When we came up with the final design for our kitchen range hood, we did a fair amount of research into finding someone in St. Louis who could build what we had designed. Eric called lots of people, and kept on getting recommendations to talk with Ron over at Benton Sheet Metal. Eric got in touch with him, and explained the job. Once we delivered final drawings, work got underway.

The final product came out so excellent. The craftsmanship is outstanding. I would recommend using Benton Sheet Metal for any sheet metal fabrication work you ever need to have done. They do work for people all over the country.

They don’t have a website (yet) however. Most of their work comes through word of mouth.

Here’s their contact info if you ever need some work done:

Benton Sheet Metal
2519 S. Jefferson Ave
St. Louis, MO 63104-2307

Phone: (314) 771-4647
Fax: (314) 771-9524

Popularity: 8% [?]

If you’ve forgotten what truly amazing ice cream tastes like, you should try some Serendipity ice cream. It’s made right here in St. Louis, and it is just exquisite. We’ve been eating the Gooey Butter Cake ice cream and the Gold Coast (double chocolate) flavors.

I am not kidding when I say that we have been serving it in our shallow bowls. So we can literally lick them out once we’re done. It is that good.

We buy ours from Local Harvest which is a long walk (or easy bicycle ride) from our house.

If you have the opportunity I completely recommend this delicacy.

Serendipity Ice Cream - St. Louis, MO

Popularity: 7% [?]

I’m working on a new site relating to Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act compliance (it will replace the useless site that is currently up at grammleachblileyact.com) and was looking for breadcrumb functionality and a better way to manage outputting links from the Blogroll on the links.php page.

I had searched for a good WordPress breadcrumbs plugin a while ago, and the ones I found didn’t really impress me. I’m really happy with the one I ended up finding this time. It’s called Breadcrumb Navigation XT and it does exactly what I was looking for. I’ll be using this probably for any future needs when it comes to breadcrumbs and WordPress.

The second plugin that I found was related to fixing how WordPress currently outputs links using the default get_links_list() function used in most links.php template pages right now. I had used on the XyzAnt.com links page another WordPress function (wp_list_bookmarks()) that only works for WordPress 2.1 and higher, and is still undergoing active development / documentation. That function, however, only allows you to output the description, and doesn’t appear to include the functionality to show notes. Since there is a larger amount of allowable text for the notes field, and that is what I needed, I still needed to find (or write) a solution to outputting all links, ordered by category, displaying the notes field as well as link title, url, image, etc. This is the plugin that I found that does just this (found it after writing about 80% of the same functionality myself). It does just what I was looking for, shows all the categories that contain links and the links within each category.

Plugin author’s latest post about WordPress 2.1 support: Link Library now supports Wordpress 2.1

Popularity: 7% [?]

Note: This entry is a PAID review for ReviewMe.com. Oh good gracious.

TextLinkAds is now offering a new service called ReviewMe.com where bloggers get paid to write about stuff. As I am a current customer of TextLinkAds, I thought I’d give it a try. So here it is, my first paid-for review.

Things I like about ReviewMe.com so far:

• Pleasant graphic design (Web 2.0 style points)
• Not too heavy on the ajax interactions
• Fairly clear explanations of how things work (though, see the not-likes below for more on this).
• I feel like I can trust them since I’m already dealing with the parent company TextLinkAds.
• The amount that they’re offering seems like a good amount ($30 to write this particular review, for example).
• Getting my PayPal account details right up front and offering check payments as well. That feels like I’ll get paid.
• Disclosure Policy I really like that they have a clear policy of disclosure when posting a paid review. That seems like a clean, clear and honest approach that will at least let readers know when a post has been sponsored.

Things I’m not completely thrilled about:

• Having to supply SSN right up front. A lot of services make this a later step. I know why they need it (it’s the law in the United States), but I’d feel more comfortable if they requested this particular info after I had completed the signup process.
• Need more clarity for the blogger user type (me) for how to get new reviews, or maybe an explanation that’s not just in the FAQ. If I submitted a site as a blogger / publisher, you should provide me with a clear next step and set my expectations. I felt a sense of “what’s next” after completing signup.

All in all, I’m excited about this program and having it help pay for my monthly hosting fees. If you have a website, or want to pay to have bloggers like me post reviews of your product on their sites, I’d recommend giving it a try.

ReviewMe | Write reviews for cash!

Just a reminder. This was paid for. Or will be. I hope.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Man, I FREAKING LOVE NERDCORE.

Google Search: nerdcore

MC Frontalot - Download tons of Nerdcore tracks - he’s one of the originators of the genre according to Wikipedia.

He’s got great sound, infectious grooves, and is funny as hell.

Faves so far:
Romantic Cheapskate
NERDCORE HIPHOP (YOS MIX)

He’s hilarious. Gotta get it in your iPod. Then you’ll be cool too.

Popularity: 2% [?]

After trying it out a long time ago, I finally bought this handy little app that does what it promises - lets you highlight a phone number on your palm, then call it. So simple, and why Palm didn’t include that in their OS, not sure. Get it? Handy? Heh.

PDAapps

MarknDial
Are you a user who often finds yourself wanting to dial a phone number being displayed on a web page, memopad, datebook or word document?
Did you find yourself memorizing the number, switching to the phone application, starting to dial the number… and then forgetting and having to go back. Memorizing again. Switching to the phone application. How exasperating!!

With MarknDial, just mark the number and let MarknDial dial it for you. A single keystroke can dial a highlighted number. Another keystroke can add a highlighted number to the address book.
Any application that supports highlighting text on the screen will work with MarknDial. With Blazer, phone numbers are automatically hyperlinked and will dial out from your phone if clicked. You can even mark a URL in most applications and MarknDial will launch Blazer with that URL. You can also mark an email address, and MarknDial will launch your favourite email program with that address filled in appropriately.

Try MarknDial free today!

Popularity: 2% [?]

In Google’s gmail webmail offering, one of the things I absolutely love and adore is the Archive button. So simple. So easy. So perfect for what it does.

You read an item. You absorb the content. You hit Archive. It goes away. Into the netherworld. Tucked into place where Google’s almighty seeing eye knows right where it is. Archive is freedom. Archive is release. Archive allows you to free yourself from past communication, ideas and concepts, safe in the knowledge that it is a simple click on the “All Mail” link to see what you need again. Or simply search for it, and lightning fast, it is back for you.

But you don’t have to categorize it. You don’t have to worry. Just hit Archive, and it is gone. Out of sight, out of mind. I really want an Archive button for everything now. Okay, I’m done with you, click Archive. Next. I think Archive is one of the most useful features of gmail, and is a concept which will spread to other software, it is just that good of an idea.

That is all. Archive. You heard it here first.

What do you want an Archive button for? Add your comments below.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Grey Video

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

(Via Waxy)

Popularity: 2% [?]

So I got a new friend at Star Clipper today (on sale!!!), an Ugly Doll named Wedgehead. It is the best. It makes me want to have kids so that I can get them dolls like this. It was love at first sight.

Review: I give my Ugly Doll ***** (5 stars). It is the best. Mine has white teeth, not red like in the picture. It is soft and nice and has perfect arms for taking it with you wherever you go. Although I’m pretty sure I’d be too embarrassed to bring it with me places being 28 and all, but for at home, brilliant.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I wanted to like Team America, the latest movie out by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park. There were parts that were really well done, that had sparks of creative genious. And then there were the parts that, combined in total with the entire footage of the film, left me with an ugly feeling of garbage, trash, and vile aftertaste.

I wanted this to be a good film. Unfortunately, the potential to say anything particularly useful, or meaningful, or really interesting went unfulfilled.

Check minus.

Popularity: 2% [?]