Hippopotamuses . . .
We were on our way up to the Saltgrass Steakhouse in Webster for our monthly Alvin Opry get-together about 1:15pm. We were short two people this month due to family obligations, so it was just five of us, Jan and I, Connie, and Bob and Maria.
Jan and I both started with our usual Wedge Salads,
while Jan entréed with her usual Filet with Grilled Green Beans.
My usual was the 16 oz. Ribeye, also with the Green Beans.
I did find it kind of funny that our bread was served in ‘Sword In The Bread’ mode.
But unfortunately I didn’t become King of England when I pulled the knife free.
After our usual great meal, and scheduling next month’s meeting for our local Red Lobster, we headed home about 3:30pm
I’ve got to call in tomorrow to schedule my lumbar MRI/X-Rays in the next few days or week, hopefully before the end of the year. If I’m going to do this operation, I want to get it done and not let it drag out.
But that will probably have to wake until next year, just due to the holidays.
This YouTube video has been circulating around the Net from a zoo in India about a Hippo who has decide to go on a Walkabout from his enclosure.
But a security guard has other ideas, and dissuades him of the idea. But not how you might think.
What’s really funny are some of the comments criticizing the guard because he’s slapping the hippo on the snout. Yeah, like that’s going to hurt him.
Killing more than 500 people a year, hippos are the deadliest mammal on earth. And no, that’s not a gun the guard pulls out, but a walkie-talkie.
I like the way the hippo settles back into the enclosure like a pouting puppy. It gives you the feeling that these two have done this before.
Of course, maybe the guard just wants a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Thought For The Day:
Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs.
Jan says this certainly applies to me.
December 6, 2010
Vipers and Pelicans . . .
Today got off to a late start after we slept in kind of recovering from our trip home. So I didn’t leave the coach until about 1pm, taking care of a couple of errands and then stopping off at a client’s office for a while.
A few days ago I told you about having Buffalo Wings made with the hottest chilies in the world, the Ghost Chili or Naga Jolokia (Also known as the Bhut Jolokia).
You Learn Something New Every Week
So just when I was able to cross off another item on my bucket list (I’m not sure why, but a lot of things on my bucket list sure seem to involve food.), along comes a new, hotter pepper, the Naga Viper. Although it looks a lot like the Ghost Chili, it’s supposedly 30% hotter at about 1,300,000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units).
I guess it would come between the Standard US Grade Pepper Spray and the Naga Jolokia.
The Viper was developed by crossing 3 peppers, including the Naga. And since the grower lives in England it will probably be a while until I get to try them. Bummer!
I got back to the rig about 3, and then Jan and I headed up to Chili’s for ‘lupper’. But before we left the park I got this shot of two pelicans sitting out on the overturned boat. For some strange reason pelicans are one of Jan’s favorite birds.
Leaving Chili’s we stopped off at our son Chris’ before heading back to the rig for the night.
December 6, 2011
Hawks and Buffets . . .
I kept my phone in the bedroom last night in case I got an early call from AT&T. As it was I got up at 9am to be ready when they called.
And they did call about 10:30. But instead of giving me the promised 1 hour heads up, I got 10 minutes. Typical of Ma Bell.
It took me about 25 minutes to get up to my client’s house, where I found the technician still outside at the circuit box checking things out. But after checking out the line, and replacing the DSL modem inside, we still could not get an Internet light.
So by 11:45 I was back on the phone with AT&T Tech Support trying to work out the problem. But after another hour on the phone, and running a lot more tests, on my end and theirs, she gave up and bumped us up to Level II Support. She said they would call me within an hour.
Since my client was leaving town tomorrow, and needed Internet access today, I took the hour to head back to the rig to get my Verizon AirCard and Cradlepoint router. Since I’ve recently been using the park WiFi with good success, I haven’t been using my AirCard.
So I used my AirCard to plug into their router and get all their machines and network printers back online. They were happy, and it took some pressure off me to this problem fixed immediately. They’ll be gone 10 days, so hopefully, AT&T will be able to figure it out by then.
Finally, about 3:45 I gave up on hearing back from AT&T within “one hour”, and headed back to the rig.
Jan had a fun day with her bird feeder. It seems like every bird in the area showed up.
A little bit of everything here.
But a little later, all the birds suddenly disappeared. And then she saw why.
Another feathered visitor was checking things out.
I guess this Coopers Hawk (I think?) thought this place was a bird buffet. But he doesn’t seem to have dined this time.
About 5pm Jan and I headed up to Nassau Bay to pick up our granddaughter Piper so she could accompany Jan and our friend Maria to play Bingo down in La Marque. Piper, Jan and I ate supper at Monterey’s Little Mexico before Maria picked them up about 6:45, and I headed back to the rig for a couple of hours.
Later I drove down to La Marque to pick them up about 10pm. No luck this time, although the lady next to them won the $750 jackpot, and our friend Maria won $200.
Maybe next time.
December 6, 2012
Sous-Vide and Cheesecake . . .
Jan and I headed out a little before 2 pm for couple of clients and dinner, with my first stop being at a client’s home office.
They’re out of town until the end of the year, but I do so much work for them, I have a key. The problem was that while I was on the road this past year, the two-line phone system I had installed several years ago, had gotten zapped somehow.
Apparently they tried to replace it themselves, but just managed to screw up their phone lines, so they disconnected everything and left it for me to sort.
Oh, and even better, they lost the manual. But lucky for me, they have this thing called the Internet that let’s me just download another one.
Then it was on to another client for a few minutes to straighten out a printing problem. Turns out that someone had been playing with the network settings on the computer and it couldn’t see the remote printer anymore. But it’s fixed now.
Leaving the client’s, Jan and I headed over to the Cheesecake Factory to meet our friend’s Bob and Maria, and Connie, and her mother. We had decided to eat early, about 4pm, because just a little later they were on a wait.
Along with the good meal, we had such a good time talking and reminiscing, that we spent about two hours there before we finally left. We also made plans to meet again at King Food in two weeks for another get-together. We’re looking forward to it.
Next up was a quick stop by Brandi’s to pick up the mail and some Amazon packages that had come in. Then it was right down the road to the Sam’s Club to pick up some vitamins. And then finally back to the rig for the night.
I came across something interesting the other day. It’s how to cook meat in a Beer Cooler. Of course, in the world of haute cuisine, it has to have a fancy name. And in this case, it’s called “Sous-Vide”. Which, I think is French for “Cooking in a Beer Cooler”, but I could be wrong about that. Apparently restaurants have been doing this for years using a specialized appliance that cost around $500.
Basically the idea is to immerse your meat, packaged in vacuum-sealed, or even ziplock,bags, in water held at the temperature you want meat to end up at.
For example, a rare steak should be cooked to an internal temperature of 125 degrees. So you immerse your steak in 130 degree water (to allow for a slight cool-down from adding the cold meat) and leave it in the closed cooler for about an hour.
Your meat will come up perfectly cooked, edge to edge, and moist and flavorful. And even better, because the meat cannot overcook, it can be held for several hours without losing quality or flavor. It’s for this that many high-end restaurants use their Sous-Vide cookers.
They can have five different ones, each set for the required temperatures for rare, medium rare, medium, etc. Steaks are held in the cookers all evening, perfectly cooked. As they’re needed, they’re pulled out of the cookers, thrown on a hot grill for 30 seconds on each side to char the outside, and off to your table it goes, perfectly done and delicious. According to the article, the process is also good for tenderizing tough cuts as well.
Vegetables also come out moist and flavorful, but since they require higher water temps and longer cooking times, you’ll probably need the real machine.
So if you’ve got a beer cooler and a steak, have at it. Just be sure to invite me over when dinner’s ready.
December 6, 2014
How Low Can It Go . . .
Jan and I headed out down to the Clear Lake area about 10 am on our quest to empty out our 10’ x 25’ storeroom before the end of the year, so we can finally get rid of it. I mean, we’ve only had it since August 1994.
That’s right., we’ve had the storeroom for over 20 years. And it was originally only for a few months. We rented it to store a lot of our furniture while we were doing some remodeling before Jan’s parents came to visit. Then it just became a convenient place to tuck stuff away. And in 2007 when we moved out of the house and into an apartment as we started getting ready to go full-time in 2008, it really came in handy.
We first all met up at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood for lunch. We’ve all been eating at Floyd’s for about 15 years, and it never disappoints.
One really funny thing that happened was when Landon was trying to show his Uncle Chris how to play a game on his phone.
Finally, apparently exasperated with his uncle not catching on, Landon handed him the iPad and said, “Here. Play this one. It’s easier.”
Out of the mouth of babes.
Then it was right down the road to our storeroom where we started hauling stuff out and sorting it into piles for Goodwill, Trash, Keep, and Look-Through. We actually only worked for about an hour and a half, but made a lot of progress, taking loads to Goodwill and the dump. A couple of more times like this should finish things up.
If we get to move down to Galveston Bay RV Resort in the next week or so, we should have no problem wrapping it up.
Leaving the storage facility, Lowell and Brandi, and Jan and I drove over to the Baybrook Mall Starbuck’s for Chestnut Praline Lattes before all meeting back at Chris’
While Chris taught Landon to fly our new quadcopters, I worked on resurrecting Linda’s desktop computer. I had to go through a couple of other computers to find a power supply that would work in hers, but finally got it working again.
Saying our goodbyes about 3:30, we made a couple of stops before finally heading back toward Conroe around 4:30. Along the way, I was very happy to see this diesel price.
Hope it keeps going down.
After more traffic than I expected, we finally got home about 6:15, after a nice, productive day. And tomorrow will be a stay-at-home day.
Yeah, right.
December 6, 2015
On to Colorado River . . .
For some reason, Jan and I were both up at about 6:30 this morning, earlier than we really needed to be, since we didn’t plan on leaving the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails until between 10 and 11.
But it did give us a relaxing time for our coffee and toasted pumpkin bread before we slowly started getting ready to roll. Jan was in her second day of a three day migraine cluster, so going slow was good for her.
About 8:30 I went outside and took care of the water, sewer, awnings, and satellite, leaving only shore power still connected. I also disconnected the engine block heater that had been on all night, a good thing since it went down to 36° last night. But with the block heater, the oil temp was 130° this morning, so it’s doing its job.
We pulled out of our site about 10:30, with Jan following in the truck so we could get hitched up before we left the park. Finally about 11, we were out on I-45 and heading south.
By changing our travel day between parks from Friday to Sunday a few weeks ago, we really cut down on the traffic, so we had a nice easy trip down to Beltway 8 and then around to I-10 west. We always make a pit shop on the wide shoulders just east of Brookshire, and then it was smooth riding until we got to the Colorado River Thousand Trails a little after 1pm. We were lucky enough to get our favorite A2 site, so we were quickly parked and set up.
A little later, I went down to the office to pay and get our gate codes for our two week stay. One thing I really like about the Colorado River TT over Lake Conroe is that here they give you all 3 gate codes you’ll need for your stay. If fact, Barbara, the Ranger who checked me in, said they already have all the codes for the rest of the year, and into next year.
But at Lake Conroe only the Manager knows the code and he doesn’t tell anyone until the guardhouse opens Tuesday morning at 9am. And since they won’t give you the code over the phone, you can end up in the same fix we did a couple of years ago when we left the park about 7am for a doctor’s appointment down in Clear Lake, and then didn’t get back until after 9pm, and after the guardhouse had already closed.
So we couldn’t get in the gate and had to wait around outside until someone came in, so we could zip in behind them. Luckily we only had to wait 15 minutes or so.
After goofing off for a while I spent some time going through things, getting stuff together for my upcoming plumbing jobs this coming Wednesday while Jan’s staying at Brandi’s for a few days.
Actually I have several more projects in mind if I don’t run into any delays on the first three, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.
December 6, 2016
Beeville Bound . . .
Well, it looks the rain is over for a while. In fact today was sunny and in the low 70’s, so very nice for a change.
Jan and I headed out about 1:30pm for our daytrip down to Beeville, but our first stop was the Karnes County National Bank in Kenedy. I had set up my online banking account there a couple of weeks ago, but then the next time I tried, the system wouldn’t let me in, and said there was a problem with my user name. Well, since I use RoboForm to store my logins and passwords, I knew they were right.
And as far as I can tell, there’s no way to reset it online, or even a number to call. And although it took a while at the bank they were finally able to get it straightened out and working out.
And maybe because of my above problem, I ordered some checks while I was there since it wouldn’t let do it online. It said it couldn’t verify my identify.
Now with both these chores done, we headed out on the 30 mile trip south down to Beeville. Our first stop was the Beeville Diner, a place recommended to us by Nancy, our RV park’s owner a few weeks ago. And boy was she right.
Though the Yelp reviews were hit and miss, with some 1 star reviews and some 5 star ones. And it seems the 1 star ones were mostly due to bad service.
But that was not our experience.
We were seated immediately and our drink orders taken. And when our drinks were brought out a couple of minutes later, the young lady took our food order.
Jan and I both ordered salads, and we split an order of their Sweet Tangy Golden Sauce Wings.
Jan said these were the best wings she’s ever had. And I concur. And believe me, we’ve eaten a LOT of wings over the years.
They had a crunchy crust and the sauce was delicious. I would have liked them a little hotter, but I can do that myself.
Jan got the Avocado Salad with Crispy Chicken,
while I got the Berry Nut Salad with Crispy Chicken.
Both were delicious, and very big. Almost too big to finish.
Beeville Diner was really good, and worth another trip back down to Beeville.
Next up was our movie pick, Arrival, which started at 4pm. Starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, the word of mouth has been really good on this picture, a story about 12 alien ships landing about the world, and the race to learn to communicate with them.
Amy Adams plays Louise Brooks, a linguist, who is recruited along with Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a theoretical physicist, to decode the alien’s message.
This is a ‘thinking’ science fiction movie, more in the line of Matt Damon’s “The Martian”, rather action movies like Star Wars’ robots and ray guns. There’s a lot going on in this movie, with a big twist at the end, that completely changes how you see the story.
Well worth seeing, and actually a movie I’d like to see again, because I’m sure there are things we missed.
So a really good movie.
Go See It.
December 6, 2017
To Serve Man . . .
I spent most of the day at work helping the Spectrum VOIP tech get our phone system working again. The problem started early this morning when apparently Spectrum tried update the firmware in their router and our phones. And it did not go well.
Not at all.
When the office manager came in this morning, we had no phones whatsoever, not even a dial tone. And maybe even worse, when someone called in, it would ring once, and then give the caller what sounded like a Bronx cheer, you know, Brrrrraaaatttt.
The first thing we found was that the Spectrum router had been ‘bricked’, I.e. dead. It would not even turn on. This is what can happen when a firmware update goes wrong.
Once we found that, we were dead in the water because the tech guy didn’t have a spare on his truck, and it was a couple of hours before he came back with one. Then with a new router in place, we took a look at the four phones. And they weren’t much better off.
Like the router, one of the phones was also ‘bricked’, but luckily he did have a spare one with him, and the other three were fine after we rebooted them.
When in doubt, reboot.
So, after almost 4 hours, we finally had a working phone system again.
One thing did come out of going in to work today, my new toy came in. A TP-Link Smart Switch.
Using it, you can control AC devices from either your phone, or link it to your Alexa Echo, Echo Dot, or Google Home and control them by just asking Alexa to turn them on and off for you.
And if you don’t have an Echo or a Dot, you can also get an Echo Dot with TP-Link Switch for only $5 more that the cost of the Dot alone.
Setup turned out to be pretty easy.
1. First up, download the ‘Kasa for Mobile’ app on your phone.
2. Connect your phone to a ‘2.4 GHz’ WiFi network. This is the one that gets a lot of people messed up. Most RV’ers use some kind of MiFi in their rigs and everyone I’ve seen defaults to the 5 GHz setting. not the 2.4 GHz one. So the Smart Switch will not see it when the time comes.
And again, most MiFi’s also have a 2nd WiFi account called a Guest account, which is normally not turned on, and it can be set for either 2.4 or 5 GHz. So turn the Guest account on and set it for 2.4 GHz. When you now look at your WiFi signals, you will now see a new signal to connect to, using a new password that your MiFi will give you.
Then it’s just a matter of following the instructions on the Kasa app, and in just a few minutes you will be able to control your device from your phone.
And it only takes a few minutes more to link it to your Alexa/Dot, and then you can just ask Alexa to turn on your device(s).
A neat toy.
Voyager I, launched in 1977, is now over 13 billion miles from Earth, the farthest any manmade object has ever traveled. And it’s still ticking, sending back data on a regular schedule. Of course as far away as it is, it takes that data over 19 HOURS to get back to Earth.
But to keep this data flowing, Voyager needs to keep its parabolic antenna pointed toward the Earth, And to do this it’s periodically using its Attitude Control Thrusters to aim it in our direction. But after over 40 years of use, they’re starting to get a little flakey.
So NASA engineers decided to try using the craft’s trajectory correction maneuver thrusters, last used in 1980 for a course correction. And in a great example of NASA craftsmanship, the thrusters fired up and worked perfectly. After 37years!
Of course it took over 38 hours, 19 hours out and 19 hours back, before they knew the thrusters had worked.
Now that’s a long distance call.
You may remember that Voyager was one of the spacecraft that was carrying The Golden Record, containing photos and audio greeting as well as music.
One of the photos illustrated a galactic map locating the Earth in relation to known pulsars, essentially 14 interstellar beacons to guide aliens to the Earth. At the time, a number of scientist said it wasn’t really a good idea to give the aliens a guidebook back to us.
In fact a famous cartoon at the time (a cartoon I couldn’t find a copy of) showed a group of aliens using the Record as a takeout menu.
“To Serve Man”
“It’s A Cookbook!”
December 6, 2018
I Was Hoping For a Pirate Eye Patch . . .
We were up too early and out the door by 4:30, getting to the Bay Area Surgicenter by about 4:50, before the free valet service had started up, so we had to park in the next lot and walk over to the office.
And after being called into Pre-op about 6:15, she was being wheeled into the operating area by 6:45, and ready to go home by 7:30. She was still a little groggy, but ready to get out of there.
Besides all the after-care instructions, they also gave Jan a clear plastic shield to wear over her eye for the next three days while she’s asleep to be sure she doesn’t rub her eye.
Personally I was hoping for something like this.
But no such luck.
After a quick stop at my client’s to check out a problem, we made our planned breakfast stop at Snooze. While I got my usual Shrimp and Grits with a side of fruit, Jan got her favorite Avocado Toast. At least that’s what she thought she was getting.
But it turns out that Snooze does their version as a Benedict, with Hollandaise Sauce. Plus she asked for her eggs well-scrambled, but they came out much less then ‘well’, but more like ‘wet’. I told her to send it back, but just didn’t feel like it. So she just scraped off the eggs/sauce and ate it that way.
Coming home we made a Costco stop for gas, and it was a new first. It was the first time that we’ve gotten gas at Costco that it wasn’t cheaper than the last time. It was still $1.81, just like last week.
Getting home we both did the nap thing for a few hours. And since Jan kept her glasses on I didn’t worry about putting the shield over her eye.
Later, about 3pm, and Jan not being really happy with her breakfast, we drove over to the nearby Chili’s for linner/lupper, unusual for us since we usually only have one meal a day.
Jan had the Ribs and I had the Grilled Chicken Caribbean Salad, both really good.
Tomorrow Jan had her follow-up checkup on her surgery, and hopefully a schedule for her right eye. We had thought it might be next Thursday, the 13th, but it looks like it will actually be Thursday, the 20th instead. But we’ll see tomorrow.
Actually the 20th works best for us anyway, since my second session of Photo Dynamic Therapy, I.e. setting my head on fire again, is already scheduled for the 13th.
But whenever her next surgery is, at least the eye patch is reversible.
December 6, 2019
Friday in NYC . . .
Well, I had planned to have big, full blog with all the photos I took with my Panasonic FZ80, but I found that I couldn’t get the photos off the camera.
I had planned to just plug the SD card into my laptop and transfer them over. But I brought my new “Hungarian” laptop with me, the one I bought in Budapest last May, when I left my other one at home. But since I also left my camera at home, I never got to try plugging an SD card into it.
So I never discovered that this Hungarian ASUS model does not have an SD port.
Bummer!
So I would just plug a cable directly from the camera to the laptop, right? But then I discovered that, though my Panasonic uses a standard USB to micro USB to externally charge the battery, it uses a micro HDMI to HDMI cable to transfer video from the camera.
Which I didn’t have.
Bummer, too!
But the 3rd times the charm, right?
My camera has a WiFi connection that uses an Android app to connect your phone to the camera, allowing you to transfer photos, and even remotely control the camera.
But after I downloaded the app, connected my laptop to the camera WiFi signal, it would only transfer one or two photos and then lock up.
So the 4th times the charm, right?
Nope. Because I didn’t have any more ideas.
So all you get tonight is a couple of photos I took with my phone.
When you come to NYC you just have to try a street vendor hot dog.
Jan got a Chili Cheese Dog with Jalapenos, while I got a standard New York Style Dog. When in Rome, right?
And of course, a big cheesy warm pretzel.
All really good.
And I did get one photo of the beautiful Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.
Really magnificent!
December 6, 2021
Last Time I Died . . .
Today was our busiest day with 3 shows and exhibits booked, with our first stop being the Titanic exhibit right on the main drag.
The building is said to be the same basic size as the Titanic, but only half the length.
This was also one of only two places where we had to wear a mask. Of course the bow of the ship should have been a giveaway.
Merry Christmas, indeed.
The other place that required a mask was our Showboat Branson Belle non-cruise Dinner Cruise, due to Coast Guard regulations.
When you enter, the first thing you see is the famous Grand Staircase.
This staircase was built from the original plans using all the specified woods and materials of the original.
We were told we couldn’t take any photographs inside the exhibit, but somebody did it, resulting in all the online photographs like the one above. Don’t know what the problem is. Are they afraid someone will take a lot of photographs and then build their own museum?
It’s here that they give you a random card with a passenger or crew member’s name on it, and then at the end of the exhibit you can check the passenger list to see if you lived or died.
We did a traveling version of this in Houston years ago, and that time I was a Third Class Steward, and I died.
This time I was a young, healthy male 1st Class passenger who certainly wasn’t going to up HIS seat in the lifeboat for any Third Class riff-raff, so I survived.
They had a lot of really neat exhibits with artifacts recovered from the ship. In addition there were a lot of interesting facts along the way.
The Titanic was not fully booked. Capable of holding 2,566 passengers and crew, there were only 2,240 onboard for the maiden voyage.
If every lifeboat had been filled, they would have only held 1,178 people. But the ship was ‘ unsinkable’, right? So why would you need more than the 20 lifeboats onboard?
The iceberg became visible to the the lookout in the Crow’s Nest only 37 seconds before the impact.
And
If the Titanic had hit the iceberg head-on, it almost certainly would not have sunk. The ship had 16 water-tight compartments, and could stay afloat with as many as 4 flooded. So a head-on collision would have breached 1, or maybe 2 compartments, leaving the ship afloat.
But because the Titanic grazed along side the iceberg, ripping open 6 compartments, the ship was doomed.
After our 90 minute Titanic visit it was time for lunch. We had been asking locals about good places to eat, and Billy Bob’s Dairyland kept coming up.
And since it was right down the Strip, we were off.
And although there were other obvious tourists like us there, it was easy to tell the locals, who were greeting each other, and joking with the waitresses. And the burgers make it obvious why the locals like it so much.
Jan had the Cheeseburger with Sweet Potato Fries.
I had the Cheeseburger with a side of Chili. And it was easy to see why the locals like the place so much. Nothing fancy, just a delicious burger.
Then after a nice nap back at the room, we were off to our next show, Legends, at the iconic Dick Clark American Bandstand Theater.
First up was Dean Martin, complete with the Gold-digger’s Dancers.
This guy was really good and passed my test. When I closed my eyes, I was listening to Dean Martin.
Next up was the Blues Brothers, again dead on, including the dance moves.
Also really good.
Next up was Whitney Houston, who was just amazing.
Her voice was just fantastic.
Last up was Kenny Chesney, of You Had Me At Hello, and She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy fame.
Also very good.
Then they wrapped up with everyone on stage.
A really great show!
After another rest-up we were off to our 3rd and final show of the day, SIX. We were looking forward to seeing them again, having seen them 11 years ago during our last visit to Branson.
Made up of six brothers, they sing acapella, including making the instrument sounds. They’re really amazing.
All 3 of these exhibits/acts are much recommended.
And now tomorrow we do it all over again.
