100 mph Video Game

This is the new Mercedes Benz SCL600

Gotta love this weird door.......

And this strange trunk........

But here is the really crazy part of the car:

No steering wheel, you drive it with a joystick. No pedals either.

Can you drive with a joystick? Your kids and grandkids probably can.

The influence of video games in our lives has really arrived, wouldn't you say?

SCARY THOUGHT THAT NOW A 7-YEAR-OLD COULD STEAL YOUR CAR
AND PROBABLY DRIVE IT BETTER THAN YOU.

You Could Have Heard A Pin Drop

When in England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'

You could have heard a pin drop.

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There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latestdumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?'

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; theyhave three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use intransporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

You could have heard a pin drop.

*************************************************************************************

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries.

Everyone was chatting away in English as they sippedtheir drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

You could have heard a pin drop.

*************************************************************************************

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.

'You have been to France before, monsieur?' the customs officer asked sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

'Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.'

The American said, 'The last time I was here, I didn't have toshow it.'

'Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !'

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, 'Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchman to show a passport to.'

You could have heard a pin drop.

Tribute to the Motherland

Minnesota Facts and Trivia

1. Minnesotan baseball commentator Halsey Hall was the first to say 'Holy Cow' during a baseball broadcast.

2. The Mall of America in Bloomington is the size of 78 football fields --- 9.5 million square feet.

3. Minnesota Inventions: Masking and Scotch tape, Wheaties cereal, Bisquick, HMOs, the bundt pan, Aveda beauty products, and Green Giant vegetables

4. The St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959 allowing oceangoing ships to reach Duluth .

5. Minneapolis is home to the oldest continuously running theater (Old Log Theater) and the largest dinner theater (Chanhassan Dinner Theater) in the country.

6. The original name of the settlement that became St. Paul was Pig's Eye. Named for the French-Canadian whiskey trader, Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant, who had led squatters to the settlement.

7. The world's largest pelican stands at the base of the Mill Pond dam on thePelican River , right in downtown Pelican Rapids. The 15 1/2 feet tall concrete statue was built in 1957.

8. The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is the largest urban sculpture garden in the country.

9. The Guthrie Theater is the largest regional playhouse in the country.

10. Minneapolis famed skyway system connecting 52 blocks (nearly five miles) of downtown makes it possible to live, eat, work and shop without going outside.

11. Minneapolis has more golfers per capita than any other city in the country.

12. The climate-controlled Metrodome is the only facility in the country to host a Super Bowl, a World Series and a NCAA Final Four Basketball Championship.

13. Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California , Florida andHawaii combined.

14. The nation's first Better Business Bureau was founded in Minneapolis in 1912.

15. The first open heart surgery and the first bone marrow transplant in the United States were done at the University of Minnesota.

16. Bloomington and Minneapolis are the two farthest north latitude cities to ever host a World Series game.

17. Madison , MN is the 'Lutefisk capital of the United States '.

18. Rochester is home of the world famous Mayo Clinic. The clinic is a major teaching and working facility. It is known world wide for its doctor's expertise and the newest methods of treatments.

19. The Bergquist cabin, built in 1870 by Joh Bergquist, a Swedish immigrant, is the oldest house in Moorhead still on its original site.

20. For many years, the world's largest twine ball has sat in Darwin . It weighs 17,400 pounds, is twelve feet in diameter, and was the creation of Francis A. Johnson.

21. The stapler was invented in Spring Valley .

22. In 1956, Southdale, in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina , was the first enclosed climate-controlled suburban Shopping mall in 50 states.

23. Private Milburn Henke of Hutchinson was the first enlisted man to land with the first American Expeditionary Force in Europe in WWII on January 26, 1942.

24. The first practical water skis were invented in 1922 by Ralph W. Samuelson, who steam-bent 2 eight-foot-long pine boards into skies. He took his first ride behind a motorboat on a lake in Lake City

25. In Olivia a single half-husked cob towers over a roadside gazebo. It is 25 feet tall, made of fiberglass, and has been up since 1973.

26. The first Children's department in a Library is said to be that of the Minneapolis Public Library, which separated children's books from the rest of the collection in Dec. 1889.

27. The first Automatic Pop-up toaster was marketed inJune 1926 by McGraw Electric Co. in Minneapolis under the name Toastmaster.. The retail price was $13.50.

28. On September 2, 1952, a 5 year old girl was the first patient to under go a heart operation in which the deep freezing technique was employed. Her body temperature, except for her head, was reduced to 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Dr. Floyd Lewis at the Medical School of the University of Minnesota performed the operation.

29. The first Aerial Ferry was put into Operation on April 9, 1905, over the ship canal between Duluth to Minnesota Point. It had room enough to accommodate 6 automobiles. Round trip took 10 min.

30. Rollerblades were the first commercially successful in-line Roller Skates.Minnesota students Scott and Brennan Ols on invented them in 1980, when they were looking for a way to practice Hockey during the off-season. Their design was an ice hockey boot with 3 inline wheels instead of a blade.

31.. The first Intercollegiate Basketball game was played in Minnesota on February 9,1895.

32. In 1919 a Minneapolis factory turned out the nations first armored cars.

33. Tonka Trucks were developed and are continued to be manufactured in Minnetonka . (Now being manufactured in Mexico !)

34. Hormel Company of Austin , MN marketed the first canned ham in 1926. Hormel introduced Spam in 1937.

35. Introduced in August 1963, The Control Data 6600, designed by Control Data Corp. of Chippewa Falls , was the first Super Computer. It was used by the military to simulate nuclear explosions and break Soviet codes. These computers also were used to model complex phenomena such as hurricanes and galaxies.

36. Candy maker Frank C. Mars of Minnesota introduced the Milky Way candy bar in 1923. Mars marketed the Snickers bar in 1930 and introduced the 5 cent Three Musketeers bar in 1937. The original 3 Musketeers bar contained 3 bars in one wrapper. Each with different flavor nougat.

37. A Jehovah's Witness was the first patient to receive a transfusion of artificial blood in 1979 at the University of Minnesota Hospital. He had refused a transfusion of real blood because of his religious beliefs.

38. Minnesota has one recreational boat per every six people, more than any other state.

39. There are 201 Mud Lakes , 154 Long Lakes , and 123 Rice Lakescommonly named in Minnesota .

40. The Hull-Rust mine in Hibbing became the largest open-pit mine in the world.

41. Minnesota 's waters flow outward in three directions: north to Hudson Bay in Canada , east to the Atlantic Ocean, and south to the Gulf of Mexico .

42. At the confluence of the Big Fork and Rainy Rivers on the Canadian border near International Falls stands the largest Indian burial mound in the upper midwest It is known as the Grand Mound historic site.

43. Author Laura Ingalls Wilder lived on Plum Creek near Walnut Grove.

44. Akeley is birthplace and home of world's largest Paul Bunyan Statue. The kneeling Paul Bunyan is 20 feet tall. He might be the claimed 33 feet tall, if he were standing.

45. Hibbing is the birthplace of the American bus industry. It sprang from the business acumen of Carl Wickman and Andrew 'Bus Andy' Anderson - who opened the first bus line (with one bus) between the towns of Hibbing and Alice in 1914.. The bus line grew to become Greyhound Lines, Inc.

46. The first official hit in the Metrodome in Minneapolis was made by Pete Rose playing for the Cincinnati Reds in a preseason game.

47. Polaris Industries of Roseau invented the snowmobile.

48. Twin Cities-based Northwest Airlines was the first major airline to ban smoking on international flights.

49. Alexander Anderson of Red Wing discovered the Processes to puff wheat and rice giving us the indispensable rice cakes.

50. The largest Dala Horse in North America is in Mora.

Ruby Tuesday

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Blog.......I present to you: RUBY!

She is a 2008 Mercury Milan and I love her!

She has since gotten some pimped out tinted windows - hopefully that will help with the intense heat that builds up in cars during the summer here (especially with black leather - didn't I say that I wasn't going to get black leather again???).

She has a lot of the same features that Vince had (my Mazda 6) - sunroof, 6-disc changer, heated seats (I know, I know - why would I need them here!?). And as much as I'm loving Ruby, I will miss Vince a lot....

Maggie even got to ride in Ruby when I got her home. She christened the new car with puppy nose kisses on the windows. Awwwww.......

Random Waco-ness

On my recent trip down to Waco, there were other noteworthy sights besides the cool Dr. Pepper museum....

We also drove around on the Baylor University's campus.

Their mascot is the bear, so of course they have a live bear right there!

And what is a Texas town without a cowboy/longhorn statue??

Then we went to a bar/restaurant for a late lunch. They had a massive amount of beers on tap - it was insane! I'm not a beer drinker, but if I was...........

How's this for a weird Texas liqueur?!

And when you hear "Waco" - who doesn't think about the terrible Branch Davidian tragedy that happened in the early nineties with David Koresh??

I know that it's probably tacky or morbid, but I wanted to see the site.....but we drove out there and only saw a sign for the "new" church, not the big compound that we've all seen on video a million times. It's back there somewhere, but we got to a big gate that said "No Trespassing" and stuff like that, so we just thought it was smart to stay out!

Here's a sign for the new church there:

Here's a picture of the new church - definitely a far cry from the compound that they had before!

The Doctor Is In

Last weekend, I went on a roadtrip of sorts to Waco, Texas to see what there was to see. One of the highlights of the trip was the Dr. Pepper museum!

There were three floors of Dr. Pepper goodness and I loved it. I am a big fan of Diet Dr. Pepper, so after the self-guided tour throughout the museum, I just had to get a Dr. Pepper float in the little cafe on the first floor. And they make them with an old fashioned soda-tap thing (ya know, that tap where they pour the syrup in the cup, then pour regular water, then shoot the carbonation in it). It was fun to watch them make it and it tasted fabulous.

Here is a picture of a recreation of the soda fountain. The guy in the cafe used the same kind of tap to make our floats!

Signs from days gone by...

Here's one of the OLD bottle washer machines:

And here is the bottle-cap-putter-onner (clearly that's the technical name of the machine):

And I'll be honest - I would love to say that I know what all of this equipment does.....but I just do not.....I'm not mechanically inclined! But it was interesting to look at while I was there...

Back in the day when they were bottling here, they decided that artesian well water was the best stuff to use, so they drilled this well right in the bottling plant and drew up water to use for the Dr. Pepper.
Looking down into the well.....

How's THIS for an old pop machine (and yes, I DID say POP)??

Or how about this one??

This one has the 10/2/4 logo on it:

OK, so who grew up on Shasta pop like I did??? I totally forgot about Dr. Diablo!!
And what's up with these Dr. Pepper containers?! It looks like hydrogen peroxide bottles or something!
Production line 'rejects' - can you find the errors? HAHA

They had big display cases full of old pop bottles and cans...

And a super cool old cash register! This made my inner math nerd happy!

Gotta love the old delivery truck...

There were a TON of old pop machines and coolers in this huge room - so much fun to look at them and recognize some of the styles that have been used in my lifetime - and marvel at the onse that were before my time. This museum was VERY well done - I definitely recommend it to anyone passing through Waco!

Cowboy Chicken!

Last week, I attended a seminar of sorts at Prestonwood Baptist Church up in Plano and I purposely got up there a little early so I could grab some dinner beforehand. I decided to not plan for where I would eat, but rather just 'wing' it. Well, I was immediately attracted to a place called Cowboy Chicken!

They specialize in wood-fired rotisserie chicken - and all the fabulous Texas-barbecuey-stuff that goes with it. YUM. It smelled AMAZING outside the building!

Here is the sign for the women's bathroom - COWGIRLS!


They had articles, plaques and pictures all over the restaurant about how they have award-winning food....and there's a good reason for that. Their chicken was FABULOUS.


Here's a shot of these rotisserie chickens in action....

And what's a 'cowboy' restaurant without a "HOWDY" sign?!

I would definitely recommend this restaurant - the food was fantastic!

Two-Steppin' in Big D

Last week, history was made in my world - I learned to 2-step! I went out to dinner with Mayce and some of her friends at Pappasito's.....and then we headed over to Cowboys Red River in Dallas for some dancing!
Like any good country bar, there was a mechanical bull (but none of us braved the bull):

The photography was tough in this place, but here is evidence that I actually learned the 2-step and was practicing with a real live boy on the dance floor!

Here is Mayce and her friend David who danced with both of us....

This place was pretty cool - the dance floor is a big oval shape and the bar is in the center.

Here are some professionals working their 2-stepping magic!