Month: April 2011

Posted on

Choose Your Instrument

Never really understood why so many people think that music lessons begin with the piano. Most modern homes do not have a piano in them, although I believe everyone in my family does have a piano or electronic keyboard in their homes. Even if we do not play, having a piano was expected by my family – we are a musical family and the piano is our heritage.

Of course, all the cool kids play guitar. So I wanted to take guitar lessons. My parents said that the only way I could take guitar lessons was if I took 3 years of piano lessons first. Gaaaa!

Turns out that  did not want to play the guitar THAT badly. But I do wonder why they insisted on piano lessons – I never really wanted to play the piano – I just wanted to play the guitar.

Posted on

A Farmer’s Life for Me

Guest post written by my buddy, Brian Workman

I’m a farmer and love being able to provide my community with healthy, locally grown produce. I specialize in different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, but I also grow okra, corn, and various types of potatoes as well. I’m considering getting a couple of milk cows soon, but for now I’m happy just growing my veggies.

I needed a good home internet connection to stay up on the local weather and also to stay in touch with my buyers and the farmer’s market in town. I did some research on www.WirelessInternet.net and found a good mobile connection for us, so I’ve been surfing and emailing for the last few months, making my life much simpler. It’s certainly easier than carting around huge boxes of vegetables to see who wants to buy!

I’ve avoided two spontaneous ice storms this year already by looking up the weather online rather than relying on my farmer’s almanac, so the service has already earned its weight. I’m so happy being a farmer and I think my customers are glad I do it, too!

Posted on

Chow Time

I can’t believe this is the last of the Easter leftovers already! We had a big ham and had lots of it left for sandwiches. We had a lot of boiled eggs, because the kids all wanted to color a dozen. Eggs were only 69 cents a dozen, so I figured, why not? That’s pretty cheap for something that will keep them all busy and happy for over an hour.

So I went to the refrigerator to get some ham for a quick sandwich and I couldn’t find a single slice. And all the eggs are gone, too. That’s pretty amazing, but I guess it’s good. At least nothing got wasted.

But, what’s for dinner?

Posted on

Smokey Austin

Remember how I said that most of Texas is having problems with wildfires? Well, it turns out that my high school buddy, who lives in Austin, is having problems with this exact thing. He works for Dell computers, which is in the Austin area. Actually, it is up in Round Rock, but that’s part of Austin. And the smoke from the fires is causing problems for everyone – besides the threat of having your house or ranch or business torched to the ground.

A really big problem  for homeowners and landlords is cleanup after a fire or dealing with smoke damage. Smoke gets on everything – even dishes and food stored inside kitchen cabinets. It covers the walls, the ceiling, light fixtures, curtains and gets in carpet really bad. He’s going to have to get to come out and help clean up his house after the fires are put out for good.

He says th smoke damage is so bad that he can’t even sleep in his own home. He had to go get a motel room for a couple of night. Now, that is really bad if you can’t even sleep in your own house. If it were me, I think I’d take a week off and go somewhere else. But he says that he can’t take off any time right now because its the start of the second quarter and they have to make their numbers. When its safe to go back home, he’ll get Carpet Cleaning Round Rock to come get his carpets cleaned while he scrubs the rest of the house with Dawn dishwashing detergent to get rid of the smoke film.

Posted on

Half and Half – Tea!

When my mom bought “half and half” it was half milk and half cream for her coffee. I clearly remember her buying that during her weekly grocery shopping trips. It was always a big deal to check how fresh it was, as she didn’t want it to spoil during the week and have to do without for a few days until she went grocery shopping again.

So, I was at the gas station today and decided to get a cold drink. They had some big cold cans of Arizona tea, and I saw a can called “Half and Half.” Made me think of my mom’s coffee. Turns out they are talking about half tea and half lemonade mixed together in the can. Not the half milk and half cream. So I decided to try it. It’s pretty good.

Posted on

Printing for Less

Right before Christmas my multi-function printer quit working. It just locked up and quit on me. So at the worst time of year for my wallet, I had to go buy a new printer for my home computer. It did not make sense to pay over $100 for a printer repair when you can buy new printers for about the same money. So I looked at what was on sale and bought a cheap printer that also scans and copies.

I don’t think I print very much stuff, mostly maps and letters, so I was surprised that my ink has run out already. It’s only been four months and now I’m looking for cheap ink cartridges so I can print again.

Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but I can’t believe how hard it is to find cheap printer ink locally. In fact, I have given up looking locally and I’ll just buy it online. Every local store s at least 10 miles from my house, so think of the tie and gas wasted on going from store to store. I can do it online, from my comfortable chair, in the middlef the night if I want to.

The web site that I found, Inkgrabber.coom, has cheap ink for printers and with a coupon for free shipping I figured it out and it is by far the cheapest way to go.I don’t have to pay the local prices, I don’t have to spend my time and gas money driving across town to the office supply store, and the ink I need will be at my doorstep in a couple o days. That’s the way to go from now on.

Posted on

Extreme Weather

Can’t complain about the weather here but I heard this morning on the news that the weather is really extreme in other parts of the country.

Texas has been in a serious drought with very little rain and hundreds of wildfires are out of control in almost every county in the state. They said that all but 2 counties have serious problems with wildfires because of the dry conditions and high winds.

The next line of states east of Texas, like Arkansas and Missouri, have issues with violent thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes and flooding.

In Colorado, it snowed on Easter. Look at these extreme differences in the weather in the middle of our country and tell me that this is not freaky.

Posted on

Happy Easter

Easter means a lot of different things. For me, it mostly means getting together with my family for a wonderful ham dinner late in the afternoon on Easter Sunday. Dinner will be an assortment of side dishes and a variety of desserts.

This year I might try one of those Honeybaked Ham Store spiral sliced hams. I know they are very expensive, but everyone raves about how good they are. I like ham a lot, so I think I’ll go for the best I can buy this year.

Hope everyone has a nice Easter tomorrow.

Posted on

All That Glitters

If a person from the local Television station was doing “Man on the Street” interviews with a camera crew and he asked you to tell him the price of gold what would you say? I would have to be honest and tell him that I have no idea what today’s gold prices could possibly be. I do know a little about gold, like it is the purest form of money and cannot be devalued by Governments like the American dollar can be devalued.

Twice a day, a group of bankers in London meet and decide to announce the current gold spot to the world. They make the announcement by telephone and the rest of the world makes their investment decisions based on that announcement. The five banks involved in making this twice daily decision are World Heavyweights in the banking industry. I know you have heard of most if not all of them, including Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank HSBC Scotia-Mocatta and Societe Generale. I believe that all of these banks have a presence in America, too. I’m pretty sure the last time I was in New York City we took a cab down Wall Street and saw signs for all of these.

Posted on

Live Stream of Bald Eagles Nest

A friend of mine posted this on his Facebook wall. I wasn’t sure it would work on my blog. I’m glad it showed up – this is not a video – it is a live stream. When the sun goes down it goes dark – but look at it during the daylight and it is amazing.