Those LEGO CUUSOO sets are really cool, love that Minecraft got made! Normally, what happens is something with high geek appeal gets on there, gets tons of votes but ends up rejected for not being a kid-friendly IP (there were awesome Arrested Development and Firefly sets). Looks like Minecraft's out of stock but I'd consider picking up a set if someone else did too and split shipping.

Speaking of Minecraft, what's going on there? Did it get abandoned for Mists of Pandaria/Borderlands 2/bread machine?

Lego Minecraft!

Yes to DCC!

DCC: next Saturday, 10/13, 1 PM. Yes/no?

How the fuck is it October already? Jeesh.

WTF edit: you guys that watched Arrested Development... did you know that Marta (II) was the mummy's wife in the Mummy movies? And was in a bunch of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues back in the day? The iWife called it... was blown away.

Sign me up for SandwichCon! But only if the meat is pastrami curtains and the bread is vaginas. And the chips and pickles are nipples. Mustard, plates: vaginas, too.

| <---- yes

Always down for a Mancon! I'm sure we'd have to guage interest first, but if there's enough, then details can be hammered out.

| Man Conz

Would be interested! Might be a little rough during holiday season but anything is possible I guess!

| ManCon III

Just a general interest gathering post.  Who wants another ManCon?

I know we have the holidays coming up which means lots of travel and burning of PTO (and burning of wallets, too), but I'd love to have a ManCon to look forward to.

Cayucos?  Enron's murder cabin (JUST outside of Lagunitas)? Somewhere new?  Tent camping with cabins for gaming (I thought this one up at Little Basin this last weekend)?

I think if we kept Enron's extravagant meals to a minimum, and since this is a non-bachelor-con it would make sense to do so, and focused mainly on sammiches, coffee, etc. we could do it for less than previous ManCons.

| Bread Spam

So, it came out fine! There's a little bit of an indentation where the loaves originally met but otherwise is works. I think I'll be using the bread pans more for "every day" use and use the artisan-style approach for snacks, dinners and guests.

Lesson learned though. One "batch" makes one giant loaf. Will need to double the recipe if I want to make two whole loaves.

| Haha... well.. this is interesting

It sort of came out looking like... two loaves of bread got stacked on top of each other while baking. I tried to wiggle them a bit and they're attached, so I think it just kinda LOOKS like it does but it should be structurally ok. Cooling now, will slice it and see what we get in about 5 minutes!

| DAFUQ

Somehow, I'm out of Rosemary. Damnit. Oh well, time to experiment in other ways then, lol. I was going to split it into two different loaves and do it in bread pans.. but after cutting the dough in 1/2 I realized they were going to be WAY too small. This, of course, put me in a dilemma because I didn't want to try and combine the now separated dough TOO vigorously (for fear of destroying all the delicious air pockets?)... so I basically stacked one on top of the other in the bread pan, tried to gently press them together a little bit and well... I guess we'll see what happens. LOL.

Yet another attempt to see just how far we can stretch the rules and still have it come out ok, I guess!

Bread should be coming out in about 5 minutes either way.. so we'll see. :D

| Cool, will give that a try

As for the big loaf, yeah, it's just not a big deal at all, lol. In my "how far can I bend the rules on making bread" experiments I found that it's nearly impossible to screw it up. Just let it cook for an extra 4-5 minutes and you're good. I don't use thermometers or any of that.

Been meaning to try out using bread pans. Dunno how that will change the final product. Maybe I'll do that on the next batch. I've been making bread a few time a week now to keep our supplies up. I just wrap it in plastic-wrap and put that in a gallon zip lock bag to keep it fresh for a couple days while the family eats on it.

The foodie in me loves it because it tastes so good and the cheap ass in me loves it because it comes out to less than $1 a loaf, lol.

| Rosebud

I haven't done the big ball loaf yet. I think I'm a little afraid of it! Do you get a thermometer in it to see what it is done?

I cobbled together the rosemary recipe combining the one that you sent me for the basic bread and then a few others I found online. Basically prepare your dough the same way you normally do but add a teaspoon of sugar, table spoon of dry rosemary (the basic form that's in every spice rack), and a teaspoon of Italian seasoning (also generic spice rack version). I also add a little melted butter in the mix as well. Same shit with the letting it rise etc, then at that last step where u form it and cut the top before cooking, sprinkle about another table spoon of dry rosemary over the loaves. Good shit!

| Haha, MOAR BREAD PORN

I know right? Best part about it is that it's so damned EASY. I still only do about half the stuff in that recipe and it comes out freaking awesome every time. I love how it stays warm for so long after you take it out of the oven. Have you tried not cutting it in half and just baking it as one big loaf? So good. Then it's big enough to make sandwiches with or french toast or whatever. Fresh warm bread plus some butter and preserves is just crazy good.

How do you do the rosemary bread? Do you grind up / crush some Rosemary in a mortar-pestle and then add it to the basic bread recipe while you're mixing it up? Or something more complicated? I've been thinking of doing a garlic-rosemary bread but I haven't attempted it yet.

| Skate

I had and enjoyed Skate 3 but ended up trading it in while it still had a decent cash value! That was a great series. EA decided to put the franchise on hold and I don't even know if that game studio exists today.

Bread update: I continue to shock and awe friends and family with my artisan Rudy brand bread, thanks Art! Lately I've been doing a rosemary bread that's been a big hit. I've also done a few homemade apple pies which are off the hook. I'm such a 50s housewife. Or a 90s Guy Fiere.

| Skate 3

Are they on Skate 4 yet?  I picked up Skate 3 last night and I know that iRood played/s it a fair amount - want to fire it up again, iR00di?  Anyone else have a copy?  It's fun!

| TEEVEE

Community was so awesome the first few seasons. Then, got kind of stale for me. But there are some episodes in there are are absolutely all-time-epic.

We've been kind of watching a new show called Copper, about a police man / detective guy from just after the Civil War era in NYC. Very good! Gritty and there's a lot of moral ambiguity and flaws to the characters, which I think makes the whole show pretty solid. Highly recommend.

We took up DirecTV on their offer of ALL THE THINGS for $5 a month through the end of the year. Been binging on movies late at night, kiddos are enjoying having some of the HBO Family programming. But there's no fuckin' way I'm blowing an extra $70 a month for this shit when the offer runs out. Who pays that? It'd put my cable, internet and phone package up around $250 a month, lol... and I'm already not happy about spending $150. Madness.

FTL thoughts:

Unlocked the Slug cruiser, yay! Haven't played with it yet though.

I had one of the most evil rigs of all time setup over the weekend in a play-through sesh... it was basically a Fire Beam and Anti-Personel Beam combo that would set all their shit on fire and then zap the enemy crew out of existence while they fought the fires. Poor guys. LOL, not gonna lie, it felt a little dirty.

| jean overalls

I've heard Sex House is really funny, but haven't seen it yet. Just last night, I binged through the first season of Parks and Rec finally. Really good! I know the first season isn't supposed to be good, but for a slow night at work, it did the job. By the start of season 2, I was already into the characters and can't wait to jam through the rest of the show. After this I'll do the same with Community. And Louie which I LOVE but only got through 1.5 seasons (that show is seriously SO good). ALSO Wilfred, which I watched a couple of times and think I'll really love.

The rescheduled day sounds good enoto!

That's cool to hear you and your partner like Dungeon Petz! Our go-to game is still Castles of Burgundy - I don't know why, but we're so in love with that game. Stefan Feld is my Vlaada. 1960 is still doing well for us but it's a solid 2 hours so we might only play it once a week or every other week. I totally randomly picked up Mundus Novas the other day off a random recommendation. It's a card game for 2-6 players - New World merchant themed - looks pretty light (but more complicated than Jaipur or something like that). Hasn't hit the table yet. I ALSO ordered these custom mini-meeples this guy in Canada made for Lords of Waterdeep - DnDeeples! I'll send a pic when they come in, but they look incredible :)

Nice find! I didn't see anything I'm interested in right now, but def. saw a few good ones that I played when I rolled with the ol' game group.

Pencil in Saturday the 13th for our makeup session! Who or what are the Sailors on the Starless Sea? Time Will Tell!

Any of you guys watch Sex House? It's The Onion's reality show parody, I'm 5 eps in and it's pretty good so far. They're 5-6 minute eps. The premise of the show is: 6 sexy singles in a house with nothing to do but get it on! But the situation actually turns out to be be really messed up:
- There are 3 guys, two straight, one gay. There is nobody for the gay guy to sleep with.
- Another one of the guys is a married, middle-aged shlub who is on the show because he won a Tombstone Pizza contest.
- The house is shittily constructed, smells bad and may in fact be underground (they can't tell because the windows are boarded up and they can't leave).
- There's no food, only tons of alcohol and some moldy pumpernickel bread.

It's pretty damn funny, in a low-key kinda way.

| sale

Tanga's having a big boardgame sale for the next 40 hours or so. None of the games they sell are the bomb dot com, but there's at least a few on their I've been interested in before. LINK

Stuff like Travel Blog by Vladda, etc.