Taco Night

My husband is one of those guys that you love to hate. He is 6’4” – 180lbs and can eat anything under the sun. Our grocery bills each week mirror that of a family of 4. A trip out to dinner is a pricy proposition and one that we don’t do too often. The man can eat. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I came across a flyer for a local pub that offered Taco Night on Mondays. Tacos are $1. Rice & Beans are $1 and Margaritas are $2. The thought of going out to dinner with G and spending less than $10 for him to be well fed and sufficiently quenched is pretty unheard of. Last night, when G got home and asked what we should have for dinner, I informed him that we were headed out for Taco Night. He was a little skeptical and I was a lot skeptical but it turned out great. The food and drinks were good and we left there fat and happy for under $20 including a nice tip. It is interesting to see what some retail establishments will do to get people in the door now that times are tough. I’m definitely not complaining and will continue do my part to help stimulate the economy on a local level. What are some down and dirty tactics that you are seeing in your areas to try and jump start the local economy?

Spring in Colorado

With Spring officially here and Easter right around the corner, I would like to applaud Mother Nature for once more having a sense of humor when it comes to Spring in Colorado. Two Sunday’s ago it was a balmy 80 degrees. I sat on my deck with my husband sipping Margaritas and daring to believe that it was time to put away all of my sweaters and dig out my spring and summer clothes. HA! Four days later there was 18” of snow in my back yard and blizzard warnings throughout the state. Over the weekend, it was sunny and relatively warm so that most of the snow melted leaving us with a wet, slushy mess. The news last night called for “slight chance of snow in the Denver area with little to no accumulation”. Another Ha! Woke up this morning and my yard was covered and the deck had another inch of two of wet, snow. Apparently meteorology is a guessing game. The forecasters here are wrong more than they are right and still bring in 6-figure incomes. Oh and another thing… If one more person says to me “We need the moisture so badly” I will scream. I get that we are in a drought and absolutely need the moisture but it’s spring…let it come in the form of rain. If I don’t see any more snow until next fall, I will be a happy girl. Unfortunately for me it looks like there are several opportunities over the next week to come to terms with the fact that Spring may have arrived in some places but definitely not in Colorado.

We're Off

I leave you in most capable hands, until Friday when its back to pot-luck.

Toad

NOLA Question

May I walk you down memory lane? Again I need your help.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I used to spend some time in NOLA. In Metarie was a fabulous old restaurant. Reminded one in many ways of Antoines.

Can anyone remember the name? Is it still there?

Thank you once again, as always.

Toad

The Worst

My final contender for the worst car ever may be a surprise to many of you. It's a car I own and adore. It was built during the heyday of British labor troubles. It's from the era which demanded Maggie Thatcher's rise from obscurity. My contender, the Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and its kissing cousin, the Bentley T.

To my eye the Bentley T is beautiful. It's iconic. It's driving your den. 19 cows died to provide the leather interior. A tree was felled to book match the wood. An engine virtually unchanged since the war wafts you through traffic. Let the proles worry about the 8 miles per gallon. You are above the masses in your Rolls Royce.

So what's not to love? Unlike many old cars the RR/B demands your respect. You ignore this car at your peril. IT WILL KILL YOU IF IGNORED TOO LONG.

Most cars, you roll to the back of the garage, shine it up and pull it out on a sunny day, drive for a couple of hours, put it back into the garage unthought of for several months, and then do it again. Do that in a Shadow and your friends will read about your grieving family.

Several super secret RR safety features will bite the unwary so hard they will never come unloose. For instance, if the engine is turned off, the car HAS NO BRAKES. Should you push a Rolls out of the way, it may not stop.

Put her in neutral, give her a push, not only will the brakes not work, you won't be able to force it into gear to stop. Won't go. A bad alternator can get you killed.

There are at least 5 other hidden yet instant killers on these cars. Uninitiated shoppers can find old Shadows pretty cheap. It's a false economy. I love mine, but I respect it more.

So why do I keep mine? I'm looking forward to the day our children take away our keys. In my fantasy world, I plan to become a sorority service project. We'll sellect a sorority, and each pledge will become our chauffeur for a week.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, about 12:30, a young lady will come over, fire up Camilla, help Mrs. T and I into the car, drive us to the library and then off to lunch. On the way home we can stop at the grocery or post office. Old people love that.

I'd do it today but it would be a real tough sell. At home and the sorority house.

Toad

Love at first sight?

Do you believe in love at first sight?

Allow me to share a story. When Katy was little, we lived next door to Rex and Sallie, a couple a few years older than we. Sallie went to University of Missouri. Rex was a football player at Arizona State. During Sallie's sophomore year, ASU played at MU. Sallie got one look at Rex on the sidelines, said that he was the one, transferred to ASU in January, looked him up, let him know he was the one, ended up marrying the lad, and they had 5 years of wedded bliss.

Around year 6 things turned south. Rex finished graduate school, and got a fabulous job offer in Saudi Arabia. Sallie was Jewish, and wasn't inclined to go. I still see her around periodically.

I fell head over heels the first time I saw Mrs. T. That was 13 years ago, and have never looked back. Boys and girls it's out there. You need to be open to the possibility.

Toad.

Wouldn't it be cool

Anyone else remember Chicago Hope?

Wouldn't it be incredibly cool if ER ended as an homage, the same way as CH?

Toad

Nahlins

About this time last month I mentioned Mrs. T and I were off to New Orleans for several days. We leave Monday. Darling daughter Katy will be in full charge around here in my absence. We'll return late Thursday.

Judging by our itinerary we are going to eat ourselves into culinary comas. Breakfast at French Market or Court of Two Sisters.

Luncheon at Commanders Palace. Dinners at Brennans, K Paul and Brousards.

Should you have any great shopping or sight seeing suggestions pass them on. My only plan thus far is to stop by Perlis to try on the GTH White Linen Suit I ordered last spring. It finally came in. Hopefully, I''ll get to visit Julia Reed's House on First Street as well.

Toad

Could this be the worst?

Remember the Lotus Europa? Just might be the worst automobile ever built. It's sole redeeming feature is that for its time it was gorgeous.

Note the size of the lad climbing in, and remember that this was not a race car. Your eyeballs did just line up with the bumper of the Caddy in front of you. A pick up could pull over you and never know it.

The late Jimmy Clark used to race for Lotus which got me thinking about this beast. Lotus's hallmark was to make a car as light as they could, then make it lighter, on the supposition it would go faster.

So imagine some of this cars features. It sat two, which was important, because it's always good to have someone to help you push. Only a fool would leave home in one expecting to arrive at his destination and back. The body was fiberglass. Not only light, but offered stunning crash protection. The engine was French.

Making the car lighter removed most of the supports, so the side impact support became the drivers and/or passenger's hip bone. Your chest, head and feet would protect the rear mounted engine in a front end crash. Your back would protect the engines forward momentum in a rear crash.

It was physically impossible to get a girl into one, in spite of what the ads showed.

Occasionally, I'll see one at an old car show, and smile. A buddy of mine received one for his 16th birthday. Sold it 6 months later. This I promise is my last car thing for a while.

Toad

Happy New Year Part 3

Calendars are funny things.

From 150 AD until 1582 (or 1752, more later) March 25 was New Years Day. Huh? Allow me to explain.

Around 150 AD Catholic church leaders decided by unanimous consent to reinvent the Roman holiday Saturnalia, the winter solstice, as the celebration of the birth of Jesus. December 25th was the agreed upon date. With me so far?

Around the same time, devotion to Jesus' mother came into vogue, and a feast day known as Lady's Day was created. Lady's Day marked the beginning of the church year. Not so coincidentally, Lady's Day, now known as Annunciation Day was placed nine months before Christmas, or March 25.

If you have ever wondered why the 8th month (oct ober) was really the 10th, or the 10th month (Dec ember) was 12 begin looking here.

Around 1582, the Gregorian calendar was instituted throughout Catholic Europe. Its big improvement was to reinstate New Years on January 1, and moved the major liturgical celebrations to a more fixed time period. It took almost 200 years for the remainder of Europe to finally get in step. England didn't change until 1752.

And there boys and girls is your history lesson for the day. How, or more importantly, why do I know this? It's my birthday.

Toad

Mommas don't let your sons...

Remember that old country song "Mommas don't let your sons become bloggers"?

I'm why that song was written.  Let me explain.

I may have mentioned, that I'm not always as smart as I'd hope to be.  So for the past several weeks I have been up to my eyeballs trying to figure out what happened to my daily blog titles.  I worried myself sick trying to identify the how and whys of fixing the problem.

So finally, I drug my professional programming genius son in law, kicking and screaming into the case.  He took a look at it, and about a minute later, without calling me (out loud) a dumbass or anything, suggested that if I changed the color of my blog titles from white, on the white background.... 

Thank you Gary.

Toad

Disappearing Title Test

Why is that sometimes my titles don't show? I must admit it cause me woe.

That is all.

Biscuits

I have taken leave of my senses.

I'm dog sitting this week, it's late in the evening, my fuzzy charge is asleep on my chest, I am watching a PBS program " The Rise of Southern Biscuits", and getting hungry. Three little ingredients.

Now, I know as well as you, that you make the best biscuits ever was.  I also know my biscuits will make you weep, every day you can't have one.  Every mother, in my case father, made the finest biscuits ever,and all else fail in comparison.  

Few other foods are so rooted in home.  Sadly, it's also a dying art.  Families don't take the time to preserve their traditions, and we all lose as a consequence.  

Toad

Boyhood Hero

This is one of my boyhood heroes. Mr. Jimmy Clark, a Scottish farmer turned World Champion Grand Prix driver. This photo was taken immediately after his first F1 win, the 1962 GP of Belgium. Jimmy died in a race car, in Hockenheim Germany in 1968.

For years, this photo lived next to a picture of Jean Shrimpton. My how times have changed.

Toad

Regional Cuisine

Is there a local delicacy, something that can only be found within 50 miles or so of your house?

We were having this discussion over dinner last night. Eastern Missouri is known for two things, which you couldn't find with money in the western side. Toasted Ravioli and pork steaks.

Toasted Ravioli is a deep fried ravioli, served with red dipping sauce and Parmesan cheese sprinkles on top. Generally, served as an appetizer, its as ubiquitous as Budweiser. Pork steaks are whole pork butts cut into 1- 11/2 inch steaks. Best served bar b-qued.

Western Missouri prides itself on its chicken fried steak. CFS is essentially batter dipped and pan fried round steak. Absolutely unavailable in or around Mayberry.

Philly has scrapple and cheese steaks.

What's available only near your back yard?

Toad

Thanks MOTR

Thank you MOTR for the recommendation of The House on Tradd Street, by Karen White. It was a pleasant diversion for an afternoon.

Toad

hope for the future

Crocs auditor raises a red flag
Posted Mar 19th 2009 7:00AM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Bad news, Crocs Inc (CROX)

Not so long ago, Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) was riding high as its rubberized clog-like sandal shoes were the hottest thing in retail.

Now the fad has died, sales have fallen through the floor, the economy has tanked and worst of all, the company's auditors have "expressed substantial doubt" about the "company's ability to continue as a going concern."

This is the first good news I've seen in quite a while.

I'm shedding crocodile tears over this. A very good friend of our family purchased a substantial portion of the company's shares when they went public several years ago. He was unbearable as the stock price rose to silly numbers. He hasn't sold. Gravity works. Enuf said.

Toad

A German Lemon

I was minding my own business this afternoon, surfing through the local Craigslist and came across one of these treasures for $2100. I hadn't seen or thought of one in years. One of the world's best worst cars.

For you youngsters its a mid 70's Porsche 914, 2 litre in this case.

The car is a hybrid VW /Porsche bastard. At the time this was built, VW was attempting to buy Porsche, and thought they could build a car together to see how things would work out.

The two companies took the worst of their parts bins and built a car. It was slow, the engine was post bug VW. Mostly ugly, until you removed the leaking lift off roof, and sounded horrible. Porsche's contribution came later with the 6 cylinder models. For Porsche's they were cheap, for VW expensive.

Should you find one now, be very careful getting in and out of it. The leaking roof eventually caused the floors to rot. Other than that they are just rubbish, like much of the 70's automobile industry. For those not keeping track, VW never did buy Porsche. Porsche is now VW's largest shareholder.

Toad

Create your own Tartan

I received an email from Scot web store.com this afternoon announcing their new product. A create your own tartan service. I have no connection with them except as a happy customer. The pound is cheap. This might be fun.

I quote from their email:

"Our Biggest News for Years

Today we're taking the wraps off our latest, and maybe greatest, feature. And you, our valued members, are invited to be the very first to use this free facility. We think it may change the world of tartan forever. Read on...

And to celebrate, we're giving our best-ever member offers on tartan! For a short time only you'll get deep deep discounts on tartan fabrics, swatches, oddment bags, and superb tartan products. These deals will never be repeated.



Design your own kilts, skirts, fabrics...

Now you can now design your own tartan kilts, skirts, fabrics, or any other tartan product - exactly as you like. It's easy, fun, affordable, and infinitely creative. Design your own family, business, or club plaid, without the traditional costs of expert services.

Read all about this exciting new development below. Then try it for yourself. And do please take a moment to tell us what you think...



A tiny catch - it's Invitation Only...

But don't worry, you're invited! Just ask for a personal invitation...

Because this is so ground-breaking, we want to restrict access for the initial launch. We'd prefer our existing customers and friends to road-test the facility before we admit the public at large. So we have an initial batch of 500 invitations available, on a first-come-first-served basis. (Others will be added to a Waiting List.)

And once you're in, you can invite a few of your own friends in turn. Five, in fact. This way we know it's going to be mostly tartan lovers who use the service in its early stages.



Load any existing Tartan

If you've never designed a tartan before (and let's face it, this probably describes most of us!) the easiest way to start is by playing around with ones you already know. We make this easy.

You can search our Gallery for any tartan already recorded with the Scottish Tartans Authority. Or you can load designs other users have created and chosen to share (optional).



Edit or design from scratch

The heart of our new facility is a superbly easy-to-use interface to let you design your own tartan patterns. If you've seen any other system like this before, think again! No technical knowledge is required. It's easy-peasy, but still a very powerful, tool.

Click on colours, choosing from several different palettes. These include a Simple set, a Pro set, and another set based on our own weaver's threads, with photographs of actual cones of yarn!

Once you've picked your colours, just drag the sliders that have appeared. It's that easy. And as you do so, your plaid will appear magically before your eyes. It all happens instantly on screen (through technical wizardry that's so clever we've patented it!).



Save and share your creations

You can save your tartan designs to come back t o whenever you're logged into our site. Not only that, but if they are 'Finalised' (which means no more editing!) you'll also find them appearing as an additional purchasing option for relevant products, such as kilts or skirts, in our main web site.

You can also opt to share your designs in the online Gallery, just by ticking a box. This means other users can also comment on them, design variations of them (which are fully tracked), and even buy fabrics in your designs. And if anyone does so, you'll earn a 10% Royalty in Scotweb Points!


And, of course, the best bit is...

You can buy fabrics, and order custom-made kilts, skirts, household goods, ties, scarves, tartan accessories, cuddly toys, and dozen of other products in any tartan you design!

We can weave your fabric in a short length (only a little longer than a single traditional kilt) in a medium or heavy weight wool, with a proper kilting selvedge. And we can also produce light weight wool, polyviscose, polycottons, and various other fabrics at incredibly affordable prices.

We also offer massive discounts for bulk orders. And for professional or corporate designs, we can also provide a fully tailored design, review, and liaison service including special dying of yarns in your precise colour specifications, and expert help from a world-leading authority"

Toad

Channeling Bunny

There is a blog I'd love to read.

The creators would be the cool kids. You for instance. As the mood strikes you would post your best finds, wish list, party pictures, public service announcements, invitations, fashion and style tips. Everything you ever wanted to post, but didn't fit your regular blog.

It's also an outlet for those who didn't want the everyday pressure of their own blogs. Everyone could post.

I haven't yet figured the logistics, but I have created a blog Channeling Bunny

Now, much like a Face Book friend I invite you to join. Let me know if you'll play, invite your friends and I'll add your (their) name to the list of contributors. I figure a couple of hundred would do.

If its a really dumb idea let me know, and in a heart beat I'll cancel it. Sounds like a good idea though. Perhaps someone is already doing it. What do I know?

Toad

PS I am in full time grandpa mode for the next couple of days, so things may be spotty. I don't think so though. I hope not.