Friday, July 06, 2007

Mr Furious Heartily Endorses...

Neal Pollack I've stumbled across Pollack before, but in his new "cool guy struggling with fatherhood" persona, I've found a soul mate. Not that I think I'm so cool or anything, just that I find his blog absolutely hilarious, and Mrs. Furious and I are taking turns slogging through his book "Alternadad." Funny enough that I actually can't read it while holding a sleeping baby without waking her up. Thanks a lot, Neal.

Whole Foods 365 Everyday Vanilla Sandwich Cookies Quite simply the finest sandwich cookie ever baked. Or assembled. Whatever. Just the right consistancy, cookie/filling ratio, with the slight saltiness that ensures you eat like five at a time. More, if you have milk.

Iced Coffee Nectar of the gods. We've finally mastered the process of having it constantly available at home (which means me remembering to brew a pot, sweeten it while it's hot and put it in the fridge before I go to bed), and Michigan seems to finally have caught up to the East Coast and you can actually find it on the menu(board). For the first few years we lived out here, people behind the counter would look at me like I just asked for a glass of dishwater, and thusly confused would offer to "put some ice in the coffee?" No, jackass. That just results in a watery, melty coffee-ish broth that sucks. Iced coffee is brewed strong (accounting for ice meltage) and served cold (or room temp) over ice. And if you are a place as good as Naidre's you offer Simple Syrup as a sweetener. Few things make me miss Park Slope more than iced coffee...

This Thermal Mug I don't remember the manufacturer, but that link tells you where to get it. I am astonished how well insulated this thing is. I come back to my car after hours in the summer sun, and there is still ice in the thing. Around the house, your aforementioned iced coffee stays cold and not-watered down forever. Fantastic.

Taco Bell Grilled Steak Taquitos Is there such a thing in Mexico? Who knows and who cares. These suckers are good, cheap and relatively healthy for fast food. They are a lunch standard for me when I run out of the office. In fact, look for me in the Taco Bell parking lot in about ten minutes...

THE JURY'S STILL OUT...
Bose TriPort OE Headphones I got frustrated finding a place that had the Sennheisers I wanted, and just bought these at Target when we had a coupon, and while they are worlds better than the buds that came with my iPod, they don't seem as good as the Bang & Olufsens I returned at Christmas... These cans are a bit too heavy in the bass, and the controls for that are tough with the iPod. Yesterday the exceptionally-produced "Diamonds On the soles of Her Shoes" by Paul Simon came on and they sounded great, but at other times things get muddy. they look great, are collapsible and compact, and I love the cloth cord which is much less prone to tangling, but I still can't give them a total thumbs up (or down) yet.

6 comments:

Toast said...

I share your love of iced coffee, but I've never attempted making it at home. So, really, you just brew a strong pot and put it in the fridge, then serve over ice? Man, I'm doing that shit today.

Mr Furious said...

It took some trial and error, but basically just a little stronger than you'd normally go, since the coffee is going end up getting watered down some. The second key part is (if you add sugar) to add the sugar while it's hot, since it will dissolve easily and then you just pop it in the fridge, pour over ice and we like some half and half thrown in the glass as well.

If you sweeten by the glass when it's cold, you never get a good distribution of sugar, it all ends up swirling around at the bottom.

Unless you make a simple syrup which is a somewhat unwieldy process of boiling sugar and water in a pot for a precise amount of time and creating a liquid sweetener than can be added to taste by the glass. Useful if you and Tracy enjoy different amounts of sweetening...

Noah said...

I jumped onto Neal Pollack's blog. I spent more than an hour there reading posts and archives. He's a riot, and as the father of a two-year-old, it all rang true. Since Mr. F recommended his book, I'll get it.

Mr Furious said...

The book is great. I'm actually just through the birth part, and the parallels between the Pollacks and the Furiousos is uncanny—Bradley classes, angst over circumcision, overdue birth—as it turns out both his wife Regina and Mrs F both were almost two weeks overdue, went into labor the day before scheduled inducement, ended up having emergency c-sections and had babies on the exact same day. October 31, 2002.

Rickey said...

My take on Bose is that you're paying too much money for a mere patent. Senheiser's earphones are far superior in my humble opinion. Bigger, but far superior.

Those taquitos things ARE the balls by the way. Spot on.

Mr Furious said...

My take on Bose is that you're paying too much money for a mere patent. Senheiser's earphones are far superior in my humble opinion.

Yup. You're probably right. Problem is nobody stocks any good Sennheisers in the store, you have to order them online, then you are pretty much stuck with them. I couldn't find anyplace to audition them—unlike the Bose which have listening stations at most big-box retailers.

I've adjusted the EQ in my iPod to take the edge off, and it's helped. The other problem with the Sennheiser cans is the ones I was favoring are an open design, which allows sound OUT, a problem for me in the two environments I would wear them most. At work, and sitting in a chair while my daughter falls asleep...

So, I'm warming up the Bose...

Oh, and Rickey, I owe you credit for the format of these posts. I've been meaning to write about little things like this forever, and I just ripped it straight from your blog.