Awesome Vendors

I have to create a quick post during lunch here at work just to proclaim that we've got the best vendors in the world.  None of the places I've worked in the past had such generous - and dare I say loving? (ok, maybe that's a little too carried away) - vendors who lavished cornucopian tasties upon us.  (Still too much?  Ok, just a little hyperbolic.)
I have no idea who they are, or what exactly it is that they vend for us, but every day for the past week they've plied the IT Department with goodies.  One day it was festively decorated doughnuts.  Another was banana bread.  One brought bags of pre-popped popcorn (mmm, caramel covered popcorn).  One went healthy on us and brought a box of pears.  Sadly, there was no partridge.  They must have left it in the tree.

Today, it's a variety basket of crackers, cheese spread, nuts, dried fruit, and TEA!  10 glorious bags of English Breakfast tea.  I was courteous and only took one.  English Breakfast is one of my favorite blends, so it's amazing the box hasn't yet found its way into my desk drawer.  All bets are off if it's still there tomorrow.

The octagonal tin had peanut brittle from yesterday until it was finished off before 9:00.

Speaking of tea, I'm totally stealing this from another blog I follow, but I was so impressed I had to share.

I hope you enjoy it, too.

Random Thoughts for a Friday

Here's just a few things that have been on my mind, but none of them warrant an entire post on their own.

I saw another car that fits into the same category that I wrote about here.

I followed an Angry Bird home.

Things have been a little weird in Oklahoma this year.  I was there to experience the 5.6 earthquake on Nov. 5.  Since then they've had aftershocks on the same day as tornadoes, flash flooding in places strangled by a drought, and earlier in the year they experienced new state records for snowfalls, hail stones, low temperatures, and wind!  You can read more about it here (unless you've lived it, then you may not want to).

Speaking of weird, Earl Grey tea.  Bergamot oil - 'nuff said.

I've thought about this a long time, but have never had a platform to express it until now.  Isn't it ironic that the bread manufacturers spend all that time and energy to get the bread to the grocery store so it's as fresh and soft and moist as possible, for us to bring it home and dry it out in the toaster.

A tea blog I follow, The Devotea, recently had an entry about Politically Correct tea.  It humbled me to be reminded that the (often) amber liquid I love (not Dr. Pepper, it's caramel colored) is picked and produced by people who most likely make less in a day than what I spend per ounce on some tea varieties.

Speaking of tea, if you're ever in middle Tennessee, and you like tea, be sure to stop in at Franklin Tea in downtown Franklin.  Jan is the owner, and she is the nicest person you'd want selling you tea leaves.  (Which reminds me, I still have a post in progress about a tea tasting My Sweetie and I attended.  It's taking awhile because I don't want it to be boring. No comments about that never stopping me before, thank you.)

I've mentioned that most of the time there's just two of us in the house now, right?  I called home to let Sweetie know I was on my from work, and a deep voice answered.  It caught me off-guard - did I dial the right number?  Who's home with My Sweetie?  Then I realized it was our son.  His university is close to a military base, so they don't have classes on Veteran's Day.  He surprised us by coming home.

Another blog I follow is Stuff Christians Like.  It's author, Jon Acuff, is a humor-filled guy who works in Dave Ramsey's office.  He's written a book called Quitters, that's next on my want list.  It's about quitting your job to do something you dream about.  The first step is Don't!  As in, don't quit your day job without preparation for the next step.

I've been slightly obsessed recently with a term that I'd heard before, but never really thought much of until Jon wrote about it -- the Jesus Juke.  If you've never heard of a Jesus Juke, it goes something like this.  One person will quip, "Don't you hate how expensive Starbucks is?"  and another will respond with something like, "Yeah, think how much good we could do all that money went towards overseas missions."  Usually it stops all conversation and leaves most parties feeling guilty - when the person doing the juking was probably either trying to be profound or funny, and no one is sure which it is.  Anyway, on Facebook I saw a status that said something like, "I sure miss my husband when he's traveling."  One of their (obviously single) friends said, "Be thankful you have a husband to miss."  Would that be a Spouse Juke?  A Secular Juke?

Why do we enslave ourselves to these creatures who seem most concerned that their food bowls are empty?

Cat wanting to be fed - at least she was until she ran off while I got the camera

Well, I better feed the cats instead of blogging about feeding the cats.  They'll love me more for it.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, we don't typically store our cereal in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Well, it is cereal, and it is on the kitchen floor, but it's there to keep the dog from opening the pantry and getting to the cats' food dishes.  He's trained like elephants, who don't escape when held by loose ropes.  We had something heavier there, and now he doesn't go in with something light blocking it.

The Jack

(This is a little late.  I started composing it before going to Oklahoma, and then tried to finish it while there, but I'd already loaded my pictures to the home computer.  Those puppies were worth another 5,000 words, you know.)

Saturday, Oct. 22, was the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue.  This is one of the, if not the, biggest BBQ competitions in the country.  Teams must qualify to enter by winning another major competition.  It's not like anyone can just show up with a little Coleman grill, and a couple of racks of ribs, and their grandmother's "secret" sauce (that she probably got from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook anyway).

Me with a Jack Daniel's themed Barbecue Grill

There were teams from all over the world.  40 United States were represented.  Squeal-on-U-BBQ came from Alaska, and Up In Smoke made it from Hawaii.  There were 18 international teams.  The largest contingent was from our neighbor to the north, eh.

Walking around and seeing the names of all the crews was half the fun.  We got to see teams like I Smell Smoke!!! (Malden, MA), Hog Tide BBQ (Bentonville, AR), - they had both University of Arkansas and University of Alabama banners hanging from their tent - 4 Smokin' Butts (Millstadt, IL), and Chix, Swine & Bovine BBQ (Jessup, MD).  The last one's logo is a chicken, a cow, and a pig all dressed like businessmen.  This is serious stuff, but they have a  lot of fun doing it.

This overgrown house was interesting.
That's not a trellis next to the satellite dish.
That's a flag pole.

My favorite team had to be Motley Que Crew from Grosse Pointe Woods, MI.  They by far drew the largest crowd of the day.  One of their crew members is Guy Fieri.  If you don't know Guy, you need to.  He has a couple of shows on the Food Network.  My favorite is Diners, Drives, and Dives.  He puts a rockin' spin on cooking.  His spiky blond hair, two-toned gotee, and his tattoos and bling let you know he's not another Emiril or Julia.


Guy Fieri and the Motley BBQ Crew (he's drinking the water)





I don't think we'll be on TV since we were behind them.

 The highlight for me, though, was visiting the Squire "tent" at the Jack Daniel's Distillery. 

My son and me at the Squire Tent

 It's a privilege to be a Tennessee Squire. Jack Daniel's definitely treats their squires right. One can only become a Squire by being nominated by another Squire. It has nothing to do with how much you partake of the golden liquid. My predecessor (? sponsor? nominator? Squire Father?) only tasted JD for the first time last year. His predecessor, on the other hand, well, we joke with him that he doesn't need to be embalmed after he dies. Also, we all know it would be catastrophic if he were to be cremated.As for me, I imbibe every once in awhile.  I'd much prefer a glass of Dr. Pepper, but Jack and Coke, or even better, Lynchburg Lemonade, definitely have their times and places.

The trip was a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to going back next year.  BBQ anyone?

Bump

(Bump)

That's what happens on computer/geek/technical message boards to keep a message thread active.  They're usually sorted by the latest post, so bumping a thread brings it back to the top of the list.  I felt the need to bump my blog. 

Not a whole lot has been going on.  Oh, except that we got a new car for the eldest child over the weekend.  (Did I get any pictures? No-o-o-o...)  She drove it back to school yesterday.  It made it - that makes it a successful purchase.

My Sweetie and I attended a tea tasting last week.  I took pictures, and I'm composing a blog entry, but it's taking too long to come together.

The weather is "cold."  I still didn't wear a jacket today, but the temperature dropped about 15 degrees from the time I arrived at work yesterday and when I left.  Brisk is an apt description.

Oh, another thing distracting me from blogging is the Major League post-season.  After nothing except one lone, playoff loss about 10 years ago, the Texas Rangers made it to the World Series two years in a row.  They play Game 1 of the World Series tonight in St. Louis.  I've followed them since the early 70's, watching them have 2/3 of a good season, with the other 1/3 always wiping out any success from the majority of the season.

That's about all for now.  So, there. 

Bump.

End of an Era

Yesterday we lost an entreprenurial genius, and a tech-geek legend. 

I'll be the first to admit I'm not a big fan of his products.  I've never owned any Apple products, and I can probably count on my hands and feet the number of times I've used Apple products.  In fact, it wasn't until about four years ago that I allowed my kids to install iTunes on their laptops or purchase an iPod.

With that said, it's undeniable the impact he leaves on the world of technology.  He didn't invent the personal computer, but he helped make it marketable.  He didn't invent the mouse, but he saw its potential and drove his development department to incorporate it.  In fact, Apple didn't invent the cell phone, the mp3 player, touch screens, or tablets, but almost every household (except mine ) has at least one iPhone, iPod or iPad.  (OK, so my son has an iPod, and my wife won an iShuffle).

That doesn't even take into account that the started, or helped build, three different companies -- Apple, NeXT computers (which was eventually bought by Apple), and a little animation company purchased from George Lucas, called Pixar.

I first heard the name "Jobs" back in college.  The computer professor was from Korea, and I thought something had to be getting lost in the translation.  "Jobs" for a last name?  Ri-i-i-ght....

I first heard of Apple when that same year the college set up a classroom full of Apples (Apple II?).  All we could do was stare at them through the narrow window in the door and be amazed at them.  They were purchased without any curriculum to go with them.  Somehow the image of a horse pushing a cart comes to mind.

Anyway, even a non-Apple bigot like myself can admit that what he did was pretty awesome, and the world has a void in it today - not unlike their logo.

I think this is a spectacular tribute to him.

From Jonathan Mak

 RIP, Steve Jobs.

Life Imitates Animation

I’ve hit a dry spell lately for blogging ideas. I guess that’s an indication of how uneventful life has been lately.

I’ve been enjoying reading the blogs I follow (I was going to include links, but I don’t want to leave anyone out, and that would mean a LOT of hyperlinks).

As I’ve been driving to and from work the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a trend in vehicle designs. Maybe it’s the new generation of automotive engineers, maybe they’re bored with the same ol’ – same ol’. Possibly, they’re trying to market to a younger generation, or even the nostalgia that Baby Boomers have for days gone by.

I posted this awhile back on Facebook.

Pikachu, I choose YOU!

Remember the Banana Splits?

Those Mazda 3s always remind me of the second character from the left.

 

And one more:

Looney Tunes?  I always liked Sam the Sheepdog.  Not enough that I'd want to drive a car that looks like him, though.

Isn't that odd, or is it just me?

Yeah, I think I know the answer to that question.

Goodbye Danny Tanner, Hello Dr. Weston



Our house
(From The Parenting Weblog)

Shh!! Listen… Hear that? That’s the sound of house devoid of children. No stereos/iPods/MP3 players, no Xbox noises emanating from bedrooms, no refrigerator doors being opened, no milk being poured, no cats trapped in the bathroom for “company” while showering. No cries of “(S)he started it”, “Do I hafta?”, “What’s for supper?”, or “Can I go to ...?” That silence is also the sound of the electric meter not spinning like a top.



But, there’s also no sounds of “Hey Dad, watch this”, “Love ya”, smooches, hugs (they can be real noisy, you know), no satisfying sounds of life imparting from their rooms, either. Those are the sounds that are being missed.


We got the youngest moved into his dorm room a week ago Thursday. Surprisingly, there were no tears from any of us. We went through the same exercise two weeks today with his sister, but it’s old hat with her, so there wasn’t any expectation of trauma that day.


I keep expecting a big emotional surge to overwhelm me at the most inopportune time, but so far, I’m like the guy who fell out of the skyscraper. As he passed the 40th floor someone yelled out, “How’s it going?” He replied, “So far, so good.”


If Empty Nest is supposed to be processed like Grief, I feel like I must have used an “Advance to Go” card and skipped right to Acceptance. They’re gone – ok. Time to make supper – better set out two pounds of hamburger – oh wait, we only need one. Wow, that gallon of milk has lasted four days. I hope it doesn’t go bad. Now that there’s no one here during the day, I can adjust the programmable thermostat to not run the air conditioner in the morning. I’m a dad – I think it's genetic for me to think in terms of money.

I know what will happen.  One day I'll pull the couch away from the wall to retrieve the remote, I'll find an errant sock behind there, and I'll have to wash it again after I've soaked it with tears.

 (Oh, and as their mother read the work in process, I brought her to tears. Mission accomplished?)

And the title?  Everyone probably remembers Danny Tanner was the dad on Full House; Dr. Weston is from Empty Nest. (Don't go beyond the titles - the analogy falls apart really quick.)