Louis' Footprint

So I finally got a smart-phone! After years of waiting for the technology to catch up to my wishlist, and some extra money (thank you stimulus plan!) I did my research and settled on an iphone. As of May I was ready to buy, but waited since I heard about the 3G model. Being an avid DIYer, and huge dork, I tend to buy technology with the pure intent of getting specialized use out of it, and this was no different. Searching for specific info on the iPhone is kind of difficult, since most web sites are either old speculation, reasons not to buy one, or a news story about the activation bugs from two weeks ago. So here are some things I've noticed, good and bad, specifically when it comes to my highly-specialized requirements.

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Strawberry Pie

With Jennie visiting and the last of the pear pie meeting its timely death upon the season 1 finale of "Bones", I decided to try making a strawberry pie. I wanted to be a little more experimental this time, so the recipe below is more like a best guess as to what went into mine. One thing is for certain: buy a lot of strawberries! I don't think you can have too much, and I was debating how to put more on before I went to bed. I did a lot of research for this one, and specifically wanted to avoid any "cheating", specifically with regards to using strawberry jello, food coloring, or kool aid. I settled on a vartiation of this recipe. I also tried a different crust recipe that makes more of a pastry. I based it off a recipe from here, but changed a bit since the provided recipe just seemed to much like a pastry. I'll put the crust at the bottom as you could just use whatever or buy store-bought. I also made lemon whipped cream to top it off, which turned out amazing!

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So I could vote for Sean Tevis. How often have you thought "If I ran for office, I would just do it mostly cause I am sick of everyone else." Well, that's basically his motivation: he knows he could do a better job. But don't let me explain it, he made an XKCD-style comic pretty much outlining it. Thanks to Sean for sending this to me.

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Picture from wikipedia

Tonight Missy and I went to the Lawn Chair Drive In and saw Gold Diggers of 1933. Contrary to the title, the movie isn't really about Gold Diggers, but is a musical about show girls during the depression. Overall pretty entertaining, and much better to watch outside on 16mm if you have the op. Also, there were some pretty amusing situations that fans of As You Like It and Sabrina may find familiar. I would dig finding some of those swinging tunes from the picture, but I imagine that would be a feat. Most of the music was dancey-showy music or classic romance, as expected from old films. One thing that threw me for a loop was the last song, which suddenly became a huge world war 1 statement directly proceeding the credits. It seemed really out of place compared to the rest of the movie (first act: comedy, second act: romance), and didn't bode well with the previous "numbers". Overall the movie was meant to be an uplift for people dealing with the depression, and hopefully relate to the situation and drive some sales to the box office (they hung this lantern pretty high aka- producer's style), so I figure the last song must have been along those lines.

Probably more entertaining than the actual movie was a short that aired before it about the jitterbug, posted below.

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This weekend I was visiting Kristin and she mentioned to me her recent successes with pie making. Being extremely susceptible to the power of suggestion (and pie), I decided to try my wits about it. Kristin was kind enough to lend me her recipe for crust, and suggest some simple pie approaches on allrecipes.com. I opted for the Fresh Pear Pie, as it was rather simple and I only needed to buy two ingredients. After a quick trip to the market I was off messing up my kitchen that Sean and I spent so much time cleaning this weekend. I'm not sure how it tastes yet, as I am waiting for some friends to come over and try it, but here is the recipe! I didn't change anything as I figured my first pie shouldn't be experimental. In addition, I forgot the butter in the pie, hope it turns out okay. I had a terrible time rolling out the dough, but figure its a practice thing! I'll change the picture if I ever get a digital camera.

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Photo by bitmask under a creative common license
This evening I checked out the Silk City Diner on Spring Garden Street. They remodeled a while ago, and though I never went to the old one, I heard good things about it. The diner is adjacent to a bar/club that has live music at night, but being it was dinner time we headed to the red-silvery tabled section. The atmosphere is welcoming, like an old fashioned diner, but has a modern, philly cafe overtone. The lighting is softer, and more colorful upon a closer look. I started off with a Sly Fox Rt. 113 IPA, which was quite reasonably priced at only $3 for a draft. I am not sure if thats a happy hour special.

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If they ended the show now, I'd be happy. On a side note, I recently discovered www.lostpedia.com, which I could probably spend hours reading (as Jennie and I did last night). Most interestingly, though, is the information that was revealed from the ARGs. I don't have the patience or time for ARGs, but the resulting videos were cool. Check http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Sri_Lanka_Video and http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/The_Orchid .

</dork>

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Man, I've got a lot of blogging catching up to do, so I guess I'll start here.

Last weekend, Kristin, Lisa and I went hiking in Tobyhanna State Park up in the Poconos. Being winter, I splurged on some nice snow gear using a bonus I got last summer. I picked up some nice waterproof boots, snow pants, wool socks, wool sweater, long underwear, and a wicking shirt. February seems to be the best time to shop for winter clothing, as all the outdoor stores were having clearance sales. Granted I probably won't be able to use some of it until next season, but I don't have any snow clothes to begin with, so its good to have around.

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