This is the sort of motorcycle I like:
Its not a cruiser or a sport bike - it's a standard model. But funny enough, there are hardly any bikes around like this any more. This one is "new" for 2009 I think, and it comes in 2 colours I know of - white or black. Attach a nice sidecar to this and I would be totally happy. :D
Allen.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Crayfish Died
Our crayfish flipped upside down and died. It was sort of a sad thing.
The worst part of it was the smell - it managed to pollute the whole fish tank with a nasty fishy stink and half our house by the time I'd found it dead. So it necessitated a major water change for the remaining fish and a ahead-of-schedule fish tank/pump cleaning.
I'm wondering how it happened. Maybe it was just near the end of it's lifespan? They are supposed to live about 2 years and ours was about that age. Maybe I put in too much fish food? I'd dropped a bunch of watercress at the top of the tank for the fish like usual, except perhaps in a slightly larger volume. The fish were really making short work of it, and putting out a ton of poop, which could have overwhelmed the crayfish.
Anyways, it was sort of gross, but we dealt with it and now we just have the surviving 5 fish that were originally meant for a crayfish snack.
Allen.
The worst part of it was the smell - it managed to pollute the whole fish tank with a nasty fishy stink and half our house by the time I'd found it dead. So it necessitated a major water change for the remaining fish and a ahead-of-schedule fish tank/pump cleaning.
I'm wondering how it happened. Maybe it was just near the end of it's lifespan? They are supposed to live about 2 years and ours was about that age. Maybe I put in too much fish food? I'd dropped a bunch of watercress at the top of the tank for the fish like usual, except perhaps in a slightly larger volume. The fish were really making short work of it, and putting out a ton of poop, which could have overwhelmed the crayfish.
Anyways, it was sort of gross, but we dealt with it and now we just have the surviving 5 fish that were originally meant for a crayfish snack.
Allen.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Scooter and Riding
I've started to ride my Vino 125 to work again, when the weather is nice. I could say a thing or two about the gas prices which are currently up at $1.03 Canadian per litre, but its more about the amusement factor than the gas savings.
The battery died over the course of the winter and I haven't been able to revive it. I've been kickstarting until I replaced the battery yesterday. The replacement process wasn't too difficult, everything was located in a pretty easy to reach location under the foot panelling. All I needed was a Phillips screwdriver.
Maybe I should trade it in for something a little heavier, since 125cc doesn't meet the 400-series highway requirement of 250cc. I'm not quite sure where I read that any more, but 125cc only gets me up to about 80 kmph anyway, which is not good enough for the highway. I wonder what the trade in value would be, or if it's better to just sell it privately. I'm probably better off with the latter.
Allen.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wheel rims
...or more specifically, the lack thereof.
Here's a bit of an annoyance - In mid-May, I ordered a set of 4 steel rims from Canadian Tire. I paid $300, and they said they would let me know when it comes in.
About a month goes by with me inquiring every so often, and eventually, someone admits that they are typically not available until the end of fall. You know, when the winter tire rush starts coming in. They apologized and said they would order it directly from a manufacturer, and it should arrive on Monday or Tuesday, given that it was Friday morning when I called them. So I dropped by the store on Tuesday, and there was still nothing there.
At least I could cancel the order and get a refund.
Allen.
Here's a bit of an annoyance - In mid-May, I ordered a set of 4 steel rims from Canadian Tire. I paid $300, and they said they would let me know when it comes in.
About a month goes by with me inquiring every so often, and eventually, someone admits that they are typically not available until the end of fall. You know, when the winter tire rush starts coming in. They apologized and said they would order it directly from a manufacturer, and it should arrive on Monday or Tuesday, given that it was Friday morning when I called them. So I dropped by the store on Tuesday, and there was still nothing there.
At least I could cancel the order and get a refund.
Allen.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Copacabana!
D called up the other day and asked me if I wanted to try out this Brazillian BBQ restaurant in Toronto with some of the guys. Now I have some pretty good memories of the time I went to the Pampas in Las Vegas, so I said I'd go.
At a Brazillian BBQ, they bring skewers of all sorts of BBQ out to your table, and you tell the server if you want something or not. Then they carve pieces off the skewer for you right to your plate. Usually they have some sort of signalling system in place if you want a break from being offered all sorts of BBQed goodness. Eat till you are full, cause it is all you can eat.
I got there there a bit early for the reservation so I sat down at the bar and started on a Stella. It was a cool looking place, sort of the happening-spot type of place you'd find in a restaurant geared for people in their early 30s. The music was loud but not so loud that you can't talk to other people, cause K and T found me at the bar and we talked and joked about this and that until Don and a few others showed up.
Once everyone was there, we ordered some drinks and started on their salad & buffet. It wasn't really a huge selection but what they had was fresh. It wasn't really the main attraction after all. The rosemary bread was nice. The smoked salmon seemed like it was out for a while. There was a good creamy turkey stroganoff dish meant to go with rice. I enjoyed that, though I'm not sure how, er, Brazillian it is.
There was a bad spot where the willowy waiter taking care of our table's drinks spilled half a tray of drinks on a couple of people at our table. They were the easygoing sort though, and they just laughed it off. The manager came out and apologized for the incident. In the end we were given complimentary desserts, but we were way too full of bbq by then. So we passed on it.
Speaking of the barbecue, it came nice and full of flavour. Bacon wrapped filet mignon or turkey, rib eye steak, sirloin, prime rib. I think they need to have more pineapple coming around, that always was in demand and we didn't actually get any for the first 3/4ths of our meal. I had to ask for some lamb too cause all we saw was beef, but they were prompt in getting some lamb chops out right away so I have no complaints. I think they could have done with some sausages or something but I was quite satisfied with the food.
The bbq servers were a bit on the rough side, all spartan macho guys with tattoos and muscles. They didn't have a deferential, polite waiter approach to serving food - no "would you care for some prime rib" or "here you go sirs" here, they were all a laconic "This is Sirloin." (imagine Rambo saying it while spearing a skewer into your table top) or "Is there anything else you're looking for." It was kind of weird, but they were efficient.
I imagine that this would be a hard restaurant to rob, with all these tough guy servers stalking around the restaurant with skewers and carving knives.
Oh they had live music too. I'd read that they have dancing and capoiera performances sometimes, but on Sunday we were treated to jazzifed 80s pop. Not my thing, but people were enjoying it.
All in all it was enjoyable, but I'm not sure I'd go back. My share cost $55 for the food and drink, which is actually more than I paid in Vegas.
Allen.
At a Brazillian BBQ, they bring skewers of all sorts of BBQ out to your table, and you tell the server if you want something or not. Then they carve pieces off the skewer for you right to your plate. Usually they have some sort of signalling system in place if you want a break from being offered all sorts of BBQed goodness. Eat till you are full, cause it is all you can eat.
I got there there a bit early for the reservation so I sat down at the bar and started on a Stella. It was a cool looking place, sort of the happening-spot type of place you'd find in a restaurant geared for people in their early 30s. The music was loud but not so loud that you can't talk to other people, cause K and T found me at the bar and we talked and joked about this and that until Don and a few others showed up.
Once everyone was there, we ordered some drinks and started on their salad & buffet. It wasn't really a huge selection but what they had was fresh. It wasn't really the main attraction after all. The rosemary bread was nice. The smoked salmon seemed like it was out for a while. There was a good creamy turkey stroganoff dish meant to go with rice. I enjoyed that, though I'm not sure how, er, Brazillian it is.
There was a bad spot where the willowy waiter taking care of our table's drinks spilled half a tray of drinks on a couple of people at our table. They were the easygoing sort though, and they just laughed it off. The manager came out and apologized for the incident. In the end we were given complimentary desserts, but we were way too full of bbq by then. So we passed on it.
Speaking of the barbecue, it came nice and full of flavour. Bacon wrapped filet mignon or turkey, rib eye steak, sirloin, prime rib. I think they need to have more pineapple coming around, that always was in demand and we didn't actually get any for the first 3/4ths of our meal. I had to ask for some lamb too cause all we saw was beef, but they were prompt in getting some lamb chops out right away so I have no complaints. I think they could have done with some sausages or something but I was quite satisfied with the food.
The bbq servers were a bit on the rough side, all spartan macho guys with tattoos and muscles. They didn't have a deferential, polite waiter approach to serving food - no "would you care for some prime rib" or "here you go sirs" here, they were all a laconic "This is Sirloin." (imagine Rambo saying it while spearing a skewer into your table top) or "Is there anything else you're looking for." It was kind of weird, but they were efficient.
I imagine that this would be a hard restaurant to rob, with all these tough guy servers stalking around the restaurant with skewers and carving knives.
Oh they had live music too. I'd read that they have dancing and capoiera performances sometimes, but on Sunday we were treated to jazzifed 80s pop. Not my thing, but people were enjoying it.
All in all it was enjoyable, but I'm not sure I'd go back. My share cost $55 for the food and drink, which is actually more than I paid in Vegas.
Allen.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Anti-wasp measures
Wasps started building a nest on our back door again.
A couple years ago I figured out a decent solution for keeping them from doing it, after checking out what other people on the web do. We just hadn't gotten around to putting one up this year. They build every year otherwise. This time they'd just started and I pinched it off while it was still just 2 empty cells. Sort of wish I'd taken a picture, oh well. I don't know why they like our door so much, none of the other townhouses in the row seem to have this problem.
Anyways, what I do is stuff a paper lunch bag with other scrunched up plastic and paper bags, and shape it into a cone. Then I tie off the top with a couple of twist ties, and stick it up on the wall by the door.
Scouting wasps think that the bag is some other wasp's nest, and they don't consider it a valid building site. They don't build new nests in other wasps' territories.
This has worked for the past two years without any problems. Here's some pictures, its neither stylish nor glamourous, but it keeps the wasps away.
Allen.
A couple years ago I figured out a decent solution for keeping them from doing it, after checking out what other people on the web do. We just hadn't gotten around to putting one up this year. They build every year otherwise. This time they'd just started and I pinched it off while it was still just 2 empty cells. Sort of wish I'd taken a picture, oh well. I don't know why they like our door so much, none of the other townhouses in the row seem to have this problem.
Anyways, what I do is stuff a paper lunch bag with other scrunched up plastic and paper bags, and shape it into a cone. Then I tie off the top with a couple of twist ties, and stick it up on the wall by the door.
Scouting wasps think that the bag is some other wasp's nest, and they don't consider it a valid building site. They don't build new nests in other wasps' territories.
This has worked for the past two years without any problems. Here's some pictures, its neither stylish nor glamourous, but it keeps the wasps away.
Allen.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Bagels Nom Nom Nom
We went to the supermarket in the afternoon today, but we'd neglected to get a bag of bagels. Since I didn't feel like going out to another market, I decided to make some at home.
I dug up a nice recipe at The Hub that didn't require anything particularly special. Just 6 common ingredients, no milk or eggs or anything fancy. It was interesting cause I'd never made bagels before, and the whole idea of boiling the dough first before baking was weird to say the least.
I didn't measure exactly according to recipe - I added a cup of oat bran since we had some around, and went up to ~ 2 cups of water to compensate. I also added a sprinkling of sesame seeds as well.
Here's the basic recipe:
4 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp instant yeast
1.5 cups warm water.
Put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Poke a dent in the middle and put the oil in there.
Then add the water a bit at a time, making the dough in the middle of your dry ingredients, adding more water to soak up more flour from the sides into your dough. Once most of the flour in in your dough, turn it out onto your clean countertop. Knead till you're happy with it, about ten minutes or so. Let it relax for about 20 minutes after.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll them into cylinders about twice the width of your hand. Loop each piece around and press the ends together in a doughnut shape. Or you can roll it into a long snake and cut off pieces as needed for the bagel loops. Let them rise for a bit, maybe 15 minutes. For me, by the time I had done the last one, the first one was ready to be boiled.
Boil some water in a pot and drop in your bagels, a few at a time, don't crowd them. I did them 3 at once. I left them in the boiling water for about a minute and a half, then flipped them over to boil for the same. I scooped them out and dropped them on an oiled baking sheet to wait for the the next batch to be boiled.
Once all that is done, put them in an oven preheated to 425 Fahrenheit till they're a colour you're happy with. For me it was about 25 minutes uninterrupted baking time.
Anyways, here are the results, they turned out pretty nicely!
I tried several ways - punched down and not punched down, poked-hole (left) and looped snakes (right)
End notes: I like the way the looped-snake style bagels look nicer than the poked-hole ones. (You can see the poked-hole ones in the upper left, and second from the left in the bottom row) They have the same nice and chewy texture when eaten though. The punched down bagels dont have big air bubbles inside.
Allen.
I dug up a nice recipe at The Hub that didn't require anything particularly special. Just 6 common ingredients, no milk or eggs or anything fancy. It was interesting cause I'd never made bagels before, and the whole idea of boiling the dough first before baking was weird to say the least.
I didn't measure exactly according to recipe - I added a cup of oat bran since we had some around, and went up to ~ 2 cups of water to compensate. I also added a sprinkling of sesame seeds as well.
Here's the basic recipe:
4 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp instant yeast
1.5 cups warm water.
Put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Poke a dent in the middle and put the oil in there.
Then add the water a bit at a time, making the dough in the middle of your dry ingredients, adding more water to soak up more flour from the sides into your dough. Once most of the flour in in your dough, turn it out onto your clean countertop. Knead till you're happy with it, about ten minutes or so. Let it relax for about 20 minutes after.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll them into cylinders about twice the width of your hand. Loop each piece around and press the ends together in a doughnut shape. Or you can roll it into a long snake and cut off pieces as needed for the bagel loops. Let them rise for a bit, maybe 15 minutes. For me, by the time I had done the last one, the first one was ready to be boiled.
Boil some water in a pot and drop in your bagels, a few at a time, don't crowd them. I did them 3 at once. I left them in the boiling water for about a minute and a half, then flipped them over to boil for the same. I scooped them out and dropped them on an oiled baking sheet to wait for the the next batch to be boiled.
Once all that is done, put them in an oven preheated to 425 Fahrenheit till they're a colour you're happy with. For me it was about 25 minutes uninterrupted baking time.
Anyways, here are the results, they turned out pretty nicely!
I tried several ways - punched down and not punched down, poked-hole (left) and looped snakes (right)
End notes: I like the way the looped-snake style bagels look nicer than the poked-hole ones. (You can see the poked-hole ones in the upper left, and second from the left in the bottom row) They have the same nice and chewy texture when eaten though. The punched down bagels dont have big air bubbles inside.
Allen.
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