May 2022

Cinema.

It’s been over two years and at least two time zones since we stepped foot in a movie theatre. Our favorite theatre chain in Chicago, Arclight, has closed. We always liked Arclight.

Not too far from us here in Tucson in Galaxy Luxury+ Theatres. Many rating apps in Tucson rate the Luxury+ experience as the best theatres in the city, so we decided to venture down to the movies to see “Downton Abbey: A New Era”.

We were very early.

The theatre is very comfortable. Reserved seating. Reasonably priced tickets. Moderately priced concessions. Barcalounger style seats with plenty of room and a convenient tray that swings aside. And most importantly, Maria Menunos!

Maria Menunos.

We haven’t seen Maria Menunos in the pre-movie clips in a long while. In fact, I thought she’d given up the silver screen and was now only to be found on our gas pumps, but there she was looking lovely and bright and cheerful during the pre-movie clips.

I have been very much looking forward to this second “Downton Abbey” movie and I was not disappointed. Seeing the Crawleys and their staff do their thing on the big screen felt very comfortable. I shan’t give away any of the details of the story; I rated the experience a 9/10 and I liked this movie a slight bit more than the first movie. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I may go back and see it again.

In Luxury+.

22 May 2022 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Caturday.

Truman continues to monitor the activities from strategic points throughout the house. The puppies are still quite exuberant to play, but Truman keeps them in line with a swipe or two of the paw to the nose, claws are usually retracted. He hisses for effect.

21 May 2022 by He's A Feline. 0

Memories

Jamie found an older roll of film and had the pictures developed earlier this week. This may be one of my favorite photos of recent times. My best guess for the date is right around when we moved to Chicago in 2017.

20 May 2022 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Impediment.

Last night I discovered that my large mustache has a habit of pushing down the mic on my headset when I’m flying an airplane. Not being able to talk to Air Traffic Control can be a problem. So, I need to figure this out.

19 May 2022 by Mustache. Pilot. 0

Beer.

There’s a craft beer place here in Tucson that I really enjoy.

Arizona Beer House on S Kolb is an open air experience (a natural, here in the desert) with a food truck or two in the parking lot. The space is very comfortable, with plenty of beers to choose from in cans and bottles or on draft.

I just have to enjoy in moderation or with someone in the family or a friend, since it’s a not a reasonable walk home. To get anywhere in Tucson from our house is either 20 or 40 minutes; this location is a 20 minute drive.

I’m good with that. It’s worth it.

18 May 2022 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Best.

My husband swears by “Hellmann’s”, or Hellmann’s Mayonnaise. I think I grew up with Kraft Salad Dressing, but once in a while Mom would drift away from the bargains aisle and buy us Hellman’s and we’d delight in its creamy texture when combined with peanut butter on a sandwich.

Hellmann’s Mayonnaise does not exist west of the Rockies, instead it’s called Best Foods. “Bring out the Hellmann’s and bring out the best” is “Bring out the Best Foods and bring out the best”. This is a result of two companies combining forces in the early 20th century. Urban legend states one of the recipes are slightly sweeter but I can’t taste the difference. My husband hasn’t complained so I doubt there’s much of a difference.

In a world where there’s a Circle K on every corner and a Walmart on the edge of every town and a *bertos Mexican Fast Food joint near every bar, it’s fun to think of a mayonnaise company that stays to its roots, and carries two different names depending on where you are in the United States.

Bring out the Best Foods and bring out the Best!

17 May 2022 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Music.

Last week Apple announced they are discontinuing their iPod product line. The last survivor of iPods is the iPod Touch, which is basically an older iPhone without cellular capabilities. Apple sold out of the last generation of iPod Touches shortly after their announcement.

Pictured above are our two original iPods. I bought my husband his first iPod, as shown on the left. That third generation iPod had 10GB of hard drive space, because why would he need more than 10GB of space for anything in 2003? The iPod was my husband’s second Apple device, which I gave him shortly after he moved to his “lampshade” iMac that I always adored.

The iPod on the right, my original iPod, had the minimum 20GB of hard drive space when it was given to me as a gift from my husband. I had discovered iTunes not long before and he thought this would be a nice addition to my technology collection. Little did he know I would go full blown Apple fanboy because of this iPod. It wasn’t long after that I purchased a refurbished Apple Power Mac G4 and the moved onto my first PowerBook, also with a G4 processor.

I’m sad to see the iPod line to go away; it changed the way everyone consumed music and was definitely a contributor to where we are today with technology. I’m happy to know that I have kept our original iPods locked away for safe keeping. I have no idea if they’d ever power up again. I might have to find the proper cables and a computer with a FireWire port to give them a spin again.

16 May 2022 by Macboy 0

Socialization.

Four out of five of us went to a friend’s house for a pool party yesterday. Earl agreed to stay back to take of puppies Lucky and Jinx. Chris and Mike were thinking of bringing them along for the party but the hosts have several dogs that aren’t particularly hospitable to other dogs, so Lucky and Jinx didn’t get to socialize.

But we did.

Joe and Aidan have a wonderful space not too far from us. Their home is cleverly decorated and they have a desert friendly jungle in their back lawn. We were very comfortable and enjoyed time in the shade, some time in the pool, and some time in front of the spread of food.

We got to chat with Matt and Homer and other party guests. It’s always good to see Matt and Homer, they have become very good friends since we’ve moved to Tucson and I enjoy their company very much.

It turns out one of the other guests, Jamie, is from Rome, New York and our paths have most likely crossed many years ago back when I was a club DJ. His partner is from Chicago, so we had much in common to talk about.

We had a very nice time in the desert sun, and I’m not sunburned at all today. It pays to stake claim to the shade whenever you have the chance.

15 May 2022 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Caturday.

Truman enjoys looking out the big windows we have throughout the house. Today he’s taking a gander out toward the gazebo, where hummingbirds tend to do their thing. I hope I’m not throwing him off his game.

14 May 2022 by He's A Feline. 0

So Busy.

We have a very big software migration project coming to fruition next weekend. The requirements have been all over the place, some of the testing team has been quite cranky, and the migration date has been pushed off a number of times. It looks like things are a “go” for next weekend. Of course they picked the weekend our friends Jeff and Mark in town for a visit.

I’ve been working many extra hours over the past few weeks, trying to keep up with all the demands of the job. I’m tired. And as I discovered when we first moved to Chicago, the business world in the United States is all about the Eastern Time Zone. Folks on the East Coast forget that a meeting at 8:30 AM there is a meeting at 5:30 AM here. Oh well, I guess.

I was playing around with a cheap webcam on my old Mac mini in my office and just took this photo. The workstation behind me in the photo is where I do all my day job work. I’m not particularly a fan of Windows 10 and there’s many times when I think, “I could do this much faster on a Mac”, but I don’t have that choice. My employer is in love with Microsoft.

It could be worse.

13 May 2022 by Fun and Games Dept 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

All The Places

Visit my Linktree