Ohhh Smitten Kitten is having a book signing around the whole US and one of the stops is Philly at out main Library. I think I might pop in :)

Just in case anyone else is interested:smittenkitchen.com/events

I would close this, what do you say?

Wow. Our blog has two Google visits for the search term Baklava even though the post has only been online for half an hour. I see this as a good omen, our credibility must be doing well.

@rumtscho nice

runs away

@rumtscho Interesting.

@derobert I guess the spider can have picked it up at the time it was a shared draft only.

Google can spider pretty quickly, especially if they can figure out the update schedule

@rumtscho perhaps, I'm not hitting on it right now

I don't know how intelligent their spider is, but given that WordPress is so widespread, they may well make use of this fetaure.

given, when I search Google, I don't see us in the first two pages

first hit for baklava blog

I see it third in the blog search...

@derobert search what, just "baklava"? I have noticed that we had some hits for search terms I would have considered too general, back when we had almost no posts. Such as "vanilla cookies". I wonder if it is some kind of software spidering Google results for some reason, because I think we must have been at page 50+ for such terms back then (probably still are)

The statistics show the exact term used, so it was really baklava and not baklava blog

@rumtscho google.com/…

@rumtscho right, but you can use the blog search from google and type baklava and hit

Ah, there is a special search tab for blogs? I didn't even know that.

Yes, Google has special searches for everything.

LOL, I love that people seem to like my yeast proofing :-P

you are referring to the search terms again?

google.com/…

yep

end of page 1

What I like on today's list most is seasoned cooks blog

I wonder if somebody had heard something good about us, disremembered the exact name, and found us this way

@rumtscho cooks are better with a bit of salt and pepper

maybe a dash of marjoram

google.com/… ... could be some of those others, too.

but whatever, if it brings in traffic :-P

Maybe, but they clicked us too.

Not only does it bring traffic, at our current numbers, it brings something like 2% of our daily traffic

and that only because it is a post's first day, else it would have been up to 5% of our daily traffic

hi @Laura, how are you?

@rfusca can you figure out how to make bread with a drill, bandsaw, and air compressor? Just think of the traffic!

@rumtscho Pretty good. :) Thought I'd drop by and say hello - how are you doing?

I'm well, thanks. Came back from vacation last Sunday, back to work rhythm by now. Blog is picking up speed again, too - did you see our baklava post?

As far as I can remember our schedule, I'll have to cook preserves again for next week.

@rumtscho I got pushed back for next week?

and, @waxeagle, any ETA on your post?

Yeah, I think at this point, we're running everything a week behind schedule. Which is nice to have a publication delay again.

@derobert this afternoon/evening? I'll try to get it finished then edited and get the photos collected

@waxeagle Awesome

@derobert as for the beaker of yeast, is this really a beaker? I thought this was the word for what I call an Erlenmeyerkolben.

@derobert wow, it's currently 1500 words

@rumtscho yes, that's a beaker. That other thing is probably an Erlenmeyer flask.

google.com/…

google.com/…

Funny, I wonder where I got my false impression from.

Good thing you're not a chemist, or you'd have difficulty ordering labware :-P

No, I would be ordering it in German anyway.

It was the English term I had wrong, remember? Also, education in our universities is good enough that a chemist would learn at least the names of the labware. I hope that this is the case in American colleges too, but one can't help but wonder, given the current misgivings about your education.

@rumtscho it's covered day 1 or so of college chem at least :)

(or day of chem lab. too much else going on in chem class :))

@rumtscho That's only our K-12 education.

@waxeagle are you a chemist?

@rumtscho nah, I spent 3 years in college on an engineering track and 2 semesters of Chem were required.

Was it the kind of engineering which uses dynamite?

@rumtscho It was a course of study called "pre-engineering" where you took a bunch of general engineering stuff and a bunch of liberal arts stuff and then went and finished at a university with an actual engineering program. I finished it, realized I had way too long before graduation and need to make money, so is switched to CS and got a degree

Engineering degrees take longer than CS degrees? Why? Here, the only degree which takes longer is medicine.

@rumtscho in my case yes (I went to a school that didn't actually offer an engineering degree so I was scheduled to finish in 5, and it was looking more like it was going to be 6)

@mien- nice blog post. I'm happy that we were all proven right. That is very gratifying.

@Cerberus Like @rumtscho said, smaller. Much smaller.

@Cerberus Roger that. Luckily, the peanuts are in the mouth, over.

@Sobachatina Thanks :) Well, I do think the 'fast' baklava is a little too negatively seen. It really wasn't bad, just not that good.

@Mien Oooh, why are you moving to a much smaller place? In city?

@Mien Something with that many calories needs to be good. Really good.

@derobert I move to a city, yes, where I'll do my internship. My bf is also moving ;-)

It's just a tiny apartment, but better than living apart.

Hmmm, guess that's the last we'll be seeing of you, then.

No, I move on Sunday, internet is installed on Wednesday ;-)

But I really have to go to bed now, way too late.

10:25 is late?

I have to get up at 6

I work 11 hours a day now :P

Good night.

wow, that's a long day

Well, Friday's my last one :)

7 hours sleep is the optimum

however, thanks to my daughter's cold, on average I get about 37 minutes

@ElendilTheTall :)

It's incredible the amount of snot that can come out of such a small person

@ElendilTheTall lol

saline + bulb = win

her cot is like Shelob's Lair, webs of mucus everywhere

@ElendilTheTall small people are actually 97% snot, by weight.

@ElendilTheTall spitup is so much worse than snot though :P

@derobert it's the same with French people

@ElendilTheTall I thought that was snob, which is a little different :-P

@waxeagle hey, I'm thanking my lucky stars it wasn't a stomach bug she caught

One whole letter!

@derobert snotty/snobby - they're interchangeable

ooh, a good point. I must concede.

@Cerberus I want a report on the date asap when you get on

@Jay Hello!

It was so-so.

@Cerberus aww

In fact it was exactly as I predicted.

in what way

Let me search for a quote...

lol ok

There.

lol ok

well at least you gave it a try

i assume no second date?

So he was nice, but there was too much being "cool" going on for my taste.

Yup!

@Jay Probably not.

We'll be friends.

thats good

Our discussions didn't exactly become as involved as I would have hoped.

I like discussions.

what did you try to talk about

He's a great guy, but I think the feeling was mutual.

@Jay Lots of stuff about his coming-out, which is very recent.

i see

And about politics, because today are our most important elections.

how old were you when you came out again?

The liberals have won.

@Jay 17ish.

ohhhh i dont talk about politics at all

to anybody

Heh.

Why not?

its something that gets way too heated that ive seen tear people apart solely because of it

Oh, I see.

No risk of that here.

ah

i had two good friends freshman year

He did have his house mates hang out the rainbow flag from their conservative frat house. That was cool.

one was a very liberal guy and the other was very conservative girl(financial wise)

Hmm.

their view points always clashed and it wasnt very fun when we all hung out

No, people shouldn't get too heated about it.

somehow politics always got brought up

so i made a no politics at all around me rule

But neither of us had very strong points of view.

things got much better after that

That is often a good idea.

The safest bet.

i also find that if politics is brought up on a first date, it will inevitiably result in bad feelings between the two if they butt heads

its safer to have feelings for each other first

then talk about politics

Could be...but most people here are fairly moderate.

and if you cant work through that then going farther wouldnt be a good idea

And, if someone is extremely outspoken, it's better to hear it sooner than later!

I think people are very bias with first impressions

In what way?

its hard to get rid of a certain feelings towards someone you get initially

for some reason there was this guy on my floor freshman year dorm who acted all cocky the first day

I suppose.

i did not like him at all

afterwards i realize it was just an act and he was a nice guy

Yeah, that happens.

but i couldnt get past the irrational dislike i felt for him since the first day

No?

lol nope

its stupid but i dont know

its as hard to control as who i like

You will get over it eventually.

Have you spent any time with him one on one?

well that was 4 years ago

Ahh.

So do you still dislike him?

well i dont know him anymore

havent seen him since like 2nd year

Oh OK.

Well, I think my Mr Date is a nice guy, but we're just not each other's type I think.

Ah, now I suddenly remember whom he makes me think of.

who lol

Some other guy.

your borther?

Haha.

o oh

Nope.

haha thatd be awkward

Indeed.

would be even more awkeard if you had actually liked him

No this other guy I found extremely attractive, but he was also extremely not my type.

although i think(this might be a bit too liberal for some people) incest between same sex people aren't as "bad"

I guess you could do it...but I would never want to.

It would be very weird.

haha

But I have heard this story about these twin brothers...

the main reason it became taboo is because of inbreeding and bad genes propagating

Yeah, sure.

ok time to delete that line

Wait, what did you type?

seriously?

or are you mesesing with me

I didn't see it.

Haha.

it was kinda cool actually

it was two guys working out in symmetry

it looks like hes against the mirror at first

I see.

then you know what follows after

I can imagine.

So anyway, I'm glad I've had this date.

Now I know I was right.

That's always a good thing.

lol

its better than always wondering if it couldve happened

Yeah.

He may also still be in love with this other guy that triggered his whole coming-out.

ahhh...

The other guy is still deep inside the closet.

i see

I'm not saying he wouldn't be open to something new.

But that hit him hard.

yea

So that was basically the story.

bleh

I know.

well despite the turn out, it was still a good experience

Any other details you wish to know?

lol

was that sarcasm?

Hehe.

I don't know myself.

lol its k

As to attraction, it was OK, but not huge.

i see