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