Yes, I’ve heard that reaction to sushi on occasion. I think it came from my children. For the most part when they were growing up, and for some even now, they never wanted to try new food. From the limited diet of their childhood (not that limited, I did experiment in the kitchen), I have a couple that will try new foods, and one that even enjoys some different tastes. As far as I know none of them are as varied in their food trying as their dad. (I’ve eaten bugs on purpose and some were tasty ….)

So anyway I took my eldest daughter and her husband out to dinner this evening. The reason is this was her first week back at work after some time off. I just thought it would help not to have to cook dinner for one evening. Yes, we did go to a Sushi Bar/Japanese Restaurant. We went to the Koto Buki restaurant in Toledo.

If you like sushi, you should go. If you don’t, but you like some oriental foods, you should go. In addition to the sushi and sashimi, they have other oriental dishes. It is rather pricey when you start ordering a lot of Sushi. If you want less expensive, I guess you could order from the sides and appetizers. 😉

Anyway we all ended up eating all we wanted (and more) and had a good relaxing evening. As they say in the commercials, it was priceless.

We had a bit of wind today and into the evening. A few of us at work braved the elements and tried to go for a bit of a walk at lunch. Didn’t happen. It started to rain a bit, and it was driven hard into our faces. Not much rain, but it hurt. We went in and were lucky to find that there we were allowed to hit the buffet that was provided for a meeting. So today I got a free lunch. Can’t say that every day.

Anyway the wind and rainy conditions made me think of book and a video “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day”. As a family we would watch the video, and I remember reading the Pooh books to my daughters many times. Now, the Disney movie “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” was taken from the book “The House at Pooh Corners”. Other Disney Pooh movies were made from other chapters in this book and the first Pooh book “Winnie-the-Pooh”. My daughters, wife and I read the original books and some of the Disney versions based on their movies. Always fun to read and watch. And I think I can still get my voice into Eeyore every now and then. I tried to add voices to all the characters in the book, but the girls had the video voices to compare mine to. I think they liked my ‘Eeyore’. Maybe one daughter will comment?

So on this cool and blustery evening, I just have to say “Oh bother’.

Now of course there are the many tangents’ bloggers here and I really like to visit their sites, but I want to call my readers attention to a blog listed under Widows/Widowers. Check out SHR Images and Photography. The pictures are just stunning.

I will be the first to admit, I know very little about the art of photography. I enjoy taking pictures now and then, but it is now more for the technical side (thank goodness for Digital cameras) than any artistic drive. I take lots and lots of pictures, delete all the bad ones and keep a precious few. If I happen to take any with artistic appeal, it was all luck. I tend to see something I like and take pictures.

On the SHR site, I don’t think the pictures are taken in quite the same fashion. They touched me deeply. I thought I should share this with other readers of my blog. Enjoy

I just got caught up with the news for today (All the news I need to know anyway) and I noticed an article about Gmail being down today. The article stated that there was some anger directed toward Google for the outage. Really anger? Wow, it’s free email folks get over it….

I’m wondering why people would complain when something was free. I’ve heard complaints and more when the ‘free’ wi-fi is down at the coffee shop. People have complained in the supermarket when the free sample isn’t big enough, or not the right flavor. That free hotdog at the car dealer, comes with its very own car salesman?

I’ve been told that nothing in this life is free. We always have to pay something for it. Free TV, you get a lot of advertisements or in the case of PBS fund drives and commercials (usually between shows). You also get ‘product placement’ in the shows. Was that character really drinking that famous soft drink? Free email — Check the ads attached.

Even then, the price is usually something we consider inconsequential. But some people complain anyway. And you still get exactly what you pay for.

Of course this is a free blog too, unless, of course, there are ads attached… 😉

I’ve been using my GPS in a rather mundane way recently. I know the route I want to take, but I turn the GPS on anyway. Even though it never takes me the route or direction I normally go, it does keep very good track of my arrival time. That way I know if I have time to make a stop before I get to wherever I am going. Neat trick that.

This morning on my way into work, I noticed that I wasn’t getting yelled at as often. Wow, did this thing learn my pattern overnight? Then I noticed it wasn’t telling me when the turns were coming up. The only thing I heard from it, was “re-calculating” every time I deviated from its intended route. The route would show up mapped, but I would only “hear” about it when I made at least a 90 degree turn from the intended route. Something strange was happening.

Then I noticed something odd. My little blue truck on the screen was not driving on the mapped road. In fact, it looked to be about 0.2 miles off the road. If the GPS was correct, I was driving through fields, houses, trees and over creeks (all at 55 or so). No wonder it didn’t talk much, it didn’t really know where I was.

Apparently, I’m having some trouble getting satellite reception. This is the second time this happened in a week. I can’t find any news articles on GPS disruptions, so it may just be a local thing. I wonder….

I was talking today with my 3rd daughter and her husband about movies I have on VHS tapes. They remarked that they didn’t have a VCR, so they could not watch those movies. I casually remarked that they needed a USB VHS player. I never saw one, and wasn’t even sure if they did make them. Well, I found out that there is at least one company who makes them. So from
the company that brought you the usb turntable and the usb cassette player, ION brings you the VHS 2 PC player. Now you can watch your VHS tapes on your PC. You can also take your home VHS videos and put them on DVD. What more could you want? 😉

I didn’t see the 8-track to PC player. Or BetaTape to PC? Or Edison recording tubes to PC? Sheet Music to PC? Player Piano sheets to PC? OK, I’m getting silly, but what about the 8-track to PC. I had a few not too many years ago. I gave them to someone with a working 8-track player.

I noticed that they have a turntable that goes directly to an Ipod.

They have a 35mm slide to PC scanner and a few other items. Interesting stuff I ever win the lottery.

off the elevator or stairs.

This used to be one of my favorite things to say to people. There were times when it caught them completely by surprise, and other times when the got the joke. I’ve been to the top’s of many tall and natural locations.

So far

A few tall buildings in Toledo Ohio. I started in high school when one of the Toledo buildings had a restaurant near the top.

The Sears Tower in Chicago, when it was Still the Sears Tower

The CN tower in Toronto

The Empire State Building

Pontiac Silver Dome Top row

Tiger Stadium, second deck

The Arch in St Louis

Observation Deck at Niagara Falls

Ash Cave in Hocking Hills State Park Ohio (Jumped over the waterfall at the top of the cave, ok I jumped over the creek that becomes the waterfall.

There are other buildings in other cities, but I can’t recall them the names of all of them. The cities are Detroit Mi, Cleveland OH, Columbus OH, Cincinnati OH, Dayton OH, Ft Wayne IN.

I missed opportunities in California, Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota. I’m not even sure what tall buildings I missed there. But I did jump off of a pier in Ca. or was that a long walk on a short pier? 😉

Just remembering this evening to have fun with words…

Something weird is going on with the ads I see on many sites. I’ve been getting bombarded with ads for ‘bidets’. Now I would understand this if I had been making comments about toiletpaper, toilet humor, bathrooms, plungers or the like. Or even if I was doing a search to replace various plumbing fixtures. The only site I know of that had something to do with bathrooms, was the repair blog over at taylhis’s site.

Seeing the things I’m interested in, or places I frequent, I would expect ads about widows/widowers, maybe dating, single parents, college information, comic books, geek stuff, movies, books and a few other things. Bidets were at the bottom of my list of things I thought I would be interested in.

The other strange ad I’ve seen is for Ugg boots. While a fascinating site and the boots are quite comfortable (I had a pair of Ugg slippers once), I’m not currently in the market. But then again, I did write about finding boots for my college daughter.

Hmm, does Vet Tech talk suddenly bring up ads for Bidets and Ugg boots? I wonder. For now, I guess I will just be followed by these strange ads. (Check the tags, I’m in for it now)

I was checking out ThinkGeek and was surprised to see that the time just flew by. I thought for sure it was only 11:00, and it is really 12:30. I guess I found a few things I liked.

USB turntable for old vinyl records
thinking putty (silly putty with an attitude)
USB cell phone booster (oops out of stock)
Crayola Pen (looks like a crayon but is a pen)
R2D2 USB hub (I have a daughter who would like that)
USB rocket launcher
RC cars
RC helecopters
RC robots
Laser Pointers
and Astronaut Ice Cream!

And the list goes on and on. How much of this do I need? Not much. The most useful item seemed to be the USB cell phone booster. That may be nice for out in the country, but $100 nice? I’m not sure.

Oh well it is past 12:30 now, and I should get some sleep…

As I sit here and type this blog, it seems that there is a bit of rain falling. I can hear it hit the windows, roof and echo on the metal chimney. To me, this is a comforting sound. As long as the wind isn’t too strong, or the lightning too intense, I enjoy hearing it rain at night. I’m warm and dry in my house, and I know that we are receiving needed water.

It also brings back memories of walking in a warm summer rain with my wife. Not really worrying about getting wet or cold. Feeling relief from the summer’s heat. And feeling the warmth of our relationship.

I also remember hurrying from building to building of our local zoo when the cold spring or fall rains hit during one of our many excursions. Maybe stopping for a warm drink at the cafe or spending extra time in the warm tropical exhibits. And finally getting back to the van and putting the heat on.

Or back at the zoo during the Christmas Lights exhibit during those bitter winter rains. We actually enjoyed those evenings more, since the crowds would be much thinner. We would be dressed and ready for the rain with waterproof or repellent outerwear and umbrellas. We would look at the lights and the raindrops falling would reflect a variety of color. Of course the evening would include hot chocolate, coffee or tea.

And of course there are always those first spring rains that bring the green back to the area after the long grey and white winters. Memories of fun, love, laughter and light remind me that even during the coldest times, tho hope of spring and new life can be found in the same rains……….