We bought a new TV this past week, a Toshiba 46HM84 from Onecall.com. This replaces the 8-year-old 27″ Quasar.
The comparison picture to the left doesn’t do the new Toshiba justice, because the 27″ sits so far foward of the Toshiba, it appears much larger than it actual is in. CNET has a simple [...]
Last month, I joined the HFC Athletic Club, about ten minutes walk from the apartment. Downtown Cleveland isn’t like New York City in terms of gyms. The latter is littered with branches of New York Sports Club, Crunch, Equinox and a sprinkling of mom-and-pop fitness centers, catering to particular urban neuroses about fitness [...]
After reading this NY Times article about the clash between health inspectors and the old school makers of fresh mozzarella, I started to wonder how much effort it’d take to actually make this cheese at home, especially given the claims that freshly made mozzarella is worlds apart from stuff that’s been in the fridge for [...]
The aiki-waza didn’t work at all during judo randori, beyond amusing the main instructor. Same for my lame attempt at getting a joint lock on the arm he was using to keep me out. “If you get the kansetsu-waza, I’ll buy you a steak dinner.” This was spoken with a friendly Midwestern [...]
I realized that I actually don’t have pictures of the completed renovations of our old apartment: I never took any. The only extant photos of the post-combination layout was taken for the Corcoran site for the sale listing. Sigh.
Anyway, I grabbed these before the listing vanishes as a reminder of the old place. [...]
I don’t remember when the last time I was up the Empire State Building was. Surely it was a long time ago, elementary school or something similar. Last week, I had time to kill before the closing, so I did the tourist thing and went up to the observation deck to take pictures:
It’s [...]
I had originally flown back home on September 25, expecting to stay until the following Thursday. The apartment closing was scheduled for Tuesday, and I had thought of spending a few days at my parents’ house, putting in a few hours at work, going to a class at the old dojo and generally relaxing [...]
One bright spot from my long (soon to be detailed) apartment closing was that I was in town for Adi and Cari’s tests at the dojo. Adi was testing for sankyu, and Cari for nikkyu. Both did very well, better than I remember (or not remember) my own nikkyu and sankyu going. [...]
Since I’m in Cleveland now and am not spending much time on the subway, I decided to try out the NY Times electronic edition, basically to be read on the computer in the mornings.
So far, it looks good. You have to download and install a special reader (probably for Digital Rights Management reasons), but [...]
From Wednesday’s NYT Minimalist column:
Recipe: Lamb or Chicken in Onion-Yogurt Sauce
Time: 1 1/2 hours
2 tablespoons butter
2 large onions or 4 medium onions, sliced
10 cloves garlic, peeled
Salt
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon minced ginger, or 1 teaspoon dried ginger
10 cardamom pods
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1 1/2 pounds lamb shoulder or leg, cut [...]