Every couple of weeks, I bring up ‘RSS’ when I’m talking with a friend or family member that is not affiliated with the software industry and every time the result is the same.

I get this furrowed brow and this look that says “why do I care, what are you talking about and I’m not going to get it this time around so please change the subject.”

A few weeks back however, I stumbled upon “feedblitz”. Now it is simple. You don’t have to subscribe to my RSS feed, use a feed aggregator; none of that. Just type your email into the little yellow box in the top right column of my blog (not the one in this post and every time I update my site, you will be sent an email. Simple right?

For the few of you that already have done this, sorry it hasn’t worked I managed to screw up the configuration on my end, but it should be fixed now.

Well it’s a rainy Memorial Day weekend, so I’m lucky we didn’t have any big plans

Given the crappy weather, I decided to ask Erin and the kids to put up with me again while I practiced taking portraits. I definitely feel like I am getting better at both taking pictures and finding ways to get the kids to cooperate. I posted some of the better ones on the web this evening. Pardon some of the cheesey poses. Just trying some different things out
Hope you all enjoy your holiday weekend.

-David

[Engadget.com] Jobs offered a bit of advice to consumers: “If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year.” Gee, thanks, Steve. We always thought it was the dead batteries or battered shell that kept sending us back to the Apple store. Glad you could set us straight.

Yesterday Keesey suggested that I pick up the new Raconteurs CD. Wow! 90% of the time I need to listen to a CD several times before I can say if I like it or not, but that’s not the case with this one. The Raconteurs are fronted by Jack White and Brendan Benson while the rest of the band is from Cincinnati OH (the Greenhornes). If I were to say they sounded like anyone, I would say old Zepplin. This CD rocks!

This weekend, I wanted to try out the rotisserie on my new grill, so I picked up a 7 lb rib roast on Sunday. Prep the meat by applying a bit of butter and Montréal seasoning (I usually put the roast inside of a plastic grocery bag to and apply the seasoning and butter inside of it so that it doesn’t make a mess. Usually I then sear the roast in a pan to brown it and lock in the juices, but I didn’t do that this time and I think this is one of the best roasts I’ve made to date.

If you plan to rotisserie, I highly recommend finding a grill with a back burner. That way you can cook the roast using indirect heat and you can place a pan underneath the roast with an inch or two of water, which helps keep it nice and moist. Keep the lid closed until you are checking the temperature or you’ll be waiting a long time for it to finish cooking. I use one of those digital meat thermometers to tell me when it is done. I cook it until it is 140 degrees. Bring the roast inside and cover it with tinfoil for 5-10 minutes. The roast will continue to cook and it will raise it’s temperature another 5 degrees. BTW, when you are checking the temp of the meat, make sure that you don’t hit bone or you’ll get a false reading.

For a good side, I boiled a few pounds of Yukon gold potatoes until tender. Drain then, then add two sticks of butter and maybe 1/4 cup of heavy cream + salt and pepper to taste. I mash them up in the pot and added some parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

I finished it out with a salad and fresh bread. Probably gained a couple of pounds and raised my cholesterol a few points, but it was worth it

A couple of months ago, I bought the Bose SoundDock off of my boss. He used it for a day and decided that it cluttered up his desk (yeah, I didn’t get it either), so he sold it to me for a great price.

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I’ve had my 60GB Video iPod for almost 6 months now and you’d think it was 6 years. It is ridiculous how easily and badly the iPod scratches. It amazes me that Apple can get away with it! Can you imagine what a car would look like if it were built to iPod specs? I think I’m going to have to make a subsequent post on the subject once I’ve photo shopped the hypothetical result

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We couldn’t have asked for better weather today. Not a cloud in the sky and temps in the mid 70s. After our excursion to Molbak’s, the kids played in the sprinkler. I grilled the steaks that I bought yesterday along with portobello mushrooms and orange and yellow peppers (with my special marinade).

Now that the kids are in bed, I thought I’d upload some of the photos I took throughout the day. There are a few keepers, but lot’s of mediocre ones. I don’t know how portrait photographers manage to get kids to all look at the camera and smile, but I don’t think I’ve found a single instance of success over the past year.

Today is the day when husbands and fathers everywhere are reminded how hard a mother’s job is.

I started by cooking breakfast this morning. I made crab and eggs benedict. As I was cooking however, the kids were destroying the house. Cole was flipping puzzles over and scattering the pieces throughout the house, Nathan decided he wanted to cook his own breakfast for mommy, so he made toast with cinnamon and made quite a mess given that it was just toast. Ian decided to cut flowers for mommy. This interested Nathan, so all of a sudden they are both back outside cutting flowers that Erin probably didn’t want cut. After that fire was put out and before I could finish breakfast, Cole had grabbed several boxes of cereal and crackers and was walking around the house, spilling as many as he was eating. By the time breakfast was made, eaten and subsequently cleaned up, it was just about lunch time
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Back in January I wanted to do a little competitive analysis and understand Google and their AdSense model. They have built a huge grassroots network of people to host ads on their websites and blogs. The ads are targeted based on keywords (text) found in your webpage. When people visiting your site click on a link, you get paid a small fee or cut of what the advertiser paid Google to host the advertisement.

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