Travel Atlas Obscura In Durham Atlas Obscura is my favorite site for finding something interesting to see when on vacation in any location. Durham has five listings: 1) Duke Lemur Center 2) Bennett Place 3) Tuba Collection 4) The Can-opener bridge 5) Hidden Dinosaur I had already seen the 11 foot 8 can-opener bridge but
Weather Hurricane Ian Kari made a nice map showing Ian avoiding Eddie and Fletch as it came inland. I was also in Durham on Friday September 30th and although they called for a tropical storm warning and cancelled afternoon classes at the university there was nothing more than some wind and moderate rain.
Food Modern Apizza Between Bar, Pepe's, and Modern Apizza in New Haven I believe Modern has the best pizza.
Food Pepe's Pizza in New Haven Pepe's claims to be one of the first pizza spots in the USA. The restaurant has a great atmosphere and the pizza is great. But Bar in New Haven has a better thin crust pizza in my opinion.
Food Birch Beer I had never heard of Birch Beer. At a pizza place in New Haven the waitress offered it to me and couldn't believe I had never heard of it. It is basically root beer but it is clear like sprite.
Music High School Football San Juan Hills only has three home games this year. The band wasn't ready for a show on the first game and the second game is homecoming so the band doesn't perform. So they will only perform during the third game. But it is still fun
Golf 9 Holes of Golf Calvin has played a total of 8 rounds of golf. He told me on the last round that he thought 9 holes would be a good number for an afternoon. So we tried that on our most recent outing. He was right. It was a good number of holes for
Food Mexican Pizza is Back Taco Bell says the Mexican Pizza is back permanently. I picked one up in Mission Viejo and it was great.
Christmas Nick Holonyak Jr., pioneer of LED lighting, dies There wouldn't be a light show without Nick Holonyak Jr. “It’s a good thing I was an engineer and not a chemist. When I went to show them my LED, all the chemists at GE said, ‘You can’t do that. If you were a chemist, you’
Concerts Shut Up Cards I can't believe how often I'm at a concert or performance and the people near me are talking or whispering. Sometimes they aren't even trying to be quiet about it. So I ordered some shut up cards to try handing to people next time
History History Lesson at the San Juan Chapel The LDS chapel next to San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano has a really interesting tile mural and two plaques. Text of plaque one: THE MORMON BATTALION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, 1846-47 MADE UP ENTIRELY OF MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS,
Golf El Caballero Country Club I played in the 2022 SCGA Junior annual fundraiser tournament in September at the El Caballero Country Club. There was some interesting history about the club they had on a poster in the clubhouse.
Do not speed in Switzerland (again) Liechtenstein gave me a ticket for speeding and now Switzerland caught up with me. Two tickets in one trip. This one also appears to only be about 70 euros. But their speeding cameras are definitely out to get you. They send the ticket information to the rental car company. Then
Signs Overly Courteous A great message at the end of the Mountain to Meadow trail in Big Sky, Montana.
animals Ptarmigan Point I had never heard of a ptarmigan before this summer. One of the sporting clay stations in Moonlight is named "Ptarmigan Point." The P is silent. Ptarmigan are grouse. It was explained to me that they aren't stupid like people think. They are just good at
animals Moose A moose in Big Sky. They say moose are very dangerous. They charge people for no reason.
Travel Do not speed in Switzerland/Liechtenstein In 2016 I drove a few hundred kilometers in Switzerland and a few months later I got a speeding ticket in the mail. It was about $600 and was very difficult to send the payment for the fine correctly. I had to wire money to Switzerland three times before I
Driving One tip for teaching someone how to drive Frances is the third child we have taught to drive. We have learned one thing worth sharing. If more than one adult or driver is in the car then only one person (the person sitting next to the driver) should be allowed to make comments or suggestions to the student
Shopping Keeping Your Shirt Tucked In I first found these shirt stays when I was umpiring little league games and wanted my shirt to stay tucked in better. They look ridiculous but do the job well.
Audio tours Review of Autio The Autio app plays short audio clips or tours as you drive around. This should be something that I love. Audio guides plus podcasts on your phone in the car. So far I have listened to many of the audios driving from Orange County through Utah and Idaho to Montana.
Food Back to School Night Tacos Thanks to covid I missed two years of back-to-school nights. This year it was back to normal. 10 minutes in each class and 10 minutes between each class. And tacos before it all starts.
Ops Strange Math for Gusto Status Page The Gusto status page admits their site was down for 27 minutes on August 31st. But claims 99.99% uptime for the last 90 days. 90*24*60=129,600. (129,600-27)/129,600 = 99.979% 99.99% uptime is very difficult to achieve. So I'm bothered by