Daily Archives: April 21, 2022

They Just Followed Us Home . . .

Jan and I had lunch once again at our new local Pho Barr just a few miles east on FM646. Our 2nd time there since it opened about 10 days ago, it was just as delicious as always.

Though we got our regular Spring Rolls, Vermicelli Bowl, and Pho Ga, we also got an order of their Fish Sauce Chicken Wings to split.

Pho Barr Fish Sauce Chicken Wings Kind of

Jan first had them a couple of weeks ago when we had Pho Barr take-out up at Brandi’s in Katy. And they were so good she wanted them again. But she also wanted her usual Grilled Chicken Vermicelli Bowl.

So we split the wings, and that gave us more of our main dishes as left-overs to bring home for dinner tomorrow.

Next up was a haircut for me. I told the guy, “Short, but Not Too Short.” Now his wife knows how to cut it, but she was busy with someone else.

But he apparently has a problem with the ‘Not Too Short’ part. The only way it could be any shorter would be if he just shaved my head.

You’d think I’d learn.

Coming home we made an HEB stop and it seems we picked up a couple of hitchhikers who followed us home.

New HEB Flamingos

I know we swore no more flamingos, but Jan said, “Oh, they’re just too adorable.” Love the flip-flops.

So now its again No More Flamingos!

Unless they’re just too adorable, I guess.


And here’s a couple of reposts from past years.

April 21, 2010

Homes of the Stars . . .

We now have a middle name!

Our upcoming grandchild’s full name will be –

Landon Thomas Morrison


We left the rig about 10 am headed for Hollywood and our Movie Star Home Tour.

We got there early enough to have lunch so we decided to try the Hooters across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater where our tour would start.

One thing we’ve noticed is the Hooter’s hot wings out west are not near as hot as the Hooters in Texas. We both had ours at “911” which is their hottest normal temp. (Some Hooters also have off the menu temps called “Bentley” and “Elvis” which are hotter still.)  But “911” out here is only about equal to ‘Hot” in Texas.

Anyway we got with our group and were led to our tour bus.

TourBus

Since rain was forecast and it was sprinkling on the way in from Lancaster, we were a little worried, seeing as how we didn’t have a roof. But our tour guide said not to worry, that if it rained, he had a backup plan. Jan asked what the backup plan was, he said “We get wet!”.

Oh boy!

But off we went. And it turned out fine. The rain held off and the sun even came out for a while.

And now, in no particular order, here are some of the homes we saw.

Bob Barker of “The Price is Right” fame

BobBarker

The mountain-top retreat, high above Beverly Hills, has been owned by both Steven Spielberg and Merv Griffin. It’s up for sale now.

Speilberg

This is the entrance to Bill Cosby’s home.

BillCosby

This one is newly-built by Richard and Kathy Hilton, the parents of Paris Hilton.

Hiltons

This home was used both in Will Smith’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and  in “Mommy Dearest”, with Faye Dunaway.

FreshPrince

This under-construction mansion is rumored to be the new home of Arnold Schwarzeneggar, but it’s supposed to be a tight secret with a lot of security around it, even under construction.

Arnolds

This was Rosemary Clooney’s home.

RosemaryClooney

This is one of the homes used in the Beverly Hillbillies.

BeverlyHillbillies

This is the Beverly Hills Tower, home to Elton John, Cher, Sidney Poitier, and Matthew Perry, among others.

BHTower

This is Nancy Reagan’s Nail Salon, where she has her nails done every Thursday.

NancyReagansNailClinic

This is all that remains of the location of “77 Sunset Strip”. It’s the valet parking area, and it’s not located at 77 Sunset Strip, anyway. It’s more like 4800.

77 Sunset Strip

This is the home of “Colombo’s” Peter Faulk.

PeterFaulk

And this is Helen Hunt’s home. And it’s up for sale, if you’re in the market.

HelenHunt

This is the back of Johnny Weissmuller’s home. It has a quarter mile long swimming pool that winds thru the estate, with trees and vines so he could still play Tarzan. His family stills owns it.

Weismuller

This is the front gate of Michael Jackson’s home.where he died.

Michael 2

The balcony here leads into the bedroom where Michael’s body was found.

Michael 1

This was the home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez.

Lucy

And right next door was Jack Benny’s home. It’s now owned by Jon Lovitz.

JackBenny

And right next door to that is Carol Burnett’s home. That’s some neighborhood.

CarolBurnet

This is Dr. Phil’s home, also known as the “House that Oprah built”.

DrPhil

This is Tom Cruise’s home, or what you can see of it.

Cruise

And this home, complete with gargoyles, was the home of Dracula’s Bela Lugosi.

Bela

This is a shot of the LA skyline, as seen from the Hollywood sign view point.

Skyline 2

And, of course the Hollywood sign itself. It originally said “Hollywoodland” and was erected in 1923 as an advertisement for the Hollywood Land Co. The last four letters were removed in 1945, or destroyed by a rocket belt-wearing Nazi spy crashing into it in the movie “The Rocketeer”. Take your pick.

Sign

Back at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, there are always a bunch of movie characters in costumes for people to have their pictures taken with. We’ve seen Spiderman, The Hulk, Batman, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia, just to name a few. However, only in Hollywood would you find KFC’s Colonel Sanders and Jesus, walking and talking.

ColonelAndJesus

Seeing this made me want KFC for dinner, so we stopped and picked some up on our way home.

I wonder if I’ll want to go to church on Sunday, too.

Stopping at KFC, I finally got to try the new Double Down Chicken Chicken Sandwich.

doubledown

It’s two strips of bacon, two slices of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese, and Colonel’s Sauce, between two chicken breasts. It’s messy to eat, unless you keep it in the wrapper, but it’s delicious.

And at 540 calories, it’s not bad calorie-wise, either. That’s 140 calories less than a Whopper and 160 calories less than a Big Mac.

And did I say it’s really, really good?


April 21, 2019

27 Friends, 4 Dogs, and . . .

One Very Nervous Cat.

Brandi realty gets into the whole Easter thing, including an Easter wreath. I didn’t know they even made Easter wreaths.

Brandi's Easter Wreath

Everyone sat out around the fire pit last night, enjoying the nice weather and the lighting.

Brandi's Backyard at Night 1

Brandi's Backyard at Night 2

Today people started pouring in around noon, with the kids hitting the pool

Brandi's Easter Pool Battle

and the adults hitting Brandi’s Moscato Punch,

Brandi's Easter Moscato Punch

and Jan’s Sausage Balls.

But everyone showed up for the Easter Lunch Buffet with Brisket, Turkey, Jalapeno Sausage, Baked Beans, Ham-Wrapped Asparagus, Salmon, Mac N Cheese, Salad, and more.

Brandi's Easter Buffet

Later, after everyone was stuffed, the older kids hid Easter Eggs all around the backyard with each child having his own color eggs to find, so no fighting over them.

Brandi Easter Egg Hunt

Then it was more pool time for everyone.

Brandi's Easter Pool Layout

Brandi's Easter Pool Party

Jan and I finally got home about 6:30, trying to get to bed early for week-long sprint to Friday.

Brandi sent us home with a couple of her full-size suitcases for our upcoming trip. They looked awfully big so the first thing I did was to measure them to be sure they meet Lufthansa’s requirements.

One of the cases measures 31”H x 18.5”W x 11”D for a total of 60.5”

The other one measures 29”H x 19”W x 10”D for a total of 58”

Lufthansa allows a total size of 62”, so we’re good to go.

Well, also with the 50# limit, too.

But I did figure out that the laptop bag I was planning on using as my second carry-on is too large, so I’ll have to find something smaller that will still fit all the electronics I want to carry, I.e. laptop, power supply, Samsung Tablet, Kindle, Kindle Fire,etc.

Tomorrow is my second-to-last day at work before we leave, and I still have a lot to wrap up. So I’ve started to prioritize things, things that must be done, things I’d like to do, and things that would be nice, but that I can blow off.

One thing I’ve decided to do is to take the rent car back Thursday afternoon rather than early Friday morning, since we won’t need it after that.

Hopefully.


Thought For The Day:


They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody? – Princess Diana

  

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