I can tell you one thing the deer *love* is hostas. They usually munch our hostas down to the ground. I'm surprised they keep coming back up.

I dated my high school crush, married her, and we celebrate our 37th anniversary next month.

Not only is the fatality rate above 99%, but only one person ever is known to have survived rabies without being vaccinated, and that was fairly recent, in 2004. At least they don’t give the shots in your stomach like they once did. When I was a kid in the 70s, my dad worked in a veterinary diagnostic lab and had to…

Big John was a discount grocery chain here in the Midwest back then. We had one in our town, complete with giant statue of Big John carrying grocery bags. The building was still there until about 10 years ago. There’s a Dollar General there now. It looks like there are still a few Big John stores around, but maybe not…

I can whip up a snack-sized portion of bread and gravy in a jiffy. I guess it’s really a species of bechamel sauce and not “gravy,” because I normally just use browned butter, a little vegetable oil, flour, milk, salt, and pepper.

Arby’s has good, thick shake straws, too. Then there are the places where their “shake” is more or less like a cup full of softserve. It doesn’t matter how thick the straw is, you’re going to be eating that thing with a spoon.

The Honda Element looks great on paper. Looks great when you get in and drive it around a bit. But it’s terribly uncomfortable to road trip in. I’ve told on here before how I was part of a media team that followed One Lap of America one year. We were in a Honda Element, and it was not a good vehicle to drive and ride…

Arby’s Smokehouse Brisket is a pretty tasty fast food sandwich (if it’s fresh), but I always get it with no cheese, no mayo. Those don’t belong on a smoked brisket sandwich!

Some might challenge me, but I think I can legitimately say I’ve had Turkish coffee in Istanbul. It was made in a cezve and served with Turkish delight on the side. Okay, it was from Starbucks in the Istanbul airport, but I still think it counts!

I’ve mentioned it here before, but this is a good place to repeat it. When I was driving a Chevette in college in the ‘80s, I was on my way to school, downshifting coming to a stoplight, and the shifter came off in my hand. Not the knob, the entire shift lever. Fortunately, it was in 2nd, so I was able to limp it home.

There are also some really nice countertop refinishing kits available from Daich and Rust-Oleum. Probably others, as well. I used the Daich kit to redo the double sink vanity in our master a couple of years ago. It was about $150 for the kit vs. about $2000 to get a new top. It turned out really nice and has held up…

Well, I wish they were *in* a garage now. This morning a tree fell on the SRT-4 and the newer Regal. :( Lots of damage to the SRT, but it might be repairable. The Regal somehow seems to have an amazingly small amount of damage, for what happened.

BFGoodrich G-Force COMP2

I feel like there have been fewer slideshows since the strike. Maybe they were part of the settlement.

Mine’s 80 years old, and I just put up some shelves that proved problematic. After I got them up, I discovered the wall wasn’t plumb, in addition to the corner not being square! I ended up putting spacers behind the tops of the brackets just to get that end of the shelves level.

Doesn’t “regular” chili powder contain a lot of cumin? It smells and tastes like it. I tried making chili with cumin and my favorite hot sauce (Cholula), and it was good, though not really much different than if I had just used chili powder.

I own a Ford, some Dodges, and a Buick. My own experience is that GM must use even cheaper plastic than Dodge. The Ford (‘16 Fusion 2.0L turbo) is by far the best car of the three. The Buick (‘14 Regal 2.0L turbo, was my father-in-law’s) feels cheap and not well laid out inside. On the other hand, the little SRT-4…

A few years after we bought our house I had to tear out a formal-ish flower garden the previous owner had made, because he had planted peppermint in it, and it had completely taken over.

We have a new 3D printer here at work that can print in steel. I’m not completely clear on how it works. It’s not laser sintering, from what I can see, but instead involves a final step in a kind of electric kiln. We’re still working on getting it set up, so I’m really interested in seeing what it can do.

I planted a small perennial herb garden in the back yard last year. So far I have rosemary, oregano, and sage, all varieties that should survive in the winter where I am. I was able to harvest a small amount before the end of the year, and we used them in our Thanksgiving dishes. Delicious! I’m about to try to start an…