Rydell.com

Breeze

Checking a bike as oversized luggage on Breeze Airways

I wanted to bring a bike to Utah on Breeze Airways and checked their website for baggage guidelines. They claim this for bikes: * Hard-sided, padded bicycle cases must be less than 80 linear inches and weigh less than 70 lbs. Overweight and oversized bag charges still apply. I believe packing

NYTimes

Name your own price with the NYTimes!

$25 every 4 weeks for NYTimes seems excessive. But they have deals for $4 every 4 weeks. But then the special offer ends. They will send an email about the pending rate hike. So you can just click to cancel rather than accept the rate hike.

Review

Review: Hamburger Habit Sirloin Steak Sandwich

The local Habit offers a Sirloin Steak Sandwich and I love sirloin so I gave it a try. I looked for info on the steak sandwich on the Habit website and found nothing. So I'm not sure if it is just a test here or why it is

Apple

Apple's AI Summaries are awful

The only reason I haven't researched how to turn this off is because it is amusing how badly it screws things up.

Music

Louie Louie played by lots of students

The highlight of the area concert that combines the elementary, middle-school, and high school orchestras together: Louie Louie. Lyric excerpt: A fine little girl, she waits for me Me catch a ship across the sea Me sailed that ship all alone Me never think I'll make it home

Cox

Apple "Intelligence" also confused about Cox's broken billing emails

Previous post here. Apple's so-called "intelligence" can't correctly summarize Cox's stupid invoice bug. The battle of two awful software implementations battling each other.

Skiing

Review & Notes on Deer Valley

Partially organized notes and review after skiing Deer Valley for one day on February 20, 2025. I have looked forward to experiencing Deer Valley for about 10 years. We skied in Utah for several years in a row until we gave it up for Montana. But we could never go

Feedback fatigue

Fighting feedback fatigue - Incentivizing user feedback with charitable giving

After closing a support ticket with Do-It they offered to donate $5 to charity if I wrote some actual feedback instead of just saying they did a good or bad job. This is great. I am beginning to suffer from feedback fatigue. Too many interactions with companies online prompt them

Genmoji

Review: Apple's AI Created Emojis - Genmoji

I tried asking it to create a cowbell emoji. Shockingly poor results. Review: 2/11

Space X

SpaceX Launch Viewing Pre-Dawn

Previous posts about evening launches here and here. On Friday January 24 2025 SpaceX had a launch from Vandenberg at 6:07am. Sunrise that day was 6:51am. So the launch was 44 minutes before sunrise. I suspected that the jellyfish effect would be similar to the moments after sunset.

Christmas

Neon style RGB Christmas Light sign

I am typically a reluctant participant in the xLights Around the World Project during Christmas. We don't even use xLights to program our Christmas lights. We are devotees of the program Vixen. But one of the main organizers of the project is a friend and I like the

McDonald's

How many sauces are you entitled to with your McNuggets?

According to the McDonald's app you get 1 sauce with 4 McNuggets, 1 sauce with 6 McNuggets, 2 sauces with 10 McNuggets, and 3 sauces with 20 McNuggets. If you get 1 sauce with 4 McNuggets it seems like you should get 5 sauces with 20 McNuggets! Or

Review

Review: Panda Express Apple Pie Roll

Not much to say. It is gross. But I didn't get sick from eating it. Review: 2/13

Update

UPDATE: Other people noticed Reese's scam pumpkins

Update to my scam alert about Reese's pumpkins. Several news articles have popped up about a lawsuit because of the blatant false advertising: The $5m lawsuit over a missing jack-o’-lantern faceEverywhere you look, there’s a new lawsuit for false advertising.HubSpotJuliet Bennett RylahHershey’s slapped with

Review

UPDATE: Nothing Bundt Cakes Review

I explored the value of different Bundt offerings in my prior review. But all the calculations must change now. On my latest order I noticed a $1.22 "online service fee." Junk fees from my favorite bakery! Shameful! I have decided to update my review of Nothing Bundt

FPP

We are living in the automation future

Went outside with Cal to test the Christmas lights. 1. Use my iPhone to access the web console for Falcon Player so I could start the lights. 2. Realize the lights on the porch are still on. Use Home Assistant on my iPhone to turn them off. 3. Realize the

Review

Review: Exotic Pringles

Quick Pringles reviews. Carnitas taco: Tastes like pork is inside my nose. Review: 1/30 Street corn: Actually pretty good. Review: 24/30 Prawn: Just like a shrimp cocktail at Mastros! 30/30

Stye relief

Relieving Styes

I recently had a stye that looked terrible and was a giant pain. Right in the midst of peak stye, the NYTimes Mini crossword had 5 down: Eyelid irritation. Stye! Coincidence? Or the NYTimes mocking my stye style? Relief for the stye came when a friend recommended OCuSOFT Lid Scrub

Review

Review: Chicken Big Mac

Alternate title: "Joe is Hungry? More like Joe is Wrong!" On a recent trip to Ireland I was able to make one stop at a McDonald's. I wanted to see if the Shamrock Shake was available year-round in Ireland. It is not. 😦 The McDonald's

Review

Lahinch Golf Club & Pons Asinorum

I played the Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland in September 2024. On the 17th hole I discovered the hole was named "Pons Asinorum." I asked the caddies (Rocky & Olly) what that meant. Not only did they not know what it meant, they never even knew the hole

Fatboy

FatBoy Ice Cream Sandwich Quality Control Issues

We have been enjoying FatBoy icecream sandwiches for a few years. But the latest box bought in August 2024 has had major quality control issues. Almost all the sandwiches have had the "cookie" upside-down. And the sandwich I had today which prompted this blog post had one cookie

Review

Review & Scam Alert: Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins

Over two and a half months until Halloween and I saw some Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins for sale already. These looked pretty fun though because the wrapper showed Jack-o-lanterns with cutout eyes and a mouth on them. I immediately was suspicious though. Would they actually have those eyes

Review

Review: Grilled Watermelon

An Instagram reel popped up and showed someone grilling a steak and a "watermelon steak." Just a big slice of watermelon on the grill. I tried it out on July 4. It was revolting. Review: 1/248

Review

Review: Lego Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit

I haven't put together a Lego in many years. I was never that into Lego. But I really wanted this model showing the sun, earth, and moon and how they rotate. I remember a similar model in our elementary school library. Frances and I put it together together

Review

Review: Big Cheez-It® Crunchwrap Supreme® & Tostada

Always a sucker for a new weird food I was excited to try the cheez-it items at taco bell. I had the Cheez-It Crunchwrap and Cheez-It Tostada. They were both bad. Bad texture, bad taste. Bad. Review: 3/11