Happy Thanksgiving

Here's hoping that everyone out there has a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Try not to eat too much turkey and stay safe while traveling from place to place.

Happy Everything!

Thanks to my wife for this one!

Due to increasing age, and my decreasing ability to send cards on time, here is my card to cover every Holiday...

Jones Soda to Offer Pea Flavored Soda

Jones Soda has announced the new flavor for it's Holiday Pack this year: Green Pea! Yep, a soda flavored after the small green vegetable. Well, I guess it's better than last years offering, Salmon. All I know is I'm not drinking it! Here's what Yahoo!News had to say:

Beverage firm offers pea-flavored soda

SEATTLE (Reuters) - After introducing the world to new soda flavors like fish taco and salmon, Seattle specialty beverage maker Jones Soda Co. is offering a new flavor: Green pea.

Green pea, along with other unusual sodas such as turkey and gravy, dinner roll, sweet potato and antacid flavor, will be part of the company's $10 to $15 "holiday pack" of bottled drinks available nationwide.

Peter van Stolk, chief executive of Jones Soda, said on Monday the collection of strange-flavored sodas usually sells out quickly, even though he can not stomach the drinks. Past flavors included broccoli casserole, corn on the cob and Brussel sprout.

"Why people buy it is beyond me. I can't drink a bottle of this stuff," said van Stolk.

Jones Soda, which sells traditional sodas alongside more exotic flavors like fufu berry and green apple, first introduced the holiday soda pack in 2003, gaining notoriety for its turkey and gravy flavor soda.

"We have the market share leader in turkey-flavored beverages," said van Stolk. "We know we can't compete with Coke or Pepsi by playing their game, but we know they're not going to come out with a turkey flavor or antacid flavor."

Asked if there were any flavors that were off limits, van Stolk said he put his foot down when it came to curried chicken flavor.

"Fish taco was just nasty and we tried curried chicken. That was just wrong," he said.

Funeral Home Coffee

A friends dad recently passed away, so my wife and I stopped by the funeral home on her way home from work today. I'm not a big fan of funeral homes, they're depressing, the music they play is horribly depressing, the lighting makes everything look washed out and grey. But there is one redeeming feature, the coffee. Funeral home coffee isn't like normal coffee. It's strong, dark and bitter, just like the emotions most of us feel when at a funeral. Of course, maybe I'm biased. Like many people my age in this area, funeral home coffee was my introduction to this nectar of the gods. I can still remember it growing up. Standing around in the lounge of the funeral home while all the adults were talking. There was usually no sodas, so that left coffee as the only option. Of course, back then the coffee was barely recognizable, so full of sugar and creamer to be almost a syrup. And then after it was drunk, there was that thick layer of sodden sugar on the bottom of the cup, the best part. Of course now I've moved on up to adult coffee; strong, black, occasionally some creamer every now and then. But still I'll always have a weak spot for funeral home coffee.

From the "What Will They Think Of Next?" Files

Flavored golf tees? Ok, I've heard of some pretty strange things that sports players do, but is there really a call for this product? I'm not a golfer, so I'm not sure how prevalent the putting a tee in your mouth thing is, but I'll admit that I do sometimes chew on the end of my pen when I'm writing and have writers block, so if they can do this, maybe they'll come out with flavored pens soon. Just don't make them too good. Here's the story from Yahoo!News (photo copyright Handout/Reuters):

Want to spice up a golf game? Add tasty tees

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Seeking the perfect holiday gift for the golfer who has everything? Try flavored golf tees.

U.S. inventors John Packes and Ramon Peralta have come up a product line called Tasty Golf Tees in various flavors including mint, cherry, strawberry, and grape.

Mint is the strongest-tasting flavor in the range.

"It will knock out the foulest of cigar, beer breath within five seconds," Packes of Norwalk, Connecticut, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Packes said they came up with the idea while walking along the fairway one day and noticing that many golfers popped a tee in their mouth as they headed to the next hole or waited to tee up.

Tasty Golf Tees, which cost about 25 cents each, are made from uncoated wood, which is sanitized and flavored. They look and play like regular wooden golf tees.

"Some people just look at you funny," said Packes. "'Do you really put it in your mouth?' They give it a shot and say 'This is kinda cool.'"

National Security?!?

Well, at least they're not handing out maps!

Happy Dia De Los Muertos

Here's wishing everybody a happy Dia De Los Muertos! According to Wikipedia, Dia De Los Muertos is:

"an ancient Aztec celebration of the memory of deceased ancestors that is celebrated on November 1 (All Saints' Day) and November 2 (All Souls' Day).

Though the subject matter may be considered morbid from the Anglo Saxon perspective, Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead joyfully, and though it occurs at the same time as Halloween, All Saints' Day and All Souls Day, the traditional mood is much brighter with emphasis on celebrating and honoring the lives of the deceased, and celebrating the continuation of life; the belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life."

Link to the wikipedia article for Dia De Los Muertos.


My own emphasis added, as this is a time I've chosen to remember my father and grandfather, who have both passed on from cancer. I love them and miss them, but I know they're both in a happier place.