One step closer to a heart-attack

My housemates have been wanting to deep fry foods for quite some time now and I have been very resistant, partly because I don't really want to deep fry food and also because I am scared to heat that much oil up on the stove top, seeing as how our stove is an evil beast. But, to mark a milestone I finally broke down and purchased the DeLonghi Dual Zone 4-Liter Deep Fryer and we spent the next three days preparing a whole host of deep-fried delights.

The boys wanted to deep fry Twinkies, they even went as far as to purchase the supposedly-delicious snack cakes, but they did not end up in the fryer.

Mostly we made dinner-type foods: Fried Chicken, Fish & Chips and Catfish Nuggets. Then to round out our deep fryer experience I made doughnuts, or actually, beignets.


They turned out pretty good. I'm actually not a fan of doughnuts but these were far enough away from the cake doughnut variety that we got along great.

I used the Costas French Market Doughnuts recipe from Allrecipes.com.

Next time I will probably make the edges a bit more rounded. Those parts got extra crispy and were a bit pokey.

Sadly, all the deep-fried-fun made the house smelled greasy for about a week. It may be awhile before we have another frystravaganza.

In other news, this crazy house was just finished a few blocks from the house and put on the market for $912K.


Sort of an interesting project, though I'm not so sure about the price tag.

One thing that I don't like is that the front windows are opening onto a pretty busy arterial. (Yes, the same street that we live on now, but we are set up above the street and much further back.) This particular project would maybe work better in a location a bit more off the beaten path, by even 5 or 6 blocks.

That being said, it's interesting, and way better than some of the things that have been built over the past few years. I'm all for good design. I just wish it were more affordable.

George Sampson

I was messing around on the internets today, looking at videos of people breakdancing for whatever reason - and I happened to come across some video of this kid, George Sampson, dancing in the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent.



He was recently announced as the winner for this year's competition. He will take home £100,000 and will appear in the 2008 Royal Variety Performance.

Yoda also loves to breakdance - he's not as good though.



And.. Vin Diesel - also breakdancing.



Who knew that guy had moves!

I kind of thought that he was just born huge, it's strange to see him as a skinny kid.

So - in a dance battle, Yoda would definently take Vin out but George would have them both beat by a mile.

Red ring of sadness

The other morning my housemate flipped on the 360 to listen to some songs before work. After he had thrown the controller and yelled various unintelligible curses we learned that the red ring of death had finally made it's appearance.



He alternately sobbed and cursed until we finally had to leave for work.

Happily we had purchased the 2-yr replacement plan from Best Buy so after a little bit of help from the US Mail we should be receiving a gift card/voucher for the original amount paid for the 360.

Of course we've already replaced the defective machine with an Elite but the original purchase amount will be a nice down payment on a PS3 - and then, finally, I will get to play the new Ratchet and Clank.

In other news, they have torn down the old QFC on Broadway.



They also tore down everything else on that block. No more Taco Bell. The city weeps, I'm sure.

This is what is going in on/is proposed for the site. It's HUGE!



Image from hugeasscity

The new building will be six stories and will contain 295 apartments + 30,000 sq. ft. of retail at street level with parking for 357 vehicles.

Some of the design elements may have changed since the image I have was created. "The Board" met many many times while conducting the review and asked for several adjustments to make the final product fit in with the neighborhood a bit more.

I wouldn't have been surprised to see something exactly like the picture go up though.

As you can imagine, these types of buildings attract quite a lot of white people


HA HA! Defacing things is fun.

I'm a little more excited about other new developments, specifically the new lanes that are being built at Garage.

We took a little trip there the other day after work.

In the past we have played on the main level where it can get super crowded and loud, but this time we were sent to "the Spare Room", downstairs and away from the crazy.

Stacie is an excellent bowler.	It was like bowling heaven.

Now I'm spoilt and will always want to play down there though.

And finally - best sticker I see everyday.