As I mentioned in another article, Elie (MM) sent me some of his home roasted coffee beans as a house warming gift. Yesterday I purchased a new coffee grinder and this this morning I put it to use. I have to say that our good friend Elie is a master coffee bean roaster. This is without question the best cup of coffee I have had the pleasure of drinking in a good many years. I drink a lot of coffee while out on the road, sometimes it's good, sometimes it would be better used as a drain cle...

Well, ok, more like a slightly off cook actually. I decided to make goulash for dinner tonight. My goulash is as much an experiment as a meal. I never make it quite the same way twice and am always searching for the perfect combination of flavors and cooking technique that will achieve the ultimate goulash. Tonight's variation is to use a large pot with a vented lid instead of a deep skillet, a tad more garlic and red pepper, a little less basil, and a couple of cups of water added to the ...

The power went out about 15 minutes ago. Hottest part of the day. Figures. I'm typing this on my laptop using the cellular card. The power company here is hit and miss on restoring service. Sometimes they get things back on pretty quick, other times not so much. I'm hoping for the former as I just got back from the grocer and stocked the fridge. I'd hate to have all of my fresh foods spoil and as hot as it is today it won't take all that long for the house to get really warm inside. The...

When I got home today I found a package from Elie. It contained some of his home roasted coffee beans. I do love my coffee and this is a very thoughtful house warming gift. Sadly I won't be able to enjoy it tomorrow morning as I just discovered my grinder is busted. Argh! I'll be making a trip tomorrow to buy a new one. Thanks my friend. I am very much looking forward to enjoying it this week.

Some of the usual suspects are calling for increased taxes in order to fund bridge repairs following the tragic bridge collapse recently in Minneapolis. This is predictable and absurd as every state already receives more than enough funds to maintain their bridges and roads. The Minnesota tragedy is a perfect model for why these things aren't being done. Instead of spending money to repair a bridge that inspection reports had indicated was sorely in need, they instead chose to build a new ...

The pizza guy just showed up. I opened the door and the heat rushed in like a cop at a doughnut sale.

Geez, I've managed to go more than 45 years without ever having a chigger bite and now it's happened twice in the span of a couple of weeks. I was sitting here surfing the net and noticed that the areas around my ankles were itching like mad. I pulled down my sock tops and sure enough there were several chigger bites on both legs underneath the socks. And I haven't even been out hiking. The new boots must be working though because they were confined to the area under the tops of the socks ...

As I mentioned in another article some sort of six legged or possibly 8 legged critter or critters dined on my right foot and ankle a few days ago. So far the bites show no signs of healing and are quite painful and itchy. Itchy enough to be maddening. I have no idea what sort of critter did the biting but I'd love to knock off a few of it's relatives about now. I shot a couple of (bad) pics of the bites. Anyone have any ideas (maybe one of our resident doctors) as to what sort of creature...

The community in which I live is all private property with all privately owned streets. There are signs at the beginning of each street stating this fact along with "No Trespassing". Of course there is a certain element of society that ignores such warnings and feel that they entitled to go wherever they please even if it's illegal to do so. We get a few of these people wandering through just about every day. As there have been a few break ins most of us keep an eye out for people who do not ...

This is from the nutty site Will It Blend? I think it's a perfect treatment for an over priced phone.

When I called the phone company last week to have my service transferred to the new house the CSR mentioned at one point that I would have to contact PeoplePC to change my information with them. Huh? I have DSL so why would I have a dial up service them them? The CSR checked my billing records and found that PeoplePC had been billing me through my phone bill since March. That was news to me but explained why my monthly phone bills had seemed higher lately. To be honest when I come in off ...

It's been raining here. I walked outside a few minutes ago and was greeted by a beautiful full rainbow. You know the ones, they are a perfect full arc that isn't missing any parts. It was a nice sight to see. There is something about a rainbow that just brightens the spirit a bit. A beautiful flower in the sky. Unlike a lot of things, knowing the scientific reasons behind a rainbow doesn't lessen the enjoyment of it in any way.They're one of those little joys that nature tosses your way ev...

When I called to have my phone and DSL service transferred from my old place to the new one the CSR was kind enough to inform me that they had a new package deal that bundled both services as well as long distance, voice mail, caller ID, and call waiting and would save me about ten bucks a month. As I had only had local service and DSL before it sounded like a good deal to me. As I hadn't previously had caller ID service I didn't have a caller ID unit. I figured I would pick one up eventua...

Ok, now I know there have been a lot of goofy gadgets and gimmicks sold over the years, but I have just seen a television ad for one that is definitely among the top contenders for the A Sucker Is Born Every Minute Award. It's called, of all things, the FishPen. Yup, that's right, the FIshPen. I just had to look this one up to make sure it wasn't some sort of joke. Sadly it's a real product and more sadly I am sure there are people out there spending their hard earned money on this thing. ...

It never ceases to amaze me what forums one can find on the web. As I recently purchased a new GPS unit I was doing a bit of googling for information about it and sure enough I actually found an entire website, complete with forum, dedicated to GPS. It's called GPSPassion. Just for kicks I decided to just start doing searches for various forums to see what I could find. There are forums about: Pigs Chickens Horses Dogs Cats Incest (I kid you not) Rape Porn (no surprise there)...