Friday, July 29, 2011

Serve Out

Well, with the heat, things spoil pretty quickly around here. Better to get them out and serve them up.


Another reason I'm avoiding Twitter


Some serious lightning!


Though you don't think so, this is really flat on the ground.
Use the trees on the "globe" to gain perspective.


The first riding lawn mower?



Okay. I did that. Now what?



What are the chances of a good night's sleep?



No. It's a balloon animal.



Beach sand.

Nervous bladder?


New Texas rain guage


Not ride that roller coaster!


 I'm told that this is an NES Nintendo game controller.
I'm not going to touch that.


How to fix anything


If this is the photo for this family's Christmas card, we are NOT exchanging gifts this year!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Monday, July 25, 2011

Monday Meanderings - 7.25.2011

I was rather taken aback while scanning recent visitors to this blog to find a look from someone at usdoj.gov - the Department of Justice. First the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, now the DOJ. It was two other guys, honest. Then I saw that the DOJ had entered the search term "why was Rachel Bueller issued a red card." Good to know that others thought that was a suspicious call from the referee.

Everyone at Learning Ally is all a twitter; two of our readers are engaged to each other. I guess they have been reading between the lines.

Have I mentioned Bert and Ernie? Two large ducks that hang out in front of Mimi's restaurant? There's a pond nearby but evidently they decided Honey Oat Bran muffins made a better meal than pond fare. According to the manager, that's the only flavor of muffin - out of seven or eight choices - that they will eat. If offered anything else, they just stand there and quack at whoever offered the offending food.

Had an earache this past week, so went to see the Doctor, expecting drops. He gave me pills instead. Said to start with two, then 1 a day. Not working out well. Two is all I can get in the ear at a time.

While watching women's softball this weekend I happened to see part of a Team USA (men's) slow-pitch game. Takes you back to the church-league days, except most of these guys were old geezers. Well, compared to the 16-year-old girl pitching for the women's Canadian National team, mid-40's is geezer-hood. And they kept talking about the 10 Home Run Rule. It seems that it is so easy to slap the ball into the next county that after 10 home runs, each ball-over-the-fence counts as an out! Tends to keep the ball in play.

Don't send me anymore "It is so hot..." jokes. I've lost my sense of humor in that regard. I'm just hunkered down under the fan for the duration, with nothing to do.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Ah, are you digging on my grave?

The State Board of Education in Texas has adopted a plethora of new books this year (after deciding to go with revisionist history, rather than actual events, but that's neither here nor there) so everyone at Learning Ally (formerly RFB&D) is slogging through these new texts so as to have recordings ready for the start of the school year.

Today I was working on about page 950 or so of a 1,400 page book (I pity the poor tykes that will have to lug these home and back) in a section of British Poetry. The featured author was Thomas Hardy, and the poem was "Ah, are you digging on my grave?" - written about the turn of the century after the death of his estranged (for many years) wife. Perhaps that should have been a clue. The poem is a set of questions by the deceased herself, about who it is that is disturbing her grave. Each question is answered, beginning at the "--". It begins:

"Ah, are you digging on my grave,
My loved one? -- planting rue?"

-- "No: yesterday he went to wed
One of the brightest wealth has bred.
'It cannot hurt her now,' he said,
'That I should not be true.'"

"Then who is digging on my grave,
My nearest dearest kin?"

-- "Ah, no: they sit and think, 'What use!
What good will planting flowers produce?
No tendance of her mound can loose
Her spirit from Death's gin.'"

"But someone digs upon my grave?
My enemy? -- prodding sly?"

-- "Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate
That shuts on all flesh soon or late,
She thought you no more worth her hate,
And cares not where you lie.

"Then, who is digging on my grave?
Say -- since I have not guessed!"

-- "O it is I, my mistress dear,
Your little dog, who still lives near,
And much I hope my movements here
Have not disturbed your rest?"

And at this point, I choked up, thinking about the faithful little dog, there at the mistresses' grave. The directors I work with on a regular basis are used to this behavior on my part, but I had someone new and a trainee, so they were rather alarmed until I  gathered myself and said not to worry, it happens all the time. And then I went on reading.

"Ah yes! You dig upon my grave...
Why flashed it not to me
That one true heart was left behind!
What feeling do we ever find
To equal among human kind
A dog's fidelity!"

But get this!

"Mistress, I dug upon your grave
To bury a bone, in case
I should be hungry near this spot
When passing on my daily trot.
I am sorry, but I quite forgot
It was your resting place."

And at this point I just lost it! Here I am feeling so sad about the faithful little dog, and the &%*# mutt is just trying to bury a bone!

Moral: you can never trust a British Poet!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Things your kids may not know about - or will soon forget about

I wrote last week about the near-disappearance of the drive-in movie theater. That got me to thinking about things that we once knew as familiar parts of our lives, but are no longer around, or are on the brink of vanishing.

To be sure, there are a great many more things that could go on this list, like milk being delivered to your doorstep in glass bottles (with cardboard disks as stoppers), or telephones with no dials or buttons that required the operator to complete a call, but I've tried to focus on the things that were familiar to me as an adult. Some of these things might still be in your closet or attic, and they may even be for sale somewhere. Perhaps the litmus test is, do your kids know what these are or were used for?

Here's what I came up with:
  1. VHS tapes.
  2. VCRs to put them in.
  3. Playing music on an audio tape using a personal stereo (i.e. Walkman).
  4. Ditto the Discman.
  5. Transistor radios.
  6. Rotary dial televisions with no remote control (the kids were the remote control).
  7. Black and white televisions. 
  8. Snow on the TV screen (now it's digital artifacts).
  9. Outdoor TV antennas.
  10. Tubes in radios and TVs.
  11. Tube testers in most drug stores.
  12. Analog TVs. 
  13. TV stations that signed off after Johnny Carson.
  14. Scanning the radio dial and hearing static between stations.
  15. Shortwave radio.
  16. Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long.
  17. The distinctive noise of a dial-up modem connecting.
  18. Spending many minutes (or even hours!) to download something.
  19. The sound of a dot-matrix printer.
  20. 5-inch and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
  21. Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.
  22. Booting your computer off of a floppy disk.
  23. Finding out information from an encyclopedia.
  24. A physical dictionary — either for spelling or definitions.
  25. Using a road atlas to get from A to B.
  26. Doing bank business only when the bank is open.
  27. Shopping only during the day, Monday to Saturday.
  28. The four-pound Sears catalog.
  29. Ads on the back of comics for "X-ray glasses."
  30. Filling out an order form by hand, putting it in an envelope and mailing it.
  31. Carrying on a correspondence with real letters, especially the handwritten kind.
  32. Airmail letters on a wafer thin blue paper.
  33. Smoking allowed on airplanes.
  34. Kentucky Fried Chicken, as opposed to KFC.
  35. Real keys for the motel door.
  36. When Spam was just a meat product 
  37. Typewriter erasers (round eraser wheel with an attached brush).
  38. Typewriters.
  39. Dittos - spirit duplicated pages. 
  40. Mimeograph machines. 
  41. Carbon paper.
  42. Fountain pens.
  43. Super-8 movies and cine film of any kind.
  44. Putting film in your camera.
  45. Sending that film away to be processed & mailed back.
  46. Snapshots (on paper) in your wallet/purse.
  47. Polaroid cameras.
  48. Carousel slide projectors.
  49. CB radios.
  50. Green Stamps.
  51. Using a stick to point at information on a wallchart
  52. Walk-in telephone booths.
  53. Rotary-dial telephones.
  54. Pay phones.
  55. Paying for long distance in the US.
  56. Phones with actual bells in them.
  57. Remembering someone’s phone number.
  58. Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.
  59. Trig tables and log tables.
  60. What a slide rule is, let alone how to use it.
  61. Actual card catalogs at the library.
  62. Swimming pools with diving boards.
  63. See-Saws or Teeter-Totters. 
  64. Lawn darts (okay, that was a bad idea anyway)
  65. Chemistry sets.
  66. Clamp-on roller skates (with steel wheels)
  67. Cap guns with paper caps.
  68. Juke boxes (yeah, but I don't go into those places).
  69. Having to manually unlock a car door.
  70. Gas station attendants.
  71. Coin operated scales to weigh yourself on.
  72. Bottle caps with cork liners
  73. Barbershop poles.
  74. Leaded gasoline.
  75. Running boards on cars.
  76. Fender skirts.
  77. Flash bulbs and cubes.
  78. Standard shift automobiles.
  79. No power steering or power brake assist.
  80. Side vent windows in autos.
What can you add to the list?

    Monday, July 18, 2011

    Monday Meanderings - 7.18.2011

    I was really excited when I saw that the visits to this blog shot way up after posting my "Deep thoughts while watching a soccer game." I thought, man, people really liked this blog and they sent the link to all their friends, and their friends liked it, and so forth! It was exciting to see. Then I looked at the Google statistics and saw that the majority of the visits were hits from Google searches for "why was Rachel Buehler suspended" and "Erika Brazil soccer flop" and "how long is Buehler out for her red card" and many other similar questions. Oh well. A little lesson in humility now and then is good for you.

    And I'll just say that a penalty kick shootout is a lousy way to end a soccer match. Bring back the Golden Goal.

    Speaking of visitors, I just want to say to whoever checked in from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, I swear I thought that I left that extra dosimeter behind after visiting A&M's research reactor those many years ago.

    And while we are on the subject of Google, I have mentioned before that I browse through a Google-selected list of blogs, looking for the strange and ludicrous. And I also mentioned that in spite of my efforts to persuade Google otherwise, they sent me lots and lots of horsey blogs. Then they decided that I was interested in weaving and textiles in general and for a while everything dealt with yarns and dying of fabrics and what kind of loom to buy. That's okay. I just ignored all that. But I draw the line at child-birth and midwifery and nursing and such. People! I don't want to see those pictures! So it may be a while before I do another serve-out. Just wanted you to know the reason why.

    Early pecan crop. They are all on the ground already; green, about the size of small marbles and just as hard, thanks to the drought.

    I told you on Friday that it was an urban legend about the teens in the trunk being surprised when the driver made a complete circle back to the ticket office. But I heard from someone in Breckenridge, my hometown, who swears the following is true:

    "Two little old white-headed ladies went to the Coral drive-in. While stopped to pay for their tickets. another car pulled up & ran into the back of their car pretty hard. The little old ladies got quite excited and jumped out to open the trunk, exposing 2 other little old white-headed ladies! When asked what they were doing back there, they said 'We had heard that the young kids do that & we just thought we would have some fun!'" 
    Like I said, she swears it's true.

    GQ magazine says Austin is only the 18th "Best Dressed" city in the US. That's okay. According to Travel and Leisure magazine Austin is the 8th best "Best Beer" city. It's all about priorities, folks.

    Friday, July 15, 2011

    The Drive-in theater - Stories for my grandchildren

    I was surprised to learn that there are still 370 operational drive-in theaters in the United States. Haven't given it much thought, but I know that it has been years since I have seen even a deserted theater, screen towering tall over an abandoned car park. Most have been torn down at this point.

    Growing up, the drive-in was an integral part of the social fabric for me and my friends. It was the place to take a date because, not to put too fine a point on it, it was a great place to make out. Oh, and they showed movies, too. Mind you, we took dates to the down-town theaters, too, but those were...well, more formal dates. A certain decorum was expected there.

    The drive-in had a broader appeal than just as a passion pit; it was a favorite family destination. There was a playground up front, just below the screen, and you could turn the kids loose for the evening, or bed them down in the back. Baby-sitters not needed. Though Barb and I found out that sometimes that didn't work out well. Our small son showed a great deal of  interest in the controversial (for the times) Midnight Cowboy while we desperately tried to get him to go to sleep. Some week-day nights were Dollar Nights - the whole car for one dollar. If you had a pickup, you backed into your space, and sat in lawn chairs in the bed of the pickup. 

    And don't forget the concession stand, purveyor of some really bad food. It was in the building up front, usually dug into the ground somewhat so you could see over it. 

    I am told that some kids, to avoid the cost of a ticket, would crawl in the trunk of the car and pass through the ticket line undetected, emerging only when the car had come to a stop. I assure you that it is an urban legend that sometimes the driver would circle completely through the drive-in and stop in the ticket line again, whereupon the hidden miscreant would emerge in full view of the ticket taker.

    And if you forgot to put the speaker back on the pole when the movie was over, either the speaker or the window would lose the ensuing tug-of-war. At the drive-in of my youth, the speakers were connected with  steel cables in addition to audio wires. No contest.

    In 1958, the year of my high school graduation, there were 4036 drive-ins open in the US; 382 of them were in Texas. This marked the zenith of the industry. Twenty years later there were only half that many drive-ins, and they were closiing at the rate of 150 theaters a year. In 2007, the latest year for statistics, there were 17 theaters in Texas; 18 in California.

    Two things killed the drive-in theater; rising land values and daylight savings time. Most theaters were close to, if not in, the communities they served. Urban sprawl made the land so valuable the owners could not pass up the chance for a windfall profit. Daylight savings time, though enacted long before the heyday of the drive-in, was spotty at best until the 60's. Summertime was drive-in time, and waiting until dark meant a 9pm or so start. Too late for most folks.

    Wednesday, July 13, 2011

    Deep thoughts while watching a soccer game. Really.

    Our family has been involved in soccer for many years. We have all participated in various ways - as players, referees, and coaches. Barb and I have been to matches of every level; youth league, high school, parks and rec, inter-mural, college,  professional and even to a men's World Cup match with Brazil and the Netherlands. Now we are ardent spectators. Wide-screen high-def TV was invented to show the Beautiful Game, as far as I am concerned.

    So this week we watched the US Women beat Brazil in what may have been the best sporting event I have ever seen. USA! USA! And it dawned on me after watching that game that it demonstrated a number of truths that can be life-lessons for all of us. Really.

    #1 - When life gives you a red card, play harder. When Rachel Buehler was shown a red card in the 65th minute, the US team had to play the rest of the game with only 10 players to Brazil's 11. Brazil is not a team you want to meet down a player. The US team simply stepped up the level of play. Nobody in that spot where Buehler was? Cover it, as well as your own position. For the rest of the game. And the extra 30 minutes of overtime.

    #2 - Never, ever, ever give up.  Regulation play ended with the score tied, so 30 extra minutes were added and the teams went back on the field. Two minutes into that extra period Marta scored, putting Brazil up a goal. Remember; the US has been with only 10 players for 25 minutes now. They played 31 more minutes - down a player and down a goal - impossible odds against Brazil.  

    In the 122nd minute of 123 minutes played, the US scored the tying goal! 

    #3 - Things not going your way? Keep on keeping on.  Abby Wambach, the US team's leading scorer has been in a terrible slump! Coming into the Cup she had scored 1 goal in 11 games!  Lifetime, in international play, she has 120 goals in 158 matches. She scored 1 goal in the losing cause against Sweden, so she was 1 for 4 games in the Cup, and had not scored in this game. Abby never pulled back, never quit trying, and in the 122nd minute of 123 played, after running the entire length of the field on a bad ankle, took a long crossing ball from Megan Rapinoe and headed it into the back of the net! Tie game!

    #4 - Knocked down? Get up. Quickly. A Brazilian player, Erika (Brazil is a poor country - the players can only afford one name), flopped to the ground near the end of extra time, to run time off the clock. TV replay showed her walking around long after the play was over, then she abruptly fell down and began screaming about her back. The referee sent her off on what has famously been called "Brazils's magic stretcher" (do you think this has happened before?) and play resumed. Once the stretcher reached the sideline, Erika hopped off and ran - ran, mind you - to the official on the sideline to be readmitted to the match. The referee then did a couple of  things right; she carded Erika when she reentered, and promptly added minutes 121 through 123 stoppage time to the play. And we all know what happened in minute 122.

    #5 - Don't moan about life not being fair.  Australian referee Jacqui Melksham botched call after call during the game. Both teams suffered from her inadequate, nit-picking officiating, but USA got the short end of the stick. It would have been so easy for the US team to take the "life's not fair" road, but they did not and today no one remembers the referee's name (I looked it up). They only remember what was accomplished in spite of the referee.

    #6 - The best team can beat the best player.  Number 10 for Brazil, Marta, is arguably the best woman player in the world. She has been awarded FIFA Women's Player of the Year for the last 5 years running! She has no equal in the game today. But she has never won a World Cup or Olympic gold. Why? It is a team sport. For Brazil there's Marta, and maybe Christiane, and... and... It's a short list. For the US, there are 21 team players. Yes, we know some names better than others, but there is a cohesion there missing in Brazil's team. Abby scored the tying goal, but Megan volleyed it to her perfectly after she received the ball from Amy Rodriguez in the midfield, who received the ball from Christie Rampone, who took the ball away from Marta in front of the US goal. Teamwork. Need help? Get on a team, or get others on your team.

    #7 - There is life after messing up.  Hope Solo (was there ever a better name for a goalkeeper?), who stopped Daiane's shot in the Penalty Kick phase of the game, setting up the win, was kicked off the US team during the 2007 World Cup! Then-coach Greg Ryan (remember him? Me neither.) replaced unbeaten Solo with Briana Scurry, who had not been in goal in 3 months.  Brianna promptly allowed 4 goals and gave the game to Brazil. Hope angrily and publicly criticized Ryan and Scurry - something unheard of, and unacceptable in the world of soccer where teammates are often more family than blood kin. Hope apologized publicly and privately, served her penance and was re-named the keeper for the 2008 team. She is currently considered the best goalkeeper in the world today.

    #8 - Be prepared. For each game the US coaches prepare a list of 5 players who take penalty kicks when that becomes necessary. They are all forwards and strikers, people used to placing the ball accurately. Lauren Cheney was on the list, but had been substituted earlier in the game and was not available. Paul Rogers, the goalkeeper coach, spoke to a defensive player, Ali Krieger, about taking the fifth and final kick. She accepted the challenge and made the kick that sealed the win. Later Krieger said "I'm not the best shooter. That's why I play in the back. If you see me in practice, you'd probably wonder why I was in the top five. But I can hit a PK." And she did.

    And think about Becky Sauerbrunn. After not having played a single minute in this World Cup, center back Becky Sauerbrunn is starting today in place of Rachel Buehler, who's suspended after her red card. At the time of the carding, a teammate on the bench turned to Becky and said, "Are you going to be ready?" Sauerbrunn said, "If they call my name, I'll be ready." They called her name.

    #9 - Play nice. Soccer is a contact sport. By rule, you are allowed to dispossess the opponent of the ball, and if they trip over your clean tackle, or fall down when you put your shoulder to theirs, tough. In this game, the fouls and penalty cards were very evenly matched (though often poorly given). The US gave as good as they got. But Brazil has a way of flopping (see #4 above) and whining and just exceeding the boundaries of "fair play." They learned it from the Brazilian men's team.

    There was so much of this over-the-top play that the crowd in Dresden became solid supporters of the US team - and in general the US team is not well-liked in Germany. But chants of USA! USA! rang through the stadium, and shrill whistles (Europeans show displeasure by whistling - not booing) ensued whenever the Brazilians had the ball, especially Marta, who became the focal point of the wrath of an angry, noisy crowd all afternoon. It obviously disturbed her; she began yelling at her own players to give up the theatrics and play the game.

    #10 - You cannot rest on your laurels. In fact, no laurels have been awarded yet. The Brazil match was the quarterfinal. Today, perhaps even as you read this, USA is back on the field, facing France. On paper, the US should win, but that's why they play the games. We should have beaten Sweden too, but we didn't. That's how we got to meet Brazil in the quarterfinals and not the championship game. And after France there is Japan or Sweden. Again. It was a great victory, but the fact remains the US has to get up and go back to work. And when this tournament is over, team preparation starts for the 2012 Olympic games.

    Those are the life-lessons I saw during this game. What did you see?

    Monday, July 11, 2011

    Monday Meandering - 7.11.2011

    Wow. Busy week just past, 4th of July holiday notwithstanding. Of course it's hard to distinguish the 4th of July holiday from every other weekday, from our perspective. Retirement is a wonderful thing!

    Where to start? I guess with the Doorman. I tried really hard to get a picture of this guy, but it really would have been in poor taste to just blatantly snap his picture and I wasn't able to pull off a hidden camera shot, so imagine if you will a doorman like you might see outside the Waldorf Astoria - gray pants with a dark stripe down the side, coat with braid and epaulets and some additional piping here and there. Dapper little fellow with a handle-bar mustache. Okay? Got the picture? Now place this guy at the door of a funeral home here in Austin Texas. Walk up to the door for a visitation and Adolph opens the door for you and graciously invites you in. A uniformed doorman in Austin Texas? No, I don't think so. But it does KWA (Keep Austin Weird).

    I pulled a calf muscle the other day while training for the Olympics  during a Tae Kwan Do match  on my 5K-marathon run  when I stepped up onto a stool. Felt like a very painful cramp in the muscle, except it wouldn't go away. Ouchie! Spent a day in the recliner with ice and heat and maid service. Made the mistake of saying it was better the next day. Now I have to fetch for myself again.

    We're watching World Cup soccer. At all the venues, they have microphones stationed around the field to capture the sounds of the game - each with a huge fuzzy dust-mop looking cover to cut down on wind noise. The mics are positioned close to the ground on little tripods and they look for all the world like sheep grazing on the perimeter of the pitch. Or maybe little critters out of Star Wars. See?


    They are positioned at various places around the field, and there is one at each corner, and when players come to take corner kicks, the "sheep" are often in the way. This is not a problem for a soccer player who is used to kicking things with her feet. Some audio technician somewhere expresses himself in fluent German every time one of  his sheep/mics gets booted into the cheap seats to make way for the corner kick.

    We pulled the old washer and dryer out of the way so the contractor could work in that space. That's when I noticed that I could see daylight through the dryer vent connection that goes through the wall to vent the exhaust outside. I never thought much about it, but there it was - a big 4" hole into the house by way of the dryer. I wondered if critters ever considered exploring that hole. When the dryer was not running, of course. Then when I disconnected the vent hose from the old dryer and discovered a large stash of pecans - roasted pecans, I might add - in the hose I realized yes they do! One wire mesh squirrel guard coming up.

    And all the stars fell into alignment and the contractor finished and the Salvation Army picked up the old and Sears brought the new and we got all the shelf pieces in place and our laundry center is complete and we've washed everything in the hampers. Twice.  Hooray!


    Friday, July 8, 2011

    Morning seranade


    If you are a faithful reader of my ramblings - either one of you - you know that I love to sit out on the patio of a morning, drink my cup of Community brand Cafe Special coffee and survey my kingdom (aka my back yard). I have surveyed more striking kingdoms, but this one works just fine for me. Of course, here of late it has been hard to be comfortable while engaging in this practice. Some hot, sticky mornings it's just not worth it.

    But on those occasions when I can stick around for a while I am rewarded with a morning serenade from a very vocal mockingbird. I recognize very few bird songs; the angry chatter of the jays, the liquid warbling of the red birds, the little tweets of the finches about sums it up. I could use an app that does for bird songs what "Shazam" or "Listen" does for song songs. But the mockingbird cannot be mistaken. It is loud,  has an astounding repertoire, and  loves to sing. Oh, how it loves to sing!

    There are other mockingbirds in nearby trees that add to the melody, often by repeating exactly what my bird sings. At first you think it is an echo, it is so true and faithful, but you soon realize it is another bird or two. Perhaps they are mocking the first. Do you think?

    I would not make a good bird-watcher - those dedicated individuals with binoculars and life-lists. I can't spot them in the trees. I look and look, but I just can't do it. That's one reason for the feeders. If they are sitting two feet from my window I can spot them. Up in the tree? Perfect camouflage, as far as I'm concerned.

    The Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, is of course, the state bird of Texas. And of Arkansas. And Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee. It lives year-round in this part of the country and we know that it aggressively defends it's territory and does not hesitate to harass cats and people that it thinks are intruding, especially if it is nesting. It is well known for its copy-cat bird song and the male of the species often has more than 200 distinct songs in its repertoire. All this from a bird that seldom measures more than 8 inches beak to tail feather.

    And it has a place in literature. In the namesake book To Kill a Mockingbird, two of the major characters, Atticus Finch and Miss Maudie, say that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because "they don't do one thing for us but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us."

    And in lullabies:
    Hush little baby, don't say a word,
    Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird.
    And if that mockingbird don't sing,
    Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

    Probably a safe promise.

    Wednesday, July 6, 2011

    The California Pizza Kitchen discount conundrum


    We enjoy eating at the local California Pizza Kitchen. We like the food, and it's right on the edge of the hoity-toity Domain, so we can get to it without having to wander too far into Yuppie-dom but we still can look at all the beautiful people in pursuit of material happiness. Neat. And I may have just picked up two more corporate readers. Welcome CPK and Simon Property Group. But I digress.

    On a previous visit we had one of those discount coupons that you can open only at the completion of your meal to see what the discount on your check will be. The manager comes and makes a big deal of it (it was only 5%. Big Deal) but then he gave us a couple more coupons for later visits.

    Now I say that we like CPK, but we don't go there all that often, because it is a bit pricey and we usually order the Spinach/Artichoke dip for an appetizer and sometimes that's not so good on the diet. All that to say that the two coupons we had were on the verge of expiring  when we went there last week.

    So. We had two coupons, but only one dining experience to use it with. No problem, we'll just choose one and give the other one to some near-by diner. But which one?  The coupon could have as much as a 25% discount. If I gave one away, and our coupon was only 5% and the nearby diners was 25% I would harbor some angst there, I tell you! Okay. We will give one away as we are leaving. That should take care of the problem. I would never know that they out discounted me.

    But wait. It says on the coupon that one of them could be worth $100,000! What if I read in the paper the next day, "Local couple receives $100,000 gift from total strangers." Oh, no. that would not do!

    I was hanging there, on the horns of my dilemma, when the manager came to my rescue. He saw that I had two coupons and said, "I'll open them both and sign them and then you can use the one you want and do whatever you want with the other."

    So, if you are reading this, Mr or Ms CPK corporate executive, please be aware that you have a very nice, customer friendly manager at your Austin location and he should get a raise, and oh by the way if you have some more of those nice shiny coupons and wouldn't mind sharing...

    The coupons? Both 10%. We enjoyed the discount and so did the couple with all the kids at the next table.

    Monday, July 4, 2011

    Monday Meanderings - 7.4.2011

    It's rather ironic that I have set the banner to a festive fireworks scene - since no one, absolutely no one in this area is having a fireworks display this year. Not on Auditorium Shores, not out at the Oasis, not in any neighboring communities. I'm rather sure that it is the same story where you live - if you live in drought-stricken Texas. So enjoy my banner. It may be your only shot at some fireworks.

    Driving along the other day I saw a guy on a motorcycle with a shirt that had a Texas Longhorn logo on it, but with the horns sawed off. Most Aggies have one or more of these shirts, and it is a popular sight among non-Longhorn fans. But this guy had a scripture reference under his logo. Psalms 75:10, which says "I will cut off the horns of all the wicked." Hmmm.

    Austin is a foodie town. The city health department says there are 1,200 (!) registered food trailers in this town, including the latest trend, which is to use a large metal shipping container remodeled to permit food preparation and sales. Where to put them all has become a big issue and there have been some food fights (so to speak) over prime parking places.

    And the Running Man is back! But now he's doing his gyrations on the other side of North Lamar on the corner by the Sonic. I guess some large grocery chain did indeed run him off. So, to the folks at HEB who keep checking my blog for comments on the Running Man relative to their business can take a break. It's been nice having you drop in. And welcome to Sonic - my newest corporate reader.

    There are some disturbing things in the daily paper. No, I'm not talking about Libya and Syria or the latest criminal proceeding, or even that all the glass is falling off the W Hotel downtown. I'm talking about the fact that TPWD says there are 500,000 alligators in Texas. And some of them are this big!


    I mentioned our new 600 thread count sheets. Love 'em! Just found out that there are 1000 count sheets! Then I would have to stay in bed all day to cost-justify them. Talk about your win-win!

    And we could wash them in our new washer and dryer, which has actually been purchased, but can't be delivered until we get the old ones out of the way. I know, they will haul off the old ones, but since they still work we have been trying to get them into the hands of someone who can use them. We may have succeeded in that through a church connection.

    You will recall that we had to make some changes to the existing laundry closet so that new, larger appliances would fit. And to do that we had to find a handy-man or contractor who could do all the things needed for that to happen. I'm pleased to present:


    Friday, July 1, 2011

    Serve Out

    What better way to start the month than with a collection of the Internet's best  coolest oddest offerings?


    I guess the Star ship is in the shop



    Yes, it's bacon. Chocolate covered bacon!



    Bacon Art. "Starry Night" if you need a clue.



    I know what they are doing. I want to know why they are doing it.



     Awwww.



    So what are your demands?



    Gimme five...uh, one!



    Uhh, Mom? Mom! MOM!



    No comment.



    That's steep, dear hearts.



    Purists!



    Awesome volcano photo.



    Awesome thunderstorm photo!