Ed Icionsub

The food segment on the Early Show had a comparison of hot dogs and condiments that are popular in different parts of the country.

According to the guest expert, people in Chicago put everything but the kitchen sink on their hot dogs. I was amazed at how they loaded up that hot dog with not only ketchup, mustard and relish, but also chopped onion, sliced tomatoes and sliced pickles.

That just seemed like overkill to me. If you are going to put sliced pickles on something, why also put pickle relish on it? I don’t see the logic in those topping choices.

Every Sunday night I’m watching the History Channel for the latest episode of the “Ice Road Truckers” and other great documentaries.

I’ve been watching the Ice Road Truckers since it started three seasons ago and can’t get enough of it.  The first two seasons are out on DVD and I bought them, even though I’ve seen all of the episodes at least twice.

Last night I watched the newest show in the third year series, this year they are driving ice roads in Alaska instead of Canada. It’s incredibly dangerous and I admire the skill and fortitude of these men – and women – who do this for a living.

Last night I was feeling brave and had an hour to spend on the computer, so I went ahead and clicked on the link within WordPress that said to upgrade the version to 2.8.

They released the new version over a week ago, and I figured the dust has had a chance to settle by now. In fact, they did find a few more bugs and have already taken steps to fix those.

Just this past year, the improvements made to WordPress have been very impressive. It keeps getting easier, better, and more secure. I have to give big kudos to the volunteers working so hard for WordPress.

The upgrade process was very easy and took less than one minute and – knock on wood – everything seems to be working great! Thanks again to the good people behind the WordPress software.

There is a basket of remote controls beside the big TV in the living room. The most important remote control is the one for the cable box. This controller came with the digital converter box and turns on or off both the cable box and the TV, and changes the channels through the cable box.

But I have other remote controls, too. One for just the TV, one for the DVD player, one for the Wii, and one for the ceiling fan. Each one of these requires batteries and needs to be used with the right equipment. Without the remotes, some of this equipment does not work at all. I feel like a slave to remotes.

While shopping at Wal Mart a few months ago, there was a vendor set up in the aisle near the pet food section. He was giving away trial size bags of a dog food that promises to help promote dental health in dogs. The dog food has little kibbles of a substance similar to the dental chew bones, mixed in with the other meat and vegetable flavored kibbles.The white kibbles are for the teeth and the green kibbles are for their breath.

Since I have several dogs, he was nice enough to give me more than one trial size bag of the new Kibbles and Bits “Brushing Bites.”

When I offered them the new food they gobbled it right up. They do like this flavor of the Kibbles and Bits, and since it is supposed to help with their dental care, I think it is a bargain. A large bag is about $14, like the other major brands and flavors. So that’s what I bought yesterday for my dogs and we’ll be serving up the new dog food now.

I suppose most people recognize the ADT alarm yard signs that are scattered throughout the neighborhoods of America. I believe ADT is the largest provider of home security. I know that my neighborhood has a lot of the ADT signs at the end of their driveways or at the foot of the front steps to warn intruders of their home alarm system.

I’m interested in checking out the ADT home security for my house and yard. Even though I live in a good neighborhood, we are starting to have some problems with vandalism and minor thefts. It just rankles me to not be able to leave a few innocent things in the back of the house without worrying that some punk is going to come by later after dark and steal them.

My next door neighbor travels a lot and uses an ADT alarm system at her house. Her boyfriend lives in Indiana and they trade off weekends for visiting each other. One week she goes there and the next week he comes here. She has more trouble than I do with people trespassing because she is closer to the main road, and she never hesitates to call the police when she suspects someone is up to no good. Even the people who seem to be going door to door selling magazine and other things can be using that as an excuse to case your property so they can come back later. She calls the police on anyone who steps foot on her property unless she knows them personally and has invited them. I don’t blame her for being careful.

We even use ADT security services at the office. I’m almost never the first one in the building, but I might be one of the last ones to leave at night, so I had to be trained on setting the alarm at night. I don’t like being responsible for that, but if I’m the last one out, then it is up to me to take care of it.

One of the small companies in our building has gone out of business and they were moving out this morning. the office manager was directing a lot of the move out activity, directing a flow of furniture and boxes to various trucks and vans at the loading dock. She told me that they were having a fire sale of office furniture and invited our employees to come see if they wanted anything.

I stopped in at lunch time and found an executive office with nice furniture that I could use at home. So I offered her $100 for the chair and desk. She took it! This stuff is worth ten times that. She taped a “sold” sign on the desk and told me to take the chair with me. I have to go back in the morning with my truck to get the desk. It’s a great score for just $100, but it’s sad to see them go. Another victim of the depressed economy and another 40 people out of work this week.

It’s getting plenty hot around here. When the temperatures get up abve 85, I think it is hot. When it gets over 95, it’s damn hot.

The best thing for a summer heat quench is ice cold water. But if you want to have something nice to sip on while you shift gears from work and rush hour traffic to sitting on the porch or deck and kicking back for a bit, try making a smoothie. Add alcohol or not – up to you.

I keep a blender out on the counter all summer and make a smoothie 4-5 times a week. It’s so easy to make – ice cubes and fruit juice, plus 1 cup of lowfat yogurt and a couple handfuls of fresh fruit, especially bananas or strawberries – but you can add just about anything and then hit the blend button for a bout a minute. I think I’ll go fix one right now.

Last night I called it early and hit the sack. It was a crazy week and my brain was more tired than my body, so I went to bed before the late night news and snored through the news cast.

About midnight I woke up and saw blue lights flashing across the ceiling. I don’t remember hearing any noise, but the lights were definitely from one or more police cars. So I grabbed my robe and walked out to the living room to look out the window and see what was going on.

Turns out that my neighbor had a problem and the police were in front of her house. Some drunk guy trying to get home must have swerved or lost control of his car and ended up in Jane’s front yard. He got scared and ditched the car and took off running for the woods on foot. Jane called the cops and they had a little manhunt going on.

I checked all the doors and windows to make sure no one had tried to get into my house and I wen back to bed. I’ll give Jane a call in a bit and make sure she is OK. I’m sure she’ll fill me in on whether the cops ever caught the guy and what happened with all that excitement last night.

Again last night the TV scrolled severe weather updates for areas 200 miles north of us and 200 miles south, with everything in between. The storms have been particularly violent this week, with heavy rains, hails and high winds.

The storms that concern me most are the ones with high winds, because of all the large trees in my backyard. I don’t want to have any problems with the trees or their limbs falling on the house.

This is the big music festival weekend, with both Bonnaroo and the CMA Festival underway. It’s a shame that music fans are risking the rain and even lightning to see the top stars perform. I wouldn’t mind the getting part so much as the risk of getting hit by lightning part.