Daily Archives: December 29, 2020
Toast And Yolks . . .
Heading out this afternoon, our first stop was the new Toasted Yolk brunch place that just opened out on the Interstate. Another restaurant in the Snooze, The Egg and I, First Watch genre, we were looking forward to trying it, specially since it’s so much closer than Snooze up in Webster.
Jan got her usual, their version of Avocado Toast,
Yes, there is Avocado Toast under that egg.
She said it was really good, but not quite as good as Snooze’s version.
I had the Double Decker Omelet, with ham, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, and jalapenos.
Along with Cheese Grits, Fruit, and an English Muffin. Really good.
And because it was their Grand Opening, we got free Cranberry Mimosas.
Nice!
Then it was on up to WalMart/Sam’s/Kroger’s for a few things before finally getting home a little before 5pm.
A Question for our Readers. Does anyone know what this decal on the rear window of an SUV. Just curious because we couldn’t figure it out.
Thought For The Day:
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
December 29, 2011
Ribs and Haircuts . . .
After yesterday’s kind of laidback day of just reinstalling the washer, today was much busier with a long list of client stops and errands.
My first two stops were with client’s. At the first one I wanted to get AT&T to change them from a legacy static IP account to a regular dynamic IP account, and also save them $40 a month.
But as it turned out I didn’t have all the account info so I’ll have to come back tomorrow and try again. It would be nice if I didn’t have to go to their home to do this, but I’ve found it goes a lot easier if I’m calling from the phone number on the account when I’m trying to make changes.
My next client stop was a quick visit to talk over the two new computers I’m getting for his office.
And now it was errand time. My first stop was Lowe’s to return some extra duct pieces that I had on hand in case I needed them for the washer install. Then It was across I-45 to Sam’s Club for a few things.
After that, it was time for my semi-annual haircut (no jokes, please.) I’ve been using this same barber for about 15 years, and it’s nice just to walk in, sit down, and not even have to tell him how I want it cut.
Next, after stopping at Kroger’s to pick up some coffee creamer, I went next door to Chase Bank to deposit a check, and also order two new Visa Debit Cards for Jan and I. Our old ones, mine especially, are so worn that they won’t scan reliably anymore. Unfortunately we can’t keep our old numbers so I will have to update a number of online accounts with the next number.
My last stop was our storeroom to drop off the furniture dolly I had used for the washer repair and pick up the Christmas ornament storage boxes so we can take down the Christmas tree.
Finally about 4:15 I was headed back to the rig. On my way down I-45 I passed by Spring Creek BBQ and decided I had a hankering for ribs for dinner, so getting back to the rig, we turned right back around and headed out to Spring Creek. And as usual, really good ribs, and the veggie sides are excellent too.
Heading home we stopped off at a nearby PetSmart to pick up a new kitty litter scoop. Then it was back to the rig for the night.
Tomorrow we’re meeting Brandi and Lowell at Texas Tea Room for lunch and then a few more errands, with a side trip back to my client’s home to try AT&T again.
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Thought for the Day:
Behind every successful rancher is a wife who works in town.
December 29, 2012
In The Outback . . .
We woke up to a clear, but cold morning so it just seemed to be a good idea to sit around, enjoy the day, and do pretty much nothing.
Jan read, watch TV, and napped, and I played on the computer and napped. Like I said, pretty much nothing.
A little after 4pm Jan and I headed up to Webster to have dinner at Outback Steakhouse. We were supposed to meet Brandi there, but she called a little earlier to say she wasn’t feeling well so she wouldn’t be getting together with us.
I had an 12 oz. Outback Special Steak, while Jan had her usual Alice Springs Chicken. Yes, she goes to a steak place and has chicken.
After a really good meal, but so-so service, Jan and I stopped off at King Food to get Brandi some of her favorite Won Ton Soup, kind of like Chinese chicken soup, I guess.
After dropping off her soup, we left Brandi’s and headed over to Sam’s and then Wal-Mart for a few things before we got back to the rig a little before 8 pm.
Tomorrow we plan on doing pretty much nothing again. We’ll see how it goes.
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Thought for the Day:
“God made man but Sam Colt made them equal.”
December 29, 2013
Kindles, New and Old . . .
Today started out as sunny and beautiful, but we didn’t have a chance to sit outside with Mister and our coffee because Jan was waiting for our granddaughter Piper to come and pick her up for their Girl’s Day Out with a movie, lunch, and Mani-Pedi’s.
Piper showed up about 11 AM and she and Jan headed up to Webster to see “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, starring Ben Stiller. Later at dinner, they both said that they really enjoyed the movie, although neither Jan or Piper had ever read the original Thurber short story, so they couldn’t say how closely the movie followed the original story. The 1947 movie version staring Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, and Boris Karloff. didn’t either. The reason is that many (most) of occurrences in the story are very dated, and probably wouldn’t make sense to today’s moviegoers.
Back at the rig, Mister did get to spend most of the day outside in the sun while I caught up on a bunch of small jobs and cleanup chores around here.
Since Jan already has her Kindle Paperwhite, and mine is on order, we really don’t need our original Kindles anymore, so I spent some time deregistering and resetting them to the factory defaults. This brings them back to new out of the box condition so they can be re-registered under a new account.
I did this because we’re going to give them to Chris and Linda for their use. They have their iPods for Kindle books, but these are lighter and work better in bright sunlight. Hope they enjoy them as much as we have.
About 4:30 I headed up to Webster to meet up with Chris, Linda, Piper, and Jan at the Buffalo Wild Wings. Love their Mango Habanero sauce. Sweet and very hot. But BWW was not to be. Getting there about 5, I was told that there would be about an hour wait.
Huh?
What’s up with that? The place looked pretty full but there was only about 6 people waiting for a table. Then I realized that there were football playoff games today, and since BWW is primarily a sports bar, people had been camped out all afternoon there, watching football, eating wings, and drinking beer, emphasis on beer.
So after a short conference in the parking lot, we all headed right down the street to eat dinner at Zio’s Italian Restaurant. We used to eat here all the time, but for some reason we haven’t been in a good while. Dinner was good, and it’s always fun to spend time with family.
The only downside is that Jan seems to be coming down with something. She woke this morning kind of congested, and by evening was starting to feel kind of ‘iffy’ with a bad sore throat.
We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
Lowell sent over this photo of Landon playing in the park, telling his daddy how to climb from swing to swing. Seems to be pretty insistent about it.
Not sure what’s going to be in store for tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes with Jan.
Thought for the Day:
December 29, 2014
I Lost 80 pounds!
or 79.2 pounds, anyway.
Once again today started way too early, as I was up about 6:15 so we could leave for Brandi’s at 7. Jan’s going to be Landon-sitting today through Wednesday, since Brandi and Lowell are working this week while Landon’s out of school.
We didn’t have time for coffee, but we had picked up Supreme Croissants from Jack in the Box last night on the way home, so we just had those on the way.
I had allowed an extra 45 minutes for the normal hour and 15 minutes trip, assuming we would hit a lot of morning rush hour traffic, but we saw absolutely none. The traffic moved along with no slowdowns whatsoever. Which meant we got there early enough to stop for coffees before we got to Brandi’s
Since I went to bed late and got up early, I decided to take a nap for a couple of hours at Brandi’s before heading back to the rig, getting back home a little after 1pm. Then it was time to get to work.
First up I wanted to install my new transfer switch and power converter under the bed. But first I had to get the Source Manager Inverter/Converter/Transfer Switch out. Which turned out to be a lot more trouble than I figured.
The first thing I did was to disconnect shore power outside at the pedestal. Then I started looking for how the Source Manager was fastened down. The only two bolts I could find were just inside the air vent. But when I removed them I still couldn’t pull it out.
Pulling the cover off the unit, I could see the problem. It was being held down by the wiring coming up from the bottom. In this case, the heavy duty 12 volt cables running to the house batteries. But before I disconnected them, I went out to the battery bay and pulled the 300 amp fuse that’s in the line.
This let me safely unhook the cables without worrying about shorting something.
Next I removed the end panel to allow me better access to the shore power and generator cables coming into the unit.
So now all the power cables were disconnected and I should have been able to lift it out. But something was still holding it down. It would come up about six inches but that was it.
Reaching all around underneath, I discovered a bare ground wire about the thickness of a pencil that was the culprit. And after a lot of struggling I was able to get a pair of lineman pliers under there to cut the wire.
So now it should be easy to lift out, right?
Wrong!
It was like trying to lift a box of boat anchors. Part of the problem was that there was no good way to grab hold of it, but the real problem was that it was just heavy as hell. And taking the screws out and lifting up the relay panel showed me the reason.
This thing had a big, hulking transformer in the size of my head that must weigh 40 pounds all by itself.
But finally as I listened to my back scream for mercy, I manhandled the thing out and on to the bathroom floor.
I had to know how much this thing weighs, so I set it on the bathroom scale. This blankety-blank thing is 24 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 14 inches high, and weighs 79.2 pounds.
No wonder I had trouble lifting it. Well, that’s 79 pounds gone, at least it will be when I figured out how to get it out the door and into the truck. And I have no idea how I’m going to get it into the dumpster.
And it’s all going to be replaced by three boxes this size or smaller.
This one is the new transfer switch, all wired up and ready to go.as soon as I put the cover back on. I was running out of daylight so I wanted to get it up and going. I’ll get it mounted tomorrow when I install the power converter. I’ll also fire up the generator to be sure it’s switching over like it’s supposed to.
Tomorrow I’ll finish up with the power stuff, and then install the new bathroom faucet and the kitchen sink hose.
Hopefully.
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Thought for the Day:
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. – Arthur C. Clarke
December 29, 2016
The Good and the Bad . . .
Ah, the mischievousness of Texas winter weather.
Yesterday it was 82° with a low last night of 65. Today was a high of 64° with a low forecast for tonight of 46.
It is nice to have winter back, though.
Thought first I’d finish up yesterday’s hit or miss dinner plans in San Antonio. Since we ate at Magic Time Machine last time we were there, the obvious choice was our other favorite, La Fonda on Main. But we had said we would get together there with our friend’s Jim and Peri Dean next time. Turns out they wouldn’t have been able to get together with us where ever we went because they were at an RV rally over in Sealy.
We both decided steak sounded good, but none, neither Saltgrass, Outback, nor Texas Roadhouse, were close enough to be attractive. Finally I said, “Magic Time Machine” and got a resounding, “YES” from Jan. And then a “How far is it?”
“5 minutes!”
And off we went.
Checking in at the desk, we ask if Lady GaGa was working and said we wanted her. Even though it was 8:30 and they supposedly closed at 9, we still had to wait 15 minutes to get seated, along with a number of other groups.
Lady GaGa remembered us which was nice since it had been almost a month since we were there before.
Lady was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed watching her perform for the kids at the other tables.
And the food was as delicious as always.
My Ribeye was cooked perfectly, Medium-Rare, with char around the edges.
Along with the soup and salad from the ‘Salad Car,
a 1952 MG TD Roadster, and of course, the hot fresh bread, it’s a $25 meal that’s hard to match. And since there’s enough food to eat half and take half home, it’s actually a $12 meal. Neat!
One thing that’s always impressed me about MTM is the fact that it DOES have such good food. The reason I say this is that MTM is essentially an entertainment venue, especially for the kids, not just a restaurant. And those kind of places don’t have a reputation for good food. Think Chuck E. Cheese.
The only exceptions I can really think of are Tilman Fertitta’s Rainforest Café and Aquarium restaurants. But he insists on top quality in all his locations, and is known for showing up unannounced at locations all over the country to check things out.
I mentioned in last night’s blog that I had finally gotten a chance to check out Sam’s Club’s new Scan & Go app. First up you link your Sam’s Club card number and the credit card(s) you want to use. You can link more than one credit card.
In my case it already knew my Sam’s Club card number from my email address
Then as you shop the store, you use the app to scan the bar code of each item. The app identifies the item and the price, and puts it in your app shopping cart, giving you a running total as it goes.
When you’re done shopping, you just hit the Check Out button. The app gives you the Total with tax, and then you hit the Pay Now button. If you have more than one credit card on the account, it asks which one you want to use. Then a bar code shows up on your phone.
As you’re going out the door, you show your phone to the checkout person there. She scans your bar code and then a receipt shows up on your phone. All fine and dandy.
Except . . . there’s always an Except.
Except the bar code scanner function doesn’t work with this app on my phone. The square box that shows your phone’s camera view that you center on the bar code just stays black. So every item that I buy I have to manually type in the bar code. But even with this, it’s still better than standing in line, taking every thing out of your basket, and then putting it all back in again.
Now my camera works fine by itself, and on other apps like the QR Code Reader. But strangely enough, the one other app it doesn’t work on, at least now, is the scanner on the Wal-Mart app that you use to scan your receipts for the Savings Catcher Rebate Program.
The Wal-Mart app used to work, and then it quit for awhile, and then it came back. And then it died, never to return. I always thought maybe that this was due to getting a new WM app update. But with Sam’s app doing the same thing, I’m rethinking that.
Googling the problem shows I’m not alone on this. But I’ve got some ideas and I’ll get back to you on it.
The Good is that gas prices are up and things seem to be booming in the Oil ‘Bidness’. The Bad is that gas prices are up and it hurts more to fill the tank in the truck.
Yesterday morning coming home from the gate at 5 am, the gas price at Wal-Mart was $1.99. Then when we stopped to fill up there on our way to San Antonio about 1:30 pm, the price was $2.05. Then this afternoon it had jumped to $2.09. Ouch.
And back in November it got down as low as $1.74. That’s 35 cents a gallon in just a couple of months. Ouch, again.
Finishing up, one thing I forgot to mention yesterday, was that as we were coming out of the Rogue One movie last night, Jan called our son Chris to tell him how much we had enjoyed it.
And in one of those strange coincidences that’s when he told us that Debbie Reynolds had died.
Thought for the Day:
“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.” ― Lewis Carroll
