So tired...but fit

I'm really dead tired. But let me see...

Lots of handywork lately. I replaced the light switch inside a ceiling fan in the kitchen. I helped (a bit) Teri's brother and his wife as they put drywall up on our dining room ceiling. I helped put joint compound on the drywall. And I installed a steel floor jack in the basement.

Our living room floor had always had a tendency to shake a bit, particularly when Sebastian jumps up and down. It was a little scary. My Dad had put a 2x4 in the basement a few years ago, but it was starting to splinter. So I picked up a steel floor jack at Lowes for $40. It wasn't too hard to install, and now the floor is nice and steady.

Okay, it still creaks here and there, but it's much more solid-feeling.

And today, I did something quixotic: I bought a Wii Fit. They had a fresh shipment at Best Buy in the lobby at work, and I had some extra money, so I said "what the hell". Maybe it will help us lose weight, all three of us. I'd read mixed reviews, but it seemed worth it to spend $89 on the possibility of getting Sebastian into better shape. I worry about his weight.

It turned out well, at least tonight. We all played it, even Teri, and I worked up a damned good sweat. It's surprisingly solid and strong; I'd heard that it was only good for up to 250 lbs. (I'm over that, unfortunately), but I did some research and found out today that the American model can handle up to 330. So I can use it.

And it's fun! It's an accurate electronic scale, and it tracks our weight and BMI. I'm going to try to use it every night. It can't hurt, right?

Update: I forgot to say, the whole thing was rather synchonicity-ous. If I hadn't put the floor jack under the living room two days before, right where the Wii balance board HAD to be, the whole house would have shook when we played Wii Fit.

So tired...but fit

I'm really dead tired. But let me see...

Lots of handywork lately. I replaced the light switch inside a ceiling fan in the kitchen. I helped (a bit) Teri's brother and his wife as they put drywall up on our dining room ceiling. I helped put joint compound on the drywall. And I installed a steel floor jack in the basement.

Our living room floor had always had a tendency to shake a bit, particularly when Sebastian jumps up and down. It was a little scary. My Dad had put a 2x4 in the basement a few years ago, but it was starting to splinter. So I picked up a steel floor jack at Lowes for $40. It wasn't too hard to install, and now the floor is nice and steady.

Okay, it still creaks here and there, but it's much more solid-feeling.

And today, I did something quixotic: I bought a Wii Fit. They had a fresh shipment at Best Buy in the lobby at work, and I had some extra money, so I said "what the hell". Maybe it will help us lose weight, all three of us. I'd read mixed reviews, but it seemed worth it to spend $89 on the possibility of getting Sebastian into better shape. I worry about his weight.

It turned out well, at least tonight. We all played it, even Teri, and I worked up a damned good sweat. It's surprisingly solid and strong; I'd heard that it was only good for up to 250 lbs. (I'm over that, unfortunately), but I did some research and found out today that the American model can handle up to 330. So I can use it.

And it's fun! It's an accurate electronic scale, and it tracks our weight and BMI. I'm going to try to use it every night. It can't hurt, right?

Update: I forgot to say, the whole thing was rather synchonicity-ous. If I hadn't put the floor jack under the living room two days before, right where the Wii balance board HAD to be, the whole house would have shook when we played Wii Fit.

Ice cream

Someone asked a question about ice cream over on Askville. To my surprise, I found myself waxing rhapsodic.

---

I put this in the DB, but since I went on for so long I might as well make it an official answer as well. Somehow it ended up expanding quite a bit from the DB...sort of like my waistline.

Häagen-Dazs used to make a flavor (I think it was called "Midnight Cookies & Cream") that was just spectacular. It had a huge column of the most delicious fudge inside it...it was rich and chocolately, but the flavor wasn’t at all overpowering, if you know what I mean. It was a little bit like a really good chocolate pudding.

There’s a place called DownEast Ice Cream in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, that makes an incredible chocolate oreo ice cream. It’s out of this world. The cones are huge, too. Once I got a four-scoop cone, and it was nearly a foot tall! Everybody was staring, and my wife was mortified.

The tower of ice cream started to topple, but fortunately one of the clerks was able to get me a bowl before the top scoops hit the floor. I ended up taking three of the scoops home in a container and had them for dessert over the next few days. We visit Boothbay at least a couple of times a year (my parents have a house up there), and I never miss that ice cream.

Brigham’s used to have a flavor called "Wicked Chocolate" that was incredibly good, too. But they stopped making it. And now that they’re out of business, and are owned by Hood (YUCK!), I have no hope that Wicked Chocolate will ever come back. If it did, I’m sure it would suck, because Hood sucks.

Ah, Brighams...there was nothing like having a classic hot fudge sundae in one of their restaurants. It’s such a pity that they’re gone now. I was hoping to take my son there some day for lunch and a sundae.

Hey, I just remembered another one! Stew Leonard’s dairy in Norwalk, CT used to make a great brownie ice cream, with lots of big chunks of brownies in chocolate ice cream. I haven’t been there in years, but I don’t think they’ve made that flavor for a long time.

Other than that, if I’m stuck with supermarket ice cream Breyers Vanilla Fudge Twirl is good. It’s hard to go wrong with Breyers, particularly with some Hershey’s Magic Shell on top.

Häagen-Dazs' chocolate deserves special mention, too. A very unusual flavor, again somehow reminiscent of a good chocolate pudding. Great texture, too.

Wait a second! I just remembered something else: slush and frozen lemonade. They’re not ice cream, of course, but they’re great frozen desserts. I was lucky enough to live near TWO great slush companies for about ten years, and could buy slush in gallon-size tubs for parties. Richie’s made a lime-flavored slush that was incredibly refreshing and good; unfortunately they’ve discontinued that flavor since I moved away. And Spadafora’s lemon slush was also outstanding. It's incredibly cleansing for the palate.

As far as I know, frozen lemonade is strictly a local Rhode Island phenomenon. It’s a lot like lemon slush, but a bit more liquid; you eat slush with a spoon, but you can drink frozen lemonade (or eat it with a spoon, of course). It usually has little chunks of lemon peel in it, and they’re really good because they’ve absorbed some of the sugar from the lemonade. There’s an ice-cream truck (Mister Goody’s) that goes down our street once in a blue moon in summertime, and I never fail to flag them down and buy a large cup of their frozen lemonade. It’s a really large (styrofoam) cup for just $3, and it's roughly a quart of frozen lemonade. I stick it in the freezer, and it lasts my whole family for days. It’s always a wistful moment when we finish off the last frozen lemonade of the summer.

Del’s is the most famous brand of frozen lemonade, but you definitely want to buy it from a truck, not a convenience store. The kind they sell in convenience stores is made in a machine right there, and it’s nowhere near as good as the kind from the trucks. It has a funny texture, and the flavor’s a bit different.

I have to admit that I also have a weakness for Carvel ice cream cakes.

Ice cream

Someone asked a question about ice cream over on Askville. To my surprise, I found myself waxing rhapsodic.

---

I put this in the DB, but since I went on for so long I might as well make it an official answer as well. Somehow it ended up expanding quite a bit from the DB...sort of like my waistline.

Häagen-Dazs used to make a flavor (I think it was called "Midnight Cookies & Cream") that was just spectacular. It had a huge column of the most delicious fudge inside it...it was rich and chocolately, but the flavor wasn’t at all overpowering, if you know what I mean. It was a little bit like a really good chocolate pudding.

There’s a place called DownEast Ice Cream in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, that makes an incredible chocolate oreo ice cream. It’s out of this world. The cones are huge, too. Once I got a four-scoop cone, and it was nearly a foot tall! Everybody was staring, and my wife was mortified.

The tower of ice cream started to topple, but fortunately one of the clerks was able to get me a bowl before the top scoops hit the floor. I ended up taking three of the scoops home in a container and had them for dessert over the next few days. We visit Boothbay at least a couple of times a year (my parents have a house up there), and I never miss that ice cream.

Brigham’s used to have a flavor called "Wicked Chocolate" that was incredibly good, too. But they stopped making it. And now that they’re out of business, and are owned by Hood (YUCK!), I have no hope that Wicked Chocolate will ever come back. If it did, I’m sure it would suck, because Hood sucks.

Ah, Brighams...there was nothing like having a classic hot fudge sundae in one of their restaurants. It’s such a pity that they’re gone now. I was hoping to take my son there some day for lunch and a sundae.

Hey, I just remembered another one! Stew Leonard’s dairy in Norwalk, CT used to make a great brownie ice cream, with lots of big chunks of brownies in chocolate ice cream. I haven’t been there in years, but I don’t think they’ve made that flavor for a long time.

Other than that, if I’m stuck with supermarket ice cream Breyers Vanilla Fudge Twirl is good. It’s hard to go wrong with Breyers, particularly with some Hershey’s Magic Shell on top.

Häagen-Dazs' chocolate deserves special mention, too. A very unusual flavor, again somehow reminiscent of a good chocolate pudding. Great texture, too.

Wait a second! I just remembered something else: slush and frozen lemonade. They’re not ice cream, of course, but they’re great frozen desserts. I was lucky enough to live near TWO great slush companies for about ten years, and could buy slush in gallon-size tubs for parties. Richie’s made a lime-flavored slush that was incredibly refreshing and good; unfortunately they’ve discontinued that flavor since I moved away. And Spadafora’s lemon slush was also outstanding. It's incredibly cleansing for the palate.

As far as I know, frozen lemonade is strictly a local Rhode Island phenomenon. It’s a lot like lemon slush, but a bit more liquid; you eat slush with a spoon, but you can drink frozen lemonade (or eat it with a spoon, of course). It usually has little chunks of lemon peel in it, and they’re really good because they’ve absorbed some of the sugar from the lemonade. There’s an ice-cream truck (Mister Goody’s) that goes down our street once in a blue moon in summertime, and I never fail to flag them down and buy a large cup of their frozen lemonade. It’s a really large (styrofoam) cup for just $3, and it's roughly a quart of frozen lemonade. I stick it in the freezer, and it lasts my whole family for days. It’s always a wistful moment when we finish off the last frozen lemonade of the summer.

Del’s is the most famous brand of frozen lemonade, but you definitely want to buy it from a truck, not a convenience store. The kind they sell in convenience stores is made in a machine right there, and it’s nowhere near as good as the kind from the trucks. It has a funny texture, and the flavor’s a bit different.

I have to admit that I also have a weakness for Carvel ice cream cakes.

Meyers-Briggs

There are a lot of people I want to respond to here, as well as a couple of writers who were kind enough to email me. I HATE falling behind.

That said...

Last week I took a Meyers-Briggs test for work. We were having a team meeting offsite, and the test was a requirement. I've taken M-B tests before, and always came out as INTJ, or very close to it. I assumed the results would be the same this time.

At the meeting, I asked the woman who scored the tests how consistent the results were. "Very consistent," she said.

Time is short, so I'll cut to the chase. Apparently I'm now ENFJ: Extravert iNtuitive Feeling Judging. What the hell?

What's even weirder is that almost everyone else on my team was an Introvert - and some of them are real partiers. I was sure they'd be extraverts.

They gave me the actual breakdown of my score. Here it is:

E: 11 / I: 10
S: 3 / N: 23
T: 12 / F:12
J: 16 / P: 6

She said that when the score is exactly equal, the result on the right takes precedence, which is why I'm an F instead of a T.

I find it hard to take all this seriously.

Meyers-Briggs

There are a lot of people I want to respond to here, as well as a couple of writers who were kind enough to email me. I HATE falling behind.

That said...

Last week I took a Meyers-Briggs test for work. We were having a team meeting offsite, and the test was a requirement. I've taken M-B tests before, and always came out as INTJ, or very close to it. I assumed the results would be the same this time.

At the meeting, I asked the woman who scored the tests how consistent the results were. "Very consistent," she said.

Time is short, so I'll cut to the chase. Apparently I'm now ENFJ: Extravert iNtuitive Feeling Judging. What the hell?

What's even weirder is that almost everyone else on my team was an Introvert - and some of them are real partiers. I was sure they'd be extraverts.

They gave me the actual breakdown of my score. Here it is:

E: 11 / I: 10
S: 3 / N: 23
T: 12 / F:12
J: 16 / P: 6

She said that when the score is exactly equal, the result on the right takes precedence, which is why I'm an F instead of a T.

I find it hard to take all this seriously.