179- Hungry Bear Sub Shop

We found an incredibly good, sub shop today. It's called the Hungry Bear Sub Shop located in Escondido. Tried the Steak "bomb". and not only was it delicious but it was filling and reasonably priced. Try this place out if you're passing thru Esco.

Here's a review from Yelp.

178- Airport Shuttle

It was fun to pick K up from the airport after her stint in Germany. She'll be here for a few weeks and then off to Fort Dix to train for Afghanistan.

177- Keep on Running

Well I was out for the dog walk this morning and- just like in Forrest Gump- I felt like running. So I did. Nothing fancy and nothing far. And it felt pretty good. Maybe a 5 or 10 k at Christmas time isn't out of the question.

Don't forget about the Doobie Brothers "It Keeps you Running" on YouTube.

176- Skype

With K heading over to Afghanistan, we've uploaded skype to our laptops. Hope to use it once she's in country. Anyone out there have any experience using it?

175- Mayan Calendar Update

544 more days to go. What's your theory...

meteor hits earth? (Bible calls it "Wormwood")

massive earthquakes?

WW III ?

Terrorists?

Cosmic rays from the center of the galaxy?

Global warming?

Pole reversal?

Alien Invasion?

12th planet?

wooooo. the possibilities are limitless so stay tuned!

174- Mission Accomplished

After 45 days our Electric Dryer is fixed. Sears put the finishing touches on the machine yesterday about 7 pm and we were drying clothing by the evening. After several visits and a few missing or bad repair parts its is finally Mission Complete!

173- Still the Best

Nick Lidstrom, at 41 years old, is still the best defenseman in the NHL. He earned his 7th Norris trophy as best NHL defender for the 2010-2011 season. The Captain remains #1!

172- The Weather

I recently completed a DVD series on "The History of Western Civilization" from Great Courses. I found it much more interesting than the stuff I took in college.

Then I got a great deal from on a subject I've always wanted to know more about... The Weather. So far after 3 lessons... it's been everything I had hoped for. The instructor is a professor at UCLA and is a pretty interesting lecturer.

171- A Whole Long Week

I'll be working a whole week and so far (3 days) it's been great. It's awesome when you get to work with a highly competent and well trained staff of dental assistants. For 21 years I struggled with half trained and less than half interested assistants in the Navy. It seemed that you got very green and unskilled techs to do the assisting and just as soon as they reached a high skill level you either saw them transferred to work with a specialist (Oral Surgeon, Endodontist or Periodontist) or watched them receive a "promotion" to push paper and do administrative tasking for the boss. The worst was having a male dental tech who wondered why the hell he ever chose to be a dental tech and spent the remainder of his enlistment trying to get out of doing it.

Enough of a rant Those years are long past. Now I work with assistants who actually like what they are doing, strive to improve their skills and enjoy coming to work every day. Yay for me and for my patients.

170- Happy Fathers Day

Hope you have a great day, dad!

169- Time to Make More Wine

Well, I'm getting the itch to make another batch of wine. The white wine made from Welch's Frozen White grape juice... I call it "Razor's Edge" is a favorite and so easy to make. Here's the recipe:

Welch's Frozen Grape Juice Wine

2 cans (11.5 oz) Welch's 100% frozen white grape concentrate

1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar

2 tsp acid blend

1 tsp pectic enzyme

1 tsp yeast nutrient

water to make 1 gallon

wine yeast

Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water.

Remove from heat and add frozen concentrate. Add additional water to make one gallon and pour into secondary.

Add remaining ingredients except yeast.

Cover with napkin fastened with rubber band and set aside 12 hours.

Add activated wine yeast and recover with napkin. When active fermentation slows down (about 5 days), fit airlock.

When clear, rack, top up and refit airlock.

After additional 30 days, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles.

makes about five 375 ml bottles of wine.

============

Its easy and if I can make it then you can too!

168- Battery Powered Yard Tools

This deal seemed too good to pass up. Through Home Depot online:

Battery powered String trimmer and blower

I was at the home depot this morning and was checking out both of these items. They were being sold separately. the trimmer alone was the price I paid for both... $119.

Three reasons why I purchased this item:

1- Its pollution free. No gas and oil mix to screw the air up and no more running out of gas or oil.

2- My gas trimmer is good.. but it takes a lot of pulling to get it started and it stalls a few times before it gets warmed up enough. Sometimes I flood the carb and then need to let it sit. In short.. it's a royal P.I.T.A.

3- My leaf blower is electric and getting it hooked up with two extension cords takes longer to do than using the blower does... thus I usually sweep with a broom or use the lawnmower to blow the grass around and I still leave a mess! I will probably blow off the back patio more and the sideyard as well when it isn't such a chore to use the blower.

167-Stent Surgery

I just wanted to place a post here about stent placement and surgery. My pop has had several placed to keep his blood vessels open or to keep an aneurysm from ballooning up. Here's what I found:

Wikipedia

American Heart Association

What Is a Stent?

A stent is a small mesh tube that's used to treat narrowed or weakened arteries in the body. Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from your heart to other parts of your body.

You may have a stent placed in an artery as part of a procedure called angioplasty (AN-jee-oh-plas-tee). Angioplasty restores blood flow through narrowed or blocked arteries. Stents help prevent the arteries from becoming narrowed or blocked again in the months or years after angioplasty.

You also may have a stent placed in a weakened artery to improve blood flow and to help prevent the artery from bursting.

Stents usually are made of metal mesh, but sometimes they're made of fabric. Fabric stents, also called stent grafts, are used in larger arteries.

Some stents are coated with medicines that are slowly and continuously released into the artery. These stents are called drug-eluting stents. The medicines help prevent the artery from becoming blocked again.

166- Bruins Win

As much as I hated to see it, the Boston Bruins came back to win the Stanley Cup with a brilliant 4-0 wino over the Curse Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks, the favored team in the finals, went up 2-0 and the struggled every time they played at Boston Gardens. The Bruins won all three games in Boston and the Canucks ended up 3-1 in their own rink... good but not good enough.

So Congrats to the Bruins on their Stanley Cup victory.

165- Movies

Last five movies I have watched:

1- Casablanca (DVD)

2- Patton (DVD)

3- True Grit (new one) on Netflix DVD

4- Pirates of the Carribiean #4 (theater)

5- Green Hornet (airplane)

164-TV Shows

My top five television shows are:

1- Pawn Stars

2- Seinfeld reruns

3- Deadliest catch

4- NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs

5- Pickers

Pretty boring, huh?

163- Food Poisoning

Well every so often you run into a bad plate of food. My daughter and I went on to "China Fun" yesterday and she ended up getting sick from it. I was queasy most of the day and slept a lot- but otherwise okay. And yes I made another 5 am run to the airport to get her there. She lost her lunch a few times- but thankfully not on the airplane.

The coming week promises to be a busy one. Working about 35 hours and then hoping to get the dryer (finally) fixed on Friday.

162- Saturday Screening

Well I violated my first rule of the weekend and worked from 11-3 on Saturday. It was an interesting half day. It was out in town of Alpine and we did screenings on children at a health fair. In addition to seeing some fine young kids, I met two pirate actors from Hollywood who were hired to provide entertainment and I also picked up a fake gold coin and a free lunch from Rubio's.

The day started early with a trip to the airport to drop off K at 5 am... so I was happy when the day ended.

161- The Meaning of Life

The top three hits on goggle for "meaning of life"

1. Wikipedia.

2. users.aristotle.net

3. Monty Pythons "Meaning of Life"

4. meaningoflife.org

5. themeaningoflife.org

In the movie "City Slickers" Curly, the grizzled old cowboy ( played by Jack Palance), told Billy Crystal that the meaning of life was one thing... that you decide... it is what is most important to you. One last click for you: here

160- Con-Grad-ulations BMO

Yesterday marked a career milestone for our youngest. He graduated from High School. Next Fall he will be off to Cal State for college. We were a proud family, watching him matriculate brought a tear to my eyes. On one hand it marked a tremendous family event and yet it hissed Father Times whisper in my ears... "you're getting old, Powayslugger."

159- PF Chang

We had a post marathon Chinese feast at PF Chang's place on Sunday afternoon. Immediately after the race we boarded a bus that took us to Old Town trolley stop and then rode the trolley to Fashion Valley and the restaurant. Everyone... family and friends enjoyed a nice meal... we were all starved from a day at the races.

158- True Grit

I just watched the remake of this classic western last night. It was a good one and I can see what all the accolades were about. Although Jeff Bridges is no John Wayne (in my opinion at least) he did a wonderful job portraying the gritty character Rooster Cogburn.

157-RIP Jim Northrup

A Tiger great, Jim Northrup, the silver fox, passed away on Thursday. He was the hitting hero of game seven Tigers win in 1968 on their way to the World Championship. Here's a few links to follow up if you're a Tigers fan:

http://www.wthitv.com/dpps/sports/mlb/other_mlb/jim-northrup-dies_3842503

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/tonypaulblog/index.php?blogid=638

the second one is a taped interview from a few years ago.

156- Marathoning Daughter

Our daughter E ran and finished her first marathon race today. She completed the 26.2 mile Rock and Roll Marathon right here in San Diego. We're very proud of her and this accomplishment. Here she is finishing up with a smile on her face.

155- Writer's Meeting

It was good to get together with my fellow writer's again this morning. Our informal group had been meeting without me for the past two months. Life just gets in the way, you know? It was good to see everyone again and share ideas.

154- Yawning

Trying hard to get synced up with the new time zone and I am having a tough time doing it. After being on Germany time (GMT minus one hour) which is nine hours different. I find myself falling dead asleep by 8-9 at night and then waking up at about 3-4 am and bing unable to fall back to sleep. I know what Elvis was talking about with that "Tossing and Turning" song of his.

153- Back To Work

I was back in action yesterday for a ten hour marathon session. I saw nearly 40 patients and perhaps another ten for examinations. Funny it didn't wear me out. A good vacation really buoys you up and re-energizes the batteries. Today was a bust. The dryer repairman was here and it turned out the replacement dryer drum was bent and needed to be re-ordered... that puts repair off until next Friday. We can wash but can't dry. Looks like hanging up the clothes and letting them air dry is our only option. The boys have been holding off doing their clothes. Hope they have enough underwear to last another week!

152- Day Twelve- Homeward Bound

It was an early wake up call at 5 am and then off to the airport for the loooooong flight home. On a plane for an hours ride from Stuttgart to Dusseldorf and then there to "Lovely" Newark, NJ. Then I hoped the six hour ride to Home- San Diego.

151- Day Eleven- The Zoo

We walked about an hour to the Wilhema Zoo in Bad Camstatt near Stuttgart.

150- Day Ten- "No Mercedes- Only Movie"

We tried to get to the Mercedes Benz Museum- we really did- twice. But the roads were blocked for a major road race so we settled for a nice lunch and a movie- Pirates of the Caribbean #4". We knocked around the base, walked thru a vineyard and shopped at the exchange.

149- Day Nine- Drive back to Germany

Yes. You really can drive as fast as you want in many sections of the Autoban. It was really great racing all those BMW's, Mercedes, Porsche's and Audi's in our little, rented Kia Picanto. It was a long drive back.

148- Day Eight- Sound of Music Tour

Top photo: The famous Cathedral in Saltzburg... we got caught in a nasty rainstorm while walking around the downtown area.

Second photo: The interior of the wedding church from the "Sound of Music" in Mondsee, Austria.

Third Photo: Local delicacy is Apricot Schnapps. Mmmmmm. It warmed us up after all that rain.

Fourth Photo: Kissing in front of the Sound of Music's "first kiss" Gazebo.

147- Day Seven- A Day in the Salt Mines

We traveled to Saltzburg, Austria. Saltzburg means Salt Fortress. We toured the salt mine that made it one of the richest cities during the 18th and 19th centuries. We rode a skinny rail tram into the mine and then enjoyed an interesting tour that included riding the wooden salt rails and crossing an underground salt lake on a boat. We looked up and saw the Eagles Nest- Hitler's retreat- in Berchtesgaden. We enjoyed a delicious meal at our hotel's biergarten.

146- Day Six- The Iceman

Top photo: me enjoying a "Venetizano" in the city of Bolzano, Italy.

Middle Photo: The Iceman recreated.

Bottom Photo: Otzi's mummified remains.

Bolzano is the home of "Otzi" the iceman. We toured with ITT thru the Brenner Pass to see the 5,300 year old iceman. He died and was covered and preserved by the ice of a glacier until being discovered in 1992.

145- Day Five- The Zugspitz

The top photo is from the Army's Edelweiss Resort in Garmish, Germany. We took a cogwheel train nearly 10,000 feet to the summit of the Zugspitz. It is the highest mountain in Germany, and part of the Alps that divide Germany from Italy, Switzerland and Austria.

144- Day Four - Prisoner

Karen went off to work and I used Monday to catch up on some rest and get used to the time change. I felt like a prisoner since I could not leave the base and since it was Monday everything was closed. Overseas base security is very tight. All personnel have their ID entered into a database that allows entry unto military installations.

143- Day Three- The Black Forest

On a lazy Sunday afternoon we took a drive thru the Black Forest. In Germany everything is closed on Sunday and Monday so the ride was a relaxing way to spend the day. Saw a beautiful red Jaguar (a classic) in the spa town of Baden-Baden.

142- Day Two- Rootenburg, Germany

The lovely river running thru this little German town. I was dead tired but kept pressing on. After a little lunch and beer I promptly feel asleep on the car ride to K's luxury accomodations at Robinson Barracks.

141- Day One (travel)

Almost nothing is as long as flying to Europe from the US west coast. You change so many time zones that you never realize how long you have been flying or awake... I left early in the morning fro "Lovely" Newark, NJ. I believe there is a real possibly that if it were put to a vote Newark might be selected as the armpit of America. I connected for London Heathrow and then from there to Stuttgart, Germany. I arrived on Saturday at about 1030.