Tongue-twisting CPU description

Just when you thought the PC desktop CPU field couldn't get more confusing, along comes this gem of a phrase that describes Intel's upcoming CPU, code-named "Kentsfield:"

"two dual-core Core 2 Duo die"

San Diego in a Shelby GT-H

The original plan was to turn in the Ford Escape I had been driving on the company's dime for 3 days in exchange for a Mustang convertible -- that I would spring for -- for my remaining free time in San Diego.

I had flown into town late Sunday night to attend a Gartner conference. While waiting for the lone counter agent to finish up with the customer in front of me, I looked around the Hertz establishment at Lindbergh Field looking for something interesting to rent on my last day. There were a few Hummer H3's out in the parking lot, but those did not interest me in the least. There were also a smattering of Hertz' Prestige Collection cars: Volvos, Jags, Lincolns, etc. Again, no interest. I decided that since I was in San Diego, a Mustang convertible was the way to go. Having decided this, I completed my transaction for the Ford Escape that would be my ride during the conference, and headed to my hotel.

After the first day of the conference, I met up with my old fiend Julie, who is a bio-med post-doc at UCSD. She took me to Station Sushi, which is kind of like a surf shack masquerading as a sushi bar. This was a super-casual sushi dive with a definite SoCal surfer vibe. Plus they served up the best California roll I've ever had.

During a conference session on Tuesday, I was IM'ing with my friend Ken about where to go for dinner that night. He suggested an In-N-Out burger, since I was in California. This sounded like a great idea. While researching In-N-Out locations however, I read about an establishment touted by many as the best burger in San Diego: Hodad's. I decided In-N-Out could wait until my next trip to Los Angeles in July.

So, after the conference I hopped into the Escape and headed to Newport Ave, Ocean Beach. Ocean Beach is the artsy, funky, bohemian area of San Diego (they call themselves The People's Republic of Ocean Beach), and Newport Avenue is the main commercial strip, running from the hills straight towards the Pacific Ocean.

Hodad's is an open front burger joint, with (surprise!) a surfing theme. Old license plates from around the country cover the walls, along with other surfing-related memorabilia. Surfboards hang from the ceilings. You grab a menu from a stack by the door, and seat yourself. Eventually, a server takes your order. And I do mean eventually: The surfer vibe trickles down to the service as well.

I ordered a cheeseburger basket and a vanilla milkshake. The milkshake came first, served in a frappe cup and topped with an additional scoop of ice cream. Perfect. You can either eat the ice cream, or let it slowly melt to maintain optimal consistency and temperature throughout the milkshake lifecycle. Then came the burger. This was a 6 inch tall tower of a burger, with fully 4 inches taken up by the veggies and condiments: lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayo. The menu advises that unless stated otherwise, all burgers come with the works. My server did ask me if I wanted everything on it. I went for the full experience, and it was delicious. There's a lot of veggies to go along with the beef, so it's not the "beefiest" burger I've ever had (Louis' Lunch in New Haven takes that title). But it was definitely very tasty.

On Wednesday morning, I headed back to Hertz to turn in the Escape and pick up the 'Stang vert to tool around in after the conference ended later that day. As I walked from the return area back to the rental building, I noticed a couple of cars that had not been there Sunday night: Prominently displayed in front of the rental building were 3 Shelby GT-Hs. I asked inside if any were available, and the agent nodded "Yes." Woo-hoo! I knew it would be expensive, and it was: $199/day. I also sprang for the damage waiver, as I anticipated some spirited driving. Wendy also probably wouldn't have approved. But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, etc.

The rental process for the Shelby was more drawn out than just handing over your credit card and getting the keys to a Dodge Stratus. First, a Hertz manager needed to get the keys from a locked safe and pull the car around. Then, you must show proof of a departing airline itinerary; local residents are not allowed to walk in and rent this car. We had to call Continental for them to verify that I indeed had a ticket back to Connecticut. Finally you must go through with the manager an extensive car condition check and inventory, including in the engine bay and trunk.

So how does it drive? To answer that, you have to keep in mind a couple of things: 1. We live in an age of marketing and bling, and 2. we live in an increasingly litigious society. As such, despite the Shelby name, I believe the GT-H is much closer to a base Mustang than the Shelby GT500. I'm no Mustang expert, but I think the GT-H is basically a Mustang GT with a cold air intake, and cat-back muffler and pipes upgrade. On the suspension front, there's a front strut tower brace, recalibrated shocks, lowering springs, upgraded roll bars, and a shorter final drive.

The suspension upgrades seem to pay off well. Again, I'm no Mustang expert, and have not driven a current model GT. But the GT-H tracks nicely through corners, even if it doesn't feel nimble or spry. You can sense the front strut bar working to keep the front end planted. The solid rear axle also works well, but you can still feel the rear end step out a bit when disturbed.

You can definitely sense the weight of the car (>3500 lbs). The car will push a bit and start to understeer at the limit. Also, the all-seasons (235/55-17 M+S PZero Neros) that were probably mandated by Hertz' lawyers conspire to lower the limits. Most tragically, traction control cannot be disabled on GT-Hs. The button is there, but can't be pushed.

As for the engine, it's the same 4.6 V-8 that's in the GT, but with the aforementioned intake/exhaust upgrades. Throttle tip-in is very gentle, so there's no great neck snapping torque available just off idle. The DOHC engine needs to be revved a bit to really get on cam. Plus, the automatic tranny seems to rob a lot of this engine's power. I guess in those respects the power is a little underwhelming.

However, it sounds great. The CAI and muffler improvements really let the V-8 rumble out. That, plus the bling package (black w/gold racing stripes, upgraded front fascia with hood pins) really gets heads turning on the street. I had one jogger chase me down in the streets of San Diego to ask what car I was driving. Another time, a pickup truck full of teenage girls came alongside and tried to pick me up. A man crossing the street in front me pointed at the car, said "V-8," and gave me a thumbs up. So the car definitely attracts attention.

Bling for the driver comes in the form of a Shelby commemorative inscription on the dash between the front vents.

With the GT-H at my disposal, I proceeded to explore the rest of San Diego: Coronado, Silver Strand State Beach (nice night-time high speed runs there!), Mission Beach, La Jolla, Torrey Pines. I had dinner Wednesday night at a downtown BBQ place where they filmed a couple of the bar scenes from Top Gun. I sat right in front of the actual piano used in that scene where Goose and Mav sing Great Balls of Fire.

I enjoyed my time in San Diego. It's a beautiful city with lots to do. And with a Shelby GT-H, all the more so.

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in Fairfield

The best pizza in the world is coming to within a mile of my house!

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana is widely regarded as the best pizza in the world. And after 80-some-odd years of operating establishments on Wooster Street in New Haven, CT, they are opening a new location mere minutes away from my house in Fairfield.

Now, it was never any great hassle to travel 30 minutes up to New Haven for great pizza. But this new Fairfield location will change the dynamic of take out pizza for us at home.

I swung by the new location today -- which is still under construction -- and managed to snap a couple of photos. Pepe's is taking over the location of CJ's Restaurant on Commerce Drive in Fairfield. This is an up-and-coming area, but is currently home to some auto dealerships and other industrial and trade-oriented supply shops. It's a little off the beaten path from the typical Fairfield restaurant locations, being located across from a electrical supply store, and a quarter mile down from Connecticut Limosine's Bridgeport station.

It looks like the restaurant will take over the entire first floor of the building. I don't know what's on the second floor. (Rooms to rent?) There is a modest sized parking lot (15-20 spots) to the side of the building, and the entrance is on that side as well. As you walk into Pepe's, you'll notice what I presume will be a dining area to the left. This could also be the waiting area. Straight ahead is a short, shallow ramp up to another dining area. What looks to be a service area already has a beverage refrigerator installed (labeled Foxon Park, of course). To the right is the counter, pizza-making area, and the oven.

Ah, the oven. If you've seen the oven at Pepe's in New Haven, you'll know that it is a beast of an oven. It takes up the entire wall, and is coal-fired. It looks like they've built a replica for the Fairfield location. Interestingly, when I was there taking pictures today, the restaurant was clearly weeks away from opening. But someone was already there firing up the oven. I presume this is to break-in and "season" the oven for Opening Day.

I'm already plotting my first visit pies: 1 white clam, 1 sausage. Stay tuned for the first report...

Mimi Wins Barrymore Award for Outstanding Set Design

And the Barry goes to...

It's a couple of months old, but I did want to mention that my sister -- Mimi Lien -- won a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Set Design! Mimi won for her design for the Wilma Theater production of Outrage, in which she designed a "sprawling vertical set [that] looks like academe in collision with history."

The Barrymores are like the Tonys, but focused on the Philadelphia theater scene, so it's obviously regional and not national in scope.

Still, this represent a significant achievement as she was up against some pretty established set designers. Our entire family is so very proud of Mimi, and we're sure this is just the first in a long line of feathers in her cap.

Congratulations, Mimi!

House Project - Day ???: Tunnel<-Light

Keeping to my recent bi-monthly update schedule, I thought I'd take the opportunity to write-up another entry about the status of our house remodeling project.

In the last episode, the drywall had just been installed. Since then, as expected, a lot more has happened, and we're getting really close to being able to move in.

The kitchen cabinets got installed, and they really look nice and crisp and clean. The color we chose for the cabinets -- Bisque Glaze -- was a little yellower than we expected, especially when seeing them next to the flat white of the wall primer. It would all turn out for the best, as we shall see later.

On the exterior of the house, the existing roof shingles were taken off, and the entire house reshingled with the Certainteed Independence Weathered Wood shingles that we used on the new garage a couple of years ago. In addition, the existing furnace chimney was also rebuilt.

Then the siding crew came in and started to trim the windows and put up the siding. The trim for the older windows ended up being a bit wider then originally envisioned, and perhaps a tad off from a proportion standpoint. It was necessary to add this width due to the construction of the original window trim, and the fact that it was necessary to retain this original trim.

Meanwhile, work continued inside as Kevin the tile guy laid down the tile in the powder room, kid's bathroom, and master bathroom. We chose hexagonal ceramic tiles for the upstairs bathrooms, to try and retain some period flavor. For the powder room, we chose a simple, squarish pattern with natural stone, to complement the natural material richness of the kitchen countertop.

After the tile got laid, the bathroom vanities got installed.

New windows were punched through and installed in the dining room and Miranda's room.

John started milling and installing the window trim work, as well as the baseboard trim, trying to replicate the original trim work as much as possible.

Outside, the siding continued to go up, along with detail pieces for mounting lights. When done, the new siding gave the house a nice and cleaner look. The 5" clapboard might not be absolutely historically correct for our Dutch Colonial Revival style, but we think it looks good. The deck railings are PVC and maintenance-free (yea!), and look great!

It then came time to paint the interior of the house. Originally we planned on tackling the painting ourselves, but when it came time to paint, neither Wendy or I thought we could muster the energy to tackle the painting ourselves. So we hired a painter. And thank God we did, because the painting was truly a larger task than we had anticipated, and the painter we hired has been doing a great job.

Finally, within the last month, came the installation of various finish materials. First, the masons installed the brick surround of the fireplace. We had a choice of tumbled or non-tumbled brick, and we chose non-tumbled for, again, a crisper look.

At around the same time, the kitchen granite countertop and kid's bathroom countertop got installed by SMC Stone. They had to come back to install the master bath countertop, because the sink holes got cut incorrectly.

And the Kempas wood flooring was installed through the new portions of the house. The flooring installer originally started laying out the floor using a pattern, given the 4-5 differently sized pieces that the flooring came in. However, neither Wendy and I were very happy with the results, so we asked him to just use a random pattern, making sure that repetition in sizes, seams, and color was minimized.

The end is near, the light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter, and we are tentatively scheduled to move back in the weekend of September 24.

And of course, as usual, there are more pictures uploaded to my Flickr "House" picture set than I've shown and/or linked to on this blog.