FuzzyCo

« November 2006 | Main | January 2007 »

December 31, 2006

Gerdes Christmas 2006

For Christmas, Erica and I made the not-as-bad-as-we-expected-given-the-state-of-air-travel trip down to my folks' place in Austin, Texas. We had a few days with just my parents before Heidi and Marc and the kids returned from Canada. About as exciting as we got was visiting the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar and seeing Django's Mustache who are, as my brother correctly called it, much better guitar technicians than showmen.

The Gollubs had a much-worse-than-expected trip with their flight out of Winnepeg getting canceled and they ended up spending most of Christmas Day in the Minneapolis airport. But Boxing Day was fun and we did Christmas crackers. Heidi translated all of the French jokes for us.

Posted by Fuzzy at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

New Year

Time zones are kerazy -- Kate just called us from the future! Happy New Year, Kate!

Posted by Fuzzy at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2006

Pastor of Muppets

Time Out Chicago did a year-end round-up of their "favorite jokes" (mostly from stand-ups) and Pastor of Muppets made the cut (from before I was in the group, of course).

Posted by Fuzzy at 10:23 PM | Comments (6)

A fairly stern warning

I mean, if you sit in the exit row they ask if you're willing to assist in case of an emergency. And then you notice that if you do pull the door open, they'll send you to jail.

Posted by Fuzzy at 3:39 PM | Comments (0)

Silly Faces

I know the reason Steve has never run a glossy magazine ad for Silly Faces was that he was waiting for the right spokesmodel.

Posted by Fuzzy at 3:28 PM | Comments (0)

December 25, 2006

Christmas Podcast

Noah did actually get his Christmas podcast up before Christmas, I'm the one who was slow to tell you about it -- but it makes a delightful Boxing Day treat as well. You might recognize Santa and Mrs. Claus in the Improv Interview...

Posted by Fuzzy at 9:53 PM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2006

Holiday Greetings

Erica and I recorded a video holiday greeting and we've posted it on our joint site.

Posted by Fuzzy at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2006

Words.

Hey, you're all smartly people -- go help Kate come up with potentially-confusing English colloquialisms for her Japanese neighbor. (She's got anonymous comments turned off, so you'll need a Blogger account, but you've got one, right? You might be able to use your Google ID, as well.)

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:50 AM | Comments (1)

December 19, 2006

Quick!

For a limited time, The Areas of My Expertise audiobook, read by the author, is free on iTunes. You need to get it. Trust me.

(via Boing Boing)

Posted by Fuzzy at 6:30 PM | Comments (5)

Free shower

The ceiling over our shower is leaking when the guys upstairs take a shower. When we first moved into the place, the ceiling in our bedroom was leaking whenever the (old) guy upstairs would take a bath at 1 am. This was a problem, because it's our bedroom and we keep things in the bedroom that we don't want to get wet. The shower's a little different because, hey, things are meant to get wet in there. The landlord has been so generally lousy that I was almost tempted to just let it leak. Except that one of the Jo(h)ns* upstairs takes showers every morning as the same time as I do. Which means that I get dripped on in my shower from his shower. Gross. (Or, Free Extra Shower Water -- it's all perspective, I suppose.)

So when the guy came out last year to fix the leak in the bedroom, he ripped a big hole in the ceiling, fixed what he thought was the leak, but left the hole so we could monitor it for a few days. It was a good thing he did, because he hadn't patched the whole leak or something and it continued to leak (it did all eventually get fixed).

When the (different) dude came this weekend to work on the bathroom leak, he evidently did not share the same trouble-shooting philosophy because he tore down the sagging ceiling, caulked something (or nothing**), and then put up new sheetrock and mudded and taped it. It's too bad, then, that he didn't actually fix the leak and that water is now coming out from the edges of his sheetrock patch. (In fact, it kind of made the problem worse, because instead of leaking from a single point more-or-less over the center of the shower, it's now leaking from all the way around the edges of the patched part.) R-tard.

So now the landlord has to arrange for someone else to come out at some time when both we and a Jo(h)n are home. I was on the phone with him yesterday at around 3 in the afternoon and he asked, "Are you home now?" "No," I told him, "I have a job. To, you know, pay the rent." A-hole.

* Our new upstairs neighbors are John and Jon.

** It's hard to know just what he did because dude spoke about six words to us the whole day. He made a couple of trips to bring in his stuff (one of which took 40 minutes -- no joke) and then closed the bathroom door. To protect us from the dust and noise or play dress up with Erica's makeup? WE DON'T KNOW! He didn't even say, "I'm done," he just... left. We sort of hovered for a half an hour before we started putting stuff back in the bathroom, in case he was coming back.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:50 PM | Comments (0)

Penguins

Have I mentioned lately that Robert Buscemi is one of my favorite comedians?

(via Adam Witt)

Posted by Fuzzy at 3:20 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2006

Among the benefits of being married to Erica

I usually get people their Christmas gifts in time for Epiphany (or Easter), but under the new Team Fuzzy & Erica regime, I mailed out nine packages today -- many people might get their presents by Boxing Day!

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:23 PM | Comments (0)

The Yam Show

Of course, so is Faelyn.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:06 PM | Comments (0)

Si-Video

My godson is not just a blogger, he's a video-blogger.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:03 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2006

Hey, Rine-Stone

Time Out Chicago did a an article on Schadenfreude and their continuing success (and the last Rent Party for the time-being) and name checked Rine-Stone, who's been working as their writing assistant, like a mazillion times.

Posted by Fuzzy at 1:28 PM | Comments (0)

Wii

It's just two grown men playing Wii Boxing, at our company holiday party, and looking as ridiculous as one does. (Sorry, Jason and Kyle -- I'm not making fun, I'm just making. fun.)

Nearly everyone who stopped by asked if we'd seen that site with the pictures of TVs broken by accidentally thrown Wiimotes. And I can attest that within the first 2 minutes I had one in my hand I knocked the coffee out of someone's hands who was standing too close. But despite the danger, I want one of these things as soon as I have a spare $250.

Posted by Fuzzy at 11:51 AM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2006

Erica

My wife, she is so beautiful.

Posted by Fuzzy at 7:39 PM | Comments (1)

December 11, 2006

Eating our way across the South

Shaun has season tickets for the Saints, but living up here in Chicago he can't make it to every game, so he let us know that if we wanted to see a game we'd be welcome to the tickets. We were already planning on going down to Erica's folks' place for Thanksgiving, so we thought we'd see a game around then. The Saints were out-of-town that weekend, but they were back on December 3, and there are worse things than hanging around Mississippi for a week... And I had the vacation days... And then my brother moved to Argentina for nine months and left us his car...

Road trip!

So we went on a week-and-a-half trip around Mississippi and New Orleans. I got to see lots of the places Erica spent her time before she moved to Chicago, and meet lots of her old friends. And I got to see Jimbo Mathus and Afroman. And we got to eat and drink all over the place...

Memphis, TN
Rendezvous

Vicksburg, MS
Anchuca
Billy's
Goldie's
Highway 61 Coffee
McAlister's Deli
Rowdy's
Shoney's
Taco Casa, Shipley's, SnoBiz
Waffle House

Jackson, MS
Chick-fil-A, Cups, Fusion
Hal and Mal's
Piccadilly
Que Sera Sera
Sweet Daddy's BBQ

Starkville, MS
City Bagel Cafe
Mugshots, Bin 612

Akers, LA
Middendorf's

New Orleans, LA
Cafe du Monde
Catty Car Corner
French Market Restaurant, Desire Oyster Bar
Napoleon House
Pat O'Brien's
The Rib Room

The road

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:55 PM | Comments (0)

Eating our way across the South - road snacks

It was a road-trip after all, so we also ate plenty of road snacks. A few snacks of note:

Erica taught me to eat shelled* sunflowers the way her father had taught her. I'd never done the whole thing with sticking a bunch in your mouth at once and then moving the shells and seeds into different cheeks like a hamster. I'm not sure I've really mastered it yet.

Coming out of Starkville, I bought a little taste of home -- "The Original 1893 Chicago State Street Caramel Corn". Of course, it turned out to have been made in South Carolina. Tasty, none-the-less.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love pork fat. I gross out Erica all the time by eating the nice fatty strip of my pork chops. Pork cracklins are pretty weird, though. They're super-hard at first, but as they re-hydrate in your mouth they turn into -- fat. Weird.

I was having such a mixed coffee-experience on this trip that when noticed that a rest stop vending machine claimed it could provide me with an "espresso"** for 70 cents, my curiosity gland overrode my common sense and I got one. It was terrible, of course.

* Or unshelled? Are we refering to the process or the state? Anyway, they had shells on.
** Or chicken soup. Out if the same tube?

Posted by Fuzzy at 3:49 PM | Comments (2)

Eating our way across the South - Catty Car Corner

I'm not saying it's fine dining (and I actually have no idea what they normally serve, because their regular menu was covered up) but if you're going to a Saints game, you could do a lot worse than the breakfast special at Catty Car Corner. And you can pick up some Saints gear at the same time, because the place hosts a merch seller. Free enterprise in action!

And hey, Go Saints! Who Dat?

Catty Car Corner
1340 Poydras St
New Orleans, LA

Posted by Fuzzy at 2:38 PM | Comments (1)

Drinking our way across the South - street drinking

I have to confess that I can, at least somewhat, sympathize with the drunken yahoos that Bourbon Street is known for -- we too fell prey to the siren song of "drinking in public, just because you can." But I felt a little better about ourselves that we were drinking Abita Amber.

Later, I decided that I needed to try a Hurricane from Pat O'Brien's. I've had Hurricanes before, and they were terrible, but I wanted to see if they were better straight from the source. I'm glad I now know that it's just a terrible drink. Most fascinating was the industrial process by which the drink was made -- usually, even the most horrible well-drink involves a bottle at some point, but the Hurricane came from a pair of tubes straight out of a Brazil-induced nightmare.

Posted by Fuzzy at 2:28 PM | Comments (1)

Drinking our way across the South - Pimm's Cup at Napoleon House

Another drink that I've been making for years, but wanted to try in its milieu* is a Pimm's Cup. You probably don't have a bottle of Pimm's No.1 Cup in your home liquor cabinet (confusingly, Pimm's is the name of both the liquor and the mixed drink) but you probably should. It's a easy summer drink to mix one part Pimm's No.1 and 3 parts Sprite.

It's well past summer, but after walking through the Historic New Orleans Collection's "City of Hope: New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina" exhibit, Erica and I really needed to decompress with a relaxing drink in the comfortable dimness of Napoleon House.

Napoleon House
500 Chartres Street
New Orleans, LA

* It's American home, anyway. In the rest of world, Pimm's Cup is properly consumed at all-day cricket matches.

Posted by Fuzzy at 1:52 PM | Comments (1)

December 8, 2006

Eating our way across the South - French Market and Desire

I'm something of chowhound and Erica's learning to put up with my occasional "but if we just drive 10 miles out of town, we can eat at this place I've heard has great burgers" (and sometimes it totally pays off). For whatever reason, on our way into New Orleans I didn't do my usual research and so we mostly ate wherever was close when we were hungry.

For lunch on Saturday, that was the French Market Restaurant. I had the shrimp etouffee and Erica had red beans and rice. Both were fine. We were both members of the Clean Plate Club.

For dinner on Saturday, we had a veritable feast at Desire Oyster Bar, right on Bourbon. We started with the fried crawfish, which were delectable. For our main course we split an order of jambalaya and a full order of oysters and shrimp. The oysters and shrimp were great. The jambalaya was disappointing -- rather dried out, and the chicken was grilled strips like you'd put on a caesar salad. Bleh.

French Market Restaurant & Bar
1001 Decatur St
New Orleans, LA

Desire Oyster Bar at the Royal Sonesta Hotel
300 Bourbon Street
New Orleans, LA

Posted by Fuzzy at 1:05 PM | Comments (1)

Eating our way across the South - Cafe du Monde

The first time I ever had Cafe du Monde we were driving back from Texas to Indiana and swung through New Orleans to get breakfast, which only added 6 hours to the trip. I was very happy, then, to learn that beignets at Cafe du Monde are totally worth adding 6 hours to a 20 hour drive.

A beignet is such a simple thing -- a lump of fried dough. But they're so good. And the coffee is that uniquely Southern coffee and chicory, so strong and bitter, which still shines through the creaminess of an au lait.

Man, writing this is literally making my mouth water -- I want some beignets now.

Cafe Du Monde
1039 Decatur Street
New Orleans, LA

Posted by Fuzzy at 12:34 PM | Comments (1)

Drinking our way across the South - the Sazerac

Sadly, when people think of New Orleans and drinking these days the first image that pops into their mind is probably drunken frat guys at Mardi Gras. Which is true. But New Orleans has more than just drinking volume, it's got drinking history. I mean, this is the city where the modern cocktail was invented.

And the first cocktail that was invented was (arguably) the Sazerac. I was turned onto the Sazerac by a link from Making Light and started making them a few years ago. A Sazerac isn't too complicated to make, but it does involve three ingredients that you probably don't have in your home bar -- rye whiskey, Herbsaint liqueur, and Peychaud's bitters. If you've seen my home bar, you know that obscure liquors are my stock-in-trade, so finding all those pieces was no problem. And we've enjoyed the Sazeracs I've made, but never having had one that anyone else had made, there's always a lingering question of whether I'm doing it "right".

The place to get a Sazerac would be the Sazerac Bar at the Fairmont, but the Fairmont is still closed from Katrina damage. So we went to the Rib Room at the Omni Royal Orleans for Sazeracs and dessert.

So, yes, I was making them fine (the Rib Room uses Angostura bitters in addition to the Peychaud's bitters, but we'll let that slide). I had a panna cotta that was just a lovely little sliver of a thing. Erica had a Chocolate Obsession that was huge and three different kind of ultra-rich chocolate. Our bartender said that the only person he'd ever seen finish that dessert was a linebacker for the Saints, who had also eaten two full steak dinners. Erica made a good dent in it, but didn't quite finish. But that's ok, she's just a kicker.

Posted by Fuzzy at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

December 7, 2006

Three things

Jason done tagged me while I was on the road, so now I have to tell you these things:

1. 3 Things that scare me: how short our lives are, how big the universe is, getting poked in the eye
2. 3 People who make me laugh: Erica, John Hodgman, Jared Logan
3. 3 Things I love: Erica, video games, reading
4. 3 Things I hate: my stuffed-up nose, meanies, spam
5. 3 Things I don't understand: knitting, French, remaining willfully ignorant
6. 3 Things on my desk: L.A. Guns MegaMetal trading card, stack of to-do notes, Mastering Regular Expressions
7. 3 Things I’m doing right now: clearing out my voice mail, blogging, having some sort of allergy attack in my left eye
8. 3 Things I want to do before I die: learn to play a musical instrument reasonably well, get paid to be in a movie, visit all continents
9. 3 Things I can do: juggle both balls and clubs, improvise, cook a whole meal with one pan
10. 3 Things I can't do: play the aforementioned (any) musical instrument, get my ass in gear, open my eyes underwater
11. 3 Things I think you should listen to: Ze Frank, the Penny Arcade podcast (a great look at a collaborative creative process), Kaki King
12. 3 Things you should never listen to: haters, lamers, douches
13. 3 Things I'd like to learn: better Spanish, to play the twice aforementioned musical instrument, to ride a horse
14. 3 Favorite foods: fried chicken, popcorn, noodles
15. 3 Beverages I drink regularly: Coca-Cola, coffee, booze
16. 3 Shows I watched as a kid: Spiderman, Electric Company, The Muppet Show
17. 3 People I’m tagging: I'm going for an all Reid set here: Erica, Christopher, Tricia

Posted by Fuzzy at 10:27 PM | Comments (4)

Mac Software for Child's Play

In support of that charity I mentioned a few weeks ago, Child's Play, a group of independent Mac software developer are donating all of the sales of their products today* to Child's Play. There's some great software on the list including iRooster, Delicious Library, everything from Flying Meat, and Rolling Credits.

*Today only! Sorry I'm posting so late! Go! Buy!

Posted by Fuzzy at 2:06 PM | Comments (0)

David update

Christopher did a very complete update on the health of my awesome father-in-law.

Update: And Tricia posted some photos of David's not-so-great reaction to his latest treatment.

Posted by Fuzzy at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

Kate for Christmas

Kate has started a CafePress store with, at the moment, a grand two items: super-cute acorn postcards and a super-cute "Toast Yaaay!" tshirt.

Posted by Fuzzy at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 6, 2006

Eating our way across the South - Middendorf's

Middendorf's is a seafood restaurant out in the middle of pretty much nowhere -- at the end of that long, long bridge coming out of New Orleans, headed north to Jackson. It's so popular, sometimes, that they have an entire second restaurant next door that they open up when they need to.

I asked our waitress my new favorite new restaurant question, "if I can only eat at Middendorf's once in my life, what should I get?" She sold me on the thin-cut fried catfish and a soft-shell crab on the side. The catfish was so thin-cut that some of the pieces were mostly just fried, with not much fish. It was good, but I think Rowdy's was better. I've had soft-shell crab parts before, in sushi, but never a whole one. I think I'm not really a fan of the goopy taste of the insides, and the enterprise kept making me wonder if I was eating parts you're supposed to eat.

Middendorf's
Highway 51 at Pass Manchac
Akers, LA

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:40 PM | Comments (0)

Eating our way across the South - Waffle House

Shaun has a little jingle he sings that goes, "There's always someone incompetent at Papa John's" and I think we might have to add a second verse for Waffle House. We ate at Waffle House once in Vicksburg and they were out of hash browns. You know, their specialty (after waffles, I suppose). And in Missouri (or Arkansas -- the trip back is something of a blur) we had dinner at a Waffle House that was, well, it was a litany of problems -- the place was freezing, they were out of buttermilk waffles, the employees spent most of their time smoking and yelling at various people on the phone about the place being freezing, we had to interrupt our waitress' cell phone call to get our drinks, they got my hashbrown order wrong, and let's not even get into the gross things they grill cook was doing.

Anyhoo, the bacon was good.

I was also disappointed to see that newer Waffle House are replacing their traditional signs, where each letter is it's own box (as pictured above), with signs that are a single piece of plastic, with black lines around the letters. I mean, it's their logo -- you'd think they'd care about the brand more. But then, if they cared, the heat would be on.

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:51 PM | Comments (0)

My Name

It's time for a periodic round-up of appearances of my name...

Fuzzy is, of course, the dog in the newly revived Wigu.

Someone at work left me this George Carlin Witticism-A-Day page on my desk. Ha ha. Thank you, George. Call me when you're funny again. (Oh, I can't even pretend to be mad at George Carlin -- Class Clown was one of my first stand-up records, and I still can't believe my parents let me keep it at such a young age.)

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

And you know, I don't even notice when people shorten my nickname to a nickname and call me "Fuzz". From the same folks as Shaun of the Dead, so go watch the whole trailer.

Posted by Fuzzy at 1:08 PM | Comments (0)

Twitter

Any of y'all using Twitter?

Posted by Fuzzy at 9:53 AM | Comments (1)

December 5, 2006

Eating our way across the South - City Bagel Cafe

The strawberry cream cheese had chopped-up fresh strawberry pieces in it. Yeah, that was pretty cool.

(Nobody ever toasts my bagel as toasty as I'd like, but that's a pretty universal complaint.)

City Bagel Cafe
511 University Dr
Starkville, MS

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:41 PM | Comments (0)

Eating our way across the South - Cracker Barrel

I used to have issues with Cracker Barrel, but that's all better now and it's another Reid staple and it's hard to beat their chicken-fried chicken. And my father-in-law, David, can do that golf-tee peg puzzle in 30 seconds.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:39 PM | Comments (0)

Eating our way across the South - Mugshots, Bin 612

We headed up to Starkville, home of Mississippi State (Go Dawgs!), as well as Melissa and Grady, and Mark, Robin, and Sam, for a cross-state, overnight trip. We arrived just before dinner time and so Melissa took us on a quick tour of campus and a fly-by of the best dining options in this cute college town. We decided to go to Grady's favorite spot: Mugshots. Mugshots has huge burgers, with the meat seasoned much like Don Hall* does them and great garlic bread buns (which has given me an idea for the next time we go back to Goldie's). They have one of those "Challenge Meals" -- if you eat a 3-patty burger in under 12 minutes, it's free. Since I couldn't finish the entirety of my single-patty bacon cheeseburger in a half-hour, I'm sure I'd fail. (Though, the excellent fries were also taking up some space in my stomach.) They also have two-for-one beer specials, where they literally bring you two beer mugs each time you order. They were smaller than a pint, but it makes you feel like a two-fisted drinker.

After dinner, we decided to spread out our Starkville experience and have dessert at a different restaurant. I was in the mood for a cappuccino, so I suggested the place that been described as an Italian restaurant, Bin 612. Where better to get a cappuccino than an Italian restaurant? Well, as it turns out, Bin 612 and I disagree about the proper recipe for a cappuccino, as what I got was a really creamy latte. But since we also disagree about the spellings of "dessert", "graham crackers", "marshmallows", and "cinnamon" and about whether regular coffee should be served hot or ice cold (hint, I say "at least warm") I have a feeling I might be on the winning side of the argument.

Mugshots
101 N Douglas Connor St
Starkville, MS

Bin 612
612 University Dr
Starkville, MS

* For the 4 people that that know what I mean when I say that.

Posted by Fuzzy at 5:37 PM | Comments (0)

Eating our way across the South - Sweet Daddy's BBQ

Erica's been talking about "gas station barbeque" for years, and I was thinking of places like Rudy's in Texas -- full size restaurants that happen to be attached to gas stations. That's not the case in Mississippi -- gas stations have a smoker on the grounds* and a small selection of barbeque inside. Sweet Daddy's BBQ at the Exxon on Northside Dr and Hwy 55 in Jackson has a single case of meat inside and a gentleman standing beside it ready to serve you up some ribs.

There's nowhere to sit or anything -- we took our bbq and some Dr. Peppers out to the grass beside the station and ate our lunch while watching the traffic passing on the off-ramp of 55. But my god, that was some good barbeque -- a sweet, baked-on sauce, good meat. Damn. And that was a huge turkey leg.

* It's a natural combination -- gasoline and a slow-smouldering fire.

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:58 PM | Comments (1)

Eating our way across the South - Que Sera Sera

We had some appetizers at Que Sera Sera in Jackson while chatting with Erica's friend Ali. Southern staples like fried pickles showed up... fancy, with grated parmesan. Tasty pants! And the fried artichoke hearts were also delish.

Que Sera Sera
2801 N State St
Jackson, MS

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:55 PM | Comments (0)

Eating our way across the South - Goldie's

Goldie's Trail Bar-B-Que is a Reid family staple, and I've got my meal down, now, after trying most of the menu over the years: barbequed sausage sandwich, side of the garlic bread, steal a few fries off of someone else's plate.

There's a framed photo of the old Goldie's Trail location (taken by Daniel Boone) in the Reid's living room. A framed photo of one of their favorite restaurants -- is it any wonder I get along so well with this family?

Goldies Trail Bar-B-Que
4127 Washington St
Vicksburg, MS

Posted by Fuzzy at 4:50 PM | Comments (0)