Crosswalks to Nowhere

Lisa and I have joined the podcasting community with 4th Time Around, a weekly show where we'll talk about just about anything that comes to mind.

This week we covered the controversy surrounding the "girlcott" of the latest Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts, a review of TNT's Restaurant in Arlington Heights, and the fact that people who complain about where they live should probably think twice.

You don't need an iPod or portable music player to listen. Just click the button that says "Pod" and the show will start playing.

Enjoy!

Here's where I had breakfast today, like so many other days-- TNT, the former CNA.

The reason for the photo is that I am putting a new digital camera through its paces-- a Fujifilm Finepix S5200 which I got through a rewards-type program at my company. It's a 5.1 megapixel SLR-style camera, and so far it seems pretty cool. I haven't played much with its features, but since this weblog is the place where the pictures often wind up I figured I would start by posting here.

Here is a closeup of part of Emma's slugbug collection:

In the meantime, we finished 4th Time Around Podcast #2, and you'll be able to download it starting tomorrow at 4thtimearound.net. We're also listed with iTunes now, too, so you can get us that way as well.

Here's one of the culprits I mentioned in an earlier posting.

And this is a shot I took in North School Park to remind you that The Season just around the corner...

In the tradition of Sydney J Harris and Roger Simon (when he was worth reading), here are some thoughts and ideas which have been floating around my brain lately which don't merit blog entries of their own but are important nonetheless:

- What is so freaking important that an ever-growing segment of the population finds it necessary to walk around with Bluetooth headsets all the time? What really gets me are the 60-year-old grandparents walking around with these things on Sunday mornings at places like Egg'lectic Cafe.

- If you do not carry a UK or Australian driver's license, don't call computer hardware "kit." It's called "computer hardware" or "equipment."

- If you're in line at Starbucks in downtown Arlington Heights on a Saturday morning, don't start shopping and sampling items from the bakery case while the line builds behind you. Some of us just want to get our coffee and leave so we can wake up and be productive members of society. And we don't care if the coffee cake is "ohmygodthisisAWESOME!" You're not Rachel Ray and we're not interested.

- A rule I've lived by long before Esquire said you should do it: always schedule appointments-- doctor, dentist, etc.-- at the very beginning of the day. You will rarely be taken late, and if you are, you can blame it squarely on the person you're seeing. Then attempt to charge them for their tardiness.

- My buddy JDR's #1 Rule of Fast Food: You can always tell a good hotdog place by their use of the word "Dawg" in their name.

- Do not, ever, refer to the suburbs as "the 'burbs." You just sound stupid.

- I am convinced that the Food Network's Alton Brown is the annoying kid from the Encyclopedia Britannica commercials from the 80s. I have nothing to back it up other than the fact that they are both at the same level on the annoyance meter and they look a lot alike:

(Okay, so I learned that they're not the same person. The Encyclopedia Britannica kid is actually Stan Freberg's son. I still think they could be the same person, though.)

There. I feel better now.

Last week at Wal-Mart, I found a cake mix on an end-cap at the checkout line. Never one to give in to impulse buys, I... well... gave in to an impulse buy.

It's a complete cake-and-frosting kit called Mam Papaul's Red Velvet Cake, and it's made by a company called Louisiana Gourmet Enterprises who also makes all sorts of other New Orleans-type mixes including gumbo, dirty rice, and corn soup. The also make other cake mixes including Mardi Gras King Cake.

I remembered the urban legend about the Waldorf-Astoria Red Velvet Cake, so I figured I would give this a shot.

This is what the cake batter looks like once you've added three eggs, water, and vegetable oil. Interestingly enough, this was almost the identical color of the primer I used on my kitchen wall when I painted it last summer.

You're supposed to beat the batter for a long time-- 7 or 8 minutes-- which seems longer than most cake mixes I've dealt with. I had to be careful with this stuff-- I'm sure it would stain if it got on anything.

...and fresh from the oven, there they are. Pay close attention to that glass bowl in the background-- something's going to be happening there.

Check out this icing: that's the mix that came in the box (which seemed to be mostly sugar and corn starch) along with a cup of milk, a stick and a half of margarine, a half-cup of shortening, and 8 ounces of cream cheese. While mixing up this concoction, Lisa referred to it as a "heart attack in a bowl."

Now out of their pans, the layers are cooling off. They seem to be much denser and took on a much spongier consistency than your typical Betty Crocker cake. Lisa sliced the layers horizontally for an even more professional touch. She wanted to use dental floss to do this, but the only kind I had was mint-waxed, and that would have probably changed the taste a bit. :-)

The finished product. Lisa sprinkled cinnamon on top to add a little holiday color to the presentation.

Yum. When you put something this color in your mouth you (well, *I*, at least) expect it to taste like an Atomic Fireball or, at the very least, somewhat cinnamon-y. Nope: the Red Velvet cake is a nicely dense chocolate cake. Note that the bottom layer got lost by the serving fork as that first slice was removed. Moments after this photo was taken, it was restored.

So it's thumbs-up on the Mam Papaul's Red Velvet Cake. The also make Lemon Velvet and Black Velvet cake mixes, so I may try one of those in the future.

As I've mentioned here before and most recently on the Fourth Time Around podcast, my favorite holiday movie is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. So I did a little search on the movie and came up with the "Which John Hughes Character Are You?" quiz. I hate these quizzes; they're a waste of time.

Oh, here's my result:

You are Clark Griswold (from National Lampoon's
Vacation)! You're full of optimism and
boundless energy, and no one loves a good
family trip more. No one else can swear a blue
streak like you either, Sparky!


Which John Hughes Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

- First, you'd be sitting in a conference room in New York waiting for your client to make up his mind about an ad campaign. Oh, and you'd be sitting across from Ferris Bueller's dad.

- After losing a cab to Kevin Bacon and tripping over some guy's trunk in the street, you get to the airport to find your plane is delayed. And you meet the guy whose trunk you tripped over.

- You spend the night in Wichita.

Hope I'm not giving too much away. :-)

Note to the bonehead who complained to the EPA about the smell of the Blommer Chocolate Factory:

Thanks. You're an idiot.

This afternoon, the Village of Arlington Heights had their annual Tree Lighting ceremony.

About a half hour before the mayor threw the switch, the white stuff started falling, making it a real holiday event.

Yes, I got out the boxes of Christmas stuff over the weekend and I got to do my favorite activity of all time, assembling the tree.

One cool thing I discovered was how much easier it is to put the lights on the tree while you're assembling it. I can't be the first to do this, but it's a neat discovery nonetheless.

Ho ho ho.