Well, let me tell you what. Today is Valentine's Day. And ha, well, believe it or not, I did have some cheesecake. Not for breakfast, though. I had coffee. For lunch I had a slice of pizza at Costco. And I wolfed a bunch of mixed nuts at work. Mentally I was done with the whole thing. My mom thought my 7 Days of Cheesecake was a bad idea, and for the most part, I agree. So based on the classic statement "Mom knows best", I decided to bag it for day 7 and let 'er rip.

So when I got home today, my loving wife had picked up a delicious slice of pineapple cheesecake from Charlie's Bakery (also, btw, the best Chinese food in Anchorage). So, while I gave up on 7 Days of Cheesecake, I actually did get cheesecake after all!

Oh, and I decided the Wii Fit scale was not going to mock me today. Nagging scale, I am ignoring you! You will not rule over me! I will visit you again at a time of my choosing, which will not be for at least a week. Scale, be gone!

You should wait until tomorrow

That's what the Wii Fit said to me just a few minutes ago, as I was about to get on and weigh for the evening. Of course, I should have listened to it.

Last night I did indeed go to that going away dinner at a Mexican restaurant. And oh yeah, I got it on. Chili Verde chimichanga, and seeing how we had to wait about an hour before that came out, well, an hour's of grazing on chips, too.

So after that, well, I should mention my daughter brought home a quart of cinnamon ice cream from the parlour she works at? I'm thinking, I'm, well, it's a cheesecake diet, right? Right. So the main ingredient in cheesecake is cream cheese, right? Of course. And cream cheese, I'm going to have some ice cream. Ice cream. Cream cheese. Hey, they both have "cream" in them, and what's left in ice cream after you take out "cream"? You get "ice". And how much weight are you gonna gain from ice? None! Sounds good, so I had a scoop. It was great.

So on to day six. I'm pretty burnt out on cheesecake, so breakfast was another cream cheese omelette, always a treat. And it was just as good the second day in a row. Maybe I gotta do a "7 Days of Omelettes" diet next time. So, I had coffee for lunch, and dinner was at the hockey game, which translates to a cheeseburger. Hey, cheesecake and cheeseburger are very close. Both got cheese, and if you look at the buns on a cheeseburger, they're like cake, right?

After the game it was time to weigh in, and that ominous warning from the Wii Fit appeared. I ignored it and stepped on. The day's weight loss? A gain of 2 pounds. Ugh.

Day 4

I didn't feel like cooking a full cheesecake, so in the morning and the afternoon, I cooked up an instant low-carb cheesecake for one instead. To make it a bit more interesting, I added in a couple slices of diced bacon, and some shredded cheese. I left out the sweetener and added in a dash of Italian seasoning. It was really great stuff.

And in the evening weigh-in, I felt betrayed. Yesterday, I only lost .2 pound. Argh! I could have sneezed and lost that much. Stupid scale. Today I gained .2, so it was zero over two days. Maybe my body is growing tired of cheesecake. Well, at the hockey game tonight, I knocked down a cheeseburger and some corn fritters. Let's see if that brings things back in sync.

Day 5

Well, as you might notice, this isn't a cheesecake. Okay, I'm tired of cheesecake. It's morning, and I just cooked my son some eggs and bacon. I felt inspired, so using the same basic ingredients I'd toss into a cheesecake, I cooked up a cream cheese omelette.

Cream Cheese Omelette

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 oz. cream cheese (1/2 of a typical block)
• 1 tbsp diced bacon, cooked
• Dash of Italian seasoning
• Dash of onion powder

Directions

What, I have to explain this? I guess so. I totally prefer using a griddle to make omelettes, and that's what I recommend you do. Mix up the eggs in a bowl or whatever. Get the cream cheese out of the fridge, and cut it into slices. Cream cheese is difficult to slice, so don't concern yourself with how nice it looks. You just want to get it down to manageable bits. Get out a griddle, and heat to 300° f. Squirt the griddle with a blast of cooking spray. Over on one end of the griddle, put down the cream cheese bits so they fry up a tad and get soft. In the middle of the griddle, pour the eggs in. Gold pan that griddle to spread the egg out into a nice sheet, and try to avoid getting it on the cream cheese. In a few moments the egg will set up to where you can use a spatula to move the cream cheese over to the egg. Try to get the cream cheese spread over the short length of the omelette, as you'll be rolling the whole thing up jelly roll style. So with the cream cheese on the egg, sprinkle on the bacon, and shake on some Italian seasoning and onion powder. Use your spatula to roll that baby up. This is so much easier than using a frying pan for omelettes. Okay, get that thing off the griddle before you burn it. Eat.

So that was breakfast. For lunch I had coffee. Went to the gym and worked out, which I do three times a week anyway. And weighed. Stupid Wii Fit scale. It claims, falsely, I believe, that I gained, yes, gained .7 pound. That's nonsense. Tell you what, I'm going to a going away party for a church friend tonight, and it's at a Mexican restaurant. You think I'm gonna eat cheesecake? Ha!

Coffee Lovers Cheesecake with a sprinkle of pecans

Today is day 3 of my Another 7 Days of Cheesecake. After yesterday's disaster, I needed something truly satisfying. And here it is.

• 5" springform pan. I just so happen to have a hyperlink to where you can buy one.
• pressure cooker. I favor the Fagor.
• pressure cooker steamer basket that goes in the cooker.
• Mixer. KitchenAid.
• Aluminum foil
• Other stuff as needed.

• 1-1/2 8-ounce packages cream cheeese, room temperature.
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup pourable Splenda (the still-low-carb pourable stuff, not the half-real-sugar Baking Splenda)
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses (might increase this to 1/2 t.)
• 1 tablespoon sugar-free Kahlua syrup (Davinci brand)
• 1-1/4 teaspoon super-fine ground coffee

Directions:
Use a coffee grinder to super-fine grind some coffee beans down to dust. You'll be eating this, so you want to get this stuff very finely ground. Dust. Mix two eggs together in a bowl and set aside. Get your cream cheese and toss it into the mixing bowl. I warm the cream cheese first in a glass dish, to get the stuff up to room temp. If you have a KitchenAid mixer, it probably came with a nice hard metal paddle mixer. Start mixing up that cream cheese. You will be beating it pretty good. Add in the egg mix slowly, too fast and it will splash all over the place. Add in all the other stuff, a little at a time. Get that thing beat pretty good.

Alternate Directions: Add in a handful of pecans. I didn't do this, but wish I did. I ate the cheesecake with pecans on the side, and it was fantastic. Wish they were in it. Next time, for sure.

Okay, anyhow, get your hard-to-find 5" diameter cheesecake pan, and coat it good inside with butter. This is going to be a no-crust cheesecake. Pour the cheesecake batter into the greased cheesecake pan. The batter just about reach the top of the pan.

Get a square of aluminum foil, place the cheesecake pan in the center of the square, and fold up the foil around the bottom of the pan, so that water does not seep in at the bottom during cooking. Get another square of foil, wrap the foil over the top of the cheesecake pan, so that the cheesecake doesn't fill up with steam and water during cooking. You probably won't even see the pan after covering it up with the foil, but that' fine.

Fill your pressure cooker with 2 cups of water, or whatever amount you use when using a steaming basket within your pressure cooker. If you don't have a steaming basket for your pressure cooker, or if you don't have a pressure cooker, give up now. I hope you read this before you make up a bunch of cheesecake batter.

Place the cheesecake pan in steaming basket in the pressure cooker. Close the lid on the pressure cooker and seal it. If your pressure cooker has multiple pressure settings, use the high setting. Following the directions for your pressure cooker, cook for 20 minutes, then remove from heat for another 10. Using my Fagor pressure cooker, this means that I start the pressure cooker on a burner turned on high until steam is blowing out the pressure cooker and the little pop-up indicator pops up. I then carefully slide the cooker over to another burner that is turned on halfway, where I start the timer for the 20 minutes.

Okay, after the 10 minutes is done, release any remaining pressure using the cold water release method. Do take care, you do not want to move the pressure cooker around too wildly.

After releasing the pressure, open the pressure cooker and remove the cheesecake pan, keeping mind that the pan will still be quite hot. Allow the pan to cool, then transfer it to the refrigerator for the evening. In the morning, remove the cheesecake from the cheesecake pan and transfer it to a different pan.

This is a nice coffee-flavored cheesecake, not a fake-tasting "mocha" flavor, but real Cup 'O Java flavor. As shown here, I personally feel the flavor could be cranked up a notch. I'd boost the molasses to a teaspoon and the coffee to a couple of teaspoons or even a tablespoon. That's me, though. You might not be so inclined, but that's the joy of cooking, right? Make it to suit your tastes. Enjoy.

Today is day 2 of my Another 7 Days of Cheesecake. I decided to prepare something experimental, something non-traditional.

Boy, was that a mistake.

Behold, what you see here is easily the worst, nastiest, most foul cheesecake I have ever eaten. I got down two bites and was done, done, done. In the trash it went. For the sake of future generations that may ponder just what it makes to prepare a truly horrible cheesecake, and a strange one at that, here goes:

Lup Cheung Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 1 lup cheung sausage (Chinese sausage)
• 2 eggs
• 1 8 oz. package cream cheese
• 8 oz. firm tofu
• 3/4 cup pourable Splenda
• 2 eggs
• Dash of hot pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup buttermilk

Directions

Well, this is going to taste nasty, but I'll tell you. Dice up the lup cheung and fry it a bit. Toss the cream cheese and tofu into your handy KitchenAid mixer and mix that mess up. Add in the other stuff, and the lup cheung bits. Pour the whole mess into a small cheesecake pan and, well, I prefer to pressure steam it for 20 minutes and let it cool down an additional 10 minutes before releasing the pressure per manufacturer's directions.

How does it taste?

Bad, bad, bad. It had this overly sweet yet oily taste. Actually, it was like chunky, concentrated mayonnaise. Horrible. It didn't even smell good while it was cooking. Normally, I'm a big lup cheung fan, but it just isn't a cheesecake mix-in.

So what did I do for day 2 of my Another 7 Days of Cheesecake then? I made up instant cheesecake instead.

For the last couple days, I've had a horrid itch on my right arm. Tried lotions, no luck. Finally went to the doc and went through the expected questions. No new laundry soap, pets, and do on. I did mention I did prepare a pig head last Wednesday night. "A pig head?" "Oh yeah." "Hm. That's a first" So after more talk the conclusion is dermatitis, likely from the cleaner I was using afterwards to clean the kitchen sink. Or was it Porky's revenge? Did he exude some toxin from one of his piggy glands? Some anti-predator poison? I'll never know.

View Photos of Washington D.C., August 2009

First off, about the photos. I lost my nice camera either at home or on the way to the airport. It's gone. The photos here were all done with my camera phone, so yeah, they are not exactly high quality. Beats nothing, though!

The Hotel

Okay, so it goes like this: Our trip to D.C. this time was so I could attend CFUnited 2009, a ColdFusion developers conference. The conference itself was a few hours out of D.C., in beautiful Lansdowne, Virginia. Well, my wife and I spent 3 days in D.C. first, though, so we could be tourists.

I decided to give Orbitz a shot, and did indeed lock in a 3 night stay at the Hyatt Regency at $89/night. This is pretty much less than half price. But wait, that ain't all. We get to the Hyatt at 11 p.m., and ask if we can get a room with a single king bed instead of two twin beds. The reservation lady drops a huge surprise on us, they only got one room left, and it's a nice suite. We get it for the $89/night!

This pic so doesn't do it justice. This room is more like a full-blown apartment. All the amenities. Full bathroom with separate shower. Coffee maker with built-in bean grinder. Computer, couch, sofa, big dining table, all that. I think the room is intended to be a war room for politicians. It had two of those double-door doors which connect to adjoining doors, handy for cronies or secret service buddies. Weird thing is, we opened one of the doors, and there is a person sleeping on their bed! The dude kept his door of the double-door wide open! Weird. We called up the front desk and they sent somebody up who dealt with the situation. A bit odd. Anyhow, I'm guessing this was a thousand dollar a night room. We got so spoiled.

Just a couple blocks away is Union Station. Sorry, no photos. Union Station is where the train meets the Metro. It also is where armies of homeless converge, turning the area into an American Calcutta. No joke. It's pretty sad, really. Within, though, is Au Bon Pain, where we scored goodies to eat at all hours. Great cookies, breakfast sandwiches, whatever. Fantastic.

We attended the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, our first tennis tourney ever. Saw Andy Roddick lose to Del Potro. Argh. Really wanted Andy to win.

Anybody mention that parts of D.C. are pretty much "the 'hood'?" Yeah they are. We took the Metro out of D.C. and to Silver Spring, MD. Along the way is some major 'hood graffiti, right off of the train track. Where else would it be?

Oh yeah, we did do something pretty cool. Turns out right on the Red Line is the longest escalator in North America, right in Wheaton Station. I don't have video of it, but this guy does.. Took what, 2 minutes and 43 seconds? Yeah, that was it. That's all we did in Wheaton Station. Got off the Metro, went up the escalator, went back down it, got back on the next Metro.

Well, anyhow, we did that and more in D.C., then headed to Lansdowne, Virginia, for the conference I was attending. Tell you what; other than the conference, there wasn't that much interesting in or about Lansdowne. So, ahh, that's about it. Bye!

I have a Motorola RAZR cellphone. Nowadays this is a positively old phone, but I still use it. I got a utility to download the photos to my PC, but unfortunately, the images are labeled in DD-MM-YY_####.jpg format. Also, the utility I use to get photos off of my phone, well, all the file dates come out as 1969.

So, for a photo taken July 31, 2009; it is labeled 31-07-09_1234.jpg. Doesn't sound like a problem until you try to sort them. What a pain. I see no way to change the auto naming on the phone, either.

The problem? Photos are named DD-MM-YY_####. The desired result? Rename them in YYYY-MM-DD_#### format. So what's the solution? Well, I happen to have a server running Ubuntu Linux, so the solution to fixing the file dates is a one-liner.

I copy the files to a directory on my server, get a terminal session started, navigate to the directory with the photos, and issue this command:

Unlike the 'rename' command in other flavors of linux, the Ubuntu version uses regular expressions (aka "regex") to do the rename. This particular regex shuffles the DD-MM-YY format to YY-MM-DD, and plops a "20" in front of the year, to turn a "09" into a "2009". The 'rename' command itself is applied to all files in the current directory ending in ".jpg"

Our trip to Hawaii in the summer has left me with a few pounds I have not been able to shake off. So to that end, I have agreed to follow Deanna's Weight Watchers plan. Before saying a tearful goodbye to my old ways, I had to go out with a bang. I decided it was going to be dim sum, a festival of fried goodness like no other.

Earlier in the week I did up some char siu pork steaks, and saved one for this purpose. I picked up some leup cheung (pronounced "lop chong"), green onion, and shrimp. Out came the big cleaver, and I minced all the stuff up into a nice filling, liberally adding in hoisin sauce, Chinese 5 spice, and a bit of sesame oil.. Some nice round gyoza wrappers and square wonton wrappers completed the ingredients list.

The square wrappers were used to make some nice fried wontons, generously stuffed, unlike the skimpy wontons which are often found in Anchorage. The round wrappers I used to make potstickers, which are certainly available locally in good quantity and quality, but I just like making them myself.

The potstickers, I cooked in a large pan by putting in a dab of sesame oil, frying 'em on both sides, then adding in chicken broth and putting on the lid for 10 minutes. The potstickers got that classic "crunchy but wet" texture, quite nice, if not a bit soggy. Next time I need to watch the pan closer.

The wontons came out fine, receiving a 5-minute bath in the deep fryer with the oil at 340 f.

Although I don't have a photo for 'em, I also fried up some banana, which I did by cutting up two not-quite-ripe bananas, and tossing them in a mix of instant pancake flour, Splenda, and cinnamon. Those also got the 5-minute deep fry.

I lost track of how many plates I had of this dim sum feast. I ate and ate, and ate. Oh, it was so good. So good. Now I have until Sunday before I resign myself to carefully measured portions of pseudo-food. I feel good going out with a bang, though. For sure.