Cord Cutter

It's official, we've joined the ranks of people that watch TV without those outdated, overly-large, poorly-made cable boxes.  We still have Spectrum for Internet service, but get all the channels we normally watch through YouTube TV and combined with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and ESPN+, give us all we want.  The best features of the new setup are sorting the YouTube TV channels in the order we want them and since we're using an Amazon Fire TV Cube, we only need its remote control, which is about 20% of the size of the Spectrum monster.  Oh, it's cheaper, by about $40 per month.

https://tv.youtube.com

Restricted Crossing U-Turn (RCUT)

The Ohio Department of Transportation has completed a $1.8 million Restricted Crossing U-turn at U.S. 42 and Spring Valley Paintersville Road in Greene County.  Traffic on Spring Valley Paintersville Road now only can turn right, avoiding having to navigate both lanes of high-speed traffic on U.S. 42.  A short distance after you make your right turn, a center, left-hand turn lane allows you to cross the oncoming traffic and into a large loon on the other side where you do a 180-degree turn in order to merge back on U.S. 42 in the opposite direction, where you can continue straight (if you wanted a left turn in the first place) or make a right turn and get back on Spring Valley Paintersville Road (if you wanted to go straight in the first place).

The first picture below is the view of Spring Valley Paintersville Road traveling westbound, with signs for both north and south U.S. 42 pointing right and the blocked median the prevents any other turn.  The second picture is the view from the left turn lane on U.S. 42 with the large semi-circular loon on the left.

https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/odot/projects/projects/108640

Bucatini Carbonara

There seems to be no end to the different shapes of pasta and Bucatini was new to us.  Bucatini is like a very thick, but hollow, spaghetti, and gives it a satisfying mouthfeel.  That gets added to a saute pan of rendered pancetta and garlic, followed by an egg and cheese mixture.  To find out how some of the pasta water is used in both the pancetta and egg mixture, consult the detailed instructions at the link below. 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/geoffrey-zakarian/bucatini-carbonara-9855312

Trocker

I've added this extension to my chrome browser to avoid being unknowingly tracked.  The typical method used is an invisible, one-pixel image that when loaded tells the tracker that I've read their email.  They use another method to tell if I've clicked on a link in the email.  It's just the hidden nature of what they're doing that bugs me, not that I don't understand why they want to know what works and what doesn't.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/trocker/bjojfeillmmoeadgobbcknkgdkngbcdb

Hold The Mail

Here's a way to inform your mail carrier that you've requested a mail hold but perhaps they didn't get the memo.  A little duct tape around the mailbox should do the trick.  Perhaps you could just remove the mailbox and take it inside, but this certainly gets the message delivered.

Cardinal Greenway Rail Trail

One of the nicest multi-use recreational trails I've seen is the Cardinal Greenway in Indiana.  The southern end is located in Richmond and it winds north, loosely following US-35 through Muncie, then turns more northwesterly as it crosses another ten miles to the town of Gaston.  There's an eleven-mile gap between Gaston and Jonesboro before the trail restarts for an eight-mile journey to the city of Marion.  

The picture below demonstrates the wide, flat, and gently winding nature of the trail, and one of the many little stops along the way where you can park your car and access the trail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Greenway

Trufuel

When I saw these premixed gallons of fuel for 2-cycle engines like my weed wacker and blower, I thought it genius and possibly an easy way to replace the messy and smelly task of buying and mixing it myself.  But the price tag, at about $24, is a big premium and dashed my hopes.  Maybe it's really a superior product, but I'll pass for now.

https://trufuel50.com

Hanger Steak with Grilled Salsa

The star of this show is the Grilled Salsa. Corn, jalapenos and onion are cooked whole on the grill until tender.  Rough chop the onion and jalapeno and cut the corn off the cob, and combine in a large bowl with tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and hot sauce.  This makes a delicious side dish, a filler for any Mexican taco or tortilla or a topping for your favorite taco chips.  

Big shout out to Chef Elaine for finding this please-make-it-again-soon recipe!

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/geoffrey-zakarian/hanger-steak-with-grilled-salsa-7109150

Flattest State

If you have ever driven I-70 through Kansas, you would swear it would have to be the flattest state in the U.S.  Not true according to the folks at the University of Kansas.  Their research shows Kansas comes in at number 7, with Florida being the flattest, followed by Illinois, North Dakota, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Delaware.  You can read more about the method they used to determine "flatness" at the link below.

https://news.ku.edu/2014/02/06/research-if-you-think-kansas-flattest-us-state-youre-plain-wrong

Camera Zoom

Getting a sewing machine's needle threaded gets to be a bigger eyesight challenge every year, but my smartphone's camera zoom came to the rescue a couple days ago.  At its max, my Pixel 2 has a 7x zoom, and I threaded the needle on my first attempt.  There was likely a bit of luck to that, but I'll take the win.