Okay, Now I love Ted

Gerry of SV Katinka has been posting about TED. She is in love with the site and now so am I.  Carole of SV Androsian sent me this bit and asked it I wanted one.

You betcha.  I love tech stuff.  I love gadgets.  I love the fact that I can have an idea and want to share it and can do so via my blog.

So many of the people that I know are geeks.  Remember that used to be a put-down.  Now some of us would wear that badge with honor.  That is were the money is and that is the new wave.

I wonder if I would have had this new device if I would have made better choices about who I dated and who I married. (watch the video for the reference)  Most likely not, I am pretty stubborn.

Music

I love music.   Some of my earliest memories are filled with music.  My Mom and Dad played music all the time.  They played all kinds of music so we kids where exposed to lots of great stuff.

So here I am living on sailboat in Guatemala and I have access to all the music I could want.  The only problem is money!  I could go broke buying all the music I want.  I want you to know that iTunes is doing their very best to get a large chunk of my money.  Remember that there are three of us purchasing music.  We like some of the same music, but each of us has our own favorite.

Yesterday was Michael's turn to go into a downloading frenzy.  Each new album suggested something else that he might like.  Yes, he liked them and downloaded them also.  Seventy songs later he stopped.

Three iPods and one iTouch live with us.  We are downloaded, sync'd and playing our music, listening to our books, reading e-books, watching movies and TV shows.

Who says you can't have it all?

Collectivas...Just part of the "Cultural Experiance"

If you have not been to Central America, you may be unfamiliar with "collectivas".  Well they are nine (9) passenger vans usually on their last legs.  Did I say nine passengers?  That may be what they were designed for, however, if you are going to make a profit carrying the populace between village and city, well.....more is definitely better!  The most that I have ever had was twenty-nine (29) in one van.  We were cheek to jowl, babies on laps, bags of veggies and fruit in laps and people hanging out the sliding door.
Cynthia and I have been regulars on the collectiva to Morales.  Cynthia has braces and must go for routine adjustments we find ourselves grabbing the various collectivas.  We are learning which drivers are just a little too crazy for us. We know that the weekends are just plain suicide.
I will admit that I miss read her appointment slip so last Saturday just past noon we found ourselves on our way to Morales.  Our driver started out just fine.  Then just as we hit the curves he really put the petal to the metal and we were flying around blind curves, passing in no passing zones, just the normal driving habits of your friendly colectiva driver.  So when we saw him yesterday with his helper and money collector holloring, "Morales,  Morales, Puerto Barrios"  we got in.  We needed to get there.

As we are going over the bridge that spans our beautiful river we stop and pick up a clown.  This guy is in full costume and has 7 soda cans all attached to each other in a line.  As we pull away he hands the driver a picture of himself on the bridge with the river in the background.  The driver is looking at the picture and commenting all the while we are weaving across the center line on a two lane bridge.

We are heading down the road and the clown starts to sing and accompany himself with the cans.  He holds them horizontally and there must be seeds inside as it sounds like a rain stick.  So he sings his song of going to the beach and seeing the beautiful girl in the white top and pants, who he calls to and declares his love.  She of course ignores him and he is sick at heart with love for her. ( I am telling you about this song...because it was all in Spanish and I understood 90% of it!)

After dropping off 2 people and picking up 4 more in the village of Buenas Aires I notice that the helper is making arm motions to a collectiva behind us.  The other collectiva pulls around us and then stops to drop off his passengers.  We pull around him and then all of a sudden he as pushed us into the on coming traffic lane!  We are half on the shoulder and he has us blocked in.  Yes, we are in a blind curve!  The other driver comes over and yanks open the door and grabs our driver.  There is yelling and accusations flying.  Cynthia and I are trying not to pay too much attention and are hoping that we won't be hit by on coming traffic.  Fortunately,  the other driver leaves and we continue on our way.

We will never know what it was all about.  The ride home was boring...Can't wait till next month.

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM.......

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM,SPAM......

Monty Python has the Broadway production of Spamalot.  The rest of us have SPAM!

 Either you are a lover of Spam or not.  We are not talking electronic spam here.  We are talking canned meat!
I am not sure when or where I had my first taste of spam, but I know that I like it.
Michael and Cynthia like it too.  That makes it easy for me.  Especially for breakfast.  Now there are some people and they know who they are, that....gasp...do NOT like SPAM.  So of course Murphy's Law is in place.
They sent a cruising friend with a wish list for shopping in Guatemala City.  Being Australian, George picked up canned meat as requested...Well not really.  He came back with two (2) cases of SPAM!  To their credit they tried to like it and then promptly worked out a work trade with Dragonheart.  Spam for sewing.
SPAM is versatile, fried, diced in eggs with pancakes, as a sandwhich, etc.  The list is endless.  Check of the SPAM website for recipies.
 
Roger and Carole like spam also and as Roger is back in England, Carole is at loose ends for breakfast.  Seems that Roger cooks breakfast for her and Sunday breakfast is special.  So we invited her over for breakfast.  Yes, waffles and fried SPAM!
Just a little history about SPAM!

Hormel developed America's first canned ham (''Hormel Flavor-Sealed Ham'') in 1926, and eleven years later developed the first canned meat product that did not require refrigeration. It was a ''distinctive chopped pork shoulder and ham mixture'' developed by Jay C. Hormel, son of Hormel founder George A. Hormel, and marketed as ''Hormel Spiced Ham'' - not a terribly inspiring name for an innovative product fated to save lives, win wars, and balance diets of people world wide.
Hormel Spiced Ham got off to a slightly rocky start. Other meatpackers began to introduce their own canned luncheon meats, and Hormel lost its controlling share of the market. Soon, however, they came up with a cunning plan to rectify this situation - they would give Hormel's luncheon meat a truly catchy name. Toward this end, they offered $100 for a suitable appellation. The winning name was, of course, ''SPAM'', and a legend was born.
SPAM was launched with much high-profile advertising in mid-1937. It was called ''the Miracle Meat'', and promoted as an anytime meat. In 1940, SPAM was the subject of quite possibly the first singing commercial. The jingle was to the tune of the chorus of ''My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean'', and the lyrics were ''SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM/ Hormel's new miracle meat in a can/ Tastes fine, saves time./ If you want something grand,/ Ask for SPAM!''. Hormel also sponsored George Burns' and Gracie Allen's network radio show, which included ''Spammy the Pig''. During World War II, sales boomed. Not only was SPAM great for the military, as it required no refrigeration, it wasn't rationed as beef was, so it became a prime staple in American meals. SPAM supported the war effort more directly, too. Nikita Kruschev credits SPAM with the survival of the Russian Army during WWII. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Hormel Girls performing troupe advertised SPAM as they performed throughout the country, distributed SPAM door-to-door, and even had a national weekly radio show. Ads proclaimed, ''Cold or hot, SPAM hits the spot!''
In 1960, SPAM began to be sold in 7 oz cans alonside the original 12 oz ones. SPAM began to spawn variations in 1971, when smoke-flavored SPAM was introduced. Next came less salt/sodium SPAM, in 1986, and with it the honour of being considered ''state of the art in its industry'' by the Minnesota Association of Commerce and Industry." In the early 1990s, SPAM Breakfast Strips were introduced, as was SPAM lite.
What now awaits us on the SPAM front? Only time (and possibly Hormel) will tell.

Try SPAM!   You just may like it.

Now That's a Gadget I Can Use!

I know that I seem obsessed with our last trip to the States.  So please bear with me.  One of the things that makes your heart beat faster is when you are checking into the airlines and you put that first bag on their scale.
You are right...it is over.  How can that be you ask?  I know that we weigh and re-weigh ever bag at least 4 times.  How do we do this?  With the bathroom scale.  It really is quite funny to watch.  Someone usually me lifts the bag, balances it on the scale, and then lifts so that the other person can read the weight.  We never seem to get the same reading.  You can also stand on the scale with the bag in your hand and then subtract your weight from the total.  I never opt for this version as I hate math!

Well we have ordered a hand held digital scale to weigh our bags on our next trip.  There are several out there.  

Supposedly, you just wrap the strap around the handle of your bag, lift and it digitally gives you a read-out.
Sure hope it works as well as it is advertised.  I hate transferring items at the airline counter.

Help us name our Holes???

This is posted on YouTube and Facebook.  I just can't imagine that they didn't realize what the inuendo would be....A hole or B hole????

I laughed.  May-be you will too.

Packaging

On our recent trip to the States we bought a significant amount of stuff.  Stuff for us, stuff for friends and fellow cruisers.  So much stuff was delivered to my sister's home that she quit sending me emails to alert me of arrivals.
One of the first things people tell you is, "break it down".  Couldn't have done it if we hadn't "broke it down".  We filled half of a small dumpster with packaging.  It took me two days to break down the packaging.  Once you get the item out of the packaging then I put it in Zip-Locks and label who it belongs to.

Here is an example of over packaging.
The Original box.

The box inside the box.

 The actual item which is only 3"X3".

Multiply that by a water pump, depth finder, 2 mice for computers, multiple external hard drives...you get the idea.  And that doesn't even take into account the bubblewrap, the styrafoam peanuts, the paper, and those new little airbag things.

No wonder our landfills are full to overflowing and the price of every item is affected by all the PACKAGING!