Wild Watermelon

Stopping at Buc-ee's on the drive from Austin to College Station, Texas is a must.  They have the largest, cleanest restrooms on the planet and there is always something new to try in its huge, 56,000-square-foot emporium.  I spotted their version of an Icee machine (they had several) and it was an easy decision to get the Wild Watermelon, a real treat for $0.99.  It made the remaining one-and-a-half hours on the road very pleasant.

Collectable Crypto

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently put out a statement classifying a meme coin as a type of collectible that is not subject to the agency's rules on securities.  So it's sort of like comic books, baseball cards, or stamps that people invest in hoping they will go up in value.  But unlike these examples, a meme coin, which is inspired by internet memes, characters, current events, or trends, does not actually exist as a tangible object., but is purely a digital asset that exists on a blockchain network.  Why in the world anyone would want to buy something with absolutely zero intrinsic value, is beyond me.  It's even crazier that dogecoin, the most popular meme coin, currently has a market cap of over 24 billion dollars.  

The SEC statement related to meme coins is at the link below.

https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/staff-statement-meme-coins

iPad Charging Phone

If your phone is low on power, one option is to charge it using another phone or a tablet like the iPad shown below.  Since both my phone and iPad have USB-C connectors, I just needed a cable with USB-C's on both ends.  I didn't have that, but I improvised using a USB-to-USB-C cable and a small USB-to-USB-C adapter (which I bought several for my MacMini), the darker thing sticking out of the iPad on the right-hand side.  I now carry that cable in my laptop bag which I always take on trips.

https://www.iphonelife.com/content/charging-your-iphone-ipad-it-possible

MPerks To Wallet

We like the benefits of our Meijer Mperks card, like getting useful coupons in the mail and redeeming points for dollars off our bill, but the worst part is fumbling with their mobile app in the checkout line, trying to bring up the needed barcode.  Recently I noticed that there was a selection to "Add to Google Pay", but adding a rewards card as a payment method seemed pretty stupid, so I ignored it for a long time.  But when I had a moment, I decided to see what that would do and found that Google Pay is now Google Wallet, and storing the bar code there made perfect sense.  With that done, I did the same for Gourmet Chef Elaine's iPhone and now we can both easily bring up the barcode without accessing their annoying app and needing an internet connection.

Classic Sweet Tea Oven-Fried Chicken

When I saw this on The Kitchen, I was intrigued and had to try it.  In the morning, I mixed the brine of sweet tea, soy sauce, garlic, and onion, added the chicken, and put it in the fridge.  At dinnertime, I salted the chicken and coated it with flour, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.  With a little melted butter in the rimmed baking sheet, the chicken was baked skin side down for 30 minutes, flipped and baked for another 20 minutes.  The crispy deliciousness is shown below.

The recipe calls for a whole cut up chicken, but the next time I make it I'll use either all breasts or all thighs.  These wings ended way over done and using similar-sized pieces should be a better idea.  

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/katie-lee/classic-sweet-tea-oven-fried-chicken-20794824

Veggie Pizza

The pizza you see below is one of the most delicious we've made at home without a single piece of meat.  The thin Boboli crust was topped with a thin layer of tomato paste mixed with a couple of frozen, crushed garlic gloves and a generous amount of Italian seasoning.  Finely shredded Pecorino-Ramano and mozzarella cheese, sliced mushrooms, diced green onions, roasted red peppers, and corn and jalapenos left over from last year's harvest completed the pie.  Fifteen minutes in a 450-degree oven and we had a dinner fit for royalty and peasants alike.

Mini Seat Back Tray

On a recent American Airlines flight I noticed this clever little mobile device tray on the seat back in front of me.  Pulling up on the plastic piece (with the little triangle on it) releases the tray and it can accommodate small to medium sized mobile devices at a more comfortable viewing angle.  The handy USB to the left is perfectly placed to allow you to keep your device charged.  

Pretty darn clever!

Cell Phone Signal Strength

This post is only for technology-curious people who have an iPhone.  Android users can find the information somewhere in their phone's Settings.

When you dial *3001#12345#* (including all the special characters), you can find some information about your connection to the cellular network.  The carrier listed below is TFW, which is short for TracFone Wireless, which Verizon bought and is now the label for Total Wireless.  The signal strength is the RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power) and RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality) numbers.  Since the phone has one bar, you would expect some bad numbers, and they are.  An RSRP between 0 and -90 dBm is considered good and the -127 dBm shown here is solidly in the bad range.  The RSRQ of -29 dBm is also really bad.

Lots more information for the curious can be found at the link below.

https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/blog/how-to-read-cell-phone-signal-strength-the-right-way

The Rifleman

The Rifleman was a TV series that aired from 1958 until 1963 and featured Chuck Connors in the title role.  In the opening sequence, the Rifleman is seen shooting his customized rapid-fire Winchester rifle.  I was a little boy at the time (born in 1955), but I do remember this.

The picture below is from the Texas A&M baseball field and the pitcher had just struck out a batter.  The scorecard lit up with that opening sequence, which you can see at the YouTube link below.  The Rifleman fires off about twelve shots, as fast as he can pull the lever.  Since this is Texas, celebrating a strikeout with a hail of bullets just seems to make perfect sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsitJZUcFL4

Beer-Braised Beef with Onion, Carrot, and Turnips

Gourmet Chef Elaine has made this dish many times, but I didn't blog on it before because the recipe wasn't available online.  The original recipe was copied to the link below, so all the details are available, but we suggest more than a pound of chuck roast if you're real meat eaters like us.  Avoid bagged carrots and pick out the best looking individual ones.  Compared to potatoes, turnips have one-fourth the calories and carbs, but if you don't tell people ahead of time, they probably won't know the difference.  The last tip is to cut everything into big chunks to make it easier to eat.

http://recipeofhealth.com/recipe/beer-braised-beef-with-onion-carrot-and-turnips-686541rb