The eTango Blogs

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas all and all a good night!

Movie Night

Anyone up for a movie night? I just found out that Netflix enforces a 500 movies in your Queue limit. It is going to be a long, long time before I finish off that list!

Leaves, Leaves, Leaves

If there is one task that I don't enjoy this time of year, it is cleaning up leaves. It wouldn't be so bad if the tree cooperated. We have many different types of trees in our neighborhood, which means the leaves get dropped at different times. What's worse is that after you finish with your leaves, you have the wind and your neighbor's leaves to look forward to.

Zucchetto

Zucchetto - The skull cap worn by some members of the Roman Catholic and Anglican clergy.

Middle Age Church Going

Yesterday a car accident left the Mt. Lookout section of Cincinnati without power during the middle of the day. This left our church (Our Lord Christ the King) dark during noon mass. It was a very interesting experience to be in such a hulking dark space with minimal light streaming in the through the stained glass windows. The only other illumination available was from candles which I suppose if there is one place that would always have a ready supply of candles is a church. While I think this was neat it may not have been such a great thing in the middle of summer without a/c, but for the first Sunday in Advent it seemed oddly appropriate.

Cosmopolitan Cincinnati

Cincinnati residents often get down on the place. Others wrongly see us as a cultural backwater or we have to deal with the nation's highest airline prices. I recently however got an outsiders view that contradicted this. I had two vendors visit for a few days earlier in the month and their perspective on the city was illuminating. Mind you that they were from San Antonio and Dallas, not exactly small places but they couldn't help but continue to mention the cosmopolitan nature of Cincinnati. And yes, they used the exact word cosmopolitan several times. They marveled at The Ascent and raved about the food at Nada and Jo-An. Most importantly they couldn't resist the feeling that this place has existed for quite some time and has attracted people from all over. Cincinnatians both native and transplants should be proud.

Orlando Foodie Map

The Orlando Sentinel has a great resource for residents and visitors to their area: a foodie map. In short it is a Google Map with push pins denoting restaurants that are critical and crowd favorites. There are lots of places that will give you maps of every restaurant under the sun but here is a place that exercised a little bit of editorial goodness and helped winnow the choices down. Considering how much tourism Orlando sees along with the amount of new and wintering people Florida sees, this is an invaluable resource. When I was in Orlando last week for business, I used this resource to find Seasons 52 which served me a very delicious and reasonably priced meal. Cincinnati could really use a similar site like this.

Old Timey Interstate Map

Fun old timey Interstate map design.

(via Matt Haughey)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Shame on Circuit City

I was just looking into what a Wii Fit would cost and noticed that Circuit City's website refuses to sell you one without first purchasing two or more "accessories". What a complete rip off to say the least. Circuit City will not be getting any of my money this holiday season and that is bad because it looks like they need it.

First Snow

It was just a mere millimeter on the edge of the roof but we had our first snow of the year!

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Here is a recipe for Spicy Pumpkin Soup. It was pretty easy to make and turned out to be quite delicious. You should however be aware that this recipe makes enough to feed a battalion so plan accordingly.

Why All Flash Web Sites are Awful

As I mentioned recently Cincinnati has a relatively new coffee shop downtown and I rather enjoyed my experience. I happened to find myself downtown on Saturday night with a need to kill some time so I thought that might be a place to hang out and have a good beverage if they were open. I whip out my phone and navigate to their website only to find out that their website is entire in Flash and offers no alternative. That means for my poor phone I wasn't able to check on anything about the place, no hours or even a phone number for the store. Granted my phone is old but even the modern iPhone doesn't have Flash.

This among a few other reasons is why I think having an all Flash website is a horrible idea.

Via Vite Quick Review

I've been on a roll as of late for restaurant reviews. The next one that I will cover Via Vite. I'm of two minds of this restaurant. First the good. The restaurant has an enviable location on a corner of Fountain Square and the large windows offer beautiful views of the Tyler Davidson Fountain, especially at night. Also the interiors of the restaurant modern and attractive but still feel warm and inviting which is not always the case contemporary design. I like the dark wide hardwood floors in particular. As to the cuisine, the overnight braised lamb shank served over extremely creamy polenta. The lamb was falling off the bone and was melt in your mouth tender. I'd highly recommend it as great food for the value.

Now for the bad. Besides the main courses, I think a lot of the other items are very overpriced. This has certainly played out the few times that I have been there for lunch. Take for example Pizza with onions and sausage - $13. An even more egregious example is the simple penne with meat sauce. It is $18. The margins on that must be absolutely stratospheric. One last thing that I will mention solely because it gives me a chance to pat my parents on the back. We tried Via Vite's Veal and Ricotta meatballs as a starter for our dinner and while they were good they were nothing compared to the meatballs made by my mother and father. No comparison at all.

So that's that. I think it is a fine place to go for main courses with a beautiful location and an all Italian wine list. Just be aware that you might feel nickled and dimed on some of the other items on the menu.

Quick New Eatery Roundup

Tried two new downtown Cincinnati places for lunch this week. First up is J. Gumbo's located in the US Bank building facing Walnut street. The location has a small but nice dining room right on the street for optimal people watching. They mostly sell New Orleans style stews over rice (think Etouffee and Gumbo). I've tried the Shrimp Etouffee and something called Voodoo Chicken (which is pulled chicken in a spicy sauce). Both were served over rice with a slice of garlic bread. I thought the Voodoo Chicken was pretty good and the Etouffee was just ok. It was kind of a creamy glop on rice. Overall the Voodoo was a better dish. As the weather turns colder this place is a nice alternative to get something warm and fulfilling. Not sure how their menu will work come spring or summer but we'll have to wait and see.

The other new place I stopped by was Tazza Mia on Vine between 4th and 5th. It is primarily a coffee place but they do serve sandwiches at lunch. I tried the Pot Roast Panini which came with carrots, mushrooms and swiss. Very delicious I must say. I didn't try the coffee but the interior of the shop is nicely appointed and they have a really unique Mezzanine level which looks cozy. The place has free WiFi so that might be good place to escape the office some day.

Password Changing Tip

There is nothing worse than changing your password and then finding the next day that you can't remember what it is. My biggest suggestion for avoiding this problem is to make sure you use your password multiple times soon after changing it. Suggestions might be locking/unlocking your screensaver or visiting a website that requires authentication would do the trick. The worse thing you could do is change your password on a Friday afternoon or right before vacation. Neither of those scenarios will build up the muscle memory and the mental memory of your new password.

New Year's Resolutions 2008 Update

10 months ago, I gave a list of New Year's Resolutions. 10 months later here is what I have accomplished:

1.) weight loss - Well I haven't made it anywhere near 180 pounds but I have been holding steady at about 200. I think I am going to have to change things up to go further with weight loss.

2.) media organization - I haven't made any progress towards a comprehensive backup plan but I have recently finished my captioning/tagging program for the year 2003. That just leaves me with 2004, 2005 and half of 2006. I've also developed some programs to help with my media management that I should publish for everyone.

3.) home improvement - So far this year big projects included installing gutter guards and a programmable thermostat. I've done some pipe wrapping but upon closer investigation into my basement yields the realization that to do more will require way too much effort. Also unexpected projects this summer was removing an entire row of hedges as well as reworking a retaining wall flower bed to hide a new sewer clean out access cap.

Grilled Cheese Heaven

That staple of childhood meals, the grilled cheese sandwich, doesn't need to be regulated to the kid's table. If you follow a few easy steps you too can enjoy the pleasure that is grilled cheese perfection.

1.) Select good bread - The bread you should use needs to be firm enough to stand up to being used as a sandwich but not so dense and tough that it is hard to chew. You should also choose something that has a fairly uniform interior with little to no holes so that the filling doesn't fall through.

2.) Select good cheese - It is a grilled cheese after all so pick something that melts easily and is delicious. For this I like Gruyere. There is a reason it is the quintessential fondue ingredient (it tastes good and it melts like a champ).

3.) Be prepared before you cook - Assembling and grilling a sandwich can be a pain if you start cooking before you are finished preparing ingredients. I like having my cheese grated and my bead buttered before I start. It would also be prudent if you were going to use any extra items like bacon to have those ready at this time.

4.) Cook lower than you think - The end goal of the grilled cheese is to have a perfectly golden brown exterior with an ooey-gooey center. If you cook at too high a temperature, you will burn the bread before the center melts.

5.) Enjoy immediately perhaps with a nice salad or frankly just on its own.

Strange Dream

I had a strange dream last night that I was in a super fancy high tech house but all I wanted to do was make french fries.

Fried Polenta

I come here to praise the virtue of fried polenta. Let your leftover come together into a solid block over night in the fridge. Then slice it into pieces and fry in a skillet. Top with a little grated Parmesan Reggiano. Heaven!

Lust, Caution Two-Thirds of the Way Through

My snap review of Lust, Caution after seeing only two thirds of the film: Too much caution, not enough lust.

Tonight's Dinner

Braised Beef Short Ribs served over rosemary and garlic scented whipped potatoes with honey balsamic roasted chipolini onions. Not a bad combinations and we have plenty of left overs.

What is this sport?

So dress up like Iron Man and strap rollerblades to your shins and forearms and then hit the road. What sport is this I am dieing to know.

( via International Gravity Sports Associations)

Gimcrackery

Gimcrackery - a showy object of little use or value

Sons of Anarchy

If you haven't noticed, along with the last season of The Shield, FX is running a new show called Sons of Anarchy about an outlaw Motorcycle Club in a fictional Northern California town. Once again FX has hit the mark for a drama that brings us into a world that few people ever get into. And just like most FX dramas they don't coddle you with lots of exposition. They just jump in and throw characters and terminology at you and expect that you can figure it out. The network did put together a nice blog that explains some of the policies and protocols of motorcycle clubs down to their clothes and what all the different patches mean. It is pretty enlightening and their attention to detail really is impressive.