Call Before You Dig

I work for an energy company. We operate pipelines. One of the biggest threats and dangers to underground pipelines is excavation damage. People with backhoes and trenchers and things like that can damage pipelines, and put themselves at great risk. That's why there are one-call systems - places in each state where they have maps of the pipelines and anyone who is going to be doing any excavating can call, tell where they are going to be working, and have everything marked for them within 2-3 days. It's free - the pipeline and cable and telephone companies pay for it. The system works very well, and there are initiatives to improve damage prevention even more.

In fact, now there's a nationwide number, 8-1-1, where you can call and reach your one-call system. Use it, even if you're just going to be putting in fence posts or deck footings in your back yard.

Now, why am I writing about this? A public service? Sure, in part. However, it really struck me on the way home from a meeting in DC last Friday. I'd been there most of the week, and was tired and looking forward to a family weekend. No upgrades on this trip - they're hard to get on the DC trips - too many platinum members. I did get an exit row window in coach, though. A little extra knee room. Pretty full flight, so most of the middle seats were occupied, too. A kind of strange guy sat next to me. Not talkative, which is generally a good thing on a plane. However, about half way through this 3-hour flight, he began a major nasal excavation project. Took him half an hour or more. I suppose he could have gotten through it more quickly if he had power equipment rather than the basic hand excavation. Usually, when you're digging in the yard, hand excavation means using a shovel. In this case, it was literally hand excavation.

He finally completed his task and went back to reading his book. Hope it wasn't from the library. I'd hate to be the next person to get it. At any rate, at some point during this project, it occurred to me that I should have given him one of the 8-1-1 Call Before You Dig cards with all the safety information. He was probably lucky he didn't do some real damage. Whatever happened to the practice of going to the lavatory and tending to these sorts of things in private, and with a tissue?

Thanksgiving Fryday

Man, do I like Thanksgiving! It's probably my favorite holiday, or at least in the top two or three. And, before I go any further, yes, I do, in fact, know how to spell the names of the days of the week. The appropriateness of the apparent misspelling will become clear in the next several seconds, depending on your reading speed.

Over the past few years, our family has established a new, for us, tradition around Thanksgiving. When we gather at our house for TG, we have our traditional dinner on Thursday afternoon - turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and home made noodles, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, corn, a meat stuffing, mayo salad, pumpkin pie (two kinds, actually - best pumpkin pie in 4 states) buried in whipped cream, plus snacks earlier in the day - spinach dip, veggies and chips with a ranch dip, etc. Then some turkey sandwiches, another round of pie, plus some of the other leftovers in the evening. Okay, that's Thursday.

The more recent undertaking has been the next day, which has evolved into Fryday. That's when we do the second turkey. It's usually a little smaller. This year, the TG day turkey was a 20-pounder. The second one was about 14. Of course, the second one is fried. In a regular turkey fryer. In 4 gallons of peanut oil. That's the most expensive part - the peanut oil. So, to get ready, you shoot up the turkey with some cajun marinade - you can get the injectable liquid stuff at supermarkets or grill stores. Then you coat it with some Tony C's cajun spices. Let it sit while you do some other stuff. The other stuff starts with heating the 4 gallons of oil in the fryer to about 350 F. Then you start frying. We did some sweet potato fries - pretty thick cut - about 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch by 2 -4 inches long. They fry up nice in about 6 minutes. Cut 'em ahead of time and soak in very cold water. Then we did some regular fries. Then some onion rings. These were all appetizer offerings to munch on while the turkey was frying. It went in next - takes about 45 minutes for a 14 pound turkey. Yup, that's right - between 3 and 3-1/2 minutes per pound. After the turkey comes out of the fryer, it has to cool and firm up a bit for slicing. Perfect time to fry some more sweet potato fries, french fries and onion rings. Also, got a challenge from K, our daughter-in-law. She said, "Hey, Pops, you're always talking about chicken fried bacon. Why don't you make some?" (See the earlier post on CFB.)

So we did. We used the same batter and breading we had been using for the o-rings. Coated bacon slices and dropped them in the fryer for a couple of minutes. You need to fry until both the breading and the bacon are crisp, but not burned. Pretty comparable to Sodolak's. So now there are two places in Texas you can get chicken fried bacon. Unfortunately, one of them may only be serving 1 or 2 days each year. It was really good. We didn't have any of the white cream gravy like they serve the CFB and chicken fried steaks with, but I did try it with a little ranch. Very nice taste combination.

So, anyway, that was Fryday. Yeah, it may not be our healthiest eating day, but it sure was good. The kids and grandkids and various granddogs and cat were here. These are the best days ever.

Business Travel - The Good Life

This week I had a meeting in Gettysburg, PA. Unfortunately, no time to visit the battlefield, but I did spend a day there last year. The weather was great, the trees are turning color - we don't see that much fall color here in Houston. So, we drive back to Baltimore for a 3:30 or so flight from BWI to Houston. Due to the severe storms in Houston, we have about an hour and a half ground hold. Then we have to do time in a holding pattern on the way. Finally land in Houston about 7. I had ridden to the airport with a colleague, D, and we had parked at one of the surface lots. The lift pumps that pump all the heavy rain water away had gone out, so everything around the airport was flooded. We took a bumper to bumper round about way to the parking lot. The 7-10 minute ride took almost two hours. We were moving so slowly that one of the other passengers considered calling Domino's and ordering a pizza to be delivered to the shuttle bus. Finally, we pull up behind D's truck. It's not raining quite as hard now. But, we have one other thing to do before we pick up our luggage and get off the bus. We sit back down, take off our shoes and socks, roll up our pants legs, and then wade through 6 - 8 inches of water to the truck. Almost drove off with my shoes on the roof. It's all a good time.

No YouTube for You !

Short post tonight. About a month ago, I was in Turkey on business for a week. Very interesting trip. Stayed in a very nice hotel in Istanbul, good food, etc. Probably more on the trip later. Internet access was horrendously expensive at the hotel. A day's worth cost about what a month of high speed cable access costs here. Think I signed up for 4 days there. One night, there was something on YouTube that I wanted to get. Typed in the usual http://www.youtube.com/. This is what popped up:

BU SİTEYE ERİŞİM ENGELLENMİŞTİR

Ankara 1. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, 05/05/2008 tarih ve 2008/402 nolu kararı gereği bu siteye erişim TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI'nca engellenmiştir.

Access to this web site is banned by "TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI" according to the order of: Ankara 1. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, 05/05/2008 of 2008/402.

No YouTube for you if you're in Turkey.

UPDATE: Heard from a friend that the reason YouTube is banned in Turkey is because some Greeks posted a video that called Ataturk gay. He's a revered hero there - sort of like George Washington to us. Apparently happened some time ago, but they've never lifted the ban.

Living Off the Grid

Ok, so Hurricane Ike blew onshore the night of Sept. 12. I had been in Turkey for a week - got home the afternoon of Sept. 10. That's a story for another time. Houston was pretty much closed on Friday to keep the roads clear for the evacuees from the coast - Galveston, etc. Three years ago, after Katrina and Rita and being without power for 36 hours, I went out and bought a 5500 watt generator and a little 6500 BTU window AC. It was like 97 degrees the day after Rita hit, and we lost power for 36 hours. I wanted to be better prepared to deal with that if it happened again. Filled up the cars and all the gas cans, got out the generator - first time out of the box. Ike had taken dead aim on Houston.



B&K and the kids went to the high school - deep inside the high school. Very safe there. B&T came to our house. We also had all the dogs and the cat. Ate, had popcorn - a huge batch - played cards and Monopoly and watched the storm approaching on TV. Oh, and plenty of Mudslides. Finally went to bed about midnight. I slept pretty well, actually. Could have been the Mudslides. Ike hit and our power went out about 12:30. Ike actually came right through here - the center of the eye passed just a very few miles, under 10, east of us. It got really quiet for a while around 5 or 6 am.



We, of course, had no idea at the time, but that was the beginning of 12 days without power. It's now 14 days after Ike, and we have friends who still have not had their electric service restored, so I guess we're relatively lucky. However, some lost power for like 2 hours. Yup, 12 days. B&K and the kids were able to get here past all the down trees and debris and power lines after several hours. We ate really well - bacon, eggs and hash browns on the grill is really good. I had 50 lbs. of propane for that, too. The first week really wasn't too bad. Everyone was here and was ok, we had enough power for the fridges, a few lights, the TV, the little AC, and, with careful power management, the coffee maker and the microwave. It was really good family time. After a few days, the drone of the neighborhood generators and the startup, shutdown and refueling rituals started seeming normal.



An oak tree in B&K's front yard fell, hitting a corner of the house and the truck. The truck was not hurt too badly - a few dents and scratches and loss of an outside mirror. The roof damage, though, let the rain in and did a lot of damage to the kitchen. They'll have to have cabinets, counter, cook top, floor plus all the sheetrock work, etc.



As the week progressed, we found we could get the HD broadcast channels with rabbit ears on the big TV, the kids could watch DVDs, and things settled in. A lot of fuel runs for the generator, and it was a real treat when we could get fresh produce again on about Wednesday.



Anyway, at about 8 pm on Day 12, our power was restorecd. And I had just reconfigured the generator to make the house outlets and lights live so we wouldn't have to have extension cords everywhere. It still seems strangely quiet without generators on. This weekend, I'll change the oil in it, drain the fuel, and make sure it's ready for next time. If you take care of your generator, it'll take care of you. Twelve days off the grid was plenty. We're thankful we were all together, had no injuries, had reasonable weather after Ike's passage, and didn't suffer any major losses. A lot of houses around here with trees through the middle. I've heard numbers like $1500 to $6000 to get the trees off of/out of these houses. Plus the water damage from the rain. We were pretty lucky, and the family was great.


Maybe more details at another time, but to close, take a look at the last post - our "Deuce" family vacation last July in Galveston. Our neice, one of the Deuce participants, while busy surfing the net at work one day, found this photo. This is looking west on San Luis Pass Rd. on Galveston Island, in the vicinity of 1st Street in Terramar Beach. The house farthest to the left in this photo, and the two story house behind it, are the Deuce. We went through a lot of Dos Equis on that porch. Still there, but the beach is apparently behind the houses now instead of in front.

The Deuce

Last July, we spent a week on the beach in Galveston. Had a great time with the kids, grandkids, granddogs and a friend or two who stopped in. In fact, we had such a good time, we went back for a long Labor Day weekend.

Well, this year we decided to widen the circle. In addition to the group from last year, our neices from Indiana and their families came down. We ended up with 15, plus the 3 dogs. We couldn't find a house that we all fit into that allowed dogs, but we really liked the house we had last year. It's just too small for everyone. However, the house next door is a little bigger and was available, even through the same agency, so we got 'em both. Hence, "The Deuce." A deuce of beach houses. Two houses, two kitchens, two refrigerators, two cabana showers, etc. Lots of Dos Equis and limes.

Here's a view of the houses from the beach. Got a little rain off and on, but never a day that we couldn't spend a lot of time on the beach. We all got "The Deuce" t-shirts. "The Deuce" on the front and this on the back.As it turned out, The Deuce theme was kind of prophetic and more appropriate that we realized. In addition to the deuce of beach houses, we had a deuce of engagements, too. How cool is that. No. 2 son and T got engaged shortly before we went to the beach, and No. 2 neice got engaged while we were there. Pretty exciting for all!

Good food and lots of it, fun on the beach during the day, plenty of Dos Equis, popcorn, funnel cakes, cards and Wii at night. For lots more pics, see http://wholovesmath.blogspot.com/2008/07/galveston-2008-deuce.html. However, one more in the too cute for words category - here's AM, the 1-year old of the group, ready for breakfast bright and early one morning.

Ich bin ein Berliner - 3

I thought I'd better finish our Berlin trip while I can still remember most of it. The day following our marathon walk, we took the train / subway to about the furthest point we had reached the previous day. We saw the oldest church in Berlin - it was closed for repairs. A couple of other churches and we found our way to the Berlin Dom - the Berlin Cathedral. It's spectacular - has two, count 'em two - pipe organs. It's open for tourists like us, plus it is a functioning cathedral. We sat in the back during a prayer service that started just after we arrived. Couldn't understand much, but the music on the main pipe organ was worth the admission by itself. You can climb to the top, and the view there is pretty spectacular. It's a lotta steps, but as long as we were there . . .

After you finish your tour and wandering around the Dom, you exit down into the basement, through the crypts and into the, yep, you guessed it, the gift shop. Got a bunch of stuff there. We had one of the audio tour things, so while my bride headed to the gift shop, I went back upstairs to the entry to turn in the audio. It's just outside the doors to the sanctuary where there's a guy who checks tickets. So I go out the door, past the guy (within about 2 feet), take the 3 steps to the audio desk, turn it in and get my passport or driver's license or whatever they kept there back, turn around and start back through sanctuary. I heard someone say something, but who'd be talking to me, right? As I turned the corner to go to the stairs, there's this ominous tap on my shoulder. It was "the guy." "Excuse me, sir, do you have a ticket?" "Well, yes I do, but I just came out to turn in the audio tour, and I'm leaving through the gift shop now." "To come in here you have to have a ticket, sir." "Yes, you see, I just came out of here and then came back in so I could leave through the gift shop, where my wife is." "Sir, if you come in here, you must show your ticket. May I see it, please?" "Certainly, here it is." "Thank you. Enjoy your visit." Anyone who thinks the Germans are not sticklers for the rules, think again. They even obey all the "Walk" and "Don't Walk" signs at the intersections.

Later, we walked through the Brandenburg Gate again. I understand it was one of the old city gates where taxes were collected on goods being brought into Berlin.

Near the hotel was the Kaiser Wilhelm church. It had been heavily damaged during the bombing of Berlin and was kept in that state as a memorial. A new, modern church was constructed adjacent to it.

At the end of our week in Berlin, we had a free afternoon after all the technical meetings had ended, so we took off again. I had scouted out the route to the Stasi Museum - the former East German secret police. Pretty much the East German equivalent to the USSR's KGB. Checked with the concierge on the directions. Once again, I got kind of a "Why do you want to go there?" response, but he helped me out. As an aside, we stayed at the Hotel Concorde Berlin. If you find yourself going to Berlin sometime, and can afford it, it's a top-notch hotel.

We had to change trains about three times and then walk a bit. While we were in the Checkpoint Charlie - Friederichstrasse - Brandenburg Gate area, there were not really any significant differences that set the former East Berlin and West Berlin apart. That wasn't the case as we ventured farther into East Berlin. Things just seemed more run down in general - the streets, the stations - everything. Also, we found fewer people who spoke any English at all, although they were still pretty friendly. Here are a couple of the stations we went through - Ostkreuz and Warschauer.

Then it's about a half-mile walk down Frankfurter Allee and then two blocks down a nondescript side street and you are at the former Stasi headquarters. It was interesting, but a bit disappointing because there were no English captions on anything. There was an English guidebook, which we got, but it didn't help with a detailed understanding of what we were looking at.

It was pretty easy to understand this ground-floor exhibit. This was the van you didn't really want to see pull up in front of your home. If it did, that meant it was there to take you to the appointment you didn't know you had with a Stasi interrogator or other official. I think there were a lot more people that left home in this van than arrived back home sometime after the ride. Kinda like a roach motel - they checked in but never checked out.

On the way back, we spent a couple of hours at the Jewish Museum. It's very impressive, and is not exclusively about the Holocaust, although that's a significant part.

There were some other highlights of the week. Our entire group went on a dinner cruise on the river. It was a nice evening, the food was very good, the conversations interesting, and the bar open. We also walked down the street from the hotel to a restaurant recommended by the concierge. Odd sense of walking speed, that guy. "It's only a 15 minute walk from the hotel." We walk reasonably fast - maybe 16 or 17 minute miles. Not any slower than that. Took somewhere around 25 minutes going. I checked later - it's between a mile and a half and two miles. We took our time on the walk back to the hotel. My dinner that night was also the concierge-recommended pig leg. Yeah, it's the whole bone-in leg, roasted and served on a bed of sauerkraut. Not used to seeing that on a plate, but it was really good.

All too soon, we were boarding a Continental 757 to fly to Newark and then on to Houston. But it was a great trip - had all of our lunches and dinners outside - good weather pretty much the whole week, uneventful travel, five star hotel, good food, even a productive technical meeting. I'm ready to go back.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game - 2

Well, I still have to finish the Ich Bin Ein Berliner series sometime, but baseball has intervened again. Last week was a big baseball week. I was in Pittsburgh early in the week for a meeting and managed to get several of us invited to a suite at PNC Park for a Pirates - Nationals game. The Pirates ended up losing, but it was a pretty good game, and the suite was sweet.

By the way, if you ever find yourself in Pittsburgh, don't leave until you've found your way to Primanti Bros. They have a few shops around, but try the original. Their No. 1 and No. 2 sellers look pretty much like this. The sandwiches come with fries and slaw. On the sandwich. Yup, everything right on the sandwich. It's great! No. 1 and 2 sellers, you ask. Well, the cheesesteak sandwich (not a Philly cheesesteak - it's the Primanti Bros. version) is the No. 2 seller. I asked our waitress what was No. 1. She said, "You already have it." Look closely and you'll see a bottle of Iron City in the background. It's No. 1.

Got home Thursday morning and took the rest of the week off. Thursday afternoon the Astros had a 1:05 game with the Brewers. They lost. However, as the game was about to start, everyone else on my hallway at the office comes trooping in. Seems someone scheduled a "meeting" at the ballpark. There are all too few afternoon games anymore anyway, so it would be a shame to work through them, right?

Then we're into the weekend, and a three game series with the Yankees. Although it was fun to have the Yankees in town, things didn't go well for our 'Stros. First game - Friday night. My bride and I went. For that game, we didn't have our usual Section 328 seats. We had been able to get bullpen boxes - pretty much down the right field line. They have cup holders out there. No cup holders in 328. We were on the aisle of a row of extremely busy people. I think everyone in the row made at least 3, maybe 4, trips out and back. Bladder issues? I don't know. We got posters, too. Yankees - 2, 'Stros - 1.

Saturday evening, back to 328. No cup holders. But 328 is strategically placed - close to the restrooms, the nacho stand, and the cart that sells the 24 oz. beers. Got rally towels at that game.

So, I'm sitting there watching the game with No. 2 son, and it's about the sixth inning or so. Some younger guy with a microphone and trailing a cameraman taps me on the shoulder and says, "You've been picked to do the Scratch Off Guess the Attendance Contest. Do you want to play?" Well, sure! Why not? So the inning ends, we stand up, and there I am on the Jumbotron. Yup, much larger than life. Wearing my 2005 National League Champions shirt and my official Enron Field cap.

The contest works like a lottery scratch-off ticket. They scratch off the last three numbers, and then give you a clue about the first two. The last three were 409. Nice start if you like vintage Chevys or Beach Boys songs. Then the clue - Mad Magazine introduced a sport called ____-Man Squamish. I've been known to read Mad (What? Me worry?) from time to time, but this didn't ring a bell at all. However, being an engineer with at least reasonable deductive reasoning skills, remembering that the previous night the attendance had been 43,078 or something like that and knowing that the Yankees series was sold out, I took a chance (not a big chance, but still a chance) on 43. It was, of course, correct. Yes!! I win!! The prize? Check it out. A $10 Best Buy gift card. Thanks, Drayton! The Rally Towels didn't seem to help much. Final score: Yankees - 8, 'Stros - 4.

I didn't go to game 3 of the series, but it ended badly for our Astros. 13-0 badly. The 'Stros continue to struggle.

And 43-Man Squamish was introduced by Mad in Issue 95 in 1965. Had to be the '60s, right. Anyway, if you're interested, you can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43-Man_Squamish

"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."

Ich bin ein Berliner - 2

OK, now I've got the t-shirt to prove it. The last couple of days we've ridden in a taxi, on the bus, on the subway and on the elevated train. Plus walked miles, literally.


Monday, walked from the hotel past the park to the Sony Center. What would you find there but a Dunkin' Donuts shop. I did have a donut, but not a jelly. On to the Geography of Terror exhibit, which is also adjacent to a section of The Wall. Then Checkpoint Charlie. Some of the stuff we saw quickly on the bus tour. Then lunch - a really good margherita pizza and a couple of beers. In the former GDR (East Berlin). Bundestag museum, a cathedral, then on to Brandenburg Gate. Back through the park, past the Soviet memorial, the Victory Spire, through the zoo and back to the hotel. Google maps said it was a little over 7 miles. A good part of this was in East Berlin. Amazing to contemplate - the wall came down less than 20 years ago.


Yes, we definitely left the American Sector. In fact, everything past Checkpoint Charlie, and some before (see below) were in East Berlin, until we were past Brandenburg Gate.











This is a section of wall adjacent to the Geography of Terror exhibit. This was taken from the East Berlin side.

More later. Got pipeline business to attend to early in the morning.

Pops

Ich bin ein Berliner

No, I'm not actually claiming to be a jelly donut. I'm quoting JFK's opening comment on visiting West Berlin on June 26, 1963 - his first visit after the construction of the Berlin Wall. My bride and I are in Berlin, approximately 45 years after that speech, which I remember, by the way.

Anyway, yeah, I have a technical meeting here later in the week, so we came a few days early. Arrived early Sunday morning, rested up a bit, had a beer, took a bus tour all over the city, had another beer and dinner, and now collapsing, er, relaxing in the hotel. Dinner was a bacon-wrapped pork filet. Actually two little filets. Pretty good. Nothing like bacon-wrapped pork.

We saw some of the wall and a couple of historic sites. One was Checkpoint Charlie - the old checkpoint between the Russian and American sectors of Berlin. It's where the tanks faced off. The other was the Brandenburg Gate, one of the historic entrances into Berlin. When the wall went up, the Brandenburg Gate was just a few yards inside East Berlin. Today, the wall is long gone, except for some sections preserved for history. And it's very easy to tell which side prevailed in decades-long confrontation. Let me show you.

This photo was taken just outside the Brandenburg Gate, looking into what was once East Berlin. See the circle and arrow in the left center, just above and to the right of the guy wearing the striped t-shirt in the far left foreground? See what's circled? Zoom in if you have to. Yes, it's a Starbucks. East Germany didn't have a chance. Just the thing to go with a good jelly donut, though, don't you think?

Take me out to the ball game

This is our second year to get a 27 game ticket package for the Astros. Two seats. We - various nearby family members - alternate going to the games, on no specific basis. Kinda along the lines of whoever is available and wants to go. Last year, as it turned out, we had tix to some pretty good games - opening day, closing day, the day Biggio announced his retirement, and the big one, the game he got hit number 3,000, plus a few more. So, we got the same seats this year. Third level, first base side, convenient to the ramp, the elevator, the restroom, the nacho stand, and the 24 oz. beer cart (although she may have moved for this year - dang!).

Anyway, my bride and I went tonight - 'Stros vs. Marlins. With 34,000 of our closest friends. Actually, we had a third with us as well - Flat Stanley. I knew absolutely nothing about Stanley until we got him from a grand nephew in Indiana. Third grade class project - "we", and I use the term pretty loosely, 'cause it's not me, get Stanley for his Texas trip. "We" photograph him at various locations, and then send him and the pix back to the kid as a record of all the places Stanley visited - school, happy hour, the library, sitting around the pool, and, of course, the ball game.

We won - saw a 2-run homer, couple of running catches in CF (one running in, one out), and a couple of nice double plays. Hot dogs, peanuts, cotton candy (none for me - it gets in my mouth), a beer, a Coke Zero (they have Coke Classic, Diet Coke AND Coke Zero). All in all, a very nice evening - beautiful spring day in Houston. Had the roof open at Minute Maid (nee Enron Field). Photo above before it got dark. This was Game 3 of our package - 24 to go. Plus we scored some extra single game tix for the Red Sox and Yankees series. A very pleasant and successful evening, from a baseball, culinary and Flat Stanley perspective.

It's 106 miles to Snook . . .

. . . we've got a full tank of gas, a half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it.

Well, no cigarettes, and no sunglasses after dark, but it was about 106 miles to Snook and it took almost a full tank of gas, but some colleagues from DC (who are also bacon addicts) were in town for a meeting, so we went to Sodolak's in Snook Monday night for dinner. Started with the Chicken Fried Bacon Strips appetizers. We were expecting about 3 strips per order. It was six or seven. With gravy. Holy cow, was that good! Light, crisp - not soggy at all. Well worth the four hours of driving. Entrees? Bacon-wrapped filets, of course. Baked potatoes - butter, sour cream, shredded cheddar and, what else, bacon bits. I've pretty much decided there's no reason to have any course of any meal without some form of bacon. We skipped dessert.

Good thing I had my annual physical with all the blood tests that morning. Three words of advice - go to Snook.

Another Birthday

As a first quarter boomer, and this being the first quarter and all, sooner or later I had to have another birthday. Turns out it was this weekend. I'm now officially social security age. Woo hoo! However, there are some pluses to all of this. If push comes to shove, I could collect SS now. No plans to do so, however. Next, you get some nifty stuff. My bride got me t-shirt from the Mug-n-Bun drive-in in Indy. It was one of the early drive-ins, a basic root beer stand, kinda a precursor of today's Sonic. My first job was at Mug-n-Bun. Made a whoppin' 75 cents per hour, plus a sandwich and a root beer if you worked about a 4 hour shift or longer. Was a sophomore in HS. Some of you will remember these. I think a large root beer then was maybe a quarter - might have been less. But wait, that's not all. Wore the shirt to a family get together this afternoon with the kids and g'kids - always a good time. Our son had started cooking last night - smoked a pork shoulder and a couple of slabs of ribs. With the potato salad, slaw, beans, etc., it was quite a treat. Some of the best BBQ known to man - and we have pretty good BBQ in Texas. Kids got me a nice little table to put next to my recliner to hold the laptop and all the remotes. Even they think I've got too much stuff just sitting around. Probably right.

Then for dessert, we had the Midnight Delight ice cream cake from Cold Stone. You can read all about it at http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/cakes/signature_cakes.html

It looks kinda like this. I highly recommend getting one. The g'kids ate the little cylindrical chocolate things on top. By the time we finished dessert, they were wearing a significant quantity of the cake, and went directly from dinner to the tub. Also, another nice thing about this time of year here, we were able to have our dinner and dessert out on the deck.

All in all, a terrific day and well worth getting another year older for.

A Couple of Things to Do

Now that the weather has gotten really nice here on the South Coast, you'll be wanting to get out and do some stuff with the family. Here are a couple of suggestions.


Last spring, the bride and I drove up to Texas's linear state park, the Texas State Railroad. It's a neat trip, and the RR has an interesting history. It currently runs between Rusk and Palestine - about a 25 mile trip by rail. Trains run both ways, crossing at a siding in the middle. There's a 90 minute stopover before the return trip, so take a picnic lunch - it's better than just buying a BBQ sandwich at the snack shop. Check before you go - they can tell you whether they will have any of the steam locomotives running. We need to go this year again with the kids and g'kids. They are always in a tight spot financially, so go asap and give 'em a few extra bucks - it's a neat piece of Texas history. Good book from the gift shop (you knew there had to be one) - Steam in the Pines. It's the history of the RR - basically built by prisoners for prison industry. Give it a try. Check it out at http://www.texasstaterailroad.com/. You can get directions, etc. there.



Now for a real Texas culinary treat. We haven't tried this one yet, but I'm pretty anxious. A short (ok, maybe a couple of hours, but it looks worth it) drive up the road to Snook, TX (vicinity of College Station) takes you to Sodolak's, home of chicken fried bacon. Yup, that's right - chicken fried bacon. Served with a side of white cream gravy, although it has been suggested that a side of ranch or honey mustard dressing sounds pretty good, too. Since bacon is one of the best foods ever, this has to be great. Almost any food is improved by the addition of bacon. Well, maybe not ice cream or pumpkin pie, but aside from some desserts . . . Salad - better with bacon bits. Filet - better if bacon wrapped. Cheeseburger vs bacon cheeseburger - no contest. You get the idea. I'll have to learn how to add these directly (oh, that was tough - Edit Html, copy, paste), but here's the link to the Texas Country Cooking segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfbTO0GlONU They should have "frequent eater" punch cards for this. Full card is good for an angioplasty. If you're a vegan, skip this.




And, speaking of things bacon, check out http://www.baconsalt.com/. I got some of this stuff about a week ago. I've tried the regular on popcorn (good), the peppered on eggs (good) and the hickory on a burger (good). Yup, all good.

Mulch & More - I Hate Plumbing!

Weekend update: I think the Scouts were short of delivery crews on Saturday. The mulch finally showed up about 5 pm - too late to actually start - particularly considering that No. 3 son, daughter-in-law and grandkids wanted to get together for fajitas, and the kids have to eat relatively early. So Saturday evening worked out well. Sunday, I drove into Houston to help No. 2 son (starting to sound like Charlie Chan, for those of you who go back that far - who'd you like, Warner Oland or Sydney Toler?) with a dishwasher issue. That went ok. Then he came up and helped me spread mulch. Went really quick - 37 bags, 3 cu. ft. each - in about an hour. Woulda taken me at least 4. Guess who did most of the work? Fixed my bride's bike tire, watched the grandkids a little, pretty good day.

One item left on the honey-do list for the weekend - fix a leaky bathtub faucet. Leaky faucets are pretty easy, right? Just turn off the water, pop off the knob, unscrew the valve from the valve body, replace the gasket, and then reverse the previous steps and you're done. Except the flanges were also all cruddy and splitting, etc., so thought I'd replace them, too. Had to shut off the water in the whole house - no shut-off valves on the bathtub lines. To shorten this up, it's impossible to get all the water out, so it continues to drain down (mostly on the floor) when the valves are out. Unscrewing one of the flanges, twisted and kinked the copper tubing underneath - didn't realize the whole valve body was turning. Back to the h'ware store for tubing and valves. There are now shut-offs in the lines. Good thing, because the connection to the cold water valve has yet another issue - read "leaks profusely." Hardware stores closed, and going out of town tomorrow. I think it's impossible to do a household plumbing job, no matter how simple, without this cascade of leaks and problems and multiple trips to the h'ware store. I truly hate plumbing.

What was I thinking?

The Boy Scouts here in the Livable Forest have a fundraising project every year about this time. A month or so ago, they started taking orders for mulch. I've been buying this stuff from them for a few years now. Sure, help out the scouts and all. It's like $5 per 3 cubic foot bag. They deliver it, and will put the bags wherever you want - all around the flower beds or stacked in your driveway or whatever. They don't spread it, however. So, a month or so ago, I ordered my 40 bags of mulch. Well, tomorrow is the day it comes. So, until sometime late tomorrow afternoon, after I have sliced open, dumped out and spread bag number 40, I'm gonna be wondering "What was I thinking when I ordered this stuff?" Maybe next year I'll remember this and just pay someone to do it. My boomer back is getting too old for this.

Diet Plan for Aging Boomers

OK, I have a tendency to be a bit of a porker. Mabye even more than a bit. I always thought the four food groups were salt, sugar, grease and caffeine. Large sausage pizza and a Coke - completely balanced meal - all four groups. And donuts? Don't get me started. Donuts are like their very own food group. Ever hear of the "Donut Diet?" It calls for eating a donut 15-20 minutes before lunch and dinner. The pre-meal hit of carbs is supposed to trigger the "full" response sooner in the meal, so you eat less. Well, if a donut 20 minutes before lunch is good, four donuts 20 minutes before lunch should be four times a good, right? See, that's why these kinds of diets fail. Also explains my being a bit of a porker.

It's pretty easy to pick up a few pounds here and there, and pretty soon you're up to an eighth of a ton. When it's a single digit fraction of a ton, it starts to sound like a lot. But take heart, there are tons (there's that word again) of people out there who will take your money and sell you some hope of losing weight. Some even say you can eat what you want and don't have to exercise. Seems to be one of two things going on with these. It's either a scam - the only thing getting lighter is your bank account - or it's some drugs doing some powerful and unnatural stuff to your metabolism, your digestive tract or your whole body in general.

Well, here's a clue. You don't have to pay Weight Watchers (watch it yourself) or Jenny or Atkins or South Beach or North Beach or any Some Beach plan. You can do this yourself. It's all a matter of balance. In terms of calories, if you eat more than you use, you store 'em up. If you use more than you eat, you use up some of what's stored. What's stored are those excess pounds. So, it's really a simple concept, and there is no magic bullet. Just cut way way down on the junk food - chips, fries, candy, etc. Eat a little healthier, and less overall. You know, more fresh fruits and vegetables, drink water instead of soft drinks. Or maybe a Coke Zero. That stuff was made for Boomers. Get a little more exercise - start taking brisk walks, slowly increasing your speed and distance. Shoot for something around a 17 minute mile pace. Walk outside if possible. Take the stairs at the office if only going a floor or two. You'll feel better for sure, and probably start dropping a few pounds. Me? Yeah, this is exactly what I've done, and I'm down about 30 since Thanksgiving. Kinda leveled off right now, but I'm confident I can get another 10 or so. Give it a try. It's free.

Travel Adventures with TSA

Although I'm a first quarter Boomer, I still have a regular job and travel a fair bit. My home airport is IAH (look it up if you don't know airport codes). A week ago Sunday, I had to go to Atlanta for a few days. Well, I'm one of the lucky ones who regularly gets massages from TSA when going through security at the airport. Lucky in that, without the orthopedic surgery available today, I'd have an arm and a leg that didn't work - had a hip replacement in '99 and a shoulder replacement in '04. All that titanium drives the metal detectors crazy.

Anyway, I always get hand wanded and then the massage, or pat down as the TSAers refer to it. So the TSA screener takes me over to the hand screening area - you've seen it. We have a little exchange that goes something like:

TSA: OK, before we start, I've got two quick questions.

Me: OK.

TSA: Do you have a pacemaker?

Me: No.

- - - Very long pause while I wait for the second question - - -

TSA: Stand there facing your things, feet apart, arms out, palms up.

By this time, I had pretty much concluded that the second question wasn't coming right away. Or, maybe he asked the two so quickly that I mistook it for just one.

TSA: (Wand beeping continuously as he waves it around my titanium shoulder) This the replacement shoulder?

Me: Yes.

Then, he starts on the legs. Checking around my right hip, with no beeps.

TSA: Is this the hip?

Me: No.

TSA: (Checking left hip) Is this it?

Me: (Thinking, look, I only have two, and it wasn't the other one, so whadaya think? Use the process of elimination here.) Yes.

We finally finished and, after putting on my shoes and belt, stowing my laptop, making sure I had my pen, reading glasses (another Boomer affliction), gum, change(usually don't travel with change for just this reason), phone and blackberry, I was on my way.

OK, so that was outbound on Sunday. However, I wasn't done with TSA fun quite yet. Wednesday afternoon, going through beautiful Atlanta Hartsfield airport (I really dislike that airport!) I finally get up to the security screening area. They have an extremely helpful display there to provide some good examples of what you can't carry onto an airplane these days. Who woulda thought? If I can now figure out how to add a photo, you can see this for yourself.

OK, that was pretty easy. Yup, that's a chainsaw. Blowtorches, gas can - can't carry any of this stuff aboard. So, on the way back to Houston (that's IAH) I flew completely at ease and assured of a high level of security, confident that I wasn't going to be attacked by a chainsaw wielding maniac.

Life is good.