Monthly Archives: February 2017
Love Me (Chicken) Tender . . .
Once again this morning we were out the door and heading for Clear Lake and our family get-together at the Webster Cheddar’s, getting there about 15 minutes before our 11:30 meeting time.
Since we had a party of 8, getting there early helped, and we were seated immediately as soon as everyone showed up. Well, everyone but Miss Piper, who couldn’t make it.
As is usual for our visits to Cheddar’s, everything was delicious. Jan, Linda, and I all started out with salads, which come with one of their tasty croissants.
Everyone got something different, with Jan going with her favorite Chicken and Shrimp, now coming with their Bourbon Glaze Sauce. So good that Jan wanted to know if she could buy a gallon of it.
I got my usual Chicken Tenders with Fresh Broccoli and Green Beans, my favorite partly because they give you enough to have plenty of leftovers.
We spent most of the meal going over plans for our big upcoming family reunion the end of June. Jan’s sister and her family are all coming down from Illinois so it’ll be a large group.
Getting our goodbye hugs Jan and I made a bank stop before segueing to the nearby Wal-Mart for a few things, and then it was back on the road up to the Katy area where we make a gas fill-up and Starbuck’s stop. After our usual Cinnamon Dolce Lattes, (still no Smoked Butterscotch) we finally got home about 4:30.
Brandi and Lowell brought my latest Amazon order with them, a 2TB WD External Hard Drive. I’ve been wanting a drive large enough to let me do one or more system images of my desktop computer, which requires a little over 600GB. So this new drive will hold 3 system images.
This new drive is also USB 3.0, which means it’s about 10X faster than one with a USB 2..0 interface, important when you’re saving 600+ GB files.
Holding this 2TB drive, the size of a deck of cards, in my hand, make me think of my first hard drive, circa 1990. It cost me $995 and significantly larger than a shoebox, it weighed about 15 pounds. And it was a whole 10MB, yes 10MB!
Which means that this drive has 200,000X the capacity of my first drive. a big change in less than 30 years.
Can you imagine what’s coming up in the next 30 years?
Thought for the Day:
“The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.” ― Robert Bloch
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Butter Smuggling . . .
Today was another ‘stay at home work through my checklist’ day. And I actually got a lot done for a change.
One thing I got done was to finally install the new wiper blades. I used the same Denso blades that came originally on the rig, but they no longer make blades that fit the mounting on our 1999 wiper arms. So there’s drilling, bending and filing required to make them work.
I’ve looked into replacing the pantograph arms, but any possible replacements seem to run in the $150/pair range, so I’ll keep drilling, bending and filing once a year until I find something cheaper.
I also purged the computer cables behind Jan’s chair and installed the new APC Uninterruptible Power Supply and got it wired up. I then zip-tied the cables and neatened it all up.
Tomorrow it’s back down to Clear Lake for a big family get-together at the local Cheddar’s. We’ll leave about 9:15 for our 11:30 meetup. Really looking forward to see everyone together.
Regular Big Bang Theory fans will remember the episode where the gang was writing an app that would solve an equation just by taking a photo of it. Well, you can now have that app, or one like on your own phone. It’s called Photomath, and it’s passed every test I’ve given it.
Here’s the link for the Android version – Photomath
Check it out.
Want to try a butter that’s so good that people are willing to smuggle it just to get some?
Well,the butter is called KerryGold, a grass-fed butter that’s imported from Ireland. And if you live in Wisconsin you have to smuggle it into the state because it’s not allowed be sold there.
Wisconsin, known as The Dairy State, has always gone out of its way to protect its dairy industry, even to the point of banning margarine outright for many years. And when they did finally allow it in the state, they required it to be dyed in odd colors like white, or even pink.
And this mindset is causing KerryGold’s problem. Wisconsin’s dairy laws required that any imported butter under go a strict 32 point inspection process that takes weeks. And this is not just a one-time check, but is necessary for every single shipment that comes into the state.
And since KerryGold prides themselves in the freshness of their product, they refuse to sell it in Wisconsin. So Wisconsin KerryGold lovers regularly smuggle it back across the state lines to feed their butter addiction.
And you can buy it in the other 49 states with no problems, even at Wal-Mart. So we picked up a block of it on our last visit there. And its reputation is well deserved, and it leaves Land O Lakes in the dust. The rich, smooth, buttery taste really stands out, and makes it worth the slight extra cost.
Give it a try.
Thought for the Day:
“Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.” ― Steve Martin
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