Archive for March, 2006

Making Potato Chip History

Posted by Karen in Day to Day, Friends, Neighborhood.
Friday, March 3rd, 2006 at 3:39 pm


Nate and I recently invited our friends Peter and Madeline to become part of potato chip history with us. Last summer when we were at the Uptown Art Fair we visited the Kettle Chips booth, where we were given a free bag of chips and got to vote on what we think their new "happy hour" inspired chip flavor should be. If you are not familiar with Kettle Chips, you should be. They are an awesome company that converts 100% of the waste vegetable oil from their production into biodiesel, they have an enormous rooftop solar energy array, restored wetlands around their facility, and oh, did I mention that they have Cheddar Beer flavored chips? And Spicy Thai? Roasted Red Pepper with Goat Cheese?!? YUMMM!!

Anyway, at the art fair, I of course submitted a suggestion for a bloody mary-inspired chip flavor, of course. The good people at Kettle Chips either took the five most popular suggestions or the five they liked the best (not sure) and made a limited amount of each. They then assembled 500 People’s Choice Happy Hour Party Packs, containing one 5-oz bag of each flavor, a tasting guide and ballots. Needless to say, I simply had to have one. And so approximately two weeks later Nate and I journeyed to Peter and Madeline’s house in negative 20 something temperatures with our box o’ chip fun. On the agenda for the evening? Watching Winter Olympics (did you SEE snowboard cross?!? So. cool.), experiencing the glory and wonder that is the boardgame the Settlers of Catan, and being part of potato chip history. Worthy of risking frostbite and car engine failure? We obviously think so. 

Some of us (Madeline) followed directions better than others (Peter), but in the end, we each judged the following very exciting flavors:

  • Spicy Mary
  • Dirty Martini
  • Tuscan Three Cheese
  • Creamy Caesar
  • Buffalo Bleu Cheese

We each filled out a ballot and submitted our votes online. Here are the current stats:
Total voters: 4089
Buffalo Bleu Cheese: 3.37
Dirty Martini: 2.61
Tuscan Three Cheese: 3.78
Spicy Mary: 3.28
Creamy Caesar: 3.62

Unfortunately, it’s not looking good for my top choice, Dirty Martini. Buffalo Bleu was a close second for me though, and it still has a chance. I think Nate chose Tuscan Three Cheese. I can’t remember how Peter and Madeline voted, so they will just have to comment to let us know.

And by the way, voting goes through the end of March, so you too can still get in on the history-making.

Home Alone

Posted by Nate in Bruno.
Wednesday, March 1st, 2006 at 10:14 am


Big news in doggie land: for over a week now we’ve been leaving Bruno out of his crate during the day and he’s been doing great! His parents are very proud of him – he hasn’t chewed anything inappropriate, gotten into anything, or been a spaz when we come and go. Once again I think the credit is split pretty evenly between him being a damn good dog to begin with and us taking things at a good pace and continuing to enforce fair and consistent indoor living rules.

He’s got tons of toys out and about that he can play with or chew, he’s got his nice bed that we try to leave where the sun will hit it in the morning, he’s got a great view of the park and sidewalk so he can keep up with the world and see something interesting, and he’s got fresh water all day. We also are pretty vigilant about removing temptation: the bedroom door is closed, the basement is closed, the floor is picked up (some shoes still in the entryway, but no delicious slippers around), and the counters are clean or at least pushed away from the edge.

Lastly we’re doing our best to keep him exercised: he gets two big walks a day, one first thing in the morning, one after work, with feedings right after each. I think we can make more time for some training / smart games in the evening since we’re not doing any official doggie school at the moment, but generally he at least gets a good chase-around-the-house game from each of us.

Best. Dog. Ever.