Entries from November 4th, 2010

Boston Renaissance Waterfront

November 11th, 2010 · No Comments

This week I was in boston for UI 15. I attended this conference a few years ago and it was so good, I thought I’d check it out again. I flew in on Sunday night. Every day the weather was so gray and cold and rainy. I managed to take this photo out my hotel window one morning when the rain subsided just for a little bit.


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My hotel was the Boston Renaissance Waterfront. It’s also where the conference was held. I’m told there were a ton of conferences city-wide so I am lucky I reserved the hotel early and got a room!

I talked to a few people from Boston about the Waterfront area. It’s a newly-developed neighborhood. There’s a new convention center and several new hotels, including the one I stayed in. The Silver Line goes through the waterfront. Six years ago when Dallas lived in Boston the Silver Line didn’t even exist. The Waterfront is located just across the harbor from the airport, so it’s pretty convenient for people flying in. It’s an interesting because right now the area is a mix of super-old seaport businesses, restaurants, docks, piers, and warehouses mixed in with brand new hotels and fancier places to eat. It will be cool to see how this area shakes out. South Street Seaport?

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Tech Cocktail 14

November 8th, 2010 · No Comments

The last week of October, Jessica and I went to Tech Cocktail. I think this is something like the 14th one they’ve held in Chicago? Back in 2006 our FeedBurner coworker Eric Olson co-founded the event with Frank Gruber and now it has its own conferences and parties in more than a dozen different cities. I just looked up on this rachelleb.. it looks like I missed the first Tech Cocktail, but I attended the 2nd, along with many others. Until last week, though, I hadn’t been to Tech Cocktail for years.

It was nice to check back in. Mostly the same scene. Free drinks. Ron May. In a wheelchair this time. Lots of people. Lots of tech startup demos. Here’s something that’s different: Sponsored by Sprint! Also, you now have to pay admission to get into the event.

About the demos we saw: A lot of them were some version of a daily discount site. One new company was doing ads in games. Their founder told us they were like AdSense but for games… which already exists, so I’m not sure I get that. Another had you sign up for a family style meal through a Facebook and then you’d show up and eat dinner with a bunch of strangers. One was a social wishlist kind of thing. Another had you type in something you wanted to and it would supposedly go out and find deals for you. I used the site as part of the demo and told it I wanted to take a sushi-making class. I know there’s a million places to do this around Chicago. Tech Cocktail was over a week ago. I still haven’t gotten my results from the site. Hm.

Jess and I talked briefly to Brad Feld, who we knew when he was involved in FeedBurner. And then for a bit to Frank, a Tech Cocktail cofounder we know. Frank said he thought that there were about 550 – 600 people there, so it’s good to know the event is still going strong!

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Daylight Savings Time

November 7th, 2010 · 1 Comment

I could not sleep for some reason last night so I went out into the living room to watch TV. When I displayed the guide, this really messed with my half-asleep/insomniac head.

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Martha Stewart’s Butter Pecan Cookies

November 6th, 2010 · 2 Comments

I love this butter pecan cookie recipe because there are only 6 ingredients and they are common things that I probably have in the pantry at any given time.

I made butter pecan cookies for Emily’s dinner party. I wasn’t sure how many people would be there so I decided to make them mini. To do this, I just used a smaller cookie scoop. I also rolled the cookies in Sugar in the Raw before baking. This gave them a nice crisp texture on the outside and also made them look pretty and sparkly. I love Sugar in the Raw for baking.

By making the cookies mini, I was able to get about 3 dozen cookies from this recipe.

Now the important part: How did they taste? They were a big hit at the party. There were maybe 10 people in attendance and my cookies were all gone by the end of the night. Always a good feeling when something you made is completely devoured.

Butter Pecan Cookies
From: MarthaStewart.com

These delicate, buttery cookies, which get their crunchy texture from toasted pecans and a sugar coating, practically melt in your mouth. Makes 12.

3/4 cup pecans
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a baking sheet, toast pecans until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Let cool completely; finely chop.

With an electric mixer, cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until light, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla, salt, and flour, scraping down sides of bowl, just until dough comes together. Fold in pecans.

Separate dough into 12 pieces; squeeze dough to shape into balls. Roll in sugar. Place, 3 inches apart, on a baking sheet. Gently flatten with the bottom of a glass (reshape sides if necessary). Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until golden brown, rotating sheet halfway through, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with more sugar. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

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Black River by Dean Koontz

November 4th, 2010 · No Comments


finished 11.04.10

I accidentally logged into an old Audible.com account and this audio book was sitting in there. I think I downloaded it a year? two years ago? as part of a promotion. MEH. It’s not that great. Luckily it was only 2 hours long.

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