Is it that big a deal if two kids have the same name? I mean, it can’t be much  more confusing than my nephew Devin and his aunt Devin or my friend Don who married a woman named Dawn or my elementary school class mates Jennifer, Jennifer, Jenny, Jen and Jennifer or their siblings Michael, Michael, Mike, Mikey and…

There are a couple of older guys at the gym where I work out. One of them will sit on the recumbent bicycles with his arms crossed over/on his head. If I’m on the upright bike next to him I’m very confident I would prefer as much of whatever the worst flavor of Axe as a person could possibly wear. It might not…

My girls, both from a great cat rescue in my area.
Kota, on the left, was adopted as a kitten and then returned to the rescue around age 5 due to the owner no longer being able to care for her. She was fostered for about a year and then I adopted her. She’s a sweet girl who likes to cuddle, figured out the treat…

One of my favorites is “The Hidden Almanac”. It’s short (3-5 minutes) but releases three episodes a week. It started off as a kind of public radio, gardener’s almanac, history of a fictional town set in some distant past where plague doctors are still a thing and miracles happen kinda often, but radio is definitely a…

Here in North Texas we don‘t really have fall. It’s more “slightly less hot summer but now with football”. This is very exciting for people who like football. It’s not so bad for people who enjoy watching people make fools of themselves while watching football. For the rest of us, it’s mostly grumpy weather because…

I live in Texas. My hot water heater is in the garage. It’s stupid hot in the summer and takes almost no time for the water to get hot enough for a shower. We joke that in the summer, the faucets at your sink are “hot” and “slightly less hot”. Cold water doesn’t exist unless it’s coming out of the refrigerator. In the…

I live in Texas. My hot water heater is in the garage. It’s stupid hot in the summer and takes almost no time for…

I wouldn’t expect to see much savings in the summer - especially if you live somewhere warm...where the water is already warmer to start with. However, in the winter you should see some savings. With traditional water heaters, the system tries to keep a large volume of water in the tank at a fairly constant warm…

I wouldn’t expect to see much savings in the summer - especially if you live somewhere warm...where the water is…

I used to work with a couple of guys like that. One wore black pants, a white short sleeve oxford cloth shirt and a black tie every single day for decades (pretty sure he had that uniform as a Mormon missionary and just never stopped wearing it when he got done with his mission). When he finally started wearing polo…

I’ve found many hotels have agreements with local gyms where guests get in free or at a very reduced price. The hotels don’t always advertise this and the gyms aren’t always the nicest, but it doesn’t hurt to ask at the front desk. Another option is asking about trials at individuals gyms. A lot of YMCAs and local…

Something doesn’t sound right about the math. The regular pass is $200. The Lifetime pass is either $500 or an additional $500...the wording doesn’t make it clear. If it’s an additional $500, the lifetime pass would be $700. But then there’s this bit:
“If you’re one of the lucky 50, you’ll get an email Friday letting…

What I do: Crack the egg in half and allow as much white to ooze out while keeping the yolk cradled in half the shell. Gently press the yolk with my thumb while tilting the shell cradle the remainder of the egg and let more white ooze out. Gently transfer the yolk to my other hand, ideally on my partially spread…

I had to teach a friend in college how to grate cheese. He was a mechanical engineering major, at least 2-3 years along at this point and legitimately didn’t know what to do with a block of cheese and a grater.

My “keyboarding” class in 7th grade was similar. The manual typewriters had stickers over the letters. The computers (mix of Apple II, IIe, IIc...yes, I’m old) had a piece of construction paper taped over the keyboard. We also still got dinged for looking, and also for not using the “correct” finger to hit certain…

When I was in school, I trouble with math problems that involved figuring out percentages of anti-freeze (we had ancient text books that also had us figuring out angles for firing artillery). I couldn’t do them. They just made no sense. I could do all the problems involving money and rockets and even the artillery but…

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a strange game and the only winning move is not to play. :)

As a church sound person, especially when working with kids, I like to tell people to hold the mic like you hold an ice cream cone. That seems to get people to hold it in the right position, right distance away from their face, keep their mouth pointed towards the mic, etc without them thinking about it too much.

For those allergic to the oil, also be aware that mangos have that oil in their skin. I’ve gotten a rash from peeling mangos before and it’s not fun.

There are herbicides you can spray on the plant which will kill it. The big box home improvement stores should carry it. I have no idea if it will kill other plants, but the ground cover the poison ivy in my backyard was mixed with was just fine. The poison ivy took two applications over the course of a couple of…

Infertility or any of maybe 27 other reasons a person might not be a parent which may or may not be entirely by choice.

I never understood the allure of packing cubes until I got some and tried them. Now I use every time I travel and can’t imagine going back to not using them. I even have a small one I use as my “snack bag” in my carry-on when I fly. It makes it super easy to pull my snacks out of my bag when I go through security and,…