Archive for the ‘food’ Category

Apple pie

Wednesday, March 25th, 2015

  

Here’s a reminder of why I don’t eat at Denny’s anymore. This is a piece of apple pie exactly as it was delivered to Joanne the recent evening we decided to abandon my principles and try Denny’s again. Doesn’t that look appetizing? Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken late in the evening on March 14 at a Denny’s in Henderson, NV, and part of my famous Food, Joanne, and Las Vegas series.

Not pictured above: my hot fudge sundae. That was so disgusting I had to send it back. I have no idea what they did to that hot fudge, but I could not eat it, no matter how hard I tried. I finally decided to stop trying.

On to more pleasant subjects. My, it’s been a long time since I posted, once again. In fact, it’s been exactly one month. Lots of things have been happening, as my Loyal Readers might expect. Let’s see if we can recap a few of them, shall we?

I had a torn and partially detached retina repaired early this month. My eye had gotten a large floater while I was in Florida for the AAFS conference and I finally decided to go to my optometrist’s office and have it checked out. He detected something wrong and got me an appointment with a nearby opthomologist early the next morning. That guy discovered the problem and zapped it with his handy laser. It seems to have worked well. The zapping hurt some, but I gritted my teeth and dealt with it. The floater is still there and affecting my vision, but I hope it will settle over the next few months.

On the day of my eye surgery, Joanne and I went to San Francisco to see the Chinese New Year parade. Katy, Cliff, and Mia joined us, of course. It was fun and very interesting. We got great grandstand seats and were very close to the street. We stayed at a downtown hotel that allowed us to walk to the parade, which was nice. We also rode a cable car down to the Pier 39 area and walked around there a bit, which was nice. The afternoon of our last day, we went over to Katy’s place and hung around for a few hours. I always like visiting them. I love those guys!

Joanne decided she was ready to move out of her great big house into a lower-maintenance, lower-cost condo. She put the house on the market for a nice high price and had it under contract two days later. The sale closed yesterday. In the meantime, we went and looked at a couple condos and found what we both think is a really nice place. It’s in Green Valley, which is right where she wanted to be. It’s relatively small, but it has a very big feel. She’s been there for about a week now and we both love it. Corey has moved with her and Ryan opted to go back to the Bay Area. He left during the weekend.

We’ve been working pretty hard (especially Ryan!) the past couple of weeks to get the house ready to sell, get rid of stuff that isn’t needed and won’t fit in the new place, fix things that needed attention before the handover, and move her things. There’s still some work needed – hanging pictures comes immediately to mind – but she’s basically done. I’m convinced she’ll be as happy with her newly downsized home as I am with mine.

I recently discovered that the Best in the Desert off-road racing organizer is here in Las Vegas. I volunteered to help at the Mint 400 technical inspection a week or so ago. It was a fun but exhausting day. I was basically directing traffic. Every one of the racing trucks came right by me. I love racers! The hand-built tech reminds me a bit of launch vehicles and spacecraft. I’m hoping to get more involved with the BITD people in the future.

And that pretty much brings us up to today. Life is good and filled with love. Just the way I like it.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: massive maple syrup spill!

See you tomorrow.

Snowy dinner

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

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Here are Andy and Joanne enjoying a delicious Pho dinner on a very snowy day in downtown Denver. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken during our recent trip to visit Andy in Denver, and part of my famous Food, Joanne, and Vacation series.

I had Com Ga for dinner – chicken with rice – and enjoyed it thoroughly. I think that was either the second or third time I’ve eaten at that restaurant and I will definitely go back again. It’s a short walk down the street from Andy’s apartment and it’s an excellent Vietnamese restaurant.

We spent an excellent weekend in Denver, by the way. It was very cold and there was a very nice snowstorm on Saturday, which is perfect for a brief visit to snow country. Joanne hadn’t ever really been in a snowstorm and she was tickled by it. We stayed in one of the guest apartments in Andy’s building. I’ve stayed in that one before and loved it, and I felt the same way this time. I think the price is very reasonable, the apartment is luxurious and nicely appointed, the building is absolutely amazing, and the proximity to Andy is excellent. We visited the Natural History Museum (or whatever they’re calling it these days) and drove around to look at our old houses and my work. We also had some excellent meals, including a Saturday evening stop at a little New Orleans-themed restaurant/bar for drinks and beignets. Excellent! This was the third time in the last few months we’ve seen Andy. I’m already looking forward to our next Denver trip.

Next up in the travel plans: Sonoma, California and a highly-anticipated birthday visit with Katy, Cliff, and Mia! We’re going there later this month.

Not much going on today. Spent a lot of the day reading. I bought a new sound bar for the television in the office. The little Vizio TV’s speakers are so horrible as to be unusable, and the 5.1 surround system I had bought when the TV was new has never been any good. It was a cheap RCA system and had an extremely defective amplifier that made a terrible humming sound after it warmed up. It was a great pleasure to throw it away. The new sound bar is the smallest Vizio I could get and it sounds just fine. It integrates well with the Vizio TV, allowing me to use the TV’s remote control to operate it and just working. It sounds just fine and I’m pleased with it.

I got the sound bar at Walmart. I hate that store, but they have things I can’t get anywhere else. And I’d much rather go there than Best Buy. Their price was exactly the same as Amazon’s and this time I decided not to wait two days to get the goods. So I went and bought it during a trip for a few groceries.

Speaking of which, they were pushing cake mixes for a buck at Walmart, so I bought a yellow cake mix and baked it this evening. I baked the cake, took Mark out to Rubio’s for dinner, and then came home and frosted the cake. I found a recipe for an excellent cream cheese chocolate frosting, so I made that. The cake’s pretty good! I think it possibly baked just a bit longer than it needed to, which is strange, as I baked it for the minimum time specified on the box. I think maybe the pan was dark enough that I should have set the oven 25° cooler, but the box didn’t give a different time or temperature for dark pans, so I didn’t do it. I’m learning, though!

My new powered antenna for the TiVo arrived today. To my surprise, it’s much larger than my existing patch antenna, but it looks like it will fit okay behind the TV. As long as I get good reception there, it should be fine. Otherwise, there’s no way I would put that thing on my wall. We’ll find out tomorrow. An antenna is necessary because I haven’t been able to figure out how to get the TiVo to recognize the local channels the cable company puts on the cable for me. The TV can recognize them, but the TiVo box can’t seem to figure them out, so the only way for it to work is to hook it up to an antenna. Sheesh.

But I sure love not having cable TV bills to pay.

Speaking of which, Dish Network has announced a $20/month service they’re putting on Roku and other systems that will deliver some very popular cable channels, including ESPN, Food Network, and HGTV. It’ll be a month-to-month service and I just may buy it. If they included TCM, I think I’d do it for sure. I’m excited for the service to become available so I can see the details. Even though (or possibly because!) I’ve worked with Dish people on a few rocket launches, I’m still deeply suspicious of their business practices, so I won’t just sign up without contemplating it a bit.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: chocolate heist!

See you tomorrow.

Aztec love

Wednesday, December 10th, 2014

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This rather racy picture was on the wall of a Mexican restaurant in Michigan where I had lunch with my mother last July. We were just a bit scandalized, but the food was good, so we stayed. Those Aztecs were certainly snappy dressers. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at an unknown Mexican restaurant in Canton, Michigan, and part of my famous Architecture, Food, and Vacation series.

Had a nice day, although I didn’t accomplish much. Went to see the doctor  who will be performing my first ever colonoscopy this morning. It was a bit of a pointless visit, but I didn’t get charged for it, so I have that going for me, which is nice. They tried to get me to come in for the procedure on Christmas Eve. Umm . . . no. So I’m going on the 28th of January.

Went with my friend Bob to the park this afternoon to fly our quadrotors. I went through all my batteries before his were all gone, so he gave me one of his to fly. His quads cost about $120 more than mine, and now I know why. It’s WAY better than mine. It is infinitely more controllable than mine and just outperforms mine in every way. Mine was an excellent, durable trainer, but now I’m ready for one like Bob’s. I’ve put it on my Amazon wish list and I’ll buy it for myself after Christmas when nobody gets it for me. I’ll also buy a few spare parts. Apparently, that quad is notoriously hard on motors.

This evening, Joanne and I went to a local sushi place with the sushi meetup group. We had a nice time with friends, as usual, and really enjoyed the food too. I overate just a little bit, but not too badly.

Speaking of which, when I weighed myself this morning, I was 0.8 pounds lighter than my last weighing. That’s possibly the start of another good trend. On a sad note, I strained a muscle in my lower back while I was lifting weights this morning. I think I should probably rest it a day or two and maybe even lower the amount of weight I’m lifting for a few days after that. I want it to heal quickly.

I’ve been busily buying Christmas gifts the last few days. I really want to do a beautiful job of Christmas for the kids. And myself too, come to think of it. I have the house reasonably well decorated, I have a date designated to bake cookies, and I’m buying gifts for everybody. I’m nearly done, but I don’t have anything for Mia yet, and I don’t think I have the right things for Joanne yet. More thought is needed in that area.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: French frozen chicken attack!

See you tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 27th, 2014

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Had a chance to think today. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook:

This has not been the easiest year of my life, with the loss in February of Shannon Morrow, my wonderful wife of 35 years, and then my dear mother’s death in September. I think my heart has broken anew every single day.

And yet out of the ashes of my life has arisen a new, happy, wonderful present and future. Joanne Marie Richards Parsons came into my life in the spring. It started with a serious interest, quickly turned into love, and just recently blossomed into our engagement. Joanne’s love has given me immense happiness and strength. Her circle of friends has embraced me. Her wonderful children have been kind and welcoming to me. My life is filled with love and happiness.

My children have reached out to me and loved and cared for me, even as they dealt with their own loss and grief. My relationships with them have grown stronger and closer. Each one is a strong, happy, independent adult and I couldn’t be a prouder father.

So along with personal tragedies, 2014 has brought me peace and happiness and given me optimism for the future. My past was wonderful, my present is wonderful, and my future promises to continue to be happy and full of wonder. Life is good.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Nothing to add. See you tomorrow.

Airborne entertainment

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

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Here’s the view from my airplane seat last August, on my way to Detroit to see my mother for the last time. Live baseball on my iPad at 30,000 feet! I like how Southwest does some things. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at altitude in a Southwest 737 in August, 2014, and part of my famous Electronics, Food, Machinery, and Vacation series.

I didn’t know it was my last visit with my mom. But it was. She was sick by then – very sick indeed – and in the hospital when I got there. They moved her to a rehab place while I was there, but she didn’t make any improvement and she left that place for hospice at home shortly after I came back to Las Vegas at the end of the week. I’m so grateful I got to see her one more time, in spite of the terrible shape and low spirits she was in. She was a wonderful mother and a truly good person and I miss her.

There are a few new things to discuss today, but it’s very late so I’ll try to keep it brief.

Paul’s here! His two-week stay is up tomorrow. We’ve had a very nice visit and I’m sorry to see him have to go home. A few hours after Paul’s departure, Andy arrives for Thanksgiving. I love having the company!

Mark got a new phone yesterday. His iPhone 4S was getting very old and its battery wasn’t holding much of a charge anymore. So we got him a new 5S. Yes, I know that’s an older phone, but it was what we could afford and it’s a whole lot better than what he had. Besides, a few short weeks ago, it was the coolest thing on the block. I think he likes it.

I finally finished the first draft of the website I’ve been contracted to produce. I thought it was probably pretty far from what my client wanted, but it turns out I was wrong. They love it! I have a bit of cleanup work to do, the client needs to provide me a bunch of text, and he needs to get hosting arranged before we can go live. But I’m truly excited about having a design they’re happy with.

I think I’m ready to start working full-time again. Currently, I’m planning to concentrate all my efforts on PhotoDoc for at least a few months. Maybe once I get things under better control and feel that I’m providing my customers and potential customers a product and customer service we’re completely proud of, I can turn my attention back to iOS apps, but this is the thing that’s currently most likely to provide me a living, so that’s where my effort is going.

Speaking of working on iOS apps, I’ve been thinking about an iOS app to complement PhotoDoc. I don’t think we’ll try to put the analysis tools on an iPhone, but I’m toying with the idea of using the iPhone/iPad as data gathering tools, with photos, audio files, interview forms, growth chart data, and even possibly traumagrams being captured on the iDevice and transferred automatically to the user’s copy of PhotoDoc. I need to talk to my partner and our odontologist advisors to see if there’s any interest in pursuing this. The idea is that customers could use the device they always have in their pockets to gather information whenever it becomes available and get it into PhotoDoc immediately. It’s already possible to use those devices to gather data, but it currently requires a tiny bit of work to get it into the app on your computer’s desktop. We could save that bit of effort and make it a free or low cost add-on to the program. Just a thought.

Ken came over today to visit before Paul leaves. It was good to see him. We’re getting together again on Thanksgiving afternoon and again on Saturday for a couple hours for me to help him set up his Christmas village in their living room. I enjoy hanging out with Ken.

Joanne and I have a bunch more travel coming up soon, which I’ll discuss here at a later date.

And that’s about it for today. Things are great.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: crime-fighting fake fish!

See you tomorrow.