Well, back in May I felt like I wasn’t being kept busy enough, so I decided to go to The Crucible and check out their blacksmithing class.

It was really awesome. I had no idea what to expect from blacksmithing, except that there was going to be a lot of hot fires and lots of banging(that’s what she said).

The Crucible is really cool. It’s this huge warehouse, that’s segmented into different areas of speciality: blacksmithing, glassworking, mold-making, wood-working, etc. Everything that has to do with industrial arts and/or fire, you’ll find at the Crucible. They have welding classes and glass blowing. It’s really, really cool.

For our first class we got to make hooks. It’s a great project since it teaches you the basic techniques that you can use on a lot of other projects. Things like tapering, twisting, bending, punching, etc. Once you have a good handle on these basics, you’ll be using them a lot on other projects.

So that’s my anvil. Your standard blacksmith tools are, of course, the hammer, a pair of tongs to pull the metal from the furnace. The anvil of course as well, and a glove to wear on your tongs hand cuz i’m still a pansy, and the furnace is NO JOKE.

Speaking of the furnace, there it is. It’s gas powered, and it’s hot as hell. Having your arm close to the opening for more than 2-3 seconds and your hand starts to feel like it’s burning.

My anvil-neighbor grabbing her metal from the furnace.

Some of the knives we learned to make. Yes it’s rebar. Those things are pretty tough to work with. They’re dense, but kinda brittle too. It’s a nice little introduction to making knives. My plan is to take the “bladesmithing” class in the fall.

So if you’re at all interested in these kinds of art classes, check out the Crucible. It’s really fun, hands-on classes.

I came across this pretty cool page a few weeks ago that showed how someone figured out how to make a pretty sweet Watermelon cooler. So taking in on the super coolness of it, I wanted to do a little prototype of my own. I think it’s a really neat idea for a fun summer party!

So I definitely want to start off by thanking them for the great idea. Thanks guys!

OK! Here we go…

I used:
- one big watermelon
- knife
- spoon
- bowl
- power drill with 1/2″ inch drill bit
- ball valve faucet
- PVC-faucet adapter
- rum or vodka
- limes
- strainer

You’ll need a decent sized watermelon. I’m not sure how big this one was, since it was $5.99 each, not bad at all! You’ll definitely need a knife and spoon to scoop out the fruit.

Scooping out the watermelon guts was fun and yummy!!

All scooped out. You definitely want to make sure to clean up the inside of the watermelon; meaning scrape down the sides evenly, pull out any chunks because they’ll clog your faucet!

LOL maybe I should be looking at what I’m doing. Make sure to drill the hole barely big enough to screw in the faucet. You don’t want to jam it in, or make it too wide, otherwise you’ll have leaks. So, get it just big enough so it’s nice and snug.

Sweet, lookin’ good so far!

Don’t forget to feed the baby! Mmmm…sweet, sweet milk. Happy Father’s Day KT!

Now that the hard part is done, you’ll want to blend up the watermelon and strain it. You should have about 6-8 cups of watermelon juice once you’re done…maybe even more. Mix in about 2 cups of vodka or rum, and about squeeze about 4-5 limes in. I added a few tablespoons of sugar to mine. Of course, you can make it as strong as you like.

THE TEST! Pour that bad boy in, and pray that it doesn’t leak. If it does….there’s always the good ol’ pitcher lol.

Let’s see if it works!

Holy Crap!! It’s working!!!

The answer is YES, that is the most awesome shirt in the world. And my goodness, look at that watermelon flow!!!

I agree Cuzin, it IS awesome. lol

If you’re bored and wanna impress your friends at the next summer cook-out, take some time and make one of these handy-dandy little things. Thankfully, everything worked out for me on the first try, so that was lucky. But I can see how this little project could get super frustrating real fast too!

Just be patient, take your time, and don’t force anything. It’ll turn out! I can tell this is going to be a damn good summer.

Super Awesome Watermelon Cooler!

That title ain’t got nothin’ to do with nothin’, but I just felt like saying it because Short Circuit was a dope ass movie when I was little.

I match that randomness with another bit of randomness: I decided to build my own beer pong table.

Yes. Beer Pong.

No, I’m not in college anymore. But who cares? I still like beer. I still like games. Plus, there’s the added benefit of giving your drunk friends something to do, instead of just talking about the same old bullshit again. Oh yah, and you get to talk trash too, WHILE you drink beer. That’s awesome. =D

Sooo, I started where any DIYer would go to find some visuals for building something: YouTube. Oh yes…good ol’ YouTube. I searched “build beer pong table” and I got this video:

I don’t know who these guys are, but thanks for the instructions!! After watching the video a couple of times, it was pretty easy to recreate what they did.

My bare, naked table after having screwed on the folding table legs.

Make sure you sand it down! Get all that crud off the plywood, and any rough spots. My hands were nice and soft after that!

OOOOOH! Primerrrr!!!

I suck at geometry. I don’t know why. But that triangle isn’t so bad, right??

Primer’s all down! Ready to paint first coat!

Mmmm…Sweet Georgia Brown!! I picked it out myself.

Believe or not, that orange is called “Bird of Paradise” It makes me think of orange sherbert.

Annnnnnd 7.5 hours later, it’s done!!

Well…mostly done. I still have to put the lettering on and such, but we was done enough just in time for my Memorial Day BBQ.

More pics to follow!

I was thinking about putting my Nipple M&M on eBay, ya kno…just for shits and giggles.

But…there was an accident. Well..just take a look for yourself:

Nipple M&M = Crushed.  Just like my dreams of riding this meal ticket outta here.

Oh well, maybe I’ll find an even crazier M&M next time.

I like to buy snacks to have during the work day, so I don’t get all crazy hungry. Sometimes it’ll be some Kashi granola bars, or some M&M’s, and usually I’ll have a bunch of ClifBars in there too.

My drawer of goodies.

Being the nice guy that I am, I gladly share with my cube-buddy Ron.

Ron enjoying a ClifBar.

I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you the laugh I got when I saw Ron’s contribution to the snacks:

Ron’s snack drawer.

Thanks buddy. When I’m feeling sick and can’t eat anything but two hearty saltine crackers, I’ll know where to look.

After breakfast we needed to do some shopping. If you’ve ever been to Ranch 99, it’s pretty similar – predominantly asian goods with american items tossed in for good measure. Nothing like Capt’n Crunch with my salted eggs!

Filipinos. Mangoes. ’nuff said.

 

Ok, I’ve cooked with a bunch of different ingredients…or at least I’ve seen them cooked. But what the hell do you do with a Banana Blossom?? (if anyone knows, email me please!)

 

Bitter Melon. It’s as nasty as its name.

 

Egggggssss!! See the ones with the “X”s on them? Yah, those aren’t normal eggs. That’s Balut!

 

That’s not Balut, but they ain’t Easter Eggs nether. They’re salted eggs. Blech.

 

Squid!

 

So there you have it. A little taste of Filipino markets. I’m sure you have a better idea of what we barbarians eat at home. Don’t mess with us….we’ll eat your pets too!!!

 

ROWRRR!!

According to my calculations, 2008 is going to be a VERY good year. I’m no psychic, but I am superstitious. And with my knowledge of basic math, I will demonstrate to you just how lucky 2008 is going to be.

First, add the first two digits of the year to the last two digits of the year: 20 + 08 = 28

Divide by the number of digits in the year, in this case 2008 has four digits(if it were the year 12804, we’d use five digits): 28/4 = 7.

Holy Great Green Monkeys! The number 7!!! I don’t think a year of this number has occurred in a long time. (Go ahead, try doing the calculations!)

This is special. Everyone knows that the number 7 is lucky, but nobody knows why. This site is a great reference for the accounts of how special the number 7 is. And most likely we’ll never have a year like it again.

I have a feeling this is going to be a good year to get lots of things done and have loads of fun.

So…in the spirit of our lucky year, I’ve created a list of 7 resolutions for 2008 that I will check back with during the year and see if I’ve stood by what I said I’d do.

1. Use less paper products – I’ve developed this habit of only using as much paper towels to dry my hands as I need. I want to see if I can push this further and use less paper bags at the grocery stores, less toilet paper(!), and even less paper towels. Saving trees is good!
2. Maintain and improve PoppaWinst.com – Look forward to more reviews, more recipes and more crazy food adventures in the coming year!
3. Improve my baking skills – Yes, I can cook most things I’ve seen or eaten…but damn it if I have to bake something complex. A few of the items to work on: Cake making and decorating, expanding cookie repertoire, and making a Buche de Noel for Christmas
4. Improve my writing skills – Part of being a good blog writer is being a good writer in general. I believe someone with her Master’s in Professional Writing will be of some help with this. =D
5. Go to Vegas at least twice – There has definitely been a shortage of Vegas trips in 2007.
6. Officially get my CPA license – Now that the exam is over with, I’ll have to work the 500 or so hours to officially become certified. (officially certified…redundant?)
7. Save! – Recovery from being unemployed all year is definitely on the list!

So what are some of your plans for the Lucky New Year??

I hope everyone had a good holiday with lots of good food and presents, and I guess family too.  =)

I’m working on the Giant Hostess Cupcake right now and it’s a pain.  I’ll let you know how it turns out soon!

After a weekend long separation between me and my macbook, we’re finally reunited!

If you have a white macbook, check to see if your laptop has hairline cracks and chips in it. You may have gotten a faulty macbook. And guess what? You’re not alone!! I came across AppleDefects.com, and it had pictures of people who had the same cracks in the casing as I did. Read some of their theories.

Luckily, Apple didn’t give too much gripe about it. My laptop was under the one year warranty anyway, but they seemed to not be surprised by my problem when I took it in. So don’t settle for less! If you own a macbook, you paid good money for it and don’t deserve to have it start falling apart by faulty design. Take it in and get it fixed!

Expect more blogs this week once I get everything settled in.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of my girlfriend at the 2007 Car Show in San Francisco:

Yah…that’s the same face I make trying to figure out why people become vegans.

Earlier this year my buddies and I went camping at Yosemite Park. If you’ve never heard of Yosemite stop reading this blog, use this website I found called “Google” and look it up. It’s probably the most awesome park in all the country. There are waterfalls, creeks, lots of trees, huge sequoias, and BEARS!!

As usual, I was in charge of buying and planning our food supplies. While I know we’re old enough now that we can pitch in more than $20/person, I still have to keep the food budget within reason. Khanh has a membership to the local Cash and Carry, so we decided to go there and check out the prices on bulk items. On every camping trip you gotta have meat; and we love to eat meat.

So we get to the Cash and Carry, and everywhere we go there are restaurant owners pushing their heavily stocked carts around, picking up boxes of produce, cases of meat, cartons of supplies. Most of the carts in there looked like this:

They are not fucking around.

 

So we grab a cart of our own. We’re checking out the different aisles, looking at product. We even put on complimentary freezer jackets so we could shop through the refridgerated sections. After a lot of careful shopping and price comparisons, our cart looked like this:

That damn orange juice kept sliding off!!

 

Needless to say, the items there were too bulk for what we needed. And thus, I put back my jug of O.J. and my bag of chicken breasts, and we headed straight to the regular grocery store.

And now we know.