Bathroominations

Our home was built in 1954, when ice cream cost a nickel and bathrooms were the spokespersons for the atomic color pallet. While I do cordon off a place in my mind for an appreciation of vintage design, our bathrooms have found no quarter there. Thankfully our kitchen was striped of it's presumed mustard finish long before we moved in. The bathrooms, I'm afraid, still cling to their respective rose and mint finishes like the petrified instruments of a basilisk victim in a tomb long forgotten.

Four years did they stand and four years did we abhor them. No more, I am pleased to say, well not the downstairs lavatory at least. Over our holiday vacation we went about remodeling our bathroom from a bygone era. The whole process started out by bringing in a contractor to reglaze the old salmon tile to a glossy snow white. It took collectively 4 days for him to complete it. Day one was cleaning and tile repair. Day two was spray prep and spraying primer. Day three was spraying the resin and clear coat. Finally, day four, Christmas Eve, was removing the masking and final touches. The whole process seemed like something I would never want to attempt on my own and well worth the money we spent to have it done.

The follow up to the new color was pulling our old pink toilet and flooring up and sending them to the bottom of the sea in cement footy pajamas. Once they were gone we set about scraping the floor for three days in a row to remove the old adhesive and get back down to the original sub-floor. It was a labor intensive, pain is the ass job, that I would have gladly paid someone to do had I the foresight. Once it was done though the new flooring went down easy and the new toilet soon followed.

Crystal painted on my first day back to work and the room really started to come together. We still have a new sink faucet, toilet paper roll and shower head to install. OK, so the shower head is going to be a bit more work. In an attempt to remove the old shower head Crystal and I might have shattered the old plastic plumbing at it's base. How we are going to fix that is still a known unknown, but we are ruminating.

Scratch-Made Brownies

Making brownies from scratch is really just a matter of effort. There is nothing complicated about them, so why not go with store bought mix? Because they will taste better dear friend when you use better ingredients. Oh and the satisfaction of making it all on your own feels pretty damn good too.

So where to start? On the internet of course, one of my favorite blogs, mentioned here a ton of times is 101 Cookbooks. The recipes are healthy and taste great. Well when one makes brownies healthy can be an after thought. So it was off to my new favorite cooking blog, How to Cook Like Your Grandmother, where I had already made a killer roast beef. Drew, the author, conveniently had his brownie recipe at the top of his all time favorites. So I printed it and was off to the store for ingredients.

1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

See simple, no where near as complicated as I thought brownies would be for some reason. The key is buying good chocolate, I picked up Ghirardelli chips as the recipe called for, but couldn't find the cocoa powder. So I went with Hershey in it's place. A little help from Kaden to mix it all together and they were done after 25 minutes at 325°. As far as I know it would have tasted better with the more expensive cocoa, but it was good none the less.

Maybe next time I'll try 101's black bean brownies, they would go much better with my New Year's resolutions.

2010 Resolutions

My resolutions for 2009 were met with some failures and others I powered through, but this year I plan to do even better...

- Ride at least twice once a month (2009 carry over)
- Build an arcade (2009 carry over)
- Lose weight (2009 carry over)
- Run twice a week with Crystal
- Start up a kettlebell routine at home
- Write a short story/novella (40-100 pages)
- Build a shed/workshop
- Take more woodworking classes
- Renovate our other bathroom
- Build at least 3 wood based projects
- Clean up the front and backyard
- Travel more
- Cook dinner more than half of the times we eat in a month
- Start painting (not walls, but canvases)
- Run/play a short Warcraft or Star Wars table top game

Wreck Awards 2009

I did this thing last year and the year before that, it is an official annualized tradition now. So without further ado the Wreck Awards 2009...

Game of the Year: Batman: Arkham Asylum
In a year of a ton of great games the world's greatest detective won my video game heart. The game looked fantastic and had a mash up of game mechanics that all felt fully fleshed out (stealth, action, platforming, etc). The story touched on a lot of well treaded Batman villains and some lesser known ones too. Overall it was the full single player package that no other game offered in 2009.
Runner Up: Uncharted 2

Game I should have played: Dragon Age: Origins
While technically I actually did play this game it was on the tail end of some other long games and right before new releases. I think in total I played it for two or three hours when it is nearly a fifty hour journey. I know it is a good game, I just didn't have the time to play through it. It will most likely get the summer treatment like Mass Effect did this summer.
Runner Up: Left 4 Dead 2

Movie of the Year: District 9
The story behind the production of this film was the first thing to get me interested in it long before it's release. Going in knowing little to nothing about the actual film and then loving the story, universe and special effects is what really hooked me. Our world with one or two sci-fi tweaks is a simple enough concept that is not done that often and rarely well. The special effects look like they are apart of the world and seeing it a second time on blu-ray this past weekend really solidified my appreciation for the work they did.
Runner Up: The Hangover

Movie I should have seen: Inglourious Basterds
I love me some Tarantino, save a few of his less than stellar works (see: Death Proof) and some how we didn't get around to seeing Inglourious Basterds. Call it first year baby syndrome, but we went to the movies a lot less in the second half of 2009. Oddly enough I went to pick up the film the other night at the local Blockbuster (I know, I feel dirty, sorry Netflix), but they didn't have it on Blu-Ray. So we watched Julie & Julia instead, a good film, but not Inglourious Basterds.
Runner Up: The Hurt Locker

TV show of the Year: True Blood
It feels rare that a show ever eclipses it's first season these days, but the second season of True Blood did just that. The story got better and the characters, new and old, were better developed. It was the show that Crystal and I looked forward to the most and the one we were most sad to see end for the season. The finale episode didn't feel as epic as the whole, but I don't think they could have done anything that would truly satisfied given the great build up.
Runners Up: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

Comic/Book of the Year: Scalped
I read a ton of books and comics this year, which made this category on of the hardest to pick. Scalped was the work that stood above the rest though. Call it my affection for comics that don't follow the life and times of super heroes. I love comics that follow regular folks into fucked up situations. Scalped does just that on the back drop of a reservation plagued by drugs, violence and corruption. I wouldn't recommended it to the faint of heart, but it is a solid read for anyone who can stomach the depressing, but occasionally uplifting tale it weaves.
Runner Up: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King

Recipe of the Year: Chicken with Lime Butter
Huh, I don't have much experience with writing about food. Most of my commentary about something I like involves primal grunts of "Mmm". I can tell you all about something I make that I don't like pretty easily though. Not the case with Chicken in a lime butter sauce. I made it probably five to six times in the second half of the year, with a side of orzo, that was a killer combination. No complaints from Crystal and I loved eating it, so it's a winner.
Runner Up: Roast Beef