[recipe] Enoki mushroom sauteed

Just made this:

- Enoki mushrooms, sauteed with
- Salted butter
- Togarashi
- Hawaiian coarse salt

[trip] Cabo San Lucas

Thursday 11.12
- All nighter before the trip
- Smith's blue popsicle
- VIP lounge!
- Cocktail of the day: Sea of Love
- "Either I'm drunk or this is damn good rib eye"
- "Room service? Yes please bring me a dozen coronas"

Friday 11.13
- Eggs, bacon, sausage, more eggs
- Dirty Banana
- Endless mahi mahi cerviche
- "Another three orders or sashimi flowers please"
- Behold the amazing power of the portable DVD player

Saturday 11.14
- What's Day Glo?
- Fruity Graham = Honeydew, Mint, Rum, Ice, Blended
- Having the nice italian restaurant all to ourselves
- International Dance night: If we go up there we have to do a shot every 10 minutes
- Saw IIIII

Sunday 11.15
- Pirates Night!
- "Honey I just lost my dinner"
- "Halo Seniorita. Please do not leave candles lit in your room. It is a fire hazard"
- "I guess this is yes?" "I guess so!"

Monday 11.16
- "May I offer you moral compensation?"

[trip] New York City

Thursday 10/22
- Argh! Last and only name on the upgrade list!

Friday 10/23
- All day conference calls ...
- Chocolate and Wine bar
- Ippudo
- 3 hours wait? There's better be unicorn coming out of these ramen bowls
- Crazy amazing pork buns
- Sizzling rice
- Happy birthday Waney
- Momofuku Milk bar. Cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookies (And pierre thought I was crazy for trying to bake with cornflake)
- "Wait I thought you know you said you know how to play big2"

Saturday 10/24
- Chelsea Market
- Lobster rolls and string quartet
- Highline
- Hogs and Heifers
- "If you want to disappear into the couch, remember to wear this shirt"
- Mandoo Bar. Mini boiled mandoos definitely the way to go
- Mad for Chicken genius cheese ramen
- Hun, do you have my camera?
- Hun, focus! walk!

Sunday 10/26
- Who's not so chirpy today ...
- Argh! Last and only name on the upgrade list! Again!
- Business class ice cream sundae and chocolate chip cookie

[util] Install Foxit Reader Plugin for Google Chrome Browser

Adobe Reader must have paid a great deal of money to be so in bed with Google Chrome. Fixed that today by manually installing the Foxit Reader plugin into Chrome, so that you can read PDF files inside Chrome tab using Foxit.

1. Chrome Plugins folder -- Go to where your Chrome is installed (you can right click on the chrome shortcut to find out), but typically it's C:\Documents and Settings\[USER]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\ -- Make sure you have a subdirectory called "Plugins". If that's not there, create it.

2. Foxit Reader Plugin --- Make sure you have Foxit Reader 3.1 or higher installed, and also the Plugin installed -- Do this by going to "Help" ... "Check for Updates Now". If you see "Reader" or "Service Module .. Plugin" -- Select those to update.

3. Copy npFoxitReaderPlugin.dll "C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\plugins\" to "C:\Documents and Settings\[USER]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins"

4. From the command prompt, run

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\plugins\FoxitReaderOCX.ocx"

with admin rights.

5. Re-start Chrome and try to read an online PDF file

6. Uninstall Adobe Reader, and reclaim 200MB+. Your computer will thank you.

[util] Tab Switching Keyboard Shortcuts

The Acer Netbook doesn't have trackpoint, so these are my new favorite keyword shortcuts to switch between worksheets and tabs:

Excel -- Ctrl+PageDown / Ctrl+PageUp

Web Browser (Internet Explorer / FireFox / Chrome / Opera) -- Ctrl+PageDown / Ctrl+PageUp OR Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab

[code] User Agent / Browser Simulator in Ruby

Totally forgot that I wrote this early last year -- Test / simulate header response, redirect, and other behavior with user agent for various browsers, crawlers, and robots.

require 'httpclient'
require 'uri'
require 'net/smtp'

# Pick your user agent
targetUserAgent = 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows+NT 5.1)'
#targetUserAgent = 'Googlebot/2.1+(+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html)'
#targetUserAgent = 'Mozilla/5.0+(compatible;+Yahoo!+Slurp;+http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)'
#targetUserAgent = 'msnbot/1.0+(+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)'

# Pick your URL
targetURL = 'http://sevenwires.blogspot.com/'

begin
  client = HTTPClient.new(nil, targetUserAgent, "")
  response = client.head(URI.parse(targetURL))
  
  # Print the entire header message
  print "\n===== HEADER =====\n"
  print response.dump 
  
  # Print some summary
  print "===== SUMMARY =====\n"
  print "URL = #{targetURL}\n"
  print "UserAgent = #{targetUserAgent}\n"
  print "Response Code = #{response.header.response_status_code} \n"

rescue 
  print "Failed to connect to the page\n"

end

[outing] Bottega Louie and Seven Grand

Where: Bottega Louie and Seven Grand
When: Friday 2009 Sep 28th
Who: Ray, Linda, Lisa, David, Nancy, Leonard, Fannie, us

- Level One vodka over a singular big rock. Alton Brown would be pleased.
- Can you please bring the chairs ...
- You waited for an hour and a half? two free pizzas on the house
- Everyone ate the pizza margherita. All pizza bianco for me.
- Burrata. 'nuff said
- Didn't know pork chop can taste this good
- Portabella mushroom fries!
- "Just one nightcap"
- The wall of Makers Mark

[web] Twitter

Google Alert now finding references to the "type upside down" page in twitter, like this one: http://twitter.com/gcorneil/status/2663333003

Google appears to be crawling the RSS feed (http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/10869332.rss), since URL of individual status does not appear on a user's homepage.

Twitter is a growing SEO factor

[code] How to encode URL in Excel

1. (from your worksheet) Tools ... Macros ... Visual Basic Editor
2. (from VB Editor) Insert ... Module
3. (in module window) Paste in the URLEncode function below and save
4. Close VB Editor to return to worksheet, and use URLEncode like any other formulas. For example =URLEncode(B1)

Function URLEncode(ByVal Text As String) As String
  Dim i As Integer
  Dim acode As Integer
  Dim char As String
  URLEncode = Text
  For i = Len(URLEncode) To 1 Step -1
    acode = Asc(Mid$(URLEncode, i, 1))
    Select Case acode
      Case 48 To 57, 65 To 90, 97 To 122
        ' don't touch alphanumeric chars
      Case 32
        ' replace space with "+"
        Mid$(URLEncode, i, 1) = "+"
      Case Else
        ' replace punctuation chars with "%hex"
        URLEncode = Left$(URLEncode, i-1) & "%" & Hex$(acode) & Mid$(URLEncode, i+1)
    End Select
  Next
End Function

From http://www.devx.com/vb2themax/Tip/19160

[outing] July 4th Newport Beach

- Fuzz Fest!
- We are going to the war zone? Don't you mean the fun zone?
- Uh, where's the hand brake?
- 34th street. Bob. Cops. Mooning.
- Drunkun Man in Bunny Suit
- The girl who grabbed the jager
- "All for one. One for all"
- "When we get back, you don't know me"
- Razor ride to Jared and Christa's

[web] Tweetmeme

Google Alert dragged this new SEO reference today: http://tweetmeme.com/domain/www.sevenwires.com

[trip] New York City

Who: Jessica, Dave, Janet, Patrick, Steve, Mike, Nick, Johnny, Ivan, Us

Thursday:
- "Hun, can you please call the front desk tell them [fill in blank]"
- Sushi Twist: What's his name? Ivan [i-ven]! Another order of white tuna sashimi kudasai!
- Bar Fly: Fisher getting those 3's and tanking Dave's chances. Mind Eraser. Patron. Jack.
--------
Friday:
- 24 oz of Bud Light Lime after an entire day of conference calls
- Socarrat: Paella. Chorizo. Mini sunny-side up quail eggs.
- Billy's: Cream cheese frosting
- Slainte: NY Mets losing the game when outfielder goofed catching A Rod's high fly ball
- De Santos: Making our own VIP lounge in the basement
- Pegu Club: Cheapest tequila shot is $14, and I don't recognize any bottles on the shelf
- "If you do 25 chin ups I'll buy you pizzas"
- Joe's Pizza: "can't charge you for this slice. it's too small"
- "You are getting up at what time to go surfing?"
--------
Saturday:
- Shake Shack: Er, where's our chocolate shake? Oh just take this one.
- Big Apple BBQ Festival: The Pit, Salt Lick, Free Snapple
- Fun with Old Navy mannequins
- Pierre enjoying Pay Less
- Karaoke One 7: $5 for large bottles of sake? O.M.G. Partying with Nick (The TSA Bomb Specialist) and his peeps.
- Shake Shack, again. Apparently we bought burgers.
- Champaign and chocolates
- Star Lounge Chelsea
- Enjoying watching traffic jam on 7th and 34th at 1am.
--------
Sunday:
- "Where's my shirt? my phone? my wallet? my camera?"
- "I am try to telling you that the lock is messed up and I can't get out of our room"
- Caracas Arepa Bar: Faves: Fried green plantains topped with Mojito Mayo and lemon and white cheese. Pulled pork arepa with spicy mango and tomato sauce.
- Porchetta: Yes, our trip ended up with yet a final pork dish

[trip] Napa

Who: Christine, Tamera, Justin, Pierre, Me

Friday
- Dinner with Danny, Charlotte, Harry and Gavin
- Marriott Courtyard at Oyster Pointe. Midnight beer.
-------
Saturday
- 1801 First: Suite 3 Bella Fresia. Gorgeous gas fireplace and tub.
- OMG these chocolate chip cookies are crack cocainne
- Delicious port in the sitting room
- The warm pool at Exertec
- Hendry's: Tasting at the wine lab. Each of the wine barrel probably was ... $20k?
- Oxbow Market and oysters at Hog Island
- The Elements: Foi Gras, Burrata Cheese, Seared Scallop with Egglant salsa, two really large steaks
- "This wine is corked"
- "Do-do-do-do-do-do this water is hot!.... zzzzzzzzzzz"
-------
Sunday
- Damn those mini chocolate croissants
- Waking up at 6am to the beautiful smell of the kitchen
- Charming Sonoma square
- Lunch at ?
- Shot of espresso over soft-served ice cream ad ED Kithen
- "Half-shot!"
- Afternoon hor deurves, cheese, and wine
- Dinner at Tamera's - Amazing Pallella with chorizo, chicken, shrimp, and clams
- And let's not forget the manchego cheese with quince
- Pierre's magical power to keep the rubber duck lit with his forehead
- Poker - The Musical!
-------
Monday
- Melt-in-your-mouth blueberry scones
- Delicious Strata with ham, egg, and cheese
- Whestones: Jamey and Michelle host the perfect tasting picnic
- Charbay: "Port is fortified with brandy and is twice as strong as regular wine? No wonder!"
- Bounty Hunter: Really? we are going to have dinner after all these bbq ribs?
- Long walk around Napa downtown
- Bottega: Michael Chirello? Chimichango? Chilerelleno? Do another impression of him!
- Wow, star-lined limo
- Yes, really, Bilco's Billiard was closed at 11pm
-------
Tuesday
- Crepes with banana compote
- Artesa: Absolutely gorgeous view of Napa rolling hills
- So relieves to see that the four bottles of wines stayed intact!

[outing] A Sunday Afternoon Brunch

Sunday May 18th

- Marie's spicy and sticky baby back ribs
- Pierre's slow-braised beef ribs
- Mike and Shelbey's apple cake and raisins and walnut
- John and Jamie's hummus and mozzarella
- Top Valu carnita tacos
- Ray and Linda's strawberry and raspberry pies
- Pork and shrimp shu mai
- Savory crepe with pastrami and asparagus
- Sweet crepe with banana and nutella
- Pierre's sangria
- Alan and Maureen's Hornitos, Coronas, and Pyramids
- Josh and April's spinach salad with craberry, candied walnuts, and feta
- Josh and April's blueberry scones and zucchini bread