Logos galore, a decluttering solution, celebrating mom’s 75th, and a night of non-entertainment…

This is a visually interesting web site: All My Faves.


Do you have a bunch of “wire clutter” around your computer? Here’s one person’s solution:

Click on the image to see how to build such a thing, all for less than 34 Canadian Dollars.


We celebrated mom’s 75th birthday today at the Country Squire Inn & Restaurant in Warsaw, NC—the same place where we celebrated dad’s 75th last year. It’s a midway driving point between Greenville, Raleigh, and Jacksonville, where my sister and her husband, I, and my parents and their grand- and great grandkids live.

There were four very large parties seated in the dining area in which we were seated, and they were short of wait staff. The one waitress, though, was super accommodating and thanked us profusely for our patience.

When we made our reservations, they’d said that even though they closed for lunch at 2:00 (and re-opened at 5:00 for dinner), it was fine to make the reservation for 1:30 instead of earlier. My sister had said she’d be glad to make it at 1:00 instead, but they’d said, “No, 1:30 will be fine.”

What they didn’t know, and what we didn’t know we should have told them, was that we’d want to be ordering off the dinner menu, not the lunch menu, which is only significant in that they have to “heat up the oven” for the dinner entrées, of which half our table ordered.

As soon as my parents ordered the “Surf & Turf,” which I had to insist they order after balking at the $45 price tag, the waitress said to the hostess, “Run in the back and tell Sherry to start two Surfs and Turfs.” It evidently takes the longest to cook.

I had a 4 oz. medium-well Filet Mignon with a side order of broiled scallops added to it for $6.95 extra. They were killer.

My sister brought this absolutely delicious cake, which she had had made at a specialty cake store in Greenville called Your Perfect Cake. It was a perfect cake.

When the waitress handed me the bill, she said, “We’ve already added the gratuity to it.”

“It is on there?” I asked just to make sure I’d heard her correctly.

“Yes, it’s here,” she said pointing to the $52 line item. “I hate to do that, but since your party was so big… ”

“No, no, it’s absolutely fine,” I said, “I just wanted to make sure I heard you correctly.”

“Oh okay, you can pay Freddie up front.”

When Freddie handed me my credit card receipt to sign, I started to add a tip, and she said, “No, no. The tip’s already included.”

“I know,” I said, “I wanted to add a little bit more,” and I promptly added an additional $30.

“Wow,” she said.

“She worked hard, and everything was delicious,” I replied.


Once home, I did a little STC worked, and at about 7:00, I went to Flex to see if the regulars were playing pool, or if anything was going on there.

Only Marcus was on the “good” pool table. Rick and his group, who usually see an early movie at the Rialto on Sunday, and then stop by Flex were there, with “Military Mary” included in the group.

Phil and Joe were there with a cute friend of theirs.

I played two games of pool by myself on the “other” table, and by the end of that, it was about 8:10, and the place was pretty dead.

I thought, “I can’t possibly hang out here another hour-and-a-half until karaoke starts, especially since I don’t even want to deal with whichever drag queen emcee it is going to be tonight.” So I left.


At about 8:45, my home phone rang. It was my neighbor calling asking to borrow two cups of vinegar. Aren’t neighbors supposed to borrow sugar?

Evidently, her cat had gotten even with her for locking him up in a carpeted area that he didn’t particularly care for…


Surprised I hadn’t heard from Kevin (av8rdude) about tonight’s festivities, I laid down to take a nap at 10:30, setting my alarm for midnight, knowing full well I’d most likely roll over and turn that thing off when it sounded, and not head to Legends for the 12:30 show.

And that’s exactly what happened. Actually I woke up at 11:45, turned it off, and went right back to sleep.


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