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Like Sacks Of Wet Cement . . .

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Coming home from work today I stopped off at the League City Cracker Barrel to pick up our order of Cornbread Dressing for tomorrow’s feast up at Brandi’s in Katy.

Just followed the signs, drove around back, gave them my name, and they gave me my order.

Easy Peazy!

* * * * *

I’ve mentioned this famous WKRP In Cincinnati episode from Season #1

It’s even showed up in cartoons.

But a lady pilot in Alaska says it works great if the turkeys are already frozen.

Pilot drops turkeys from plane for neighbors in rural Alaska

With Thanksgiving approaching, Esther Sanderlin from Skwentna, Alaska, is air-dropping turkeys to her neighbors and others living in isolated areas.

This year marks the third time Sanderlin has undertaken this mission, ensuring that those off the grid can enjoy a festive meal.

The idea came to her after a visit with a new neighbor who mentioned splitting a squirrel between three people for dinner. **

“I just had a thought at that moment, you know what, I’m gonna I’m gonna drop them a turkey for Thanksgiving, ’cause I recently rebuilt my first airplane with my dad, and so I can do that really easily,” Sanderlin said.

“My vision with this is to reach farther parts of Alaska, ’cause there are so many families that are rural, that live off the grid,” she

This year, she plans to drop about 30 to 40 turkeys.

When asked if the frozen turkeys get bruised during the drop, Sanderlin reassured, “They’re all frozen. They literally just bounce off the ground. Or if it’s on the ice, they bounce off the ice, or if we’re low, they’ll just roll like a bowling ball.”

** FWIW, when I’m planning squirrel for dinner, I always figure 1 squirrel per person.

* * * * *

SpaceX has set a date of January 11, 2025 for the next StarShip launch, which will be #7 in the series. And Mush says that on the still to scheduled #8 launch, they plan to try and catch the Starship itself back at the launch site. But I still don’t know how this is going to be handled.

Will they just try to catch the StarShip and let the 1st stage booster land back in the ocean, or will they try to catch both, and if so, how?

They only have one launch tower equipped with the Mechzilla Chopsticks, so are they going to try and catch the booster, and then move it off the tower in time to catch the StarShip? Depending on the orbit, they would have anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to be ready to do the 2nd catch.

And I mentioned after the last mission when they landed the booster offshore, that it didn’t sink.

And it was still floating the next day.

I was wondering if SpaceX would tow it back to shore, but it turns out that the FAA doesn’t allow that for some reason, but requires SpaceX to actually sink it. Turns out not be as easy as they thought, but they finally got it done.

Stay tuned.


Thought For The Day:

“There is a study showing that going through a doorway will cause the mind to reset for the next series of events. That is why people will show up in a room and forget what they are there for. The mind clears the immediate past to get ready for new experiences.”

Glad to learn this. I thought it was just my mind going.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


November 27, 2009

Grey Friday…

For us it was Grey Friday because I only planned to get a couple of things at Radio Shack for our part of the sales day.

We headed out about 11 to first eat lunch at Monterey’s Little Mexico in Dickinson, one of our favorite Mexican places.  I love their Chicken Tortilla Soup, so much so, that’s usually all I have, along with the chips and salsa.

After lunch we headed over to Radio Shack to pick up a couple of things on sale,  Then, after checking out the Walmart next door, we decided to give it a try.

Actually, it wasn’t bad.  We weren’t shopping the sales, we just had to pick up a few things.

Getting back to the rig, we let Mister out to roam while I set up the bird feeder Jan got at Walmart.

All in all, a very nice day.


November 27, 2010

The Kids . . .

Jan and I headed out about 11:00 to meet “the kids” at Stomp’s Burger Joint for lunch, at least, everyone except Piper. She was off applying for a new job, which she got, as she called to tell us later.

BTW when Piper was younger she asked us one time why we called her grown parents “the kids”. Jan told Piper she’d understand when she had kids of her own, that your kids are always your kids, no matter how old they are.

After a great lunch with everyone, Jan and I stopped off at a nearby Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, and then it was back home to the rig.

After putting up things, Jan and I took a walk. Since it had been a few days since we’d walked due to weather and early morning commitments, we only walked a mile, instead of a mile and a half. We’ll bump it back up in the next couple of days.

Getting back Jan filled the bird feeders while I let the awnings and Mister out.

Later in the afternoon I made a pot of coffee and we sat around and watched some things we had saved on the DVR.

That was about it for today.


November 27, 2011

A Big Winner . . .

We decided to have breakfast out this morning so about 10 we headed up to Seabrook to the IHOP. As usual for a Sunday morning, we had a 20 minute wait before we got seated.

After breakfast we went next door to the Home Depot to look at their Christmas ornaments. Jan was looking for some that might be Landon-proof for him to hang on the tree.

Next we stopped by Michael’s Craft’s in Webster to get a large wicker ball to wrap with LED lights to make a large ornament for the rig.

Wicker Ball

After Michael’s, we headed over to Brandi’s for the afternoon. They just got back last night from their Thanksgiving in Oklahoma with Lowell’s parents.

And apparently Christmas came early this year for Lowell.

Slot Winnings

After winning over $700 at the slots, a little later he won an additional $3230.

A very nice Christmas indeed! And this is not the first time he’s won like this.

Jan, Brandi, Landon, and Lowell’s sister Sherry were going shopping while Lowell and I held down the fort (i.e. watched football).

Landon at Home

They came back several hours later with a lot of new clothes for Master Landon

A little later we headed home with a stop by Kroger’s for some lottery tickets. Maybe Lowell’s luck will rub off on me. Jan says she wants to take him with her the next time she plays Bingo.

Getting back to the park about sundown, the tide was out and with the offshore wind, the bayou was pretty empty with a lot of mudflats showing.

Galveston Bay Mudflat Sunset 1

Galveston Bay Mudflat Sunset 2

Still a pretty view.


November 27, 2012

Liquipel . . .

or Second Verse same as the First.

So yes, today was pretty much like yesterday. Goofing off in the morning, and then clients and errands in the afternoon.

My first visit was to another long-term client who needs a couple of new computers and a laptop, and wants them installed, billed, and paid for, before the end of the year. Tax Stuff.

Then it was on to another client to take a look at some network problems he’s having. Since he didn’t tell me what his problem was to start with, I’ll have to come back later with my test equipment. Looks like he’s getting some noise or interference on his lines that I’ll have to track down.

My next stop was at Home Depot to get prices on some 1×6 boards for my replacement trim project on our house. Looks like I’ll need about twelve 12 foot planks.

Then it was off to Brandi and Lowell’s to pick up the Thanksgiving leftovers that I forgot yesterday. Took some more time to look over the trim job on the house. Now all I need is to get the paint that I’ll need

Before heading home, my last stop was at Kroger’s to pick up my winning Powerball ticket. It’s now up over $500 million and may be higher by the time of the drawing tonight.

Getting home, Jan and I headed out for supper at Monterey’s Little Mexico, another of our favorite local places. And yes, that does make two nights in a row I’ve had Chicken Tortilla Soup for dinner. So what?

Lastly, on the tech front, I’ve come across something for those of you who keep dropping your cellphones in the toilet.

And you know who you are.

It’s called Liquipel, and for about $60 they will completely waterproof your phone. Your phone is placed in a vacuum chamber and a nano-coating is deposited in vapor form on your phone. They do iPads too.

The only problem I see is that you’re without your phone for a week or so.

Check it out.


November 27, 2013

Gobble Gobble, Almost . . .

It was horrible. I had to get up at 7:15 this morning.

First up I had to put a call into Coach-Net to activate my towing appointment to get my truck towed up to Brock’s Car Care to have them take a look at my front-end noise problem. Then I also had to call the EZ Tag Toll Pass people to transfer my pass to the rental car.

By the time I did all that and then got dressed, the tow truck was here. Once he got the front end hooked up and lifted, I put the truck in Neutral Tow Mode and off he went with us following in the rent car. Getting to Brock’s, I went inside while the tow guy unhitched the truck, and by the time he was finished outside, I was finished inside. And after tipping him $5, we went our separate ways.

Our way consisted of the Jack in the Box next door so Jan could get a Supreme Croissant breakfast sandwich and a Christmas Toasty Jack antenna ball for our truck(when we get it back). Then it was across the street to the Starbuck’s for Cinnamon Dolce Lattes for two.

Finally, about 9:30 we were on our way up to Brandi’s for a day of cooking. They were trying to get pretty much everything done before tomorrow.

And to make a long story short, and because I’m tired and we have to get up early again tomorrow, they got everything done, and it looked delicious.

The End.


November 27, 2014

Hmmmmm! Gumbo!

About 10:30 this morning Jan and I headed down south to have Thanksgiving dinner with Chris, Linda, and Piper at their home in Friendswood. We were really looking forward to having Chris’ gumbo, but Jan wanted her gumbo, and turkey too.

So before we got onto I-45S we stopped off at the Conroe Cracker Barrel for a take-out order of Turkey and Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Carrots, and Pumpkin Streusel for dessert. So she’s all ready for her Black Friday Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow while she’s house/dog-sitting.

But it’s only dog sitting, not puppy sitting. Nigel, the ‘Shorkie’, is going with Piper. So it’s just PJ, the Black Lab, and a guest dog to be named later.  BTW a Shorkie is a cross between a Shih Tzu and a Yorkie.

Nigel2

A real cutie, too.

After a smooth trip with little traffic, we got to Chris’ about 12:30 and ate about an hour later.

Thanksgiving Gumbo

Chris’ gumbo is a combination, with shrimp, oysters, crab claws, and crab meat, as well as Andouille sausage for a little bite. Of course, he puts okra in there, and there’s a shaker of filé on the table too. You can’t get more authentic.

Thanksgiving Table

With rice and French bread, it was a real meal. And while Chris’ did the gumbo, Linda topped it all off with a batch of her Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce.

Really delicious!

Later, after fighting to stay awake after that great meal, I headed back up to Conroe for the night. I plan to do some work around the rig tomorrow before returning to Friendswood Saturday afternoon. We plan to have dinner with our friends Bob and Maria Saturday night, and then come back to the rig Sunday afternoon.

A very nice Thanksgiving weekend.


November 27, 2015

Grey Friday . . .

Overcast and it rained too. In fact this seems to be the start of rain every day for the next seven days or so. Not very conducive to the outside stuff I want to work on. But I did get a couple of things done inside that were on my list.

One of the things I’d been wanting to do was to install a fan speed switch on our front AC thermostat. I had installed one on the rear thermostat years ago, but we never needed one on the front unit, since in the larger area it needed to run wide open most of the time.

But our new Coleman Mach XV unit that I installed last August is over 10% higher in BTU’s (15,000 vs. 13,500) than our old Mach V, and in addition the fan in the new unit is more powerful. So what this means is that the new unit tends to short-cycle in milder weather.

This means that the unit doesn’t really run long enough to remove the maximum amount of moisture from the air. This is why the AC unit in your sticks & bricks needs to be correctly sized for your house.

If it’s too small, of course it won’t cool the house down enough. But if it’s too large, it cools the house down too quickly, without lowering the humidity, leaving you feeling cold and clammy.

In the case of the unit in the rig, the best thing to do is to slow the fan speed, so that’s what I wanted to take care of today.

On the thermostat in the bedroom, I was able to mount the switch on the side of the case,

Bedroom Thermostat 1

but because of the little shelf that mounts around the front thermostat, this switch would have to be on the bottom.

I started out by cutting a small notch in the bottom lip of the case and then I SuperGlue’d the SPDT switch in place.

Front Thermostat Upgrade 1

Next I cut and stripped a small length of wire and soldered it to the center lug of the switch

Front Thermostat Upgrade 2

I then connected the red wire to the thermostat terminal strip and soldered the HI speed and LO speed wires to the switch.

Front Thermostat Upgrade 3

All I had to do now was reassemble everything, put the batteries back in and it was ready to go.

Front Thermostat Upgrade 4

I’ll leave it set on LO except in the summer when it’s the hottest. In addition, keeping it on LO cuts down on some of the noise from the fan, so it’s a two-fer.

Next up was to finish up the kitchen LED light upgrade I started last month after the two fluorescent tubes died in the kitchen fixture. I was short one strip so I just fixed it up temporarily until I could order more. Then we got busy on the gate so it got put off until now.

So this is what I started with.

Kitchen Light Upgrade 1

I had just taped the LED strips to the plastic sheet and wired them up like this.

Kitchen Light Upgrade 2

So today I was going to add the last strip and tape all of them to the top of the fixture. The strips come with a peel-off adhesive backing that makes it easy to mount them up in the fixture. So after I wired in the new strip and got them all mounted, it looks like this.

Kitchen Light Upgrade 3

These six strips put out about 15% more light than the fluorescent tubes they replaced, and they’ll last a lot longer too. And I’ve now got enough strips to convert all the other fluorescent lights in the rig.

Here’s the ones I used, these Super Bright LED Light Strips and it looks like they’ve actually come down a couple of dollars, since they’re now $5.99 a set.

Wrapping up, Amazon has a couple of really good deals going on through Saturday. The amazing Kindle Fire tablet, normally $49, is on sale for only $35.

Kindle Fire Special

You can check it here: Fire, 7″ Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB – Includes Special Offers, Black

And even better, they’ve got the Amazon Echo, normally $179, on sale through Saturday for only $149.

Amazon Echo Special

Jan and I both love our Echo and it gets daily use here in the rig, and we even used it outside on the gate. I’ll have a review on ours in the next few weeks.


November 27, 2016

Turkey and Pizza . . .

I’m actually doing this blog in the afternoon rather than the evening since I’m working starting tomorrow getting up at 4:30a to be on the gate by 5:30.

Jan and I headed out about 12:15 for more Turkey and Dressing at Barth’s on their Sunday Lunch Buffet.

It doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving or Christmas for Jan to want Turkey and Dressing. That’s why her favorite day at Cracker Barrel is Thursdays, their day for Turkey and Dressing. But alas, it was not to be.

Barth’s was closed. In fact almost every place in Kenedy was closed. Talk about a long Thanksgiving weekend. The only two places that we found open were Polack’s Sausage (BBQ) and Bella Sera, our ‘goto’ Italian place here in Kenedy.

And both places were packed. I guess that’s like our trip back from Katy on Thanksgiving when the only places we saw open were two Whataburgers and they both had lines out into the street.

Deciding on Bella Sera, we once again went with the large Meat Lover’s Pizza with added mushrooms, large enough to have half to take home for leftovers.

Bella Sera Pizza

In fact I’m taking a slice for lunch on the gate tomorrow. Yumm!

One thing we always check going into Katy in the sign showing the US Rig Count which as of Thursday was 593, up 5 from last week. When we last checked in about a month ago, it was at 490, a nice jump that bodes well for our future gate guard employment.

A previous tenant here at the RV park left this HD Direct TV dish right behind our site. It’s fastened down to the ground and it looks in good shape so I’ve been thinking about calling Direct TV to see about turning on HD for the period of time we’re here.

Direct TV  HD Dish

Although our Direct TV DVR and our Samsung TV are both HD capable, our Winegard Traveler Dome is not. The reason we have this DVR is that it gives us more storage capacity than the standard one.

So I’ll see what Direct TV says about the cost, and if I can turn it off when we leave here.


November 27, 2017

Mirror, Mirror . . .

Our friends Janice and Dave Evens headed out this morning, on the way to Florida for a couple of months.

I got up early, about 8:30, to walk down with Jan to see them off, but she beat me to it by herself.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered Jan an extendable makeup mirror for the bathroom.

Extension Mirror

5X/1X Extension Mirror

It pulls out 30” and has both 1X and 5X magnifications.

But with all the holiday stuff going on I didn’t get around to installing it until yesterday in between Instant Pot stuff.

Or at least I tried.

After marking the holes and drilling them out, I inserted the plastic anchors that came with the mirror.

Makeup Mirror Install 1

I did notice that these anchors had no lips to keep them from pushing on through the wall.

Plastic Anchor

And as I thought, as soon as I tried to screw in the bracket the anchor pushed through and fell inside the wall. So, since I didn’t have any other anchors I was done for then.

Today on my way home from work, I stopped off at Lowe’s and got some of my favorite anchors, like these.

EZ Screw-in Anchors

I’ve used these for years and never had one fail or pull out on me. So it was quick work to push through the remaining old anchor and then screw in the new ones, using the original holes.

Makeup Mirror Install 3

Then it was quick work to mount the mirror bracket.

Makeup Mirror Install 4

Next I screwed the mirror in place and it was ready to go.

Makeup Mirror Install 5

Then when we travel it rides flush against the wall.

Makeup Mirror Install 6

Looks pretty good.

Tomorrow we’ll be going up to Pasadena to have lunch, and then run some errands. I know Jan’s looking forward to getting out.


November 27, 2018

If The Tongue Is Blue . . .

Jan and I headed out for her pet-sitting job up in Katy about 2pm, with a short stop-over at the Tuesday Morning in Webster for Christmas cards. Jan’s always found that they have high-end cards at discount prices, so that’s her go-to place.

She’s planning on using her time at Brandi’s to get them all done.

We did make a quick stop at the nearby Mason Rd El Pollo Loco so Jan could pick up a couple of meals for her dinners while she’s there.

I dropped Jan off at Brandi’s a little after 4pm and got right back on the road down to Santa Fe, hoping to stay ahead of all the going-home traffic, and it worked. Getting back to this area, I did make a Denny’s dinner stop for breakfast. Good as always.

The car service will pick up Brandi, Lowell, and Landon about 7:15am tomorrow, after already getting Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox, and they’ve got already their evening planned at Disney World when they get there.

They’ll be back sometime Monday and I’ll get Jan back Monday afternoon. Already can’t wait.

Once I used the 10/07/2018 System Image Backup I made for our Asus laptop, rather than the more recent 11/23/18 version, the copying of the image back to the new hard drive went through with no further problems. Guess it must have had a glitch somewhere because I tried it 3 times. And when I got up this morning, the laptop had booted up into Win7 on the new drive, with all the files seemingly intact.

Doing a System Image on either Win7 or Win10 is really pretty easy. You do have to have somewhere to copy the image to, like one of these 2TB WD External Drives.

WD Backup Drive

About the size of a deck of cards, you can also get them in a 4TB size. Or even 8TB in a slightly larger format.

Then just plug the drive into a USB port, preferably a USB 3.0 one, which is 10X faster, select Backup and Restore from the Control Panel, and then click on ‘Create A System Image. Follow the prompts to select your external drive and you’re off and running.

You can tell which port on your computer is USB 3.0 by looking inside the receptacle. If the little ‘tongue’ is blue, it’s 3.0.

When you are done with that, and this is your first System Image, insert a blank DVD into the DVD drive and click on ‘Create A System Repair Disk’. You will need this if you have to reinstall the System Image. You only need to do this one, and then just store it away.

I mentioned the other day when I first tried to do the reinstall, that I couldn’t find my Recovery DVD, and had to bring one home from work. Well, I found mine, right in the laptop DVD drive where I left it. And forgot about it.

Changing out the HD was pretty simple. Two screws and the cover plate comes off the bottom of the laptop, revealing the HD, the WiFi module, and the system RAM chips.

Laptop HD Replacement 1

4 more screws and the HD rack is out,

Laptop HD Replacement 2

and then 4 more screws and the HD is out of the rack.

Laptop HD Replacement 3

Then it’s just a matter of reversing the process with the new HD, and you’re done with this part.

Then boot to the Recovery DVD and you’re ready to go.

Let me know if you have any questions.

The Mars Insight Lander is working fine so far and sent back this ‘selfie’ as the first photo after the landing.

mars_landing

One commenter on a tech blog I read said it looked a lot like West Texas. I posted that it’s definitely not West Texas, otherwise it would look like this.

Whataburger_on_mars

I had heard that they were expanding outside Texas, but I didn’t realize they were taking it this far.


November 27, 2019

Not A Good Day . . .

First off, my oil leak, after a $1000 repair, is still leaking. Of course, to be fair, about $200 of that was the air compressor system repair with a new air filter/dryer.

So it’s my $800 oil leak repair, I guess.

Not exactly sure where I go from here, but I’ve got a couple of Ideas I’m mulling over.

Then when I got back to our site here in Santa Fe, I found that one side of our 50 amp breaker had died and I’m getting no power into the coach. Just perfect!

After texting the park owner and not getting a reply, I pulled the breaker and headed over to the Home Depot to get a new one. And they had the exact GE replacement. A least something’s going right.

Turns out the park owner is out of town for Thanksgiving.

But by the time I got back, (decided to have Denny’s for dinner first) it was dark, so I had the joy of working with 240 volts in the dark, holding the flashlight in my mouth.

But finally about 7:30, I had power again.

Tomorrow morning I’m driving up to Katy so Jan and I can have Thanksgiving Dinner at the Cracker Barrel there. Looking forward to seeing my Sweetie again.

More tomorrow when I won’t feel like cussing so much.


November 27, 2020

Thanksgiving Is Officially Over . . .

All the leftovers are gone now.

And it’s Day 2 without Internet.

As I mentioned yesterday, our park Internet WiFi went down about 10am and never came back up. I can connect and get an IP address, but there was no there there.

I was hoping that the problem had resolved itself this morning, but no such luck. We can still get online with our Verizon MiFi, and also by hotspotting our Samsung phones, but TV streaming really eats up the data. So we’ve been playing back old TV shows still stored on our DirecTV DVR.

Then about 10 I got on the phone trying to get a hold of someone in Xfinity/Comcast Tech Support so they could take a look at things from their end. And, unbelievably, after about 45 minutes of bouncing back and forth between phone numbers until finally I found Michelle, a very nice Tech Support person who knew what she was doing, and quickly figured out that I knew what I was talking about.

She was quickly able to connect to the park’s modem and run diagnostics and then do a full reboot on the system. But all to no avail. But once I knew that the Internet was making it into the park’s system, my next thought was that maybe it was just our local repeaters.

The 17 spaces that make up the park are all in one long line, with a repeater like this about every 3-4 sites.

Park WiFi Repeater

So, taking my Samsung tablet, I drove down to the front of the park and tried to connect.

With no luck. So I headed down toward the other end of the park, when I came across a lady coming out from the laundry. She turned out to be the owner’s daughter who said that the WiFi was out park-wide and the local repair guy would be out tomorrow to fix it.

So now we wait.

For some reason, over the last few years it seems like I’ve been doing a lot of repairs on this date. So you get a lot of that in today’s blog.


November 27, 2021

A Week From Today . . .

After I did my 30 minute Bone Graft treatment this morning, I got on the computer to get reservations for the rest of the shows we want to see when we are up in Branson the week after next.

In fact, two weeks from tonight we’ll be overnighting in Texarkana, the halfway point on the way to Branson. We’ll have Monday through Friday there, and then head home on Saturday with another overnight in Texarkana before getting home on Sunday.

Really looking forward to it.

About 12:30 we headed out for lunch at Gator’s once again. While Jan went with her Strawberry Walnut Salad with Grilled Chicken,

Gator's Bar & Grill Strawberry Walnut Salad with Chicken

I tried something new, the Egg In The Hole Bagel, pretty much a BLT on a bagel, with an Over Easy Egg in the bagel hole.

Gator's Egg in the Hole Bagel

Really good. In fact, have again good.

And then we each had one of their fantastic Keto Blueberry Muffins, heated, with some butter.

Gator's Keto Blueberry Muffin

Again, delicious.

Then it was on up the Interstate a bit to the Costcutters by HEB so Jan could get her hair done. And while she was doing that I filled up at the HEB pumps.

All I can say, is it’s been a long time since I’ve paid $50+ for a tank of gas, $57 to be exact. Now it was the Dakota, and it does have a 25 gallon tank, and I did put 20 gallons in it, but still.

On the subject of the Dakota, we’re driving it this week because our Jeep’s in the shop getting a couple of things checked out before our Branson trip. So it was interesting to see that yesterday the odometer rolled over to 308,000 miles.

Now, as I’ve mentioned, it’s been a V7 for about the last 15,000 miles when the #7 cylinder died, dropping to about 25# compression, rather than the usual 125#. But it cranks up every time, and will still do 70-75 on the Interstate.

Of course, it does smoke, blue smoke out the exhaust. But I’ve been thinking about getting one of those magnetic signs made for the door that says, “Harris County Mosquito Abatement Program.”

That ought to cover it.

Looks like tomorrow will be a stay-at-home Sunday, finishing off our Cracker Barrel Turkey Day leftovers.


November 27, 2022

Leftovers . . .

But not Turkey.

Today was a little different Sunday for us.

Usually we go out somewhere for lunch, and do our WalMart/HEB shopping. Or sometimes it’s HEB/WalMart. But today we decided to finish off our leftover Grimaldi’s Pizza from yesterday.

Then we went out shopping.

And over the next few days we still got leftover Turkey Day stuff, sans Dressing, of course. After making a number of unanswered calls on Thursday, including several where it was obvious that someone picked up the phone and then immediately hung it up, I gave up for right then. What I had been hoping was that maybe the manager of our Cracker Barrel might be able to call the manager of the Katy location so we could maybe pick up a pan of dressing from them. But no luck with that.

So I called our local CB Friday morning about 10:30 and actually got to talk to a manager, who told me to call back after 2pm after I told her what had happened. When I called her, I was told she was busy and would call me back.

And she was busy for the next 9 calls I made.

So now it’s a nasty email to corporate.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

I realized that I forgot to post photos of Brandi’s Christmas trees that she put up before they left for Colorado.

This is her main big tree in the living room.

Brandi Christmas with Topper 20221124

And it’s interesting to see how well decorated it is close up.

Brandi Christmas with Topper Close Up 20221124

And this is the smaller, illuminated one in the dining room.

Brandi Christmas Tree 2 2022

Both really beautiful.

Apparently a lady in Florida takes everything a little too literally.

She’s suing Kraft Foods saying that Velveeta Shells and Cheese takes longer than the 3-1/2 minutes it says on the box. Of course it also says on the box that that’s the cooking time.

So she’s probably going to have a real problem with Instant Oatmeal and Minute Rice.

And one guy online said he’s suing Kellogg’s because his Rice Krispies only have Snap and Crackle, but no Pop.

You just gotta’ wonder about some people.


November 27, 2023

Christmas In Cuero . . .

I got several questions concerning yesterday’s about our upcoming Christmas in Cuero trip on December 9th and 10th.

Jan came across an article about it in one of the Texas magazines, and thought it would make a nice road trip for us.

As it turns out, Cuero was the site of our very last gate-guard adventure finishing up with our last gate day on February 13, 2017. At the time we thought we’d be back on a gate later in August, but life moved on, things changed, and Cuero turned out to be our very last one.

But we really enjoyed our stay there and look forward to going back.

Looks like fun.

And of course, we have our favorite restaurants we want to revisit.

As I mentioned before, our previous shipment of machines came in with the wrong faceplates, looking like this.

So in our latest shipment, they sent us two replacement faceplates so I could change them out myself.

So taking the unit apart, I found the circuit board mounted to the back of the faceplate.

Though it looked complicated, it turned out that I only had to remove the 3 mounts, and unsolder the two blue wires from the connectors.

Then I just had to reverse the process, giving me this finished product.

Only took me about 20 minutes.

Quick and easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not This Year . . .

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Lunch today was at Vida Mariscos once again. We first ate here a couple of weeks ago, and it was so good we wanted to try it again.

This is the big sign out front,

which reminds me of the photos I’ve seen of the dock at Cozumel.

A sign we’ll be able to see for ourselves in a few weeks.

Vida Mariscos, though basically a Mexican restaurant, starts you out with a plate of pickled carrots and onions and a basket of hot house-made rolls, rather than chips and salsa.

Very good.

Jan got the Camarón, their version of Shrimp Tacos, garnished with jicama salad, along with rice and beans.

Jan said it was “Have Again Good”.

I went with the Mar Y Tierra, their version of Surf And Turf.

Along with the 3 Grilled Shrimp and Veggies, there’s a big pile of delicious Beef Fajita meat underneath there.

Also “Have Again Good”.

After our great meal, and our usual great service from Juana, we both felt a nap coming on. We had originally planned to do a Wal-Mart visit to make up for this past Saturday non-visit, but looking at her list, Jan said there was nothing that couldn’t wait until this Saturday.

* * * * *

It’s Not You!

Jan wants you to know it’s not that we don’t like you anymore. It’s just that with everything going on, i.e. my surgery, Thanksgiving, our cruise, etc., she’s not doing Christmas Cards this year.

* * * * *

Finishing up, Jan and I have really enjoyed this John Travolta-Capitol One commercial, “Holiday Night Fever”, an homage to his “Saturday Night Fever”.

See how many similarities you can find.


Thought For The Day:

Remember the Good Ole Days in the late 50’s when you could mail-order your own Nazi 20mm Anti-Tank Gun?

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


November 26, 2009

It’s Turkey Day… and Ham Day… and Stuffing Day.. and…

We got up about 9 to get Jan’s world-renowned squash casserole (made with fresh squash) in the oven before we headed out to Shawna’s for Thanksgiving dinner.

We headed out about 11, stopping by Brandi’s to pick up the HoneyBaked Ham we left there, since we didn’t have room for it in our rig fridge with the other stuff in it. We also stopped at a convenience store for a Houston Chronicle to get all the ads for tomorrow’s sales.

We got to Shawna’s in Katy, TX about 65 miles away, about 12:30 pm.  We have known Shawna and her husband, Jason, for about 15 years.  Shawna, my daughter Brandi, and I worked at the same place for a while, and we’ve been friends ever since.  For a number of years now, at least once a year, either Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter, we all get together for a big meal at Shawna’s.

And then we walk in the door and everyone wants to know the sausage balls. Jan is famed for her sausage balls, and everyone loves them, and all 8 dozen go fast.  There would probably be a mutiny if we showed up without them.

After a great meal and a nap on the sofa (when I fell asleep Green Bay & Detroit were playing. When I woke up it was Dallas & Oakland).

About 4:30 we waddled out (I told you it was a BIG meal) to the truck and headed home with a lot of leftovers, stopping at Buc-ee’s for coffee.

It was dark by the time we got back to the rig, so we were in for the night, still so full we didn’t even think about supper.


November 26, 2010

BRRRRRR!!!!! . . .

When Jan got up about 7:30 it was 42 degrees and raining.

By 11:30 it was up to 43 degrees and raining.

Wheeee!  Heatwave!

About 12 the rain had slacked off so Jan went out to reload the bird feeders and I went out to re-align the sat dish. It had been blown slightly off target due to the high winds we had all last night.

Then about 1 I called Direct TV to get our DNS West Coast feed turned back on. What I found out was that to get the West Coast feed turned back on it was going to cost an extra $6 per month, but I would now get 2 new channels, CW and PBS, that I didn’t have before. These two extra channels had previously been an additional $5 each, so I didn’t get them since this would have increased our DNS service from $14 to $24, almost doubling the cost just for two extra channels.

I’m cheap. What can I say?

So now our DNS is going from $14 to $20, which I’m not crazy about, but at least I’m getting something out of it.

About 4:30 we drove up to La Brisa to meet our friend Maria for supper, after which she and Jan were going to play Bingo again down in La Marque at the Knights of Columbus Hall.

And she did good. She won $95 on a game and she was really happy.

Of course, when I asked her how much she’d spent the last 4 weeks to win that $95, she said she didn’t want to talk about it. I don’t think she liked me raining on her parade.

Well, if she had fun, I’m happy.

It’s supposed to be even colder here tonight, with a low of 33 degrees, the coldest so far this year. But at least the rain is supposed to be going away.

More tomorrow…


November 26, 2011

Moving Day . . .

After our coffee and a quick drive past the site to be sure no one had come in and parked there overnight, we moved the rig a little before 11 and got settled in at our new home.

Hooking up backwards wasn’t as much of a problem as I anticipated. I had thought I might need another length of sewer hose, but as it turns out my two pieces were just enough.

Power was no problem since whoever originally purchased our coach ordered the extra-long power cord, and that’s been a big help several times.

As it turns out, the only problem was with the water connection. The previous tenant had left one of those silver 2-way hose connectors like this.

Hose Splitter

The problem was the threads on both sides were so messed up that I couldn’t connect my hose to it. And worse, I couldn’t get the splitter off, either. It was stuck good.

The pipe is PVC and when I tried to use a wrench to twist it off, the PVC started to bend. Just what I want to do – break off the pipe.

My solution was to call the park office and let them fix it. We’ll just stay on internal water till they get it fixed.

Here’s a couple of views out our front window. As you can see we’re only about 20 feet from the water.

By the time we got parked, the thunderstorms were rolling in and the formerly blue skies were turning gray and dreary.

Galveston Bay 77-1

This shot shows Jan’s favorite island. A lot of birds make this area home and it’s one of her favorite sights.

Galveston Bay 77-2

After we got settled in, a little after 12,  we headed up to Seabrook to have lunch at Hooters, our (my) favorite hot-wing place. Really like their XXX hotter sauce.

After lunch our next stop was Wal-Mart for a few things. It looks like the Black Friday madness has subsided to a dull roar. They were busy, but not overly so. We didn’t even have to wait in line to check out.

Coming back into the park, we saw our newest resident, a Roseate Spoonbill, hanging around with a paddling of wild ducks.

Spoonbill 2

When we first saw it a few days ago, it was resting on the bank, facing away from us, and we thought it was a Flamingo. But these shots proved different.

It was still pretty cloudy, so he looks a little colorless, but in the bright sun, the pink really stands out. A beautiful bird.

I’ll try to get some better shots later.

Spoonbill 1

We still haven’t seen the Great Blue Heron that was here our past three winters. Hope he’s OK.

Great Blue Heron

Getting back to the rig about 2, the rainy weather made a perfect setting for a very nice nap. The rain on the roof of the rig made it very easy to fall asleep.

Supper was leftovers of Mexican and BBQ with cookies for dessert. Nice and simple.

Tomorrow I want to dig out my truck manual and see what I can do about the broken window lifter.

If the weather cooperates, that is.


November 26, 2012

Back to the Old Grind . . .

Kind of.

I realize some people might not consider living and traveling full-time in an RV the “Old Grind”, but sometimes it seems we never have as much free time as we did when we worked full-time.

I guess we’ve just traded one kind of full-time for another. But we have a lot more fun.

We did get to sleep in this morning at least, the first time in a week or so. Although we were on vacation, so to speak, last week in Marble Falls, no one slept late. Landon wakes up about 6am and it’s pretty hard to sleep after that.

I did get up about 10 and then spent the rest of the morning drinking coffee and working on some client computer stuff.

Galveston Bay 77-2

But it’s a lot easier working when this is the view out the front of the coach.

Finally about 1:30 I headed out on some errands and a client visit. My first stop was the bank to make a deposit, and then it was on to the client’s office to take a look at that bad computer.

It was an older one and it looks like the power supply died, since it wouldn’t power up at all. This computer was one of several office computers that had been replaced a while back. But the client was still using this one because it had Windows XP on it, and he had some old office software that wouldn’t run on anything after XP.

He said he still had a couple of others in the back, so I told him to bring one up. My first plan was to swap the power supply module out, but then it occurred to me that it would be quicker and simpler to just swap out the hard drive instead, and that’s what I did. So my client was back up and running in about 10 minutes.

My next stop was Brandi and Lowell’s to pick up the mail that came in while we were in Marble Falls, and then it was on to a nearby Kroger’s to fill up the toad with gas.

What in the world has happened with gas prices the last couple of days? Last Sunday when we got back in Houston I filled up with diesel for $3.53 a gallon. Today it’s $3.69 at the same station. And this past Tuesday I filled up the truck for $2.98, today it’s $3.09.

It looks like the prices are going up as the stations get fuel deliveries because I found a few stations still selling at $2.99, one of them being the Kroger’s here. But the Kroger’s about 5 miles away is already up to $3.09.

And it was good to find out that my magic Kroger’s Rewards Card still works. Actually it’s a Fred Meyer’s card we got in Alaska in 2008, but Kroger’s owns Fred Meyer’s so it works here too.

The magic thing about it is that it ALWAYS gives the $ .10 a gallon discount. Normally you have to purchase $100 of groceries to get the one-time discount, until you buy another $100 worth.

But I discovered when I got back from Alaska that with this card I get the $.10 every single time. Like I said, it’s magic.

I got home about 4:30, picked up Jan, and we headed out to La Brisa, a really good Mexican restaurant right up the road, for our usual great meal.

Coming home I got a call from another client, wanting to know if I was back in town, and could I come by tomorrow afternoon?

Like I said, back to the Old Grind.


November 26, 2013

A Squash Shortage ?

Well, I was finally able to find a rental car this morning so that problem was taken care of. I did use Enterprise, the “we’ll pick you up’ people, but they weren’t sure how long it would take to get the car out to us, so about 11am I walked down to the office to see about getting a ride, And as luck would have it, the park owners, Tom and Kevin, were heading in to Houston for a meeting with the engineer for the RV park upgrades, and were happy to give me a ride.

By noon I was on my way back to the park to pick up Jan and head off for an afternoon of lunch and errands. And what’s better for lunch on a cold, rainy afternoon than a big bowl of Monterey’s Little Mexico Chicken Tortilla Soup. And chips. There had to be chips and salsa.

Next up I got to freeze my rear off standing in line outside the HoneyBaked Ham store to pick up our Thanksgiving ham. Originally I was going to pick it up yesterday when the line would have been shorter, but that didn’t work out, so today’s the day.

And man, was it cold!  It was about 40° with a brisk wind that just cut right through you. And to think, last year I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt when I picked it up. But after about 30 minutes I  was finally inside the store and the counter was in sight.

Ten more minutes and $77 later I was back in the warm car where Jan had been waiting, waiting in the warm car.

I did mention she was waiting in the warm car while I stood out in the cold rain, didn’t I?

After I warmed up and stopped shivering, we headed over to Kroger’s to pick up some Thanksgiving supplies, but once inside, our first stop was at the Starbuck’s for a Pumpkin Spice Latte for Jan, and a Cinnamon Dolce Latte for me. Anything to warm me up.

We found everything on our list except for the frozen squash for Jan’s World Famous Squash Casserole. We found the frozen broccoli, we found the frozen chopped onions, but no squash was to be had. Plenty of okra, spinach, green beans, black-eyed peas, and even edamame. But no squash

So heading back toward the rig, completely squashless, we decided to make a stop at another Kroger’s on the way, but once again no squash.

What’s up with that?

Somebody at Kroger’s forgot to order frozen squash? Was there a squash famine this year? Inquiring minds, and all that.

Getting home I made a call to Coach-Net to make an appointment to have my truck towed up to Brock’s Automotive tomorrow morning. Then Jan and I will head up to Brandi’s where Jan and Lowell’s mother Sonja, will help her cook for Thanksgiving.

And I’ll probably be out looking for squash.


November 26, 2014

Oops!

Jan and I decided to have breakfast this morning in Livingston before we left, and Lone Star Charlie’s had really good reviews so off we went. And the reviews were right. Great omelets, great bacon, great biscuits, and great grits. Everything was seasoned perfectly. And the coffee was good too.

But getting back to Chris and Charles’ site is where the Oops! comes in. Jan suggested I back in so I would be heading the right way to hitch up before we pulled out this morning, so I pulled past the driveway, started to back in, lined up the driveway in my outside mirror, and with a quick ‘CLUNK’, my rear wheel was hanging in midair, just spinning along. With the sun in my eyes, I had not noticed that the driveway passing over the culvert was inset, and I was now hung up on the curb. It’s like that on both sides, why I don’t know, but I didn’t notice it.

Truck Stuck 1

My first thought was that maybe I could get the rig in front of the truck, hitch up and then pull it out. But a quick look showed that I would probably rip out brake lines and the gas tank if I did that. About this time, Dennis Hill drove by on his Harley, and I was busted. No way I could deny this ever happened now.

It was very apropos that to get me out of this situation in her driveway, I called the Good Sam Emergency Road Service that Chris had sold me. Johnny of Smith’s Towing, showed up about 45 minutes later, unfortunately not before Dennis did, but pretty quick.

He agreed there was no way to pull it out without damage, so he put a trailer hitch bar into the receiver on my truck, extended his boom, and attached a cable to the hitch.

Truck Stuck 2

Then he lifted the rear of the truck up to clear the curb, and then retracted his boom to move the wheel back onto the driveway.

Truck Stuck 3

So now I was able to turn my front wheels and back up with no problems.

Truck Stuck 5

So finally we were on our way a little before 1pm, only about 45 minutes late. But it wasn’t like we had a schedule to keep.

After a nice drive through the country, we arrived at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails about 2:15pm. We tried to find a site in our usual ‘E’ section, but they were all full, so it was off to wander around the park looking for an open site. We finally found one in the ‘F’ section, and unlike many in this area, the one we found was very level. And even better, these sites are paved, unlike the ‘E’ area, which are grass/mud. So we were very quickly parked and set up.

About 5:30, along with Lynette and Mac McHenry, we headed out to The Fish Pond Restaurant, where we ate right after we got here last week.

Fish Pond Restaurant

Last time I had a Ribeye and Jan had the Fried Catfish, both very good. But this time I went with the Master Burger Double Cheeseburger and Jan had the Steak Fingers, very good again.

This is a place that has a big enough menu, that you can keep going back and not repeat yourself. Hopefully we’ll go back again too.

Tomorrow we’ll head down to Friendswood to have Thanksgiving Gumbo with Chris, Linda, and Piper. Then Jan will stay over and puppy-sit for a few days while Chris et. al, are out of town.

Nigel

I mean, how could you not want to puppy-sit a face like this?


November 26, 2015

Pretty Painless . . .

and Very, Very Tasty.

First off, Jan and I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope you enjoyed your day as much as we enjoyed ours.

After we were up and had our coffee about 8:30, we headed out about 10am, with our first stop the Cracker Barrel right down I-45 in Conroe. I had called them on Tuesday to pre-order our Thanksgiving Meal To-Go that we were to pick up.

The restaurant itself was already jam-packed, but they had the whole take-out process streamlined. Signs first pointed me inside to a special line where I quickly paid the $65 for my order. Then it was back to the truck and around back to get in line to pick up our order. But here’s where the process kind of broke down.

The pickup area was a canopy at the backdoor where you could drive up and get your meal, but they didn’t have the direction really defined, so some people were trying to pull in from one direction and some from the other. And then while that was being worked out, other people were parking off to the side, and then walking up.

And this resulted in some upsetness (my new word) to the people in the cars who were there first, because the walkups were getting served ahead of them. Finally the lady in the car behind us got out and started complaining, and things quickly got straightened out.

But even with all this drama, it was less than 15 minutes before we were back on the road heading down to the Clear Lake area. As I said, pretty painless.

Traffic was about what I expected for a Thanksgiving morning, with the usual slowdown around the Pierce Elevated, but it freed up pretty quickly. We did luck up on our side of the freeway, because as we came down off the Pierce we saw that there had been an accident on the other side, with two cars having spun around and scattered large pieces of themselves all over the roadway. The result of this was 5 lanes of traffic backed up for several miles down the Interstate.

Getting into the Clear Lake area we were surprised to see how many changes had been done to the Interstate since we were here this past August for a few days. The El Dorado interchange was completely rearranged from before and the traffic flow is very different.

We arrived at Chris’ about 11:30 and got the food inside and unpacked, still warm, from the large, heavy cardboard box.

Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving Box

Inside the box everything was laid out, labeled, and ready to go.

Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving Contents

And as I said, still warm.

And following up on our easy Peazy Thanksgiving theme, everyone just served their plates from the containers and popped them in the microwave for a minute or so. Then all we had to do was sit down around the table and enjoy our meal.

And it was very, very tasty. We all agreed that Cracker Barrel does a great Turkey Dinner. In fact, we often go to CB on a normal Thursday just so Jan can have their Turkey and Dressing.

As Jan said, “We didn’t cook for two days, spend 20 minutes eating, and then two hours cleaning up.” When we were done, the containers went in the fridge, the plates and silverware went into the dishwasher, and we were done. Then for dessert, we all had some of the pumpkin pie that Chris baked, and some of the Coconut Cream Pie we got from the Fish Pond Restaurant yesterday.

Fish Pond Coconut Cream Pie

Like I said, pretty painless, and very, very tasty. Easy Peazy.

After dinner, while we were watching the dog show, and then the Panthers – Cowboys game (a 33 – 14 blowout leaving Panthers 11 – 0 for the season), I checked online to see what it will entail to replace the broken glass screen on Chris’ Galaxy S5 phone. And it looks like there are two different ways to go. A cheap, difficult way, and an expensive, easy way.

The screen itself only costs about $10, but looks be a difficult  2 – 3 hour job, mostly due to having to separate the glass from the LCD screen. And if you accidentally crack the LCD in doing this, you get to move on to the bonus round, and have to take the $150 expensive, easy route anyway, $150 being what a new LCD display with glass costs. So we’ll have to decide what we’re going to do before we’re together next time.


November 26, 2016

New Toy Update . . .

I mentioned the other day about my new Dash Cam, and our Thanksgiving trip back to Katy was my first chance to really try it out.

Black Box G1W Dash Cam

DashCam 2

I really like the quality (1080p) and the color is good too. In addition I like the 140° view. My other dashcam, the one in the rig, has a 170° angle, which means the view is more distorted.

You can check out a sample below.

A really great deal for only $50.

I also got another new toy recently, a little sister to our Amazon Echo Alexa, an Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon Echo Dot

Only about  1.5 inches high, it does just about everything the full-size version does. The only downside is that the speaker system is not as good due to its smaller size. For this reason, the Dot is really made to be hooked up to a Bluetooth or external speaker.

But in real-world use it seems to work just fine with the internal speakers. Besides its smaller size, the other thing I really like is the fact that, unlike the Echo which is powered by an AC adapter, the Dot is powered by a standard USB-micro HTML cable just like your cellphone or tablet.

What all this boils down to is that the Dot is great for use on the road. We have used our big Echo traveling in the rig where there is plenty of room, but the Dot is much better for use in the truck. And since it’s USB powered I can plug it right in rather than having to use an inverter.

Even better, the Dot is only $49.99 compared to $179.99 for the big sister. And even more better, right now through Cyber Monday, the Dot is only $39.99. A great deal.

We used it to listen it to iHeartRadio, our 9000+ songs in Amazon’s Cloud Storage, or the 2 million+ songs we get with Prime Music.

Looks like Google has finally come out with their version of the Echo called Google Home. I imagine though it’s going to take them a while to catch up with all the things Echo offers.

I’ve enjoyed all the back and forth on Facebook about whether or not stores should be open on Thanksgiving for shopping. There was a lot of discussion on both sides, citing greedy corporations, angry shoppers, etc.

Hearing this always makes me think of the Blue Laws here in Texas when we moved out here in December 1978. Not only were no big stores open on Sunday, there were a lot of strange restrictions on what you could buy.

Things like the fact you could buy cloth diapers on Sunday, but you couldn’t buy disposable ones. You could buy a hammer or a screwdriver, but not nails or screws. In fact there were 100’s of these weird differences. Eventually the big stores had enough and many started opening on Sunday, pretty much daring the authorities to punish them. Finally in 1985 the whole thing collapsed. At this point, even the churches couldn’t stem the tide.

But what really broke the dam was an article in the newspaper that revealed only about 5% of the working population was employed in retail sales affected by the Blue Laws. The other 95% were police, firefighters, EMT, doctors, nurses, etc. Others worked at refineries, chemical plants, TV stations, and the like.

Landon got to tell Santa Claus his Christmas Wish List today at Bass Pro Shop

Landon with Santa 2016


November 26, 2017

In An Instant . . .

We bought a 2+ pound eye of round roast a couple of weeks ago to try out in our Instant Pot, But we got so busy that we ended up freezing it.

So today we decided to try out our IP with Pot Roast and Veggies. We’d seen that we could do the roast frozen so that’s how we did it.

I put the roast in the IP and then added beef broth, water, salt, pepper, and heat.

Instant Pot Pot Roast Spices

Then I added some of the cut-up onions from our veggies,

Instant Pot Pot Roast in Pot

locked the lid down and then set the IP to Meat and 90 minutes, and off it went. It took about 15 to reach pressure and then the countdown began.

Per the instructions, 90 minutes later I did a quick release and here’s what we had.

Instant Pot Pot Roast in Pot Cooked

Jan had already prepared the veggies, potatoes, carrots, and onions. The corn I was going to do separately.

Instant Pot Pot Roast Veggies

So in the IP they went right into the leftover juices.

Instant Pot Pot Roast Veggies in Pot

This time I set the IP to Manual and 10 minutes with a 10 minute natural release and then quick release.

Instant Pot Pot Roast Veggies Cooked

As soon as they were done, I  put the corn on the cob in our steamer basket, still using the original liquid, and set the IP for Manual and 3 minutes, and then did a quick release.

And about 10 minutes we were ready to eat. The roast sliced easily and was fall-apart tender.

Instant Pot Pot Roast Sliced

It was delicious, but no heat. We’ll add more next time.

The veggies were a little overcooked, but still delicious. Maybe 8 minutes next time and quick release.

I like my corn on the cob with some bite to it, but next time I’ll do it for 4 or 5 minutes, instead of 3.

All in all, it was a good first try with our Instant Pot. Looking forward to more great meals.


November 26, 2018

Touchdown . . .

The Mars Insight Lander touched down right on time this afternoon, and seems to be fully operational. But it will be a while until they’re sure, and then they’ll deploy the solar panels and the test instruments. Hope all goes well.

Since I was out sick on Wednesday and we were closed on Friday, today was a catch-up day with a lot of stuff to send out and things on the website and in the catalogs to update with new prices. Busy, Busy.

Coming home I stopped in at Costco to fill up the tank for our trip up to Katy tomorrow. Found the price still at $1.91. How low will it go?

About 4:30 Jan and I headed back out to have dinner at the new Slim Chickens. Just as good as last time. Glad it’s close by.

Next up was a stop at the nearby WalMart for a few things for Jan to have for meals during her upcoming Adventures in Dog-Sitting. Then, just by happenstance, we drove by the Marble Slab where the coffee ice cream was calling out to us . . . ‘buy two small Coffees to go’. So we did.

Our last stop was the Santa Fe PO for our mail, where we found our new SD license plate stickers had come in. One less thing to worry about.

Tomorrow I’ll take Jan up to Brandi’s in Katy so she can dog-sit (and cat-sit) Miss Kitty, Baxter, and Mooshe the cat. (Miss Kitty is a 100# Black Lab) while Brandi, et. al, along with friends, Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox, are flying off to Disney World in Orlando where they’ll be staying until next Monday. Landon’s first trip to the Mouse Kingdom.

I brought home the System Image Recovery Disk and started trying to re-image the laptop hard drive after we got back home. But the first three times I tried it using the latest image I did on the 23rd, it kept failing, so right now I am using the one I made back in October. And so far it’s working.

I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.


November 26, 2019

Got The Rig Back . . .

But not until about 5pm, so I’m at the River Bend RV Park in Luling and I’ll head back toward Santa Fe tomorrow morning.

Happily surprised that the total bill was only about $1,055.00, much less than I expected.

The air compressor problem is definitely fixed, and hopefully the oil leak is too. But I really won’t know until I drive for a while.


November 26, 2020

Pass The Turkey

and the Dressing, and the Green Beans, and the Mashed Potatoes, and the . .  .(Insert Your Favorite Thanksgiving Dish Here)

About 12:30 I started putting out and heating up our Thanksgiving meal, mostly compliments of Cracker Barrel.

I mixed the chicken broth in with the Cornbread Dressing and put it in the convection/microwave for about 40 minutes while I was prepping everything. And a lot of the prepping consisted of taking the lids off the Green Beans, the Carrots, and the Mashed Potatoes, and putting a couple of big dollops of KerryGold Butter in each dish.

As well as drizzling melted KerryGold over the top on the Yeast Rolls, which went into the toaster/convection oven at 400° for about 15 minutes, coming out looking like this.

Thanksgiving 2020 Rolls

While this was going on I got out the Turkey Breast, cut open the sealed plastic bag, and started slicing.

Thanksgiving 2020 Turkey

And no, it’s not really greenish. It’s just the lighting.

Then after cycling all the Veggies and the Turkey Gravy through the microwave,

Thanksgiving 2020 Veggies

and laying everything else out,

Thanksgiving 2020 Turkey and Dressing

we were ready to eat.

Thanksgiving 2020 Plate

Really, really good. Thanks to Cracker Barrel.

And then for dessert, there was pie.

Thanksgiving 2020 Pie

And yes, there’s a piece of Chocolate Pecan and a piece of Cream Cheese Pumpkin underneath all that Whipped Cream somewhere.

And the clean-up consisted pretty much of just snapping the lids back on the serving dishes and putting them back in the fridge.

Nice!

The only downside to this very nice day, is that we lost the park WiFi Internet about 10:30 am, and as of 11 pm tonight we still don’t have it back. The WiFi signal is there, and we can connect to it  and get an IP address, but it’s just not talking to anything.

Rob, the park owner who’s out of town, had his daughter come over and reboot everything here, but it didn’t help. And so far it’s been impossible to talk to anyone at Xfinity.

Nothing we have will get a signal. The TV, computer, tablets, Kindles, Echo’s, all zip. But I can connect to my Verizon MiFi or my phone hotspot, so I know it’s not me.

So later in the afternoon I turned our DirecTV DVR back on and we watched stuff we had recorded a while back.


November 26, 2021

Black Friday . . .

Jan and I spent about an hour this morning putting together my new Respawn Gaming Chair, a 30 minute job that took about an hour due to old fumble fingers here.

Respawn Chair

It’s amazing how many times I could drop that little Allen wrench. Jan, to her credit, kept the snickering mostly muffled.

Then about 1pm, we headed out for our Black Friday event. No, it was not at WalMart or Costco, but at Twin Peaks.

You see, Black Friday at Twin Peaks means Black Lingerie Friday. Much better than fighting the crowds at WalMart, believe me.

Something funny did happen though. We asked specifically for our favorite server, Sylvia, but were told we would have to wait a few minutes for an open table in her area.

When we were being seated, we had to wait a few seconds for the busser to finish wiping down the table. Right about then, the young lady who was guiding us to our table said,

“You asked specifically for Sylvia. Are you her grandparents?”

We both just laughed, and said, “No, she’s just a really good server.”

And she is too.

In fact, she showed up at our table with our specific drink order, two unsweet iced teas, two iced waters, an extra glass of ice, and a bunch of extra lemons, just a minute or so after we sat down, without us even having to order it.

Tin Peaks Sylia and Victoria

That’s Sylvia on the left and her BFF Victoria on the right. Notice I kept the shot from the waist up.

Jan laughing, said she didn’t know which way to look. There were just ‘cheeks’ everywhere.

Me, I just kept my mouth shut.


November 26, 2022

My Baby’s Back Home . . .

After raining pretty steadily for the last 4 days, today showed up bright and sunny, perfect for the drive up to Katy to pick up my Jan at Brandi’s.

They got back from Colorado about 10:30 last night, saying they had a great time, but Brandi came home with a severe sinus/ear infection, so she’s a little under the weather for the next few days.

Loading up Jan and all her baggage, we headed over to the nearby Grimaldi’s Pizzeria for Post-Turkey Day pizza.

As we always do, we started out with the Small Spinach Salad,

Grimaldi's Spinach Salad 20221126

and then segued to an 18” The Don pizza, which comes with Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, and Meatballs. To which we add Bacon and Mushrooms.

Grimaldi's The Don Pizzaq 20221126

We always get the big 18” one so we have leftovers to bring home.

Then while I read in the truck, Jan had her way with the Trader Joe’s right next door.

Then it was finally back to the rig about 4:30.

So glad to have my baby back.


November 26, 2023

Jan Says It’s Kelley’s Next Year . . .

Jan decided she wanted another shot at Turkey & Dressing, so we headed out to the Kelley’s Country Cooking up in League City, the only place we know that has T&D on Sunday.

We were kind of worried about how busy they’d be on a Sunday afternoon, and though they were busy, we got seated immediately.

Jan got her T&D, along with Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes, and Mac N Cheese.

I normally get breakfast when we come here, but this time I got the Chicken Fried Steak, along with Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans.

Luckily I didn’t ‘supersize’ my CFS, since it would cover the entire plate. And even here we both had leftovers to bring home.

Jan said it was really, really good, and that we’re coming here for Thanksgiving.

Bet they won’t run out of Turkey.

After lunch it was back over to our area for our Sunday HEB visit for food and gas, and then a PO visit before getting home about 3 pm.

Next week is not too busy, but it picks up the week afterward. Next Sunday the 3rd, I’m dropping Jan off at Brandi’s so she can be sure Landon gets off to school each day. Brandi will be out of town on a business trip, and since Lowell leaves for work really early, Jan will be there to be sure Landon gets out of the door on time.

Then I’ll pick her up on Friday.

And the next day, Jan and I head down to Cuero for our Christmas In Cuero weekend. Cuero was the site of our last gate-guarding adventure in 2017 and we really like the town. So it will be interesting to see how it’s changed in the last six years.