iPad On A Plane

On our flight back home I noticed the lady in the window seat was watching a show on her iPad.  I never thought to suspend my iPad by shoving the cover in the pocket of the seat back in front of me.  I either held it or placed it on the tray table, but that will now be a thing of the past.  When I asked her how she came up with such a brilliant hack, she replied "Tik Tok".  That explains why I never knew about it.

DLM Cafe

Last summer Gourmet Chef Elaine and I decided to visit Dorothy Lane Market's awesome salad bar.  My salad, of course, features little to no lettuce, lots of cheese, tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers, and probably more salad dressing than necessary.  We ate our lunch at their indoor Cafe and made it a dining-out experience.  As you can see at the link below, DLM has many awesome stations where you can get soups, sandwiches, sushi, burgers, pizza, and much more.   It makes a deliciously cost-effective luncheon alternative.

https://www.dorothylane.com/in-store-eats

Fancy Champagne

We saw this idea to infuse a little extra flavor into a flute of champagne.  Gourmet Chef Elaine took rosemary, pomegranate seeds, and a little wedge of orange and made 1-inch cubes of ice for our champagne flutes.  As they melt it brings more and more flavor and maybe even better, the aromas they deliver to your nose.  You could make lime and cilantro cubes for margaritas, lemon, and blood orange cubes for a martini, or Luxardo cherries and orange peel cubes for a Manhattan.  Your creativity is the limit.

Brushing Scams

A brushing scam begins with you receiving a package you didn't order.  Scammers primarily use this to write fake reviews for their products, but they might try to convince you to pay for the item.  According to the law, you are free to keep, donate, or throw away any unsolicited package you receive.  You can also mark any unopened package "Return to Sender" and USPS will send it back free of charge.  If it comes from a service like Amazon, you can report it to them and they will investigate.

Recently there have been press articles that have warned that these types of packages may contain a QR code that, if you scan it with your phone, immediately compromises your personal and financial information and drains your bank accounts. That is NOT true. While QR codes are handy for sharing a website, your contact information, or attaching to a WiFi network (and much more), they simply can't cause your phone to go to the dark side.

But one word of advice.  Use your phone's camera app to scan QR codes.  I trust them more than I would some random app in their app store.  

More information can be found at the link below.

https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/brushing-scam

GoodRx (Reprise)

I posted about the prescription-money-saving GoodRx back in 2018 but recently saved a lot of money using it for a tube of clobetasol (anti-itch) cream.  The last time I bought it I used my Medicare prescription drug plan (PDP) and paid about $80 for a 15-gram tube.  This time I searched GoodRx first and found Kroger had it for just $21.31 for a 60-gram tube.  That's four times the cream for one-fourth the cost.  I picked Kroger from the list below because it was the best combination of low price and convenient location.  I avoided the ones that have "Special offers" under their price because that involves signing up for something and I didn't want the hassle.

If I didn't have that GoodRx coupon, the price would have been about $320.  I guess I would have used more non-prescription creams (e.g. CeraVe) or scrimped using the smaller tube like I have been for the last few years.

https://www.goodrx.com

Shark Reef Aquarium

While in Las Vegas we went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay with a group of football coach's wives and their kids.  We were all impressed with the variety of sharks, sea turtles, stingrays, jellyfish, piranha, crabs, octopus, and the colorful fish in the picture below.  The kids were the most excited about trying to touch the stingrays in their shallow tank.  It's not free, but well worth the money.

https://mandalaybay.mgmresorts.com/en/entertainment/shark-reef-aquarium.html

The Thio

Some people order the same things at the same restaurants every time.  I'm not one of them.  I'm the type that wants to try something different so when I saw The Thio pictured below on the menu at Walnut Grove Country Club for the first time, I dove right in.  White albacore tuna salad with chives, celery, capers, and tarragon, layered with bacon, and a special chive egg salad on a Cuban roll with lettuce and tomato.  I could have done without the lettuce, like on all sandwiches I get, as it's slippery and makes the sandwich harder to control.  

Glass Martini Glasses

We've had a pair of martini glasses for a couple of years that look similar to the one shown below, but they are made of plastic and not the best mouthfeel.  However, keeping our drinks cold for an hour or more was a good tradeoff over a traditional martini glass.  But when we ran across a pair made of glass at Von Maur, shown below, we just had to splurge.  They are stored upside down in the freezer to allow the internal gel inside the double-walled insulated glass to freeze all along the sides.  The silicone band at the bottom keeps your hands from freezing while you sip.  You can pick up a pair at the Amazon link below for about $10 less than we spent.

https://www.amazon.com/Host-Martini-Insulated-Silicone-Cocktail/dp/B0D6WMMTDP

Seat Back With FOB

Gourmet Chef Elaine likes the driver's seat in the Infiniti G37x way up and I like it way back.  That's OK but if she leaves the seat up and I try to get in, it's a tough squeeze.  Looking around the car's owner's manual, I found that I can program the unlock button on my key fob to include selecting my seating option and it will move the seat back giving me room to enter more easily.  This also works on our Infiniti QX60, but its "seat slide option" moves the seat back automatically.  Directions for setting this up can be found in the owner's manual or at the link below.

What is a fob?  It's not an acronym.  Back in 1653, a fob was a small pocket for valuables. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, a fob had a dual meaning as the pocket used for a pocket watch and for any ornament hanging from the chain of a pocket watch.  In the early 1980s, when remote keyless entry systems started to gain popularity, new and used car dealers started to call the remote transmitter a fob.  

https://nissanpros.com/syncing-your-infiniti-key-to-seat-position-a-comprehensive-guide

The Best Of 2024

As is my yearly tradition, I keep track of notable events and experiences during the year, then narrow that down to the top ten, and publish the results on my Life Experiences blog, each with a short descriptive paragraph, which you can find at the link below.  Each of the pictures below is representative of one of the top-ten adventures.

https://lifeexperiences.paulishing.com/2025/01/the-best-of-2024.html

Duck To Avoid

The ceiling-attached box in the picture below comes from a shuttle bus at the Cincinnati (CVG) airport.  An instruction of "Duck To Avoid" on an overhead object should not be needed for most human beings since we learn that at a very early age, but the more I wonder about the obviousness of this, I believe its real purpose is just to make you aware of its presence.  The "Emergency Exit" at the bottom doesn't say "open this in case of an emergency", it's just expected that you would be bright enough to figure that out by yourself.  Maybe the box should say "Overhead Box", "Watch Out For Me" or "Danger Will Robinson".  What would you have it say?

Street Meet

Street Meet is a restaurant on Hilton Head Island that promotes itself as an American Tavern, which is true but is the only place I've ever visited that was a dedicated Ohio place.  We went there because (1) we were hungry and they had great food and (2) we wanted to watch the Ohio State football game and we knew it would be on one or more of their many televisions.  As you can see from the picture below, they have flags from many of the Ohio colleges including Miami, Toledo, Ohio State, Kent State, and Youngstown, and our professional NFL and NHL teams.  It's worth a visit if you find yourself on the island.

https://streetmeethhi.com

Rí Rá Las Vegas

Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale is one of my favorite beers and I can only find it in some very select Irish Pubs like the Rí Rá Las Vegas shown below.  I stumbled onto this place around ten years ago when attending a conference at Mandalay Bay and during our recent trip to Sin City, I made sure to pay it another visit.  Being Vegas, they charged $9.25 for a glass.  Their location in Charlotte charges $7.25 and a mere $6.00 in Portland, Maine.  It certainly did not stop me from having another.

https://rira.com/las-vegas

Do Not Disturb

The mechanism you see in the picture below was in our hotel room at the W Las Vegas.  Located next to the door, its two functions are self-explanatory.  Pressing Do Not Disturb turns a light on the outside of the door red and pressing Housekeeping lets the staff know you want your room serviced by turning the light green.  Housekeeping would turn that off and the light would turn white, letting you know from the outside that your room is ready.  

From the information at the link below, this device is networked to a system that keeps management and staff informed on the workings of the hotel.  It sure beats hanging those plastic door placards and hoping they don't fall off.

https://cloud.axxind.com

Anveo

The little box pictured below is an OBI200, a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution for those of us (not me) who want to hold on to their landline phone number but not pay the high prices the big phone companies charge.  You connect the box to the Internet with either an ethernet cable or a USB WiFi adapter and connect your telephone to the Phone port.  

This solution used to be supported by Google Voice and provided a free (I love free) service.  But last November Google announced it was no longer supporting this solution. While it would continue to work for some unknown length of time, another VoIP provider would eventually be needed.  Enter Anveo (see the link below) which supports the OBI200 (and many others) and for about $99.99/year gets you 1,000 minutes per month, voice mail, and text messages (try that on an old-fashioned telephone line).

Big shout out to my older brother for smoothly making this transition.  If he can do it, so can you.

https://www.anveo.com/consumer/default.asp

Snow Mode

A few weeks ago I took our Infiniti QX60 to do an errand and its pick-up was so bad I thought I would be taking it in for a service call.  It was fortunate to notice that the Drive Mode Selector was turned to SNOW, presumably by the guy that just detailed the car, and that reduces engine output to avoid wheel spin.  A quick counterclockwise twist to return it to normal driving mode (the dot position shown below) restored power.  The knobs on either side select heated seats, nice in the winter, or cooled seats, surprisingly nice in the summer.

https://gearshifters.org/infiniti/what-does-snow-mode-do-on-infiniti

Potato Skins

Gourmet Chef Elaine commented that it's been ages since she had potato skins and that we never see them in restaurants anymore.  I made the skins you see below with the recipe at the link and then used all the scooped-out potatoes to make a batch of gnocchi.   Crumbled bacon, Cheddar cheese, sour cream, and green onions are added to the baked skins and then put under the broiler for a couple of minutes until it bubbles.  Combined with her perfectly cooked filet and asparagus, this made an awesome Sunday dinner.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/282216/homemade-potato-skins

Vizio Volume Leveling

For months I've been complaining that the crowd noise during football games was so loud I could barely hear the announcers.  I figured some doofus at the television network thought that was a good idea, but it turns out it was a setting on my Vizio TV that was at fault.  In the audio menu, there is a "Volume Leveling" setting (see the image below) that was turned on, and turning it off solved the problem.  The other TVs have a similar setting, but those were already off and they worked fine.  The link below describes the best settings for our Vizio, but you can Google search for the best audio settings for your specific TV.

https://settingsbase.com/best-audio-settings-for-vizio-tv

Precision Pen

WD-40 is one of my best friends, but the normal spray can is impossible to use without needing a couple of rags to clean up the excess that's bound to happen.  So whoever the design Brainiac that developed the Precision Pen shown below is now my best friend.  Pop the cap and press down to release a little lubricant at a time.  

Thanks to my daughter and son-in-law for this awesome Christmas present!

https://www.amazon.com/WD-40-Precision-Lubrication-Pin-Point-Controlled/dp/B0C8PW3L5N

Christmas Tree Napkins

We spotted these napkins, folded to resemble Christmas Trees, at Walnut Grove Country Club.  You might think this would be hard to do, but as the video at the link below demonstrates, it's pretty straightforward.  Two folds to make the napkin a square, four folds to make the triangles, two folds to make it a tree, and four tucks to make it pretty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plkWFQ89XyE

Key Rings

My Infiniti G37x and house key are all that's left on my keychain shown below.  And with the G37x and Infiniti QX60 having nearly identical fobs, there are different colored house keys on each like this yellow tweety bird.  I prefer these larger format keys as they are easier for me to turn and this one key works on all our external doors.  Having a fob with a single key has been a goal for quite a while and the last barcode key tag, from Dot's Market, was eliminated when they upgraded their cashier system.  Happy days!

Homemade Bolognese

The bolognese on top of the pappardelle pasta you see below is meaty and flavorful and the recipe at the link below says it makes eight servings but that's likely a lowball number.  The one ingredient you must be careful with is the cinnamon.  Try folding in a little bit at a time so you don't go overboard.  Cinnamon is the ingredient that gives Cincinnati-style chili its distinctive taste and too much might be a turnoff.  If you're looking for a new warm-your-belly winter dish, give this one a try.

https://damndelicious.net/2022/12/12/the-best-homemade-bolognese

Titleist TS2

New golf clubs are expensive enough, but buying a new top-of-the-line driver is ridiculous.  Instead, I opted for the demo Titleist TS2 on sale at Walnut Grove Country Club for $200.  The shaft and the top of the club are in mint condition and there are only a few minor marks on the bottom of the club which is to be expected.  I pick up about 25+ years of newer technology over the TaylorMade R580XD it replaces.  Hopefully, that makes up for me being 25+ years older.

https://www.titleist.com/golf-clubs/golf-drivers/ts2

One-Way Airfares

I recently read Clark Howard's article (link below) about trying to combine one-way fares to get a better price and it paid off booking last week's flights to and from Las Vegas.  Not only did we get a decent price, but the flight to Vegas on Delta and the Spirit flight back to Dayton both took off in the early afternoon and were direct flights.  I wouldn't recommend splitting carriers if the flights aren't direct, as any delay that causes you to miss your connection would be on your dime.

I didn't have an image for this blog so I asked the Grok AI tool (available inside Twitter/X) to create "a mashup of the Delta Airlines and Spirit Airlines logos" and that's what you see below. 

https://clark.com/travel/one-way-flights-save