Dave's Thoughts of the Day: November 12th

I want to thank all of the wonderful soldiers, military men, and women, who make this country what it is, and defend its freedoms.   My grandfather was among them once.  He's now happily retired and a veteran himself.  

I want to thank my mom, my dad, and my whole family for being so supportive of me.  I went to see them yesterday back home, and it really was a wonderful day.  We spent time together and even played cards.  I loved it.  I missed being in my home town.  

Even a town of over 200,000 can feel like a simpler place, where the pace of life is slower and simpler.   Such is Oxnard.   I needed to get away.  I wanted to get away even sooner, but Coach and I had a big potluck planned on Sunday w/ some buddies.   So, we did the potluck and watched the NFL games on Sunday and I had an abbreviated trip to the 'nard the next day.

The potluck was great!  I learned how to do a pizza bake using a recipe from Betty Crocker.  Come to find out, Betty Crocker touted this "easy recipe" and I go to the local store to get the biscuit mix they recommended.  The jokers at the store didn't even *have* that mix!  I was at a loss... I spent about 20 extra minutes trying to find it, but no dice.  Eventually I went to the cheese and baking kit section and found a tube of "pizza dough" from Pillsbury.  I know that's not what Betty Crocker, but tough luck you guys!  You want me to use your products?  Make your Bisquick kits easier to find!!   Instead, I used Pillsbury dough.

With the pizza dough all set to go, the rest was academic.   Baking Pan, spray with PAM, clumps of dough, pizza sauce, pepperoni, and shredded mozzarella, all in layters.  Then you do another layer of dough, sauce, pepperoni, and mozza.  Bake it for 20-25 minutes and it's golden.  Boy, was it good... I think our party was into it as well, good times.

So, going back to the trip to my family's house on Monday, I told them all about this pizza bake and they were very impressed by my wherewithall to bake things.   My sisters suggested an idea to do a cookie bake with layers. Maybe cookie dough, brownies, chocolate chip, and so on.

It felt really good to be back in my hometown for a while.

Some other assorted thoughts I had.   There *is* a peach salsa... a Mango Peach salsa... boy it's great!  It goes really well with blue corn tortilla chips.  Try it out.

Imagine if you watched all 30 hours of ESPN's tip-off college basketball marathon in a row?  Can the human body even do that?  Kudos to you if you pull that off, or even pull *most* of that off.

It's official.  The Dolphins lost to Tampa Bay:  NOW their season hits rock bottom.

Give me one good reason why the 49ers could beat the Saints next week.   Ahhh??  That's what I thought too.

Murray Head is not the name of a group, it's the name of a single guy.   This "single guy" sang the title song to "Jesus Christ Superstar," and he's known even more for performing "One Night in Bangkok."    The latter comes from a musical production called "Chess."

There's no shame in being associated with technology or technology companies.   Embrace it, live it, love it!

I've had about 6 trips to the grocery store.  Every single one of them I look at the pack of bacon near the deli section.   One of these days I'm going to get the pack of bacon and cook every one of those bacon slices.  They also have a "jalapeno flavored" bacon from Farmer John.  That sounds just delicious.

If I had enough time, I think I could make chocolate chip pancakes.   Might be worth a look soon.

I'd like to make another attempt at online christmas shopping.  It might work out this time, but I gotta start right away!   I usually have about 15 people to shop for.  Time to get crackin'.

Til tomorrow!  See you all soon.