.net

ODEO

I got an invite to Odeo last night and I have to say it's pretty slick. As far as tools for finding and subscribing to podcasts it's the best I've seen. Podcasting has always seemed a bit lame to me, perhaps it was just the tools that were available. The audio creation portion still isn't done yet, this is the part that I think will be key. Having a good interface to find and subscribe to audio feeds is great, but having an easy way for people to produce audio feeds will be even better. From what I've seen so far, this service is going to be very slick. No word on pricing yet but I'm guessing that the business model will be to charge people to produce/host podcasts. I'm skeptical about what price people will pay to podcast. I'd bet that it isn't very high -- unless odeo sees their main source of revenue coming from commercial producers.

Fridge In Place

We got our refrigerator moved into the house on Sunday afternoon only to discover that it didn't fit into the spot in the kitchen. We had measured this fridge and the one that was in the house before we bought it and we thought they were the same size. Apparently we didn't measure too well because our fridge was about 1/4" too tall. Luckily our friend Joe (who does millwork and cabinetry) came over Monday to look at the problem and then back last night to help fix it. We trimmed off about 1/2" of the trim on the cabinets above the fridge and then sanded it flat with a belt sander -- there shouldn't be any fridge worries from here on out. It's nice to have the fridge not in the middle of the kitchen floor.

2005 Paella Party

We've done a paella party every year for the past several years and this year will be no different. This year the paella party also serves as a sort of house warming -- the first event in our new home.

We'll be scrambling like crazy to get everything in order this week for the party on Saturday. We won't have much on the walls, but stuff will be put away and the furniture will be in place. Last night we finished the basement room and part of the main floor. I'm hoping will get the main floor done tonight so that the upstairs can be completed Thursday/Friday.

I think I'm going to have to experiment with the paella recipe as well. This year the rule will be if it doesn't walk on dry land it's out. I've been informed that several people have shellfish allergies or other issues with seafood so we'll have chicken, chorizo, and possibly rabbit. Click here for my IMBB recipe.

Hiking in Corsica

Meg Hourihan: Apparently Corsica is home to the GR20, "the spectacular and arduous 130-mile route that many claim is Europe's best backpacking trail." Oooh! Perhaps my next trip to France will involve a visit to the GR20. Spectacular and arduous are two of my favorite hiking-related adjectives!

A few years back (Easter of 2000) Sarah and I had the opportunity to visit Corsica. We stayed in Ajaccio, Corte (up in the mountains) and Bastia. We hiked the section of the GR20 near Corte until a storm made us turn around back to the hotel. Of the trip I would say the area around Corte was the most scenic, but Bastia was great fun -- it blends the best of Mediterranean France with Italy (which is actually closer). It was a bit hard to get around in inland Corsica as English was very rare, my French is horrible, and most people speak an indigenous language.

Another little known hiking destination of choice is the Picos de Europa in Spain near Fuente D. There is cable car that will take you to the top of the mountain (and back down if you're so inclined). Sarah and I opted to hike down. We encountered a herd of goats that was quite curious about us and a point in the trail where the only way down is via the rope that is attached to the rock face. Challenging, but fun. The best part is that you can stay in a Parador right at the base of the mountain.

Perhaps I'll have to scan some pictures to attach to this post.

Splenda (now in Diet Coke)

If you're not familiar with Splenda here is a brief introduction. Splenda is a no calorie sweetner. Splenda is actually sucralose which is made by replacing some of the hydrogen in sucrose (table sugar) with chlorine. Sucralose tastes remarkably like normal sugar and I can't detect an aftertaste.

About two years ago I mostly gave up drinking regular soda and started drinking diet. I still can't really say I like diet soda, altough I do tolerate it more than I did initially. There are exceptions to this -- diet Dr. Pepper, most diet creme sodas and root beers, and a few others don't make me long for the full sugar and corn syrup versions. I'm happy to be able to add a cola to that list as well. I honestly cannot tell the difference between Diet Coke with Splenda and the full calorie version. If you haven't tried it you should go pick some up. It's good stuff.

I started making sweet tea with Splenda earlier this spring and have been very happy with the results. I think my next test will be to make ice cream with Splenda.

Trailers Really Damage Trucks

So we borrowed Sarah's uncle's truck and trailer to move with last weekend. As you can probably guess from the title of this post we had a bit of a mishap. While backing the trailer into our driveway I hit the curb, jackknifed the trailer and put a nice dent/scratch all down the rear quarter panel of the truck. Funny thing is he loaned us the trailer so we wouldn't scratch up the bed with our stuff. I didn't think to take a picture of the truck, but Sarah thinks we should get the smashed panel as we're paying a good sum of money to replace it.

After the wreck we moved all of the furniture into the new house before the rain started on Saturday. Things are finally starting to settle into place -- the living room and our bedroom are put together.

The guest room painting looks great -- I'll post before/after pictures later. I decided that the room that is going to be my office really needs paint so we picked up a sage green paint for one wall and craft white for the rest of the room. We're going to paint one wall of the kitchen with the green as well.

Last night we moved the remainder of the kitchen items. Cooking in the new kitchen can't really start yet as we're still living out of a dorm fridge. Although we'll have our fridge on Sunday which is sooner than expected. It also means we'll be fully out of the old house this weekend. This weekend's goals are the painting, my office, and refrigerator -- things I can handle on my own while Sarah recovers from having her wisdom teeth removed on Friday.

WIFI @ Reliable Chevrolet

I'm waiting for some work to get finished on my car and using the free WIFI that is available at Reliable Chevrolet. I'm going to start using the ability to be connected as a criteria in choosing service providers for this type of work. I have to sit here for 2 hours while they work on my car, it's much easier to do with the web, ichat, email, etc.

Trader Joe's General Tso Chicken Sauce

I'm a huge fan of General Tso Chicken. I've found that most places in Springfield don't make it to my tastes though. It's either way too sweet, not sweet at all, and/or usually not spicy at all. While we were in St. Louis last month we made the obligatory visit to Trader Joe's (which I'd love to see in Springfield, MO) and one of our purchases was a bottle of General Tso sauce for use in stir fry.

The stir fry was fairly simple (we didin't deep fry the chicken as is traditional). It consisted of chicken, red and green pepper, carrot, sweet onion, and then steamed broccoli at the end. All in all quite good. The sauce wasn't quite spicy enough so I added some hot pepper flakes while cooking the chicken and it came out quite well. I did have to add a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce up a bit.

I've decided that one of my new cooking goals is going to be making oriental food. Got any cookbook suggestions?

Blingo

I'm always a fan of free stuff online so when I got an invite for Blingo it seemed like a good idea. It's powered by Google so the search results are the same, they've got a Firefox search box plugin, and they give stuff away. It's hard to argue with it. If you're interested you can click on the logo below.