Meatloaf Sliders

We recently bought the nonstick, 6-cup, mini-loaf pan you see in the first picture below to make manageable loaves of meatloaf.  Not only do they bake faster, but leftovers are easier to wrap, store, and reuse.  We used those to make Ree Drummond's (aka, The Pioneer Woman) Meatloaf Sliders.  In addition to the meatloaf recipe you'll find at the link below, we made a sauce of ketchup, light brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, yellow mustard, and mayonnaise, which we slathered on the top half of the slider buns.  The meatloaf was topped with crispy bacon, lettuce, and dill pickles.  Delicious!

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/meatloaf-sliders-22080451

My Secret Santa

Merry Christmas to you and your families!

If you're looking for a nice Hallmark-style Christmas movie, my recommendation is "My Secret Santa."  Starring Alexandra Breckenridge (Virgin River) and Ryan Eggold (Blacklist, New Amsterdam), it's a heart-warming story of a single Mom who manages to disguise herself to get a Santa Claus job at a resort.  I'm not saying any more about how the movie unfolds, but it's both hilarious and touching.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35219851

Kitchen Faucet

I've earned a partial plumber's badge for replacing our kitchen faucet.  The old one had been running slower and slower, and after trying to figure out where the clog was, I finally decided that replacing the whole thing was the least risky option.  I bought the faucet shown below from Lowe's and thought of having a plumber install it, but if Lowe's was going to charge a $289 installation fee, it was high time for me to try, and it turned out to be very simple, except for the part of getting my 70-year-old body to lie down on the floor and under the cabinet.  It's just one plate and one nut to hold the faucet in place, and connecting one snap-together fitting.

But of course, the story isn't that simple.  I had to remove a PVC pipe to get to the cold-water line, and I couldn't for the life of me get it back together.  The root cause of that was that the plumber who installed it didn't line the pipes together correctly, but he did manage to force them together.  I called for reinforcements, and my friend Dan came to the rescue.  I learned quite a bit as he explained how PVC pipes are properly fitted and connected.  Thanks and a big Shout-Out to Dan!

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Moen-Georgene-Matte-Black-1-handle-Deck-mount-High-arc-Handle-Kitchen-Faucet-Deck-Plate-Included/5005565305

Cork Puller

There are many corkscrews on the market, from rabbit ears to electric-powered screws to the standard waiter's model.  I use one that I bought years ago at Goosecross Winery in Napa Valley that includes an integrated foil cutter.  But you may not have met the type shown below: a cork puller.  It has two tines, one a bit longer than the other, and you slide those tines down between the cork and the bottle using a rocking motion.  When fully down, you pull up while twisting, and the cork comes out with the puller.

The cork puller is my main way of dealing with difficult corks, particularly ones that are either kind of loose, and a corkscrew may push down into the bottle, damaged corks that a corkscrew shreds, and really tight corks that are difficult to pull out.  You can find a $7 version at the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/EY-Opener-Corkscrew-Bottle-Two-Prong/dp/B072272K47

Using AI For Checking Grammar

One of the first uses I made of AI was to check the grammar on some of my older Life Experiences blogs, and I was shocked at how poorly I wrote back then.  I uploaded my 5-page "Getting Sideways" blog and asked Gemini to "grammar check the attachment".  It suggested 25 changes, the first 3 you can see below.  I've done this on several documents, and I incorporate 80-90% of its recommendations.  My newer writings are much better because, since 2020, I started using the free (I love free) Grammarly extension in Google Chrome and catch the errors as I make them.

https://gemini.google.com

Thanksgiving Dinner

I made dinner reservations for Thanksgiving at The Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio, back in July, just in case another get-together option failed to appear.  Getting a reservation as the date nears is just about impossible, and cancelling our reservation would be no big deal.  Their signature dinner included turkey, sage sausage & apple dressing, vegetables, cranberry chutney, mashed potatoes with two-day turkey gravy.  None of the cooking and none of the cleanup.  Loving it!

https://www.goldenlamb.com

Grinch Mimosa

For a different take on a mimosa, we made the Grinch Mimosa shown below. It's about a half a flute of orange juice, 1/2-ounce of blue curacao, and topped with champagne, prosecco, or another bubbly. The ratio of OJ to blue curacao is important to get the perfect grinchy green, so add a little at a time until it's just right. We opted for a rim of Rainbow Nonpareils Sprinkles, but a sliced strawberry with a piece of marshmallow on top, resembling the Grinch's hat, would be totally cool. The simple details are at the link below.

https://thetoastykitchen.com/grinch-mimosa

60 Watts

When I saw the USB and USB-C outlets on our flight from College Station, TX, to Dallas, I was surprised to see that they could deliver up to 60 watts of power.  But over the years, smartphones and tablets have improved their charging rates, with the Pixel 10 Pro XL supporting up to 45 watts and the iPhone 17 Pro Max up to 40 watts.  I guess Southwest was looking a few years into the future when they decided 60 watts was a good number.  More on all that watts, volts, and amps can be found at the link below.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/question501.htm

Mug Rug

I like mug rugs so much more than traditional coasters.  They are larger, skinnier, and as you can see below, perfect for this Ohio State football fan.  If you're crafty, you can sew a mug rug perfect for your passion, or turn to Etsy (link below), Amazon, or many others for designs that please.

Big shout-out and THANKS to Mary for this awesome cutie!

https://www.etsy.com/market/mug_rugs_machine_embroidery_designs

Using AI For Research

A few years ago, I heard that Electric Vehicles (EVs) were going to be a problem because they weigh so much more than conventional gas cars due to their large batteries.  That made sense, and because I wasn't thinking of buying an EV, I really didn't care.  Recently, I took some heavy stuff to the dump, and the invoice said my Infiniti QX60 weighs nearly 4,800 pounds, more than I expected, but certainly not the largest SUV you can buy.

With the advent of AI and its ability to produce answers to questions, I asked Google Gemini how Tesla's weight compared to its gas-powered brethren.  The table you see below shows that Tesla EVs and regular SUVs are very comparable.  Using AI for research has made my life much easier.

https://gemini.google.com

All The Best Delicatessen

We had lunch a few months ago at our local All The Best Delicatessen, with my selection being the soup and half-sandwich combo shown below.  The chicken soup was packed with chicken, carrots, and noodles, and the corned beef Reuben was served on a seeded rye bread.  The food was great, and this isn't your normal deli.  We got seated at a table set up with silverware wrapped in cloth napkins, given menus, and we placed our order with our server.  This is no stand-in-line joint that's mainly self-serve.  To top it off, they even have a full bar with seating.  Very cool place.

https://allthebestdeli.com

Traffic Sign Recognition

We rented a Mazda CX-50 from Budget during our last trip to Texas, and like many cars, it displays the speed limit on its dashboard, which you can see as "55" in the picture below. It seemed odd that it would disappear for a while, only to return as we approached a new speed limit sign.  I thought the car might actually be reading the signs, but I had never heard of anything like that.  

Took a little research to find that some newer cars have a Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) system that uses a small, forward-facing camera, typically located near the rearview mirror, to scan the road ahead for traffic signs, and an onboard image processing computer to recognize a variety of road signs.  The TSR can be combined with the car's navigation system, which may have limited or outdated speed limit data, to keep the driver better informed.

That's all good, but the Mazda included one very annoying feature.  Look closely at the end of the needle on the speedometer, and you will see that the speed limit is highlighted in red with a red line curving to the limit of the current speed.  That piece of nanny-nagging is too much.

https://caradas.com/understanding-adas-traffic-sign-recognition

Rain-Sensing Wipers

As I was driving on the rainy day you see below, it got me to wonder how rain-sensing wipers work.  A little research showed it starts with a light-emitting diode (LED) located between the windshield and the rearview mirror.  When the windshield is dry, most of the infrared light is reflected back to a light detector (photodiode) within the sensor.  When raindrops land on the glass, they disrupt this reflection. The water droplets scatter the infrared light, reducing the amount reflected back to the sensor.  Pretty slick.

More information can be found at the link below.

https://www.carparts.com/blog/how-do-rain-sensor-wipers-work-and-are-they-the-right-choice-for-you

Skinny Caps

Back in November 2024, I blogged about the skinnier cap on cartoons of Half-n-half, which measures in at 3/8" high, and how I had to use pliers to get it open.  Ice Mountain has taken that to new lows with a cap that measures only 1/4-inch high, as you can see in the image below.  Activists pressure companies to reduce their "environmental impact," apparently with no regard for what is good for the consumer.  I, for one, will be looking very closely at cap heights when buying in the future.  

More on "wrap rage" from USA Today at the link below, including the next bad design idea, "Tethered caps".

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/12/04/shrinking-plastic-caps-bottles-harder-to-open/75719362007

Using AI For Landscaping

Since a blight killed all the boxwoods at the front of our house, we decided that a complete redo was necessary, and I turned to AI for an assist.  I uploaded a picture of our house and asked it to "remove all the bushes, shrubs, and shadows".  Then I asked it to "recommend landscaping with plants that do well in southwest Ohio", and that's the picture you see below.  I really like the pop of color from the purple and bright green hostas and how it puts a larger bush at each end to frame it nicely.  It was also nice that it removed all the leaves from the grass and made the American flag look brand new.  I used Google Gemini 3 with a trial of their Nano Banana Pro image generation tool.  Now we can't wait for spring!

https://gemini.google.com

Honey-Garlic Shrimp Skewers

I picked up a large bag of 16-20 Wild Ocean Shrimp at our local Foremost Seafood store, and Gourmet Chef Elaine turned them into a wonderful meal you can see below.  The glaze consisted of honey, sriracha, crushed red pepper, garlic, lime zest and juice, and parsley, which was brushed on the skewered shrimp as they fried.  It's sitting on a bed of wilted spinach, which was sauteed with a couple of grated garlic cloves.  The full recipe is at the link below.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/honey-garlic-shrimp-skewers-6601298

Love Field

Our recent return trip from Austin, Texas, went through Dallas, but I thought that would be the huge Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) airport; but it happily turned out to be the original Dallas airport, Love Field (DAL).  There are only 20 gates in its single terminal, but it is packed with plenty of restaurants, bars, and shops.  We'll be looking to fly through there for future trips.

The Southwest Airlines sign you see below has several screens with useful information, but I particularly like "how full is the aircraft for the next flight", which for this Atlanta-bound plane is 55%.  It's nice to know you'll have room to spread out and stow luggage in the overhead bins.  However, our Columbus, Ohio-bound plane was 85% full, but we still had adjacent seats, albeit in the back of the plane.  Southwest is changing from its "cattle call" boarding process to assigned seats beginning January 27, 2026, a change we are 100% looking forward to.

https://www.dallas-lovefield.com

Honey Bucket

Back in July, I promised to share more porta-potty names as I encountered them, and I finally found a new one, Honey Bucket, while driving along Texas State Route 71 headed to College Station.  I couldn't take a picture at that time, as I was moving at 70 mph, so the image below comes from their website.  

Usually, porta-potty names are cute, like Mr. John or Gotta-Go, but Honey Bucket takes that in a different direction, trying to make it sound like the inside is going to be pleasurably scented.  No way, I'm still going to hold my breath for as long as it takes.

https://honeybucket.com

Thunderstorms

Falling to sleep during rain falling and distant thunderstorms rumbling is a once or twice a year occurrence at best.  We found that our Amazon Echo, playing the right selection from our Spotify Premium subscription (i.e., no ads), is every bit as calming as the real thing.  Stormy Evening by Taranis is our current favorite, the right balance of gentle rain and booming distant thunder.  It's also available on YouTube at the link below.

We also like the sound of waves crashing on a beach, but for some unknown reason, their soundtracks sound fake and don't do a thing for us.  The real thing, however, is bliss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lCpVQbj9Nk

Using AI For Creating Images

I have a whole bunch of links to websites that have free (I love free) images I can use for these blog posts or other of my writing adventures.  Searching can take a lot of time and is not always what I want, if I can find something reasonably close.  AI allows me to describe what I want, like "create an image of a scary Halloween pumpkin", as I did below using Canva, and select one of several options that I like best.  I think it hit the mark on scary!

https://www.canva.com

NY Brick Steak

When I saw NY Brick Steak & Crab-Stuffed Shrimp on the menu at Frankie Bones on Hilton Head Island, my dinner selection was done, although I had no clue what a "brick" steak really was.  After a little research, I found that it’s almost always a New York strip steak that’s either pressed while searing or cut thick and rectangular.  Add two garlic-butter roasted breaded shrimp stuffed with blue crab dressing, whipped potatoes, green beans, and bacon bordelaise sauce, and it was a dinner to fondly remember.

https://frankiebones.com

Chrome Split View

Google added Split View to its Chrome browser in version 142, and it's going to be a favorite of mine on my Mac Mini with its 32-inch display (it's really a TV, but that's not important).   Split View allows users to display two websites side by side within the same browser tab, as you see below with Amazon shopping on the left and Walmart's website on the right.  Instead of clicking back and forth between tabs or opening, resizing, and repositioning two windows next to each other, all you do is click on the tab you want on the left, and then select the tab you want on the right.  This will help me when I'm writing this blog and conducting genealogy research.  Read more at the link below.

https://www.androidauthority.com/chrome-split-view-feature-3613155

Mobile Reminder

YouTube TV has a nice search function to look for shows and movies.  When you find something you like, you can click the plus sign and it will record it the next time it airs.  That's nice, but do you have to go check your recordings every so often to see if they're ready?  Not if you click on the bell and set a reminder, like I did for Frosty The Snowman, one of my favorite Christmas shows.  Since I set the one you see below on one of my Fire TV Cubes, I'll get a text message when it's available.  For smartphone and tablet apps, those use the normal notifications on the device.

Google Photos Remix Feature

Google Photos recently introduced a "Remix" feature that allows you to take a photo and turn it into one of eight different cartoon styles.  I used it to create the image you see below from a picture taken at a recent wedding we attended.  To find that option, launch Google Photos, tap the three dots, then tap Remix.  Scroll through the styles, then tap Generate.  Your picture will be displayed in a few seconds.

More information can be found at the link below.

https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/google-photos-explains-how-remix-will-work-availability-upcoming

Using AI For Translating Text

Last Monday, I blogged about using the Perplexity AI Chatbot to read a handwritten letter and extract the text, which you see in the first screenshot below.  But as you will notice, it's not in English; in this case, it's in French, of which I barely know a few words.  So, I asked Perplexity to "translate the text to English", giving the result in the second screenshot.  That's one of the differences in using AI Chatbots over regular web services: it remembers the answers and the context of previous questions, allowing you to ask follow-up questions.

https://www.perplexity.ai

Tin And Tallow

The delicious smashburger you see below is from the Tim & Tallow, a Hilton Head Island restaurant that opened in early 2025.  “Tin” refers to the classic tinfoil wrapping used for their burgers, and “Tallow” refers to the beef tallow they use to cook all their burgers and fries.  They also offer craft coffee, draft & canned beer, wine, cocktails, and botanical seltzers.  We ate outside at one of the many picnic tables and watched a show on a monster, 4-screen TV.  A fun place to grab a bite to eat.

https://www.tinandtallow.com

This Old House

When we had our home office window replaced, I noticed the odd-looking nail you see below, which held the old window in place.  At first, I thought it was just the type of nail they used back in the 1950s when the house was built.  But after a fair amount of searching, I find that it's a masonry nail.  They are designed to attach materials to hard surfaces like brick, concrete, or stone (in our case, brick).  More information on these tough guys can be found at the following link.

https://concretecaptain.com/what-are-masonry-nails

Solitare

When I have a few minutes to burn, I like to play a game of Solitaire on my Pixel 7.  Recently, I had to find a new app, and trying to find one that didn't contain advertisements turned out to be a multi-day adventure.  Not only did apps say they didn't contain ads, but most of them did, and they were very annoying and sometimes impossible to bypass.  But after a lot of trial and error, I found the app you see below on the Google Play Store, which contains zero ads or any other annoyances.  Sorry, this is not available on Apple devices.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zeeron.solitaire

Spotify Lossless

I use Spotify as my audio streaming service.  They recently introduced Lossless audio quality, and I wanted to know whether I could hear the difference over their Very High quality.  I enabled Lossless only when I'm on WiFi and then tried it on our Bose Portable Speaker with an Ella Langley song.  I couldn't hear any difference, so I wondered if it was really using Lossless or my old ears were at fault.  That led to finding that the Bose Portable Speaker did not support Spotify Lossless.  Neither did our other main speaker, an Amazon Echo.  

The only two of our devices that supported Lossless were my Pixel 7 phone, which has a terrible speaker, and our Fire TV Cubes, which are attached to our TVs, which have fair speakers at best, and I could not hear a difference.  Then I thought that maybe our Vizio Soundbar would work.  No again, this time due to the lack of the Spotify Connect feature.  And my Google Pixel Buds 2 are no help since they use Bluetooth, which isn't fast enough to support the Lossless bit rate.

I'm thinking I may never know what Spotify Lossless sounds like, but after all the work I put into trying to find out, I'll just forget I ever heard of it.

https://www.soundguys.com/how-to-enable-lossless-audio-on-spotify-144194

Using AI To Extract Text

Years ago, as I was researching and documenting my family tree, I ran across a birth record for my maternal grandfather, which you see in the first image below.  Besides being tough to read, it's in French.  At the time, I had to go through some hoops to get it translated to English, but I thought this would be an excellent test of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to see if it could extract the text from this not-too-clear document.  I uploaded the document to Perplexity and asked it to "extract the text from the attachment".  In a few seconds, it delivered the text you see in the screenshot at the bottom.  Pretty cool.

https://www.perplexity.ai

Benny's Coastal Kitchen

Benny's is now my favorite restaurant on Hilton Head Island (HHI).  From the drinks you saw yesterday to the views, great service, and awesome menu, everything was over-the-top awesome.  I selected the Seafood Fritto Misto (Seafood Platter) shown below as my entree.  It's a plate full of fried shrimp, scallops, oysters, pickled vegetables, spiced aioli, and natural fries, and certainly more than I could eat.  If you get to the HHI area, I strongly recommend you get a reservation at Benny's.

https://bennyshiltonhead.com

Orange Crush

I've had mass-produced versions of an Orange Crush drink at Dewey Beach, Delaware, which are okay at best.  But the Orange Crush cocktail you see below comes from Benny's Coastal Kitchen on Hilton Head Island.  It's a delicious combination of Deep Eddy Orange Vodka, triple sec, orange juice, and a splash of Sprite.  I enjoyed this at the bar on the second floor of Benny's with a view of Skull Creek. 

With dinner, I had a Bourbon Peach Palmer and for dessert, an Espresso Martini, both equally delicious.  More on Benny's coming tomorrow.

https://bennyshiltonhead.com

Gutter Guards

Being seventy years old and climbing on a ladder twice a year to clean out our gutters had to stop.  We considered hiring a service to do that, but instead investigated gutter guards and selected the EasyOn Stainless Steel Micro-Mesh brand you see on the left side of the picture below.  They advertise as being easy to install, and that is very true.  I watched the YouTube video at the link below and found a couple of handy tips.  The guard slides under the edge of the shingles, and three sheet metal screws are used to secure it to the edge of the gutter.  Takes under a minute to install one four-foot section.  That doesn't include the time to move the ladder, which is 99% of the effort involved.  But at least every time I moved the ladder, I knew it would be the very last time.

https://www.easyongutterguard.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkfPbyM16M8

Keeping Warm

While exploring the features that are rarely used on a microwave oven for an article I'm writing, I came across the warming feature.  I had to consult our GE Cafe microwave's manual to see if we had that, and sure enough, we do.  Its purpose is to keep already-hot food at either a Low (150°F), Medium (170°F), or High (210°F ) temperature.  We tested it out by purchasing a Costco Rotisserie Chicken late in the afternoon and popped it in the microwave (shown below) on Medium for an hour or so.  

We could do this in our oven, but having another option is great, particularly if we have a party where people need to keep the food they brought warm until we eat.  

Using AI For Redecorating

This is the first of several blogs over the next months showing some ways to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make your life a bit easier.

We were shopping for a new winter bedspread to replace the summer one shown on the left below.  After a beige bedspread turned out to be a bad choice, I turned to my favorite AI tool, Perplexity, to see if it could recommend some colors based on the colors of our walls, ceiling, and floors.  I uploaded the picture, asked for some choices, and it delivered good options.  Without knowing if it could do it, I asked Perplexity to "replace the bedspread and pillowcases with a warm white color".  That result is the picture shown on the right below.  A picture paints a thousand words.

https://www.perplexity.ai

Original Weggie

Ordering something off the menu that I've never had before is a common occurrence, and the Weggie you see below is a perfect example.  Called the Original Weggie, it's made with ham, pepperoni, provolone, mozzarella, lettuce, tomato, onion, and house-made ranch, and the bread is baked at the same time as the meats and cheeses.  It can't be any fresher than that.  You can't really tell from the picture, but it's really huge.  I ate the smaller piece and packed the larger piece in a take-out box, which made for lunch for the next two days.  

If you get to Hilton Island, look up Giuseppi's Pizza & Pasta in Shelter Cove for a good meal.

https://www.giuseppispizza.com

Eddy’s Peach Mule

Deep Eddy is not a vodka brand I was familiar with.  But that didn't stop me from ordering a peach mule made with their peach-flavored spirit, ginger beer, and a lime slice served in the freezing cup cooper mug you see below.  Really hit the spot on a warm Fall afternoon.  A long list of Deep Eddy cocktails can be found at the link below.

https://deepeddyvodka.com/drinks

3-Way Outlet

Our house was built in 1958, and several rooms only contain a couple of electrical outlets.  An easy and cheap way to turn one plug into three is the Triple Cube Outlet Adapter you see below.  At $5.98 each at The Home Depot, I've expanded our guest bedrooms and provided our guests with more plugs for their smartphones, tablets, and watches.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Grounded-Triple-Cube-Outlet-Adapter-White-692-W-R54-00692-00W/100356925

Blue-Tailed Skink

Hilton Head Island is a nature-lover's paradise, offering up everything from ospreys to eagles, dolphins to turtles, and alligators to manatees.  One of the island's smallest residents is the Blue-Tailed Skink, shown below.  Blue is not one of nature's common colors, and it might serve to warn predators that they may be poisonous, or conversely, to attract predators to their tail, which is expendable.  If the skink loses its tail in a confrontation, it has the remarkable ability to regenerate it, although the new tail will be a more subdued gray color.

A ton of information on Hilton Head's wildlife can be found at the link below.

https://www.islandlifehh.com/wildlife

Muddy Creek

Hilton Head Island is a hub for live music, and below you see Muddy Creek performing at the Tiki Hut.  They rocked us with their mix of rock, southern rock, country, pop, blues, and timeless standards.  And from our seats, we could see a perfect sunset.  The lead guitar player (far left in the picture below) was particularly impressive and one of the best I've ever seen.  As you can find at the link below, as many as two dozen bands play throughout the day at venues across the island.  

https://www.thisweekonhiltonhead.com/hilton-head-island-live-music-schedule-this-week

Hard Boiled Eggs

I mentioned last week about removing the background from a picture of a bowl of hard-boiled eggs, and that's what you see below.  The truly amazing thing is that all twelve eggs are already peeled and are still perfect, which I've never been able to do before.  Since I was making deviled eggs, this perfection added to their curb appeal.  I used the recipe at the link below, which adds eggs to boiling water, cooked for exactly 11 minutes and 30 seconds, and then transferred to an ice bath.  To remove the shell, I first broke the top and the bottom of the egg with a light tap, and then rolled the egg on its side back and forth a couple of times to further crack the shell.  Starting at the top, I just used my thumb to lift the shell pieces from the egg.

I'm not sure if I got lucky this time or if this method is the best ever.  I'll find out next time we're invited to a party.

https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/classic-deviled-eggs

Smoked Cherry Old Fashioned

Hilton Head Distillery is worth the visit, both for its eclectic cocktail options and its friendly bar.  The drink below is a Smoked Cherry Old Fashioned, which is made with rum, cherry syrup, and cherry bitters.  Instead of the normal Solera Rum, I had them make mine with their bolder Ghost Pirates Gold Rum, which has aromas of caramel, warm oak, vanilla, and a subtle hint of baking spices.  

https://www.hiltonheaddistillery.com

Merlin Bird ID

Merlin Bird ID is a cool smartphone app that can identify birds by their image or sound.  As you can see in the screenshot below (taken on Hilton Head Island), using my Pixel 7's microphone, it found four birds, with the American Crow being the most recent it heard, highlighted in yellow.  It also displayed the 222 different birds that Merlin users had identified that day on Hilton Head.  It's available for both iOS and Android, installable from the link below.

Big shout-out to Dan and Grace for turning us on to this awesome app!

https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org

Hot Sauce Vending Machine

Just in case you're expected to bring home a gift after a long business trip or just want to add some heat to your in-flight meal, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (aka, CVG) airport has the world's first hot sauce vending machines, one in each concourse.  They feature the award-winning Dude, Seriously brand hot sauce, other local sauces, and other top brands.  The complete list can be found at the link below.

https://www.dudeseriously.com

The Start Of Something Big

Gourmet Chef Elaine is a master at growing indoor plants.  They grow so big that they finally need to be replaced, and she does that by snipping a piece of the plant off and starting a new plant, as you can see in the picture below of her spider plant.  It only takes a week or so for the roots to appear, and then it's ready to be transplanted to a small pot of dirt.  And the cycle continues...

Mortadella

We watch a lot of cooking shows, and occasionally a chef will use mortadella in a recipe, which I've never eaten.  When I noticed our local Meijer's "Grab-and-Go" had prepackaged mortadella, I gave it a try.  While visually different than my favorite lunch meat, bologna, the taste is very much the same.  Mortadella is made using only pork, while bologna can have pork, beef, chicken, and turkey.  The fat in bologna is emulsified into the meat, where pork cubes are added to mortadella to give it the distinctive mottled look you see in the picture below.  They use different spice blends, with mortadella being more coarse and bologna very fine.  More info is included at the link below.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-mortadella-4777012

Removing Backgrounds

My first attempt to replace the white background in my image with a transparent one (i.e., no background) using my favorite free (I love free) Online Image Editor website could not get every bit of white removed, so I went looking for alternatives.  The one I found worked best was remove.bg, which is at the link below.  I just uploaded the image, and it automatically scrubbed every bit of white away, perfect for my requirement.  The free version provides a lower resolution (576x433) download, but they have paid plans for maximum resolution, and that includes a pay-as-you-go option for $3 for 3 images.  For my needs, the lower resolution is fine.

A day or so later, I wondered if it would remove the background from other photos and was surprised to find that it works pretty good.  For example, I uploaded a photo of a dozen eggs in a bowl sitting on our kitchen counter, and everything but the bowl of eggs was removed.  You'll see that picture in an upcoming blog.  

https://www.remove.bg

Creating Line Art

I've been looking for a way to generate black and white line art using AI (Artificial Intelligence) and found the bigger names (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok) lacking.  Then I heard about the Canva app, downloaded it to my Pixel 7, and gave it a try.  Using the prompt "A black and white line art of the words thank you done very expressively", Canva generated the images you see below, of which the first one best fit my needs.  The image had a white background, but I required a transparent background.  That bit of magic will be covered in tomorrow's blog.

Links to the Canva app for iOS and Android are below.

https://www.canva.com/download/ios

https://www.canva.com/download/android