Category Archives: Business

2024, Business, Family, Mysteries
21 Comments

When I walked into the bathroom yesterday, I noticed that YA’s toothbrush is wearing a space helmet.  I asked her about it and she said it’s to keep the toothbrush clean if it falls on the floor.  Apparently when she plugs in her hairdryer to dry her hair, she often knocks the toothbrush over.  Another one of those items you never knew you needed.

Occasionally I see lists of these kind of “needed” items, usually on Amazon.  Things like:  Dill Pickle Lip Balm, a 12-pack of Flying Rubber Chickens, 101 Pooping Puppies Jigsaw Puzzle (1000 pieces no less), Fridge Jar Fork Caddy (this is a holder with a plastic fork/grabber that attaches to a jar in your fridge like olives or pickles) and my favorite – the Light-Up St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Headband. 

It’s amazing to me what people can get a production loan for; I’ve always wanted to be a fly on the wall listening to whoever first pitched “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

My first thought about the toothbrush helmet was how silly it was.  Now I’m wondering whether MY toothbrush ends up on the floor when YA dries her hair. 

Do you think I should get a toothbrush space helmet?  What color should it be?

2024, Business, Food, Mysteries

The Last Straw!

42 Comments

I have to admit that I am a regular at the Taco Bell drive-through.  Bean burrito with extra red sauce, Fiesta potatoes and usually a large diet Pepsi.  This is my normal order – this stop is usually if I’m out and about doing errands.  I never just leave the house to go there.

My most-stopped-at location is the one near Southdale as many of my errands have me in that neighborhood.  About four months ago I noticed that the straw that came with the diet Pepsi was very flimsy and split while I was trying to get it through the little hole on the lid, making it unusable.  If I’d been the passenger in the car, I probably could have jerry-rigged it but as the driver it wasn’t do-able.  Luckily I was on the way home.

I thought I was a fluke but the next couple of visits confirmed that they had switched to these crappy straws.  If you poke a good hole in the lid first with your finger and are VERY careful unwrapping the straw and putting into the cup, you’ll be ok but there are too many ways to screw this up.  I started taking a straw of my own re-usable straw in the car if I thought I might be hankering for a burrito but it wasn’t a perfect solution. Interesting side-note… it’s just this location.  The other location close to us hasn’t switched to the thinner option.

Last week I stopped by and realized I hadn’t brought my re-usable.  I thought about asking the drive-through guy for two straws but decided that was just too silly.  When he handed me my pop, he handed me two straws and I couldn’t help it; I burst out laughing.  He laughed too and said they’re giving out two straws now because so many folks have complained.

Reminded me of when my company changed to a thinner toilet paper ten years back.  I’m sure it was cheaper but if you use twice as much because it’s so thin, I’m pretty sure the savings go out the window.  The thin tp only last a few months.  I don’t know if people complained or if they realized right away they weren’t saving money.  Or both!

I will keep bringing my re-usable straw (if I remember) but am wondering how long it will take this location to figure out that giving out two thin straws isn’t smarter than just have decent straws.

What do you drink if you splurge on fast food?

2024, Business, Food, Mysteries

Twins?

24 Comments

There are a handful of ads that come into my Inbox (instead of Junk) – Einstein Brothers and Brueggers are two of those because they offer occasional coupons that I like, particularly my birthday freebies every year.  A couple of weeks ago, not only did an ad for each show up on the same day, they arrived one after the other in my Inbox.  If they hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have noticed that they have both launched the same sandwich on the same day.  See the photo above – I won’t even tell you which is which.

My first, very fleeting, thought was that it was a coincidence.  Then I thought it must be an amazing corporate espionage situation.  But the pictures are almost identical so I ventured the thought to YA that perhaps Brueggers and Einstein Brothers were somehow related.  YA snorted and said “of course, they’re related –  they’re owned by the same company.” 

In the travel industry, hotels are always changing hands and my company had a actual department to keep track of this kind of thing (Industry Relations).  Who owns what was never interesting to me.  I had it suggested to me once that I could boost my career by keeping up with the industry better than I did.  Cue the laughter.  Despite both my sisters thinking of me as “a successful career woman” (cue more laughter), I never considered myself as such.  I had a job, a job that I liked, a job that I was very good at.  I didn’t want to be a team leader, a manager, a director… just wanted to do my job.  I did get every promotion along the way (apparently in record time according to my old boss) but it never changed the job that I did…. Only changed my title and added a bit more to my paycheck.

So it doesn’t surprise me that I didn’t know that Brueggers and Einstein Brothers were siblings.  It does surprise me that they launched the same sandwich on the same day and from the looks of it, probably used photos from the same photo shoot.  It doesn’t seem a good way to differentiate the two chains.  Of course, my idea of what corporate America should do and what corporate America does are clearly not in sync.  At all!

Tell me about how you like your bagel sandwiches!

2024, Business, Food, Uncategorized

Holy Cornmeal!

24 Comments

Husband tried to make a hoe cake recipe the other day, and it was a disaster. Hoe cakes are traditional cornmeal pancakes. Husband’s family is from Eastern Ohio and West Virginia, and love all things with cornmeal. They even like cornmeal mush. I am really not a fan, I am afraid. I like my corn on the cob with butter dripping off it.

Husband decided that the problem with his hoe cakes was the cornmeal. Ours was too coarse. I found a Southern mill in Alabama that had extra fine ground white corn meal and ordered it. I was delighted to read that the company motto for the cornmeal was To God Alone Belongs All Glory. Well! That really appeals to the Lutheran in me. My college motto was Soli Deo Gloria. JS Bach initialed SDG at the bottom of many of his compositions. I may not like cornmeal or hoe cakes, but the company seems great! I love yeast raised pancakes and waffles.

What are your favorite kinds of pancakes? What company slogans do you like? Favorite Bach compositions?

2024, Business, Food, History, Mysteries, Travel

Where in the World is VS?

56 Comments

Sliced bread was invented here. That’s right — the Taggart Company was the first place to start selling pre-sliced loaves of bread.

This is home to the world’s largest Children’s Museum, with over 130,000 artifacts, including an indoor carousel and dinosaurs guarding its walls

The original Union Station in this city was the country’s first “union” passenger rail station. Its initial construction was in 1853, but was rebuilt 30 years later. Union Station was frequented by many prominent figures, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman + Woodrow Wilson.     

The downtown Athenaeum was designed by Kurt Vonnegut’s architect grandfather.  It was originally used as a gymnasium and clubhouse by German-Americans striving to preserve their culture.

This city’s beloved Slippery Noodle Inn was a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, with enslaved people hiding out in the building before catching the northbound train nearby. Not only that, but it was also a watering hole during the prohibition era + a mobster hangout.

Speaking of Kurt Vonnegut, this is the home of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library!

Where am I?  Extra points for knowing WHY I am here!

2024, Business, Food, Gatherings, Mysteries

End of an Era?

36 Comments

I saw on the news that the last Hooters in West Virginia closed last month with a large candlelight vigil prior to its demolition.  The local news mentioned it ahead of time and several hundred people showed up. 

The vigil part of the story didn’t surprise me but the fact that there are still Hooters was the shock to me.  I haven’t heard anything about Hooters and I never see them anywhere but a quick search reveals that there are over 400 worldwide, including one right in my backyard – at the Mall of America.  Guess that’s what happens when you only go to the Mall of America once a year (to redeem birthday coupons at Auntie Annies and Cinnabon).  Since I’ve never eaten at a Hooters (just seems a little too tasteless of a gimmick to me), I can’t say whether all of West Virginia franchises closing is a loss or not.  But I know the chances are slim that I would ever go to a candlelight vigil for one.

Is there a restaurant that you’d consider attending a vigil for if it were closing?

2024, Business, Farming Update, Food, Mysteries, Nature

Spring Approacheth

48 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Evidently at some point last summer, I took the corn planter seed units, the thing in the planter that picks up an individual seed, and drops it in the ground, I took the seed units up to my dealer to be inspected and upgraded as necessary. I say ‘evidently’ because I forgot about that until he called asking what I wanted done with them. Gosh, I’d have been ready to run out and plant some day and sure been surprised by the hole in the bottom of the tank where these go. And I’d have spent a long time digging around in the shop trying to find them!

They are getting new backing plates and brushes. $600 roughly.

I was watching an online auction last week and I had bid on a couple used corn planters newer than mine. I have a John Deere 7000 planter. Had been completely rebuilt when I bought it 20-some years ago. I think I paid $6000 for it. The 7000 planter was made from 1974 to 1986. At the auction were two John Deere 1750, 6 row planters. The same size as mine, but much newer than mine. One was in pretty good shape, and one was pretty beat up. But I figured if I could get it cheap, I could fix it up on my own time. They sold for $16,185 and $14,259 respectively. Plus, commission. Wowzer! A couple nice tractors: a 2020 front wheel assist with 4000 hours, sold for $181,500. A 2012 4-wheel drive with a blade sold for $178,000. I didn’t even bid on those. I should have, early, just to say I did. Golly.

So anyway, $600 for planter unit overhauls is a good deal. The important thing about planting, is having each seed dropped in the right place, 6” apart. That’s called “singulation”. And looking at the fields last year, my singulation wasn’t very good. Lots of misses, or doubles. The repair should help with that.

If you think about an ear of corn, next time you’re having corn on the cob, pay attention to the kernels. Notice the kernels at the bottom are sort of large and round? While the middle ones are flat? Seed is sorted like that, and some guys ask for ‘flats’ or ‘rounds’ in particular. Clyde, did you sort out seed like that?

I did get the starter put back in the  630 tractor. Bailey helped.

A hot air balloon landed at our place on Sunday. The dogs alerted me to it first and I saw it was way off to the south. A little later I noticed it really high off to the south. A little while later, it was very low and close to us, then it went up a bit again, then back down and landed at our place. He took off from the college, which is only a couple miles as the balloon flies, but there was no wind and it took him 90 minutes to get to our place and he didn’t have enough gas to go too much further. It was a real fun crew of people and for the first time in the multiple balloon landings at our place, they actually had champagne and did a toast.

That night I picked up pizza from a new place in Rochester, Red Savoy pizza. I picked it up wearing a John Deere cap, and the owner told me he worked at John Deere in Waterloo for a lot of years and he and I talked about tractors for 20 minutes. It was fun to meet these two diverse groups of such nice people. It felt good to reaffirm there are just fun, nice people out there.

WHAT HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN? HAVE YOU MET FUN PEOPLE LATELY?

2024, Business, Farming Update, Seasons

LIFE!!!

72 Comments

The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

This weather! AC one day, heat the next. We had the windows open Monday and the wellhouse heater on Wednesday night.

Sigh. Lately… Every single thing is just a pain. I’m on the struggle bus. Software upgrades before I can proceed, mandatory password changes that take a while to implement, slow drivers, red lights, carwash lines… all very first world problems, but man, it’s exhausting. 

Monday my friend Jason and I spent the afternoon on the roof of the Rep Theater hanging over the edge, mounting a metal strip into which, a line of ‘LED’ lights will go. It’s the usual flat, tar roof, and we got a little dirty. And I have a tender spot by my underarm on both arms…

It’s gonna be really cool when done and working. I’ll have pictures when we get to that point.

I have done several stupid things this week. Fixing all the dumb things I’ve done keeps me occupied.

We have this new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC) at the Rep Theater. It all got turned on last Thursday. Then Tuesday I was doing stuff and out in the lobby I stopped to look at something. I was carrying a piece of gel; A red piece of plastic that goes in front of the lights to give them a color. I had removed a ‘return air’ vent cover on the wall, because we were repainting the wall. I laid the piece of gel in the hole of the vent and walked into another room to check something in there. And of course, that’s when the furnace started back up. And the piece of gel was gone. “Great”, I thought, “you’ve had this for 3 days and already sucked a piece of gel into it.” But I figured, it’s plastic, what could it really hurt? I checked the big air exchange unit, and it wasn’t in there. Oh well.

That night I realized I should check the filter at the bottom of the furnace. Yep, there it is, inside there… but that slot is only an inch wide. I poked at it with a stick until I managed to shove it further up inside the duct. Twenty minutes later, after removing two shields off the furnace, I could get my arm in there and retrieve the gel. Whew.

As part of this whole HVAC project, we removed all the suspended ceiling tiles upstairs. Which exposed all the old telephone lines, old thermostat lines, and the plethora of internet wires the former tenants had used.

Most of which can be removed now. I have tracked down the actual internet line we ARE using for the phones and computers, so I know which one that is. While working on lighting for Hamlet, I cut a couple old phone lines I knew we’re not using so I could get them out of the way.

And then the general manager asked me why the fire alarm panel was beeping. Sigh. Crap. “Communication Error Line 2”. Took me a while to realize even though the phone system is using an internet provider, I still need a regular phone line between the modem and the fire alarm panel. Sigh. Of course I cut three lines; two of them had 4 wires in each of them and one was the size of your pinky finger and had 48 wires in it. Guess which one goes to the fire panel?

Yep, the big one. Phones are low voltage and they are wired using ‘pairs’ of wires. This was all coming back to me as I worked on it. The blue wire with white spots, and the white wire with blue spots are generally the first pair. Then it’s the Green and white pair, then orange and white pair third. Another trip to Menards for phone wire connectors and 40 minutes on a ladder with a flashlight in my mouth and I had that working again.

Did I mention the wind grabbed the side door and broke the door closer linkage? A mile up the road is a door place. Lukas is my buddy in there. I’m a regular. They had the part. Didn’t take too long to replace that, but it was just another thing.

I remember Dale and JimEd talking one morning and JimEd said he needed a sign: “WARNING! TWENTY FOOT CIRLCE OF EXASPERATION!” That’s me lately. Placating myself with chocolate covered peanuts isn’t the best solution, but it’s a yummy one.

Give us a telephone memory. First phone? Favorite phone? Childhood phone number?

2024, Business, Family, Fantasy, Technology

Cyber Highway

33 Comments

Yesterday YA had to leave her car at the dealership for a recall of some sort so I picked her up there and delivered her to the office.  When we pulled up, the front parking area was blocked off on both sides.  This, in and of itself, isn’t too extraordinary.  The building in which the travel division resides is also the “client building” and occasionally the front will be blocked off for a client arrival (which is usually accompanied by the cheering throngs).  But it soon became clear that something else was up as there were just a few parked cars on the side of the building and a couple of people were lounging about their parked vehicles. 

Turns out the company internet was down.  There were a handful of times that the internet was done in the past twenty years, the most notorious being when a squirrel committed suicide on a power line on top to Building 3.   A few times the power went with the internet which always led to flocks of folks at Caribou down the street, colloquially known as Building 7.  Most of the time though we just muddled on, working on documents, jumping into quick meetings or making phone calls until cyberspace was clear.

But these days it’s a different story.  EVERYTHING is tied to “the cloud”.  The phone is through the internet, document storage is on the cloud, the meeting platforms are online.  If the internet is down, there is no point in even going into the building.  So YA and I headed back home, with a quick stop at the Dunkin drive-through, and she quickly got her laptop fired up on the dining room table.  Luckily her using our home wifi for work doesn’t increase the cost.  And it was a shorter drive to take her to the dealership later in the day than to pick her up at the office.  Win-win!

If the internet were a real person, would they be a friend of yours?

2024, Business, home, TV

No Purchase Necessary

41 Comments

Now that I have a little more leisure after the holidays, I’ve had more time in my studio which also means more time with the tv on.  It’s astonishing to see what some actors are willing to do in commercials these days.  I will admit to a bit of snobbery about seeing quite famous folks doing commercials but even so….

Drew Barrymore and Sarah Jessica Parker are both hawking gaming apps right now.  (I’m not sure I want to know where these apps are getting the money to make/run these commercials.)   SJP’s commercial isn’t too silly but I’ve seen three DB adds so far and she acts like a moron in all of them. 

Ty Pennington, who used to do those makeover shows is also doing ads for a casino app.  Luckily I’ve only seen one – he is hanging upside down in a chimney wearing a Santa hat.  Idiotic.

John Travolta is selling something by wearing a Santa suit and doing disco, although his age is really showing as he dances.  It’s probably problematic that I’ve seen the commercial a couple of times in the last week but can’t remember the product. 

I’m not the target audience but I do wonder how much money these folks are getting paid to act stupid on national/international tv.  Part of me thinks they couldn’t pay me enough to do this but part of me thinks that if some product wanted to cough up a TON of cash, I might weigh the pros and cons.  I think “well, it would only run so long” but then I remember some of the old commercials we’ve dredged up here on the trail (“it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature”)… maybe my ad would go viral and I’d become famous and then where would I be?  But an infusion of cash wouldn’t be so bad either. I suppose it’s a good thing that I’ll never have to make this decision in my lifetime!

Any particularly heinous ads bugging you these days?