Haven't updated in a while. I wanted to keep the Eric Ripert entry on top for everyone who also entered the contest. Good news, I won.

Here are the 3 winners, ours is the one on the left.


Been pinstriping.




Made a great pork tenderloin with cranberry-cabernet-balsamic sauce


Made a kickass mac&cheese with carmelized shallots and goat cheese


Made a KICKASS (that no-one likes) spicy-chocolate covered bacon


Gettin' good at raviolis.




Hmmm, what else. Oh yeah, going to a cocktail class given by some guys from PDT in December...went to PDT a few weeks ago, and had an awesome time. Also went to a Bite Club dinner, here is the menu....it was awesome too.

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Fullsize pictures in smugmug

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Friday: Interview in the City again. Same company, another offer, another offer I might not take.

Saturday: Wake up at the ass-crack of 5am to go riding in Bald Eagle, PA with Rob. Load the bike on the trailer and we are off by 5:30am. Loooong ride out there but worth it. It was ~35 degrees out. First, my bike gives a little trouble starting in the cold. After starting it...I gear up and hop on the bike to get going. I almost bounced right off the seat felt like a pogo-stick! DAMN, I blew out the rear shock. So, I had to ride the whole day without any suspension. Thank god we mostly road just regular dirt roads. The one single track trail we took was a series of long rocky hillclimbs. Putting along best I could, trying to get traction, I look up and Paul was stopped on the hill, having trouble getting going again. I knew if I stopped I wasn't making it up. Sure enough, I stopped, went to start and ooofph right over. Rob ended up embarrassingly riding my bike up after rolling it all the way down. We had some lunch and ended the day at 3:30ish with 100 miles of riding. Looong ride home, pizza for dinner, and I immediately passed out on the couch watching American Splendor.

I forgot to mention. On the way up, we stopped at a gas station so I can get some grub before we went out riding. I walk into this Pennsyltuky station and I immediately see the "hot dog roller" machine with those 8 day old greasy rolling hot dogs. Well, to my surprise, I was taken back by what they had to offer other than hot dogs. Cheeseburger-Hotdogs...yes....a cheeseburger in sausage formation. An inbred of American comfort food gone a rye. You know how bigmacs from MickyDees look good in the picture but horrible in real life? Take that to the n'th level on this picture.

1 review that I found on the web.

Now, last but not least, the “cheeseburger bite” $1.79. The folks at 7-11 decided to try and make a cheeseburger in the shape of a hot dog, roll it around on the rollers and tell people it was good. It was not, not in the least, it was gross, which is an understatement. My “cheeseburger bite” felt and tasted like a rubber doggie chew toy. What were you people at 7-11 thinking when you came up with this? I have this final thing to say about it, you know what the cheeseburger bite looks like when its sitting on the rollers; well it tastes like it too!

Amazing. Here is what 7-11 says.

Cheeseburger Big Bite™ Hot Dog
Easy to eat perfection! It looks like a hot dog, but it tastes like a cheeseburger! Fresh from the 7-Eleven grill, beef and cheese combine to create the easy-to-eat one-third-pound Cheeseburger Big Bite Hot Dog. Add your favorite condiments or toppings! Yummy!

Ugh. I can't pull up the nutrition facts for it but this thing can't be near good. I asked Rob what he would give me to eat one before we went riding, and he said he doesn't nearly have enough money to make it worth my while but almost offered his first born in trade.

Sunday: Slept late and cuddled with my love. Showered and went to Target, then Chili's for lunch. Laurie got Patron margarita drunk at lunch and we proceeded to head home to watch movies as it was quite the shitty day. Head home, get in the PJ's and watch American Splendor.

American Splendor: Great indy flick. Funny, Witty, and the way they did it, documentary style was great. The 2d animation was also great. Paul Giamattis performance was great too! I usually don't dig on comedies, but this flick was pretty damn good!

We then proceeded to plan our Washington DC trip that we are taking over the Thanksgiving weekend. We decide on the Sofitel hotel (why not...), The SPY Museum, The Smithsonian, and the National Air and Space museum if we have time. Closing the laptop's it was time for another movie.

I Netflicked The Covenant, why I'm not sure. The reviews were bad, everything I read about it was bad, the trailer LOOKED bad, but for some reason, I felt compelled to see it. No justification. It was bad. Not even your typical teen movie. Sure there were good looking teens in some rich private school driving expensive cars, and even a shower scene or 4. I waited what felt like FOREVER for act II to begin about 45 minutes in!!! By that time I was pre-occupied with something else and ignored the movie until the very predictable end. I would not recommend this flick.

Next up, a run to Borders for some reading/books and coffee...then home for a shower, shit and bed. I started watching the TiVoed The Great Escape while waiting for Dexter to come on (and is getting damn good BTW!) .

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Sold my Model A Sedan, and sold my Chevy Blazer (See SmugMug for pics). Now that I have my garage back, I've been itching for another Panhead.


Everything works out...the motorcycle balance has been restored and the Dark Side has a leg up.

No movies this weekend, but 2 coming up for tonight maybe...

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Long Way Down: - Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travel the world on motorcycles from Scotland to Capetown South Africa. A third in a series of Long Way Round, and Race to Dakar, I downloaded and watched the first episode last night. Since it aired on BBC2, I had to download it. It was well worth it although it moved a little slow in the prep phase, similiar to Long Way Round. I guess if you have seen both of them, this first epi was similiar. Looks very promising though. Very.

Long Way Down Torrent: http://www.torrentportal.com/details/1478837/Long.Way.Down.EP.1.XviD.avi.html

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http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5512848

Check out this thread on AdvRider.com. AMAZING ride report.

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