uncommonly feeble and random thoughts

 The first couple of times I lost my wedding ring, it just sort of fell off my finger and to the floor. Once in the garage, once in the house, I retrieved it hastily, and took no heed. Then, I lost it outside, doing car wash work.  It was gone. I searched and searched, and came up empty. How do you tell your wife that you lost your wedding ring?  But I did, and she looked, and nada. The next day (note, I slept on not having my wedding ring), we were staging to take Enzo to daycare, and there on the driveway, on the passenger side of the truck, Linda found my ring. "Go get it sized," she directed me. Of course, I did not. It's a seasonal thing. Ambient temps. Sometimes my rings are loose, sometimes they're tight. I'll just live with it. Sure. Months later, I took all my old tax stuff to Staples to recycle it. Thirteen pounds, sixteen dollars. Ok, stuff some in the slot, then more, then more, until it's all in the locked bin. So I left and drove to scout out a r...

This post coincides with the observance of the annual International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust by the United Nations General Assembly, January 27. In 1982 Linda and I toured Europe with a rental car and a tent: We got the tent from best man, best friend, all-around good guy Gary Hobbs. The car's plate started with three letters so we called it that, Een. Ford Fiesta. This was a memorable campsite, as most campgrounds were WAY overcrowded... your neighbors' tent stakes were driven in next to your tent, and yours next to their tent. Cheek by jowl, indeed. But, that's another blog entry. This is about our visit to the infamous concentration camp. I knew I had an amazing slide from our tour there, and so I unearthed the slides (no small feat) and then rented a macro lens so I could produce high-quality copies of the slides. The shot above is not one of those... it's just a shot with my phone camera with a bit of editing. Here's the s...

 I ran into an issue with folks not being able to view a Dropbox video link, 42 MB. So I brought the video into Snagit and chopped it from two minutes in length to thirty seconds. That made it 48.5 MB. Whaaaat???? So anyway, I sent that link out via email, and Google did that just fine, but now I'm wondering if this might be a better solution, the blog option.  Here's the short version: And now, having posted it, it works. Somehow it gets turned into a YouTube video, and I'll have to remember to let folks know they can make it full screen. Sheesh. What a journey. The original intent was to show friends who've moved from the cold what they're missing.

'Twas the night OF Christmas, and all through the house... meal prep ruled all day, targeting 5:30 guests. Well, Enzo ruled, I cannot lie. As usual. Four walks, lots of playing throughout the day, second in priority was meal prep.  Behold, the anchor dish, also called the nekkid clod, but formally known as Costco's USDA Prime Prime Rib Roast, boneless: First, add Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper pepper (black and pink peppercorns combined), Simon & Garfunkel rub (parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme) and a smattering of garlic clove chunks (Linda is Sicilian, recall): Preheat a cast-iron dutch oven (the high sides help with clean-up) to 400 F (yes I do have an industrial laser thermometer so it's legit), and sear everybody: Then a bunch of other stuff happens. Alchemy? I was subtly made aware that there's more to dinner than the beef, so lots of things had to happen beyond the grill.  But just for the pitmasters, I brought a pile of lump charcoal to 245 degrees (ta...

I like Mexican food, and I like BBQ, and I've seen this method in a lot of articles, so I decided to try it. I bought the Trompo King several years ago. An investment in intention, right? This is the maiden voyage. Anyway, if vertical meat cookin' is unfamiliar to you, here's an article: https://www.columbusfoodadventures.com/2012/blog/los-guachos-and-the-art-of-the-trompo Note that this can be done horizontally as well.  My overall inspiration was this video. My sauce recipe was a mashup of these two (below). I'm not sure how anyone else would tailor theirs. I liked the pineapple inclusion, a few other things, but they both entail time... cooking the peppers and pulling the stems and seeds, adding stuff, cooking more... plan three hours. Sauce 1 Sauce 2   (this is a partial recipe, noted here for the peppers) Be wary to remove the seeds... I did it partially, and when I taste-tested the simmering sauce, I got... you guessed it, seeds. So I had to force-strain my entire...

How could one avoid architecture stuff in Savannah GA? Not possible, by a large measure. We took a walking tour. Linda found this tour by researching a book on Savannah architecture, and it turned out the tour was led by... the author. Seems right to choose that tour! His name is Jonathan Stalcup, and his book is accompanied by a website which does more justice to the topic than my paltry little blog ever could. He shared this handout as a part of the tour. Front: Back: Notice on the back of the handout is a rundown of architectural eras, styles, and forms. Yikes! My friend Gary had mentioned hearing about cisterns in the squares, and that he thought that was pretty good urban planning. I asked Jonathan about the cisterns, and he said oh yes, they were installed mainly for fire response (Savannah has had a series of catastrophic fires), and actually, he said, there's one you can see at Crawford Square. So, off I went later that day. Behold, the cistern discovered by workers in a ...

I knew there were other photos and other content to blog about. Sadly, my laptop sorta-croaked, in that the LCD panel went all psychedelic on me... pretty colors and patterns and the occasional sighting of objects I wanted to scrutinize, but could not. So, being me, I went on the Google. Turned out there was a chance the problem was a $15 part. Just order it (easy) and install it (hard). After scouring the tools @ Lowes and Harbor Freight and striking out, I resorted to, yep, Amazon, and ordered a set of small screwdriver bits. They had names I've never heard of. Slotted I have, Phillips as well, and Torx (not small enough) but Pentalobe? Triwing? OMG.    Thank you Señor Bezos.   Then, armed with the right Pentalobe, I bravely undid the screws on the case. End of story. Well, the story of me accessing the innards. Because I did try the next steps: the non-skid pad, check. The suction cups, check. (I had saved old phone car-mounts, as I save basically everything I've ever...