Chips and Ships and Ticket To Ride Trips

Do you know all of the ingredients in Cool Ranch Doritos? Even if you know their names, would you recognize them if they accosted you in a dark alley and left you battered and bruised? I don't think that you would know them, but now, you may have a chance to see them coming and run. Here is a photo of those elusive ne'er-do-wells. You can also look through this article and see ingredients from some other foods.

MBH has a Keurig and uses it multiple times each day. I think we do have K-Cups for tea and hot chocolate, but she prefers plain, black coffee. My son, SS, though, prefers espresso which is more like plain, black, STRONG coffee. Anyway, I can't imagine that either will purchase Keurig's new soda-making machine, Kold. First, the price of entry is a $300 machine. Second, it will cost almost $1.25 per 8-oz glass of soda. Anyone who chooses this is not doing so to save money. They want the convenience of choosing their own flavors and mix-ins. They want to minimize storage and waste of aluminum cans (although this does take up additional counter space). Well, it will be an interesting struggle.

Oh, wow. Another day of no articles from the world wide web to share. What is up with that? Have my standards changed? Not that I know of. So, it must mean that the web's storehouse of interesting and fun articles is down to presenting less-interesting stuff. I won't give up, though, people. I'll keep searching for both of our sakes.

Have you purchased any candy yet for Halloween? Come on. 'Fess up. We have not (and hopefully, we won't). Still, I remember the days of sneaking some of the candy before Halloween arrived. Nowadays, I try to eat a more balanced diet.

Do you like to play board or card games? Good for you. I do, too. I have several at home, and we will periodically have a game night at SS's house (although we often end up not playing many/any games). I came across an article talking about adult (not THAT kind of adult) games that are fun. Games like Ticket to Ride, Bohnanza, Catan. I have only played five of the eleven listed, and I own none of them. Amazing, right?

Do you need a new shelf in your house? Come on, who doesn't? Well, how about one that resembles the starship Enterprise from the Star Trek series? If you've got some cardboard, Popsicle sticks, glue and time, you can make one of you own. Follow the steps here.

Do you watch Shark Tank? We do, and I know that my folks do, too. Anyway, a year or two ago, a dude went on the program with a web-enabled doorbell, allowing you to talk to someone at your door from anywhere you happen to be (maybe on vacation in Colorado). He was asking for a $700,000.00 investment in exchange for a 10% stake. I don't think anyone invested, but it did catch the attention of Richard Branson. The $7 million valuation may have seemed inflated for a brand new product at the time, but in less than two years, the Doorbot's valuation is now closer to $70 million. That's pretty incredible.

The day always seems to start before I am ready. I had better catch up before it rounds the corner and I cannot see it. Have a Wonderful Wednesday.

This is One of Those Days

Sometimes, when I am working on a day's blog post, I search through all manner of websites for ideas to share with you. Some days, there are a plethora (a plethora, I say) of stories from which to choose. Other days, I find a dearth of ideas and am left with a shorter post that day. This is one of those days. So, let's enjoy our time together, no matter how brief.

Have you ever heard of Mt. Everest? If not, then maybe you are only six years old. Anyway, as the world's tallest mountain, it commands respect and preparation to make it even to the base camp, much less the peak. I recently came across an article about someone who was in base camp when the earthquake hit back in April, killing 9,000 total in Nepal, and 21 in Everest base camp. She tells the story of her experiences and I really enjoyed her narrative.

An article I saw yesterday talks about a Ford dealership that bans customers from future business if they post a negative review about them on the web. What do you think about that? We are hearing about scenes like this more and more. It seems to me that, if they react like this, it further reinforces when I would not want to support them anyway. Yes, I suppose it is within their rights, but I think it would be better to understand why a person left with a negative impression of my dealership.

Today is National Coffee Day. Go to one of these places for free or discounted coffee today. Don't delay. If you do, there is no way you will get one of these deals. I am not much of a coffee drinker, even though I often hear other are health reasons why I maybe should be.

Yes, Cinnamon Bun Oreos will soon be a thing. Will you try them? I probably would if we bought them, so it is just as well that we don't buy them often.

No, seriously, I have not found a single article to share today. That does make me wonder about how you surf around looking for interesting content on the interweb? Do you have certain go-to sites you check daily. You already know that I do. drudgereport, Yahoo, vox, consumerist. Nothing today, though. Do you have any sites I should add to my search?

I don't even have a new Clarity of Vision idea. So, here is a redux of a classic from six Octobers ago.

You know what happens by the time I reach this point in the post? I say goodbye for a while. Hopefully, we will have some fun stuff to include next time. Until then, have a Titanic Tuesday (no wait, would that imply something will crash today?).

Super Blood Moon (Not a Band Name)

Did you see the super blood moon last night. I was driving over to the grocery store, heading east, and I saw this really cool moon, semi-red, just at the horizon. It looked like the photo below. The sun was shining on the right side of the moon and the left was dark and red. Anyway, it was so low, I decided to wait until after I shopped before I took a photo. Big mistake. Yes, the eclipse continued, but I lost the impact of the giant-sized moon at the horizon. Oh well. Did you go look at it? What did you think?

Here's what it looked like by the time I got home and went out for a photo. Yeah, not quite as impressive.

Let's think back to dear Violet Jessop. Do you remember her story? No? I actually did not know of her, either, until I read this interesting factoid. Violet Jessop was an early 20th century stewardess/nurse with a particularly curious distinction: she was on the Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic. She survived the collision of the Olympic with another ship and the sinking of the latter two vessels. Seems like she might have been good luck to know.

Here is a story that the director of our multi-church choir shared at today's concert.
A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, Ryan 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.'" Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"

Do you have a few minutes for reading? Do you like real-life tales of derring-do? Well, this is more like real-life tales of tracking bad guys. This article talks about a guy who flew to Mexico tracking people who put those bluetooth skimmers on ATMs. I really enjoyed it. It is like that book, Cuckoo's Egg, by Clifford Stoll, who tracked hackers using old-school techniques back in 1989.

Are you an iPhone user? Will you (or have you already) upgrade to a new 6s? Finally, have you already put iOS9 on your current phone? If you do all of those, check out these new features of Siri. Outside of the implications of Siri always listening to you, it would be cool to call out to her and have her respond so you could find your phone. Am I right? Ask her what song is playing instead of launching Shazam. Other stuff, too.

Are you a car user? Of course, you are. Everyone (at least that I know) has at least one. Anyway, Consumer Reports has come out with their list of best and worst cars for this year. Sorry, fiat owners, your car came in dead last, with Jeep just above that. Mazda took the #2 spot and #1 was .... No, I can't spoil the surprise. Click the link and find out.

Here's a quote from outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner. "The only way to get our economy going again and solve our budget problems is to get the economy moving." Here's my take on that quote.

Do you get all nervous when it is time for your annual performance review at work? Well, I am feeling that way right now since mine comes up later this morning. I spent time last night pulling together information about the tasks I completed last year and the places where I felt I added value to the team. Are there areas of improvement? Of course, and I have some of those listed, too, so I can take control of the meeting, even in those places where my boss will say I did not do as well as I should have. It is over before lunch, so maybe I can relax by then,.

Do you get all nervous when each day's blog post is over? Of course you do, because you know you will have to wait 24 hours before another one is posted. Sorry, but that is exactly what time it is now. Start your timers and meet me back here in 23 hours 57 minutes 16 15 14 seconds.

Medical Procedures and Miscellaneous Links and a Nice Sunset

MBH is sick with the flu. I know she got the flu shot this year, so maybe it is a different strain? Anyway, she went to the doc and the prescription they gave her costs $160 without insurance and $130 with insurance. That's is crazy. No, we did not fill it.

I went in for a root canal today and also a crown on another tooth. The procedures took three hours. Whew, The doc gave me a scrip for pain medicine, but said to try ibuprofen first, so I did not fill it and am using ibuprofen. So far, it is a really low-grade pain, so that is good.

The procedure took three hours. As you can imagine, my mouth was tired from staying open that long, plus the (still ongoing) pain of the work itself.

TD did not go to the doctor or the dentist and received no prescriptions today. What is wrong with her?

No one went to the eye doctor, but I did find an article about the history of the eye chart. Well, more technically, it is about the typographic history of the eye chart. Are they accurate? I'm not sure. I did find it interesting that they now have charts that let illiterate people evaluate their vision, or maybe kids that don't know the alphabet, or people whose native language is not based on our character set.

According to vulture.com, Rolling Stone magazine published http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-greatest-boy-band-songs-of-all-time-20150924 of the 50 greatest songs by boy bands. Hanson is not included. Neither is Boyz II Men. Jackson 5 landed on #1 for I Want You Back. The Monkees made an appearance for I'm a Believer. N'Sync is in there, of course.

Why didn't people smile in the early days of photography? There could be many reasons. Was it because they didn't have Novocaine yet for their dental work, so no one had any done? What is your best guess? I thought it was because of the long exposure times, but that doesn't seem as likely as other options.

Remember that time you and your buddies were sitting around wondering how space it would take for solar panels if we wanted to power everything in the world? No? Well, maybe it wasn't you then. Anyway, someone did the math. It is actually less than I would have guessed.

Was it you that I heard querying what the most beautiful place was in each state? If it was, your curiosity can now be satisfied. Thirillist answers that question in this article. If you look at some of the locations in the article, you will wonder why some of the states are less visited than others. Here is the list of the 12 least visited states. How many of them have you seen?

Our multi-church choir sang at a local community's Constitution Days last week. Here is a replica Liberty Bell with an inflatable of Capitol and a beautiful sunset in the background.

As seems to happen everyday, our time together comes to an end. We will have more fun next week. I promise.

You Cannot Snack on Bacon Cufflinks

I'd bet you are reading this blog post thinking, "Wow. I wish I could see a few weird items that I could pick up on Etsy." You are in luck, my friend. You know, things like a 'Let It Go' decal you can put on the underside of the toilet seat. Or bacon cufflinks. Just go check out the list and decide which ones you want for Christmas.

Would you spend $4,000 to buy a fun bed for your little bundle of joy? Maybe you would, but I would not. One dude thought the same thing and built his own out of IKEA furniture. Was it EASY? No, it took him over two months at 1-2 hours per night. However, it has some COOL features (a hidden entrance to a hidden crawl space). Look at it below and read about it here.

I came across a story whose headline looked interesting. Replacing expensive shampoo with common kitchen ingredients. The opening paragraph states, "You swap your shampoo for the dynamic duo of baking soda and apple cider vinegar and, supposedly, your hair literally thanks you (in the form of silky smooth almost-back-to-its-natural-state hair). This intrigued me, and thus, this two-week-long experiment was born." Well, do you wonder what the author thinks of the change? I did. Except.... I never see any mention of vinegar in the article, only baking soda. Go look and see if you can decipher what she actually uses. Ed. note: She does include a link to this article about how this process should actually work.

This next photo shows a story that I didn't actually read. The headline told me enough about the story. No, I am sharing it because of the use of an uncommon word in the thumbnail. Can you see it? 'Pilots decry stadium lights'. Who uses the word 'decry' anymore? When was the last time you said it, or even read it?

I have shared almost all of the photos from the Old West town visit with the GRANDS a couple of weeks ago. Here is a view looking north down the main street, Yes, there are a few people, but I waited until most had left the street.

And a shot looking East from the same location as the previous photo.

And finally, a shot of the church building at the end of town.

No, I did not go bowling last night, but I needed that premise to make the joke work.

I have to get a root canal this morning. I am not excited. However, I arranged the appointment time to be later so I can attend the daily 8am call. I need to get ready for that, so I will end the blog post immediatel

Simpsons Signs, Songs, Shooting, Starships and Spielberg

Do you like Steven Spielberg movies? Come on. Who doesn't? Which do you think Yahoo would rank as the worst? As the best? And once you check them out in this article, do you agree with their rankings? War Horse and Always are near the bottom, but not the lowest ranked. War of the Worlds is in the middle. Duel is #13. I would have ranked that higher. Have you ever seen it? It makes you scared of 18-wheelers. I am not going to name the top 3 (maybe even 4). You should be able to guess them, though.

Here is a shot of the GRANDS standing under some dripping water to cool off the other weekend. The woman photobombing in the background was not with us, but she could not have timed her intrusion any better. I never noticed her until I downloaded the photos.

If I had noticed her earlier, maybe I could have had my oldest grandchild (OG) shoot at her in the arcade. By the way, OG had a higher arcade shooting score than her father and I did, even if her stance is a little unorthodox.

Did I mention that TD's birthday was last week? If I didn't, that's horrible. Did we sing Happy Birthday to her? I can't tell you yes or no because the song is copyrighted. What? It's not anymore? A US District Court judge ruled the copyright invalid. Whoo hoo. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear daughter. Happy birthday to you.

Have you heard of the Nobel Prize? Of course you have. Do you know what they are? No, me neither, and I really don't care. Anyway, someone has come up with the Ig-Nobel Awards. One team of researchers showed it is possible to partially un-boil an egg with chemicals. One team won an award for attaching a weighted stick to a chicken's rear end to demonstrate how dinosaurs might have walked. One team found that the word 'huh' exists in every language. You can see the full list here.

Who wants to go on a walkthrough of a 3D Starship Enterprise NCC-1701-D? It is a work in progress, but it is still quite well done. Lace up your sneakers and sneak over for a peek.

Let's slip a Clarity of Vision comic in right here, OK?

Did you hear that Yogi Berra died? I do not remember him as a baseball player (he won 10 World Series rings), but I do remember him for his famous malapropisms. And I have heard, although it is disputed, that the cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after him. Anyway, let's remember a few of his quotes.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
You can observe a lot by just watching.
It ain't over till it's over
It's like déjà vu all over again.
No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.
Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.
Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.
We made too many wrong mistakes.
Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.

Most likely this next story will appeal only to SS or maybe Jaybe. Similar to Ryan Adams' track-by-track remake of Taylor Swift's 1989, a number of other artists have done similar things. Covers from The Who, The Beatles, the Stones, Fleetwood Mac have all been recorded in the past. Here is a list of them. Be warned. Some now contain profanity. For me, only maybe one or two even sound remotely like something I would listen to.

Hey, how was that Snickers bar? Would you walk 2-1/2 miles to get it? Well, that's how many steps it takes to work off the 215 calories it contains. 1-1/2 miles for a can of Dr. Pepper? 11.8 miles for a Chipotle Chicken Burrito (no guacamole)? The worst offender, which would take 22 miles to walk off, is .... No, go read the story to see the other items listed and find out which is the worst offender.

I found an article on Yahoo about the crazy signs shown on The Simpsons. You can see them all here, and I just grabbed one to share below. I also liked "Springfield Christian School - We Put The Fun In Fundamentalist Dogma" It reminds me of a sign my father saw during our trip to Louisiana last week. On the rental car bus at the airport was a sign saying something about "No standees in rear of bus." What is a standee? Who is the stander?

Are you going to watch the CSI series finale this coming Sunday? I will. After all, we stayed with it through cast changes, repeated story lines, and overdone technical montages.

Survivor kicks off tonight, but no Survivor party yet. We already had haircuts scheduled, so the inaugural party begins next Wednesday.

Have a Wild and Wacky Wednesday, my friends. Yes, wild AND wacky. Promise me.

Zero, Zip, Nada... Things I Found to Share

I sat on the freeway for an hour yesterday. No, make that 1-1/2 hours. Thirty minutes of that was due to the usual traffic snarls. The other hour was because I had a flat. I debated fixing it myself, but it was raining and isn't this why I have AAA? Yes, it is. So, I called them and then waited until they arrived and replaced the tire with the spare. No, I will need to go get a tire. Hmm, do I go ahead and get two (because you are supposed to replace the front or back as a pair at once) or just one? We'll see how I feel when I get around to this.

This is NOT GOOD, people. I found ZERO stories in Yahoo this morning. So, I can pull at least one from my backlog, but I think it will be a short post today.

Here's one about IKEA furniture made over to look all fancy and luxurious. It includes chairs, shelves, dressers, a kitchen cart.... All sorts of things that you can do with the basic IKEA items.

The final two (alleged) quotes from kids about Bible stories:
A Sunday school class was studying the Ten Commandments. They were ready to discuss the last one. The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was. Susie raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted, "Thou shall not take the covers off the neighbors wife.

One particular four-year old prayed, "And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."

One of the attractions at the mining ghost town we visited a few weeks ago was a 'crooked house', similar to Casa Magnetica at Six Flags Over Texas. You can see more about the Six Flags house, including a video, here. First is the illusion that water is running uphill.

You can see the angle of the room by how SS and the girls are standing.

The balls on the table are rolling to the upper right corner, in apparent defiance of gravity. I'm glad the granddaughters enjoyed it. Casa Magnetica was always one of my favorite places at Six Flags.

I did find a little content to share. Here is one more item to share.

OK, I am tired of mining for blog things for today. Check back again in 24 or so and we'll see what I have to share. Have a Tantalizing Tuesday.

It's Monday For All of Us

I chose today's post title because I marked my Thursday post last week as being my Friday. We flew over to Shreveport, LA, for my first cousin, Lewis' funeral. You can read his obituary here. It was a nice service and there were so many people there. I was surprised (let me amend that to say I am not surprised he touched so many people). I imagine his longtime work as Treasurer for Shreveport Kiwanis Club probably helped. Anyway, the interesting part about funerals is the family comes together and you see some members that you may not have seen in a while. And of the 16 first cousins in our family, two are deceased (Lewis and his sister), five were absent, and nine of us made it to say goodbye to Lewis. That was nice. Lewis, I am glad you are out of pain and together with your father and sister in heaven.

I just returned from the 44th poorest state in the USA. Well, that's according to a ranking published by Yahoo this morning. Wonder where your state falls? You can find out here. Maryland came out on top, and the rest of us fell somewhere in the middle.

What caught my eye in this next story is NOT that Olive Garden sold 2,000 Pasta Passes last Thursday. It is NOT that 2,000 people were willing to cough up $100-$300 to eat unlimited amounts of food at Olive Garden for the next seven weeks. It was the fact that these passes (2,000 of them, remember) sold out in UNDER ONE SECOND.

I am not finding much to share today, so I am reaching into my 'keep these in case you need them for the blog' file. Here is a story about a school in Biloxi, MS, that painted their lockers to look like book spines. I have read 4 of those depicted, and watched one of them on TV.

One of the challenges I give myself is to try and make photos in public spaces like this look like they might have when the place was built, or at least to exclude as many people from the shots as possible. This actual trestle leading over to an old mine mill is one of those attempts. The public pathway runs under this bridge, so I minimized intrusion by selecting this view and making sure there was no one under it or that they were passing behind an obstruction before pressing the shutter button.

And another shot of the town buildings taken to make it look abandoned.

I had this shot ready, but a woman stepped out just as I was clicking the button. I could probably remove her using Photoshop, but I am not sure I want to spend the time. See her there on the left?

OK, let's finish today on a high note. No, instead, let's finish with today's Clarity of Vision comic. Have a Magnificent Monday.

It's My Friday

First, I have a medical update for you. I have an infected salivary gland. When I first noticed it on Tuesday night, it had been a while since I ate and it didn’t hurt much. I did not eat breakfast Wednesday morning and then I worked through lunch, so I still had not eaten. I did eat last night and OUCH. My face swelled up and it really hurt (throbbing). It is down again this morning, so it swells and hurts when I eat and it needs to manufactures saliva. I also need a root canal on the right side. So, I cannot chew on the right side, and my cheek swells and hurts on the left side. Yeah, eating the next few days will be interesting.

Did you watch the Republican debate last night? I did not, but I think my folks did. Anyway, it is a big topic in today's news feeds on Yahoo. One said "The Longest Debate ... (The Longest Yawn)". Also big in today's news feeds is that 14-year-old student in TX that was arrested for bringing a homemade bombs to school. I do think that seems a little extreme. No, a LOT extreme.

I have mentioned the durian fruit before, but it has been a while. Anyway, Yahoo has a video of people trying this "smelliest fruit in the world" for the first time [Warning: bleeped-out swear words]. I remember the first (and only) time that I tried it. I did manage to swallow that bite, but did not have any more. Beyond the smell, I didn't like the weird, mushy texture.

Not much else in Yahoo today. And I don't feel like creating a Clarity of Vision comic. I can put up a couple of photos from the Old West town visit we made last weekend.

I will not be posting for the next couple of days. I am going to a funeral for my cousin, Lewis. He was only one year older than me. That really makes you want to appreciate everything in your life right now. Here is my last photo of Lewis when we visited at the family reunion. He's the guy with the gray hair. See you Monday.

Short and Semi-sweet

Are you a Facebook user? I do have a presence there, but I rarely login. MBH uses my account to prevent any controversy from students trying to friend her or anything. I am going a bit too far afield. My point was to ask if you have ever bemoaned not having a Dislike button. Well, fret no more. Zuckerberg has agreed to add a Dislike button for you to express your displeasure. Do you like the idea or does it get your first Dislike?

And in your mind, when you are flying along a freeway at a nice speed, does your car become sort of a space ship or something and you think you are cutting through the universe without making a ripple? Well, Mercedes-Benz is bringing that a bit closer to reality. This car actually does morph into a more aerodynamic shape when you go above 50mph. There is a video at the link.

Speaking of cars, I just saw on TV that a Jaguar drove the world's largest loop (63 ft), pulling 6.5Gs while doing so. You can watch the video here.

You looking for more speed? A new roller coaster at Cedar Point in Ohio will give you that and more, setting 10 world records of various types. Check out the whole story.

Salad. Quiche. Panini. Sound like a good meal? Maybe, but these are all ideas on what to do with leftover pizza. Can't picture it? Then read the article and start getting more creative with your leftover pizza. Don't have any, even if you order in a delivery pizza? Yeah, we usually polish our off, too.

Now that we have had our dinner, you are wishing you had a dessert, aren't you? 3 ingredients is all you need to make your own fruit roll-ups. You do have to invest a little time, but you can be sure these would be healthier than store-bought versions.

Wait. I thought we were through with the meal and had moved on to dessert. Well, this is a cake, not a KFC meal. More similar photos here.

Admit it. You've wished your smartphone had a larger screen but still was small enough to fit in your pocket. You know that you have. Well, Samsung's rumored foldable phone may be exactly what you are looking for. Some of the rumored specs are covered in this rumored article.

I am running late this morning because I had a dentist appointment. I have some pain in my lower right jaw and it turns out that the dentist thinks he missed a third root from a root canal last year. Well, I will have it checked out next week.

No CoV today. Sorry. We'll talk again tomorrow.

Mary Poppins 2: The Naughty Nanny?

Do you remember if I shared anything the other day about a computer program that can paint in the style of famous masters? I think I did, but today, I came across a new assignment for the program. Presidential portraits in the style of Picasso. Here are a couple, but you can see the rest here.

Have you heard about dead artists coming back as holograms? Weird thought, right? Maybe even creepy. Have you seen anything about them? Well, here, watch Elvis and Celine sing a duet. It is actually very good. How do they do it?

11 useful internet sites. What can you learn form them? Things like yoga, drawing, speed reading, coding, guitar, build your own solar food dehydrator. Go. Learn something. Or just read my blog everyday and you will learn something (like how to waste time daily reading a crazy website).

Mary Poppins 2: The Naughty Nanny. No, I don't have any idea what they will name it, but did you hear that Disney is developing a new Mary Poppins musical with Rob Marshall set to direct? It will be twenty years after the first, and will take storylines from other P.L. Travers’ children books about Mary Poppins (it looks like there are at least 7 more).

Do you hate it when your lettuce or arugula (Actually, I don't think I've ever bought that) go bad before you use them? Well, one article suggests that she has had them last up to a month and stay fresh. How, you may ask? Really. It's OK to ask. I said you could. Leave them in your salad spinner. Read the details here.

Don't kids seem to be growing up a lot faster than when you were young? I think so.

I did not know there was a need to find the perfect beer to pair with each NFL team. They chose Deep Ellum Dreamcrusher for the Dallas Cowboys. They said "When it’s the Cowboys, no time is the wrong time for crushed dreams." Hey, that sounded almost derogatory.

Does your town have a subway? Mine does not, but we have visited plenty of places that do. I always kind of enjoy them. However, staying on one for 14 hours does NOT sound like fun. A man in NY rode the subway for 14 hours, traveled 155 miles, and only bought a single ticket. I suppose you could try to break his record if you choose. I'll wait for the article to learn about your journey. Good luck.

Have you ever used Waze instead of Google Maps to travel? Our nephew got us onto it, and I like it. Would I like it even better if it featured the voice talents of Stephen Colbert? Duh. Who wouldn't? Still, you might prefer Arnold Schwarzenegger. To each his own. Anyway, try the app on your smartphone. On our recent trip to LA, it warned us a couple of times that a police car had been reported ahead. Sure enough.

Let's look at a photo from the weekend before we call it a day. Here we are at our family-style meal. You can see Middle GRAND explaining the dishes to me.

Yesterday was a 12-hour workday. Today should only be 11-1/2 hours. Hey, it's moving in the right direction. Make it your Tremendous Tuesday, alright?

Goats, and Mites, and NFL, and Nixon

I was looking through yesterday's Groupon offers and came across one that made me smile. Check out the words from the offer below. Yes, it does say '... jumping with sodas." I'm thinking that could get really messy really quickly, right? (Photo from Groupon, not family)

Did the Arizona Cardinals win yesterday? Why, yes, they did. There is a bit of bad news that came with the win, though. Andre Ellington may have injured his PCL. Did the Dallas Cowboys win yesterday? No, they did not. OH WAIT! They did in the last 1:30. Whoo to the hoo. There is a bit of bad news that came with the win, though. Dez Bryant is out 4-6 weeks with a broken foot.

Yup, it's football season again.

I am not finding anything in Yahoo right now, but I did see this recently in Facebook. Have you ever heard of the tree goats of Morocco? That is apparently a thing. You can see a video of them here.

Who do you think were the most popular and least popular presidents while they were in office? Well, I will give you a couple of semi-spoilers: Ford is near the bottom (of the ones they show in the article) and Eisenhower is near the top. It's kind of interesting. Go look.

Do you hate to leave home with your bed unmade? It turns out that you should. Oh, you wonder why? Read this article from the loop and learn about how leaving it unmade helps control dust mites.

What would be a classic stereotypical souvenir from your state? Cactus candy (would this even last until you get home)? Beach glass? Boiled peanuts (again, wouldn't you eat this immediately)? A diamond? You can see a proposed list here.

I went zip-lining with the GRANDS and SS on Saturday. We had a good time at the little mining community where the zip line was. Here is a shot of a sign posted on the entrance to the chapel.

And as seems to happen almost everyday, my time with you has run out. I have some things I need to prepare for my workday, so check back again soon, y'hear?

Sigmund and Freud

I will begin today's post with a recipe involving Cool Whip. Did you check out the Family Guy video yesterday on pronouncing the word 'whip'? Anyway, how about a no-bake chocolate peanut butter pie with only seven ingredients? Sounds really tasty to me.

Do you like those prints with a bunch of words or concepts presented like a subway sign (not that Subway)? Here's one that I thought was not bad. It might work better in a work cubicle or office than at home, though.

Hey, what kind of smartphone do you have? First off, if you are still struggling with a flip-phone, that's just sad. I am asking because, if you have an iPhone, did you know you can lock the focus of the camera? I didn't. This article tells you how.

Another iOS feature that I did know about is that, if you hold down the Vol Up button when taking photos activates burst mode. It will keep taking pictures until you release the button. Choose the one you like and be sure to delete the unwanted ones so you don't fill up your phone.

I held a MAPP Day session at work the other day. No, I attempted to hold one, but the requirements changed and we ended up talking about needing to reevaluate true requirements. What is a MAPP Day?

It would not have helped to have a throwable microphone in the room. However, it would not have hurt, either.

I don't know how many of you watch Big Brother, but even if you do not, you will appreciate this discussion. This happened on Wednesday's show. One of the houseguests said he loved his Mommy, but not is a weird, Sigmund Freud way.
One of the twins asked, "A Sigmund Freud way? What's that?" Steve asked her, "Do you know who Sigmund Freud is?" She responded, "Yeah, the lion guys. It's a show in Las Vegas. Sigmund and Freud." And tonight, one of the twins said "No more Mister nice girl. The twins are not going down without a fight!" Yes, she said 'mister nice girl'.

From an actual tech service call...
Caller: I have a problem with my printer.
Tech support: Are you running it under Windows?
Caller: No, my desk is next to the door. But that's a good point. The man sitting in the cubicle next to me is under a window, and his is working fine.

This comedian had a clever idea to plant some fake reviews directly on furniture on a recent visit to IKEA. You can see one of them below, and others in this Yahoo article.

I am going Zip-Lining with SS and GRANDS tomorrow. Have you done this before? It has been a long time since I have. I am excited. We'll see what (if any) pictures I get out of it.

I'm thinking I have shared enough for this shortened work week. I will have more for you next week. Until then, have a Wonderful weekend.