Old Man And His Dog

When we first spotted these statues, installed in 2007 at the Commons Way entrance to Lincoln Park Civic Commons, they were so lifelike that we thought they were a real man and a real dog.  Kudos to Santa Fe artist Glenna Goodacre for capturing the heartwarming emotion of a man and his best friend.  Someone, I can only assume part of the city's parks and recreation department, added the green bow around the dog's neck for this holiday season.  Very nice touch.

This is just one of ten locations in Kettering to have art installed, as detailed at the link below.  I have some exploring to do.

https://www.playkettering.org/location-taxonomy/citysites-art-installations

Salisbury Steak

This is a great way to turn your average hamburger-for-dinner into a tasty-something-special.  Mix together the ground meat with seasoned breadcrumbs, ketchup, dry mustard, Worcestershire and a crumbled beef bouillon cube then form the "steaks", and top with a gravy consisting of an onion, beef broth and the other ingredients shown in the recipe at the link below.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/salisbury-steak-recipe-2126533

Fuzzy Text On TV

Santa brought me a 32" Samsung Smart TV as an upgrade to the monitor connected to my Macbook Air, bringing more screen real estate, Netflix, Amazon Video and an extra HDMI port.  But the screen looked "fuzzy" when displayed from the Mac, and it required quite a bit of searching to reveal the most unexpected resolution.  By default the first HDMI port, the one I plugged the Mac into, is called "HDMI 1", and simply renaming it to "PC", which changes the scaling of the source to improve picture quality for attached computers, resolved the issue. 

Wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.

https://www.samsung.com/au/support/tv-audio-video/hdmi-pc-connection-text-is-fuzzy-image-isn-t-clear

Google Call Screen

Currently available only on Google Pixel phones, Call Screen mimics, digitally, what many of us have done with answering machines for years.  Let the machine answer and spew out its "we're not available, blah, blah" message, then listen for the caller to identify themselves before deciding if you want to talk.

When a call comes into the Pixel, you have a "Screen call" option which activates this process.  The caller gets the message shown below and whatever they say is on-the-fly transcribed to text, and that's usually enough to determine if the call is legit or an annoying telemarketer or scammer.  You can report the number as spam, ask for more information, tell them you'll call back later and other options.

Google hit a home run in 2018 with this killer feature.

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/google-call-screen-everything-you-need-to-know

Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to you, your families and all those you love.  Take a moment and tell those closest to you how much you love them. 

This YouTube link adds to the spirit, with three hours of classic Christmas music, complete with holiday scenery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmg5lEfFGHQ

TEDxDayton 2018

All the presentations from this year's TEDxDayton are now available on YouTube, with the individual links at the URL below.  I particularly liked Mark Fogel's talk on leadership and followership as a US Air Force fighter pilot and Dr. Julie Servaites talk on A Good Death.

http://www.tedxdayton.com/tedxdayton-signature-event/

Slow Cooker Mac And Cheese

Yes, it's as good as it looks.

A total of four cups of grated Gruyère, American and Sharp Cheddar cheeses, a couple cans of evaporated milk and two cups of milk make this a slower cooker full of decadent delights.  Super easy to make, only one pot to clean and perfect for the carbotarians in your family.

https://www.mymagazine.us/mm/#recipes/1706/701/slow-cooker-mac--cheese

Cameron Indoor Stadium

Seeing a Duke basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium has been on my bucket list for a very long time, but no longer.  Duke defeated Princeton 101-50, after shaking off some post-final-exam rust, on December 18, 2018 while my friend Bob and I watched from the rafters.  That sounds like far away, but in this throwback stadium with a capacity of only 9,314, you're really on top of the action, which the picture below does not do any justice.  Best of all, we saw the most dynamic Duke team in history with freshman R.J. Barrett, Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish and Tre Jones playing like the NBA-ready players they are.

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=218099

Van Buren Room

One of Dayton's newest specialty cocktail bars is the Van Buren Room, located at the Belle of Dayton distillery on Wayne Avenue.  I opted for the rye whiskey-based House Manhattan (on the right below) while my wife went with the Chocolate Negroni, made with their own Belle of Dayton gin.  It's a very small place, so I suggest you have a backup plan in case you run into a crowd.

http://www.vanburenroom.com

Libby

A local library card is all I need to borrow free (I love free) audio books using the Libby smartphone app.  My current car trip is giving me the opportunity to listen to the 14-hour, Robert Heinlein science-fiction classic, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.  I also have a hold on Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land, waiting for a copy to become available.  This all works just like a trip to the library, but without the need to whisper.

This link will take you to the Dayton Metro Library's web site, where you can install Libby on Android, iOS or Windows Phone.

https://dayton.overdrive.com