bobmacliberty

Rick has his own coffee beans??? 🤔😁😜

Graham - I love a Full English! Especially the baked beans and surprising to me, even the black pudding. It's one of my favorite (among many) things about visiting England.

What I found online is that titles are still a bit sexist in that male titles outrank female titles. If Philip were to have the title King, he would therefore outrank Queen Elizabeth, so he was "only" a Prince. Camilla however can be Queen and not outrank King Charles. Why Camilla is Queen and Prince Philip Was Not King – A Royal Expert Explains | Glamour UK (glamourmagazine.co.uk)

Pineapples are one of my favorite parts of going to Hawaii. That and Kona coffee. The best quality pineapples don't leave the islands. So incredibly sweet and tasty!

I've had good experience with Fluidmaster also. I installed their fill valve and flush valve this time. The kit comes with 2 different gaskets for between the tank and bowl...one for Kohler and one for other brands. We have a Kohler so I started with the Kohler gasket. It's got 3 "arms" that fit into the mounting holes. It's still leaking so I'll try the more generic, simple gasket next.

It essentially is brand new, since I replaced everything but the porcelain. We do however have completely new toilets on our to do list. Ever since experiencing a fully automatic toilet at our hotel in Kauai, I've had my eye on this: WASHLET | TOTO We just need to put an electrical outlet behind the toilet location to power the toilet. That's not something I ever thought I'd be saying. 😁

The toilet in our master bathroom has a slow leak between the tank and the bowl. Every hour or so, the water level in the tank would drop enough for the fill valve to open for about 5 seconds to fill the tank. It was slightly annoying and certainly a waste of water, so I finally got around to "fixing" it yesterday. I decided to just replace all of the parts in the tank and the gasket between the tank and the bowl. After 2 trips to Lowes and about 3 hours of work, it's still not working right. I've got one more thing to try and if that doesn't work, time to throw in the towel and call a plumber. I have no problem doing anything electrical, but I hate plumbing work.

Our experience on Quantum, and on Ovation, was that shows were best seen either from the seats down in front or up in the balcony. It was hard to see everything happening in any of the other seats. Interesting layout indeed.

I use a similar recipe for Mint Juleps. We have mint growing in our garden and I muddle a half dozen picked mint leaves with a 1/2 oz of simple syrup. I then add 2-3 oz of bourbon (Woodford Reserve) and a lot of crushed ice. Delicious.

Fantastic pictures Dani! Lots of color and the nighttime pictures look really great.

I feel your pain. The next step beyond recitals is competitive dance. Multiple outfits for different dance routines, additional monthly expense to the studio for all of the practice...usually 3 or 4 days a week, and then travel expenses to all of the different competitions. I started to add it all up once and decided that I was better off not knowing the total cost.

The Road to Hana is worth it, but maybe just once. It's long, and after a while, the twists and turns all start to look alike. Where did you stop along the way? Did you make it past Hana to the 'Ohe'o Gulch and the Seven Pools? I'm really jealous and wishing I was there right now. Oops...asking John @Ozark_Kid

Glad you were able to find it.

What lockdown???

Happy birthday!! 🎂 I join you in your birthday wish.

It's not supposed to be fast. It's supposed to cook food to a precise temperature and keep the food tender/moist (since it doesn't cook out the moisture in foods). It takes longer because you are slowly bringing the food up to temperature. That's both an advantage and a disadvantage. The disadvantage is that you need to prep a little earlier. The advantage is that you can let the food sit in the water bath until you're ready, allowing you to focus on other things. Food has a min time that it must cook to ensure that it's up to temp, but you can go hours longer than that without impacting food quality. Steaks for example could sit in the water for a few hours and still be great. If you want fast, I'd suggest a microwave.

Hmmm. If only there was a way to answer your question. 😏

If you plan to go to Kaanapali while on Maui, I highly recommend the Hula Grill at Whaler's Village. It's one of our favorite restaurants. Sit outside with your feet in the sand, watching a gorgeous sunset, while enjoying a great Mai Tai. There's a public bus that leaves from Lahaina and stops at the entrance to Whaler's Village, or plenty of Ubers/Lyfts. Good shopping there also.

I don't think I've ever experienced anything like it. Definitely a somber experience knowing that the bodies of those brave souls are still down there.

Sous Vide cooking is very easy. It's a french phrase that means under a vacuum. You seal food in a bag and then put it in water that is controlled to a specific temperature. The food slowly heats to be exactly the same temp as the water...not a degree more. Vacuum sealing ensures that the food is in contact with the water (other than the thin film of the vacuum bag) and cooks evenly. No air to act as a thermal insulator. It's great for cooking meat so that it's the same temperature throughout, i.e. perfect medium rare steaks all the way through. Food comes out very tender. It's also very flexible in that you can leave the food in the water for several hours and it won't overcook. Just take it out of the water when you're almost ready to serve. I saw almost because steaks in particular taste (and look) great when cooked on a grill because of the sear on the outside. You don't get that sear when using the sous vide method so you typically want to sear over a hot flame, or in a hot pan with butter, for a minute on each side before serving. Although you can put herbs in the vacuum bag with the meat, I've found that doesn't result in as much taste as other cooking methods. That's about the only negative that I've found. You do need a larger sized pot, which we have anyway for cooking crab, lobster, and large amounts of pasta. The Sous Vide machine (the thing you stick in the water to control the water temp) is about 3-4 inches in diameter and 12-15 inches long. Doesn't take up much cabinet space but isn't exactly small either. A vacuum sealer is nice to have but not required. You can put your food in an unsealed ziplock bag and slowly lower it into the water. The water pushes out the air. When it's lowered almost completely in the water and the air has been pushed out, seal the bag. Lots more info here: Sous Vide Cooking: How to Get Started (seriouseats.com)

At first, I didn't believe your grand dog's Survivor prediction. Now, your grand dog could be right. Yam Yam survived several tribal council's and doesn't seem to be a target anymore. At some point though, he'll be seen as too much of a threat when compared to many others who are still there.

All of my international business travel was in Business Class and I was Platinum Medallion for many years on Delta. That meant that I almost always got bumped to First Class domestically. My Platinum status finally expired a couple of months ago and I recently used the last of my upgrade certificates. I've still got about a million Delta miles but I'm reserving those for future Business Class tickets to Europe. If I want First Class domestic now, I need to pay for it. Once you go First Class, it's hard to go back, so I think it will need to be built into the cost of any future vacations.

I tried going to the driving range. The wind was blowing so hard at times that I had a hard time keeping my balance. Some debris in the road and a tree blown over on the south end of the island.