gmpullman Mrs. Pullman just picked up a 1.75 Crown Royal for me. $53.99 in Ohio!
Mrs. Pullman just picked up a 1.75 Crown Royal for me. $53.99 in Ohio!
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrainHow do you drink yours, Ed?
Normally, on the rocks in a double old fashioned glass. When the mood strikes, I'll make a Manhattan or, if I have my simple-syrup* handy, I'll use your excellent recipe for an old fashioned.
I have to have "Store-Bought Ice". Nothing worse than a good drink spoiled by freezer-burned, off-tasting, second-rate ice cubes! My wife used to kid me about "wasting" good money on purchased ice. Not any more . All I have to do is write SBI on the shopping list and I'm good to go!
* Now that I think about it, I have to make some more simple syrup. I see an old fashioned in my future
Cheers, Ed
gmpullmanMrs. Pullman just picked up a 1.75 Crown for me. $53.99 in Ohio!
That's about what I pay for a 1.75 of Crown Black.
Mike.
My You Tube
gmpullman richhotrain How do you drink yours, Ed? Normally, on the rocks in a double old fashioned glass. When the mood strikes, I'll make a Manhattan or, if I have my simple-syrup* handy, I'll use your excellent recipe for an old fashioned. I have to have "Store-Bought Ice". Nothing worse than a good drink spoiled by freezer-burned, off-tasting, second-rate ice cubes! My wife used to kid me about "wasting" good money on purchased ice. Not any more . All I have to do is write SBI on the shopping list and I'm good to go! * Now that I think about it, I have to make some more simple syrup. I see an old fashioned in my future Cheers, Ed
richhotrain How do you drink yours, Ed?
Yeah, those ice cubes have to be clean and fresh. We have an ice cube maker in the fridge and we clean it out daily.
As for simple syrup, the recipe is so easy that no one should ever buy simple syrup at the store.
A lot of drinks call for a small amount of sugar. Instead of crushing a cube of sugar with a muddler, a quicker and tastier way to add the sugar is to use what is known as "simple syrup".
You can make your own by adding equal amounts of sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool, then store in a capped bottle.
I share mine with the hummingbirds. Me first, though.
My feeders are cleaned and ready to go!
T2i-EF300mm 157 by Edmund, on Flickr
They usually show up in the last week of April and the Orioles a few days later.
Regards, Ed
I haven't noticed any orioles yet, but a small bird, the size of a finch, with a red breast and neck, seems to love the oriole feeder.
I haven't been able to get any pictures.
mbinsewiI haven't noticed any orioles yet, but a small bird, the size of a finch, with a red breast and neck, seems to love the oriole feeder.
Aah, Purple Finch, or house finch maybe?
Purple-Finch by Edmund, on Flickr
They're probably looking for an energy boost from the nectar if they've migrated any distance. We have them year round, more gold finches than purple but they sure nice to see and listen to.
Sometimes I feel bad for the birds when they migrate with the intention that the weather is going to be nice and they get slammed with these late winters
Here's this year's hummingbird sightings:
https://www.hummingbirdcentral.com/hummingbird-migration-spring-2020-map.htm
You can get some information about Oriole tracking here:
https://journeynorth.org/oriole/
All the train shops are CLOSED....Sigh.
Takeout for Easter dinner. No, not burgers or tacos. We ordered from what was a good seafood restaurant in the good old days. We got pork tenderloin, potatoes, gravy, asparagus, salad, bread and desert. We ordered dinner for two but got enough food to feed six, so we won't be cooking dinner for a couple of more days.
The GF is getting to be more of a conspiracy theorist. A couple of weeks ago, we passed by a National Guard training center in town, and she gasped and said she saw a tank! She was sure the military would be coming in to enforce the lockdown. I passed the training center today, and sure enough, there was a tank sitting there. It was an old Sherman from WW2, purely a display dummy.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The virus has really messed up sports.
There is talk that all the Major League Baseball teams could play a shortened season in the Spring Training Cities. We are Spring home to the Rangers, Twins, and Red Sox. That could help the economy if it were to happen.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
We watched my grandchildren dye easter eggs on Facetime (which is an Iphone thing) and got to see my ex-wife on an Ipad, not sure why, I guess it was a convenient time to contact all the grandparents. I could hear everyone, no one could hear me and the kids were to busy with the eggs to pay any attention to anything else.
My son's father in law was also sandwiched in the Facetime, but his wife was on a Zoom call with other friends or family.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Spent the weekend getting the last two sections of the penninsula built and up on legs:
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Nice work there Jim.
Sheldon
Well went to the regular grocery today, no lines, almost no people and they even had TP. They still had ads up at Food Max so 1/2 the stuff was on sale (Safeway around here basicaly dosn't do sales antmore except for very few items during this event). Bought some stuff on e-bay at bargin prices, just some Pre-size retaining walls in cut stone, one of the few items I was missing.
Nice benchwork, Jim. Grocery stores seem to be back to normal here. There has been a problem with a popular bbq. restaurant, people are getting carry-out, and eating it in the parking lot, which, according to our Gov., is illegal.
The owner is constantly pleading with people on his FB page, to please take it home, or back to work, as HE will get ticketed, and when he comes out and warns, YOU will get a treaspasing ticket. Geeez!
The local cops say THEY are enforcing the Gov's orders.
The wife goes back to the podiatry practice on May 5. She is booked, wall to wall.
Me..... ..... I've finished the office purge, and now it's the train room! Soooooo much stuff! This will be THE hard part.
gmpullmanAah, Purple Finch, or house finch maybe?
Yep! Thanks Ed, thats the bird! I guess I had the feeder out early enough!. Looking forward to the orioles and hummingbirds.
gmpullmanHere's this year's hummingbird sightings: https://www.hummingbirdcentral.com/hummingbird-migration-spring-2020-map.htm You can get some information about Oriole tracking here: https://journeynorth.org/oriole/
Hi Ed,
Thanks for the migration calenders! Great information!
We have cancelled our trip to Point Pelee in May. The parks are closed and it is unlikely that they will be open by then. For now we will have to be satisfied with what shows up in our backyard and what we can see in the local duck ponds. We are fortunate that we do get a lot of birds in our backyard. I won't bore everyone with a detailed list, but we get a dozen or so different varieties at this time of year, and as the weather warms up we will have lots more different birds, some of whom will be just passing through, and others like the orioles who we hope will stick around.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks y'all. I'm pretty sore from the assembly process and glad the main of it is done. Need to get leg braces on and tweak a few things and then onto some track laying.
I went to Lowes on Sunday, which is about 10 miles from here and found them closed for Easter Sunday. I'm guessing thats the first time in many many years. It reminds me of the old "blue laws" where many businesses closed on Sundays - must have been back in the 60's and 70's? Anyway, I turned around and drive 20 miles the other direction to Home Depot. They're funneling people in one entrance and out the other and apparently limiting the number inside, but it's a big store and I was able to walk right in and find what I needed and head home.
At work there are pump bottles of hand santizer in the halls and many places in the office. They have people cleaning through out. And we have Clorox wipes we wipe down surfaces with. The person who used to be in my office last year before I moved kindly left me a near full bottle of Clorox wipes and a bottle of hand santizer I've been making good use of. The office is mandetory telework except for mission critical staff, so there are a few people and I'm in 3 days every two weeks.
That is amazing!
When many of us Boomers went to school there was a new math. Best I recall it prepared us for decoder math, counting in Base 2
There is another new math, common core math. I had no idea until I saw a relative post this on Facebook. Then a previous post, where kids don't know how to carry 1, made sense.
BigDaddyWhen many of us Boomers went to school there was a new math. Best I recall it prepared us for decoder math, counting in Base 2
All through school (graduated in 67) we were always taught the bottom example.
I don't rememeber a thing called decoder math, maybe I should have taken it so I can figure out CV's
Our kids were out of school well before the common core junk. People around here, including some teachers, thought it was 'the long way around the barn".
The schools are run on certain asumptions which are wrong. We can use me for an example, I know basic math but could never fiqure out algebra except for the very basic stuff and I have a high IQ, just could never get abstracts very well. Only needed algebra 2 or three times in my life, none of which were vital. With the modern world, if I need advanced math, I can Google the answer.
On train stuff, waiting for caulk to dry as I am working on some hills made of foam, can't wait for the plaster cloth phase, less decision making.
BigDaddyThere is another new math, common core math.
Henry, I learned both of those methods in elementary school at Martha Manson Academy in Gainesville, Florida back in the early 1970s.
The first method, when taught in conjunction with physical "math blocks", is very good for teaching the overall concept of multiplying two numbers. This method gets the brain working on what you are actually doing with each of the digits in the function.
The second method is a "process based" system that teaches you to get the result without a deeper understanding of the overall concept.
If a student learns as many methods as possible in elementary school, it sure makes AP Calculus a lot easier a decade later.
Students that only learn the process methods when they are young, and not taught concepts, will have a harder time with factoring and other polynomial functions later.
I do not think the term "common core math" is accurate. That sounds like an attempt by someone to politicize what he thought was the wrong way to teach a subject.
BigDaddy
What a crock of meatloaf. I looked at sample 1 and still don't know how they arrived at the answer.
In my junior year of high school they offered that new math stuff because it was helpful to get into college and other blah blah. So I was encouraged to take it. Since I flunked I consider it a waste of a year. Repeated the equivalent regular math course the following year and got an A+.
Unfortunately I am one of those people who have an issue with understanding the abstract.
And I would venture to guess that nobody except future math wizards or Einsteins have a need to understand all this "how it is derived" stuff.
Most engineers only need to know where in the handbook to find the formula they need to get their answer.