Thursday, April 28, 2011
Severe Weather on April 28, 2011
Round two of the tornado bearing weather rolled through the south last night and today. NC was spared for the most part. Chattanooga, TN which is just over the NC border in Tennessee had 76 people to die. This storm was far worse than 10 days ago. We are fine though.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tornados in Raleigh April 18, 2011
Hi de ho Yall. We have had lots of people call and ask us if we are alright and the answer is yes. Satuday's storm was a scary storm. The tornadoes spawned from the storm were very close to us, but we didn't receive any damage. Parts of Raleigh were not as lucky. Three children were killed when the tornado blew up the trailer park 4 miles from our home. About 45 minutes east of Raleigh several people were killed-- a few from the same family. As of today, the death count in NC is a couple dozen and 120 homes were destroyed.
Every day of our lives is a gift. Be thankful for what you have been given and with whom you share it. I am.
Every day of our lives is a gift. Be thankful for what you have been given and with whom you share it. I am.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Indian Restaurant, Washlet
Deb and I don't always agree on restaurants. Golden Corral is a buffet style restaurant that I like with a really nice and huge salad bar and has an okay but huge, hot food bar. I like the salad bar and not the hot bar part so much. Deb hates them both. When Deb drags me to a restaurant that I find despicable, it costs her one trip to Golden Corral. It ain't negotiable. We both worked late yesterday and decided to go out to eat. Deb had already decided the restaurant which was a Greek restaurant whose name shall remain anonymous. She had diplomatically declared I was along for the ride and to sit down, shut up, and hold on.. This restaurant is ten minutes from home, and we have been there a time or two. Dinner was around $50 which isn't crippling but rather pricey. The food last night didn't taste like butt but was a Greeked up version of spaghetti and $50 for spaghetti is a little pricey. Deb liked it, and I sort of liked it, but it didn't cost her a Golden Corral token. So tonight we both worked late again, and yet again Deb picked another restaurant that we have tried at a time or two in the past, and each time she had to drag me to it. The place is a vegetarian, Indian restaurant. I would rather have a blind man give me a vasectomy than eat at this restaurant, but I agreed to go tonight. Because it is vegetarian and Indian restaurant, the food is hot enough to melt the polar ice caps to cover up the lack of meat. Regardless of what you order from this place, it has chickpeas, tons of onions, curry, and varying degrees but liberal amounts of hot spices. Deb had some coupon that required her to get four different things for dinner. So, she ordered four of her favorite dishes and let's see how do I describe them? Well the first dish had yogurt or something in it and tasted like hot butt. The second dish had a pancake or somesuch in it and tasted like flaming pancake butt. The third dish had what looked like rice crispies in it and tasted like intensely hot rice krispie butt. The final one, my personal favorite, looked like a onion sub sandwich and tasted like nuclear meltdown butt. Holy guacamole that dinner sucked and worse yet was excruciatingly hot. After "dinner" we went to the car and started for home, and my breath was hot enough to melt paint off parked cars. Directly across the street from the Indian House of Pain was an independent, old style ice cream parlor. So, I decided that I would gets something cold to cover the plutonium rods that I ate for dinner from the Yuck-o-mat Ice Cream Parlor across from the Indian House of Pain. So, I ordered a chocolate "freeze" which resembled a milkshake but tasted like chocolate icey butt. In all honesty I was grateful that Chocolate Butt Shake was cold and kept helicopters and fire cannons from shooting water into my mouth to cover the Indian nuclear meltdown. Dinner tonight cost Deb nineteen Golden Corrals. It ain't negotiable.
I've had a couple people comment on the number of toilet pictures that I posted recently. No, I do not have an obsession with toilets. What I was trying to convey and did so poorly was how the hotels and airports had Toto Washlet Toilet Seats installed. I have a plumbing license and was familiar with washlet toilets prior to our travels in Asia. I found an interesting Wikipedia article that stated 72% of Japanese households have Toto Washlet Toilet Seats. Go figure. Here is the fascinating Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilets_in_Japan The link mentions the lack of hand drying towels which basically is true for every public bathroom. A few bathrooms had hand dryer blowers but most did not. Westerners just used their pants to dry their hands. In China and occasionally in Japan, toilet paper in public bathrooms was extremely rare. So ladies, if you visit China, don't pee on your shoes, don't whine or tell us about it if you do,but do carry toilet paper with you, and do wash your hands then wipe your hands on your pants. Remember you heard it here first.
I've had a couple people comment on the number of toilet pictures that I posted recently. No, I do not have an obsession with toilets. What I was trying to convey and did so poorly was how the hotels and airports had Toto Washlet Toilet Seats installed. I have a plumbing license and was familiar with washlet toilets prior to our travels in Asia. I found an interesting Wikipedia article that stated 72% of Japanese households have Toto Washlet Toilet Seats. Go figure. Here is the fascinating Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilets_in_Japan The link mentions the lack of hand drying towels which basically is true for every public bathroom. A few bathrooms had hand dryer blowers but most did not. Westerners just used their pants to dry their hands. In China and occasionally in Japan, toilet paper in public bathrooms was extremely rare. So ladies, if you visit China, don't pee on your shoes, don't whine or tell us about it if you do,but do carry toilet paper with you, and do wash your hands then wipe your hands on your pants. Remember you heard it here first.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Dalian, China and Shanghai Photos (click photo to enlarge)
The control panel for the Shanghai Heated, Buttwashing Toilet 9000. The blow dryer was interesting but you might have to stick your head into the toilet to get it to dry your head. I was too chicken to push the "Oscillating" button.
The Great Wall Northeast of Beijing (click photo to enlarge)
Pictures from Osaka, Japan and Vladivostok, Russia (click photo to enlarge)
This is the control panel instructions to the Heated, Buttwasher 9001. Note you can enable the "extra deodorizing" option for those days when you really need extra special buttwashing. I was scared to push the "For Ladies" button because I thought that woman would announce, "Money, money, money" and away would go parts of me that I might need. Traveling can be really stressful for men.
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Saturday, March 12, 2011
Shorts, Communism, Russian Women and Cars-- Raleigh Mar12, 2011
I got to wear shorts today. It was 70 Degrees F which is about 21 Degress C for you Canadians. For you Canadians that are freezing your rears off right now, I have one thing to say to you. I got to wear shorts today. The weather in the South rocks. As for you Canadians, you certainly will dethaw in a few months when the weather warms. One last thing before I change the subject, I got to wear shorts today.
Now that Big Ole Dumb Southern Boy (moi) is home, I can discuss a few things that I found interesting on our trip but thought it unwise to discuss during said trip. One thing is China's communism. Before we left for China, we had to buy a visa ($100 each) from the Chinese government. On the visa form it asked if we had any sexually transmitted diseases. Now why would they ask that? Wouldn't the bubonic plague be a better question? On the plane while flying into China, we filled out a form that wanted to know where we were staying which is par for the course in many countries. In China, if you are staying at a private home and not a hotel, you are required to inform the police precinct in your final destination of your stay. While we were traveling on a bus tour in one of our Chinese ports of call, the tour bus English speaking guide would not discuss certain questions in front of the bus driver. Deb had the guide tell her away from the driver that the bus drivers were often communist party implants that keep tabs on the people on the bus and speaking in front of them was unwise. I read an English language Chinese newspaper--actually a few of them--while I was in China. The paper was full of rubbish about how the Chinese government was doing glorious projects that would benefit the people. One newspaper had a huge article about Chinese doctors and hospitals. In the article it said family doctors are not trusted or rather all doctors for that matter, and the masses go to hospitals for routine medical conditions instead of family practices. The paper had photos of a huge, waiting room at a hospital and every square inch of the waiting room was filled with people. The photo showed hundreds of people waiting to see a doctor. The article said that a normal visit allowed the doctor only two minutes per person due to the quantity of people the doctor must see in a given day. To complicate matters, the hospital must dispense the medicine and usually will not dispense enough medicine to fully treat the person without more trips to the doctor. Go figure. I am a veteran and a flag flying American citizen that is extremely proud to have served MY country, and I love MY country. You should be happy with what you have. The next time you start complaining about your country and what you have to put up with, take a trip to China. On your way out take a democrat or two with you. Geez Louise that joke took a while to set up.
I would like to declare the next week as Fork Appreciation Week. You have no idea how difficult it is to eat with pencils. The entire time I spent in China and Japan, I didn't see a dinner knife. You might think that their food came in bite sized pieces. Right? Wrong. They expect you to pick up the bigger pieces of food and gnaw off a piece while holding the food with small pieces of lumber. Every dern thing that I ate had noodles in it in some form. Oh eating noodles with chopsticks reminds me of eating spaghetti at age six where you pick up the noodles, sorta kinda, and slurp in up. Gross. On the airplane on the trip home, a Chinese guy was in the seat in front of us eating a piece of pizza that was in a cardboard box given to him by the flight attendants. The flight attendants didn't give him chopsticks but did give him a knife and fork. The esteemed gentleman had the cardboard box up at mouth level gnawing off pieces of pizza and raking it into his mouth with the dern knife and not the fork. He didn't want to use the fork and was using the knife as a chopstick. When ChopKnifeStick Boy was in God's assembly line in heaven prior to being born, he thought God said train instead of brain and said, "Give me a slow one". ChopKnifeStick Boy almost got his picture taken by me so that I could prove he was eating with a chopknifestick, but I didn't want him to start jabbering and possibly stab me with his plastic chopknifestick. Yeah right. For the love of Sam, why do I always seem to get these folks? If it weren't for these kind of folks, I wouldn't have anything to talk about would I?
In Vladivostok, Russia I made note of a couple interesting things. Let's see where do I start? I know, let's talk about their women folk. We were told their women were supposed to be prettier than a speckled puppy sitting on a firetruck. The women were actually closer in looks to a great dane riding on a garbage truck. Well I guess they were pretty in a chainsaw toting, lumberjack sort of way. Personally I wouldn't want to have a woman that is more manly than me, but what do I know? Well I know I wouldn't kiss a lumberjack with more hair on her chest than I have--as opposed to a lumberjack with less chest hair. That didn't come out right did it? Now, let's talk about the cars in Vladivostok. It seems there is a shortage of non-Russian cars there. Russian made cars are pieces of junk I've read. A great deal of Vladivostok's cars are actually used cars that are imported from Japan. What you may not know is that Japanese cars have the steering wheel on the right side of the car similar to Britain. So we would see the locals driving around town on the right side of street with right hand steering wheeled cars. I must admit that looked strange. I imagine Ivan loves his new found privileges like driving his clown car to pick up his lumberjack girlfriend. But, if you think about it, having a girlfriend like that wouldn't be too bad. Since Ivan's car is used and could easily break down. I can just hear Ivan say, "...first we drink vodka then let girlfriend push car to get motor running". Actually to be perfectly honest, the Vladivostok women's looks were not that bad. I might describe them as a Chinese mink coat wearing puppy on a firetruck. You can extrapolate from that image, and feel free to talk amongst yourselves.
I still have not messed with the photographs yet. I have been too busy thinking about Russian cars, Chinese doctors, and wearing shorts. I promise to get to the photos soon.
Al
Now that Big Ole Dumb Southern Boy (moi) is home, I can discuss a few things that I found interesting on our trip but thought it unwise to discuss during said trip. One thing is China's communism. Before we left for China, we had to buy a visa ($100 each) from the Chinese government. On the visa form it asked if we had any sexually transmitted diseases. Now why would they ask that? Wouldn't the bubonic plague be a better question? On the plane while flying into China, we filled out a form that wanted to know where we were staying which is par for the course in many countries. In China, if you are staying at a private home and not a hotel, you are required to inform the police precinct in your final destination of your stay. While we were traveling on a bus tour in one of our Chinese ports of call, the tour bus English speaking guide would not discuss certain questions in front of the bus driver. Deb had the guide tell her away from the driver that the bus drivers were often communist party implants that keep tabs on the people on the bus and speaking in front of them was unwise. I read an English language Chinese newspaper--actually a few of them--while I was in China. The paper was full of rubbish about how the Chinese government was doing glorious projects that would benefit the people. One newspaper had a huge article about Chinese doctors and hospitals. In the article it said family doctors are not trusted or rather all doctors for that matter, and the masses go to hospitals for routine medical conditions instead of family practices. The paper had photos of a huge, waiting room at a hospital and every square inch of the waiting room was filled with people. The photo showed hundreds of people waiting to see a doctor. The article said that a normal visit allowed the doctor only two minutes per person due to the quantity of people the doctor must see in a given day. To complicate matters, the hospital must dispense the medicine and usually will not dispense enough medicine to fully treat the person without more trips to the doctor. Go figure. I am a veteran and a flag flying American citizen that is extremely proud to have served MY country, and I love MY country. You should be happy with what you have. The next time you start complaining about your country and what you have to put up with, take a trip to China. On your way out take a democrat or two with you. Geez Louise that joke took a while to set up.
I would like to declare the next week as Fork Appreciation Week. You have no idea how difficult it is to eat with pencils. The entire time I spent in China and Japan, I didn't see a dinner knife. You might think that their food came in bite sized pieces. Right? Wrong. They expect you to pick up the bigger pieces of food and gnaw off a piece while holding the food with small pieces of lumber. Every dern thing that I ate had noodles in it in some form. Oh eating noodles with chopsticks reminds me of eating spaghetti at age six where you pick up the noodles, sorta kinda, and slurp in up. Gross. On the airplane on the trip home, a Chinese guy was in the seat in front of us eating a piece of pizza that was in a cardboard box given to him by the flight attendants. The flight attendants didn't give him chopsticks but did give him a knife and fork. The esteemed gentleman had the cardboard box up at mouth level gnawing off pieces of pizza and raking it into his mouth with the dern knife and not the fork. He didn't want to use the fork and was using the knife as a chopstick. When ChopKnifeStick Boy was in God's assembly line in heaven prior to being born, he thought God said train instead of brain and said, "Give me a slow one". ChopKnifeStick Boy almost got his picture taken by me so that I could prove he was eating with a chopknifestick, but I didn't want him to start jabbering and possibly stab me with his plastic chopknifestick. Yeah right. For the love of Sam, why do I always seem to get these folks? If it weren't for these kind of folks, I wouldn't have anything to talk about would I?
In Vladivostok, Russia I made note of a couple interesting things. Let's see where do I start? I know, let's talk about their women folk. We were told their women were supposed to be prettier than a speckled puppy sitting on a firetruck. The women were actually closer in looks to a great dane riding on a garbage truck. Well I guess they were pretty in a chainsaw toting, lumberjack sort of way. Personally I wouldn't want to have a woman that is more manly than me, but what do I know? Well I know I wouldn't kiss a lumberjack with more hair on her chest than I have--as opposed to a lumberjack with less chest hair. That didn't come out right did it? Now, let's talk about the cars in Vladivostok. It seems there is a shortage of non-Russian cars there. Russian made cars are pieces of junk I've read. A great deal of Vladivostok's cars are actually used cars that are imported from Japan. What you may not know is that Japanese cars have the steering wheel on the right side of the car similar to Britain. So we would see the locals driving around town on the right side of street with right hand steering wheeled cars. I must admit that looked strange. I imagine Ivan loves his new found privileges like driving his clown car to pick up his lumberjack girlfriend. But, if you think about it, having a girlfriend like that wouldn't be too bad. Since Ivan's car is used and could easily break down. I can just hear Ivan say, "...first we drink vodka then let girlfriend push car to get motor running". Actually to be perfectly honest, the Vladivostok women's looks were not that bad. I might describe them as a Chinese mink coat wearing puppy on a firetruck. You can extrapolate from that image, and feel free to talk amongst yourselves.
I still have not messed with the photographs yet. I have been too busy thinking about Russian cars, Chinese doctors, and wearing shorts. I promise to get to the photos soon.
Al
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