Light Ring

The latest addition to our home office is the light ring you see below, mounted on top of the TV that serves as the monitor for my Mac Mini.  It provides a light shining towards my face, highlighting the entire surface, instead of the natural light coming from the office's two windows, which makes half of my face dark.  This will be very useful for a couple of video calls I take in the office.

The light in the picture below is not on.  I took a picture with it on, and the glare coming through the camera was not a pretty picture.

Thanks to my lovely wife for this wonderful Christmas gift!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YJPJLFV

Using AI For Gift Ideas

If you're struggling to come up with a gift idea, AI can help.  The response below was generated from the request, "Recommend 5 stocking stuffer gift ideas for a five-year-old boy."  I like that Google's Gemini chatbot not only came up with suggestions I probably would have never thought of, but also included a brief explanation of why it would make a great gift. 

https://gemini.google.com/app

Bunkers

Bunkers is a sports bar located on National Road (US-40) in Vandalia, Ohio, just east of I-75.  A few months ago, I ordered the Walleye fish sandwich you see below and was greeted with three times the fish needed for the Brioche bun.  I ended up taking the extra fish home, which made two more sandwiches for lunch.  Bunkers is also a relatively inexpensive place to eat, and at least half of their menu is under $10.  They have 42 taps with a rotating selection of beers, also at a great price.  Two thumbs up!

https://bunkersbarandgrill.com

Pub Passports

Shown below are Gourmet Chef Elaine's and my Pub Passports and the source of a recent bizarre experience.  My Passport has been lost for many, many years, and we've searched everywhere we could think of multiple times, while Elaine's has been safely stowed in the small glove compartment of our Infiniti G37x.  Fortunately, before mine was lost, I scanned them into my Google Drive, so when we're asked for our Passports at The Pub Beavercreek, we can bring them up on my smartphone for verification.

We did the Ohio BMV yearly renewal for the registration and tags, and like every year, I put the sticker on the rear plate and exchanged the old registration for the new one, which we keep in a Baggie in the glove compartment (along with proof of insurance).  As I was digging around the glove compartment, I pulled not one, but both Passports.  I was shocked they were both in there, as we've searched it many times.  

My theory is that some Harry Potter magic is the only way to explain it.  It must have disappeared into some magic cabinet or something and only recently made it back into our dimension of time and space.  No way we could have missed it time and again.  No way.

Goat Cubes

I was quite startled when I happened upon 15-pound boxes of Bone-In Goat Cubes during a recent trip to Costco.  Harvested from free-range goats and processed into 2" x 2" pieces, they are Halal-certified.  Halal is an Arabic term meaning "permissible" or "lawful" in Islam, primarily referring to food and drink that adheres to Islamic dietary laws.  You can find a recipe for "Slow Cooker Jamaican Curry Goat" at the link below.

https://thomasfarms.com/products/goat-cubes-1

Lencho Brown

Following up on yesterday's post, another funny comedian I follow on Instagram is Lencho Brown, whose real name is Lorenzo Diaz.  Lorenzo is Mexican and entertains us with his take on how Mexicans use English words with his 'Mexican Word of the Day.'  He is a usually clean comedian, but an occasional f-bomb does occur.  Links to his Instagram feed and YouTube channel are below. 

https://www.instagram.com/lencho_brown_

https://www.youtube.com/@LenchoBrown

Mike Goodwin

I follow a very limited number of people on Instagram outside my immediate family and friends, unlike some people I know who follow over 2,000, which I think is just crazy.  One of those is Mike Goodwin, the handsome fellow you see below, an absolutely hilarious and clean comedian.  One of his best skits is "There Are Only Two Things in Life to Worry About", which you can watch at the YouTube link below.  Below that is a link to his Instagram channel.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bx1IcND-Kak

https://www.instagram.com/bowtiecomedy

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