Fred Posner dot com

Dream Day Cakes

A little self promotion never hurt… in theory.

I have great news. Yeni’s been baking now for well over a year and her cakes are simply amazing. Living in Gainesville provided us the perfect opportunity for Yeni to follow her dreams and try doing something she truly loves. And with that introduction, I introduce Dream Day Cakes — Gainesville’s newest Wedding Cake Bakery.

I’ve posted a few of the cakes before, and Guillo with o3b.com produced an amazing site for us. We’re very excited and looking forward to our new adventure.

Out of nowhere, a great friend of mine, sent me this:

Artwork by Christian Senn

It’s great to have good (and talented) friends.

New Makers Mark

We all know that I love Bourbon — after all, there’s a Fat Freddy Says page dedicated to the subject. Although Yeni has put a nix on my cigar smoking, I do still enjoy a good Bourbon whenever I get the opportunity. I also try to share my love of Bourbon with all, which genuinely works out very well for me (and Yeni’s Bourbon infused buttercream frosting is a great benefit). But enough about me, let’s talk Bourbon.

Maker’s Mark recently announced a new Bourbon, titled simply Maker’s 46. The difference between Maker’s 46 and Maker’s Mark Bourbon happens after the regular distilling process, in four steps:

1. Fully matured Maker’s Mark is removed from its barrel. Top hoops are removed from the barrel, and the barrel head is pulled.
2. Ten wooden staves are then affixed to the inside of that barrel.
3. Searing the staves caramelizes the sugars in the wood, adding a unique flavor that finishes on the front of the tongue.
4. The fully matured Maker’s Mark is then put back in the barrel and aged several more months. When it tastes exactly right, Maker’s 46 is removed from the barrel, bottled, corked and dipped.

Simple as pie. Maker’s 46 is 96 proof and supposedly has a hint of caramel flavor… I might need to get a bottle of this asap.

(By the bye… when Yeni adds a little bit of Jim Beam Red Stag to her cakes, it’s out of this world)

More information:

• Maker’s Mark
• Maker’s Mark to uncap first new bourbon since ’50s (Associated Press)

Back in the 90’s, one of my favorite commercials used the tagline, “At BASF, we don’t make a lot of the products you buy; we make a lot of the products you buy better.” Well my friends, when thinking about our government’s response to the continued pouring of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, I can only think that our government didn’t make the crisis in the Gulf; they made the crisis in the Gulf more catastrophic.

First, let’s ask the most simple question. How much oil is leaking into the Gulf of Mexico?

Read the rest of this entry »

My beautiful bride

Saturday, Yeni and I will be celebrating our first wedding Anniversary. Of course, we could think of no better place to go than Disney World – after all, we go there quite a bit (Florida Annual Pass has it’s privileges). Anyway…

Yeni’s always been fascinated by these beautiful cakes that have become popular. She watches Food Network non-stop and just loves that cakes can be very custom and yet very beautiful. When we got married in May, she had made a stuffed mini-cake, as our wedding was very small and we wanted to keep costs down (plus she didn’t know I had a surprise Courtney Clark cake waiting for us ).

Luckily, around Christmas time, Yeni decided to try and make these cakes on her own. The good news? She’s amazing. I know I’m biased, but it is awesome to see her make these cakes. The bad news? The cakes don’t just look good, they taste REALLY good. And of course, this means that it’s been even harder to lose this big ol’ gut I’m carrying around. Ugh. Plus the house always smells incredible, so I’m consistently hungry… but I digress.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fight the fight or quit.

Soon, as in a couple of hours, Florida Governor Charlie Crist will announce a decision regarding his candidacy for the United States Senate. I’ve said it before, and let me state it again: I am a proud NPA (No Party Affiliation) Florida Voter. I have declared myself NPA my entire adult life, and I vote.

Although I voted for Crist for Governor, if he changes parties he will not receive my vote. He’s said before that he would run as a Republican. Then he said that he would “consider” running as an Independent.

Well, and forgive me for speaking to you personally Mr. Governor, here’s the thing Charlie. This is not a decision that you have to think over. This is simple. Either you have the cojones (balls) to run under your party or you don’t. If you are going to change your party, it’s being done for one reason — because you think you’ll lose.

Don’t spin this any other way. I imagine that if you change from the Republican party that you will attempt to spin it as the party no longer represents what you believe, or they’ve lost track, yatta yatta yatta.

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Hey... Trust Me...

Did anyone see the Florida Supreme Court hearing yesterday? The judges kept asking the same question over and over again, are you sure you want either of these guys to be elected? — David Letterman

Politics in Florida helps America laugh. I’m sure it’s no different than Politics anywhere, but our openness and public access laws means that our Political scandals and corruption happen in the Sunshine.

What bothers me most about politics in Florida is when politicians try to either trick or falsely lead the elderly. I remember after the 2000 election, when Florida was ground zero for Political jokes, my grandmother received a phone call about her voting experience. My grandmother, who had voted for Gore, became convinced that she might have been tricked by the butterfly ballot and may have accidentally voted for the wrong candidate.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, I wrote on VoIP Tech Chat about a SIP Attack one of my servers received from Amazon’s Cloud service. First, Don’t Panic. This is not about anything Tech/Geek/Nerd related. It’s all good…

Let me quickly sum up the incident for the non-geeks (like my wife) who may be reading. Amazon sells everything. In your shopping cart you can buy a robot, a book, a DVD, and almost anything else you can think of. You can also buy Internet service for your business. This “cloud” service is called EC2, and it’s a little technical; so I’ll just say… you can place some of your business computing needs with Amazon.

Read the rest of this entry »

My wife has been baking like a woman possessed… and let me tell you. These cakes taste even better than they look.

Makes it harder to lose weight– but it’s gooooooood.

Sick, Poor? No thanks.

You already know where I’m going— it’s in the title after all. At this time, I do not support the health care bill. Now before I get into the many reasons why I do not support this legislation, let me spell out the following disclaimers.

I am a small business owner. I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I proudly check the NPA (no party affiliation), when I register to vote for one simple reason— I vote along my ideals and conscious; not along some party mantra. As a general rule, I feel that the government continually mismanages money and our current news media fails to account the statements of government officials to any fact check or truth test.

With that introduction out of the way, I can now describe why I believe our government failed us— as we should expect it to. After all, the Founding Fathers did not want us to depend on our government; and for good reason. Read the rest of this entry »

Spirit Airlines drank some Kool Aid and decided to charge passengers for carry-on bags that do not fit under the seat. The fee will only apply to bags placed in the overhead bin. “Bring less; pay less. It’s simple,” Spirit’s Chief Operating Officer Ken McKenzie said in a statement. (Which by the way beats their first attempt at the slogan: Bring less, pay less, fuck you.)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, although this time I’ll say it differently. When I was a kid, I absolutely loved everything about flying. After taking someone to the airport, my family would walk to the window and we’d watch (from the gate) as our loved one’s plane taxied out to the runway and would stay until we saw that plane leave the ground and take off into the sky. When I’d actually get to fly, I looked forward to it. I’d pick out a good magazine, try to get a pillow, and look forward to some pretzels and a nice drink. Read the rest of this entry »

Tell me about you.

On a recent trip to Target, I decided to add some compressed air to my cart. Working in electronics, I find compressed air to be almost a necessity. The servers, computers, switches, and other equipment I use routinely need a good “spritz” of compressed air to keep the dust from accumulating.

But I digress.

When I went to check out, my cashier advised that I needed to scan my ID to purchase the compressed air. Not just show her my ID, but rather have my driver’s license scanned into their register. This of course allows Target to scan, read, and store my personally identifiable information. Although just someone’s full name fulfills the criteria of personally identifiable information, a Driver’s License barcode and/or magnetic stripe contains much more. By scanning the driver’s license, Target retains my full name, date of birth, address, gender, race, driver’s license number, license information (restrictions, endorsements), organ donation, and issue date.

First, let’s look at the obvious… Read the rest of this entry »

It must be the Corn Syrup

I’ve been saying this for years… and so has many other people. Lot’s of times, friends just said it was a conspiracy theory or some BS thought… but now scientists from Princeton University have conducted research on High Fructose Corn Syrup. The results? Increased weight gain with High Fructose Corn Syrup versus Sugar. Calorie intake was the same, but High Fructose Corn Syrup caused increased weight gain.

A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain

by Hilary Parker

A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Where has the time gone? To paraphrase the Princess Bride, which Yes, is still one of my favorite movies — there is to much to explain, let me sum up.

• Painting, painting, painting. (4 parents, lots of paint, bottom line: house looks great)
• Met Sebastian
• Renewed the annual pass at Disney and got Yeni her Florida pass.
• Took the in-laws to St. Augustine.
• Posted about Spam on VoIP Tech Chat
• Actually posted a chat on VoIP Tech Chat
• Getting ready for the Voipathon
• and posted a few pics on Picasa

Thanks for stopping by.