Silver Spring House

We needed to find a lunch place along I-71 between Columbus and Cincinnati and decided upon The Silver Spring House on Kemper Road near the intersection of I-71 and I-275.  Gourmet Chef Elaine had eaten there back in her working days, but it was a first for me.  They are famous for their grilled chicken and I opted for the yummy salad shown below that combined spinach, chicken, hard-boiled egg, shredded cheeses, and poppy seed dressing.  The restaurant is huge and has lots of open-air seating, and multiple bars.  Wish we had one of these in Dayton.

https://thesilverspringhouse.com

Italian Ices

These Wyler Italian Ices are a little 30-calorie flavor bomb that is perfect for a mid-day treat on a hot summer day.  I couldn't find them at our local Meijer grocery store when I scoured their freezer section, so I headed over to Amazon.  I was surprised to find them there and for two seconds wondered how Amazon was going to ship frozen ices to our house.  Wow, can I be dense at times?  Duh!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZF3XMJ6

Lung Saver

It's not the fastest method for inflating our floating lounger but it sure saves getting red-faced and out of breath at my age.  This is the same cordless air pump I use to fill up our car tires, bicycle tires, and basketballs and it came with the proper adapter to fit these types of blow-up rafts.  That model is out of stock at Amazon, but I bought another air pump for the other car that I like even better.  It's at the link below for $30.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CD3H3HBJ

Cast Iron Grill And Grill Press

Now that summer is here, grilling outside becomes a priority to avoid the house getting even warmer.  I bought the cast iron grill shown below to lay on top of the outside gas grill's grates.  The smooth side is for grilled cheese, eggs, and smash burgers; the other is ribbed and works for hamburgers, chicken, and steak.  The grill press will replace using a spatula and my hand to flatten smash burgers and reduce the risk of a nasty burn.  Many different companies sell cast iron grills, but we selected Lodge because it's pre-seasoned and we really like our Lodge cast iron skillets.  Below are links to both products.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002CMLTXG (grill)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00063RXNI (press)

Happy Returns

Gourmet Chef Elaine ordered a piece of clothing from Lascana, didn't care for it, and started the return process.  She opted for a Return In-Store option and was surprised when the nearest location was a Petco store a mile away.  While that sounded strange, she took it to Petco, and sure enough they do take these returns.  A little digging found that Lascana, and apparently lots of other online merchants, use a service from Happy Returns to process these "Buy Online, Return In-Store (BORIS)" packages.  You can find locations that handle Happy Returns near you at the link below.

https://locations.happyreturns.com

Sweet Shrimp With Avocado Toast

Carl Diedrich, the new Executive Chef at Walnut Grove Country Club, hosted a California Wine Dinner a couple of months ago, and each of the five courses was paired with a small glass of wine.  The first course was the Sweet Shrimp With Avocado Toast and Sea Salt shown below, a small but tasty bite.  The second was a Roasted Beet Salad and while neither Gourmet Chef Elaine nor I like beets even a little bit, we must admit it was pretty good.  Dungeness Crab Cakes, Roast Chicken with Wild Mushroom Risotto, and an Apple Galette completed the marvelous dinner.

In case you're wondering, a galette is a fancy French term for various types of flat round or freeform crusty cakes.  

https://walnutgrovecc.net

Starbucks Name

While I've been a fan of Starbucks coffee for many years, I recently realized I didn't know if someone just made the word up or if there was a story behind it.  A story it is.  Terry Heckler, a business partner of theirs, thought the name should begin with the strong "st" sound and they began compiling a list of words and initially chose "Starbo", a western mining town they saw on an old map.  "Starbo" kicked in memory of Herman Melville's classic book "Moby Dick" and the chief mate's name, "Starbuck".  The founders thought "Starbucks" relayed a sense of adventure, their Northwest origins, and a nautical theme.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-did-starbucks-get-its-name-the-real-story-might-surprise-you

Sunglass Readers

I had LASIK eye surgery in my early forties, trading in my nearsightedness for perfect farsightedness, and in that process needed readers (aka cheaters) to see up close.  That was a great choice as it freed me from using contact lenses while running, skiing, golfing, etc., or having my glasses fog up when entering or exiting a building.  So I keep readers everywhere from the car to my home office to my nightstand.  But only last week did I think that perhaps they made sunglass readers so I could read outside on a sunny day.  Now of course they do and for $11 at the link below, I have two pairs of sunglass readers including carrying cases and a cleaning cloth.  

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DDDJX31

Google App Script

Warning, serious techie $#!& below!

Google App Script is a free (I love free) computer language that allows you to automate pretty much anything within the Google sphere of products, for example, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, etc.  I recently set up a new Gmail account as the destination mailbox for reports that come in as compressed XML attachments.  Daily an App Script will run that processes all the emails in that inbox, decompresses the attachments in ZIP or GZ format, and them to Google Drive.  Subsequent scripts will parse that data and create CSV files which will be uploaded to a Google BigQuery database for querying and reporting.  

The code for reading the emails and saving the files is at the link below.  

https://code.paulishing.com/2024/06/process-attachments-from-dmarc.html

Tire Inflation Station

I've been a member of Costco for many years but it wasn't until recently that I noticed this free (I love free) tire inflation station, mainly because I rarely park on that side of the parking lot. It uses nitrogen instead of regular air because when you buy tires at Costco they inflate them with nitrogen.  A discussion of the benefits of nitrogen inflation is included at the link below, and while it might not be worth the cost if you would pay for it, when the cost is zero to you it's worth the benefits.

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/advice/nitrogen-in-tires

Skyline Chili Dogs

Perhaps there is not a more satisfying lunch than the three Skyline Chili Dogs shown below.  Onions are a must, no mustard for this guy, and I add a generous amount of their red tabasco, jalapeño, and cayenne-based hot sauce.  It's an over 1,000-calorie splurge, not counting the drink, but so worth it every few months.

https://www.skylinechili.com

Watermelon Mule

I have loved the taste of watermelon ever since my days scooping ice cream at Sherer's Ice Cream over fifty years ago.  He made a watermelon sherbet that was fabulous.  I tried to recreate the magic in adult form using the REAL watermelon puree shown at right below that I purchased at Amazon.  I followed the recipe at the link below for a Watermelon Mule, then added a bit more puree to get the taste I wanted.  It was good and refreshing the ginger beer made it sweeter than I was looking for, so the next go-round will use Diet 7-up instead to reign in the sweetness.  

https://www.realingredients.com/watermelon-mule

Plant Cages

Gone are the old light-mesh, silver cages that protect new plants from bunny rabbits.  As shown below, I made new cages out of heavier fencer wire in two sizes.  I bought 4-foot high, 5-foot wide fencer wire at Home Deport, and first cut it horizontally to make a pair of 2-foot high sections.  I cut the width to 2 1/2 feet for the smaller cages, and for the larger cages, I cut the width to 4 feet and discarded the remaining mesh.  In all cases, I made sure I left 1/2-inch wires at one end.  I made a circle, threaded the 1/2-inch wires through the other end, and used needle-nosed pliers to twist and crimp the wires together.  Miraculously, no blood was shed in the making of these cages.

SVG

An SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a vector-based image format and its biggest feature is that you can increase its size without it getting fuzzier, unlike what happens with raster-graphics JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) or PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file.  That's great for website development where images could be very small for smartphones and very large for big 4K monitors.

Recently I was trying to figure out why some emails I received from a local non-profit looked odd.  After digging into the underlying code of one of those messages using Gmail's "Show original" feature, I determined that the oddness stemmed from missing images and all those images were SVGs.  A little Internet search taught me that Gmail does not support SVGs.  Case closed.

I love using SVGs for their scalability and frequently use FreeSVG to find images.  You can explore them at the link below.

https://freesvg.org

Software Decision

Many years ago a team was brought together to select a piece of software to improve the effectiveness of the Computer Operations group.  After a lot of exploration, they boiled it down to two choices, either a higher-end, feature-rich product or a lesser-end, basic-feature product.  Of course, the higher-end choice was more expensive.  The team was trying hard to select the right product and spend the company's money wisely.  When I heard about this, I told the person I knew which one they would ultimately pick.  It had nothing to do with either piece of software, but an understanding of market forces and human nature.

Ultimately, the team recommended the higher-end product, as I had predicted.  The team tried hard to

figure out the price/feature angle, but I knew that market forces had already balanced them.  There was no way to find a better product for the price.  They were the same.  More money, more features, less money, less features.  The market had already done that.  Then when faced with the choice between two equal options, human nature entered to select the higher-end product.  Human nature said (1) it's really not our money and (2) the risk of the lesser-end product not really being capable enough to handle all needs, now and in the future.  The downside risk led to making the higher-end decision.  

It was a fine decision, just very predictable.  

Picanha

I had the delicious Picanha at Fernando’s Mexican & Brazilian Cuisine in the Broad Ripple neighborhood in Indianapolis, IN.  It uses a particular cut of beef that comes from the top of the cow's rump, also known as a top sirloin cap.  That fat cap is the secret to this steak's amazing flavor.  A little salt, some Brazilian steak seasoning blend, and time on the grill or under a broiler is all that's needed.  You can check out some of the other dishes at Fernando’s at the link below.

https://www.instagram.com/fernandos_cuisine

Cup Cap

There are several different designs for the caps that go on top of disposable cups, but the one shown below is the best I've encountered.  It's made from a sturdier plastic than most, but what I really like is the larger cut-out that you can use either to drink from or insert a straw into.  There's no tab to pull or cut-out "+" to try to push a straw through.  This designer had their head on straight!

Three Decisions

Decisions often get whittled down to two choices and at that point some folks need help.  For example, I've heard many times in a restaurant something like "I can't decide between the chicken and the fish" and watched the mental gyrations continue for many minutes, usually ending with the person asking the waiter to decide.  This is what I call a "good-good" decision.  Regardless of which option you choose, the outcome is good.  So why go through the anguish?  Just pick one and put the menu down.  An example from many years ago was someone's choice between attending Ohio University or Miami University (Oxford).  Before getting involved to "help", I realized this was a "good-good" decision, and getting involved to help select "the right one" was pointless.  We let the young lad make his own decision and, of course, it worked out.  How couldn't it?

The really difficult decision is the "bad-bad" where both options are bad.  You have to select one eventually, but each time you get close to deciding, you see that downside and it throws you right back to indecisiveness.  The best example of this is deciding between getting a divorce or trying to fix a miserable marriage, particularly when there are young children involved.  Take your time, but realize that after a while, you will have to decide a path and live with the consequences.  

The third type of decision is the "good-bad".  If you have a problem with this one, seek therapy.

Rap Names

I heard years ago that you can create a rap name (e.g. Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg) for yourself by combining the first letter of your first name with the first syllable of your last name.  That works better for some people than others and in reviewing the distribution list of this blog, some sounded pretty good.  J-Nic, B-Hog, R-Pet, and K-Boy all have a nice ring to them.

And then there's my rap name ... P-Moor.  Not going to happen...

Single Key

Long ago I replaced all four exterior locks on our house with Kwikset models that allow me to re-key each lock to use a common key.  So my key ring is minimal with only one house key and I always have the right one since there is only one.  But with those conveniences, there are a few other situations where these locks provide additional value.

You could give a housekeeper a unique key and re-key one lock they can open when they need access, re-keying it back after they finish.  If your house keys are stolen, you can quickly change all the locks in a matter of minutes without waiting for and paying a locksmith.  It’s also a great selling feature, providing new owners a no-cost option to know the old keys can no longer be used.

https://www.kwikset.com