Big Burgers, Big Words, Big Gingerbread Houses. It's Just a Big Post

How often have you sat around with family and tried to stump each other on the age-old question "What's the most over-the-top burger in each state?" Exactly, we all have done it countless times. Now, Yahoo has chimed in with their list of over-the-top burgers from each state.

As we sit here in the cool weather of winter, let's think of those poor FL residents facing day after day of 70ish weather. Today, let's go back inside the Grand Floridian Hotel. First, a shot from the second floor balcony of the Christmas trees and the giant gingerbread house down in the corner. You can also see the beautiful domes that highlight the ceiling.

Now, a closer look at the gingerbread house. You can see, by comparison to the walls around it, that it was likely 20ft tall. The back side even houses a gift shop.

Now, an artsy shot I took up near the bandstand during one of their breaks. If you cannot tell what the song is on the stand, it is the theme from Beauty and the Beast.

Here, I pulled a screenshot of the closeup of the sheet music. On the left, you can also see a few of the songs in their repertoire.

Today's devotional had an interesting take on Romans 3:31 where Paul talks about "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." The author notes, "Notice that your Bible very likely reads 'the law.' However, it does not say that in the Greek; the definite article does not precede 'law' either time it appears in this verse. The Interlinear Bible, which is a literal translation, reads: 'Law then do we nullify through faith? Not let it be! But law do we establish.' Establish means 'cause to stand, confirm.' One might argue, 'What difference does the lack of an article make?' In this case, if it read 'the law,' Paul would have been referring to either the entire Pentateuch or to a specific law." Sometimes, I agree with the author and sometimes not, but this was an interesting discourse that made me think, "Hmm. Interesting."

Using the word 'law' in the devotional review above reminds me of my maternal grandmother. That word, 'law', was her go-to exclamation when something surprised or amazed her. Remembering that makes me smile. Probably, if we researched the etymology of that word, we would find it is a shortened, socially acceptable replacement for someone saying 'Lord.'

We did not win the lottery. Great, there goes another $4. We could have driven another 32 miles on that. I see that 3 tickets did win, so those poor losers are splitting the jackpot and they each only win $500 million. Ha, suckers.

Do you wonder why your scheme of choosing numbers didn't win? This guy has provided a Powerball simulator. Plug in some numbers and see how unlikely winning is. Let the simulation run for a while and you'll still win back less than 10% of what you put in (at least, that was what happened for me).

We finished watching 'Making a Murderer' last night. Have you seen all the furor around the web about that series and about Steven Avery's case? It is cray-cray.

How often do you go to a fast food restaurant? Probably too often, right? You know what? Don't tell me. Just see what this paragraph is about. It seems being called fast food cast their cuisine in a negative light. So, some new terminology is required so they can peddle the same low-cost (I did not say low quality although if that moniker fits....) food with a more elegant branding. Places like Panera are 'fast casual'. Shake Shack is 'fine casual'. Arby's is 'fast crafted'. Then there’s the Dairy Queen slogan: “Fan Food, Not Fast Food.” Mmm, they all taste better now.

Let's look back on some fun words we shared today. 'cuisine'. 'nullify'. 'repertoire'. 'etymology'. 'preternatural'. No, I didn't really use that last word. I just wondered if you would search back through today's post looking for it? Did you? OK, Thursday starts now. Let's make it Tremendous.