Kindle Fire-two weeks until release

The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet will be at the stores in about two weeks. It will cost us $199. I thought it was interesting to see what it actually cost to manufacture the product. Obviously Amazon is gambling that we will try to fill it up with content that they sell. It seems a sure thing to be a hit with books, music, apps, movies to stream, buy or rent, and a browser with unlimited capacity. The company loses $10 per unit, but everything we put on it comes from them, through the company store it seems. O.K. by me, it looks like a winner unless something goes wrong with the hardware. I'll take a chance.

To: A.V. blogger

A.V. blogger,

Thanks for the comment. Here is a snap of that particular small garden 'before the wilt'. Hazel finds it a little difficult to dig and weed on her knee's these days, so it will be all mine next year. I'm in the process of deciding what I might incorporate in with flowers. Maybe some herbs or maybe one of a kind type of flower. We have a great garden spot in our town called KINGWOOD Horticultural Center that is a great place to see new stuff . Of course out there all the conditions are the best so our stuff is a laugh next to theirs. Of course we have fun comparing theirs to ours. We sometimes think we should wear a bag over our heads when we mention Kingwood and our stuff in the same breath. But I think we have more fun than they do.

KISS

I have been told by a reliable source that my eldest son drops in here from time to time to see what his old man is up to, and see if I have become certifiable as yet. As a reward for doing that, here is a group of gentlemen he liked a lot in his youth.

Yeah yeah, it's been great

wilted garden


Yeah the changing seasons are great, but
as I get older I appreciate the season ing
on the food about as well.

It scares the bejesus out of me to count
birthdays and realize I'm counting down
instead of up.

I am saddened by the fact that I used to
enjoy playing tennis at high noon with
perspiration dripping off of me like the
Niagara river and now I have to separate
mowing my lawn into a morning and
afternoon event.

I do crossword puzzles not for the pure
enjoyment, but like a race. It's now a race
to fill in the blanks this minute because
I may not remember the answer tomorrow.

But even though each step requires some
payment from an angry joint, or muscles
that don't really work without a protest or two,
it has been fun and if it were possible to
re-enlist, if I could take Grandma with me
as a signing bonus, I'd love to have a go
at it.

small accomplishments

I think this is an achievement. I know I cannot do it. I can't even memorize the states.



Garrison Keillor recites all the counties in his state of Minnesota.

Only $6200. Step up, they're going fast

The toilet of tomorrow

An icon of my youth bites the dust

Nothing new or unique about this. Another list of ten restaurants failing, except this one is, or used to be one of my favorites. Used to be because there hasn't been one close to me in many a year. But I sure loved their hamburgers, called Big Boys. When I was close to one it was known as Manner's Big Boy, then I saw one again years later and it was Fischers? Big Boy. Whatever I remember it was delicious.

7. Big Boy
> Change in sales (2001-2010): -68.6%
> Sales 2001: $580 million
> Sales 2010: $182.25 million
> Change in units (2001-2010): -65.2%

Big Boy is the restaurant with the most locations on this list. It is also, perhaps, the most well known. In 2000, the company’s owner, the Elias Brothers Corporation, declared bankruptcy following cash-flow problems and difficulties with expansions. The month before it filed for bankruptcy, the company closed 43 restaurants. The restaurant, which specializes in double-decker hamburgers, has not done very well since. In 2001 Big Boy had 405 locations. By 2010, that number had decreased to 141.

I bet 2000 will look like this.

Illustrations by French artist Villemard in 1910 of how he imagined the future to be in the year 2000.

I guess this might be close to SKYPE?

Our Working Life

How many of us go through our working life thinking just what this guy is thinking. Sadly, even in this country of free choice many of us work our forty some working years in jobs that we just fell into and for lack of inertia, lack of skills, lack of imagination, we remain.

I thought about it many many times in those forty some years about what would I like to be doing instead of what I was doing. You know what, I never knew, still couldn't tell you now to tell you the truth. Bad on me as they say. I admire those who loved their work and thought how great it would be to not care how much money you were making but just loved what you were doing. Oh well I've always been happy, maybe I should say stupid and happy.

Tomato's, Carbonara, Ham and more.

It's that time of year that is bittersweet. On one hand soon I will be able to quit mowing the lawn for this year. Thank God for that. It is the reality that I am getting older and my hip most times does not react well to mowing both the front yard and the back yard at the same time. I know it will happen, but either it's a man thing..I can do it, whatta you think I'm too old to do both at the same time? Of course I am unless I want to feel the pain to prove I'm still alive enough to do what I have been doing for the last almost forty years.

The temperatures are moderating and the evenings and nights are getting cooler, which is nice at bedtime. Just a little reading upon hitting the sack and kerplunk I'm asleep.

Looking back on Hazel's garden I think it could be proclaimed a success. This is the first in many years that the tomato's have been like the tomato's of old. She planted several varieties, but the big one was the Brandyboys. They were not so much on looks, big and shaped irregularly but big enough that you could slice the entire top off and have enough slices for many sandwiches, tasty as we've had in many years. Hurrah Hazel, Hurrah Brandyboys.

Speaking of Hazel, as I enjoy doing from time to time, she purchased a ham this week and she is going through her cook book and pleasuring my pallet with her many ways to serve ham. Today we had ham chunks, cooked in with green beans, and potatoes. Oh so good. After a breakfast with eggs and ham, and a supper of carbonara she has promised me a nice pot of bean soup, including of course the remainder of the ham.

Many of Hazel's recipes are in the cookbook in the sidebar. I am shamelessly behind adding recipes. I promise to be more diligent in that regard.

Seen above is the tomato. This one is/was one pound. Some others were bigger yet. They are not the prettiest tomato's but certainly the best tasting I've eaten in many years

More about Luther.

Three days ago I posted a paragraph or two about the BBC show Luther. I mentioned it was too grim for my taste and that was about it. Today in the New York Times there is a more in depth review of the show. If you are a regular viewer of the show it will fill in some parts you may have missed or wondered about. Here is the hyperlink to get there.