A few weeks ago I was informed by several people that the plastic sports bottle that I always drink out of is bad for my health.  The well meaning people were very insistent that it leached dangerous chemicals into my drink and that I could die from cancer from it down the road.  They told me that I could buy insulated stainless steel sports bottles over the Internet, so I went online and found a company that sells insulated stainless steel sports bottles.  I ordered a couple of them, thinking I’d give a few out as gifts as Christmas gifts.  That was really the only way I could justify the exorbitant shipping fee!  It cost me almost as much money to ship one as it did to ship three!

Anyway, they arrived in the mail on Saturday and I gave one a try today.  It was a cold day so I decided to pour some hot chocolate in it this morning before I left for work.  There was a big warning sticker on the box that the bottle came in, warning that the hot liquid would stay “just as hot” for several hours.  Well an hour later my “hot chocolate” was only room temperature chocolate milk.  I guess I’ll try it again tomorrow with pre-warming the bottle with hot water before pouring the hot chocolate in it, and I’ll make sure the hot chocolate is a lot hotter going into the bottle.  I’d hate to think that I’d wasted my money on a bottle that won’t keep my hot chocolate hot for at least an hour!

I’m really glad that I don’t live in China!  I was just thinking that over the past several months they have had some pretty bad things happening - some major earthquakes, and the many product recalls due to unsafe toxins in the paint on the toys for kids, and now the melamine scandal.  The melamine scandal started quite a while ago with pet food, and now it’s in their milk and spreading throughout their food chain.  I have to wonder if there is ANYTHING safe that comes out of China?

The local Harley shop was having a big open house celebration this past weekend, so I decided to go to the event and check it out.  There was a live broadcast being done by a local radio station, lots of free food and sodas, and they were having discounts on just about everything in the store.  I ended up buying a new detachable windshield for my Harley.  I was impressed with how easily it can be installed and removed.  I installed it right there at the shop - they let me borrow the tools to do it.  It was funny because all I needed was an allen wrench!  Anyway, when I drove home I noticed that with the new windshield on the bike, I wasn’t feeling the wind hitting me, so I was driving faster than I thought!  It will take a while to adjust to that!

Well, Memorial Day weekend of 2008 is officially over at our house.  We had a quiet, but nice three day weekend.  All three day weekends are nice!  I cooked a couple of GREAT steaks on the grill, my wife fixed a really nice salad, some corn on the cob, and nuked some potatoes in the microwave.  Had some fresh baked yeast dinner rolls, and strawberry shortcake for dessert!  I can’t even TRY to imagine a nicer meal!  I’d like to have meals like that EVERY weekend!  My wife enjoys them too because she likes it when I cook on the grill.  I grill a pretty mean steak!  And, she says she likes it because there is less mess for her to have to clean up after supper because I’m the one that cleans the grill!