Odds and Ends

Odds and Ends
This is just some stuff that managed to fall into my line of sight recently.

Last week, Mexican archeological authorities announced they had found a second reference to the end of the Mayan long calendar in 2012 at a different site. This ought to drive the doomsday crowd nutso. At least, I should read some more about the long calendar.

I was at my local market yesterday to pick up some food. I was in line behind a guy who had two large boxes of wine. I thought that boxed wine had gone the way of the fountain pen and disappeared.

That would be one party to avoid.

Someone with the name of camgirls left a couple of posts on the blog yesterday. I think he or she was writing in free verse. It didn’t make much sense to me.

There’s going to be another adult entertainment event at the Los Angeles Convention Center next month. I won’t be going. I will admit the scheduling was creative; it follows the Auto Show, two events that seem to cater to males.


Be well and stay happy.

Ending the month

Ending the month
I managed to survive Thanksgiving Day.

I was up at 6:30 AM and started to prepare the meal around 7:30 with dicing onions. Not the best way to begin a day. I finished making the dressing and I had to wait until it cooled before I stuffed the turkey.

I never knew that I was supposed to wait until the mixture had cooled first. And to think I have been making it wrong for the last thirty five or more years. I am still learning. I made some extra dressing because there is nothing worse than running out of dressing leftovers before you run out of turkey leftovers.

We had a pumpkin pie that came from the freezer. I baked that while the dressing cooled. I also set the table and did last minute cleaning stuff.

Fast forward to supper time.

We, that would be my former wife, my son and me, had a very ice meal although I thought the turkey turned out to be smaller than I thought it would be. It was an eleven pound Butterball turkey. My turkey leftovers were gone by noon on Saturday. I cooked and prepared the turkey with dressing, instant mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

After my guests left, I cleaned up for about an hour and a half.

I crawled in my bed at 8:30 PM and slept for almost ten hours. I guess I was tired.

Instead of going shopping on Friday after Thanksgiving, I rested. I weighed myself and was very pleased with myself for only gaining a half pound so far this holiday season.

Teaching
I finally got my teaching schedule for the coming quarter. It isn’t too bad. I have three classes again and that was a minor disappointment for me. I will be teaching Microeconomics, Research Methods, and Project Human Resource Management. I have taught these classes before.

Normally, the course would not be difficult to prepare for since they are repeaters for me. Microeconomics and Research Methods have had their curriculums completely revised so they will become new courses for me. I do have a week with nothing to do except relaxing and addressing Christmas cards so I do have time to prepare.

This quarter will mark the start of my sixth year of teaching at ITT Technical Institute.

This coming Saturday is the company holiday party. It will be different since three campus staffs are combining for one large event. That means there will be three separate groups sort of dining and partying together.

I had planned to go to the event with a date. That didn’t work out as planned. My last eHarmony match closed me out unexpectedly. I was over the closure in a minute or two.

eHarmony
As of the end of November, I had just over 460 closed matches. The closed matches are about equally split between her and me. Right now, I don’t plan to renew my membership when it runs out in December.

During the year, I did have several eHarmony matches that went somewhere beyond the initial exchange of information. There was the liberal political columnist who thought my libertarian-centrist views were a perfect match of her liberal views. She was sadly mistaken.

There were others who didn’t always tell the visual truth about themselves. I discovered that head shots and undated photos were signs something was amiss. One match used a photo that had to be twenty years old.

Honesty is the best policy.

Odds and Ends
I got lucky this month. We are having a warm spell in Southern California right now.

I drove home from school in the MINI yesterday with the top down. It was 88F when I left the campus; it was 67F by the time I reached the beach forty five minutes later. Today, I had to run out to pick up my lunch. It was 77F so I put the top down again.

I finished the draft of my 2011 Christmas Letter and sent it to the Princess and Doug. Doug liked it and only one minor change suggestion. Hopefully, the Princess will get back to me quickly with her comments.

This week, I sent my longest running Internet friend Lara from South Africa a package of coffee and Sunday comics. She loves our coffee and comics.


Be well and stay happy.

Vterans' Day - November 11, 2011

Veterans’ Day
Always remember that freedom is never free. It was bought and paid for by the sacrifices of countless veterans past and will be purchased by veterans future.





Be well and stay happy and live free

I should blog more often

I should blog more often
I should blog more often. I do have the time and I do have things going on in my life that present a modest degree of drama. I have my classes at school. With Winter coming on, I’ll be driving with the top down less.

My new very tentative teaching schedule for next quarter is blog writing friendly. I am scheduled to teach three classes on Thursday and Friday nights and Saturday afternoon. Plenty of time to write for the blog.

October by the Numbers
The blog had 619 visitors over the month. They viewed a total of 1,350 pages. My blog has had 61,255 visitors since its inception.

October was not the best of months for top down driving. It was a good month for driving in general though. I had only 14.75 hours of top down driving for the month. My total top driving total hours stands at 182.25 hours.


The MINI rolled over the 25,000 mile marker in October.


The seldom driven Pathfinder finally hit 98,000 miles.

The MINI gets around 32 miles to the gallon. The Pathfinder gets close to 18 miles to the gallon. With the price of gasoline close to USD$4.00 a gallon, it doesn’t require a mathematics degree to see why I drive the MINI more.

Money aside, the MINI is more fun to drive.


I had to take the MINI in to get new wiper blades in October. While I was waiting for my car to be finished, I had a chance to look at the new MINI Coupe. I was going to check it out and sit behind the wheel. I couldn’t find a shoe horn large enough to work my way in to be comfortable.

My reaction was who green lit this idea?

Did the German designers figure out the car’s look on an Oktoberfest beer hall napkin that got crumpled and then everyone thought that was the approved design?

Anyway, I love the MINI so I won’t be buying a coupe anytime soon.

Life Could Be A Dream
I went to see a musical last weekend. Life Could Be A Dream. It is a Romeo and Juliette story told with rock and roll songs from the 1950s and 1960s. The music was nice. The plot was formulaic.

Cancer free me
I had another post operation checkup last month.

I’m fine and doing well. I go back again in six months and then I will stay on a six month cycle of checkups. I’m not thrilled by having to take a CT scan for the next appointment. I have to drink this vile contrast dye before the scan.

On the plus side, it is only once or twice a year so I can live with that.

Molly the Stylist
I have been sending Molly the Stylist a box of Hershey’s miniature candies to her salon for Halloween. Molly loves Mr. Goodbar candies so I think she goes through and picks them all out. I looked in a small dish she had on a table and there were no Mr. Goodbars in the jar.


Molly did give me a very nice hug when I walked into the salon.


Be well and stay happy.