Mmm... Fondue

I was at Target the other day and ran across an electric fondue pot for under $20. After my recent experiences at The Melting Pot, I had to buy it. An electric pot is particularly nice for oil based cooking as I can set the temperature appropriately and thennot worry about it. After chatting with Jocelin I decided to hook up a fondue dinner this weekend.

I'm planning on all the standard ingredients including steak, chicken, zucchini, mushrooms, etc. As I was planning the meal I realized it just wouldn't be the same with The Green Goddess, an outstanding cream cheese based dip found at The Melting Pot. Knowing this, I set out to find a recipe for The Green Goddess. I knew it would be difficult, that I had my work cut out for me, that it might require a trip to The Melting Pot. I was wrong. Two minutes after punching the name into Google I had my recipe. While I am a bit surprised, I'm thrilled I can include the dip in my meal. For those that would like to create the dip for themselves, you can find the recipe here.

New Computer

Several weeks ago my desktop computer died. I suspect that my RAM went kaput and I suppose I could have fixed it but it was time for a new computer anyway. My old one was old enough that my employer was actually throwing away computers that were better/faster. For a computer geek this was a truly shameful situation. With an eye towards redeeming myself in the eyes of my fellow geeks, I set about searching for a new computer.

I gave considerable thought to purchasing a pre-built computer from Dell but ultimately decided that building was a better approach. By building it myself I could get all the components that I wanted in exactly the configuration that I wanted. I could also buy quiet components. This was particularly important to me as my last computer did a really good impression of a jet engine.

The computer is now complete and working quite well. It has a 3.4 Gigahertz processor, 1GB of DDR2 800 RAM, a nVidia x1300 PCIe video card with 512MB memory, and a motherboard that supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10. The whole thing is extremely quiet, runs very quickly, and is a huge improvement over what I had. The last thing I want to do is buy four SATA drives so that I can setup a RAID 5 array. For around $360 in drives I can have 800GB of storage with single drive redundancy such that if a drive goes bad I don't lose any data.

I love being a computer geek.

Queen on Idol

My dirty little secret is that I'm a big fan of American Idol. I TiVo every episode and have even been known to watch some performances more than once. This week was Queen week... each contestant sang a song from Queen's repertoire. As expected, there were some great, rocking performances. In the end I find myself terribly torn and unfortunately undecided.

Katharine McPhee sang Who Want's to Live Forever which was featured in the movie Highlander. As a big Highlander fan I have a soft spot in my heart for that song and she did a good job. On the other hand with songs like We Will Rock You and Bohemian Rhapsody in the mix I'm finding making a voting decision difficult.

For my friends that don't what Idol... you missed out. Queen week was great!

Home Theater Furniture

The new furniture for my home theater has arrived! The Art Van guys delivered it Saturday morning and set it up in the new home theater room. When I showed one of the delivery guys where the furniture was going (down the stairs, around the corner, past the foosball table, through a small door) he didn't seem particularly happy. He actually made a comment about not making it easy and then looked at me for a couple seconds. I'm not sure but it looked like he was hoping I'd change my mind. I was thinking, "golly, I was planning on putting my new furniture in this room but now that you've pointed out the minor difficulty... put it in there anyway".

In the end the two guys managed to get all the furniture into the room in a short span of time. This is another of those things that I'm happy to pay for. In ten minutes the furniture was delivered and setup without any fear of damaging it. Mind you, it could have been damaged. I just had no fear because if it was Art Van would pay to fix/replace it. Doing the delivery myself would have been feasible but would have taken multiple trips with the truck and would have risked damage to the furniture. It also would have taken several hours once you figure loading, unloading, driving, etc.

The pictures are of the room completely setup. I'll be mounting a plasma TV to the wall opposite the sofa and I'll be putting in five in-wall speakers for surround sound. There's also a plan for a stereo component rack build into the wall but that's another story altogether.

Pool Table

Since my father is expanding his workroom I have become the proud owner of a high quality pool table. The table was delivered and installed by the professionals at Playtime Billiards Saturday night and I, along with several friends, enjoyed playing on it until late in the evening.

After seeing a slate table installed I can say with great confidence that I never want to install one myself. The guys that installed it were very good at their job and they were worth every penny of the moving/installation fee. My entire involvement in the process was to make sure someone was at each end of the move to let them in and to tell them where I wanted the table. They spent about ninety minutes putting together, sanding, leveling, and generally making the table ready for play. The result is fantastic. The table plays wonderfully and I'm looking forward to many more good times with it.

For those familiar with my basement, the television room has become the pool table/foosball/darts room and the old game room is about to become the home theater. I just purchased a set of furniture including a sofa, loveseat, and three tables. You can see them at Art Van's web site. The plasma television and in-wall speakers will be the next step though I still have some shopping to do there.

With the new pool table installed I'm ready for the next party. It's just about time to plan for Memeaster (which is another post in its own right) and I'm looking forward to having everyone over. Many thanks to my father for giving me his absolutely outstanding table!