Old Town Home Category: 'Week of Alex'

Old Door Weatherstripping? Dress it up with Spring Bronze

2011-08-25T09:52:00.000-04:00

It's been a fun WEEK OF ALEX series of posts, but my solitary posting is coming to a close as Wendy is due home later tonight. To be perfectly honest, I can't wait until she's back. I grew up an only child, so I can exist on my own pretty comfortably, but our home really isn't our home without Wendy here with me, it just feels sort of empty. Not to get too sappy on you, especially with all of the fun we've had with WEEK OF ALEX. Don't worry, it's not you, it's me.

Since we moved into our house in 2003, the energy efficiency of our front door/vestibule area has always been a fairly significant issue. We've struggled with the fact that just getting near the door you can feel how warm or cold it is outside.

When I say it was bad, I mean it was bad. (Now you say: "How bad was it?")

It's so bad that In the heat of the summer and deep cold of the winter, you can almost see the money being sucked out of our pockets and blowing into the street. (That sounds almost like an HVAC commercial, I can see it now.)

It was so bad that you can actually see through the cracks in the door or above the door directly to the outside.

It was so bad that the old inner double doors would open on their own with the slightest breeze.

It was so bad that you could hear wind whistling through the large mail slot.

Do you get the picture? It was bad.

With our reconfiguration effort and adoption of our new salvaged front door, I wanted to do a few things to make our new setup more energy efficient while maintaining an historic look. In other words, I didn't want to cut into the door to install foam, compression weather stripping, or spring loaded vinyl weather stripping that pops out when you close the door. And I really didn't want to do anything like vinyl or foam that will quickly wear out or possibly grow mold.

The solution for historically correct weather stripping that will last another 100+ years is actually quite simple, it's called Spring Bronze. Spring Bronze is type of metal weatherstrip that is nailed to the door jamb on one side and springs away from the jamb on the other side. The idea is that it compresses against the door when it is closed, preventing drafts from infiltrating the interior of the house.

Over the years I've purchased all of my spring bronze from one place, Killian Hardware. They have so many cool things, like plaster buttons, very worth checking out their inventory.

I bought a 100' roll of 1 3/4" Spring Bronze a little while back and have been using it for window and door weatherstripping for a few years now. I decided to use this for the hinge side of the new door. As you can see from the following photo there used to be spring bronze weather stripping installed in this door way at some point. You can tell this by all of the nail holes that are still visible on the right hand side.

I started by measuring the length of the door jamb to cut the necessary material from the roll. Since this was is going on the hinge side I needed to cut out a partial section of the material so it doesn't obstruct the hinge. The first step was to hold the Spring Bronze up to the jamb to mark the hinge locations.

Once the locations were marked, I used tin snips and normal scissors to cut away all of the back edge of the Spring Bronze. Then I lined the Spring Bronze up in the opening and partially drove two nails to get the weatherstripping started.

Though I've seen you are supposed to place the nails 1 1/4" apart, I like to place them a little further. Using a ruler, I make marks with a pencil every 1 1/2" so I have an easy time placing the nails.

On the hinge side the nails usually go towards the inside of the jamb. As the door closes the edge of the door pushed the Spring Bronze tight against the door and jamb. But the placement of the nails makes it very difficult to use a hammer to drive them all of the way in. So I used a small hammer working from the top to the bottom to place the nails just deep enough to secure the weatherstripping.

Then I used a nail set to drive the nails the rest of the way into the jamb. This takes some patience, but you have so much more control driving the nail this way.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of hammering (and I'm sure my neighbor thought another earthquake was occurring), the hinge side weatherstripping was securely in place and ready to protect us from the cold.

The knob/lock side of the door required a smaller 1 1/8" size of Spring Bronze because it is nailed on the opposite side of the jamb (the side towards the room), so I ordered a small kit from Killian for that. I following the same process as the other side, but was able to drive the nails all of the way in using just the hammer, no need for the nails set on this one.

One final thing I added before the whole weather stripping endeavor was an upper jamb stop for the door. The old opening didn't have one because someone added that molding at the top of the jamb. I have no idea why that happened, but we decided to leave it that way. The same thing happened on the outer front door, and that is why you could see right through the top of the door. So I cut a piece of scrap poplar that would fit in the opening. I installed it with pocket hole screws and then filled the holes with some wood epoxy.

Then I sanded the epoxy smooth an caulked the edges (using Big-Stretch caulk, of course).

I added a little primer and paint, and we were good to go. And that takes us one major step closer to putting the salvaged door in its permanent home.

Let's take a moment to see where we are on the massive front vestibule checklist. We're getting close, I can feel it.

Sand extension piece smooth
Install molding
Fill nail holes
Fill old holes and gaps
Fill old hinge locations on door jamb
Sand door jamb
Prime door jamb
Paint door jamb
Install weather stripping
Transfer peephole
Transfer knocker
Transfer rim lock
Buy and install deadbolt (Dont need this step)
Complete/fix mail slot Grrrr... Purchase new mail slot
Final sanding
Prime door
Paint (possibly multiple coats with wet sanding for high gloss) 1/2 way done, outside is painted
Darken screws in hinges

So far so good. I really feel like I got a fair amount of work accomplished during the WEEK OF ALEX. What do you think? Should Wendy be happy with what I've done, or should she come back into town tonight shaking her head and asking "WTF have you been doing, acting like this is a WEEK OF ALEX or something?" To which I will say, "I no acting, Baby!"

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Did You Hear? There was an Earthquake in Virginia!

2011-08-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

Well, unless you've been living under a rock, of course you've heard. I think yesterday's earthquake just a short distance from Alexandria, VA proves that the WEEK OF ALEX quite literally rocks!

Seriously, Wendy goes out of town and I get to experience an actual earthquake. Let me tell you, she missed out.

Now all of you Californians out there are going to scoff in my general direction for having "survived" a 5.9 magnitude quake, but don't make me remind you that you can't drive in the snow. Regardless of whether or not it was a "real" quake by your definitions, it was still a rather crazy experience for me, and something I won't soon forget.

I was at the dentist's office (which is actually a small house in Old Town) in their 2nd floor waiting room when I heard and felt a low rumble. At first it felt like a truck was driving by, then it progressed to an off balance washing machine feeling, and a few seconds later it was rocking and swaying the whole building. Another patient in the waiting room and I just sort of silently looked at each other for a few seconds until we both decided, without saying a word to each other, it was time to get out of that place.

With the house swaying I jumped out of my seat for the door and headed down the stairs. I bounded down the 20 or so stairs with my feet touching only about 3 or 4. I know you're supposed to stand in the doorway, but I didn't trust these non earthquake tested homes enough to do that, so outside was my logical option.

No sooner than I reached the street than the shaking stopped. It went on for about 30-40 seconds total, but it felt much longer. I immediately got on twitter and searched for #Earthquake to see what others were saying. Sure enough, DC, Philly, NYC, Richmond, Columbus, the entire East Coast was a buzz with "An earthquake, here...really?" posts.

After the excitement died down a bit, I went back inside, had my teeth cleaned, and got in touch with many friends to let them know I was ok. I checked in on Lulu using our web cam, she was doing fine and just looking around. The phones were overloaded so it took me a while to get in touch with Wendy. Thanks to Facebook, Wendy's cousin Julia was able to see I was okay and then spoke with Wendy. The Internet is awesome.

Here's a great video that shows the effect the quake had on the rest of the country.

When I got home I surveyed our "damage." It looks like we have a new small crack or two in the hallway wall, but the most significant issue was simply that a few items fell off of the wall and shelves.

The office cabinet door opened. *The horror*

And shutters that were propped in place had fallen in. It really could have been so much worse and I feel quite fortunate.

I did a little mental checklist of things I felt I needed to check before I could give our house the all clear.

I checked the:

Gas meter to be sure there was no visible damage.
Visible plumbing pipes in the basement to make sure there were no openings or cracks.
Waste line to be sure there was no water running down the sides
Windows and doors to be sure they opened properly.
Air Conditioning condensate drain to be sure it wasn't broken.
Toilet to be sure it flushed.
Sinks to be sure they drained.
Outside of the house to make sure there were no major new cracks.
Floor joists to be sure they didn't pull away from the walls.
Electrical panel to be sure there were no breakers tripped.

Everything looked pretty good. Any quake veterans out there have additional things I should have checked?

Later in the evening I took a long walk around Old Town with Lulu to see what, if any, damage had been done. I figured the shaking was too violent to have left all of these 100-200 year old homes unharmed that had never seen anything like this. I didn't have to go very far to see some of the damage.

A rather large house on Prince St. lost the side of one of their chimneys, exposing the flue chambers within.

Just a few doors down from that house, a house whose lentils were already sagging had one fully give way. They're lucky the one on the first floor didn't drop too.

From the patterns of damage I noticed throughout Old Town, it seemed that chimneys were actually the worst suffering elements. Their precarious and exposed perch seemed to be very vulnerable to the swaying. This was evident with everything from major crumbling...

To significant shifting

To minor and hardly apparent cracking.

But the common element I noticed was that the quake seemed to affect the largest houses the most.

If you have a very tall house with a large chimney, you should probably call in a mason to give it a once over.

The shaking didn't spare one of the most historic structures in Old Town, Gadsby's Tavern. It's hard to see in the photo, but the caution tape is up because the chimney was quit unsettled.

I saw the owner of one house that had some damage when he was coming out of his front door. He noticed me looking up at his chimney and asked was I saw. At first he seemed a bit annoyed that I was looking, but once he saw the issue he was thankful I had pointed it out. The last thing he wanted was the whole chimney coming down during a major wind storm.

Overall, it was an experience I'm glad I had but I would rather not soon repeat. Here's hoping that this was the main event, and not a precursor to a larger event.

At the very least there's been some good earthquake humor that came from this event. Here is my favorite courtesy of our neighbor, Katie.

Did you know that the Washington Monument is leaning a bit after the earthquake? Yep, MSNBC reports that it is leaning slightly to the left, but Fox News says it is definitely leaning to the right.

I hope you didn't end up with any damage from this record setting quake. Share some of your experiences and stories, I'd love to hear about them.

Oh, and one other thing. I think Lulu knew something was up. In the 36 hours before the quake, she stopped eating and started acting a little funny. She's normally calm, but for the day before she was pacing and running back and forth in the house constantly. When I got home, she was happy I was home, but was back to being calm again. She ate all of her food, and now she's just laying around on the couch. I know animals sometimes know, and I think this was the case for Lulu.

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Toolbox Tuesday: Improvised Brush Cleaning Edition

2011-08-23T11:45:00.000-04:00

In any long term relationship between two functional people, both partners learn to rely on one another for many day to day items. This doesn't mean that one person can't exist without the other or is not capable of performing all tasks, it only means that an agreement, sometimes unspoken, establishes basic responsibilities and roles between two people.

When you remove one person from the equation, even for a short time, the other person must "raise their game" to handle everything. I'd like to think that today's post is a direct result of this game raising phenomenon since Wendy is out of town. After all, left to our own devices, men can sometimes come up with very creative solutions to solve every day problems.

This weekend, while painting the new front door with Alkyd based paint, I ran into the unavoidable but tedious task of cleaning the brushes once painting was complete. It's a necessary step when using good brushes, but one that can be messy or can damage and ultimately ruin your brush if not done properly.

Cleaning water based paint is easy. Run some water over it, comb the paint out, shake it clean, let dry, done. On the other hand, with oil paint you need to soak in mineral spirits or another brush cleaner with the brush suspended so the bristles don't get deformed or sit in the bottom of the cleaner/paint sludge. You also need to soak in progressively cleaner mineral spirits until the paint is all out of the brush.

I've always had an issue with this process. I've tried zip lock bags, paint trim trays, plastic containers, so many things that just never worked. It seemed that no matter what I tried the mineral spirits would leak, the brush would end up sitting in the bottom of the container in the used paint, and I would inevitably deform the bristles. This week that all changed and now I'm going to pass this little trick on to you.

Besides, Kheng put time and effort into this brush, so why not appreciate that time and effort and make it last as long as possible.

First, find a normal water bottle. Since I was using a 2" brush a small 20oz bottle was wide enough. If it were a larger brush, I could have found a slightly larger bottle.

Grab a normal pair of scissors and cut the top of the bottle off. Make sure you leave enough bottle that the whole bristle area of the brush can be submerged while staying about 1" off of the bottom of the container.

Next, find a small piece of scrap wood that will act as the brush stand. The wood needs to be long enough to extend from the top of the brush to well below the surface you will sit the brush on. You'll need to drill a small hole in one end of this scrap piece of wood.

Grab a long nail that will act as the brush support. You'll place this nail through the hole you just drilled in the wood.

Now find a place where you will be able to clamp the wood at the edge of a table or work bench. I used my router table because it would be able to clamp the wood to the leg of the table. You'll need to determine the proper height of the nail to ensure the bottom of the brush sits above the bottom of the container.

Once you have the correct height determined, clamp the piece of wood to the bench or table leg.

Fill your half bottle with mineral spirits.

Place your brush in the container and hang the top of the brush from the nail you placed through the wood.

There you have it, my improvised brush cleaner. I have a couple of bottles on the router table, each with progressively cleaner mineral spirits. After a brush has soaked for a bit in the first cleaner, I take it out and comb it out to get any additional residue out before putting it in the fresher cleaner. After going through the clean mineral spirits, I comb it out one more time, shake it out, then let it dry.

If I were really hardcore, I would probably have four containers of progressively cleaner spirits and a brush spinner to get everything clean. That'll have to wait for when I have enough room to manage all of that.

Though this is a slight deviation from previous Toolbox Tuesday posts I hope it will be helpful for you the next time you need to clean a brush after using a oil based product. But like I said, when we're left to our own devices, guys can come up with some great stuff. ThereIFixedIt.com has some great examples to prove this.

If you have some good brush cleaning tips, let me know, I'd love to make my brushes last longer through cleaning.

Did you enjoy reading this post? Want to learn more about our first-hand experiences with other tools, devices or items used throughout our renovation? If so, check out our complete list of product reviews in our Toolbox Tuesday section.

Note: We weren't compensated for this review. We simply want to share good products when we see them, and hope that learning from our mistakes can help save you time, money and frustration.

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While the Cat's Away, the Mice Will Play

2011-08-22T09:30:00.000-04:00

Or at least, while Wendy is away, Alex, Lulu, and Mel will play.

With my weekend posts about running and baseball, you might be wondering, "Alex, just what exactly are you doing while Wendy is out of town? Don't you have tons of house projects to work on? Don't you have better things to be doing than hanging out and taking it easy all weekend?" One would think, wouldn't they?

Well, with Wendy out of the house, you could say we've been a little bit lazy. Let's take a look at the stuff we did over the weekend.

The weekend started off pretty solidly. Lots of sleeping in, lots of not making the bed, and lots of leaving clothes all over the place like a budding hoarder. A guy's gotta have goals.

Mel started getting sort of crazy, doing wild things like drinking orange juice right out of the carton.

No need to be clean up after ourselves or wash dishes.

And we pretty much spent the whole weekend laying around on the couch and watching preseason football and planning our fantasy season. So productive.

Any extra time was just spent napping.

Okay, I think Wendy has probably passed out from shock by now, that or she's already on the phone with a divorce lawyer and has stopped reading the post, so now I can talk about what I really got done this weekend. Those photos were staged and I don't actually live like I'm in a barn while Wendy is away.

Yes, I did do some running and went to a Nationals game on Saturday, but the rest of the weekend was very busy. I ended up working on all of the chores that needed to be taken care of while Wendy is away, and whatever other time I had I was moving the front door project along. It was a ridiculously busy weekend.

It all started on Friday with the final sanding and priming of the new front door. I hit the ground running almost as soon as I got home from work.

We're using a Benjamin Moore Alkyd primer and paint to promote as much gloss as possible with as few brush marks, so I had to prime using Alkyd primer. I actually like painting with Alkyd paint. Though it has an odor, it really doesn't bother me all that much, and I'll gladly take the odor given how easily Alkyd paint flows and how long of a work time you have with it before it gets too tacky.

As you can see from the photo, I used a 2" angled brush for the detailed intricate areas in the panels and molding, and a 6" smooth foam roller for the flat areas of the door. I started, as I do on any door, with the panels.

And before I knew it (like an hour and a half later) the door was primed.

Since this is Alkyd primer and it takes a while to dry, I had to knock off for the night and pick the work back up on the door Saturday morning.

After folding all of the laundry on the bed and then making the bed...I got back to work on the door. See, no rest for the weary. In order to have as high gloss and as smooth of a surface as possible, I had to prep the primed surface with a light sanding. I used three fine grits of sandpaper (400, 600, and 1500) and wet sanded the flat portions of the door to give a smooth and glass like surface.

I then used some '000' steel wool to get into the intricate corners of the panels.

The primed door was sanded, and I had an adoring audience.

Then I finally did what I've been waiting to do since we bought this door nearly a year ago. After all of the hours of work, painstakingly stripping, sanding, patching, cutting, measuring, squaring, scribing, extending, drilling, trimming, and thinking about this door, I started to paint the final outdoor color for our new front door. It was an amazing feeling that I can't really describe.

My euphoria, though an awesome feeling, was somewhat short lived as I got back into the methodical process of door painting. Every time I paint a door I basically get into the zone. I can't listen to music or have the TV on in the background, I just need to concentrate on what I'm painting. Why? Because you need to have a plan when you are painting a door. Without a plan, you'll end up with a sloppy looking door. The first step in my door plan, same as with priming, start with the panels.

Then I move onto the rails and stiles of the door. And again, about an hour and a half later (I'm a slow painter), everything had its first coat and it was looking good.

I actually have a very specific order that I followed with this door. It varies slightly based on the number of panels, but it is sort of a paint by numbers approach. The point is to ensure that brush strokes follow the grain of the wood, terminate at the start of the adjacent grain, and maintain a wet edge. The wet edge is much easier with this paint than a latex paint. Here's my paint by numbers approach.

With the door painted on Saturday, I had to give it a 24 hour dry time before sanding and the next coat, so the fun had to be resumed on Sunday. What a tedious process, but the door was starting to really look good.

On Sunday I repeated almost the exact same process of sanding as I had done with the primer. This time I wet sanded using the 600 grit and the 1500 grit paper, and then wiped the whole door down to get any of the residue from the sanding off of the door. Once the door was fully dry from the sanding, I use the same process to paint the door, again using my 2" angled brush and foam roller on the flat surfaces.

It's starting to look good, don't you think? I've probably got one more sanding and coat of paint left before this side of the door is done. I really can't wait, because the next step is hanging the door in its permanent location. It's been a long process, but so worth it now that it is all coming together.

What do you think? Good color? Tedious process? Annoying how long it's taking but excited about the end result? Yeah, me too :-)

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As American as Apple Pie

2011-08-21T16:15:00.000-04:00

What better way to celebrate the WEEK OF ALEX than attending the all American pastime on a leisurely Saturday evening? Sure, there's plenty that I have to do on the house, but Saturday's game was also bobblehead night at the park, and I couldn't miss that. So my friend Martin and I headed out to Nationals Park on a warm but nice evening for a game to watch the Nationals host the Phillies.

Think of this post as a simple recap of my night and some great tips if you're looking to attend a Nats game here in D.C.

We live a quick 15 minute drive to Nationals Park in Southeast D.C. To get there from Old Town you need only cross the Wilson Bridge to Maryland, take 295 North, slow down for the two speed traps on the way there, and take the South Capitol St. exit for Nationals Park. There's also a great parking lot just beyond the home plate gate that's only $15. It really can't get much easier than this.

Here's a local tip: If you want to park in this hidden gem of a lot, it's really easy to find. Coming from 295, you cross the Frederick Douglas Bridge on S. Capitol St headed north. Take an immediate right onto Potomac Ave. SE at the first light when you get across the bridge, then make a U-turn. You have to do this since you can't make a left turn at the light. After the U-turn, proceed straight through the light on Potomac Ave. and make a left at the first intersection. It's a very industrial area, so just look for signs that say "Stadium Parking." After making the left, you will make the very next left and then continue straight to the gravel lot. Once you park you have only about 100-200 yards to walk to the stadium. No real tailgating at this lot because it usually smells a bit because of the trucks parked there, but for $15 you have protected parking with easy in and out access.

With the Phillies in town, we knew there would be a huge influx of Phillies fans, so if we wanted to get the bobblehead giveaway before they were all given away we would have to get there early. You gotta have priorities people. The game was scheduled to start at 7:05, so we arrived around 5:45.

Even though the whole area was swimming with Phillies fans that had all taken the two and a half hour bus trip in from Philadelphia, we got there early enough to get the sought after (at least by me) Ian Desmond bobblehead. Did I just hear you say "Ian who?" Don't worry, unless you're a Nationals fan, you probably won't know who he is. At any rate, a booblehead can be a critical piece of home decor so I needed to make sure I would pick one up. (Right Wendy?)

With my bobblehead in hand, Martin and I went off to find some dinner. If you've not been to Nationals Park, you will probably be a bit shocked by all of the various food choices. There are so many great options, it's often hard to choose. There's Hard Times Cafe chili, Ben's Chili Bowl half smokes, Boardwalk Fries, BBQ, Curly W Pretzels, pizza, ice cream, gelato, gluten free options, healthy options, veggie options, sooooo many food options, and this year they've added a few new places on the centerfield Scoreboard Walk area on the second level. Yesterday we decided to give these new food choices a look.

The additions include Blue Smoke BBQ, Box Frites, El Verano Taqueria, and the place where we ended up, The Shake Shack. I've heard lots of good thing about The Shake Shack, so I'd forgo my normal Hard Times chili and give this new place a go.

I ordered the portobello burger and their signature fries. Martin got a burger and strawberry shake. Here's a photo of my meal. Martin forgot to take a picture of his, but it was gone before he realized it...that should tell you what he thought of the food.

My burger consisted of two portobello mushrooms crispy fried and cheese filled. As far as "burgers" go it was really, REALLY good. The fries were also quite good, not too salty, very crispy outside and soft in the middle. This meal makes my game day food choices from this point forward much more difficult. I'm also quite tempted to try the shake the next time we go.

After we ate, we made our way to our seats to enjoy the game. Wendy and I are season ticket holders and have been since 2008. We have great seats down the first baseline and have gotten to know many of the people who sit around us. It makes attending game quite a bit more fun. But since there are 81 home games in a season, we split the whole season up among friends and coworkers. Otherwise I'm pretty sure our whole life would be about going to baseball games. Here's the view from our seats.

As I said, when you sit in the same seats every game, you get to know the people who sit and work in your section.We know the ushers, on-field security personnel, ball girls, mascots and entertainers, vendors, and other fans, some of whom are real characters. One such character is a guy named Trip. If you watch a Nats game on TV, you will usually see Trip dancing at least once.

Though we were surrounded by Phillies fans, and the outcome of the game ended up with a Nats shutout, we still had a good time and got to enjoy the racing presidents from the best vantage point in the house.

We've got tickets for several games between now and the end of the season, so I'm sure we will be trying out the various other food options we've not yet sampled. I'll be sure to report back to you with my scientific findings on the overall tastes so you can be sure to get your money's worth the next time you attend a game.

What's your favorite ballpark food? Are you a purist and just like the old fashioned hot dog and pretzels, or maybe you like the local specialties (like Stadium Mustard in Cleveland or Cheesesteaks in Philly)? Or do you just hate sporting events in general? Let me know what you think.

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Alex Needs a New Pair of Shoes

2011-08-20T16:37:00.000-04:00

The WEEK OF ALEX posts got off to a good start yesterday with my balsamic caviar recap and recipe. Though Lulu, Mel, and I miss Wendy very much, we have to suck it up and march on without her for the next few days. What better way than to wake up on Saturday and head out for a new pair of shoes?

Man, recipes first, now buying shoes...what's happening to my manly week?

Actually, the shoes I need are running shoes. I really enjoy running, but I'm not a long distance runner, or hardcore enough to do marathons or anything. I just like to run three to five times per week, usually three to six miles per run.

About a year and a half ago I started to develop a lot of pain in my left foot. It came and went for a few months, but it was something in the tendons of my foot that almost felt like my shoe laces were constantly extremely over tightened.

Last year, after quite a bit of research and the thought that my foot pain may have been due to my shoes (a somewhat heavy and cushiony trail shoe), I made the switch to a more minimalist running shoe in an attempt to change how I run. My hope was that changing my running style to a more natural stride would help to reduce the chances for further injury.

I chose a pair of the Nike Free+ 5.0 shoes, and I've really loved them since the day I bought them. My foot pain immediately subsided as I began landing on the balls of my feet rather than my heel. Now that these shoes have several hundred miles on them I'm ready for a new pair of shoes, and I decided I want something that is even more minimalist than what I was using. Basically, I want to take another stride towards barefoot running. (Get it, stride? I'm way funnier when Wendy isn't here, at least that's what Lulu and Mel tell me.)

While I'm not ready to buy a pair of the Vibram Five Finger shoes, both because I think they might make me look like an ape and I'm not sure how I feel about my toes having stuff between them, I wanted a shoe that would really make it feel like I was running in almost bare feet. Since I bought my Nike Frees, several other minimalist shoes have hit the market, and there was one in particular that intrigued me.

The shoe I'm talking about is the New Balance Minimus Trail that came out earlier this year. This morning, Lulu and I headed down to our neighborhood running specialty store, Pacers.

Lucky for us, Pacers is only a couple blocks from our house. They have a great staff who are all very friendly and knowledgeable. I saw on their website that they had the shoe I wanted in stock, so I was a very easy customer today and walked in knowing exactly what I wanted.

The person helping me had the shoe I was looking for in no time and I was running up and down the block to test them out before I knew it. That's another great thing about Pacers, they let you go for a quick jog either up and down the block or on a treadmill in the store (great if it is raining out).

The Minimus shoes are actually quite similar to the Five Fingers. They incorporate the Vibram soles and are so flexible that they can double back on themselves quite easily. Putting them on, they actually fit sort of like slippers.

As I'm writing this, I actually just got back from my first run in them, and I really love them. I know my calves will be sore tomorrow, because they do force you to run on your toes much more, but I think I'm going to really like these shoes a lot. No knee pain, no ankle pain (even though my right ankle has been sore lately), and a slightly faster time than I've been doing lately.

If you're a runner and are looking for a shoe that is your minimalist shoe transition, this might be the shoe for you.

Are there any runners out there that like the minimalist approach to shoes? Let me know, I'm quite interested in your take.

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Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of Balsamic Goodness!

2011-08-19T09:25:00.000-04:00

Today marks the start of the WEEK OF ALEX!!!!!

Yep, all Alex all week, that's how we do it 'round here. Wendy is out of town for work over the next week so I'm officially a bachelor for a little while. To our loyal four blog readers, you're in for a treat, you're going to be getting the raw and unedited Alex content for the next several days. And I mean that Wendy won't be proofing my posts so it will quite literally not be edited :-)

(You see how I used the smiley face as punctuation on that sentence? Yep, that never woulda flown with Wendy as the editor.)

So how am I going to kick off the WEEK OF ALEX? Am I going to be living the manly bachelor life? Maybe build a kegerator, teach Lulu to fetch me a beer, and teach Mel to make a martini? Will I share my stories of drunken debauchery after long nights out with friends? Perhaps a recap similar to the plot of The Hangover? Nope, none of those, I actually think I'll start with a cooking experiment, of course.

In a previous post we covered how lucky we are to live in an area with high quality gourmet specialty stores. One of those stores is La Fromagerie, a fine cheese boutique just a few short blocks from our house.

This whole summer they've been touting their fresh and imported Italian Burrata (mozzarella and cream) on their Twitter account. A few days ago we found ourselves walking by the store so, at my request, Wendy popped in and picked up some burrata. I've been really wanting to try some all summer and this seemed as good a time as any.

You see, it just so happened that we received one of our first orders from Arganica Farm Club, which just so happened to contain a couple of heirloom tomatos that were just begging to be eaten. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Oh, and don't forget our giant basil plant tree in our herb garden.

If you guessed an "out of this world caprese salad," you're absolutely right.

Ok ok, I know you're thinking "Alex... way to go out on a limb and put some tomatos, burrata, salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar, and a few basil leaves on a plate." But wait right there, I'm about to do as I've done with every project in our house, I'm going to over complicate this simple little salad and turn it into a much larger and longer project than it really needs to be.

Several years ago Wendy and I ate one of the best meals of our lives at Michael Chiarello's Bottega restaurant in Yountville, CA. One of the most amazing dishes was their delectable Burrata Caprese appetizer that is served with balsamic caviar.

"What's balsamic caviar," you ask? Think, little tiny magical balls of formed balsamic vinegar that burst in your mouth with each bite. No longer does your salad need to suffer the dreaded balsamic migration, where all of your balsamic vinegar wanders to the bottom of the plate, missed by your mouth and left to be simply washed away when you do dishes. Such a waste of a delicious taste.

So your next logical question, "how does one go about making this balsamic caviar?" Well, sit tight and I'll describe the relatively simple (though I made it tedious and difficult) process and how you can make it yourself.

To make the balsamic caviar will need the following items:

Balsamic Vinegar (or as the Barefoot Contessa would say, "Really good balsamic vinegar.")
Olive Oil
Agar Powder
Eye Dropper

The key to this recipe is actually the use of a gelatin substance that will allow the balsamic to form a ball when dropped in the oil. But for this to work, the balsamic must be hot and the oil must be very cold. So start by pouring about one cup of olive oil into a tall glass and put it in the freezer. The oil will need to stay in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, but a bit longer if you have the time. It has to get very very cold. If you're on Iron Chef, just throw it in the "blast chiller."

With the oil chilling in the freezer, you can start on the balsamic mixture. The balsamic must be heated just to boiling with the gelatin powder and immediately removed form the heat and transferred into a glass container. All of the recipes online call for quite a bit of balsamic, but we really didn't need a ton of these balsamic balls, and I didn't want to waste a lot of our "really good" balsamic if I was going to screw it up.

The balsamic vinegar we use is actually from one of our favorite places in Napa Valley, the St. Helena Olive Oil Company. It's their Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

I started by putting 1/4 cup of or balsamic into a small sauce pan.

I then mixed 1/8 teaspoon of the Agar Agar powder with 2 teaspoons of water, and poured the Agar Agar and water mixture into the balsamic before it began to heat up.

With the whisker I continued to stir the balsamic mixture until it just came to a boil.

One it began boiling, I immediately removed the mixture from the heat and transferred it into a small teacup to make sure it didn't continue to boil. If you don't do this, the balsamic will begin to thicken too much.

Heating the balsamic mixture allows the Agar to activate so that it can form the gel once cooled. It's important to allow the balsamic mixture to cool a bit before you begin forming your caviar, otherwise the balsamic will be too hot and will not form the caviar ball in the oil.

Once the oil is sufficiently cool remove the glass from the freezer and get your eye dropper ready.

Begin by picking up some of the balsamic mixture with the eye dropper and then dropping some of the mixture into the oil. You can regulate the size of the ball by adding more or less balsamic mixture in each droplet. However, if you don't make enough, the balls will just sit on the top of the oil and won't sink. You want the balsamic balls to sink. After some trial and error, three drops worked well for me.

Here's a brief video of some of my early attempts. Notice the balls on the surface that failed to sink.

This is the somewhat tedious process, just keep going back to the balsamic and dropping it into the oil. Work a little bit quickly here so the oil doesn't warm up too much.

Once you've dropped about 1/2 of the balsamic mixture, remove the formed caviar from the oil with a slotted spoon or tea strainer and place the caviar on a piece of paper towel in a strainer. You will then need to rinse the caviar with water to get some of the oil off of them. Once rinsed, transfer the finished caviar to another container.

Repeat the process with the rest of the balsamic. The more the balsamic cools the thicker it will become, so work quickly. If it gets too thick, you can warm it again, but not to boiling.

Once all of your balsamic is used, or you feel it has gotten too thick to continue, rinse the remainder and move onto the assembly of your caprese.

Build your caprese as you normally would with large and thick wedges of tomato, tear apart your balls of burrata or mozzarella, and place your large leaves of basil. The last step is the simple scattering of your balsamic caviar. Using the container, gently spread the caviar in a generous manner over the top of your caprese.

Then serve and enjoy the little bursts of flavor while you chew each wonderful bite of your salad. But be careful, as our friend Katie knows, these little buggers can quickly run away from you and end up on the floor.

If you've made a lot of the balsamic caviar during this adventure, don't worry, just cover it and put it in the refrigerator, it will keep for several weeks or more without issue.

The next time I make this I will probably use a shallow and wide container for the oil and place it in an ice bath with salt water to keep the oil cold. This will give me more time to work with the balsamic. Also, the less Agar you can use the better. If you use too much, the caviar will become solid jelly like balls. You want to avoid this situation. It is best if the only solid part is the delicate skin around the balsamic.

So what do you think about my first post in the WEEK OF ALEX series? Is it what you expected? Maybe you've made some balsamic caviar and have a few pointers for me? Or maybe now you're just dying to try it yourself. What do you think? Or maybe I need more beer drinking and grunting.

Let's just hope this week of bachelor life doesn't end up with me making a trip to the hospital for some bit of stupidity. It's been known to happen, I'm just sayin.

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