Rancho El Charco visit

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This weekend my extended family took everyone to a place called Rancho El Charco to celebrate one of my relative’s birthdays. We only went to the restaurant part of the ranch, but I managed to take a few photos with my iPhone while we were there.

Looking over Walker lake, you could see something was burning down in Mexico.

Rancho El Charco 01

Rancho El Charco 01

Between the sunset and the calm lake, I was ready to jump in and go for an extended swim. It’s been awhile since I’ve gone scuba diving, too, and a lake like this would be just the thing to get back into the diving scene.

Rancho El Charco 02

Rancho El Charco 02

There was a waist-high wood fence along the edge of the restaurant to discourage kids (and potential swimmers) from jumping into the lake. Little signs fixed to the fence said for one dollar you could buy a cup of fish food from the bar to feed…

Rancho El Charco 03

Rancho El Charco 03

The catfish! A lake full of catfish! I only had to shake the cup to start the water churning. These fellows quickly filled up under the pier and were ready for any little morsel we would throw them.

Rancho El Charco 04

Rancho El Charco 04

All this violence over two cups of food! My wife and brother in law tried to spread out the food, but wherever the little bits landed, a swarm of catfish would swarm up from under the lake and devour whatever was on the surface.

Rancho El Charco 05

Rancho El Charco 05

As soon as the food supply dried up, the fish took off back into the center of the lake. But knowing there were so many catfish in the lake now, I was ready to go rent a boat and fish for my dinner.

Rancho El Charco 06

Rancho El Charco 06

As the sun set, the outside lights automatically turned on. The outside patio area was still plenty bright with all the lights, but the lake got very very dark pretty quickly.

Rancho El Charco 08

Rancho El Charco 08

On the inside part of the restaurant, several bull heads were mounted on the walls. Little brass plaques were mounted beneath each one of them, with a brief story of how they got there.

Rancho El Charco 10

Rancho El Charco 10

A vicious crockadeer’s head guarded the far end of the bar. (Yes, I just made up the word “crockadeer”. And I just registered crockadeer.com too!)

Rancho El Charco 11

Rancho El Charco 11

Overall, I had a lot of fun with the family and the birthday celebration was great. But next time I’m bringing a real camera to get better photos.

Recall / Warning : Don’t eat oysters from the San Antonio Bay

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This is probably a little late for those who went out and indulged themselves over the weekend, but here goes… “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers to avoid eating oysters harvested from the San Antonio Bay… due to reports of norovirus-associated illnesses.”

It looks like about a dozen or so people have become sick with a norovirus-related illnesses all the way up to North and South Carolina as well as other local state consumers who ate the oysters harvested from the San Antonio Bay.

“Symptoms of illness associated with norovirus include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramping. Affected individuals often experience low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and a general sense of tiredness. Most people show symptoms within 48 hours of exposure to the virus. The illness typically lasts one to two days. Norovirus typically is not life-threatening and does not generally cause long-term effects.”

The oyster beds in the San Antonio Bay that were causing this problem were shut down by the Texas Department of Health Services on Nov. 26, so this is just a warning to try and catch those shipments still out there.

Here’s the link to the FDA article.

Recall : College Inn “No MSG” Chicken Broth

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You know, when you label a food item as NOT having something as an ingredient, you would think the food item would NOT have that something as an ingredient. For example: saying there’s “no high fructose corn syrup” would mean there’s no high fructose corn syrup. Easy enough, right?

Well, College Inn is initiating a voluntary recall of College Inn “No MSG” Chicken Broth sold in individual 14 ½ oz cans because… it contains MSG.

This recall affects all College Inn No MSG Chicken Broth Individual 14 ½ oz cans and only the products labeled as “No MSG”.

Plus the recall is in place because the product also contains wheat, which wasn’t listed in the ingredients.

Here’s the link to the official FDA recall.

Money Soap

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I saw this at a local stationery store my wife loves to visit this past weekend. Money Soap! It was piled high near the register, but about half of the stack was already gone. You could smell the clean green apple scent before you even picked it up.

Money Soap 1

Money Soap 1

According to the label, there’s either a $1, $5, $10, $20 or $50 bill inside. So I picked one up and flipped it over.

Money Soap 2

Money Soap 2

Yep. You can see there’s real money inside! I couldn’t tell the denomination though. But I guess that’s part of the selling point.

Money Soap 3

Money Soap 3

There was no other markings on the soap aside from what was on the top and what was on the side. My wife saw me turning it over and over and over, trying to find the denomination, so she took one for herself and I got one too.

Opening the Money Soap at home was no help.

Money Soap 4

Money Soap 4

I could see the bill more clearly, but still had no idea what it was. A $1, a $5, a $10, a $20 or a $50.

Money Soap 5

Money Soap 5

The way I figure it, this is better than playing the lottery. I know I won at least $1. $1 cash money at that. Plus it’s going to keep me entertained for a lot longer than a scratch card or weekly ticket would. Plus I’m definitely going to have much cleaner hands because I’m washing them more than I need to now.

As soon as I find out what the denomination is, I’ll post a followup.

Monday Morning Music : 12/07/09

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Every Monday I’m going to start posting some music to start the week off on the right foot.

The third Monday? Lyn Collins – Rock Me Again And Again (and again and again and again).

News stories the mainstream media missed 12/05/09

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Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.

* North Korea completely devalued their currency to fight runaway inflation. All North Koreans are now required to swap out any of their existing paper money (won) for brand new currency at an exchange rate of one to 100. 100 bucks of old money now gets you 1 buck in the new and improved currency. A government cap of 100,000 bucks (wons) per family (which the article says is about £475 at the current exchange rate) means anyone hording large amounts of paper money was completely wiped out. “There were reports of public outrage and confusion after the announcement of the measure. Loud sounds of weeping in every house have not ceased since the news was released… Weeping and fighting between couples has not stopped anywhere. The atmosphere of the city is terrible now.” This is definitely something to keep an eye on. [TIMES ONLINE . UK]

* Senior Goldman Sachs managers “have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.” Seriously. Not a joke. Someone high up on the fed chain needs to go knock on Goldman’s door and ask if there’s something we need to know. [BLOOMBERG]

* A secret copywright treaty in America?  Caled the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, this sneaky way-under-the-radar treaty “..allows for criminal sanctions against noncommercial file-sharers, demands border-searches of laptop hard-drives and personal media players and phones for pirated material, requires ISPs to spy on their users, and gives movie and record companies the right to take whole households off the Internet with unsubstantiated allegations of piracy… Two US Senators, Bernie Sanders (I-VI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), have written to the US Trade Representative demanding that the text of the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement be made public.” So far, no news. So now everyone is going to be subject to a law they can’t review and can’t see? That’s some pretty impressive change! [BOINGBOING and KEIONLINE]

* It’s nice to see that Iran is continuing to make giant strides toward freedom and democracy. They just sentenced five people to death and sentenced 81 others to 15 year long prison terms for having the nerve to protest the election results back in June. The state calls them “terrorist and armed opposition groups.” Naturally! [AL JAZEERA NEWS]

* Credit card companies are now planning to charge you if you don’t use their card for an extended period! Bank of America alone is looking at annual fees ranging from $29 to $99. And they still can’t figure out why comsumers are dropping them left and right. [BLOOMBERG]

US DOE

US DOE

* How do you build something that needs to hold toxic waste for a million years? In a secure location that will always keep everyone safe? This link is an interview with Abraham Van Lui, geoscientist with the U.S. Department of Energy and a walkthrough of the proposed nuclear waste-entombment site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. After the interview, check out the official  US DOE fact sheet of the mountain project by clicking here.

* Spray-able liquid wound dressing technology is under development that will “forms a tough hydrogel in seconds that conforms directly to the wound without sticking to it when removed.” It is being upgraded for military use and is specifically being prepared for the “far-forward soldier…to complete his or her mission”. The one complaint I have is about the wording in the article. Every so often, they refer to soldiers as “warriors”. There’s a big difference in those two words, and I think keeping the US armed services under the “soldiers” definition is pretty important. [US Department of Defense Military Health System]

* A professional Swiss pilot, Yves Rossy, was testing out a jet-propelled wing by attempting to fly from Morocco into Spain. It konked out along the trip, but he parachuted into the ocean and was completely OK. He’s already made a succesful test flight from Calais to Dover at 125 mph, so it does work to a limited degree. If I was a millionaire, I would fund scientific research like this. So long as part of the funding, I would get one of my own. You know. For personal and ongoing research purposes. [DAILY MAIL . UK]

Rocket Man

Rocket Man

Red Skies at dusk

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A few days ago, the skies were a beautiful mix of crimson, orange and dark red with gentle swirls of white and blue mixed in.

I took a few photos around dusk just as the sun was setting below the horizon.

Red Skies 1

Red Skies 1

Red Skies 2

Red Skies 2

Red Skies 3

Red Skies 3

Red Skies 4

Red Skies 4

A Cold Tree Moon

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My wife and I were out at one of our favorite restaurants a few days ago and saw the moon was shining brightly through the haze of another oncoming cold front. I took a few photos and my wife took a few as well. I like her perspective the best.

A Cold Tree Moon

A Cold Tree Moon

Recall : Class 1 : ViperSheath Sheath Introducer

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This is an update to a previous recall on a ViperSheath Sheath Introducer. It’s now reclassified as a Class 1 recall, which is as serious as it gets.

A ViperSheath Sheath Introducer is a “long-coiled, reinforced, kink-resistant catheter-like tube (sheath) that helps a physician insert a catheter into a blood vessel.” The problem is that every once in awhile this ViperSheath Sheath Introducer might just fracture once it is in place. And that would be all kinds of bad. Because then “patients may need unplanned surgery to remove the fragments or to control bleeding. Since this device is coil reinforced, any separation of the cannula (a flexible tube inserted into the body) has the potential to expose portions of the coil, creating the potential for vessel dissection or perforation.”

So if you have Lot ranges S28117 through S29174 and catalog numbers VPR-ISH 5 X 85, VPR-ISH 6 X 85, VPR-ISH 7 X 85, VPR-ISH 5 X 45, VPR-ISH 6 X 45, and/or VPR-ISH 7 X 45 you need to chunk ’em ASAP.

Here’s the link to the updated FDA recall here.

Clear Sky Moon

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An old photo I had of a surprisingly clear dusk and a half-moon crossing the blue sky.

Clear Sky Moon

Clear Sky Moon