Last weekend I was lucky enough to see an Atlas V rocket launch from Vandenburg AFB. We are all jaded from seeing things on video every day but I highly recommend watching a launch if you ever get a chance – it is a spectacular event and being a night launch we got a much better perspective on just how bright the exhaust gets.
More info and a much better video is available at SpaceFlightNow.… Read the rest
Last weekend I autocrossed the Hellcat for the very first time at the GGLC AutoX in Marina. Unfortunately it was a very, very tight course which meant that I had no chance to really put the power down. My best time (below) was a 51.4 while the Elise’s were getting down in the 46-47 range.
This is definitely not something I will do again though I still do want to take it at a track day where it should do much better as they usually dont have too many rapid direction changes. Also I wish Dodge had a mode to see the current gear in big central display, the current display is so tiny that I cant really keep track of the paddle selected gear in the rapid fire autocross environment – another thing that should be better on track.… Read the rest
Late last year Nithya and I decided to start looking for a more fun daily driver to replace our Ford Flex Ecoboost which had served us faithfully for ~5 years. Our only requirements were that it be fun, faster than the flex and be able to haul the dogs around as well. My initial thought was to look at AMG Wagons and I even bid on one at Bring a Trailer which I missed out on by just $1k. Since they are relatively rare and hard to find I decided to expand the search and look for other fun wagons and sedans.… Read the rest
Now that I have started my new gig at Apple I no longer have the time to investigate and plan super elaborate meals like the Egg Dinner. However having done a bunch of these in the past we decided to make our March dinner a set of Fast Favourites – dishes that we have tried before and do not take too much time to prepare on the day of the meal. So without further ado, lets dive right into the menu.
We got started with the classic Manresa Farm Egg. It was a huge amount of work and testing when I made it for the egg dinner, but now that I have a reliable method of topping the eggs I no longer had to prepare the yolks in advance and sanitize the shells overnight.… Read the rest
Living in the Bay Area, I had heard of Alinea a few times but since I never had a reason to go to Chicago, I never investigated it as a destination restaurant like the Fat Duck. In fact when I did eventually go to Chicago for the first time we made a special trip to Moto instead since I was a big fan of Homaru Cantu’s Iron Chef episode with Morimoto. All that changed when I saw the Grant Achatz episode of Chefs table and Alinea instantly went to the top of my list based on its presentation alone. It took several months but I was finally able to get a group of 6 California friends willing to fly out to Chicago and do the full Alinea Kitchen Table experience on a cold night in December.… Read the rest