I saw an ad for burial plots, and thought to myself this is the last thing I need!
We were going to try golf again but we decided to wait until next week as the pushing of the hand cart was a little tough on the arm. So, we looked at the Alexa shopping list and I was off like a flash to get the essentials of life…including laundry soap, cheese, and blueberries! If berries are truly antioxidants then I better not have an oxidant in my body after this season!
We had a great lunch including me Sautéing a half onion…love my onions! Most onion cultivars are about 89% water, 9% carbohydrates (including 4% sugar and 2% dietary fibre), 1% protein, and negligible fat (table). I like them when they are crunch to the bite…seems only a little heat will bring out the flavor and get rid of the “bite”.
I also made a grilled cheese sandwich. We added some of the left-over international delights and voila, a great lunch!
We worked around the house…Sue did some reading and I fiddled with the orchids, paid some bills, and got things ready to see the tax people…eek, a frightening thought! We expect that last of the 1099’s in this week and then we can go get the bad news. After paying the four quarterly estimated taxes, there is noting remaining! Estimated tax is a method of paying tax on income that is not subject to withholding tax. This can include income from self-employment, business earnings, interest, rent, dividends and other sources. The IRS requires estimated tax to be paid quarterly, typically in 4 equal installments.
We got a text mid afternoon from Daughter Colleen in New Hampshire! We really miss her! This is an older photo from a visit to California…if it were yesterday, there would be snow everythere!
Nap time in the late afternoon so I would be ready for the Elks. I call it a beauty sleep but after some careful calculations, I would have to sleep 9.77 years just to get pretty…becoming beautiful was off the charts! We departed home about 6:00 PM and there was zero traffic, we made the trip in 15 minutes flat!
We danced, giggled and did our thing with the gang…a small gang this evening. Donna explained the wine program on their upcoming cruise…we gave her such a hard time we were ashamed…NOT!
The next table had a birthday party and the cake looked delicious! (We were offered some and indeed, it was really really good!)
They offered us some cake and we gladly accepted! Leon was kinda disappointed as he did not get to use his “cake charms” to get a piece. Of course, Pat decided to ask Leon about how he charms the cake and demonstrate his “snatch & grab” technique. This allowed great laughs form the observers!
We danced until 9:30 PM when the band just got too loud so we went home… followed by Irene, Bob & Donna, and others. Why do bands play so loud? We know why… here is the explanation!
Thoughts: Bar music is often so loud that you can’t hear yourself think – let alone, hear others talk. The music starts off modest and slowly the volume goes up. It’s a wall of sound. You’re yelling at your friend. They’re yelling back at you. Soon enough, the bar gets louder and more rowdy. It’s the signal that the party has begun.
Contrary to what your eardrums may think, this common practice is actually good business sense.
The louder the music gets, the more people give up trying to chit-chat and focus on lacing up their drinking shoes. The beer goes down faster. More trips get made to the bar. Waiters get more tips. Everyone wins, sort of. Except you.
People sitting around nursing their drinks aren’t good for profits. From the perspective of a bar owner, talkers aren’t the best beer drinkers.
So how do you quiet down even the loudest of fellows? Turn up the noise.
A number of field studies conducted in France have found that higher sound levels lead to people drinking more. On average, a bar-goers took 14.5 minutes to finish a 8 oz glass of drought beer when the volume was at its normal level.
However, once the music got turned up, this time reduced to just 11.5 minutes.
As a result, on average, these drinkers ordered one more beer in the loud music condition than in the normal one. This correlation between loud music and increased alcohol consumption is casual, but it’s quite still persuasive.
It makes you think though. Was your last night out – likely on New Years – in a noisy bar as fun as you remembered? Or, did it merely result in fun, because the louder music caused you to give up talking to friends and you drink more beer?
We came home and watched two episodes of Eureka. A little far out…yes! Funny…yes! Creative…yes! With its playful new series Eureka, set in the Pacific Northwest and telling the story of an outsider who comes to explore, and settle in, a remote town full of eccentrics.
Tonight Eureka’s residents fear they are the victims of a Biblical plague because they have experienced sudden muteness, lethal human bio-luminescence, and faucets running blood. Allison begins to glow. Eureka loses its power supply. A recently widowed woman has built a device that she believes will connect her with her husband in Heaven by creating a temporal rift. Her device, however, is emitting ultrasonic waves that put pressure on human vocal cords, making speech impossible. They are vibrating microorganisms in the water, which release a red dye into the town’s water supply. After the device is switched off, Stark brings Kevin to heal Allison.
We crashed at midnight after having the evening “tookies”. I have decided one is enough for me as the bathroom scale, that lying mechanical rumor monger, indicated I was approaching 210 pounds! Enough…this guy is headed for 195 again!
