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Archive for July, 2009

Legg Mason Shareholders Continue to Amaze

July 29th, 2009
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If you haven’t read my other post about Legg then do so now.  

Now the board for Legg Mason has finally met with shareholders at its annual shareholder meeting.   From the Baltimore Business Journal, “board members defended the payments. They were reward, board members said, for Fetting and his management team for purging billions in toxic structured-investment vehicles, or SIVs, from Legg’s money-market funds and leading the asset manager through one of the rockiest financial markets in history.”
What amazes me the most is the shareholders of Legg Mason.  “Legg’s shareholders returned to the board for 3-year terms all five directors who were up for reelection, including three directors who sit on the board’s compensation committee.”  If you are currently invested in Legg Mason and to decide to keep your money there – you DESERVE to lose your money.   Remember, these are the same people who lost $1.9 billion during the previous year.

Ben Brouse Uncategorized

Baltimore Drivers Suck

July 23rd, 2009
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car_crash Just try to merge onto any interstate and you’ll have instant proof for yourself.    This is something I’ve known for a while now, but now I have a third party agreeing with me.

”Baltimore placed 192nd out of 193 cities in the 2009 “Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report.”

The report says drivers in Baltimore experience an auto collision every 5.6 years. The city’s average between accidents is 80.1 percent worse than the national average of 10 years.”

Ben Brouse Uncategorized

Orioles Game

July 21st, 2009
1 comment

A week or so ago, we went to see the Orioles vs the Blue Jays at Camden Yards.    I’ve been to many games at this ballpark, its a great place to see a ball game.    The O’s lost but Mustard won!    (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I always cheer for mustard in this race)  Anyways,  shot this pic with the point and shoot camera and dressed it up with a little image tweaking in Photoshop.  Enjoy.

596659665_orioles game

Ben Brouse Photography

Homemade Bavarian Style Pretzels

July 20th, 2009
4 comments
Is there anything better than a Franziskaner (no lemon!) on a summer day?   Answer: YES – include an authentic soft pretzel with it.    This is one of my fondest memories (Weissbier + soft pretzels) of the now defunct Baltimore Brewing Co.

We were sitting at home Saturday night after a busy day doing various activities.   Decided to watch a taped episode of Food Networks Throwdown w/ Bobby Flay.   Just happened to be about soft pretzels (history here).
One thing led to another and before you know it we were whipping out a batch of homemade pretzels (Yum!).     Now we just need to find some authentic Bavarian mustard, not the silly crap they sell in stores around here.
Here is the recipe.    These pretzels are firm on the outside and doughy on the inside.  Look for these to make an appearance again.   NOTE:  be careful when you add the baking soda to boiling water.   It creates quite a reaction.
HomemadePretzels

Ben Brouse Food & Drink, Recipes

American Pale Ale

July 17th, 2009
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This recipe originated from Abita Restoration Ale (one of Lyss’s favorites).   So this is my take on that beer.   It has become our “house” brew and I think Tom has brewed it several times also.

Ingredients:

10 lb Maris Otter Pale Malt
1 lb Cara-Pils
12 oz Crystal 40

Hops:

0.75 oz Cascade 5.5%AA 60 min
0.5 oz Centennial 10%AA 15 min
0.25 oz Centennial “ Dry

Yeast:

WLP060 – American Ale Yeast Blend  

I was lucky to have the opportunity to brew yesterday so Tom and I made a double batch that we split.   We changed a few things on this batch – the hopping schedule, added a little pils malt to replicate the original and yeast selection.   Yield: 5.5 gallons, OG: 1.058

Ben Brouse Beer, Food & Drink, Homebrew

Oregon Central Coast Painting

July 10th, 2009
1 comment
I don’t know what to call the style I’ve been dabbling in over the past weeks.   I realize its not realism but I never said I was trying to achieve that either.    I’ve often had a problem where I remember things more vividly and saturated that they really were.   So I try to get the picture to look like what I remember.  
In this before/after sequence you can see what I started with and how it ended up.    Note:   All the editing was done in Lightroom and Photoshop.
Got comments?   I’d love to hear them on this one.
LOregonBefore LOregonAfter
The beautiful model is my wife.

Ben Brouse Photography

Ocean City Sunrise

July 9th, 2009
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Another one from a few weeks back when I got up for the sunrise.   Enjoy.

OC Sunrise Gallery Print

Ben Brouse Photography, Prints

Critter update

July 9th, 2009
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3 chipmunks and 1 squirrel.      Going strong.       See posts here and here for more information.

Ben Brouse Uncategorized

War against…. errrrr Squirrels

July 7th, 2009
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images Seems a squirrel fell for the bait so now I’ve updated my sidebar to a critter counter!

Ben Brouse Uncategorized

War against Chipmunks

July 6th, 2009
2 comments

 

They have ruined one of my paver walkways and now they must go!    So yesterday I bought a non-lethal trap and set it up.    To my surprise, I’ve already caught one and will be relocating it after work somewhere far from my house.

As I continue my quest, I’ll be updating the counter on this site.
Stay tuned..

 chipmunks7

Ben Brouse Uncategorized