There are always more dogs than buns!

College baseball officially ended in my town today. It wasn’t a great season, and the only thing I have to show for it is tiny packages of odd wad hot dog buns that I can’t bring myself to throw away. I keep hearing my mother talk about the starving children in Africa.

Isn’t it a bit suspicious how the manufacturers of hot dogs and the hot dog bun makers can’t seem to get their acts together? There are typically ten dogs in a package, but only eight buns. Now, why is that? It’s a plot, that’s what it is. I blame the bun people - you must buy two packages of buns to service one 10-pack of dogs. They know full well six buns are destined to die of freezer burn if you save them at all. That’s just wrong. (more…)

Today is Tuesday, May 13, the 134th day of the year 2008. There are 232 days remaining. “What ever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power.” Goethe

Did you know that every 7.5 second, a baby boomer turns 50? In the U. S. between the end of World War II and 1964, 78 million babies were born and were destined to become the “Boomer Generation. ”

The first Boomers are now beginning to retire from the work force to pursue their dreams, many of which were put on hold while raising families and building careers. As empty nesters, boomers have more money to spend as the median income is $47,300 annually.

The generation is identified with transistor radios, calculators, hula hoops, Mickey Mouse Club, “Leave it to Beaver,” Doo Wop, American Bandstand, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Woodstock California Dreamin’, Disco, Bell bottoms, mini skirts, hot pants, The Beatles, and Twiggy. How many more can you remember: (Source, San Jose Mercury News.)

I remember teaching him to tie his shoes.

“Look son, the lace goes through the eyelet, then you loop it around your finger like this.” I was wise and patient, while he was confused by the term “lace” and had never heard of an eyelet.

We went over it once more, and before I knew what was happening, he tied the other shoe and rushed off to a soccer game. I never had to show him again.

Now 30 years later, he’s the one trying to teach me new tricks with not so much luck. He comes over to help me do something foreign on the computer and I rarely get it. I don’t know the difference in the World Wide Web and a spider web. (more…)

Today is Monday, April 28. It is the 119th day of the year with 247 remaining in the year 2008. Do you have a plan? Remember that the world will get out of the way for a man with a plan.
Today is National Bulldogs are Beautiful Day which resonates with me since I live with a Boston terrier named Rebel.

On this date in history in 1959 Arthur Godfrey was seen for the last time in the final telecast of “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends” on CBS-TV. The show had been a part of the CBS lineup for 10 years.

In 1985 The little town of Parker, Texas, reported a 2 - 1 ratio of tourist to residents. Some of the good citizens of the town of just over 1,000 residents were not pleased, either. Some 2,100 tourists each day converged on the town to visit Southfork Ranch, the home of the Ewing family of the CBS-TV hit “Dallas.”

Cajun didn’t actually sit at my dining room table to eat her meals, but then neither do I.  At meal times she assumed her favorite crouch beside the chair where I also read, nap, work on my laptop, watch television - and sometimes curse at politicians.

Cleaning up after me seemed to be one of her life’s missions. This gentle, yet nimble golden retriever with the perpetual smile and a tail that could  beat perfect time to the MSU fight song, could catch a wayward crumb in midair without any warning.

Her crowning achievement was keeping my kitchen floors spotless.  The only thing she refused to lap up with gusto was (more…)