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Now You Can Make Your Own . . .

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Lunch today was at Adriatic Cafe once again, and this time we had our favorite server, Paige, again.

The second time Paige waited on us, a couple of months ago, she remembered us, remembered our drink order, and the fact that we wanted Angel Hair pasta with our Spaghetti.

Along with a Salad, and their delicious fresh-baked Garlic Knots, it’s a great meal, and we have enough left over to bring home for tomorrow night’s meal.

Then, after topping off the Jeep, we were home a little after 2 pm.

* * * * * * *

Now You Can Make Your Own

Though I’m not sure it’s really worth the effort.

YouTuber Cracks Coca-Cola’s 139-Year-Old Secret Formula—Here ‘s the Recipe

A YouTuber claims to have reverse-engineered Coca-Cola’s closely guarded recipe using mass spectrometry, taste testing and a year of trial-and-error, producing a near-identical clone.

The analysis suggests more than 99% of Coke’s composition is sugar, caffeine and acid, with the long-mythologized “secret formula” accounting for less than 1% of the drink by weight.

The findings undercut decades of brand mystique around Coca-Cola’s vault-guarded recipe, highlighting how modern lab tools can replicate proprietary flavors without infringing trademarks.

Here’s the thing that makes Coca-Cola’s whole secrecy theater kind of hilarious: over 99% of the drink’s composition is pure sugar.

A liter contains about 110 grams of sugar, 96 milligrams of caffeine, 0.64 grams of phosphoric acid, and caramel color. That’s it.

One thing to understand is that there are NO more ‘secret’ formulas. A mass spectrometer can tell you pretty much everything that’s in a compound.

It’s a strategy that works great until someone with a mass spectrometer decides to spend a year figuring it out. And since LabCoatz isn’t trying to sell his clone under the Coca-Cola name, he hasn’t broken any laws.

Give it a try.

Just remember that you can buy 12 – 16 oz. cans for $6.38 at Wal-Mart.

* * * * * * *

In prep for our Fredericksburg/Kingsland trip coming up this Thursday, Jan’s going into baking mode tomorrow, with a couple of batches of her ‘world famous’** Sausage Balls.

Cream Cheese Sausage Balls

Ingredients:

1 lb. hot sausage, uncooked
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups Bisquick
4 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix all ingredients until well combined. Roll into 1–inch balls. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until brown.

Sausage balls may be frozen uncooked. If baking frozen, add a few minutes to the baking time.

** If they’re not ‘world famous’ yet, they should be.

Thought for the Day:

Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agree on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had. – Michael Crichton

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


January 14, 2012

Fajitas and Soup . . .

Jan and I left the rig about 11 this morning to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at the Texas Tea Room for lunch. Landon was his usual lovable self, and we had a great meal.

Landon at Texas Tea Room 2

Landon with his daddy. Look at those beautiful blue eyes.

Landon and Daddy at Texas Tea Room

After a fun lunch with Landon et al, Jan and I headed over to Texas Art Supply so she could find a large set of crayons. Then it was on to Brandi’s to pick up our mail.

Then on the way home, we stopped off at Monterey’s Little Mexico again for more Chicken Tortilla Soup to eat with the leftover Beef Fajita Nachos we didn’t eat last night.

Getting home, the day was so nice that we spent some time outside. Jan fed the birds and then set out in the sun for a spell while I worked on a few things. First off, I cleaned the battery terminals on the truck, and then plugged in my new power window unit just to be sure it worked before installing it sometime next week.

Next, I worked on tracing the door lock wiring on my truck so I could fix the problem with the alarm not turning off when I unlock the door.

Later, we came inside and caught up on some TV that we had recorded on our DVR. We were down to about 20% so it was about due.

All in all, a very nice day.


January 14, 2013

Cloudy, Cold, Wet, Damp, Flu – Blah . . .

We’re now into our 5th day of cold, rainy, miserable weather. Today’s high was 45 with a low tonight of 37. Then tomorrow it’s 40 and 35. And of course, don’t forget the intermittent rain.

And even better, we’re looking at another week of this.

Blah!

I had appointments with several clients this morning, but those got cut short due to the flu.

Not me. Them.

But since it’s been about 10 days since I’ve seen them, and the incubation period for the flu is 1 to 4 days, I should be OK.

So far, they’re the only ones I know with the flu, so I hope my luck holds.

I didn’t get the flu shot this year, and haven’t gotten one since the mid-60’s. I’ve had the shot twice, and both times I got sick. The last time I had to be hospitalized for 10 days.

So now I depend on the kindness of strangers. I figure that if everyone else gets their flu shots like they’re supposed to, then I don’t need to get mine.

So, get your flu shot today.

My continued good health depends on it.

So after checking in with my healthy client, I headed over to the house to check the mail. I was hoping that the door switch to fix the washer had come in, and it had. Of course, I still have to pull the washer out of the wall to fix the ‘no-heat’ problem, but I’d rather only pull it out once to fix both problems.

Leaving the house, my next stop was Fry’s Electronics to pick up a new computer for a client. Fry’s is starting to run out of Windows 7 machines, so I hope they hold out until Jan and I leave here next month.

Getting back to the rig, Jan and I headed back out about 4 pm to first have dinner at Chili’s and then on to Kroger’s for some groceries. Then it was home for the night.

Tomorrow I play Splendide Repairman.


January 14, 2014

Never Again. . .

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. Jan, Mister, and I sat outside and enjoyed our coffee. Well, Mister didn’t have coffee. He just enjoyed licking himself.

But we all had fun.

I took the day off from chores and worked on some computer things for a couple of clients. Still working on the laptop that was infected with the Conduit Search problem. I’ve got most of it cleaned out, but there’s still a ‘poison pill’ left in there somewhere. After Conduit Search is removed, everything works, but it keeps trying to come back. SuperAntiSpyware is blocking it, but warnings keep flashing up, which gets to be annoying very quickly. But I’ll find it eventually.

Conduit Search is one of those programs that you usually infect yourself with. It normally gets installed because you didn’t check carefully when you installed another piece of software. You need to read all the fine print in the “Terms and Conditions”, and at the bottom of the install screen, usually a number of check boxes that if you don’t uncheck them, you get all sorts of junk along with the problem you wanted.

Conduit Search is not a virus per se, but is usually referred to as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program), though I think the acronym should be Positively Unwanted Program.

Running the paid version of either SuperAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes should protect from this being installed on your system. Note, I said the ‘paid’ versions, because the programs have to be actively running to do this, and only the paid versions allow this.

FWIW, I run the paid versions of both. They don’t conflict.

For the record, these are the “protection programs” I run.

AVG Free Virus Protection
ZoneAlarm Firewall
SuperAntiSpyware ““ paid version
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware ““ paid version
CCleaner
Glary Utilities
Microsoft Security Essentials

If you have any questions about any of these, let me know.


About 1 pm, Jan and I headed out to have lunch at

King Food and then some errands. After lunch, I made a client stop for a few minutes to update some software. I’ll be back here Saturday night to do some stuff that can’t be done in the daytime when they’re using the system.

We next decided to check out the Wal-Mart down in Texas City, and Jan said, “Never again”. Traveling around so much, we’re used to finding Wal-Marts with different layouts, but this one looked like someone had just scattered the rows out at random. It was the screwiest layout I’ve ever seen.

As Jan says, “Never again”.


January 14, 2015

Hot Stuff . . .

Jan and I headed out about 10 am with our first stop, Katz’s Deli in the Montrose area, for lunch around 11:30. We always try to eat here when we’re in this part of town, and it never disappoints.

We always start out with some of their complementary pickles and coleslaw.

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The kosher pickles are the kind that you bite into with a big ‘crunch’. Jan doesn’t really like pickles, but she really likes these. And the coleslaw is also unique, as it’s sliced rather than chopped, and has a very spicy, but a little sweet, dressing.

Jan had a Tuna Salad Sandwich with a cup of their Broccoli Cheese Soup, and I had a Reuben on Grilled Rye with a cup of their Corn Chowder.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Leaving Katz’s, our next destination was about 15 minutes away, with a stop at iBurn.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Our son-in-law, Lowell, turned us on to this place, and has given me several items he got there for us, but this was our first time to actually visit.

The place is ‘Hot Stuff’ heaven with row after row of bottles, bags, and boxes of the hottest concoctions you can imagine. I was like a kid in a candy store, believe me. And I came away with $30 of hot stuff. Yummm!

The next stop was at my client’s in Pasadena to deliver her new computer. But in trying to get it set up, I ran into a problem. She has an older keyboard she likes, and by older, I mean it has the big AT connector, the one that’s about the size of your thumb. But for her last couple of computers, we used an AT to PS2 adapter like this:

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

But computers these days no longer have PS2 Keyboard/Mouse connectors on them, so I needed another adapter, a PS2 to USB like this one:

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

But after checking a nearby Office Depot and a Best Buy, with no luck (they didn’t even know what I was talking about), Jan and I headed down to Clear Lake to the Fry’s Electronics, which of course had exactly what I needed.

Finally getting the computer set up and configured to her liking, and after I fixed a couple of problems on her laptop, Jan and I headed for home. We quickly decided to put our El Pollo Loco visit on hold due to how late it was, and after looking at the traffic delays on Sigalert, we decided to have dinner along the way and wait out the traffic. We looked for a Texas Roadhouse, but couldn’t find one along the way, so we ended up at a Saltgrass Steakhouse.

Luckily for us, we got there just before the rush and were seated immediately. Our steaks and steak accessories were just as good as our last visit to the one in Conroe, and we had enough leftover to bring some home.

Our last stop was a nearby Kroger’s for a few things as well as gas for $0.79 a gallon (with my $1 a gallon Kroger’s Card discount).

Heading home, we found the traffic was gone, and we were able to do the speed limit all the way, getting home about 8:45.

Tomorrow afternoon is supposed to be sunny, so maybe I can get some stuff done outside. We can only hope.


January 14, 2016

Are You A Winner?

On the PowerBall front, as I thought, the prize made it up to $1.6 Billion right before the drawing last night, and yielded three winners. And the California winner didn’t even have to buy his ticket. His boss gave it to him.

A multi-millionaire, who owns 80 assisted living facilities in California, bought 18,000 PowerBall tickets and gave them to his employees, and one of those tickets was a winner.

I guess now it’s possible that the employee might be able to buy out his boss.

Quite a few blog readers emailed me about the odds of winning the top prize, and how that works. Here’s some info I posted here in a comment, and also in several forums online.

Actually, the odds of YOU having a winning number never changes, no matter how many people enter.

It’s always one in 292,201,338. This is based on the possible number combinations derived from the first five numbers 1 to 69, i.e, 11,238,513, and the Power Ball number that goes from 1 to 26.

And so 11,238,513 x 26 different Power Balls gives you 292,201,338 chances.

But two things do change as people buy more tickets as the jackpot increases.

1. The pot IS more likely to be won by someone. The more tickets, the more combinations sold, the more likely a winner.

2. And the chances of there being more than one winner also increases.

I heard yesterday that over 85% (it was 90% at the time of the drawing) of the possible number combinations, i.e., the 292.2 million, had been sold. Thus, there is an ~85% chance that someone will win. But for an individual, it’s still one in 292.2 million.

Statistics are funny things and often run against ‘common sense’. For example, if you flip a coin, and it comes up heads 10 times in a row, it is no more or no less likely to come up heads again, i.e., a 50% chance.

And just because you buy 10 tickets rather than one, it doesn’t noticeably increase your chances of winning. Yes, you are 10 times more likely to win, but that just means you have a 1 in 29.2 million chance of winning.

Later, we headed out to have dinner down in Columbus at Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant, a place we really like.

Along the way, we found that diesel at the Colorado County Co-op had dropped another 5 cents a gallon, to $1.75. This past Sunday, it was $1.85, and then yesterday, it was $1.80. Ten cents in 5 days is a big drop.

As with previous visits, everything was delicious.

Coming back to the park, we made a stop at the hardware store in downtown Columbus, and then Brookshire Bros. for some supplies, before getting back home a little after 6 pm.


January 14, 2017

We May Have To Move . . .

Now the Oil Patch picks up,

when we’ve only got a month left down here.

About 8 am this morning, my Tab tablet chirped, and I was awake enough to check it out, hoping it was a gate job. But it was just a reminder to pay a bill. Bummer. Then a couple of minutes later, another chirp, now a text, and now a job.

And a job that looks to have a major effect on us.

The gate is north of Westhoff, a little over 40 miles from here, a little less than an hour away. But it does have a lot of pluses. . . steady employment. There’s a good possibility that this gate could keep us BOTH working until we leave Feb. 15th.

But it was a scramble this morning. By the time we knew where and when, it was almost 8:30. And we were supposed to be at the gate by 10 am. Yikes.

But we were showered, dressed, and out the door with enough time for a McDonald’s stop, and we got there at 9:59 am. To find no one waiting for us. We had beaten Todd, the shack, the generator, and the potty. In fact, it was after 10:30 before they showed up. Well, not the potty.

Brownie points for us.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Today, it’s only a one-person gate, at least today. Jan and I shared the Gate Guard job at the entrance right off the highway, working from 10 am to 5 pm. Then tomorrow, we turn around to night shift, with Jan working the shack at the entrance, and me working at the pad, about 5 miles in, and out of my truck.

So two paychecks.

This should hold for a week to two weeks. Then, after a break for a few days, the frack will start, and with 4 holes, should last until we’re scheduled to leave. But this will mean another shift change for us.

The job will drop back to just the shack with Jan and me on opposite shifts, days for her and nights for me. Not easy, but doable for two or three weeks.

So two paychecks.

That’s the pluses. Now the minuses.

The distance, of course, is one. It’s about twice as far as our farthest gate, with the nearest big town, and Wal-Mart, being Cuero.

This is why we might move. There is a small RV park in Westhoff, that looks OK. It looks to be a worker’s camp, just like ours now. Not as nice, i.e., no Wi-Fi, or free laundry. In fact, no laundry at all. So, back to using our Splendide.

With 3 big free washers and dryers, and located 50 feet away, Jan had gotten used to using the park facilities, doing one or two loads and not five or six. But the park cost is less than 1/2 of what we’re paying here, so that’s a plus too.

Another minus is again, no Verizon phone service at the gate. Don’t know yet about the RV park location. I do have text and data, though. So it’s workable, I guess.

BUT the possibility of the move is probably going to be decided by whether or not we have Verizon phone service at the RV park. So we’ll see,

If we do move, it will be during the short downtime before the frack starts up.

The other minus is that although Jan is exempt, I will have to wear the full FRC regalia, including steel-toed boots, hard hat, and safety glasses. YUCK!

At least it’s cooler now.

Finishing up, I want to thank all of you for your RV park suggestions from yesterday. I’ll try to get them combined and compiled as soon as I can, but it may be a few days with all the job stuff that’s come up.


January 14, 2018

Crazy Chicken . . .

I really did plan to do the awning today., The weather was perfect, sunny and in the low 50’s with no wind.

But business intervened. I spent the morning and early afternoon mocking up website designs for a couple of possible new clients.

Separately, two people approached me recently to do sites for them, and I’ve found that it’s easier to get a sale by having something to show them to start with.

I’ll know more in the next couple of days.

A little after noon, Jan’s urologist called to see how she was doing, and also to say that based on some later test results that came back, he wants to put her on Keflex for the next four days until after the Lithotripsy on Thursday afternoon. Said he’d call it into Wal-Mart, and we could pick it up. This is the second time he’s called to check up on Jan, and on a Sunday too. Very nice.

About 4 pm, Jan and I headed up to Clear Lake to have dinner and pick up the new script. We hadn’t been to El Pollo Loco for a while, so that was our first stop.

We first discovered them in 2008 when they were only out in California, so it’s nice to see them heading east finally.

Jan and I have both been trying to cut down for our New Year’s Resolution so we’ve been watching our calories. And it’s amazing the difference between different items.

For instance, if you get the individual-size Chunky Guacamole, it’s 220 calories. But if you get the same size with chips, it’s 980 calories. Or the Creamy Cilantro Dressing is 320 calories, but the Light Creamy Cilantro Dressing is 70 calories, a big difference. And it’s hard to taste the difference

So by choosing carefully from the menu, all of this was only 820 calories.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

That’s two pieces of their chicken, two sides of steamed broccoli, a small Tortilla Soup, and a Classic Chicken Salad. And I couldn’t finish all of the salad.

And besides coffee and an apple later, that was it for the day.

And it was really good.


January 14, 2019

I Was His First . . .

I’ve installed and set up Jetpack, so the blog email function should be working now. If not, you might try re-subscribing using the requestor at the top right of the blog.

Wrapping up 2018

In yesterday’s blog, I covered our Christmas get-together at Brandi’s on Sunday, the 23rd. And after seeing Brandi’s brisket, several readers asked for the recipe, so here it is. And it’s really pretty simple

10-pound brisket
1 bottle of
Allegro Original Marinade

Put the brisket in a pan.
Cover it in the marinade.
Cover the pan
Cook it at 250° for 6 hours

Easy Peazy!
Though I might try it with the
Hot & Spicy version of the Marinade.

For most of the last 40 years, we’ve eaten a family Christmas Eve dinner at our favorite King Food. But since we’d already had our family Christmas, it was just Jan and me this time.

Since I’ve already posted many pics of KF food, just know that our Hot & Sour Soup, Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings, Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce with Jalapenos, and Special Fried Rice were as delicious as always.

Christmas Day, we decided to head out to the movies to see Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic. We both really enjoyed it, though they did play fast and loose with some of the timeline.

But all in all, a really good movie.

As I said, Brandi’s brisket was delicious, but it was Christmas after all, and Jan had to get her Turkey and Dressing fix, so Thursday we were off to Cracker Barrel, meeting Miss Piper, for their really good T&D.

Sunday the 30th found us up in Sugarland, first eating dinner at the Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, starting with a dozen raw oysters,

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along with Shrimp Gumbo, Grilled Catfish, and Grilled Veggies.

Then it was right down the road to the Smart Financial Centre to see Mannheim Steamroller.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And, unlike last year’s Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert, I didn’t have another attack of BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). And except for a couple of small attacks over the next few days, I’ve never had a recurrence of the problem. And I don’t know what caused it then, either.

We both really enjoyed the concert, but were surprised to find that it was a much smaller production than TSO.

In fact, the touring company consists of only 6 musicians. The rest of the orchestra consists of about a dozen musicians hired locally at each stop. And I think the only equipment they travel with is a snow machine for that real Christmas spirit

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And while the light show with Mannheim was nice,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

it really didn’t compare with the light show put on by TSO. With multiple stages overhead,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

enough lasers to take on the Deathstar,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

gigantic flame pots, and enough speakers to make your fillings rattle, and you could feel the heat.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And it was a totally awesome experience.

But as I said, we also really liked Mannheim, with a homey, intimate feel. They did mention that this performance was the last one of the season for them, starting back on November 9th, with a show almost every night.

But actually, like many similar shows, there are two touring companies for Mannheim, a Red Unit and a Green Unit, which lets them cover more cities.

All in all, it was a great time.

New Year’s Eve found us at a wild party at a local restaurant. Well, actually, we had an early dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse up in Webster. We both had our usual Wedge Salads and steaks, but, since it was New Year’s Eve, we splurged a bit and split a Pecan Pie Bread Pudding. Party Hearty.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.


January 14, 2020

Wings, Wings, and Steak . . .

Our only real activity today was Jan and I traveling over to Pearland this morning to have lunch with Bonnie, Jan’s long-time friend and a former coworker. She and Jan worked together about 30 years ago at the old Medical Center Del Oro Hospital, up in the Houston Medical Center area.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

We took her to our favorite Saltgrass, the one in the Pearland area, which turned out to be her favorite, too.

It was really good to see Bonnie again, and look forward to doing it again soon.


January 14, 2021

Then What’s The Point?

Jan and I headed up to the Webster area for another visit to Snooze, our favorite local breakfast-brunch place, well, as opposed to Denny’s, which is our favorite breakfast-dinner place.

Jan loves their version of Avocado Toast and says it’s the best around.

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For my part, I got my usual Shrimp & Grits, with a side of Fruit.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Then it was on up to the Ace Hardware for a few things before finally heading back to the rig.

I had originally planned to get back under the rig to try and wrap up my oil leak problem. But it was still too wet back there, so I’ll see how it goes this weekend.

Elsewhere on the repair front, a few days before we made our New Year’s trip up to Fredericksburg and Kingsland in our new (to us) Jeep, the AC/Heater blower lost all speeds except HIGH.

Luckily, this is pretty easy to diagnose since if the blower runs on HIGH, that means that it’s OK. And it’s highly unlikely that a problem with the speed selector switch would affect all 4 speeds. So that leaves the blower resistor pak. Which turns out to be an easy fix, at least in the Jeep.

It’s located right behind the glove box. Just open the door, pop the side latches, and there it is.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Then it was just a matter of unplugging the cable, removing the resistor pak,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

screwing down the new one, plugging the cable back in, and I was done.

Next up on the repair list is to replace the Jeep’s Driver’s Door Window Actuator Motor. It’s been getting noisier and noisier, and sometimes it doesn’t want to completely unlock the door. So I found I could buy a new one for about $135, or get a used, tested, guaranteed one for $43.

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Guess which one I got?

And it looks to be pretty easy to replace. At least according to YouTube.


January 14, 2022

Kingsland Get-Together . . .

Had a smooth trip up to Marble Falls. Had dinner with Chris and Linda over in Kingsland.

Brandi, Lowell, and Landon got in about 8:45 pm.

Piper and Derek will be in tomorrow.

Really looking forward to getting everyone together.


January 14, 2023

Great Wolf & Flyway . . .

Today was nice and easy, with lunch at Monterey’s Little Mexico, and that was it.

Nice and easy.

Some more info has been released about the Great Wolf Lodge going up in Webster. It will have 532 rooms and a 95,000 sq. ft. indoor water park, plus a smaller outdoor one.

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It’s supposed to be open in mid to late 2024.

But big as it is, Great Wolf Lodge is just a small part of the Flyway at Clear Creek development adjacent to it.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

That’s Great Wolf at the top-center-left of the above photo.

From the Internet:

The 80+-acre destination development will fuse the indoors with the outdoors with best-in-class dining and entertainment venues amid a walkable, inviting atmosphere with a boardwalk, event lawn, and unique amenities. Flyway takes patios to the next level, creating walkable spaces and allowing visitors to extend their stay and visit multiple venues. Visitors can purchase drinks from any establishment, stroll along the boardwalk, talk amid the trails, and enjoy the natural surroundings.

Looks like a lot is going on.

Tomorrow’s probably going to be Denny’s for lunch and then HEB for the week’s stuff.


January 14, 2024

I HotWired It . . .

After draining a mug of Cinnamon Hazelnut coffee this morning I was outside looking at my water pump problem once again.

I had been thinking overnight about the possibility of the problem being with the pressure switch. So first I tried to adjust the pressure switch using a 5/64″ Allen wrench.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

But even though I turned it through a 180° arc, nothing changed.

So next up, I decided to cut to the chase, so pulling the two red wires that connect to the pump, I used a paperclip to short the two connectors together.

And ‘Voila’, I had a running pump.

So the problem is actually the pressure switch. But to double-check, I turned off the shore water and had Jan turn on the water pump switch in the bathroom and then open the lavatory faucet, and we had water flowing.

Then I had her turn off the pump switch, and the water stopped running.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

So now I have a way to use the water pump while our shore water is turned off during the upcoming two nights of 25° weather.

But now, how to fix it permanently?

I could, of course, just replace the pump, which I already have, or, more cheaply, I could return the pump and just replace the pressure switch for $20.

But all that will wait until after the freeze.

We headed out about 1 pm to first have lunch at Jason’s Deli for the first time in a good while.

Jan got her usual Ham Muffuletta and a cup of Broccoli Cheese Soup.

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I normally would get the Southwest Chicken Chili, but Jason’s dropped it a while back, so I just got a bowl of the regular Chili.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Still good, though.

Along with the chili, I also got the Salad Bar.

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Finishing up a really good meal, we headed right down the feeder for our weekly HEB visit.

And that was it for this weekend.

Now on to the Big Freeze.


January 14, 2025

A Nice Quiet Tuesday . . .

I only went outside to dump our waste tanks and top off our fresh water tank. I wanted a full tank since we’ve got some mid-20-degree nights coming up this weekend, so I’ll probably disconnect us from shore water just to be sure.

* * * * * * *

Jan’s been jonsin’ for Clam Chowder, so when we were at HEB the other day, she had me check out their Blount Clam Shack New England Clam Chowder. And since the first 3 ingredients were Cream, Clam Juice, and Clams, I picked up a couple of tubs, which we had for dinner tonight.

Really, really good. Actually, as good as what we got last year at the Cousin’s Maine Lobster Food Truck at the now-defunct Three Acres Truck Park.

We’ll get it again.

 

 

 

The Reason For The Season . . .

Remember, to access our blog links,
Right-Click on The Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’

Rob, our park owner, came by this morning with a little Christmas present for us.

A very nice assortment of Ferrero chocolates.

* * * * * * *

After a nice, quiet morning/afternoon, we headed out for our Christmas Eve dinner at King Food.

Though the dining room area wasn’t really busy yet, they had a table set up for 22 people, and the lobby area was filled with people waiting for their take-out.

As soon as we sat down, we put in an order for their Honey-Glaze Garlic Wings, since they take a bit to make.

After starting with a couple of bowls of the Hot & Sour Soup, we moved on to our usual Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce with Jalapenos,

and a small Combination Fried Rice.

Leaving King Food, we drove over to the League City Pkwy to make a quick stop at the HEB for a couple of things, and then gas.

Next, we had planned to look at lights in the nearby Mar Bella subdivision, but it had gotten so foggy that we just decided to head home for the night.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow morning, we’re heading up to Brandi’s about 10 am for our family Christmas get-together. Of course, the full family get-together won’t happen until January, when we’ll all congregate at Chris and Linda’s over in Kingsland.


Thought For The Day:

Sometimes I have a lot of trouble separating that fine line between hunger and boredom.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas Eve . . .

Our Christmas Eve day started out with a relaxing morning sitting around drinking coffee and talking about our upcoming travels this year.

As it stands now, we’ll probably leave here February 6th, which will be the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of our full-time life in 2008. We’ll first head over to Canyon Lake, near New Braunfels, TX, to spend a few days visiting our friend Gina.

Then it’s on to Las Cruces, Tucson, Gila Bend, and then into Yuma around the 23rd of February to start ramping up for a rally that starts the 7th of March.

Everything after that is still kind of written in the wind. So we’ll see.

About 4 pm, we left the rig for Brandi’s to pick up the mail, and then on to the storeroom to get some Christmas presents we had stored there.

Then, about 5, we met Chris, Linda, and Piper at the King Food Chinese Restaurant in Webster.

Christmas Eve at King Food is a family tradition that we’ve done for somewhere between 20 to 25 years. We’re not exactly sure.

We’ve actually been eating there for 32 years, since December 1978, when we moved here from Alabama.

But this year was a little different since we now have to share Brandi with Lowell’s family in Oklahoma. This is why we had our King Food dinner with Brandi and family last Saturday night.

Any excuse to eat twice at King Food is a win-win.

After our usual great meal there, we headed over to Chris’ to open presents.

It’s always been a tradition in Chris’ family that they exchange personal presents on Christmas Eve, with Christmas morning reserved for presents left by Santa. But since Piper is 17 now, Santa doesn’t visit anymore.

Here’s Chris, Piper, and Linda, with Miss Piper checking out a new dress she received.

Piper Opens Presents

Piper gave her mother, Linda, this beautiful seahorse vase she made at school. There are actually two seahorses, one on each side. Piper did all this by hand.

Seahorse Vase

And here’s a bowl Piper made about 3 years ago. A very talented young lady.

2010-12-24 20.20.13

We left Chris’ about 7:45, planning on driving through some neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights, another family tradition of ours on Christmas Eve. But it had started pouring down rain while we were inside, which put a damper on the light viewing.

So after a short while we headed back to the rig, to finish up the evening with one of the great coffees that Linda had given us for Christmas.

We chose Cinnamon Coffee Cake, which, being Decaf, was perfect for nighttime drinking.

And to go with it, we had one of the gifts we got from Brandi and Lowell, a box of Williams-Sonoma Croissants.

These croissants are fantastic, so good, in fact, that they’re on the list of Oprah’s Favorites.

WSCroissants

They come out of the oven looking like this, but they start as little frozen logs. There were two types in our box, plain and chocolate-filled. And both are delicious.

They’re shipped overnight, frozen in a Styrofoam container. You let them thaw out and rise for 9 hours and then pop them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or 13 minutes in our convection oven.

They come out crispy, flaky, and fantastic. And a perfect match for the coffee from Linda.

All in all, a beautiful end to a great day!


December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve in Texas . . .

We woke up this morning to more heavy rain, a continuation of the previous day’s downpour. I know they need the rain around here, but it’s really getting soggy here at the park.

Jan and I left the rig about 11:45, heading to Brandi’s to meet up for our trip up to Katy, TX, for lunch at Smashburger, and then the 3 pm Christmas Eve service at Brandi and Lowell’s church, Crosspoint Community Church.

It was pouring down all the way, but we made good time to the Smashburger on Eldridge. This was our first time there, although Brandi and Lowell have eaten there several times

We all pretty much agreed that we like Smashburger better than Five Guys, especially the Smash fries. The burgers are hand-formed and generous-sized. Even Jan’s well-done burger was moist and juicy, and the fries were something else.

Although they have regular plain fries, their Smash fries are really different. After frying, they’re lightly tossed in a rosemary, garlic, and olive oil mixture. And they are delicious!

I also tried an order of their Veggie Frites. These are whole green beans and carrot strips, flash-fried for about 15 seconds and then seasoned and served with ranch dressing dip. Really, really good!

We got to the Crosspoint Church a little before 3 pm and found seats in the very crowded chapel, where we met up with Brandi’s BFF, Shawna’s family. Crosspoint is a Lutheran church, heavily steeped in music, both old and new.

The service opened with Silver Bells from Trans-Siberian Orchestra, then through Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Joy to the World, and many more, ending up with Silent Night and Jingle Bell Rock. Quite a repertoire.

Crosspoint Church

One of the soloists was Brandi’s BFF, Shawna, shown at the mic in this photo.

Crosspoint Shawna

After a really good Christmas service, we headed back to Clear Lake to meet up with Chris and Piper at King Food. Unfortunately, Chris’ wife Linda had to work, so she couldn’t be with us.

King Food on Christmas Eve has been a White (now White/Morrison) family tradition for almost 30 years. In 2004, we even watched it become a white Christmas that night as it started snowing while we were there, giving us a couple of inches of white stuff.

After our usual great meal, we all headed over to Lowell and Brandi’s to open presents.

You should have seen Landon’s eyes light up when he saw his new horsey. He immediately jumped on it and quickly learned to squeeze the horse’s ears that make him gallop and whinny.

Landon Christmas Horsey

Miss Piper’s eyes also lit up when she saw her new HP laptop. She’ll be going off to college soon, and she needs something better for her classwork.

Piper's Laptop

Finally, about 8 pm, we headed home after a long, but fun, day. Tomorrow it’s time for another family tradition. Every year for a long time, we’ve always had either Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner at Brady’s Landing up on the Houston Ship Channel.

So we’re looking forward to another really good meal.


December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas Eve!

We were up about 7 am (way too early for me) and pulled out of our site about 8:55 and right down the road to the propane fill station. I had made an appointment yesterday for 9 am, and Bill Burden, the Ranger, showed up right on time. And he was quick, too.

Ten minutes later, I had taken on 28 gallons of propane and was pulling out. I did have to stop off at the office to pay, but I was quickly back on the road with Jan following me in the truck as our next stop was the Colorado County Oil Company about 4 miles down the road, where we got about 35 gallons of diesel at $2.59 a gallon. Nice!

While we were filling up, Jan pulled in behind the rig, and I got us hooked up and ready to roll. We pulled out at 9:50, having gotten propane and diesel and been back on the road in 50 minutes. A new record for us.

The trip back over to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails was uneventful, with not a lot of traffic. Or at least not as much as I had feared. We pulled into the park a couple of minutes after 12 and got a big welcoming hug from Kim, the head ranger.

We asked about vacancies in the ‘E’ ring, but she didn’t think there were any available. And there weren’t. So we drove over to the ‘F’ area, and after trying out three sites that proved to be too uneven to be able to level the coach without a tire in the air, we finally settled on F41, which turned out to be very level.

Just about the time we finished setting up, our friend Garland Scott showed up, having seen us driving around the park looking for a space. That’s Garland on the left, and his wife, Valencia, on the right, next to Jan.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

We first met them here last April, so it will be good to see them again. Made a date to get together for dinner after the holiday madness settles down.

About 2:30, we headed out for Clear Lake to meet up with the rest of the family at our traditional Christmas Eve dining establishment, King Food. We’ve eaten here on Christmas Eve for about 30 years now, and this year was no exception.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And after our usual great meal, Chris headed to work on his motorcycle, Linda headed home, Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and Piper headed up to Katy, and Jan and I stopped off at a nearby Kroger’s for a few things for tomorrow’s party. Then we also headed up to Katy to spend the night with Brandi, et.al.

Landon’s really excited about Santa coming, so much so that he’s got Elf pajamas to wear to bed tonight.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Really cute.


December 24, 2015

Christmas Eve Travels . . .

Christmas Eve started for Jan and me this morning when we headed out a little after 10 am. Our first stop was the Cracker Barrel right down at the next exit for breakfast, and to also pick up the Cornbread Dressing and Turkey Gravy that we had called to reserve last Saturday.

And apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea, at least the breakfast part, because the parking lot was full and there were people waiting outside in the rocking chairs. Pretty much like a Sunday morning, not a Thursday. Or at least not a Christmas Eve Thursday.

But while we were there to have breakfast, Jan was very happy to find that CB was already serving lunch, even though it wasn’t 11 yet. And Thursday being CB’s Turkey and Dressing Day, that of course is what Jan ordered.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Did she forget what we’re having for dinner tomorrow? For my part, I stuck to the script and had breakfast. While we were eating, the server brought out our 2 lbs. of Cornbread Dressing and a quart of Turkey Gravy to take with us for tomorrow’s dinner at Brandi’s.

Traffic was heavy for a normal Thursday, but not bad at all, so we were down in the Katy area in just a little over an hour. But before Brandi’s, we made a couple of stops. Well, one stop, but two stores. The Harbor Freight Tools for me, and the 99 Cent store for Jan.

I wanted a cheap pair of Channellock-type pliers to keep in my water bay, and Jan wanted to pick up some more wrapping materials. Lucky for us, they were both in the same strip center.

We finally got to Brandi’s a little after 1 and got everything unloaded. While Jan wrapped presents, I worked with Landon putting together a Lego Santa Claus visit.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

The box says it’s for 7+ years, but it certainly was a challenge for 5-year-old Landon and me. There’s never a 7-year-old around when you need one.

About 4:30, we all headed over to the nearby Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro, one of our all-time favorite places. This was not our usual Christmas Eve eatery, since for many years we’ve all gotten together at King Food Chinese Restaurant down in Webster. But that didn’t work out this year.

The entire Friendswood contingent of the family, our son Chris, our daughter-in-law Linda, and our granddaughter Piper, all had to work at their respective jobs tonight. So, as much as we would have liked to keep up the tradition, it didn’t make a lot of sense for all of us to drive down to the Clear Lake area for just ourselves. So Little V’s it was.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

On the left side, it’s Lowell’s sister Sherry, our son-in-law Lowell, our daughter Brandi, and our grandson Landon. On the right side, it’s Lowell’s father, Lendell, Lowell’s mother, Sonja, and then Jan.

Landon’s thoroughly engrossed in watching a Minecraft video on Brandi’s phone.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Everybody has their standard order here, starting out with an order of their Pork Spring Rolls.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Really great! Very tasty with a crunch of vegetables, the slices of pork, and the herbs and spices.

Next up, I always have the Shaking Beef Vermicelli.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

You can’t believe how tender the slices of beef are. The mix of vegetables really enhances the texture and taste in this dish. It’s a must-have.

For dessert, there’s no other choice but the Mini Creme Brûlée Spoons,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

toasted up fresh when you order them. The perfect end to a great meal.

Getting back to the house, the ladies started a cookie/treat assembly line, making up Rollo Pretzel Bites and several others.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Wrapping up, Jan and I got back to the rig a little before 9 pm, just to get ready to do it again tomorrow morning.

Really looking forward to having everyone together at one time.


December 24, 2016

Christmas Eve in the ‘Patch’ . . .

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Although I’m writing this Christmas Eve, most of you will be reading this Christmas Day, so:

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

from the Texas Oil Patch.

Some gates and sites shut down for Christmas, while my site didn’t, and that’s fine since I’m getting paid to sit here and do nothing. There is no one here and nothing is going on. I’ve had two people in and out all evening, one topping off the diesel in the light towers and the other one double-checking some pressure readings.

But last night was an entirely different story. The shift started out OK, but quickly went in the toilet.

It started with both AT&T and Verizon having cell service/data service problems in this area. I was having trouble getting online with my Verizon AirCard, and my phone was showing only 1X. In fact, I wasn’t able to upload last night’s blog until I got back to the rig about 5:30 this morning.

AT&T is what the iPad’s use for the program we log vehicles in and out, but it’s only used occasionally when we upload the data collected to the central server. Well, no problem since we weren’t supposed to be very busy anyway – only 10 vehicles or so all night.

But that was before some guy in an office somewhere decided that it might be a good idea to bring in all the equipment needed for the upcoming job here – Coil Tubing, Wireline, Fluid Tanks, Generators, Pumps, Fuel Tanks, etc., tonight!

Now, normally we get a heads-up from the Company Man that we’ve got a lot of equipment coming in, but not this time. The only notice I got was looking out the window at a long line of headlights coming down the road.

Lots and lots of headlights. So, grabbing the iPad, outside I go.

Now the company likes us to upload the vehicle data fairly often if we’re busy, so we don’t lose anything if there’s a problem. So about 7 pm I did just that when I had a short lull in traffic.

Big mistake. Big, big mistake.

Something about the flaky AT&T data signal locked up the iPad and froze the screen. But finally, I got the iPad rebooted and figured I was in the clear. But No, it couldn’t be that easy. Now, whenever I tried to start up the logging problem, all I got was an error message.

Rut Roh!

And now I’ve got more lights coming down the road. Well, no real problem. I’ll just go back to doing it the old-fashioned way, with paper logs. After all, that’s the way Jan and I have been doing it for the last 5 years.

But . . .

(You just knew there was a ‘but’ coming, didn’t you.)

there were no log sheets in the shack at all, not a single one. In fact, there was not any paper either, just a few already-filled-out maintenance forms.

And now I’ve got trucks waiting on me. Finally, I see a stack of folded napkins, the kind you find in restaurant dispensers, sitting on the window ledge. So grabbing a handful, back outside I go. It’s not really easy writing on the textured surface of the napkins, but it’s getting the job done.

But . . .

(Yes, another one)

then it started to sprinkle. Not hard, just enough to wet the napkins so the ink starts wicking through the paper, smearing everything. Crap!

Finally, I was starting to run out of napkins, and so back inside for a few minutes, I saw a stack of SiteWatch Post-It’s that had fallen behind the console. So now I’m getting 3 vehicles to a Post-It and trying to keep track of all these little pieces of paper.

Then a Circle8 guy sees what I’m doing and hands me a company notepad.

Much better. Then, about 2:30 am it all wound down to a stop. I then went back and started transferring the napkin and Post-It scribbles to notepad pages.

Counting up, by the time I was done, I had logged 136 vehicles in the 8 hours between 6:30 pm and 2:30 am. That’s about 1 every 3 or 4 minutes on average. But I would get maybe 10 vehicles in a row and then have a 5 or 10 minute break before more started coming in.

Glad that’s over. When I got back to the rig this morning, I packed away in the truck a couple of legal pads and a pad of Gate Guard Services login forms.

Just in case.

Tomorrow, Jan and I will have our Turkey & Dressing Christmas Dinner from Barth’s before I come back on this gate for the last day.

And now it looks like I have another gate STARTING Monday. This is the first time I haven’t just been given 3 or 4 specific days. So I’m hoping that the STARTING means it’s something long-term.

We’ll see.


December 24, 2017

Merry Christmas To All !!!

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Jan spent the morning making her world-famous Sausage Balls and Green Bean Casserole for tomorrow’s big Christmas Dinner at Brandi’s.

Then, about 3 pm, we headed up to the Clear Lake area, first for a quick stop at my client’s for a little bit to set up a system image backup on the Main Office computer. I’ll start it up remotely later tonight.

Then it was on to King Food for our big annual Christmas Eve dinner there. We’ve done this almost every year for many years, except for last year when we were gate guarding in south Texas.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And this year, we had some new family members from Lowell’s side of the family.

From left to right – Jan, Sonja, and Lendel, who are Lowell’s parents, Sherry, who is Lowell’s sister, and Zander, Grace, and Zoe. Grace is Sherry’s daughter, with Zander and Zoe her children. Next up is our son Chis, Piper, our granddaughter, and Brandi and Lowell.

After a really great time as well as a fantastic meal, we all headed down to La Marque to visit the Houston Magical Winter Lights.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I’ll have more about this tomorrow.


December 24, 2019

A White Family Christmas Tradition . . .

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

First off Jan and I want to wish our many friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope this year was good to you, and that next year will be even better.

For the past 35 years or more, it’s been a White Family Christmas Tradition to have Christmas Eve dinner at our favorite King Food. Chinese Restaurant. I don’t know exactly how it got started, but I don’t think it had anything to do The Christmas Story movie. It could have been just the fact that it may have been the only one of our local places that was open on Christmas Eve.

Sometimes it’s the entire family, like two years ago,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

and sometimes it’s just Jan, and I like last year.

I think the only time we’ve missed in the last 10 years or so was Christmas 2016, when Jan and I were gate guarding down south in Cuero, TX, during Christmas.

This year, it was just Jan and me, and Lowell, Landon, and Brandi.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Lowell’s parents couldn’t come down this year, and both Linda and Piper had to work today, so it was just the Five Amigos.

Here’s Jan showing off her light-up Christmas earrings,

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when she got photobombed by Brandi.

Hopefully, we’ll be getting together with Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper as soon as we can.

One thing I found interesting is that while a lot of people in the States have Chinese food as part of their Christmas festivities, in Japan, KFC fried chicken has been a Christmas staple since the 1970’s.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Christmas and KFC in Japan

Now over there, you’re likely to see the Colonel delivering KFC dressed up as Santa Claus.

You just never know.

Coming home, Jan and I drove through a few neighborhoods checking the light show.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Sometimes, entire streets get into the season.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll be heading up to Brandi’s in Katy for our Christmas Dinner get-together. Really looking forward to it.


December 24, 2020

And To All A Good Night!

EVE!

While orbiting the Moon on Apollo 8, Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, Astronaut William Anders said, “We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.”

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Merry Christmas From Texas, Y’all!


Jan and I headed up to the Clear Lake area to meet up with Brandi and the rest of the Morrison clan at King Food about 5 pm. But we left early for a few errands along the way.

As I mentioned yesterday, I want to replace the front disc brake pads on the Jeep this weekend, so our first stop was at the local O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for a set of ceramic pads. Then, a little further along, we stopped by our office manager, Jennifer’s, house to drop off a small present.

Finally heading up I-45, the next stop was at the office to pick up a couple of packages that had come in at the last minute. Then it was right down the block to my client’s home to drop off a Christmas present for them.

Now it was time to make our way back over to King Food. Since we beat everyone there, the first thing we did was to put in 3 orders of their Garlic Honey Crusted Crispy Chicken Wings.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

This because they take a while. But they’re certainly worth the wait.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Starting on the right, we’ve got Lindell and Sonja, Lowell’s parents, down from OK, and Lowell’s sister Sherry. Then, on the left coming back this way, Lowell, Landon, Brandi, and Jan.

And for a change, Landon was all smiles in the photo. Must know that Christmas is getting close.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Now that is a cute kid.

Since we’re all seeing everyone again tomorrow up at Brandi’s, we finally went our separate ways about 7 pm, with Jan and me checking out some Christmas lights in a past favorite area of ours.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

The neighborhood we drove through used to be fantastic years ago, with entire streets coordinating their displays. But now, though there are still some very nice individual displays, overall, it’s a pale shadow of what used to be.

I think what happens is that families move out/die off, and new families move in without the same Christmas fervor.

But we’ll give it another try coming home from Brandi’s tomorrow night, with a subdivision that’s on the top 10 list in the Houston area, so we’ve got high hopes for it.

We’ll see.


December 24, 2021

Merry Christmas 2021 . . .

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

After meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at King Food for our usual great meal, Jan and I followed them back up to their home in Katy to spend the rest of Christmas.

Brandi did her usual fantastic job with the living room tree and decorations,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Landon got his big present a little early since it was on sale last month.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

A superfast computer and one of those widescreen curved monitors. Not sure where the jellyfish aquarium fits in, though,

I’m jealous!

And even the tree in the dining room is beautiful.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Merry Christmas To All and To All A Goodnight.


December 24, 2022

Eve . . .

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Today was an easy one with nowhere to be until we met up with all the kids at King Food at 5 pm. Jan had done her sausage balls yesterday, so it was up to me to finish up my share of the Christmas goodies.

So I got started on my world-famous Chicken Cheese Ball. Well, I hope eventually it will be ‘world-famous’, but so far it’s the first time I’ve made it.

It started out like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And ended up like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I guess the camera angle makes it look lopsided, but it’s really nice and round.

After tasting it, I decided to add the dried cranberries for a little sweetness.

Hope it’s as good as it looks.

In hindsight, next time I’ll wear rubber gloves to mix it all together. It gets kind of sticky.

We all met up at King Food, and as I had previously requested, 4 orders of their fantastic Garlic Honey Crusted Wings.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

They take about 20-25 minutes to prepare, so it helps to order them ahead of time.

The way we do it here is everyone orders soup and a couple of their favorite dishes, which all go on the table together and get passed around. So everyone gets a little of everything.

Delicious!

Here’s the whole happy group.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I mentioned a while back about Landon and his BFF Sophie’s candy-selling business. Well, apparently it’s going great, grossing over $200 some weeks. Even some teachers are customers.

And the other day, when Brandi and Landon were taking Sophie home, they passed some kids walking who pointed at Landon and said, “Hey, look, it’s the Candyman!”

So I guess the news is out.

Tomorrow morning, Jan and I are leaving about 8 am, heading up to Brandi’s for our big Christmas get-together.

Really looking forward to it.


December 24, 2023

Christmas Eve 2023 . . .

Or 9 People and 8 Dogs!

Jan and I were on our way up to the Katy area about 8:30, with our first stop at the Trader Joe’s in La Centerra Center so Jan could pick up a few things for today’s meal. Then it was on over to Brandi’s for our family Christmas.

Brandi already had a spread laid out, to which Jan added her Cream Cheese Sausage Balls and some other tasty tidbits.

A little later, it was time for the gifts, with this year being a combination of Secret Santa and White Elephant Gifts, but with a $50 Minimum. Gift stealing was allowed, but only 3 times. I had my first two gifts stolen, but I ended up with a really nice knife.

In fact, I think everyone ended up with something they really liked.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of talking, laughing, and grazing on the spread laid out in the kitchen

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

This was the only photo that I could get with everyone in it. Except me, of course.

From l to r: Lowell, Derek, Piper, Brandi, Linda, Jan, Chris, and Landon.

And yes, with Brandi and Lowell’s 3 dogs, and the 5 dogs with Chris, Linda, Piper, and Derek, we had 8 dogs with us today. And 6 of them are big dogs. But they’ve been together before, and everyone gets along, with no fighting.

And after a really great time seeing everyone, we were home by about 4 pm.

A really great bunch of kids. Everyone gets along.

Tomorrow morning, Cowboy Coffee is going to be open from 8 to noon, so we’re going to get our morning coffee there, and then later have the Turkey & Dressing dinners we picked up from Cracker Barrel last Thursday.

YUMM!

I’ve got a lot of new stuff from Landon’s 3D Printer adventures, but I’ll just tease you with these two until tomorrow.

Here is a very nice red lizard. It’s about 9 inches long and articulated.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

But the next one is really something. It’s a 2-foot-long Dragon, fully articulated, and comes right out of the printer that way.

No assembly required.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

But even more amazing is that it glows in the dark.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

This was taken in a completely dark bathroom.

Really something. And more tomorrow.


December 24, 2024

Keeping Up A Family Tradition . . .

This morning I put in a call to my Cousin Marjorie up in Athens, AL to see how she was doing. She’s 95 and living in an assisted living center, and until recently was undergoing rehab after falling earlier this year.

She sounded great, though, and we enjoyed talking with her. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see her later this spring.

Later this mornin,g we had to scramble to keep our Christmas dinner pickup on schedule.

When I talked to Kelley’s this past Sunday, I was told that they would close at 2 pm today and would be closed on Christmas Day. And that since Wednesdays were normally Turkey & Dressing day, they would be having it today instead.

However, when I then tried to go ahead and order it to pick it up today, I was told that I needed to just call them a couple of hours ahead on Tuesday and place my order.

Then, went I called about 11:30 this morning, I was told that they weren’t closing early today, that they would be open on Christmas Day, and they didn’t have T&D today, but just Tuesday’s Roasted Chicken and Dressing.

So I then put in an order for RC&D dinners and sides, to be picked up at 1:30 this afternoon. Then, about noon, 30 minutes later, they called back and said our order was ready and we needed to come pick it up.

So 15 minutes later, we were on our way.

In keeping with our Family Tradition, later, about 5 pm, we headed up to King Food and were surprised to see how ‘unbusy’ they were. But that didn’t last long. It seems we were just ahead of the crowd.

People began picking up large takeout orders, as more people began filtering into the restaurant, including several large groups of 10-15 people.

As for us, after we finished our great meal, we checked out a nearby subdivision for Christmas lights.

Nice!

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.