Surf And Turf

Part of our order with D'Artagnan was two 6-oz Wagyu filets and two 6- 7-oz lobster tails.  Gourmet Chef Elaine cut open the lobsters, boiled them for two minutes, and low-broiled them for another two minutes.  The filets received the normal treatment of four minutes in a cast-iron skillet, followed by four minutes in a 425-degree oven.  Add a little melted butter and we're eating like royalty.

https://www.dartagnan.com

Medicine Cabinet

The recessed medicine cabinet in the upstairs bathroom needed to be replaced, and after much measuring to make sure we got the exact width and an acceptable height, we settled on this all-metal, thin-black-edge, big mirror choice you see below.  Inside, it has three shelves, including one high enough for Gourmet Chef Elaine's tall hair products.  I had to cut a couple of 18"-wide 2x4's, screw them into the vertical studs at the top and bottom of the opening, cover them with pieces of drywall, and patch, sand and paint them.  The cabinet slid right in and four screws are used to keep it in place.  

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D22HYF9X

Transition Strip

We recently had our upstairs bedrooms carpeted, and as you can see in the first picture below, the old wooden transition strips did not do a good job of covering the seams. We were concerned that over time, they would fray even worse.  I was fortunate to buy new transition strips that were a bit wider, as shown in the second picture.  But what you can't see is that the metal U-shaped channel the transition strip gets secured to was not tall enough to reach.  I figured that I would just buy a taller channel, but I couldn't find any at Home Depot or Lowe's.  I resolved the issue by buying a 1-inch-wide, 1/4-inch deep piece of wood from Greive Hardware, cutting it to the proper width, removing the channel, screwing the wood into the floor, screwing the channel on top, and pressing the transition strip into place.  While it took ten times longer (at least) than I thought it would, the result was worth it.

Dustin Miller

After the new carpet, chairs, and bedspread, the paint on the walls of our bedroom and dressing room had to change, and we opted for Sherwin-Williams Cashmere brand paint.  The two darker accent walls in the picture below are Aleutian, described as a cool denim blue that settles on your space like calm personified.  The other walls are Alabaster, a warm, cozy, peaceful white.

The painting was done by Dustin Miller, who does a lot of painting jobs for friends of ours, and he did a great job, finishing in one day.  If you find yourself in need of a painter, I'll be happy to send along his contact information.

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/white-paint-colors/SW7008-alabaster

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/blue-paint-colors/SW6241-aleutian

Apple Mail Inbox

A recent update to Apple Mail on Gourmet Chef Elaine's iPad resulted in a significant amount of additional content for each email, as shown on the left side of the first screenshot below.  The first two lines of the email were added below the subject line, and a totally worthless picture, initials, or a star occupied the space on the left side of the sender's name.  Calling upon her technical support staff (i.e., me), a quick solution was found.  The culprits were "Shown Contact Photos", which was turned on, and "Preview", which was set to "2 Lines", as shown in the second screenshot.  In the third screenshot, you can see the changes to those two settings that resulted in the condensed left-hand panel shown in the last screenshot.  

Happy wife...

Breakfast Sandwiches

Gourmet Chef Elaine makes the best breakfast sandwiches, and we have them nearly every Sunday for lunch.  It's a toasted English muffin with a slowly cooked sunnyside-up egg, a slice of American cheese, and either oven-cooked bacon or skillet-fried sausage.  It's better (and bigger) than every other breakfast sandwich I've tried.  Lucky me.

Beer Hat

Sitting out in the sun at a Dayton Dragons baseball game is a great way to spend a couple of hours, but if your beer is also in that sunlight, it can get warm quickly.  Years ago, I developed the "Beer Hat" you see below.  You take the free (I love free) program they hand you when you enter the stadium, crease it both lengthwise and widthwise, and slide it between the seatback and your beer.  Depending on the angle of the sun, you may need to rotate it ninety degrees so that the program completely covers the beer.  You'll get around 15-20 minutes extra cold beer time, assuming, of course, your beer lasts that long.

Require Touch ID

This is an iOS feature that I wish Android would copy.  Require Touch ID is exactly what the feature is; when you tap an application icon, it requires you to touch your fingerprint to the iPhone/iPad's fingerprint reader before the app will launch.  To set up this feature, long-press an icon, which brings up the option menu shown below, then tap "Require Touch ID."  This feature would be useful for a shared iPad to keep prying eyes out of your email or apps like Reddit, which has both useful information and a seedier side.

Information on how to set up Touch ID can be found at the link below.

https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/set-up-touch-id-ipadcb11e17d/ipados

Paragon

It's been several years since we last had our living room's sofa, love seat, and La-Z-Boy deep cleaned, and we again went with Paragon.  It's a one-man show, and he has a Better Business Bureau rating of A+.  It took a couple of hours of effort, and the furniture looks new again.  

https://www.paragoncarpetcleaning.com

One-Minute RipOff

Somewhere down in the fine print of our Frontier flight itinerary, it states that we need to check in 60 minutes before our flight is scheduled to depart.  We didn't know that or what that would entail, and we found out the hard way.  We had already self-tagged our bags, but when we finally reached the agent, his computer would not allow him to accept our bags because it was 59 minutes before departure.  That meant we had to have TSA hand-check our bags and remove items that are not allowed on a plane.  I'm guessing that since we have TSA PreCheck and the TSA agent had some history with people getting screwed by Frontier, he did a quick check and all he took was our creamy sunscreens, irritating but no big loss.  Then we had to have our bags gate-checked and Frontier gobbled up another $25 per bag, even though we paid the baggage fee up front.  My opinion of Frontier is summed up in the AI-generated image below.

Sheet Pan BBQ Chicken

Sheet pan equals easy cleanup.  Add aluminum foil and it's even easier.

I can't been to describe how delicious this dinner that Gourmet Chef Elaine baked recently was.  She started with a rub for the chicken thighs that had paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt, brown sugar, and ground black pepper.  She added some broccoli to the corn on the cob, red onion, and zucchini to the original recipe at the link below.  35 minutes in a 375-degree oven, then basted with BBQ sauce (Heinz Original Sweet & Thick is our fav) and broiled for a couple of minutes until it begins to char.  This guy had two helpings before I managed to push myself away from the table.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/bbq-chicken-sheet-pan-supper-21102040

Modelo Oro

We are not fans of light beers, but recently we were introduced to Modelo Oro and it's pretty tasty.  90 calories and 3 carbs usually mean the flavor is closer to water, but this one delivers a real beer taste. Oro is the Spanish word for gold, and that well describes its color when poured into a glass.  We haven't found this at bars or restaurants, but we'll be keeping a keen eye out for it.

https://www.modelousa.com/products/modelo-oro

Floridian Aquifer

In our rental condo in Panama City Beach, Florida, we encountered an unexpected bathroom feature: two shower heads, one in front and one behind.  That's way different than the low-flow pieces of s#^t you find in most places.  Every time we asked for a glass of water at a bar or restaurant, we were served with a 32-ounce monster of a drink.  Maybe being right on the Gulf of America meant no issues with the water supply.  Well, there are no issues, but it's not the Gulf; it's the abundance of water is thanks to the Floridian Aquifer, which spans an area of about 100,000 square miles in the southeastern United States. It underlies the entire state of Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina.  It daily provides 3.64 billion gallons of water, about half of which is used for irrigation and one-third for the public water supply.  Read more on this monster water source at the link below.

https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/floridan-aquifer-system

Battery Share

My Google Pixel 7 phone supports Battery Share, which allows Qi-certified devices (like Gourmet Chef Elaine's iPhone 16e) to wirelessly charge by laying them on the back of my phone, just like you would use a wireless charging station.  That's pretty handy if she's low on juice and I have some to spare.  You can also set a limit on how low your battery can go before (see the Stop sharing battery slider in the screenshot below) before it automatically stops wireless charging.  I'm generous, but taking my phone down to 10% is not going to happen.

https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/android-phones/how-to-charge-other-devices-with-pixel-wired-wirelessly

No Dirty Birds

Over the pool at Treasure Island Condominiums in Panama City Beach is the mesh of very thin wires, as shown in the picture below.  From eight points on the building to eight poles on the far side of the pool, these wires were 100% effective in keeping birds from making a mess.  From our 19th-floor condo, they were completely invisible, preserving the beautiful views unobstructed.  Pretty clever!

https://treasureislandresortrentals.com

The Grand Marlin

Our final night in Panama City Beach, Florida, saw us try The Grand Marlin, an upscale seafood restaurant, for dinner. My appetizer of a half dozen oysters is shown below, and they are some of the largest and most delicious oysters I've ever had. On the left is my entrée, rare Yellowfin Tuna, one of their specials that changes daily depending on what the boat brings in.  If you're looking to dress up and have a special dinner, this place is for you.

https://pcb.thegrandmarlin.com

Grand "Blue" Lagoon

I like trying something different quite often, and the Grand "Blue" Lagoon you see below, from Schooners in Panama City Beach, was certainly that.  It's an upscale combination of Patrón Silver Tequila, Grand Marnier, Blue Curacao, Lime Juice, and Agave Nectar served on ice with wedges of lime and lemon.  Just the thing to drink while staring out at the waters of the Gulf of America.

https://www.schooners.com

Sandbar Cruise

We spent a leisurely 2 1/2 hours on the floating tiki boat doing a Sandbar Cruise around the calm waters between Panama City and Panama City Beach, Florida.  We stopped at Sandy Point for a walk around its beach and watched the rougher waters of St. Andrews Bay.  The captain was very informative, alerting us to the various sites and their histories.  It's a BYOB tour, but mid-afternoon is too early to get serious about that, so a tall mug was all we brought aboard.  

https://cruisintikis.com/panama-city

Lawn Mower Blade

I took our lawnmower to Greive Hardware for a full tune-up, and they replaced the spark plug, changed the oil, and sharpened the blade.  I normally just remove the blade and sharpen it, like I did late last summer.  They let me know that I had reattached the blade upside down and that the mower would work much better now.  Properly installed blades lift the cut grass upwards so the mower can cut them again, hence, that's why it's called a mulching mower.  I think it's a design problem when a blade can be installed upside down; it should really just go on one way.  Lots of mower blades have something like “Grass Side” stamped on the blade, but if ours did, it's either worn off or painted over so many times it's gone.  I now know that the bent metal on both sides of the blade needs to be pointed up to be installed properly.

https://lawnmowerguru.com/which-side-of-the-lawn-mower-blade-is-up

White's Illusion

Look at the darker gray bars in column A and then at the lighter gray bars in column B.  Your brain sees them as different shades even though they are identical.  This is an example of White's Illusion, where an area's lightness is influenced by the part of the surroundings to which the area appears to belong.  In column A, the gray bars appear to be part of the long horizontal black bars; in column B, they appear to be part of the long horizontal white bars.  If you believe your eyes are different, do what I did: take pieces of paper, cover the black and white portions, and watch as they become the same shade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White's_illusion