Food

Sometimes I ponder between my desire to host a cooking show and being a restaurant and hotel evaluator. But then I realize it's just a fun dream. I'd be more or less horrible in front of a camera, so maybe the silent 'shopper' is more for me. Maybe someday.

More about food... I made some really good chicken thighs last week lathered in a chimichurri rub. Have I ever told you how much I love using my cast iron blackening pan? I can't wait to try it again with some herbs that have not been in our cabinet for years. I am also looking forward to trying to make some artichoke fritters. Here is a picture of the ones I had tonight at the Bristol in Louisville. Their appearance and texture is quite similar to conch fritters down my way. The older I get the more I like artichoke.

(sorry about the bad pic from my phone)

KET, the local basic cable type channel has had some interesting old school Julia Childs shows lately. I particularly enjoyed the Emeril episode I say yesterday. He made this huge crawfish boil with shrimp, crawfish, corn, artichoke, garlic, potatoes, asparagus, green onions, and some other goodies. Both Emeril and Julia put a brown paper spread over a table and dumped the edible delight in a pile and went to town.

Interests no longer linked in profiles...

Unfortunately, the ability to quickly link to other blogs on Blogger with similar interests by going from profile to profile by keywords is currently not working. I can't wait until this is fixed as I like to surf among my fellow "Gator Football" fanatics to see what they are up to.

Here are 2 links providing updates from Blogger.

-1-

-2-

Trust Me

What happened to Trust Me? I was just starting to get into it a few months ago and now I never see the show on the air anymore. I liked the marketing and advertising education they were providing me.

Hopefully they will make it back to prime time.

Maintaining your PC

I was talking to a friend over the weekend about their PC not performing very well and we began talking about how to maintain the equipment's performance. My recommendations are in line with what I understand to be generally accepted as best practice. What I do breaks down into about 6 major steps. Here they are...

You can google each of these section titles yourself for more information. This is more or less targeted on what you need to be maintaining and cleaning up regularly.

Browser Temporary Internet Files
Go into your default browser. For that matter, all of your browsers. Navigate into the Tools and Settings and clear or delete you Temporary Internet Files. You should really have this set to delete every time you close the browser or on a regular schedule about every week or so. You can research more information regarding what is stored here on your own. I am not a security expert, so I am not going to make up a list.

Browser Cookies
This is more or less the same as above. You should be deleting these regulary as well. Either every time you close your browser or on a regular schedule. Deleting your cookies can be done from within the Tools and Settings area of your browser as well. If your browser presents the options, you should also remove any history, saved passwords and other web information. If you are thinking, "Why would I want to do this?" Ask yourself, "Do you write the password to your garage door entry pad on your garage door?"

Operating System Updates
You should be checking your Operating System for updates every few months if not a lot sooner. For example, if you are a Windows user, go to the Windows Update site and run the wizard to check for updates.

Antivirus Software Updates
You should be checking your Antivirus company for updates as well.

Third Party Utilities
There are other third party tools to help you clean up your system. CCleaner is a great example.

And if you get really adventourus, investigate all of the programs you have set for startup. This can be found in MSConfig (Go to Run > Command Prompt > msconfig > Startup). But, be really careful as there are lots of items to screw up here.

Keep a note pad close by

One of my favorite aspects of staying at a hotel is the pad of paper accompanied by a pen somewhere in the room, some places even have two, and my favorite placement is the one closest to the bed.

This personal preference goes back to my college days when classmates and I would always keep paper and a pen by the bedside to help solve theorums. You're thinking...huh? No really, I was a Math major and we used to go crazy trying to solve theorums and come up with solutions to problems all the time and the worst event was when you woke up in the middle of the night with an answer and then went back to sleep without writing it down.

So this is why we started putting a notebook or tablet close by when going to sleep. This way we'd have an immediate opportunity to jot down our thoughts if we woke up. I still incorporate it into my routine especially when I am on the road for work at hotels.

...Or maybe it's because I'm OCD and don't like forgetting things.

SEC Football Stadium Sizes

***Updated 24 September 2011***

The last post I wrote got me thinking about stadium sizes, particularly the SEC stadiums. After reviewing the sizes of the largest college football stadiums I learned that 4 of the largest 10 (including NFL) are NCAA SEC stadiums as well as 7 out of the top 25.  Rankings are based on capacity and not record crowds.

Here are the top 7 SEC stadiums in the top 25 (non-racing).  The first number is capacity and the second if noted is largest recorded crowd.
#3 - Neyland Stadium (102,037 / 109,061) - University of Tennessee
#5 - Bryant-Denny Stadium (101,821) - University of Alabama
#9 - Sanford Stadium (92,746) - University of Georgia
#10 - Tigers Stadium (92,542 / 93,039) - Louisiana State University
#12 - Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field (88,548 / 90,907) - University of Florida
#13 - Jordan-Hare Stadium (87,451) - Auburn University
#24 - Williams-Brice Stadium (80,250 / 85,000) - University of South Carolina


Other SEC Stadiums.  Same numbers as noted above.
Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (76,000) - University of Arkansas
Commonwealth Stadium (67,606 / 71,024) - University of Kentucky
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (60,580 / 62,657) - University of Mississippi
Davis Wade Stadium (55,082) Mississippi State University
Vanderbilt Stadium (39,790) Vanderbilt University


And if you were wondering, here is the list of the top ten:

1. University of Michigan (109,901)
2. Pennsylvania State University (106,572)
3. University of Tennessee
4. Ohio State University (102,329)
5. University of Alabama 
6. University of Texas (101,624)
7. Rose Bowl (94,118)
8. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (93,607)
9. University of Georgia
10. Louisiana State University

Other search words:  biggest, seats, attendance


Sources:  
List of American football stadiums by capacity by wikipedia.org
utsports.com
rolltide.com
georgiadogs.com
lsusports.net
gatorzone.com
auburntigers.com
gamecocksonline.cstv.com
ukathletics.com
olemisssports.com
mstateathletics.com
vucommodores.cstv.com

SEC Homes

It's a perfect day for a football blog post since there are only 50 days until the first NCAA football game of the 2009 season.

This year should be another great year for me. I have a lot to plan for with an upcoming wedding in May, but I am planning on keeping my weekends full with college football.

I have my annual away game weekend planned with my friends in Starkville, Mississippi. And I am going to add in a weekend in Lexington since I will be working so close in Louisville. Of course it is going to be hard to pass up watching Lane Kiffin and Vols come down to Gainesville.

But the real point of this post is stadiums. I was at a family reunion this past weekend and talked at length to a first cousin once removed about NCAA football as he is a big Alabama fan. Since I learned once again that another SEC team has more than one stadium, I figured I would take the time to review all of the SEC stadiums...mainly because I wasn't fully aware. After doing this research I have realized that the stadium in conversation - Legion Field in Birmingham, AL is only sometimes used for the Iron Bowl.

SEC East
Florida - Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field in Gainesville, FL
Georgia - Sanford Stadium in Athens, GA
Kentucky - Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington, KY
South Carolina - Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, SC
Tennessee - Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, TN
Vanderbilt - Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, TN

SEC West
Alabama - Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL
Arkansas - Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayeteville, AK and War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, AK
Auburn - Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, AL
LSU - Tigers Stadium in Baton Rouge, LA
Mississippi - Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/ Hollingsworth Field in Oxford, MS
Mississippi State - Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field in Starkville, MS

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

I was back in my home town this weekend for a family reunion and an old snack brought back memories. The day prior to the family reunion we were attending my brother's girlfriend's sister's high school graduation party (I don't know if that is proper language but you should be able to understand the association). Anyway let's get to the story...

This side of the family has been making cupcakes that look like ice cream cones for years. What you do is take regular old school ice cream cones, fill them with cake batter, bake them like cupcakes and let the batter rise and cool. After they sit for a while you add icing - your choice, just pick one that is the color of an ice cream flavor. While the icing is still soft dip them in sprinkles. Wal-lah! You have yourself cupcakes that resemble ice cream cones with sprinkles.

Make them for your kids and have fun.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that we transported them in a cardboard pizza box. Nirchi's pizza is really good square pizza from the Binghamton area if you have never had it.

Is your door open or closed?

Do you shut the door, leave it open, or even shut it part way when you go into your bedroom or a room in your house? I think it is interesting to watch different people's behavior in this nature. Personally I leave the door open unless I'm changing. Sometimes shutting a door partially, but rarely all the way.

I'm curious if this behavior lines up with distinct personality types? Anyone know? Is this an indication of an attempt to keep people out? Or locking yourself in? I prefer to leave doors open because I think that tells others they are open to come in and there is no privacy required.

I started thinking about this when I stayed at my family's house and recognized all doors being shut except mine when they went to bed.

Are you having trouble with your new SD card?

Why does my SDHC card not work with my laptop, PC, camera, or phone?

It took me a little while to figure out why my laptop and smartphone wouldn't recognize the SD card I recently bought. It turns out I bought one of the newer SDHC cards. And with this newer higher capacity technology (2+ GB) comes new drivers.

To cut to the chase...search the support articles on your operating system brand for "SDHC support " or something similar. For me it was Microsoft XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934428.

I have yet to try the patch out because my camera dock and USB cable are at home and I am on the road. I will update this article with confirmation after I complete this. To read up on more information, browse through the support articles of the brand of your SDHC card, your hardware device...or just skip to the OS. A lot of information comes up just by searching with "SDHC".

If you can find an update for Windows Mobile 5.0 let me know.

Good Luck.

Where have all the burgers gone?

...I think they are in my stomach.

I haven't been having regular cheeseburger cravings lately. I don't know what's wrong with me, but so far I am attributing this recent change to the growing size of my stomach. I need to ride my bike more often to the beach or something so I can fit some more cheeseburgers in there. I think next week will finally be my trip to Genny's Diner in Louisville.

Engaged...

I recently got engaged and have been pretty excited about it. I haven't posted anything here because I try my best not to write the names of others and always refer to them in 3rd person without mentioning their name. I do this because they would show up in internet searches and I'm not always sure if that is what they would like.

Anyway, if you would like to get some more information about me getting married, search on the theknot.com for my name. It's going to be a fun journey.