Tuna Arepas

At a special Sunday noon fundraising event at Jorrge's in Kettering, Ohio, the menu included a selection of arepas, and Janet makes great arepas.  On her recommendation, I ordered the tuna with pico de gallo and queso fresco option shown below, and maybe tuna sounds like an odd choice, but it was absolutely delicious. It paired really well with a tall glass of George's Bloody Mary, perfect for a lunchtime treat.

https://www.facebook.com/jorrgescantina

Don Julio VIP Margarita

The Mad Mex North Hills is my favorite place for a margarita in Pittsburgh, and my go-to variety is the Don Julio VIP.  It comes with a floater served in an inside-out, used lime shell.  The margarita is made with Don Julio Blanco (Silver) Tequila, Cointreau, a premium orange liqueur, and Mad Mex’s signature sour mix/citrus blend.  I asked for the Tajín rim (a Mexican spice mix consisting predominantly of lime, chili peppers, and salt) for an extra kick.  A full menu and a list of their nine locations are at the link below.

https://www.madmex.com

Proxy Wedding

A neighbor of ours told us that her niece was wed to her husband in a "proxy wedding", a term I had never heard of before.  I looked it up and found, "A proxy wedding is a marriage ceremony where one or both individuals are not physically present and are represented by stand-ins, known as proxies."  The husband is in the military, and proxy weddings are often the quickest way to get married and afford the other spouse financial benefits like legal, financial, and healthcare protections.  

Proxy weddings are only legal in Montana, California, Colorado, New Jersey (active military only), and Texas, so one party must be physically in one of those states, and the other party is represented by a stand-in.  Montana allows a double-proxy wedding with neither party being physically present, but it is available only to military members and residents.

More information can be found at the following link.

https://www.boydlawlosangeles.com/what-is-a-proxy-marriage

You're Not Listening

While out on one of my frequent walks, I heard a mother telling her young daughter, "You're not listening to me."  I listened for a few moments to the exchange, and it was clear that the girl was listening to her mother; she just didn't want to do what she was asked.  That got me thinking more deeply about what was going on.  Sometimes the choice of words reveals an underlying motivation.

I concluded that the mother should have said, "You're not obeying me."  But that would put the resolution on the mother.  By saying you're not listening, she's trying to put the resolution on the young girl, and she wasn't going for it.  The mother is not accepting who's in charge, and she needs to figure out how best to get her daughter to comply.  

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see how this exchange ended.  Did she just give up or try a different approach?  I'll keep my opinion on that to myself.

Long-Handled Squeegee

Windshield bug splatter on a long interstate road trip is going to happen, particularly in summer.  I hadn't noticed before, but Love's has both short- and long-handled squeegees available in their suds-buckets.  Since we typically take longer trips in our larger SUV (Infiniti QX60), reaching the middle of the window usually requires opening the front doors and stepping up to reach.  The longer pole made this an easy, keep-my-feet-on-the-ground chore.  Thanks, Love's!

https://www.loves.com

Tortilla Pizza

This is probably better labeled as a "use the leftovers" pizza.  We started using a couple of flour tortillas that had been around for a while, cooked up what was left of a package of chorizo, some Cotija cheese that somehow hadn't gone bad yet, and some corn and sliced cherry tomatoes.  The only "fresh" ingredient was a few leaves of basil growing in a pot on our back deck.  A few minutes in the oven and it made a tasty lunch and made some space in the refrigerator.  

Fancy Bloody Mary

The wild Bloody Mary you see below comes from Luke Wholey's Wild Alaskan Grille on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh.  It features a whole fried soft-shell crab that forms a body, arms, and legs, a pickle spear for a mouth, and pimento-stuffed green olives for eyeballs.   Add crispy bacon, jumbo shrimp, and a couple of celery stalks, and you have an afternoon cocktail, a delicious appetizer, and a sideshow for the thousands of people strolling down the street.

https://www.lukewholey.com

Hoarding Disorder

I couldn't resist; I used AI to remove the street address from the picture below.  Too embarrassing.

To be fair, this house has no basement and only 1,040 square feet of living space, so it's understandable that the garage is being used for storage.  Before they cleared a path to their back door, all the stuff in the driveway was also in the garage.  Given that the valued possessions include a green, circa-1940 classic car (or at least the front part, as shown on the left) and most of it is junk, this is way beyond storage and into the realm of hoarding.

As the article at the link below begins, "Hoarding disorder is a chronic difficulty with discarding possessions—even those without any monetary value—accompanied by a dysfunctional attachment to often worthless or unusable items."  It also gives some good advice on how to overcome hoarding.  It's a good read even if you're just trying to do some spring cleaning (or fall cleaning) and get rid of some marginally useful possessions.

https://www.helpguide.org/mental-health/anxiety/hoarding-disorder-help-for-hoarders

Double Tap The Back

Unlike yesterday's feature, I wouldn't have thought this might exist.  On both the Apple iPhone and the Google Pixel, you can configure an action to take when the camera detects a double tap on the back of the device.  As you can see below, I've configured mine to take a screenshot, so instead of the cumbersome combination of pressing the power button and the volume down simultaneously, the double tap involves less movement and coordination.  You can read more about the feature at the links below.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/111772

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/7443425

Volume Button Shutter

I am totally ashamed that I did not know this camera feature until a few days ago.  Instead of using the round white button on the camera app's screen, you can use either the volume up or the volume down button as the shutter.  So instead of holding the camera in one hand and pressing the white button with the other, you hold the phone in both hands, making it much steadier.  Works on both Gourmet Chef Elaine's iPhone and my Google Pixel 7.  

https://www.isumsoft.com/iphone-tips/take-photos-with-volume-buttons-in-iphone.html

Texas Toast Tomato Pies

With this year's tomato crop delivering some of the best we've tasted, Gourmet Chef Elaine found this simple recipe that was a hit.  It combines Texas Toast (our favorite), a layer of Boursin cheese and mayo, and thick tomato slices topped with shredded sharp Cheddar cheese and chopped chives (from our own patio-grown pots).  Directions and spices needed can be found at the link below.

https://www.southernliving.com/texas-toast-tomato-pies-12008235

Knockoff

I ran across the free (I love free) Knockoff browser extension in the daily email I get from Clark Howard.  After you add it to your web browser, it automatically filters Amazon search results based on the seller’s trademark and brand legitimacy.  By default, it just dims to filtered results (like in the screenshot below), but you can configure it to hide them entirely.  As Clark notes in his in-depth write-up at the link below, "It isn’t a perfect solution for keeping your Amazon purchases safe, but it helps save time by eliminating a lot of the junk."  

https://clark.com/shopping-retail/knockoff-amazon-fake-brands

Reloads

Thanks to my son and daughter-in-law, I had some gift card money to spend at Golf Galaxy, and I spent a half-hour wandering through the store looking for deals.  In addition to finding a nice, lightweight Safari hat, I found the like-new Titleist Pro V1 golf balls from Reload that you see below.  The Pro V1 is one of the very best golf balls on the market, and you can pick up a dozen on Amazon for around $58.  I bought two dozen Reloads for that same money, and they look every bit like brand-new golf balls.  Sweet deal!

https://www.golfgalaxy.com

Golf Cart Ports

I recently noticed, after oh so many years, that the golf carts at Walnut Grove Country Club had a little flip-up cover and was surprised to see there were two USB ports underneath, as seen below.  I guess that shouldn't surprise me in today's tech-connected world, but when I think of golf, I think about disconnecting for a few hours.  I'm torn between putting a USB cable in my golf bag just in case, or being OK with running out of power.  

Deplaning Made Easier

I didn't know that the armrest closest to an airplane's aisle could get raised, as you see below, until I spotted, out of the corner of my eye, a flight attendant helping a passenger.  On this particular plane, there was a small lever, circled in red below, that could be pulled to release the armrest.  Having that out of the way makes wiggling this 70-year-old body out of the seat much easier.

Farmer's Casserole

This is a great make-ahead dish to feed a crowd for tomorrow morning's breakfast.  Layer hash brown potatoes in a casserole dish that's been sprayed with oil, then top with pepper Jack cheese, ham, and green onions.  Pour a mixture of evaporated milk, eggs, pepper, and salt on top of that.  You can refrigerate that overnight or go straight to baking it in a 350-degree, preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, then let it rest a few minutes before serving.  

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/22454/farmers-casserole

Dual Alarms

After checking the battery-powered smoke detectors in our house, I found two that were more than 10 years old and needed replacing.  I opted for the model shown below, which has a 10-year battery, saving the time and expense of replacing the typical 9-volt battery every year.  For about $10 more, I ordered the combo Smoke + Carbon Monoxide model.  This alarm also speaks "Fire!" or "Warning! Carbon Monoxide!" so you know which it detected.  Since we have a gas furnace and a gas stovetop, having this dual-alarm model makes sense.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDWB196S

Pantry Outlet

The picture below is from Gourmet Chef Elaine's son's house in Texas.  Instead of their toaster taking up counter space, it sits on a shelf in their pantry.  I've never seen a pantry with an electrical outlet, but it certainly adds flexibility to a kitchen.  Pretty clever idea!

Buc-ee's Red Lights

In the spacious and super-clean bathrooms at Buc-ee's, there are lights on top of each stall to indicate whether it's occupied or not.  With a quick glance, you can find a green light and "off you go" (pun intended).  That's way better than walking past doors looking for a little green on the lock.  This attention to detail is one of the many things I love about Buc-ee's.

https://buc-ees.com

Larriwood Avenue

We live on Larriwood Avenue in Kettering, Ohio.  I really didn't need to add the city or state to that since there is only one Larriwood Avenue in the entire United States.  I figured the name had something to do with someone back in the mid-1950s when the house was built.  I reviewed the original plat books, available at the link below, for an entry for Larriwood Avenue, which turned up these four names: George R. and Miriam E. Steller, Swango & Sons Construction, and C.W. Zimmerman.

George was a Registered Land Surveyor, and he surveyed, engineered, and certified dozens of residential and commercial plat maps across Montgomery and Butler counties from the 1920s through the 1950s.  He and Miriam were prominent local figures and philanthropists in the Dayton–Kettering area of Montgomery County, Ohio, and owned the land our plat is built on.  In 1962, George and Miriam donated 4.4 acres of land at the corner of David Road and Marshall Road to the Dayton YMCA (now called South YMCA).  Our plat is called Miriam Acres, and there is a Miriam Drive a few houses away.  I presume they were named after her.  But no connection was found to Larriwood Avenue.

Swango & Sons Construction, our home's builder, was owned by Stanley Sterling Swango Jr. Again, no connection could be found for Larriwood Avenue; however, it turns out that Stanley Jr. is Gourmet Chef Elaine's 14th cousin twice removed.  How weird is that?

C.W. (Carl) Zimmerman also signed our plat book entry, and his company was the general contractor that built Miriam Acres.  Searching his family tree in familysearch.org, I found he had a son, Lawrence Lee Zimmerman, who died in 1944 at the age of five months.  I believe our street is named after him.

https://www.mcohio.org/DocumentCenter/View/1737/Recorded-Plat-Books-PDF