Monthly Archives: April 2023
Yummy!
Today was lunch at Yummy Yummy, our delicious nearby Chinese Buffet, and then WalMart for our weekly WalMart Stuff™.
Came across this article recently, and it’s amazing how many of these I’ve owned.
20 Most Dangerous Toys of All Time
Some of them are obvious, like Lawn Darts.
And some are hidden like Aqua Dots,
which had the unfortunate property of giving off GHB (the Date Rape Drug) when you got them wet.
And the Mini-Hammocks and Trampolines. Though I think that the ones with the nets enclosing them are OK.
But Slip N Slides?
And who knew the Easy Bake Oven got HOT?
And that Rollerblading Barbie would start fires? In fact it looks like that pretty much any Barbie is dangerous.
And it seems that anything that contains magnets is verboten.
Now as far as the ones I’ve had –
The Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab
The Gilbert (the same people who made Erector Sets) Atomic Energy Lab seems to be a problem because it “actually contained four types of uranium ore”. Which were the little cardboard test cards that come with any Geiger Counter you can buy from Amazon. You could eat them and it wouldn’t hurt you.
Buckyballs – Magnets, again.
Cap Guns – Well, the big problem seems to be that they’re…guns.
Slingshots – It seems they shoot things.
And Yes, the Lawn Darts. (They were Lawn Dart Good)
Based on this article, it’s amazing that I survived my childhood.
Did I ever tell you the one about poking a water moccasin nest with a stick?
A not really long enough stick, it seemed.
Tomorrow is Gator’s for lunch and HEB, well, for HEB Stuff™
Thought for the Day:
April 22, 2010
Shopping Day…
Today was the first day in a while we weren’t on the go, so we slept late and took it easy.
About 10:30 I went over to the office to extend our stay here another 4 days. So now we’ll be leaving on Monday morning. Maybe.
Coming back, I made coffee and we had one of the muffins we brought home from Marie Callenders. Then at 11 am we watched ourselves on The Bonnie Hunt Show while Jan tried to catch up on her journal, but Mister wasn’t much help. He’s never met a horizontal surface he didn’t like.
About noon we headed out for the lunch buffet at Shakey’s Pizza.
Leaving the RV park, we noticed a LOT of new snow on the mountains just west of here in the Los Padres National Forest. It was 37 degrees and raining here last night. Looks like it was colder and snowing in the mountains last night. Here it is almost May and it’s still snowing in California. Isn’t Global Warming wonderful!
After stopping for gas, we headed over to Costco. It was only our 2nd time at one since we became members in Tucson. I guess you could say it’s like Sam’s Club, but different.
Next we stopped off at Albertson’s to get some things that Costco didn’t have, or had too much of. I mean, we didn’t need 5 lbs. of strawberries. A pound would be fine.
We got home about 3pm, just in time for a nap.
Yesterday, coming back from LA we stopped off at a viewing area along the freeway that looks out over Lake Palmdale and the California Aqueduct. It’s really a nice view.
That’s the Aqueduct in the foreground.
Tomorrow we’re going to drive back into LA, eat lunch at Esther’s Taco House, visit Olvera Street, one of the oldest areas in LA, dating from the 1870’s, and then drive Mulholland Dr. thru the Santa Monica Mountains, above Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
April 22, 2011
Bagels and BBQ . . .
My morning started about 10 am with a client phone call as soon as I got up. She was having problems with sending email. She could receive but not send. Turned out to be a corrupted message in her outbox. Deleting it fixed the problem.
Then a few minutes later, our daughter Brandi called to say Hi. She was on her way home early for Good Friday with a 3 day weekend to look forward to.
With all that taken care of, I made coffee and Jan toasted up a Jalapeno Cheese bagel and some great homemade bread.
About 1:30 we headed out to a used bookstore in Lakeside called The Pinetop Book Exchange.
We first met Jim, the owner, when we were here last year, and love roaming through all his great used books. We spent over an hour picking out more books to read. Just what we need, more books. We’ve already got so many to read as it is.
About 3:30 we headed over the Wal-Mart. Jan wanted to get her hair done, and then we did some shopping.
At 5 pm we had dinner at Stolen Recipe BBQ in Lakeside. Probably the best BBQ we’ve had since we left Houston, or Famous Dave’s BBQ even.
After a great meal, we headed back toward the rig stopping at Home Depot and Walgreens on the way, getting home about 7:30.
I finally got back to work on the floor heaters, and finally figured out how to put them back together. So maybe I won’t have to take them apart and clean them for another 4 years.
April 22, 2012
Out of Touch with the World . . .
or Two Flat Tires in One Day.
Wednesday, April 18th
Today was the last day of operation for our rig. So it was a busy day with all the equipment pulling out.
In other news, I had two flat tires today on the ‘dirt road from hell’. The 8 miles was bad enough, but then on Tuesday they brought a road grater in to smooth out the bumps.
Well, it did that all right, but it also traded the worn-down rocks with new, sharper rocks underneath. So I ended up with a second flat before I could get the first one fixed.
This means we’re kind of stranded here I until I can get someone to bring me two new tires. Both of the old ones have cuts in them, not punctures. Almost like someone had stuck a knife in them, so I doubt they can be repaired.
Thursday, April 19th
Since our drill rig and crew pulled out yesterday, we didn’t think we’d have much traffic this morning, but the day turned out to be relatively busy.
I had kind of expected Larry, our supervisor, to show up and tell us to move out
I tried to patch my leaky tires, but without success. Although they’re slow leaks, the nearest town is 35 miles away, and I don’t think I can make it that far.
We also found out why we haven’t been told to move. I was told by a consultant coming through the gate that a new rig on a new site is coming in next Tuesday, and should be operating for about a month. After that, we’ll see.
Friday, April 20th
Although I had the gate open about 5:45, the first vehicle didn’t show up until about 8am. Fine by me. I’ve read 6 books and four magazines since we got here last Sunday. Finally starting to whittle down that stack.
Our supervisor, Larry, showed up today to top off our diesel and water tanks, and also fix a couple of things.
The pump in our sewer system wasn’t working, so the liquid was filling up the collection tank (the small green tank) and not being pumped up into the big green storage tank. This meant everything was just backing up into our grey tank.
I had checked things out and the pump (a submersible macerator pump) had just died. It only took Larry about 10 minutes to replace the pump and test it out.
The other thing that needed repairing was our vehicle alarm bell. It’s one of those old-time gas station bells that rings when you drive over the rubber hoses. Replacing the bell unit fixed the problem.
Then later in the afternoon, we had a weather trifecta . . . rain, hail, and high winds. But our canopy and awnings all came through OK.
Tomorrow I hope I can get our tires replaced so I can get this posted. I also plan to order us a cell phone booster to see if we can get cell/Internet service with it.
And so it goes.
April 22, 2013
I Swear I Haven’t Been Trying to Buy Cluster Bombs . . .
After coffee, I started the morning by heading down to the office to pay up for the next 10 days. It’s nice to be only paying $3 a day again instead of $20.
Wednesday, May 1st, we’ll head northwest about 300 miles or so to spend two weeks at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails. We’re really looking forward to being back there again, especially since it’s cooler there than it is here in Apache Junction.
Here’s another picture of Zoe Nadeau, Landon’s beautiful red-haired 2nd cousin. Hard to believe she’s only about a week old.
Between the red hair and those blue eye, she’s going to break a lot of hearts.
About 4pm we drove over to the #1 Eastern Super Buffet to meet Ken and Paula Lougee for dinner.
Ken and Paula have been gate guarding for the last year and it was good to compare notes. Unlike Jan and I, who moved four times in four months when we were gate guarding, Ken and Paula have been parked at the same gate for over a year.
We had a lot of fun exchanging stories and experiences, and talking about the weird things that happened. They plan on being back on their gate after a month off, while Jan and I plan on gate guarding from August to November this year.
I swear I haven’t been Googling Cluster Bombs, but you know how you Google something and then the next website you go to has ads for what you were just looking for.
So this is what I had pop up earlier tonight.
I’m sorry, but who orders bomblets online?
What if I need something bigger?
Can I get a quantity discount?
Is the DHS going to be checking me out because I wrote about this on the blog?
If there’s no blog tomorrow, you’ll know why.
April 22, 2014
What’s Wrong with this Picture?
I’ve been working on the outline for the Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit seminar Jan and I will be giving at the upcoming 54th Escapade starting May 12th in Goshen, IN. Since we gave this seminar once before, we’ve done another 3 month stint on a gate, but I’m curious what people might want to know.
So, what, if any, questions do you have about gate guarding? If you were at the seminar, what would you like to know? Leave me a comment.
With days in the mid 80’s and nights in the mid 60’s, I figured that winter had finally departed, but maybe not. By next Tuesday, supposedly another cold snap is coming thru, with highs in the 60’s and low in the 40’s, so don’t pack away your sweats yet.
Like Jan just did today. Oh, well.
At least we haven’t packed the electric heaters away yet.
For dinner Jan fixed salads, and then reheated the rest of our pizza from last week’s Grimaldi’s Pizzeria visit. Done in the convection oven, it’s just about as good as the original.
Later for dessert, we had some of the Peep Cake and Brownies left over from last Sunday’s Easter Party at our daughter Brandi’s.
Tomorrow I may work up the desire to crawl up in the bay and install the slideout shear pin. The only real problem looks to be getting the two tracks aligned so that that slide goes in and out evenly, without tracking sideways.
But then I may just decide to take a nap.
April 22, 2015
The Eagle’s Nest . . .
Our daughter Brandi sent over this photo of our grandson Landon being awarded the game ball from last night’s game.
Yay! Landon!
Early this morning, our neighbor on our passenger side pulled out, and then a couple of hours later another rig pulled in. And this one was our rig’s little brother, a younger American Eagle.
The last time we were parked next to another Eagle was at the American Coach Rally in Gillette WY in 2010. And although we weren’t parked next to them, we did find an almost perfect duplicate to our ‘Beauty’.
The only outward difference is the outside rearview mirrors. Our are chrome and mounted on the front of the rig. Theirs were black and mounted on the side.
Don’t know what year our new neighbor’s rig is, but it’s not very recent because newer Eagles are either 42ft or 45ft, and have tag axles. Not so this one.
A little later I went to apply another epoxy patch to my radiator. I mentioned yesterday that I still found a very slight seepage after my first repair. But after our 3 hours of driving around Vegas yesterday, the coolant in the radiator wasn’t down to any noticeable amount. But I added a little more epoxy just to try and complete the repair
Later Jan and I headed out to have dinner at another Vegas favorite of ours, Claim Jumper. We’ve eaten here on every Las Vegas visit, and it’s our go-to place for steak here.
As Jan and I looked over the menu, I noticed that Claim Jumper is now part of the Landry’s restaurant chain. Entirely owned by Tilman Fertitta, Claim Jumper is just one of over 55 chains and 500 locations, making Landry’s one of the nation’s largest restaurant corporations.
I was surprised to learn all the other places that Tilman owns, like the Golden Nugget Hotel/Casinos in Atlantic City, NJ, Biloxi, MS, Las Vegas, NV, Laughlin, NV, and Lake Charles, LA. And he also owns the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio. Wow!
But what really caught my eye was all the high-end steak places that are part of the Landry group, including Morton’s, Vic & Anthony’s, Simm’s, Mitchell’s, McCormick’s & Schmick’s, and on a slightly lower level, one of our favorites, Saltgrass.
When I mentioned this to our waiter, Greg, (easy to remember) he said all the Landry’s restaurants get their meat from the same supplier, and the same quality. So that by getting a steak at Claim Jumper, you’re paying a third to a half of what you would pay for exactly the same steak at Morton’s or Vic & Anthony’s a few miles away on the Strip. And boy was he right. My Ribeye was one of the best pieces of meat I’ve ever had, so very tender and juicy. Just great!
During our meal, the manager came by our table to see how our meal was, and we got to talking about our RV travels, and all the different Landry’s restaurants we’ve eaten at. Very nice man.
Tomorrow will probably be another nice stay-at-the-rig day. Looking forward to it.
April 22, 2016
More RAM . . .
Well, another day of setting up my new computer, loading software and optimizing the machine.
The new one has 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, but has room for 16 GB, so I took a 4 GB stick from the old machine and maxed out the new one. Within limits, the more RAM, the faster your computer will run. In fact, it can be one of the cheapest ways to speed a computer up if it only has 4 or 8 GB to start with.
The reason for this is that as the computer computes, it uses up memory (RAM) as it runs programs. And if you’re running a lot of different programs at one time, or have a lot of tabs open on your browser, you can reach a point where you essentially run out of memory.
And when this happens, things really slow down. So to keep running, the computer starts paging data out to the hard drive. Now hard drives are fast, but compared to RAM, they’re snail slow. So everything slows to a crawl.
And, even worse, you don’t have to have a lot of programs running at one time to have this problem. You can also run into this by running a lot of different programs one at a time.
A lot of software is not very well written , and has ‘memory leaks’. When a program runs it is allocated a certain amount of memory in a specific area of RAM. And when you quit the program, that memory is supposed to be released and available for other programs. But many times this doesn’t happen correctly and all of the memory area is not released. So over a period of time, the system has less and less memory available for use. One quick fix for this is to just reboot your computer once a day, and get a fresh start on memory usage.
So the more RAM you have, the longer this slowdown is delayed.
One of the problems I’ve run into setting up the new computer is that I can’t get the HDMI port to work. The computer monitor hooks up using a DVI cable, but I use the HDMI interface to connect up our 32” LCD TV at the front of the rig.
My old computer output video on the VGA port and HDMI simultaneously, with no switching necessary. So we just use the TV remote to change the input from HDMI-1 to HDMI-2. But it doesn’t work on this new machine.
When I plugged the HDMI cable from the TV into the computer, it kills the DVI output to the monitor. And nothing shows up on the TV either. I tried a bunch of different things with no luck.
The computer does have a way to switch back and forth between outputs, like you can do on a laptop to output to a video projector. But this doesn’t work either.
So I’ve got some more research to do on this problem.
A little before 5, Jan and I headed out for dinner and Wal-Marting. Our dinner stop was a return to the Asian BBQ & Grill, a place we were first introduced to by Sherry and Clark Bennett back in February, and a return match with Brett and Frankie O’Neal a week later. And it was just as good this time.
We started out with our usual Shrimp and Pork Spring Rolls.
Then we moved on to Jan’s Lemon Grass Chicken
and my Beef Phở, which were both delicious.
Wish now we hadn’t waited so long to return, and we’ll definitely go back in a couple of weeks when we’re back in the area.
Then it was on to Target for a few things before finishing up at Wal-Mart. It was really noticeable how much busier Wal-Mart was compared to Target.
Tomorrow I’ll start prepping to get ready to travel on Sunday, checking tire pressures, putting away stuff, and running through my Checklist.
April 22, 2017
Peggy Sue and Primm Too . . .
We were hooked up and out on Boulder Hwy. heading to I-15S by 9:15 after a great two weeks here at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails.
We were heading for our first visit to the Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails about 15 miles south of Palmdale, CA for a one week stay.
Passing through Primm and into California, we saw the Ivanpah Solar Generating Plant off to the right of the highway.
With almost 350,000 mirrors focused on 3 ‘Power Towers’ it generates as much as 390 megawatts . . . on a sunny day, of course. Really impressive.
Our one stop along the way was in Yermo, CA, just east of Barstow to have lunch once again at Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner. Located right off the Interstate, it is surrounded by two very large parking lots, not only big enough for to park our RV, but big enough to hold a decent size RV Rally.
We’ve stopped here several times before and it’s always been good, and today was no different.
Peggy’s looks like a 50’s diner, right down the waitresses in their lime-green uniforms right down to those little white hats they wore.
Jan had the Patti Page Patty Melt with Curley Fries and Cole Slaw,
while I had the King Kong Burger with a 1/2 pound patty, Cheese, Bacon, and Curley Fries, as well as a really good cup of Navy Bean Soup with Bacon.
As you can tell from the food names above, Peggy Sue’s is loaded with movie memorabilia, because ‘Peggy Sue’ and her husband both worked in the movie industry for years and collected 1000’s of items that they used to decorate the place.
They’re also known for their homemade pies, so we got a couple of pieces to go.
And if you’ve got kids there’s even a dinosaur playground out back.
Back on the road, it took us another 2-1/2 hours to make the last hundred miles, mostly due to having to cut over on SR-18 below Victorville to hook up with the Antelope Valley Fwy, just a few miles above the park.
We got to the park about 3:30 and only 90 minutes later we were finally parked. Turns out Soledad is one of those parks where they give you a map and let you wander aimlessly until you find a site you like.
Unfortunately, for the first hour every site we liked had a small red X on the pedestal, designating it as No Electric, the X being small enough that you pretty much had to get out of your vehicle to see it. Finally I just parked the RV and Jan and I walked around looking for a working site.
We were told that 50 amp was available, but what working pedestals we could find were all 30 amp, and with no 20amp socket to use my AC bypass.
Finally I called the office and asked the young lady where all the 50 amp sites were. She said, “There are a lot of them in Section ‘B’ . . . but it’s full.” Well that was a lot of help.
But with the help of another RV’er we found a nice 50 amp site with trees AND a good satellite view.
So we’re set for the week.
Brandi sent over these pics of Landon’s first hockey lesson.
Looks like he’s up on the skates pretty well.
April 22, 2018
I See Bears . . .
Jan and I left the rig about 11:20 heading up to the Katy area to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at the new Black Bear Diner there.
Although we had planned to meet at 1pm, turns out we both showed up about 12:30, thinking that we’d get our names on the list since we knew there would be a wait. And there was.
We were told about 45 minutes, but then got seated after about 25 minutes, so that was good. But what wasn’t good was the wait for our food. Apparently the kitchen was overwhelmed and it took almost 30 minutes to get our meal.
They really should have held off seating customers to allow the kitchen to keep up. This why you sometimes see restaurants on a wait, and yet there are open tables. It seems people will tolerate waiting for a table better than they will tolerate waiting for their food.
But it’s possible to say it was worth the wait. Brandi, Jan and I all got the 2 Egg Combo with Bacon, Fruit, and an English Muffin.
Really delicious Apple Slow-Smoked Bacon.
Lowell had the Machaca Breakfast Tacos, with scrambled eggs, slow-roasted beef, peppers, and jack cheese, while Landon got the kid’s Chocolate Chip Pancakes.
As I said yesterday we’ve eaten at a number of Black Bear Diners out west and it was good to see that the food is just as good as before. And Jan was happy to see that the BBD in Katy carried her favorite notepads, so she stocked on a couple.
We would have liked to have sat around for a while and talked some more, but the waiting area was still overflowing at 2:15, so we said our goodbyes, got our hugs, and headed back toward Santa Fe.
We did make a WalMart stop for a couple of things, and also to walk off breakfast. I set Runkeeper when we get out of the truck so I can track how far we walk.
One think I noticed is that Black Bear has really changed their look since they’ve moved east. Here’s what the one in Yreka looks like.
And the one in Bend OR even has bears as customers.
And here’s what the Katy location looks like.
Pretty big difference. But the food is still great.
April 22, 2019
It Feels Heavier Than It Really Is . . .
Work today consisted of more working down through my checklist, trying to wrap up as many items as possible, and be sure that I have everything set up so I can log into the computers here at the office from anywhere in the world.
Or at least anywhere in Europe.
This is because I will have to close out the month remotely, and also monitor the upcoming sale that starts May 1st.
While I was at work Jan did a trial run at packing one of the large suitcases that we borrowed from our daughter Brandi yesterday. And when I got home she was a little worried about the weight because she couldn’t lift it off the bed.
And I kind of was too when I lifted it., But I guess it feels heavier than it really is because when I actually weighed it, it was only 35#, well within the allowed 50#.
Jan’s response?
“Oh, Goody. I can pack more now.”
Yikes!
I’ll start my packing tomorrow so I’ll see how it goes with me.
I purchased my ExpressVPN today and then got it set up on my desktop machine, my Asus laptop, my Galaxy Tab 4, and my Samsung S8+ phone.
Pretty easy setup with no real problems. And it was kind of neat to pick a server in Hungary to connect to, and then hit websites back in the US.
Tomorrow evening we’re dropping Karma off at our pet sitter’s about 6:30. Our sitter is also our office manager, and she often does this for people. Karma will have her own room (a bedroom) so she can get used to her new surroundings without any problems. Since she’s pretty blind, she’ll probably bump into things for a while until she gets the layout figured out. But then she has problems here in the rig too when we move stuff around.
Tomorrow is also our last big errand day before we start winding things down for our departure on Friday.
But then there’s always last minute madness to contend with.
April 22, 2021
Big Bubba and Dino Ribs . . .
After another great meal at Texas Huddle Grille (insert obligatory photo of PB&J Bacon Ghost Pepper Cheese Burger Here)
we made a stop by the office to pick up a couple of Amazon orders that had come in. Then it on over to our old Kroger’s to see if they stocked Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing so we could stop ordering it from Amazon. Well, they do stock it, but not the Fat Free version, so it’s still Amazon, I guess.
And while we were in that area, we checked out the location of a new burger place a friend told us about, Pop Top Burgers, and it looks like a place we’re going to have to check out.
This is their Big Bubba Burger.
It’s got a Beef Patty, Bacon, American Cheese, Grilled Philly Steak Meat, Grilled Onions, Swiss Cheese, Shredded Lettuce, Tomatoes, Pickles, Special Sauce And Topped With A Thick Onion Ring.
It looks really good.
I mean, it’s not a PB&J Bacon Ghost Pepper Cheese Burger, but then again what is?
But the place looks to be worth a try.
Coming home we made a quick HEB stop for a couple of things, plus I wanted to check out their meat selection for our first Sous Vide cookout next weekend.
Jan wants a filet of some sort, and I found a package of two 5oz Bacon-Wrapped Filets already vacuumed packed for her.
And for me I found a package of 3 Ribeye’s, also vacuumed packed, so I’ll have to separate and reseal them, but no problem with that.
For this first try, I not picking the more expensive cut-in-the-store versions, but the somewhat cheaper pre-packaged ones in case I screw things up.
While I was looking over the meat case, I came across this package of ribs.
T-Rex or Brontosaurus?
Does Fred Flintstone know about these?
Coming on home, we made the obligatory Cowboy Coffee stop for patio-sitting a little later.
Flyway . . .
As I thought about yesterday’s SpaceX Starship Heavy test flight, the ship didn’t blow up all on its own. Once they knew it wasn’t going any further since the booster and the Starship wouldn’t separate, they purposely detonated it.
Looks like they’re really coming along on Webster’s new Flyway development. At 80 acres, it will encompass a number of hotels, restaurants and entertainment centers.
Probably the highlight of the place is going to be the Great Wolf Lodge.
The 532-room resort will encompass 27-acres and feature a 95,000 square-foot indoor water park and a 58,000 square-foot Great Wolf Adventure Park and should be open in mid-to-late 2024.
And it looks like they’re making a lot of progress on it.
Looking forward to it.
Right around the corner from us, a tree service has been taking down this tree after a couple of big limbs fell during a recent windstorm. And apparently it’s been growing here for a long time, since they had to cut out a chunk that had grown around a cable TV wire. So now it just hangs there.
Thought For The Day:
Why did the Federal Government need an Amendment to the Constitution to ban alcohol consumption, and another Amendment to make it legal again, but didn’t need anything to ban certain drugs?
Discuss among yourselves.
April 21, 2010
Homes of the Stars…
We now have a middle name!
Our upcoming grandson’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.
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
The mountain-top retreat, high above Beverly Hills, has been owned by both Steven Spielberg and Merv Griffin. It’s up for sale now.
This is the entrance to Bill Cosby’s home.
This one is newly-built by Richard and Kathy Hilton, the parents of Paris Hilton.
This home was used both in Will Smith’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and in “Mommy Dearest”, with Faye Dunaway.
This under-construction mansion is rumored to be the new home of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it’s supposed to be a tight secret with a lot of security around it, even under construction.
This was Rosemary Clooney’s home.
This is one of the homes used in the Beverly Hillbillies.
This is the Beverly Hills Tower, home to Elton John, Cher, Sidney Poitier, and Matthew Perry, among others.
This is Nancy Reagan’s Nail Salon, where she has her nails done every Thursday.
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.
This is the home of “Colombo’s” Peter Faulk.
And this is Helen Hunt’s home. And it’s up for sale, if you’re in the market.
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.
This is the front gate of Michael Jackson’s home.where he died.
The balcony here leads into the bedroom where Michael’s body was found.
This was the home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez.
And right next door was Jack Benny’s home. It’s now owned by Jon Lovitz.
And right next door to that is Carol Burnett’s home. That’s some neighborhood.
This is Dr. Phil’s home, also known as the “House that Oprah built”.
This is Tom Cruise’s home, or what you can see of it.
And this home, complete with gargoyles, was the home of Dracula’s,Bela Lugosi.
This is a shot of the LA skyline, as seen from the Hollywood sign view point.
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.
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.
Seeing this made me want KFC for dinner, so we stopped and picked some up on our way home.
I wonder it 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.
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, 2011
Pelonis and DirecTV . . .
This morning started for me about 10:15. Jan of course, gets up earlier. I made coffee and we split a bacon cheese bagel from the Fry’s in Cottonwood.
Our next onerous task was simply to gaze out the windows and enjoy the great view.
The Elk’s Lodge here in Show Low has a very nice RV park with the beautiful surroundings and full hookups for only $15/day.
And it also has just the perfect amount of trees, enough to provide some nice shade, but not too many to block the satellite dish.
Around 12 Jan heated up the last of the pizza from our visit to Crusty’s Pizza in Camp Verde this past Monday, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon working on client web stuff.
About 3 pm I decided an hour nap was in order. Then, after a very nice nap, I tackled a problem with our Pelonis floor heaters.
There was so much dust and cat hair accumulated over the last 4 years that it was causing them to overheat and shut down. So I wanted to take them apart and vacuum them out.
Easier said than done, however.
It quickly became obvious that these things were not designed to come apart. They seemed like a Chinese puzzle, but what I didn’t count on is that they were kind of spring loaded. When I got them apart to a certain point, they just exploded into a bunch of pieces. So now I’ve got to get it all back together and hope I don’t have any pieces left over.
I hate it when that happens!
Then, a little before 5 pm our DirecTV started acting up. It was flashing a message telling me that one of the two tuners had lost the satellite signal. This happens occasionally when the wind blows the dish a little off aim. But before going outside to adjust it, I check the signal level on the DVR, and it said both tuners were 90% or above. It also was supposed to record Big Bang Theory starting at 5 but it didn’t.
I first tried resetting the DVR with the button, but after it came back up in about 5 minutes, it still was doing the same thing.
So I called DirecTV, got put straight though to Tech Support. After verifying my ID, he started sending commands to my DVR over the sat. link and having me tell him what I saw.
Then he sent some more data down to my set and had me run the System Setup using the new data. And this fixed the problem. As soon as the system came back up everything was working fine.
Great service from DirecTV.
Later we headed out for supper. We first tried Native New Yorker (yeah, I know we ate there yesterday, but it was really good), but they had a 45 minute wait. So we drove over to the Pizza Factory for an OK meal. Certainly not as good as Crusty’s or Da Boyz, but OK.
That’s it for today. Probably shopping and some errands tomorrow.
April 21, 2013
Moving Day . . . Again
Today was once again moving day. We had to move back one space to the left. A real pain in the butt, but it means we go from paying $20 a night to paying $3 a night for the next 10 days.
Since it was supposed to be 90 today, we decided to move a little earlier than we did last Sunday, so about 12:45 we hit the road, or at least drove across the road and then backed into the site next door.
It took several back and forths to get in straight because the site doesn’t have a lot of room between the pad and the sewer connection. As it was, when the rig was right along side the patio, the sewer connection was only about 6 inches from my rear tire on the other side.
But it fit, which is what mattered. So we’re now parked until we leave for Las Vegas on May 1st.
Later, Jan and I headed about 25 miles away to Fry’s Electronics. As it turns out, I needed an RF Modulator to finish hooking up our new DirecTV HD DVR. Our old DVR had an F connector output on channel 3/4 that feeds the bedroom TV. But our new DVR only has video/audio outputs, but no RF. So I needed one of those things people used to hook their video games up to their TV, but I wanted one that also had an S-Video input for the best quality.
After finding what I needed, (and a few other things of course), we headed down the road about 5 miles to another of our favorite BBQ places, Rudy’s BBQ.
Jan had the Loaded Baked Potato with Brisket, and I had a little brisket, a couple of ribs, and a half link of jalapeno sausage, I.e. a little bit of every thing.
Getting back to the park about 8:30, it was another long, but nice day.
April 21, 2014
A Very Short Season . . .
We made the move back to the Colorado River Thousand Trails. our 3rd stay since we left Galveston Bay RV Resort on Feb 24th, and hopefully our last park stay in the area before we head north.
As it stands now, we’ll leave here on May 2nd, heading up to Elkhart, IN, and then on to Goshen, IN for the 54th Escapade starting the 12th of May. We plan on making several stops along the way to visit family.
Getting into Colorado River, we had our choice of 50 amp sites, so this time we picked a site at the top of the hill in the ‘A’ section, and got a nice site overlooking the field below. I thought about pulling straight in so we would be looking out over the field from our windshield, like we overlook the bayou at the Galveston Bay park. Of course this means that we have to hook up our utilities underneath the rig, but we have long enough cords and hoses to do that with no problem. But for some reason some parks frown on this, and since I hadn’t checked it out beforehand, I decided to back in as normal.
Unlike a lot of the other sites, this one is nice and level, with a gravel pad and a concrete patio.
One thing we noticed coming up US71 and the turnoff to the park is that all the bluebonnets are just gone. And in only two weeks. Now that’s a short growing season.
We know the area hasn’t been mowed, because the Indian Paintbrushes are still there. We had thought about driving up to the Brenham area later in the week to check out the big Bluebonnet fields, but we may reconsider now.
Now that my shear pins have come in, and look to be the right ones, I’ll try to get underneath there and get it replaced pretty soon. But as before we had no problem doing it manually this morning as we left the Lake Conroe TT Park. But hopefully this morning will be the last time we have to do it that way.
We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
April 21, 2015
High Taxes and Small Cracks . . .
I mentioned the other day about the 12% tax this Thousand Trails charged us on the $5 a day / $70 for two weeks upcharge for our 50amp site. Well, I found out where that comes from.
The normal sales tax rate here in Las Vegas is 8.1%. The 12% amount is the hotel tax charged here, the ‘room’ tax. Now why the $5 charge for 50 amp is a ‘room’ I can’t explain. I do know that I’ve never been charge tax on 50 amps before. But as Jan says, “Hey, it’s Vegas, Baby!”
After our morning coffee and English muffins, I put the finishing touches on the magnetic shade that covers the large driver’s side window, and got it mounted outside. And it quickly made a big difference in the heat coming in. Enough so that AC’s cycled on and off during the hottest part of the 85+ degree day. So far, so good.
Later in the afternoon, I took a shot at fixing the small radiator leak I’ve had for a month or so. I found that there was a small vertical crack on the top right edge of the radiator.
Anticipating this repair, I had picked up a tube of this JB Weld Epoxy.
J-B Weld SteelStik Steel Reinforced Epoxy Putty Stick
It’s easy to use, handles temps to 300 degrees, and pressures up to 900 PSI. So it should handle the radiator repair with no problems.
The crack ran just along the edge of the scalloped piece of metal on top of the radiator body. I first cleaned the area with a wire brush and roughed it up with sandpaper for increased adhesion. Finally I wiped the area down with rubbing alcohol and let it dry.
Cutting off a marble-sized piece of the JB Weld, I rolled it around in my fingers until it was a single color, and then into a 4” long snake. Then I pressed it into place along the crack and a little further out from the ends of the crack.
Checking back in an hour I found the joint perfectly cured and ready to go. So we’ll check it out tomorrow during our Wal-Mart trip.
For dinner tonight Jan heated up some of the Baked Spaghetti that we picked up from Crusty’s Pizza in Camp Verde before we left last Sunday. Really good.
April 21, 2016
It’s A Rule . . .
I spent most the day tracking down missing software and downloading needed programs from the Internet. One thing I’m doing is that I’m only reinstalling software as I need it, which should keep some of the clutter down.
:Later I also connected up my Backup Drive and started copying over data files, documents, pictures, videos, and music.All told, about 300 GB worth, including over 29,000 photos since 2006, two years before we started RV’ing.
This new computer is only about two years newer than my old one, but much, much faster. So in the end, this will all be worth it.
I was kind of surprised by this HD failure since I got no warning whatsoever from the motherboard’s S.M.A.R.T. monitoring (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology; often written as SMART)
SMART is a system that monitors HD reliability and reports if there are any problems. Now it won’t catch everything, but it does give an indication on 60-70% of failures.
So I guess my HD was in that 30-40%
Something next week, after we’re at Medina Lake, I’ll do my freezer trick and see what I come up with.
Dennis and Carol Hill picked us up a little after 5pm and we headed off north of Willis to have dinner at the Fish Pond Restaurant. We’ve eaten here a number of times, but it was a first for Dennis and Carol.
And everyone seemed to enjoy their meal, with Carol having Liver and Onions, Dennis having the Chicken Fried Steak, while Jan went with her favorite Chicken Fried Chicken. I tried something a little different, the Steak Fingers. I guess everyone liked what they had, since there were four clean plates at the end.
And as usual when RV’ers get together, we talked for longer than we ate. I know, I know, hard to believe, right. But we did. In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever been out with a group of RV’ers where it didn’t take at least 3 hours.
I think it‘s a rule.
Actually between the restaurant and the visiting in our rig afterwards, it was over 3 hours. But I think that was so Carol and Dennis could play with Karma, who seemed to enjoy all the attention. I kind of figured she might run and hide, but she’s turned out to be a real people cat.
April 21, 2017
Try It And Let Me Know . . .
Never Mind. It’s Fixed Now.
Jan and I were out the door and on our way up to the Verizon store on Nellis Blvd about 9:30 to pick up my new Samsung Galaxy S8+.
The store didn’t open until 10am but I guess maybe I was expecting ‘new iPhone-day of release’ lines, and there were four other people in line, but just to pay their bills.
It took about an hour to get my new phone set up and configured, all my contacts moved over, and my phone number moved also, as well as Jan’s phone number changed over to my old Galaxy S5 which now becomes her phone. So now she can ditch her old LG Revere Flip Phone.
(note it wasn’t called the LG Dawes Flip Phone. Just another instance where Paul Revere got all the credit.)
I had to planned to order an Otterbox Defender case for it from Amazon since it was about $15 cheaper than Verizon’s list price, but when I told them that they gave me the Amazon price. I will order a wireless charging pad from Amazon when we get to Soledad Canyon after tomorrow.
Finishing up with Verizon a little after 11am, we drove back over to Blueberry Hill Restaurant again, this time for breakfast.
Besides coffee, Jan had eggs, hash browns, and bacon
while I got the Chicken Apple Compote Waffle with bacon.
Good coffee and a delicious meal.
Leaving Blueberry Hill, we drove down Pecos Blvd to top off the gas in the truck at the Sam’s Club. With California’s recent $0.12 / gallon tax increase, unleaded is more than $0.30 / gallon higher than it is here in LV.
While we were getting gas we noticed all the new snow on the peaks to the west of us. Quite a difference.
What happened to Global Cooling/Global Warming/Global Cooling/Climate Change?
Getting back to the park, I picked up an Amazon package from the ranger station. It’s really nice that the Thousand Trails here does not charge $2 to hand you your mail.
Back at the rig, a nice nap was in order before I went back outside and crawled under the rig to unhook the sewer hose and stow it and the water hose away. Less to do tomorrow morning before we leave for California.
Later I spent the evening downloading apps to my new phone and getting things set up like I want. So far I’m really happy with it. with my only regret that they’ve changed the charge/data connector from the standard micro USB connector to the newer USB-C connector. But besides an AC charger module and cable, they also include a micro USB to USB-C adapter so I can still plug it in all my other cables. At least until I lose the tiny little adapter.
Tomorrow we’ll make the 250 mile trip over to the Soledad Canyon TT park near Acton, CA, and about 15 miles south of Palmdale. We’ve never stayed here before, but it’s supposedly nice and we’re looking forward to it. We’re booked there for a week before we head north for a two week stay at the Bend/Sunriver TT, one of our favorite parks.
I mentioned yesterday about a problem calling Good Sam’s Tech Help Line and getting a sex talk line where girls could talk to hot guys.
After confirming that there really was a problem, I put in a call to a Verizon Engineering number that I got from a friend who works for Verizon. And after talking to them this afternoon, I got a call back this evening.
Turns out that in some parts of the country, and only with Verizon customers, the last two digits of the number were being reversed. So 4457 became 4475, and vice versa.
In addition, it would make a difference whether or not you dialed the number as 1-800 or as 800 by itself.
But it’s fixed now. So, Never Mind.
April 21, 2018
Black Bears and Kindle Books . . .
Not much went on during the day. I did some web stuff and work a little on my project.
I did go outside and put my anemometer pole back up. I had taken it down when we did our RV test drive last Sunday and waited to put it back up today until I had redone the mounting.
Tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) we’re meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at one of our favorite diner chains, the recently-opened Black Bear Diner up in Katy. We’ve been eating at Black Bear locations out west for years, from southern California all the way up to Bend, OR, and as far east as Las Vegas. In between were Mt. Shasta CA, Redding CA, Yreka CA, and even the original one, the Hi-Lo Café in Weed, CA. Though actually it’s the Hi-Lo Motel and Café . . . and RV Park.
So why is the first one called the Hi-Lo Café and the rest of them called Black Bear Diners? Well, there was a divorce involved, and so in 1995 one party moved down to Mt. Shasta, about 10 miles south and opened the first Black Bear Diner in the shadow of Mt. Shasta itself
They both have the same newspaper-like menus, and the menu items are pretty much identical, just with different names. But all the same delicious food.
The last time we ate at the Hi-Lo Café was last May right before The Great Transmission Repair. And as part of that, we ended up staying at the Hi-Lo RV Park for a couple of days.
One thing interesting about the Hi-Lo café and Weed, CA is that they consider themselves the actual beginning of the Al-Can Highway.
Now Dawson Creek, Canada might disagreed with that, but Weed makes a pretty good case.
They say that US 97 originates in Weed, CA and goes all the way up to Dawson Creek. And checking it out when we got home shows they’re right.
US 97 runs up to the Canada border at Oroville, WA and there it becomes PH (Provincial Highway) 97 and, poof!, 1400 miles later you’re in Dawson Creek. And then PH 97 runs along with the Al-Can all the way up to Watson Lake in the Yukon along with PH 1.
But when you get Dawson Creek, it’s still another 1500 miles to Fairbanks. A long trip.
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.
Everyone sat out around the fire pit last night, enjoying the nice weather and the lighting.
Today people started pouring in around noon, with the kids hitting the pool
and the adults hitting Brandi’s 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.
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.
Then it was more pool time for everyone.
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.
April 21, 2021
PB&J and Ghost Pepper Cheese . . .
Looks like I going to have to rethink slightly the Hibiscus watering system I set up as a test for when we’re going to be gone for two weeks in June.
The concept is working fine. Alexa turns the water on at 9:00am every morning and then off at 9:01, sending a notification to my phone. But looking at the rate of water usage, I’m not sure that the kitty litter bucket will hold enough water to last for the approximately two weeks we’ll be gone. Especially since it’s possible/probable that I’ll have to increase the watering amount as the weather gets warmer.
So my new idea is install a water hose timer in a garden hose running from the outside faucet to the bucket.
This will let me add water to the bucket on a regular basis, I.e., let it run for 5 minutes ever other day. As long as it keeps the bucket filled, it doesn’t matter if it runs over a bit. The timer is only about $20 on Amazon, so it won’t hurt the wallet too much.
Tomorrow we plan on having lunch at Texas Huddle Grille once again. Jan wants another of their Mushroom Cheddar Bacon Cheeseburger, and I’m really jonsin’ for one of their PB&J Bacon Cheeseburgers spiced up with their Ghost Pepper Cheese.
Then probably the usual run-around type of errands for the afternoon, and maybe ending up with Cowboy Coffee for Sugar-Free Hazelnut Lattes with Almond Milk and Sugar-Free Whipped Cream.
Yum!
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.
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.
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.
