ZombieRunner Blog

We’re sitting (Gillian in one over-stuffed chair with her laptop, me in another with mine) in the Alpine Internet Cyber Cafe in Park City, Utah, working on the ZombieRunner Web Site. The photo is from a live web camera at the base of the hill — it’s been snowing today. There’s a chairlift right across the street; lots of skiiers and snowboarders wandering around. But, the skiing population is far outnumbered this week by the crowd here for the Sundance Film Festival. (The director of Letters From the Other Side just stopped by and gave us promo cards for her documentary.) We may try to catch a film tonight or tomorrow night.

We’re here for the Outdoor Retailer Show - it starts tomorrow. If the August OR show was any indication, we’ll return home with a raft of new products.

For now it’s wireless laptops and lots of good food. Yesterday’s dinner was oysters, Alaskan king crab, clam chowder and a whole lobster at the Market Street Oyster Bar in downtown Salt Lake City. Lunch today was small plates at the Easy Street Brasserie and Bar here in Park City. Some of the best French Onion soup I’ve had.

- dc

The other night I had the pleasure of talking with one of our favorite customers. He is a state trooper in Kentucky who calls while on his way to work or sometimes on the job. His accent is Kentucky through and through, and he has trouble finding local people who understand his ultrarunning habit. Last time we spoke he was preparing for the JFK 50 Miler, which was in November.
He’s a lot of fun to talk with because he appreciates all the ultra advice, and sometimes he has to pause and take radio calls (which I can sort of hear). He’s working on a set of 3 long runs for 2006, one of them is the Great Eastern Endurance Run 100K, which will be his first of that distance. We hope that he’ll come out and visit us in CA sometime. Maybe for Western States in 2007? Although he is so modest, he’s not sure he’s ready for that kind of distance. Yet.

Panasonic just introduced the DMC-FZ7 a replacement for the camera I’ve been using to shoot during my runs.

The most important new feature is the addition of manual focus (controlled by a joystick - remains to be seen how easy it it to use, say, compared to a manual focus ring).

I was hoping for RAW support, but alas. Also, with 12x zoom, it’d be nice to have a wider range, maybe 28-336mm instead of the 36-432mm that it has.

The FZ5 is a terrific running camera (it’s not tiny, but for its capabilities, it quite small). The FZ7 looks like an improvement — probably not enough to trade in an FZ5, but if I were shopping for a new camera (or if I still owned an FZ3) I’d probably get the FZ7.

Ideally I’d do all my shooting with an SLR - the photos are much better. But when I’m out there running for many hours, especially in a 50 or 100 miler, carrying that much weight is out of the question — not if I want to make the cutoffs

- dc

Someone on the ultra list asked for a lefse recipe. Here’s the one that my brother and I use - very similar to the version that our Mom made.

(The photos are of ace lefse chef Gillian, from a lefse-making party we did at my brother’s house.)

Lefse Recipe

4 lb potatoes
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups flour

Peel, quarter potatoes and boil until tender. Drain and return to pan over low heat for a few minutes to dry.
Rice potatoes. Add butter, salt & sugar and mash until well mixed. Let cool and then refrigerate until cold.
Heat lefse griddle to 500°.
For each 1/4 of potato mixture, mix in 1/2 cup flour (or less) and divide into 6 balls.
Roll out on baking parchment and transfer, parchment side up, to griddle; the parchment will peel away in a minute or so.
Cook on both sides.

Margarine changed to
butter, six cups changed to four pounds.
Note: try cake flour.

Here’s a great site for lefse-making equipment

- dc

This looks pretty great - out in March.

CNET writes:

Memory goliath SanDisk continues its assault on the flash-based MP3 player market with the launch of the flagship e200 series and the budget-class c100 series. The sharp-looking e200 measures 3.5 by 1.7 by 0.5 inches and has a maximum capacity of 6GB ($300). It boasts a photo- and video-friendly 1.8-inch color screen, as well as a durable titanium back cover and a user-removable rechargeable battery. The e200 also comes in $250 4GB and $200 2GB varieties, while the 6GB version is notable, as it’s the highest-capacity flash-based player in the world. Other cool features include a MicroSD expansion slot, slide-show functionality, an FM tuner with FM recording, and compatibility with WMA subscription services. The players, which are physically much more finished than SanDisk players of the past but, with price tags to match, will be available in March.

Read CNET’s preview

- dc

I made a couple of recipes over the weekend from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The first was the cinnamon roll recipe, which I’ve made once before. I started it Saturday evening, retarded it in the fridge, got up at 5 to allow it to proof in time to bake for breakfast. Used a bit of orange extract in the fondant. A terrific cinnamon roll recipe.

The second was the potato bread with rosemary. I made the biga (a pre-ferment) on Saturday, let it ferment in the fridge overnight, and made the 2 loaves (2 boules) on Sunday afternoon (to go with a southwestern corn chowder). I also added the options 1 ounce of chopped roasted garlic - a nice addition. The potatoes (1 cup, mashed) makes the dough and the bread nice a soft. I proofed one of the loaves in a french banneton and the other on a parchment-covered sheet pan. Before proofing, I misted the sheet pan loave with olive oil. It developed a darker smoother crust and rose somewhat higher in the oven. I’m thinking that the unencumbered sheet pan boule may have risen a bit more during the proofing stage.

It was a definite success. I plan to try it without the garlic and rosemary - I think it’ll make a good potato bread.My goal is to get close to Grace Baking’s potato bread.

- dc