Time to make the 2blog folder catchup post…

As usual, starting with all things overheard:

For geeky things, I’m going to start off with some privacy links (to opt-out of tracking for advertising cookies):

And the rest of the geek links:

Political things:

Some parenting links:

Some things just for Cy:

And just plain interesting:

catchup blogging, again

Things overheard:

Geeky links:

Political things:

Interesting/funny/parenting and golf things:

That last one makes my first idea for Grace’s name (Entropy) seem positively mundane.  Right?

Time for catchup blogging!

As is my custom, we begin with things overheard:

And since we’ve been travelling waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much, here are some beach sites:

Geeky things:

Political things:

Funny things:

And finally, parenting:

2blog folder is not full, but here goes anyway…

Oooo…Media

Digg – This Is Why I Hate CNN (Pic)

Digg – No, f*** you, reader of CNN

Geeky things:

Vlc: Master Your Digital Media with VLC

Optimize Ubuntu 8.04 for Speed – Speed up Hardy Heron! – Softpedia

Gallery2:How To Write Scripts – Gallery Codex

Debian – you can never be sure

Ten tips for securing Linux desktops – at ZDNet.co.uk

Hands on: 12 quick hacks for Firefox 3 – LinuxWorld

The Urge to End It – Understanding Suicide – NYTimes.com

How to “Peel” Hard-Boiled Eggs Without Peeling – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

Parenting things:

Why Most Sunscreens Don’t Work | Newsweek To Your Health | Newsweek.com

things

Funny things:

The 5 Most Unintentionally Scarring ’80s Music Videos | Cracked.com

Pranks: Just Say ‘Yes’ To Telemarketers

Abstruse Goose » At the Driving Range

Local News: Man found in WI basement covered in BBQ sauce | sauce, basement, covered : WWMT NEWSCHANNEL 3 (What makes this funny is that I’ve been in Appleton)

Time to empty the 2blog folder

For those who care, I have really, *really* short names for my bookmarks toolbar folders — for instance, my leftmost folder, which contains links that I visit daily, is labelled simply ‘1’.  I use foxmarks to keep my bookmarks synchronized between all my browsers, and I use the “Add Bookmark Here2” plugin to just add pages to that 2blog folder when I come across a page I want to share later.

Then, once it gets overwhelmingly large, I just copy the links from that folder to a post.

As usual I start with things overheard:

Geeky things:

Political things:

Just generally interesting:

Catching up again…

It has been busy — as I’m sure you can tell from the photoblog. Man, oh man is that 2blog folder full!

Starting with all things overheard:

(I told you it has been a while!)

And, in honor of the official end of the Democratic primary season, all things political come next:

There are a slew of geeky links:

It’s summertime here in Austin:

I’m not such a bad dad, after all…

Film:

Funny:

An amazing first

I came home tonight, and when I walked in the door, Grace came running over.

Come look at the table!

Lo and behold, she set the table and made dinner (ham sandwiches).  We each had a glass of water, and a napkin with our name on it.

We all sat down together and had a nice family dinner.  Now that she has gone to sleep, I’m going to fix something more, but that’s a secret!

J’s Bread recipe (bread machine required)

Ingredient options are listed in order of preference:

For each loaf:
  • 1 cup 1% buttermilk, or regular milk (have extra ready)
  • 1/2 stick butter, sliced
  • 3 tablespoons honey or sugar
  • 3 cups unsifted flour (any combination of whole wheat and white works with at least 1 cup white flour)
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tablespoon yeast (quick-rise works best)
  • pam with flour

You will also need at least one small batter bowl (or something equivalent), and one more bread pan than the number of loaves you plan to make (the extra one is used as a shaping pan).

  1. Combine milk, butter and honey, heat in microwave 30 seconds. Let sit in microwave for a few moments, then nuke it another 30 seconds. The small batter bowl from pampered chef is fantastic for this. Put into bread machine.
  2. Add half the flour, the salt, the rest of the flour, and the yeast.
  3. Start bread machine on the dough setting, wait for initial ingredient combination. It should be lumpy from too much flour.
  4. SLOWLY drizzle more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the dough both has a smooth gluten coating AND sticks to and pulls away from the side of the bread machine. Wait at least one minute between the last two teaspoons of milk. Don’t wait if the dough is banging around the inside way above the mixing beater.
  5. On my machine, the initial (intermittent) stirring takes two minutes of the 20-minute kneading process. I try to be done drizzling in milk by the time 8 minutes are left before the first rise.

  6. Spray all bread pans with pam with flour
Single loaf instructions
  1. Check on the first rise after 30 minutes. It may need to be punched down by hand (usually if the weather is warm) to prevent overflow!
  2. When the machine’s punch-down is complete, immediately transfer the dough to bread pan, and punch it flat to the shape of the pan.
  3. Put the other pan over the top, and flip them both over so that the shaped loaf is now smooth top and bottom.
  4. Run a knife down the length of the dough, through to the bottom.
  5. Pre-heat oven to 350°F to 375° F
  6. Let the dough rise until the highest point just passes the top of the bread pan.
  7. Bake for 35-50 minutes, at least until browned and tapping on the bread makes a hollow sound.
  8. Immediately remove loaf from pan and put on a cooling rack, unless you want a soggy crust.
  9. Let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing.
Multiple loaf differences
  1. When the 20-minute mixing finishes, let the dough rise in a pampered chef classic batter bowl. Spray the bowl with pam with flour to make your life easier.
  2. While measuring the wet ingredients, measure out several copies into more small batter bowls. Do the same for the dry ingredients.
  3. You can re-use the same shaping pan — it rarely needs to be re-sprayed with pam.

You want a real treat? Take two slices immediately after slicing the still-warm loaf; toast them until just barely crisp on the outside. Butter and salt. Try not to do that for two more slices.