Salted Caramel Challenge

Some of my coworkers and I have become a bit obsessed with salted caramel ice cream. It's really hard to get the right balance of salty and sweet (and burnt, if you like that, which apparently [spoiler alert] not everyone does). So we decided to have a little taste test today. Of course I made a spreadsheet.

THE CONTENDERS:
1. Talenti Sea Salt Caramel Gelato

2. Beth Marie's Salty Dog

3. Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Salty Caramel

WHAT HAPPENED:

1. I Scooped (I knew too much for it to be a blind taste test myself, so I volunteered).

2. I said, "It's happening, people. Into the conference room. Bring water and a pen."


3. I handed out the score sheets.

4. Much to my chagrin, Tommy videoed the whole thing.


5. We tasted. We mmmmmed. We wrote.

6. We discussed our opinions, and we had a winner.

THE RESULTS (and I finally get around to an actual list)

1. Talenti
2. Jeni's
3. Beth Marie's

You can see that my fave did not win, but we all kind of liked all of them anyway. Actually, Tommy said Jeni's was his favorite, too, but he voted Talenti as #1 because he thought it had the most salty + caramely flavor. Boo.

Movies I Watched at Home in 2013, List #2

Following up on this list, I have continued to watch movies at home although with much less frequency in the past couple of months. Keeping up with things though, here is the list with some comments and pointless grades.

•  Annie Hall - A; It had been a while since I watched this so I watched it again during TCMs Oscar movie run. As good as ever. 
• Grand Hotel - A-; It was delightful and Joan Crawford was amazing and it's funny how movies made in the early 30s can somehow seem more edgy and interesting and modern that most of the junk getting made these days.
• Woman of the Year - B+; I didn't love this but out of all the romantic comedies in the world, I'll take this one over all but about 3 (not counting screwball comedies of course). Again, movies were just a lot more clever back then.
• To Be or Not to Be - A+; I've loved the Mel Brooks remake since high school, and I've long thought it was one of the funniest comedies of the 80s, or ever. I would have thought most of the *war humor* came from the mind of Mel Brooks, but that's not the case. It is amazing that in this movie that was released in 1942, there could be this many bold jokes and that it is so incredibly good and played so well. Ernst Lubitsch is a genius. Jack Benny is perfect. Carole Lombard is (as everyone (should) knows) one of the funniest women ever. Robert Stack is hot. This is a masterpiece (I said it!).
• Murder, My Sweet (aka Farewell, My Lovely) - B+; At first I kinda thought this was sloppy and dull but then I realized that it was exactly what a Philip Marlowe movie should be. It seems to me he is kind of a jerk and maybe not even good at his job. This movie makes that pretty clear, and after it was over I liked it better for it.  (I would be interested in other opinions on this.)
• The Man in the White Suit - B+; All I remember is it didn't make a lot of sense and was weird. I think I wrote down B+ because it was a movie from 1951 that didn't make a lot of sense and was weird.
• The Narrow Margin - B; I don't remember a whole lot about it which probably means I was sleepy when I watched it or it could just mean I was bored. But the B says I must have liked it. I suppose I should watch it again.*
• The Strange Love of Martha Ivers - C; Boy, do I love Barbara Stanwyck, but I did not love this. She can take some credit for a better grade. It was too long and there was quite a bit of "who cares?" happening but the end was satisfying.
• Witness for the Prosecution - B+; Going back through these now I see a theme with these movies all being something different than expected (twists!). This was pretty good and I might be giving higher grades again than I should simply for the ladies. This time, Marlene Dietrich.
• Sweet Bird of Youth - B+; I guess I wasn't giving out grades just for the ladies because Geraldine Page gets an A+ for this and Paul Newman - I don't know if I even know how good his acting was but who cares  - is also A+. Indeed. I am excited to watch this one several more times. 
• Hannibal - F. What the fuck. I can't believe this many people that I like could be involved in something I hate this much. For the record, Gary Oldman is my favorite actor EVER. He actually did a pretty awesome job in this but being good at something shitty is not something I am prone to give high praise to (especially when the character is that grody). Every single thing in or related to this movie is inexplicable. The only good character was that mob lady that got killed in the first five minutes. Bummer. 
• Nowhere to Go - D-; It took me four tries to get through this movie. It's so, so, so, so boring and so poorly made. It really deserves an F but I won't do it because I want Hannibal to stand alone in this list. So a D-, because Maggie Smith is in it, and because some of the shots are really remarkably pretty (but utterly without purpose (other than "hey, this will be a cool shot" apparently).  There will be a whole list (!) dedicated to this movie in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!

Side note: as I type this I am watching a marathon of Arrested Development and would like to add, Hooray!

*Edited to add: I just remembered the whole thing in a wave and I did like it, but I really hated the main character. Kudos to the women, natch.

Resume Interests

Interests of a University of Texas Accounting Student I am about to interview

•  Automobiles 
• Nonprofit Organizations

I'm Going to Give You Two Words and a Phrase

• Clips
• Glue
• A suspension of disbelief

(When asked about "the level of Soviet wig technology in 1981" in this interview, Joel Fields, one of the executive producers of The Americans, said "I'm going to give you two words and a phrase: 'clips,' 'glue' and 'a suspension of disbelief.' And you can arrange those three however you like.")

Reasons I love 1st Wave (XM 33)

Heavy rotations of:

• New Order
• Blondie
• Billy Idol
• INXS

 Reason I don't:

• Any rotation of Wang Chung

Saturday Highlights As of 2:30 PM

Late wake-up
Coffee
Someone Cleaned the Leaves Off My Patio
Leggings as Pants (inside only)
Royal Blue Pimento Cheese on Sweetish Hill Sourdough (toasted)
Real Ale Devi's Backbone

Ah...Summer...

Yep.  It's that awesome time of year when a bunch of crappy and not-so-crappy movies come to a theater near you!  Here now is my list of summer movies I'm most looking forward to in order of release...

• Iron Man 3 - IM2 sucked.  But this time around we have Shane Black writing and directing (he wrote and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for those of you who don't know) and I think it's exactly what the franchise needs.  Everything looks amazing in the trailers so my expectations are pretty high and I might also be high when I watch it.  Just saying.
• Star Trek Into Darkness - I just re-watched Star Trek last night in preparation for this one.  Two words: Sherlock Holmes.
• Fast and Furious 6 - I didn't see parts 4 or 5 but I might go back and watch them just so I have something to do.
• Hangover III - I am not at all looking forward to this stupid piece of shit but since I saw the first two I guess I'll round it out.
• After Earth - I might see this one just to find out what the stupid twist is at the end (my guess? they land on earth before humans thinking it's after humans)
• Now You See Me - If you haven't seen the trailer for this one watch it now.  I'm super excited about it.  I like turtles.  I mean, magic.
• The Internship - Now that I'm officially a comedy writer (see Bar Olympics) I feel I may be a little more judgmental than I used to be but this looks very unfunny.
• Man of Steel - Um, YES.
• World War Z - I don't know much about this one other than it has Brad Pitt and zombies and while I'm totally zombied out after watching The Walking Dead I bet this will be a nice summer surprise.
• The Heat - This looks pretty funny.
• White House Down - Didn't this just come out under a different name?
• Pacific Rim - Monsters.
• The Wolverine - I feel like this has been made already too.  Under the same name.  But I'll see it again.
• Two Guns - Denzel and Marky Mark?  I'm in.
• Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters - Thanks to P. Jenks I am looking forward to this more than any other movie this summer.

Johnny Cash's To-Do List