Author: Josh

Johnny Carson was one of my idols. Every once in a while I like to try to convince myself that I’m funny. I attribute that to paternal geneology and Johnny Carson. I remember when I was a little boy – Shirley Clutter introduced me to Johnny Carson. She thought that he was the funniest man alive. I soon shared in Shirley’s adoration for Johnny.

I’m sad. Life is much too short and, really, not that serious.

Elise and I met up with Philip, Rob, Dave and Shannon last night to watch the Ice Bats beat the Loredo Bucks 5-3 in their last game of the season. Bonus: Pushmonkey (local band that Elise and I really like) performed after the game.

Going to Ice Bats game has been a tradition for Elise and me since we’ve been together. We go, sneak in a pint of Jack Daniels (sorry, I’m not paying $5 for a beer), make some noise, watch some fights, chant “Go Ice Bats” and Elise has to re-explain the rules of hockey (Northern folk understand ice hockey. Most Texans just go for the fights and to revel at the notion of a large platform of ice on which to skate).

The game was awesome. It was also good to catch up with the boys. Two weeks ago I gave a lot of business to the company that Rob works for. I found out last night that Shannon works for a competing vendor that I’ve used in the past. Rob and Shannon are neighbors. I handed them both my business card and told both of them to call me Monday morning. That was hilarious. I kept my mouth shut and laughed as the two of them starting fighting (in a neighborly/friendly way) for my business.

After the game we all went our separate ways. Elise and I came home and looked at old pictures and watched the video from our trip to Galveston for New Years 2000.

Elise and I went on a dinner date last night. I chose Chez Zee. If it weren’t for the atmosphere and the borderline overly-friendly and mildly entertaining maitre d, we would have walked out.

First off, our waiter was horrible. He didn’t introduce himself, ask us how we were doing and taking our drink orders seemed like a chore for him. I watched our waiter throughout the evening. He had five tables. He wasn’t too busy to be more attentive to us. I saw him and two other waiters playing catch with a pack of cigarettes in the alley of the kitchen.

Elise had a chardonnay. I had a J&B on the rocks.

Dear Chez Zee bartender,

On the rocks = don’t float the ice. (Thanks Doug Paul)

Champion de Marlboro Wimbledon then took the food order of a four top that was seated after us.

Said waiter then took our order after putting the four top’s order into the POS. Ten minutes later, as he was walking by, asked “Oh, did y’all want some bread?”

I thought about saying “Oh, is that what the bread plates are for?” I bit my tongue.

Elise and I both struggled with finding something on the menu that brought taste buds to attention. I was quick to notice that most menu items were chicken entrees. I wasn’t really in the mood for chicken, nor was Elise. Elise thought the Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing and Pecan Chicken sounded good, but didn’t want to pay $15 for a salad.

She ordered the Oriental Ginger Stir Fry. I had the Chicken Gorgonzola Pizza (from the appetizer menu). My pizza was very good – very flavorful and plenty of food for half the price of an entree. We both agreed that the stir-fry wasn’t much better than a frozen boxed dinner. It was very bland with no hint of ginger. The fried wonton bowl was also more oily than she would have liked.

Chez Zee is well known for desserts. We didn’t want to stick around any longer than necessary. No dessert for us.

I thought about stiffing the waiter on gratuity. I’ve spent many years in the restaurant industry and know that that makes for bad ju ju. So I left our waiter a little less than a 10% tip. He was terrible.

People will always be people and mostly strange at that. Representing a restaurant well as a server is critical if that restaurant wants repeat business – and what restaurant doesn’t want that? I took a comment card home with me and planning on filling it out and attaching a short letter recounting our recent visit to Chez Zee.

One bad apple can spoil a nice, Friday night dinner date with my wife…

Wireless security. Two words that have had me pulling my hair out. There are many wireless networks in my neighborhood. I became paranoid. I have sensitive data on all three of our computers and I wanted to protect it (as well as keep people from stealing my high speed access.

I use a Netgear WGR614 v2 802.11g wireless router. I have a G4 iBook with an AirPort Extreme card and a HP dv1040 XP laptop with an 802.11g card. I also have an AirPort Express base station that serves swingin’ sexy sounds to the stereo in the living room.

My initial attempt at wireless security was to enable MAC address access control. A valiant effort but not enough (so I’ve read). I’ve also learned of WEP (Wired Equivalency Protection) and WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key) – the latter offering greater wireless security.

Here’s how I did it (I’m writing this in hopes that it will help someone else as it took me what seemed like forever to figure this shit out.)

Disable WEP or WPA.

Open AirPort Admin Utility (Applications > Utilities)
Hit the ‘configure’ button
Click the ‘Security Options’ button at the bottom.
Select WPA Personal (make sure you have the most recent firmware from Apple’s website)
Click ‘Update’
I got some message saying this isn’t supported by this network… save anyway.
Now configure your router to use WPA.
Create your password (or keyphrase as they like to call it).
Your AirPort Express should be solid green now.
Enter the same password on any laptops.

A relatively quick and painless task if you figure out how to do things in order!

I walked out into the backyard this evening with Elise’s laptop. I opened NetStumbler and found 16 wireless networks. Wow.

Every once in a while I’ll like to go back and read entries that I’ve posted on Janicek.com. I’ll think: “I wonder what I was doing this time last year.” I’m glad I do this on occasion because my memory isn’t getting any better as I grow older. That and I don’t remember things like I used to.

Although I have a little over a year left until I turn 30, my memory isn’t what it used to be. It’s because of this that I like to revisit entries on Janicek.com.

This time last year I ate curried squid. I decided (again) that I don’t like SprintPCS. John and Christine bought their first house in Austin. I tested for my first star. I was reminded for the 28th time that I don’t like cold weather. I was also reminded that I’ve been with my current employer for 2 years now. It’s funny to think about how just over two years ago I was working in the corporate/cubicle environment and absolutely hated getting out of bed every morning. I don’t miss that.

Having said that I’m now going to tempt fate: Life’s not too bad.

– Sleeping late
– Peppermint Altoids
– Gwen Stefani‘s L.A.M.B. album
– Godiva dark chocolate
– Yellow Tail Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon (with the aforementioned chocolate)
– The Apprentice
– Plotting the death of Russ Martin because he pulled from 104.3
– Menstruating (see the first 5 vices)

Yesterday was one the best days of my entire life. For my birthday last year Elise gave me a gift certificate for a cooking class taught by Jeff Blank, Chef-Owner and Robert Rhodes, Executive Chef of Hudson’s on the Bend. I cashed in on said gift certificate yesterday. That class was so much fun that I don’t think I could find words to describe it.

There was a group of approximately 40 of us who arrived at Jeff’s house at 11 a.m. Talk about a gorgeous house – nestled atop a hill overlooking Lake Travis. We were served wine from the outside bar as we waited for the class to begin.

The class was held in what I would guess was Jeff’s “teaching kitchen“. We watched and learned to make the following four couse meal:

WILD GAME CHILI TOPPED WITH MEXICAN CREMA AND TOMITILLO WHITE CHOCOLATE SAUCE

APPLEWOOD SMOKED QUAIL IN GINGERED-HONEY GLAZE ATOP BABYSPINACH WILTED IN A HOT PIG DRESSING

AXIS VENISON BACKSTRAP IN AN ESPRESSO-CHILI RUB SERVED WITH LOBSTER IN A SHINER BEER-BLANC

SOUTH OF THE BORDER ANCHO PECAN PIE WITH A RUM-BRANDY-VANILLA SAUCE AND CINNAMON ICE CREAM

We were able to sample the quail and backstrap after they were cooked. I immediately decided that I was going to buy a stove top smoker. I called Elise before the class left for the restaurant for lunch and told her how wonderful the class was and that I was going to buy a smoker. She told me not to because she had already planned on getting one for my birthday. I don’t know if I can wait 9 more days!

The class was VERY informative. It was great to learn techniques from a master. I was truly awestruck and found it fascinating how chefs combine such a high level of art and science. I’m not quite to the point where I consider Omega 3 fatty acids and complex protein strands in my day-to-day culinary endeavors.

I choked up a couple times during the class (seriously) – I sat there and thought to myself “this is one of those life experiences that I will never forget.”

Anyhow – I guess it goes without saying that the food was excellent. What’s interesting is that the ingredients that were used aren’t uncommon in my own, or anybody’s kitchen. Well, aside from veal stock.

What’s also interesting (and pissing me off) is Executive Chef Robert Rhodes has to be the same age as me, if not younger. He graduated at the top of his class from the Culinary Institute of America and is leaving Hudson’s later this year to be a chef at the White House! I was going to offer my resume but thought these guys might catch on to my using Orville Redenbacher and Betty Crocker as references.

The late lunch was fantastic. Every course was cooked to perfection. If I had to pick a favorite course, it would be the venison (duh). I was full after the chili but ate every last morsel of every single course. I’m not big on desserts but cleared my ancho pecan pie and ice cream plate as well. I gained a lot of weight yesterday but it was soooooo worth it. I’m hoping to take one of Jeff’s classes at least once a year.

Jeff and Robert visited every table during lunch. I didn’t get a chance to talk to either of them but would have loved to have said thanks. So instead I went home and thanked Elise again for the gift certificate and told her how great the class was. I flopped down on the couch, fell asleep and haven’t eaten anything since yesterday’s lunch. I’m still full.

So, if you’re in the Austin area, you’d be missing out if you didn’t attend a Hudson’s on the Bend cooking class.

Click here for the photos.

I received my property tax receipt in the mail today. If that’s not justifaction to procreate, I don’t know what is.

Austin ISD: A ton of money
City of Austin: A crap load of money
Travis County: Lotsa cashola
Hospital District: Not chump change
ACC (Travis): Eh – a semi-pretty penny

So we’ll have a child. I would assume this would happen in a hospital. My tax dollars went to the Hospital District. Then we’ll send mini me to school. A LOT of our money went there. Then mini me will become a juvenile delinquent. He’ll go to a correctional facility (that we’re paying for handsomely). He’ll whittle a knife out of a bar of soap, stab his cellmate and then be transported to the higher security county facility. Might as well… I paid for it. He’ll eventually be rehabilitated at the age of 38. It will be then that we can proudly send him passing through the ivory towers of the university – er, the community college. We paid for it.

Life is starting to make a lot of sense now.

So very true.

I was getting ready to go to work yesterday. I walked to my truck and noticed that I had four quarts of used oil in the bed of my truck from when I changed my oil last week. I decided that I didn’t want old quarts of oil in my truck, so I took them, along with the old oil filter and walked them to the garage. In doing so, I spilled oil all over the floor of the garage.

I used the rest of my gasoline from our gas containers to wipe up the spilled oil. I put the gas cans in the back of my truck so I could fill them when I stopped to get gas on the way to work.

I went to work. After work, I went to Tae Kwon Do. When I leave Tae Kwon Do, I always keep my dobok on while driving home. I got home, got out of the truck and grabbed my two gas cans. Just as I grabbed the two bright red gas cans, my neighbor pulled into his driveway. Both of my hands were occupied carrying gas cans. I lifted one of my arms in a waving gesture to greet my neighbor (who happens to be a black man). It was then that I realized what it looked like I was doing. I laughed at myself and went inside.