Happy Birthday Annalyn – my granddaughter is ONE already!
Posted By RichC on March 4, 2018
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The crystal pendant lights, china and big knobs are growing on me
Posted By RichC on March 3, 2018
The new kitchen décor favored by Brenda is growing on me. Initially I fought the oversized glass crystal cabinet knobs (more expensive) 
and 
three rather than two crystal oriented pendant lights (I had already wired for two and had to add a third – $$$), as well as the excessive number of cut glass drinking glasses of all sizes … but they are ALL growing on me (I still can’t shake the “cheaper is more attractive” decision-making process). 😉
The pendant lights were particularly beautiful at about 6-6:30 in the evening the other day when the low southern sun came in the windows and reflected colorful light all over the new kitchen cabinets. Even the cabinet knobs sparkled and I have even found myself gravitating to the glasses even to drink ice water with supper … even when eating alone! Thank you Brenda for your great taste … I say that … knowing … she’ll never read this. 🙂
Tech Friday: A 2nd Amazon Echo – the Dot now streams music
Posted By RichC on March 2, 2018
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Archiving a famous portrait (cough, cough) and #TBT photo
Posted By RichC on March 1, 2018
I’m chuckling at the “famous portrait” subject line, but then again, how many people actually have a portrait of themselves painted by an artist?
(might as well make this a ThrowBack Thursday #TBT post)
My grandmother, Ruth Walker Bluhm, was an artist and painted a portrait of her first grandson in the 1960s. She was in my estimation very talented and I’m pleased to have several of her oil painting displayed in our house. My wife Brenda enjoys them too and we now have a pretty nice collection of art, several which our hers. I’ve mentioned a couple of them previously (1, 2, 3), but this one is the most personal and likely only appreciated by a couple people.
Our granddaughter Annalyn will be ONE year old in March and my daughter Katelyn asked each of us to bring a photo “as close to 1 year old” as we could. The joke bantered back forth by the grandmothers was that photos were very rare “when you are the third child.” I of course smiled having been the oldest and having a few extra photos to pick from … or should I say, “having my brother pick from” since he has the photo albums!
Here’s the photo I’ll be sharing with Annalyn at her birthday party. (more…)
The Apple Mac and Parallels virtual Windows 10 nightmare
Posted By RichC on February 28, 2018
What a pain. I had a major crash on my iMac and wiped out my Parallels install (corrupted the virtual hard drive). One would think this would be an easy fix, but it wasn’t.
I spent about 6 hours attempting fix after fix to restore a back up version of the virtual disk (Apple’s Time Machine) but it wouldn’t recognize. I attempted to recode several config files and likely messed it up even further. Eventually I restored everything Parallels related including the afore mention .pvm virtual disk folder from my 
earliest Time Machine backup and finally it looks like I’m back in business. I checked the Mac disk for back sectors, but all came out clean (although I think Mac OS remaps?)
I’m crossing my fingers for now and will carefully tweak any changes and updates incase something recent corrupted my Parallels install?
Archiving a couple Red River Gorge photos from Taylor
Posted By RichC on February 27, 2018
As mentioned before, it is great to see my son Taylor enjoying a couple of my interests or hobbies like hiking and photography when I was younger (actually I still enjoy them). Ignoring the lousy weather (we had a lot of rain and flooding), he ended up hiking with "a friend" (?) at a favorite place at Red River Gorge in Kentucky. He shared a couple photos so figured I would archive them on the blog for posterity – reminds me of when "we" were regularly taking hiking trips as a family years ago (a photo from one in the 1990s below).
Katelyn, Taylor & Jeff’s dog Heather in NC in 1994 – my favorite vehicle ’94 Toyota 4Runner
Music Monday: Sailing by Christopher Cross for obvious reasons
Posted By RichC on February 26, 2018
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Try the “Revenue Management” tip when frequent flying
Posted By RichC on February 25, 2018
For frequent long distance flyers, give this airline reservation travel tip a try …
We have never bought an upper-class seat; if ever we’ve flown anywhere up front, we’ve used miles to upgrade from economy. If you want to do that, call reservations and drop the name “revenue management.” The reason is that revenue management’s job is to make sure a flight is profitable, so they’re the ones telling [reservation agents] what they can say; they’re like Flying Club’s boss. Not everyone knows that this department exists, and by mentioning it you reveal yourself as someone who knows how things work and understands how seats are released. Say to the agent: ‘Have revenue management released any first-class seats for miles upgrades yet?’ When they say no, ask them to check or just be put through to revenue management so you can ask when they will release some, as well as how many seats are left. Politely respond like this: ‘You have 20 seats unsold? Why aren’t you releasing them?’ Often by the end of the conversation they say, ‘OK, we’ll release one for you,’ or they might tell you to call back tomorrow. Doing that, we’ve had a pretty much 100 percent success rate.
Disappointed in the thin Totallee cover for my iPhone 7 plus
Posted By RichC on February 24, 2018
I probably spoke too soon in praise of the Totallee super thin and lightweight case or more appropriately "cover" for my iPhone 7plus last year. Last week. While out of town traveling the thin skin just "slid" off the plastic case. It was as if the bonding method they used to attach the skin to the case was completely missing… there wasn’t any residue or glue type to be seen. I contacted @TotalleeCase by Twitter DM and they politely assured me that hello@totalleecase.com would be able to assist.
NOPE.
Unfortunately since the company replaced my first cover soon after I receive my initial preordered cover, their policy is to only warranty one replacement. It was frustrating since this case carries a small premium price (although is only$20) and in my judgment is a manufacturing flaw. I suspect that others are having an issue since the skin "fell" off and they have been replacing many other covers with similar issues?
Oh well, live and learn. I will not be recommending Totallee as a 
company. I instead will try a self repair by scuffing up the plastic and use a fitted block to help clamp with some clear @GorillaGlue!
A book on Value Investing and the #TwitterLockout
Posted By RichC on February 23, 2018
New "old" reading this week as I picked up "The Little Book of Value Investing" by Christopher H. Browne. The information is something I should know more thoroughly than I do and the reading is relatively easy as value investing is a
time tested concept proven over the years by investor gurus like Benjamin Graham and David Dodd who were professors at Columbia Business School – dates back to the 1930s. The concept evolved in the 1970s with their disciples such as Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. According to what I’ve read, the author of this book ran Graham’s favorite brokerage firm, Tweedy, Browne Co. It will be a quick read.
In other news, the #TwitterLockout wacked away at about 100 or so Twitter followers initially, many have appear after the outrage since the accounts were not bots. As of today, I’m only down 22 followers. Whew (not that I really care)!
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.