joco's Profile

@laurie.baker, I feel like this needs to be reiterated again and again and again. I am also an introvert, and it's easy for me to fall into patterns that involve a lot of alone time. A night out (or really any kind of social event) requires a certain amount of energy, and I need to psyche myself up for it, especially if it will involve meeting a lot of new people.

But I moved across the country about 6 months ago and the single best piece of advice I got was to fight the urge to sit on the couch, and just go! Even if I hardly know the person who invited me, even if it I might end up standing on the side of the room awkwardly, even if I'm really exhausted after a long week, I've been pushing myself because I know that I can't make friends from the couch. And it has worked out so well - I have a great circle of friends now, from a few different groups, and I think I'm even at the point where I can occasionally say no!

So, uh, when can I move in??

Seriously, the after is basically my dream room (maybe minus the big face planter). I'm bookmarking this one for sure.

(Although I also agree with all the comments that the before photo is terrible, and does not give a good basis for comparison! But the photos on the blog show the TV wall and it's pretty great as well.)

Amaretto sours were my first cocktail too! (Not my first drink though, that was either beer or trashcan punch. :p) When I had my first one, I was in college and my usual drink of choice was Smirnoff Ice, so a standard amaretto sour was along those same lines. But as I grew out of that everything-must-be-sickly-sweet phase, I discovered that I still liked amaretto sours, but mostly as amaretto on the rocks with a little splash of sour mix (obviously better if homemade).

With that said, I never would have thought to add bourbon to it! And I love bourbon. I have a feeling this could become my new favorite drink.

FiberNazi, we should hang out. My family on the whole prefers dark meat, but turkeys these days are bred to have giant breasts so there's usually not enough dark meat to go around! The white meat does tend to make better sandwiches, though, so it's okay if that doesn't get eaten during the main meal. We usually budget about 1.5 lbs/person with lots of sides, and we have plenty of leftovers.

I paid for a broker's services with my first NYC apartment, and the guy was actually great -- he took me and my roommate to 6 places in one day (on a Saturday when we were both free) and they were all within the range of what we were looking for. The hard part was picking one! I felt like he "earned" his fee and had no qualms about paying it.

But with my current apartment, I saw the ad on Craigslist, called the broker, and he showed me the place. I had to pay him a fee even though he did no research, did basically nothing for me except physically open the door. The listing was in the "broker fee" section, so I knew I would have to pay him, but it still felt a little ridiculous!

And now a possibly silly/naive question: I'm moving to the Bay Area in a month, and my understanding is that in other parts of the country, usually a broker will be paid by a landlord for a particular apartment, and the burden is not on the tenants in the same way as it is in NYC. Is that true?? (Please say yes!)

@mkhey, I don't think there was ever a comment by someone named "Sisyphean," I think that the commenter was reacting to this phrase in the article itself: "While chores can sometimes feel Sisyphean..."

Personally, I feel like some days the comments on this site contain nothing BUT complaints about AT itself. If you really think that every single comment that isn't pro-AT gets deleted, you aren't paying attention.

Seriously, grating tomatoes changed my life too! I usually put my box grater in a bowl, cut the tomatoes in half, and then start grating from the cut face. You don't need to peel the tomatoes; the skin sort of stays behind in your hand and actually protects your fingers from the sharp edges of the grater.

It yields a texture similar to canned crushed tomatoes, as opposed to the "strands" you get from grating, say, carrots. But for any kind of sauce or stew, it's perfect.

Now about these bananas... what's the purpose of grating a frozen banana? Do you mix it with something? Is it like a smoothie shortcut?

Mine are:

Skippy crunchy peanut butter (I've tried the natural stuff, I really have! Just can't do it.)

Bugles (only purchased on road trips but then I can eat a whole bag in 2 seconds)

Hellman's mayo

McDonald's hash browns

+1 on the Google Sketchup rec, it is awesome! And there are so many objects in the library, you're not limited to one manufacturer's furnishings. Though I believe Google just sold it to someone else and the program has a different name now...

If you can stand to turn on the oven in the summer, it can be even easier! I like to roast the peppers, zucchini, and eggplant -- all on their own baking sheets, or at least on different sections of the same baking sheet, because the veggies can still take different amounts of time. What I like is that in the oven, you can cook them all at the same time, instead of having to do them successively in the one pot.

And I usually don't like eggplant either, but for ratatouille I cut it small and roast the crap out of it until the pieces shrivel up and that sort of mealy slimy texture goes away. Then it's delicious!