Making it up to Mr. Pumpkin farmer

We were out of town for Halloween this year. This must have disappointing Mr. Pumpkin. 

Today, I partially made up for it by making a salmon and noodle dish with lots of pumpkin seeds. 

Of course as Mr. Pumpkin will tell you, the pumpkin seeds have lots of protein, fiber, iron and magnesium and are a crucial component of America's nutritional health.

This is, in turn, a crucial component of our national defense. 

Thus price supports and supplementary funding for pumpkin cultivation is vital to our national defense.

You're not against national defense are you.

Upon the Return to the US

Panda and Grad Bear went with us to Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal. When they came home Jolene  wanted to talk to Grad and ask whether he had remained sober and celibate on the trip. Of course Grad took offense at the question, "Honey, how could you ask that, you know we are engaged?" Jolene accepted that 'answer'.

Panda was, in the meantime, working on depositing the cash and checks (those are deposit slips he is holding) he got from selling "Genuine Art LLC" acquisitions to people in Europe.  A lot of the sales were of paintings by important Christian Saints (Dominic, Francis) and the foreigners were delighted since they had no idea those Saints did art too. Our Spain, etc. trip is blogged here.

You can run but you can't hide from Coca Cola, Inc.

A few days ago, I sold the Coke stock that was in the kids IRA accounts.

I used to the proceeds to buy some ETFs.

Both the 'value' and the 'increasing dividend' ETFs had large holdings of Coke.

Image is from an earlier 'negotiation' with the Coke Unions where Coke bear pointed out the many countries that don't have unions to which the company could shift production. Grad Bear was giving 'communication advice' and Hard Rock bear was there to see if he could pick up any ideas for the non public holding company that is controlled by the Seminole Indian Nation which owns the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain.
 

UGA Reconsiders Academia

UGA has become somewhat famous at the University of Georgia (aka, UGA) for his criminal interrogation work and his 'inspiring' lectures on CONSTANT VIGILANCE. 

This has resulted in some guest appearances at the University and a nomination as a regular visiting scholar or even as an honorary professorship.

UGA realized the downside today when he was interrogating our cat. She said he was committing micro aggression and she demanded a safe space.

Wily Consults and has some comments

 We got a new hat rack delivered. It is a metal one and will replace a wood rack. 


Various pieces have been falling off the wood one for the past year or so.


I consulted with Wily Coyote about the assembly of the metal coat rack. Wily was helpful, for example in telling me which hex wrench to use for which hex bolts.

However, Wily had some comments as  he was re-reading the directions after the assembly:

"This would work better with a giant spring."

and

"Where is the rocket and the catapult?"

Vampy endorses a non blood beverage

 A recent news story was about a vodka called "Satan's Shot" (see 1st image).


The vodka has a high alcohol content and it is flavored with a very hot chili pepper extract.


Evidently, it is sold in Britain.


At least one person was taken to the hospital after drinking it.

Vampy (second image) gives it his personal endorsement, but also says, " be sure to drink at least 3 or more ounces at a time, heh heh".

A news article on this is here.

Reb Penguin Arrives

Reb Penguin works in the Diamond business.  He spends many days on 47th street in New York City between 5th and 6th Avenue (although he stays with us a lot also).

One of the things he likes is to find a lot of shivimers (impressive diamonds, literally 'swimmers' that are pretty enough to stand out among the other diamonds).  This is especially nice when they are a mame zitser (a large diamond, literally a 'mother sitter').

This will lead to mazel and brokhe (luck and blessing) and thus a sale to a Faynshmeker (a connoisseur, although literally a fine sniffer).

That, in turn will make a deal that is parnose (livelihood) for Penguin and an apparent metsiye (bargain) for the faynshmeker. 

All in all a gevinen gevinen (a win-win).

Diamond lingo is found in this NYTimes article.

Ski Bear Likes the New Smart Car

 Over on the Weiss Chronology, I have a post that discusses the new car we got for George.

One of our stuffed animals especially likes the car. That would be Ski Bear. He likes it because of the name, 'Smart Car'. 

You can see Ski Bear getting ready to drive it in the first image. 

The second image shows a close up of Ski Bear in the driver's seat.

Ski Bear frequently tells people that his head is big because his job as a ski instructor requires enormous mental resources. 

When asked to explain that, Ski  Bear goes on and on about the importance of knowing that you form your skis into a pizza shape to slow down and in the shape of parallel french fries to speed up. Apparently, Ski Bear considers that the proof of his 'enormous mental resources' comment.

Vampy In Office Attire

Vampy was seated in his official Ambassador's chair today for a picture.

He is wearing both an American flag lapel and a pentagram. The latter is a token of recognition from Satan. Igor, perhaps thinking of how to word his 'assistance' to Vampy,  is perched precariously on the armrest.

Vampy, because of his Ambassador status (see a previous post), has been lording over (or as they say down there, 'Sataning Under' the regular demons). One day,  Vampy will have to resign his Ambassador status and there will be hell to pay (yes, I got this idea from what Owen said,  Well, he'd better have those units in the south range repaired be midday or there'll be hell to pay!.)

Lobby's "Success" in Maine

Lobby has been representing the Lobster Industry for a number of years.

In the past few years, the metrics for the Maine part of the industry have been very good. 

The harvest quantity, in pounds, is up and prices have remained stable (note the graph). This is a turn around from the situation before 2000 or so when big harvests depressed prices. 

Although the stable price for lobsters is partly due to the success of retail companies such as Red Lobster and the Urban Lobster Shack, Lobby likes to take a lot of the credit.

Lobby's fellow lobsters don't see the big harvest of lobsters as such a positive thing. 

Lobby responds, "I'm just a lobster making a living like everybody else."

Article on the Maine Lobster Situation is here.

Thinking of the Fall

Even though we are just in the early spring, Gretyl is looking forward to the fall.

I asked her if this was because she could see a new season of "Man in the High Castle" but she said she didn't want to be identified that way.

Instead, she thought maybe being identified with the Octoberfest in Munich would be better. So we did that; also it turns out that the beer is about the same color as Gretyl.

After Tough Beating from Nature, Cherry Blossoms show up

 It was a tough winter for the Cherry Blossom trees.

The warm days in February got them near blooming and then the snow and cold in March killed a lot of the blossoms before they could complete the bloom.

However, a lot of the trees were unaffected or only minimally affected.

These two pictures (top by Marc Andre, bottom by Narvin Sarma both posted on the capitalweathergang website) were both taken yesterday at the tidal basin (both have the Jefferson Monument in the background).

A Triumph for Vampy - only learning about it now

Back in 2014, the after school satan club applied for tax exempt status

Vampy made some calls, made a few night time visits, renewed some acquaintances, perhaps a perceived threats or two and yada, yada, the IRS approved the tax exempt status in only a few days. Back in 2014 Vampy was seeking a management position in the underworld.

The image of the activity book and the logo are from the After School Satan website. 

This website also has an FAQ series about the organization as there may have been some interest in the 'purpose and activities' of this organization.


article on the approval of the After School Satan Club is here


website of after school Satan is here

Coke Bear says a local and limited good bye

Philadelphia instituted a 1.5 cents per ounce tax on all sodas (including the diet kind).

Pepsi is withdrawing completely from the local market 

Coke is withdrawing from the 'large bottle' market but will, for now, still sell products that are 20 ounce and smaller.


In an interview, Coke Bear said, "I'm the victim here."

link to the story is here

Grad and Joleen - Closer to Matrimony

Grad Bear and Joleen are engaged and plan to be married on the first train to use the California High Speed Rail (Cal-HSR).

They recently got an engagement picture made. 

Joleen thought it would be romantic to use The Southern blanket because 'The Southern' was a train company.

Actually the first train to use this will likely be an Amtrak train and thus it would be  'higher than usual speed rail' but Joleen loves trains in many forms.



The construction image is of a viaduct near Fresno which will carry the Cal-HSR. 

The first construction contract package is for the 25 mile long section between the Madera area and the Fresno area (at the top of the map). 

I think this also includes the two stations and will cost about $2.5B but I'm not sure as the websites I went to were not clear on this. Also, I'm not sure if the plain post and beam design in the image will be the norm or if there will be fancy and more expensive designs at many points.


A SF Chronicle article on status of Construction of California High Speed Rail is here.

Vampy Sits for Hearing

Vampy was nominated by President Trump to be the Assistant Secretary for Satanic Affairs working for the Under Secretary for Political Affairs.

This is a classified position and does not appear in the organization chart of the Department of State, although it is easy to figure out where it would go. Also, from page 27 of this site it is obvious that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would be the one conducting the hearing.

The hearing results were positive but because the position is classified, we don't know what happened in detail.  

There was some tension because Vampy was uncomfortable with the fact that some of the Senators had a cross.  Vampy also asked the lights to be dimmed several times. Vampy also stumbled in his response to the question of his overall mission. Vampy said, "we're going to make America Great Tasting, uh, I mean Great Again."


When one of the committee asked Vampy if he had ever drunk human blood, Vampy said back that every member of the committee has probably done so when they accidently bit their lip or at the dentist.  Although it was a somewhat non responsive answer, the committee didn't seem to notice. 

The committee will vote on this in secret and then the full Senate will act similarly. 

UPDATE: Vampy was confirmed Feb 10. He immediately ordered all the lights dimmed in his area of the State Dept. and also had all the mirrors removed and told the cafeteria to ban the use of garlic.

Little Panda in NYCity

 Little Panda was with us on our touring of NYCity.



In addition to the two images in the NYC blog itself, here are three other pictures of him.



The first is inside the Rockefeller Center. Little Panda got to be in front of the famous photo of the workers on a beam high above the city.


The second shows little Panda in front of the window as I look NW from the Top of Rockefeller building.



The third shows Little Panda at a legacy phone from the Hotel Edison which was opened in 1931 and at the time the biggest hotel in town (it had 1000 rooms, 3 restaurants and a ballroom).