Hot in Krakow

The weekend was pretty good here in Krakow, Poland. Hot temperatures and plenty of rest. Most of the weekend was spent either sleeping or shopping. I did very little touring as I did not plan anything prior to my arrival. I did however walk past a pretty cool store.

The store was called Szambelan and they sell Vodka and Oil. Of course, this is not your average Vodka and oil store. The vodka comes in different colors and flavors and the oil only comes in different flavors. They have these huge containers that hold the liquid and you can have them poured into your own container. Below is a shot of the store.

Melons

I had just arrived here in Krakow, Poland last night and had to get a bite to eat and stopped by Szara Restaurant. I walked in and ordered at the bar. I ordered my favorite, the Prosciutto with Melon which I had been craving. I also ordered the Chicken "Yakitori". I had to wait a bit as the restaurant was booming. For my wait the bartender gave me a free mini shot of some liquor. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I did not drink, so I finished my meal and poured the liquor in the sauce that came with the chicken. For all he knows, I drank the stuff.

In Poland, not the Sequel

I have arrived in Krakow, Poland. On the way over here I got very lucky. I was bumped up to First Class on Delta from Memphis to Atlanta for being kind and giving someone else my seat. And from Atlanta to Munich I did not have to sit next to anyone and slept at least 4 hours on the plane. Maybe I will be as lucky on my return flight and get bumped up to First Class from Munich to Atlanta.

Weather is great. I would almost say it is the same temp as Memphis sans humidity.

Rice Balls

I was watching Food TV and ran across a new show. The show I am talking about is Road Tasted and the shows host are the sons to Paula Dean, another Food TV cook. It seems that they travel all over the USA looking for different food items and then telling you were to get them. Before telling you were to get the food, they show you how to make it. One item that they showed this past week were Rice Balls that can be found at Brooklyn Pork Store.

Here is the direct link to the Rice balls.

Photo from the Food TV webpage.

Made in the USA.

I read the Saturday comics/funnies like I normally do and saw one of the Family Circus where little Billy was trying to find clothing made in the USA. And of course, he was unable to find anything that was made in the USA. I challenge anyone to be able to put together outfits for the week with clothing Made in the USA, not assembled in the USA for a reasonable price. No $250 Jeans or anything weird like that, just your normal everyday business casual clothing. And by normal I mean nothing that is Tony Roy business casual. Not knocking his sense of style, just the price range.

I know Zack Perry will try this as he has said he will no longer buy anything Made in China.

Sad part is that I do not think this is possible, even if you go to Wal-Mart.

Perfect Grill

I was watching Food TV and Bobby Flay was in Iraq for his show Food Nation. If you are familiar with the show you know that Bobby Flay travels around picking random people to compete against grilling style. While in Iraq he competed against one of the military cooks. The military cook was using this huge charcoal grill. I did some searching online and found it for sale. It is actually a Weber Grill and it is huge, it is similar to the ones used in the Weber Grill Restaurant where only charcoal grills are used to cook any meats. Of course the only thing bad about the grill is its $999 price tag. I guess I need to start saving up.

Take it all off.

I was flipping throughout the channels last night a ran across Fuse. You could almost say it is like MTV or any other music channel. I have watch this channel before while flipping through the channels one before, but it is not a regularly watch channel. Well last night I think I saw something worse than American Idol and people trying to get their 15 minutes of fame. You can now get your 15 minutes of fame with the Pants-off, Dance-off.

Pants-off, Dance-off is a show where the contestant takes their clothes off to the music. All sort of contestants which makes this show pretty funny. Don't worry, they do not take everything off. Go to the Pants-off, Dance-off website to see video from past shows.

Take it with you.

Working for a big corporation you are usually restricted on what programs you can install on your computer. There are times when you need a program, but it is not on the corporate list of approved programs. I have read about this before, but never thought about it until it was requested that I remove a personal copy of a program. There is a push to make more programs portable. By portable, you can have the program/application on a USB Memory Stick since there are now some out there that have 8 gigabytes.

I found the Portable Apps the other day at Download Squad. The posting there mentioned Portable Web Browsers. Go HERE for a direct link to the posting.

Now all I need is portable Photoshop. You are probably asking, "Why do you need Photoshop at work?" Good question. I have actually used Photoshop to edit screen shots to get programmers to understand what needed to be done in the system and what it should look like.

Mentos Volcano

I know this is wasteful, but it looked like so much fun to do. You can go to Wikihow.com and see how to make your own Mentos Volcano. If you do it right, you can make a Diet Coke spew 10-15 feet in the air. Perfect to do if you are extremely bored or if you have kids you want to impress. Per Steve Spangler Science the record is 18 feet.

I did this a about a month ago and had the bottle spew 10-15 feet of Diet Coke. Most directions say you can do it in the bathroom, but I would not recommend that if you have short ceilings.

Photo from Steve Spangler Science

A New Want.

I posted on an earlier version of this product a few months ago. The new versions is sans wire, which to me is a great feature. You can keep the main video camera in your backpack or pocket and the lens on your bicycle helmet. The video camera I am talking about is the Samsung SC-X210WLXAA. Now all they need to do is come out with a full waterproof or full water resistant version.

Poison

No way! I am going to miss another concert. I have missed concerts that were in Poland by a few days because I was here in the states. Now I am going to miss a concert here in Memphis, TN because I will be in Krakow, Poland.

The concert will be Poison at the Mud Island Amphitheatre, Sat, Aug 26, 2006 07:00 PM.

Timing is everything.

I am so mad. I have been looking at purchasing stock for either PetCo or Petsmart. Well, today PetCo got bought out by an independent company. If I would have purchased yesterday, I would have made and easy $200+ dollars.

I believe that the Pet industry is going to be booming as more and more people are treating their pets like their children. Oh well, I guess I need to not wait any long when the thought pops into my mind.

Crazy Fans

I am all for spectators being as close to the Pro athletes, as I hope to be able to go to the France one day to see the Tour de France live. I would enjoy being one of the Crazy Fans, but I know that their needs to be some self restraint.

This year there have been a few incidents. The most recent one happening to Paolo Savoldelli of the Discovery Team. "The double Giro d'Italia champion stepped off his bike after 43 kms. The Discovery Channel rider was hit on the head by a spectator on Thursday and had to get stitched up by the Tour's medical staff overnight."

There was even another incident in the first few stage where someone crashed due to a fan dropping their camera phone causing the rider to crash.

And if you followed Lance Armstrong's' career, you know he was knocked off the bicycle by a fan by getting caught in the strap to the fans bag on an attack against Jan Ullrich.

So, do they need to monitor the Tour de France more to ensure the safety of the participants. My answer on this is yes. If I were in the Tour or any major race, I would not want to be knocked down off the bike by a fan causing me to drop out of the biggest bike race of the year. Now, I am not saying clear the road completely, but at least give the riders 10 feet of clearance from spectators.

Quote found at Yahoo.com

Memphis deeper in the red

For those familiar with Memphis and its terrible business decisions, get ready to add one more to the list. If the deal Memphis made with the Fed Ex Forum wasn't bad enough. Memphis is now proposing a Riverfront Project. This would not be a bad idea if Memphis wasn't already in the hole with many of its Landmarks, such as Memphis Pyramid (check out the even listing), Mid-South Coliseum, Libertyland and I am guessing that there are many, many more that I missed.

The Memphis Pyramid probably has not had an event in who knows how long due to the deal that Slick Willie made with the people from the Fed Ex Forum and signed a non-compete agreement. Now the city is losing millions of Benjamins a year. Way to go Slick Willie.

The Mid-South Coliseum has been around and is a Memphis landmark, but has it made Memphis any cash in the past 10 years. This landmark needs to be either be torn down or the area around it needs to be re-vamped and the Mid-South Coliseum needs to be turned into some sort of Museum.

Libertyland was great 20 years ago when all the rides were new, but it has not had a new ride in a long time. This lost so much money, it has been closed and is having an auction for all its rides. Memphis needed to clean up the whole area and that would have helped Libertyland and Mid-South Coliseum. Next on the list of Memphis disaster will probably be Liberty Bowl.

The new proposal will cost millions and re-vamp the millions already spent years ago on the Memphis Riverfront. Go to Beale Street Landing Project and see what next failure will pull Memphis deeper into debt.


I hope for Memphis' sake it does succeed and we get out of the red and our ROI actually gets to where we need it to be. If Slick Willie was in charge of a major corporation, he would have been booted years ago.

Free Chicken Sandwich

Hard up for a free meal. Go to Chick-Fil-A on July 14 dressed as a cow with spots head to toe and get a free Combo or dress in partial cow attire and get a free entree.

Read more about it at Chick-Fil-A Cow Appreciation Day Faq.

My Nephew

My sister just went to the doctor and got a new ultrasound photo of her soon to be son. Below are a two of the photos. One with him sticking his tongue out and another one showing that he is truly a boy.

What I want!

Here is something I think would be very cool to have. It is a high wheeler bicycle. I saw a guy riding one in Krakow, Poland pictured below. It actually is not priced to bad compared to other bicycles I have at the moment. This would make a great birthday present. Hint! Hint!

Classic Pennyfarthing Replica

Dopes in Cycling

I am sure those that follow cycling are tired of hearing about doping accusations from years past. I mean how many times has Lance Armstrong been accused for things that happened in 1999. Even this years Tour de France is affected by some of the top riders not able to compete because of doping accusation is Spain. There has got to be a stop to all of this.

My thought is that you get tested and after a time to be determined by the UCS or whomever make the decisions all your test are destroyed. If Doping is such a problem, then the governing bodies need to be even stricter in catching these guys when it happens, not years later.

Why bring something up from years past, especially if you past the test?
What if the riders that are not participating in the Tour de France this year are actually innocent?
Could they have won the Tour de France?
What will the compensation be for not being able to participate in the Tour de France?
Are the accusations just a ploy from whomever to keep out some of their main competitors out of the Tour de France?

If I am wrong in my thinking, steer me the right way with your comments.