Let’s Meet Somewhere Else

You’d have to admit that we keep a clean house. 

Sometimes, like LAST WEEK, we even go a little overboard. Honey not only wants everything pristine, she has to have it organized. Personally, I am a bit of a slob, perfectly comfortable with a lot of clutter, but even I like for things to be clean.

That being said, why is it that the possibility that someone might be coming over demands that we go on a house cleaning tear? 

An old friend mentioned yesterday that they might stop by today, so now I have to post this, get off the computer, and get to work.

Things would be so much simpler if I had suggested that we meet at a restaurant somewhere.

Need for Speed

We finally got rid of Honey’s old computer!

Well, we actually didn’t.  I’ve left it on our home network strictly as a print server (and maybe someplace to back up files) but Honey now has a shiny new HP laptop.  Her old computer, a Dell PC, didn’t actually have genuine ivory keys, but it was almost that old, and it was so slow that it couldn’t run several of the games she likes to play.

The new computer has a touch screen, and came pre-loaded with a gazillion options, things like Kindle and Skype and dozens of others we will probably never use.  When you click on something it opens immediately – no waiting at all – and she loves that. 

What isn’t going so fast is the learning curve, transitioning from XP

to Windows 8.1

According to the news reports, later this year– about the time we figure this one out - Microsoft  is going to offer free upgrades to Windows 10. They say that is a good thing – I guess we have to wait and see.

Dog Gone

Last year, Budweiser won the Super Bowl commercial sweepstakes with a heartwarming ad that featured a cute little puppy and the Budweiser Clydesdales.  It was so popular that they have a sequel scheduled to air on Sunday.

GoDaddy also had a spot featuring a lost puppy scheduled for this year’s Super Bowl broadcast - one that poked fun at the Budweiser ad - but they have caught such grief from animal rights groups that they have pulled the ad before it ever aired.

If you'd like to see what all the fuss was about, here it is:

 

Goin’ to the Chapel

The bride is Yasmin Eleby of Houston, and the groom is, well, Yasmin Eleby. 

She always said that if she didn’t find anyone who loved her as much as she loved herself by the time she turned forty, she would marry herself.  She didn’t – so she did.

In an elaborate ceremony at the Houston Museum of African American Culture, Eleby was married earlier this month.  Honeymoon stops are said to include Laos, Cambodia and a jazz festival in Dubai.

How to Unboil an Egg

 

Scientists at UC Irvine have announced that, working with colleagues from South Australia’s Flinders University, they have developed a way to unboil an egg.

Your first reaction might be “Why?” or even “Who cares” but they say the process has applications that could save thousands of dollars in pharmaceutical production and research.

"Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg," said Gregory Weiss, UCI professor of chemistry and molecular biology & biochemistry. "In our paper, we describe a device for pulling apart tangled proteins and allowing them to refold. It's not so much that we're interested in processing the eggs; that's just demonstrating how powerful this process is," Weiss said. "The real problem is there are lots of cases of gummy proteins that you spend way too much time scraping off your test tubes, and you want some means of recovering that material."

"This method ... could transform industrial and research production of proteins," the researchers write in ChemBioChem.

For example, pharmaceutical companies currently create cancer antibodies in expensive hamster ovary cells that do not often misfold proteins. The ability to quickly and cheaply re-form common proteins from yeast or E. coli bacteria could potentially streamline protein manufacturing and make cancer treatments more affordable.

Industrial cheese makers, farmers and others who use recombinant proteins could also achieve more bang for their buck.

UCI has filed for a patent on the work, and its Office of Technology Alliances is working with interested commercial partners.

JJ = MVP

One more well deserved honor for our hometown hero, but I wonder if it might cause a problem. 

The ESPN crew mentioned during the game that the winner would receive a tricked-out GMC vehicle, and J. J. is seen regularly on TV as a spokesman for Ford pickups.

Addicted to Limericks

I have always loved Limericks, and a few years ago (can it really be 2011) I founded a group on Facebook called Addicted to Limericks. At the request of some of our members, we made it a closed group – and while I understand their reasons why (they don’t want their employers to know they are writing poetry while they are on the clock) I feel it has severely limited our growth.

For those who might wonder, here are a few samples of what you are missing:

Got a piece of raw fish on my Plate
It's the one thing that I haven't Ate
I think if you hook It
Then you oughta cook It
Fish that is raw is called "Bait" !!

Or

Said a middle-aged fellow from Dorset
As he tightened the strings on his corset
It holds in my gut
And it accents my butt
And I can look good if I force it

Often our rhymes are topical.  A headline about a lady who had won a free cremation from a local funeral home generated

Lookit me! I won a prize!
Wanna try it on for size
But, to my chagrin
To collect my win
Would require my own demise!....

Or, the first day back after my computer crashed, I wrote

My computer was down for over a week
It left me blind, could not even peek
At any limericks posted here
It left me feeling sad and drear
And mumbling words I should never speak

We have lots of fun – nothing too naughty, but a lot of puns and double entendres – and one poem often leads to another. If you think you might want to join in, let me know.  We are always ready to welcome new members who will actually participate.