The world's most expensive sauce pan

Our old pots and pans, or as K calls them, our "cookware", were pretty much crap.  We had been talking about buying some good quality replacements, but it seemed to just stay on our (my) back burner.  Until yesterday.

We received one of Bed, Bath, and Beyond's coupons in the mail and figured we'd might as well take advantage of it....20% off is nothing to sneeze at.

 

See that sauce pan on the right, above the griddle?  I went in thinking we'd just buy that for a start, but instead we came out with the whole set.

But wait....there's MORE!

They had a special promo going on:  if you buy enough Calphalon products they give you (maybe "give" is the wrong word) a $50 gift card, too.  20% off PLUS $50.  Sweet!

But looking back on our shopping experience I think I came up on the short end.  I mean, K got some new pots and pans cookware AND a $50 gift card, but she wouldn't let me buy anything I wanted. 

K made me put her back.  How fair is that?  *pout*

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I read an interesting article in the paper that said yellow, orange, teal, and green cars, in that order, had the highest resale values, on average about $1,500 more than similar cars in the more common white (21% market share), black (19%), gray (17%) or silver (15%) colors.

 

Maybe by the time I buy my next car (no time soon) VW will bring back their Fahrenheit Edition GTI.  I dunno....you think it would be a cop magnet?  The last thing I need is to drive a cop magnet.  I thought it interesting that red wasn't on either list.

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I did NOT see this coming!

We had a gray drizzly day yesterday, which was rather nice as it kept the temps down.  But last night when I took the dog out the skies were clear.  I just assumed (yes, I know) that we were back to "hot and dry".

Instead, this ^ is what I woke up to.  Yikes!  No complaints here....we desperately need the rain.

It's been pretty intense so far this morning.  Lightning, thunder, 60-70 mph winds....luckily I had just enough warning to get my outdoor furniture safely inside.

We're currently under Stage 3 water restrictions:  Lawn watering only one day every other week, limits on car washing, swimming pool filling, etc.  And it's just the START of summer.  

They say unless we get lots of rain soon we'll go to Stage 4 restrictions....no lawn watering at all.  Imagine how this will impact lawn maintenance crews, landscape contractors, car washes, etc.

Meanwhile, less than 100 miles south it's flooding.  Go figure.

S

Will Texas' new state tree soon become the cactus?

Missouri's loss is our gain.

I feel like Gen. George Custer at the Little Big Horn when he realized he was surrounded.  Modern legend has it his final words were, "Holy crap!  Where'd all these _______ Indians come from?"  In my neighborhood I think I'm the last Texan standing.  Haha!  Plenty of room....come on.  Just bring your greenbacks with you.  ;)

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Oh no!  Heaven is on fire.  Colorado is burning.  The temp hit 100 in Denver yesterday.  The virtual home I built in the mountains is threatened.  This climate change thing is getting totally out of hand.  If not Colorado, where can I escape to?

Here in Dallas the temps are in the upper 90's and the humidity isn't far behind.  The drought map shows my area to be only slightly impacted, yet the water utilities are planning ahead and already declaring a water emergency.  Lawn watering is limited to once a week.  

Before long it will look like Arizona around here, except flat.  Hardly suitable for a Chamber of Commerce photo spread.

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You've heard the ads that say, "We can get you $500,000 worth of life insurance with a 5-Star-rated company for only $25 per month"?  Not so fast.  Turns out the insurance companies are cooking their books to make it look like they have WAY more money available to pay claims than they really do.  Many of those "5-star-rated companies" aren't.

Basically they're paying excessive executive bonuses and handsome dividends to stockholders (semi-Ponzi scheme?) using the money that should be in reserve to pay claims.  They have bought $5.46TRILLION in re-insurance (normally a prudent industry tactic) from wholly-owned subsidiaries they have set up in states that have lax insurance regulation.  The net result is they don't really have the re-insurance protection their financial statements say they do.  (They would be filing a claim against themselves.)  It's all a shell game.

They say this is likely to blow up eventually necessitating a government (taxpayer) bailout.  And businesses are lobbying heavily for the right to "self-regulate".  Yeah, right.  

S

I think we've done this to ourselves

I think everyone in the US would agree that weather patterns the past decade or so have been totally off the charts.  Right now, for example, wildfires are burning in the Pacific Northwest, and the only reason much of the rest of he country isn't on fire, too, is because it's already burned up.

This has so far been the hottest year since records have been kept, and it's also the driest, with 63% of our land mass experiencing drought conditions, hence the wildfires.  And if you watch the news, it seems like the other 37% is flooding.  Things are just completely upside down.

Want more proof the end is near?  The official NOAA forecast for Dallas over the next five days calls for a 30-50% chance of rain every day, with the high temperatures in the upper 80's.  Pinch me!  

And now we have an invasion, caused by an abnormal amount of rain earlier in the year, of mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus.  It's become so bad in Dallas County (I'm in Collin County, north of Dallas) that they have brought in a private air force to fog the area with an insecticide that will kill the nasty little buggers.  Now if there are any more mysterious deaths the medical examiner will have to decide if it's from the WNV or from ingesting the insecticide that is supposed to kill the WNV.  (Better living through chemistry!)

OK, now follow closely:  Very unexpectedly, scientists have found that the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the US has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years.  That's good, right?

Hmmmm....I'm wondering if maybe our atmosphere has undergone some sort of evolutionary change and has actually become used to CO2, so taking 20% of it out has actually pissed off the atmosphere, and now it's retaliating.  Maybe all these droughts and fires and floods and mosquitoes are just the consequence of a cleaner atmosphere.

Maybe its time we park all those Prius's and plug-ins and pull the covers off our beloved big block Chevy's.  Let's muck things up a little!  Fresh air is SO overrated.  ;)

S

Rain, rain...NO! Please DON'T go away

I don't think I've ever seen such screwy weather.  Three-quarters of the country is experiencing drought conditions, while in parts of south/coastal Texas they've had flooding.  High winds are flattening the plains states, while much of Colorado and the southwest have burned up.  Ya think this is one of those "end of time" events?


For us in north Texas our weather has been pretty normal.  Of course it's miserably hot, but rains earlier in the year topped off our lakes, and I'm hopeful we can get through the rest of the year without any water shortages.  In fact, I looked out my apartment window a few minutes ago and saw this:

Normally we don't get these kinds of clouds build up until the heat of the afternoon.  Maybe the rains currently one county west will slide this way.  I'm ready for a rainy day.  I think much of the country is ready for a rainy day/week.

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I saw on the bidness news that Sandy Weill, the man who assembled all the parts that made Citi into the first megabank, now agrees with me that our big banks need to be broken up.  (He obviously reads my blog.  ;)  He says "our banking system has been hijacked", and that banks that take deposits should be separated from those that take huge speculative risks.  Amen Brother Sandy!  But since he probably doesn't have any Congressmen in his back pocket like the banks do, I don't think it will ever happen.  At least not until after the next worldwide economic catastrophe.  (Ahem....back to that "end of time" theme?)

S

"Rain, rain, go away"...no, wait...PLEASE STAY!

"I don't need no stinkin' trainin'."  Smart dog.  Haha!

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Rain is always to me a good news / bad news sort of thing.  We desperately need more rain here in drought stricken Texas, but as a homebuilder, rain wrecks a construction schedule.  In a perverse way, not having a home under construction right now is good because we're expecting rain all day and night....2-3 inches of the liquid sunshine, and now I can enjoy it.   I have a couple of errands to run today, but otherwise I'm sticking close to home.  I asked K what needs to be done around here (I'm really scratchin' for something to do, can you tell?) and she said I could clean out the pantry.  How do you "clean out" a pantry?  Do you dust the cans, or maybe arrange them in alphabetical order?  Geez, I'm bored, but....

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So Mitt Romney made $42M last year, but paid only 14% in taxes.  I think people are outraged by that for the wrong reason.  I don't blame him for taking advantage of every deduction and loophole available to him.  You would, too, and don't lie and say you wouldn't.  I blame congress, who WE elected, for allowing those loopholes to exist in the first place.  And to say, "Yes, they (congress) are bad guys, all except MY guy, and he's good" is why things never change.  Just because your congressman sent you a birthday card or gave you a commemorative paperweight isn't reason enough to vote for him/her.  At the same time they were robo-signing your card they were emptying your pocket in order to subsidize 'ol Mitt and his buddies.  Think about it.

S  

The record is ours!

To paraphrase FDR, today, September 13, 2011 is a date that will live in infamy.  Summertime has come back to Dallas for one last hurrah, and today we break the record making this our hottest year ever.  Today will be the 70th day this year that temperatures have made it into triple-digits.  (We normally have 16 days per year at/over 100.)  I hope this isn't the "new normal".


On top of that, because our overnight low temperatures remained so warm (in the mid-to-upper 80's) in August, Texas has taken the record from the 1950's Dust Bowl Oklahoma as having the hottest month EVER recorded in the US, based on average temperature.


Now for the trifecta:  The drought we're now in is the most severe since such statistics began being kept in 1895.  AND our drought is expected to last into 2012.


I'm surprised bookies aren't taking bets on what's coming next: earthquake, volcanic eruption, or swarming locusts.  Hahaha!


S

Move over Lewis & Clark....

....make room for Scott & Kelly.  


Yesterday evening K and I took a class at REI Coop (an outdoors store) on map and compass reading.  Years ago I knew how to navigate by compass but over the years I've forgotten most of it.  We hope to be able to go back to Colorado next year and thought we'd try some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, hence our new found interest in maps and compasses.  

Now if we get lost we can put our new skills to use....or use our iPhones to just call for help.  (Just doesn't sound as rugged, does it?)  


We have reservations to rent some kayaks this weekend and paddle around White Rock Lake.  They've actually rigged a portion of the Trinity River to include some rapids for recreational use, but I think we're a long way from being able to do that.  Baby steps first.


Tropical Storm Don is in the Gulf of Mexico and looks to eventually make landfall somewhere along the lower Texas coast.  While I certainly don't want to see anyone get hurt by it, some rain would be welcome.  We're bone dry here, some lakes so low you can't put a boat in, some further west totally dry.  This heat and drought is working its way to the very top of the record books.  I'm hoping the northern-most projected storm track, the one that comes closest to us, will be the correct one.


One day closer to the weekend.  Yea!


S

Her 15 minutes of fame

Yesterday as I was driving down the Dallas North Parkway I spotted this...um...zoo escapee?  (I happened to have my 'lil pocket camera at hand and traffic was moving slowly, as always.)  I've bought a lot of cars in my lifetime, but I don't ever recall seeing on the option list a leopard spot paint job. Have you? 


Changing course, yesterday Joan Perry (Charleston Daily Photo) had a link to a cute game, The Longevity Game.  You enter your height, weight, how much you smoke, drink, whether you drive like a maniac, etc, and it tells you how long you'll live. Of course everyone wants to see "100 years" or some such ripe old age, but based on a serious story I read over the weekend, that seems increasingly unlikely.


Long story short, there are too many people in the world.  The world's population has roughly doubled in my lifetime, and a baby born today can expect to see it double again in his lifetime, to 10-12 billion people.  (It's about 6.5 billion today.)


In centuries past various maladies...wars, plagues, famines... have conspired to hold the population in check, but not today.  Climate change...think drought in Australia, floods in the USA, heat waves in Europe, violent storms everywhere, etc...are making it difficult for the food supply to keep up with world population gains.  Plus all these new people want their piece of the pie such as cars, a comfortable place to live, and other creature comforts, all requiring more mining for raw materials, polluting production facilities, roads, all dictating less arable land for agriculture.  The vicious circle just goes on and on.


Not to sound all doomy and gloomy, but maybe we should set our sights on a more modest number of years to roam the earth than The Longevity Game suggests we should expect. One way or another, it's going to catch up with us.


"Quality" and "quantity" are two very different things.  Party on.  :) 


S