Randy Ingle

The subject of over-indulging alcohol is often the butt of many jokes. I found this funny commercial on youtube. I think that it makes a fine point about the dangers of drinking too much!

We have a local ice cream parlor that has been doing a booming business since opening the first of April. The parking lot is always full, actually over flowing with cars and people standing in lines waiting for one of their ice cream treats. It’s good to see some one making money.

My wife is crazy.  She asked around the family who was having an Easter dinner, and no one had any plans.  So she decided it was up to us to throw the big family Easter dinner.  So, with no time to shop or clean or cook, we are now looking at feeding about 14 people this Sunday!  It shall be interesting, as everyone is supposed to bring food to share, and we don’t know for sure how many people will actually show up.  Yeah, my wife is crazy, but her heart is in the right place.  Gotta love her!

The wife and I have been discussing various things that we would like to do when our tax refund check shows up in the mail in the near future. We did pretty good this year, we had a lot of deductions and made good use of all of the receipts that we kept in our tax shoe box, that are such a pain in the neck to deal with. But it was well worth the extra effort it took in order the get the best bang for our buck.

We both have things that we would like to see done with the money. Most of it will be used for things concerning the house. She has her eyes on a nice hanging wine glass rack that she has found online at Glassstemwareracks.com. She is good at finding good deals on the Internet and found a site that offers all kinds of wine glass racks for sale that she was showing me last night. I’m good with that and see no reason why we can’t spend a few bucks on nice quality looking wine glass rack. She has good taste and I’m usually right on board with most things that she finds to spend our money on.

I do like my chocolate, and when you throw in some peanut butter, all the better for me. I always have a bag of Reese’s Pieces close by to munch on. I just saw on TV that they are coming out with a dark Reese’s peanut butter and chocolate candy bar. I prefer my milk chocolate, but am always willing to try something new, besides they are now saying that dark chocolate is good for you.

Although I understand that many people like to hunt, I am glad that hunting season is finally over.  I don’t like having to wear blaze orange clothing if I want to go for a walk on my own property out of fear that I might get shot by someone who is half-drunk and hunting on my property without my permission.  I also understand that hunting helps to control the deer population and keep many of the deer from starving to death over the winter, but I have to admit that I find it disturbing how many people enjoy killing other creatures!  And I really don’t see how it can be considered a sport – the prey are at a serious disadvantage and really don’t have much of a “sporting chance!”

This is the time of year when I like to go to the many different County Fairs, State Fairs, and Street Festivals.  There is always great music to hear, and good food to eat!  Not to mention all of the great exhibits to look at.  I enjoy going into the fairgrounds exhibit buildings to get out of the hot sun, and take my time going from booth to booth.  Many times I’ll see some high-end trade show carpet or logo mats being used in the exhibit buildings.  They really help to make the displays really stand out!

Outside, the vendors that are on the main walkway of the fairground are smart enough to use a logo canopy to protect their wares while promoting their business.  I enjoy seeing all of the different shapes and designs.  I think that the variety helps to make the atmosphere of the event more festive, and the vendors more professional.  And I especially appreciate it when they put a covering over the areas where the picnic tables are, so the patrons can enjoy their food while out of the elements.

I was reading on the Yahoo odd news a story about how a man who owned a pizza shop in Pennsylvania had shot a deer and put the carcass in his pizzerias kitchen for a friend to come pick up.  Somehow one of the pizzeria cooks “mistakenly” started to carve up the deer.  He was spotted by a restaurant patron, who complained to the health department.  No citation was issued.  I cannot imagine how a cook, in the employment of the pizza shop could “mistakenly” carve up the deer!  Seems to me that he must have been told by someone to do that, don’t you?  If not, wouldn’t you think it was a health violation to simply have a dead deer in the kitchen?  Sounds very suspicious to me!

I was noticing that my wife and I are not eating out as often as we used to. Sure, part of it is the economy; money is tight. But it is largely due to the fact that most of the restaurants are moving towards serving spicier foods that we either don’t like at all, or our stomachs can’t tolerate. More and more we find ourselves going to what USED to be a favorite restaurant only to find that the meal we had hoped to order is no longer on the menu, and there is nothing else on the menu that we want (or can) eat. This is both a bad thing and a good thing, I guess. Bad because it would be nice to be able to go out for a nice meal with the wife from time to time and actually enjoy the food and not be sick a couple of hours later from eating it, but good because it is saving us money by not allowing us to eat out.

I’ve been noticing some commercials on the television lately where the point of the commercial is to get consumers to rethink the attitude that high fructose corn syrup is bad for you. In recent years high fructose corn syrup has been broadly considered bad for the consumer, linking it to diabetes and obesity. I’ve never believed that it is any worse for you than regular table sugar. And yes, regular sugar can also lead to diabetes and obesity – if too much is consumed! So the point is that we all have to be responsible for our own health and not eat too much of anything! High fructose corn syrup is not the enemy!

This evening I’m taking my wife and Mom out to dinner to celebrate Mother’s Day. They love to eat at the Cracker Barrel. My wife loves their meatloaf, and my mother loves their chicken. They both enjoy shopping around in the gift store part of the restaurant. I expect I’ll have to buy something from the gift store for both of them while we are there. I don’t mind, it makes them happy, and if it makes them happy, then I’m happy! There’s an old adage “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy; If Daddy ain’t happy, ain’t nobody cares!” I think that there is a lot of truth to that!

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day!  My wife reminded me today that we are going to take my mother out to eat breakfast tomorrow morning.  Last year we took her to her favorite restaurant for Mother’s Day and although we were seated quickly it took forever to get our food, and when it came it was cold.  We were very disappointed and said that we would not go there again.  So this year we will give her a choice between the local pancake house, or two different big chain breakfast places.  I’m sure she’ll be happy just to be going out!  It is a big ordeal to take her anywhere because she is disabled and it is hard for her to get around.

I just had the opportunity to try a new flavor of ice cream that I’ve never tried before. I usually eat plain Vanilla ice cream. Yeah, I can hear you now – “that’s boring.” Well, I like other flavors too, but vanilla is versatile! Anyway, my favorite brand is Breyers ice cream, and I give my wife a really hard time if she tries to sneak any other brand past me! I can tell the difference! Anyway, my wife brought home some Breyers Caramel Praline Crunch flavor ice cream the last time she went shopping. She told me that she had some at her friend’s house last weekend and that it was really good. Well of course I grumbled about it, but tonight I tried it for the first time, and I have to admit it is really good! My wife might be surprised how quickly that ice cream gets eaten!

My wife’s best friend just returned from a Myrtle Beach Resort vacation.  She brought back lots of photographs and souvenirs for her friends and family.  She was telling us how much fun she had, and about how she and her hubby spent a day at a NASCAR amusement park.  Well, I’m not a big golfer so I had not thought much about going to any of the golfing Myrtle Beach Resorts that the area is famous for, but finding out about the NASCAR park as piqued my interest!

And she told us that they went to a Medieval Times dinner show and had a great time there too.  I’ve always wanted to go to one of those shows; I understand that they serve you a meal that you have to eat without using any silverware!  Hands only!  Well, that certainly brings out the “beast” in me, wondering how it will come about, and watching the show.  So now my wife wants to look into going to Myrtle Beach and staying at one of the Myrtle Beach Hotels that are on the beach and take in the sights.  I’ll let you know if it happens!

Last night my wife and I went over to Bob’s house for dinner.  They have been asking us go come over for dinner for the last couple of months because they wanted to show us their photographs from their vacation to Denali Park in Alaska.  They told us that they like to Travel Alaska
every couple of years; partly because they have relatives there and they tie in their vacation with a visit to see their relatives.

I’ve been putting them off because I really dread spending hours looking at other people’s pictures of their vacations; but my wife said we really should go and just grin and bear it.

So last night was the night.  We had a nice lasagna dinner with a salad and garlic cheese bread, and some nice red wine.  Then the photographs came out.  I was actually surprised that I enjoyed the photographs more than I thought I would.  In fact, I got excited about the thought of taking an Alaska Travel vacation myself in the near future!  They said that they had a really great time on a cruise that got them up close to some of the glaciers and how amazing they were.  Considering how quickly the ice is melting, I think that maybe we need to get up there and see them before they disappear completely!

Today was just a lay-low kind of day. I’ve been really busy doing my taxes (whew, they ARE done and mailed off!) and needed to stay home and rest and recharge. Just checked my emails, read through a few magazines, do a little bit of laundry, take a nice long nap, watch a little television, cook a frozen pizza and just vegg out as much as possible. I need days like this from time to time!

As we are looking for ways to minimize our expenses, we have been looking at ways we can save money on food. We don’t normally eat out very often, so it is hard to cut back on that. We are buying more “store brand” items than ever before, and we are eating more macaroni and cheese, more spaghetti, more beans and franks. My wife doesn’t like beans and franks, so I try to eat that when my wife isn’t going to be home. We’ve agreed to try to eat breakfast for supper at least once a week, too. It’s been a while since we’ve had time to cook breakfast for breakfast, so we’re going to enjoy it at supper time. And by breakfast, I don’t mean a bowl of cereal, I mean bacon and eggs or pancakes and sausage, something like that. I’m actually looking forward to that!

I was just reading an article on the Time.com website that a daycare staffer took a container that had fluid in it that looked like blue Kool-Aid from the refrigerator and served it to several young children in the daycare center.  The children were hospitalized because the fluid was actually windshield wiper fluid!  I’m totally shocked – how and why did the stuff end up in the refrigerator?  Can’t the person who was putting away groceries read?  I understand that the fluid is blue, but there would have been pictures on the container to reflect that it was NOT Kool-Aid!  Probably pictures of a car and windshield wipers!  I understand that the lady who ran the daycare center has surrendered her daycare license, and the kids should be okay; it’s just a terrible shame!  A senseless error, thank goodness no one died!

Two companies that sell fresh produce, the Chiquita Company and the Fresh Express Company have joined forces with the American Heart Association to promote awareness of Heart Disease.  They have created a program where you can sign up at the freshfunds.com website and get points for buying products from the two different companies at participating stores, and then the points get magically transformed into cash for the American Heart Association.

In addition, there is a website designed for people who are participating to share their stories of how they are paying more attention to their health, and upload their photographs. That website also offers tips for healthy eating, and four healthy salad recipes that you might want to try out.

Last July I read on the Time.com website that LA has put a one year moratorium on new fast food restaurants in their low income district.  The rationale behind that move is that this particular low income area is overflowing with obese people.  The city council that put this moratorium in place thinks that by putting this restriction in, a better class of restaurants will open in the area, offering healthier foods.

I think that if this is a low income area, the residents will not be able to afford to go to these “better class” of restaurants to eat.  You can go to a fast food restaurant and order healthy foods, such as salads.  These people are choosing to eat unhealthy foods because they can afford it and they want it.  They will get it SOMEWHERE, even if it means going to the grocery store and buying the junk food there.

I’d be really surprised if any of those “better class” of restaurants even TRY to open up in that area, the target market for that type of restaurant does not exist there.  It would be a losing proposition.

I wonder how the moratorium is going!