Blog
This page is for stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.
2011.04.18 - Marzipan cakes
On the corner of 9th East and 17th South, in Sugar House (Salt Lake City, UT), there was a Scandinavian bakery called Scandia Kaffe House. Scandia closed and there is a deli in its place. Scandia had the best marzipan cakes ever. Marzipan is the icing and it's made from almond paste and sugar. The cake is a white cake with raspberry and cream filling.
The next best thing is Granite Bakery. They have a cake that is very similar to the one from Scandia. I got one last year and it was pretty good. They are at 902 East and 2700 South.
I'm mainly posting this entry so that I don't forget the name of the new place the next time I want a marzipan cake because this year I did forget and I got one from Schmidt's Pastry Cottage. It is a white cake with raspberry and cream filling like the others, but the raspberry and cream layers are really thin and it isn't as moist. Schmidt's has been a favorite of mine for their german chocolate iced cookies and mint iced brownies. But they aren't my favorite maker of marzipan cakes.
2008.02.04 - MEI makes the best travel bags
I just ordered a second MEI Voyageur bag.
I actually tried a vacation with "one bag" and it went fairly well. It is amazing what you can do without. I actually had a Red Oxx "Air Boss" and it was a bit too small. The Air Boss would be perfect for the 5 day business trips, but too small for a 8-10 day vacation. My mom used my MEI, and so for the next trip I'm getting another MEI.
Ordering is a bit funny because you gotta call 'em. You can't buy the bags in stores and there is no online order form. And they are frequently out of stock, so you need to order months before you intend to use it.
2008.01.09 - Reading 10.5 /var/log/system.log.0.bz2
10.5 uses bz2 compression to archive /var/log/system.log (10.4 used gz). To read the file in 10.5 you have to use bzcat and bzgrep.
bzcat /var/log/system.log.0.bz2bzgrep -i error /var/log/system.log.*man bzcatman bzgrep
2005.10.04 - Fixing the Dishwasher
I fixed my dishwasher tonight (KitchenAid model KUDI24SEAL5). I bought a multimeter. After googling a bit, I 1st: tested the circuit breaker. It was good. Tested to see if power was getting to the washer (opened the bottom and tested the AC line by poking the thingies into the twisted wires). That was good. Turned off the circuit breaker. I took the dishwasher front cover off. Tested the door switch continuity. It was good. Tested the next part, which turned out to be an electronic thermal fuse. It was blown.
I called Sears to get a replacement. It would be a week before they could send one. I called a small repair shop. The guy said tomorrow at the earliest, unless... If I got this far on my own, I could probably just go to Radio Shack and buy any ol' thermal fuse and replace my blown one with it. But get a higher rating temperature because the KitchenAids are rated low. Or something like that.
So I drove to Radio Shack, bought a 140C fuse (old one was 110C) and a soldering iron. I still had a few tools from high school electronics, such as self closing tweezers, dikes, and pliers. I didn't realize it until I read the back of the thermal fuse instructions that the soldering iron would likely blow the thermal fuse. But if I used the tweezers as a heat sink, chances of blowing it were lower.
I was never really good with a soldering iron. I always cooked things too much. So I tried to be quick, and I had some water to cool the fuse (not the solder though--I know that is bad for the bonds). So anyway, I did it without blowing the fuse. My dishwasher works again, and now I have a multimeter and a soldering iron. The fuse cost $2. A website listed it for $12 (including the plastic holder--I used my old one).