There's no feature on Formspring to let you "pin" responses to your stream, but on each response there's a date, it'll say "4 hours ago" or "2 days ago" or whatever. If you click on that, you'll be taken to the perma-link for that response. You can bookmark that page or email yourself the link.

Oven "Fried" potato Chips:
- Preheat your oven to 500*

- Thinly slice idaho potatoes into even slices, go for the thickness of your thumb nail, or a bit thicker if you prefer. A mandolin is best for this but I've used a very sharp knife. Place them into a cold water bath.

- Grease a baking sheet with butter. This should be a high quality baking sheet that won't warp under the heat.

- Dry the slices on paper towels and arrange them on the sheet, do not overlap.

- Apply a coat of melted butter over the top of the potatoes using a pastry brush.

- Bake them until done. I usually have to remove the chips placed around the rim of the pan first and then put it back in the oven to finish the rest.

- Immediately after removing from the oven, toss with kosher salt or sea salt or whatever else you want on them.




Oven French Fries:

- Preheat oven to 450*, place a baking sheet into the oven to pre-heat.

- Cut the fries, I prefer a thickness about 1cm square. Place into a cold water bath. When you're done, drain the water and rinse them again to remove all starch.

- In a large bowl, add a few tablespoons of olive oil and seasoning of your choice. I use cajun seasoning, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. It's hard to go wrong with the seasoning you choose.

- Dry the fries VERY GOOD. This is important. We pat them dry on paper towels.

- Toss them in the oil until they're evenly coated.

- Remove the cooking sheet from the oven and as quickly as you can, arrange them on the sheet in a single layer. A little space between each one is ideal. Get them back into the oven.

- Cook them most the way undisturbed. This will take 10-20 minutes depending on how full your tray is. Check a few fries and see if they have a nice golden color on the bottom. When they do, flip them. You won't get them all flipped perfectly, it doesn't matter.

- Put them back in the oven to finish, another 5-10 minutes. Keep an eye on done-ness by checking how soft they are. You don't want them rock hard and hollow in the middle. Unless you like that sort of thing, which is fine I guess.

- Remove them from the oven and salt them. If you need to keep them warm, put them in a bowl, loosely covered w/ foil and put them back in the oven.

They won't be that amazing crispy on the outside, soft on the inside texture you get from good, deep-fried frenchfries. But these are definitely healthier and pretty easy to do at home.


Try them both and then answer. For me... I like the chips. But I know @tayrenee86 likes the fries.

We should setup a Nagios alert for that. Maybe "Max Incarcerated Engineers Exceeded" ?

Samoas. Purple box. Plastic tray. Delicious cookies. Toasted cocoanut. At my usual burn rate, each one represents 6 minutes on the Elliptical. And they're worth every damn one of them.

The Moccamaster is a drip coffee maker. Very possibly the best drip coffee maker.

It's made in the Netherlands, a simple design, probably not a microchip in the thing, but it's very good at what it does: Heat water very quickly to a consistent 200*F and brew a pot of coffee into a thermal carafe in 5 minutes or less.

It's about $300, so it's not cheap. Here was my reasoning behind the purchase:

1) I have an irrational love for high-end things.

2) I hate HATE most American-bought, Chinese-made consumerist crap that ends up in landfills. Like for example the last 3 coffee makers I've owned since 2003.

3) It has a simple design and replacement parts are available. Many people have had a Moccamaster for 10-20 years without needing any repairs, but the fact that you can fix it if you need to means a lot to me.

4) I like good coffee. I'm a one-cup-per-day person. I want the best damn 1-cup I can get. And since Taylor usually makes the coffee in the morning, and she veto'd going to a french press for everyday use, this was the next best option.

Behold it in all it's glory:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=technivorm+moccamaster&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1920&bih=1014&ix=seb&ion=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=14992017310457426723&sa=X&ei=DOtCT5q4Msq2gwfAtsTwAQ&ved=0CJIBEPMCMAI

This was a good weekend. On Saturday I spent the afternoon in my garage cleaning and detailing the car. That's my zen activity. It's just me, 3000 lbs of polished steel and glass, an absurd collection of boutique car shampoos, cleansers, waxes, sealants, and glazes, and implements of all shapes and sizes. It's a deeply satisfying hobby for me.

And on Sunday, my fantastic fiance, @tayrenee86, a master shopper and ruler of the clearance rack, accomplished amazing feats, bringing home a cashmire blend sweater from Banana Republic, and a similar one in another color from Guess, for $50 for the pair.

Oh, and we finally bought the Moccamaster we've been eyeing. I looked at it as our patriotic duty to do our part to stimulate the economy.

I think: By the time Windows 10 comes out the logo will have more colors and blur/motion/flying effects than the one they have now. I applaud them for shedding backwards nostalgia and looking finally for a fresh start, I just think history there will repeat itself.

Well actually, i met my fiance at work, a couple years ago. So there were all kinds of things, but that's not really a fair comparison. @tayrenee86 what do you think?

Her name is Ashley Micka. She was my friends sister. We walked to school together. I think I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade.

Vegas.

Not sure if it was my "worst" but last year was pretty bad. Did some crazy shopping and prep work in the kitchen. Had butterflied lobster tail and tenderloin and cheesecake lollipops for dessert. And then, like 6 PM, I started feeling reallllly sick to my stomach. I kept waiting for it to pass but by 8 PM I was just content to cook for @tayrenee86 and eat whatever I could keep down.

She wanted no part of that though and I think we had like ramen for dinner that night, postponing our Valentines Day until the 15th. She has a way of turning lemons into lemonade, though, and that next night went great and she decided then that from now on, we'd celebrate on the 15th.

It certainly makes reservations easier to get!

Yes, definitely. Here's my logic: There are destabilizing, disruptive forces in our society, far too numerous to list. I have no doubt that the constitution of the United States and our culture and the totality of the shared American experience are far stronger in resisting that than any organized sports.

Obviously I would like to smile a smile. It's the polite thing to do.

I don't know but @tayrenee86 and I watched "What If Earth Had No Moon" on the Science Channel. It was hosted by Patrick Stewart and it was awesome.

That's a complex question. @tayrenee86 and I are looking forward to next months Mad Men premier. And whenever Breaking Bad starts for a 4th season we'll be watching that too. In the past, I've had intense affection for The Sopranos, Entourage, The West Wing, The Office and M*A*S*H. Just to name a few. I also love NOVA and The American Experience series on PBS. And anything Ken Burns, but that's not really a "TV Show."

This is a good read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/a-guys-guide-to-haberdashery/2011/07/15/gIQAvnX8FI_blog.html

While that will mostly focus on teaching you how to look fantastic when you're going for formal, I think there's a common thread between your formal look and your casual look that you can follow.

@gillesdevaux was right that you should find which brand has clothes that happen to fit you. There are subtle differences and since we're buying off the rack, we need to find the right rack.

The same thing goes for colors. If you already don't know what they are, find the colors that look best against your coloring. Ask your girlfriend, that's what I did.

As to the issue of owning a suit... You definitely need at least one. For a 1-suit closet, I think dark grey is the best. You can wear it to a funeral or a wedding. Whatever you do, make sure it fits properly. As you waist size changes, have it taken in or let out. A suit that doesn't fit looks so, so bad. Better to just wear khakis and a jacket than a suit that doesn't fit. What I love, and what you should do later, after you've progressed on your wardrobe upgrade, is get a suit made for you. There's a quite affordable option where you work with a tailor here who will measure you and create patterns for you. After that, the patterns are sent overseas and you can order whatever fabrics and colors interest you. Once the pattern is made, you'll always have it.

Sick. You are a sick woman.

@martincozzi was singing at his desk earlier. Works for me.