Welcome my friends. Let’s take another stroll down memory lane with our friends Bill and Jean from Canadian Cats who visited us back in February of this year. There are still so many pictures that we come across that we haven’t shared.
For instance this picture of daddy who thinks he has the power to bend palm trees on the main strip at Tybee Island, Georgia. Really daddy? Please refrain from moving things – you are not a super hero… yet. Snorts with piggy laughter.
Daddy for some reason thought that palm tree looked like the leaning tower of Pisa. Mom tried to tell him it wasn’t but well you all know my daddy. He doesn’t paddle with both oars at all.
And then, while everyone is shopping in a store, the boys disappeared. Where were they and what were they up to? It couldn’t be good, right? Of course not. Mom and Jean looked up and down the aisles looking for those crazy two. That’s when they found them on aisle 5 in the store. What were they doing? Are you ready for this?
They were caught picking up ho-ho’s. Really boys? You two can not be trusted anywhere in public. Shaking my piggy head. And just what do your humans do when unattended?
This month we are highlighting grilling foods, something that we fix this time of the year. To “grill” you don’t necessarily need an outside grill. Sure they’re awesome but there are other ways to grill inside of your home. One year, the hub unit got me some very nice grill pans from the basement sale of a well known department store. I treasure those pans! Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing like the taste of outdoor food on the grill but who needs all of that mess? And sometimes – who has the patience these days? So, here is my contribution this month. I hope it gets your taste buds having a party in your mouth like it does ours!
Steak and Homemade French Fries
At the Hotel Thompson, we love ribeye steaks – especially those that are aged with the right consistency of fat/meat in the marbling. Now of course there are those that say fat is bad. But we are of the belief that fat gives a lot of flavor, especially in beef. Now, let’s break down tonight’s dinner.
2 Ribeye Steaks (we got an awesome deal on these. We buy a whole loin and then have the ribeye’s cut in about 1/2-1 inch thickness. We then take them home, shrink wrap them two to a bag and freeze them. The last time we bought a loin, it was on sale and cost $78.94 – we got 16 steaks out of the loin. That makes each steak only $4.93 – winner winner!)
French Fries – two giant baking potatoes my friends. We buy a bag for $5.00 at our local Sam’s Warehouse. There are approximately 10-15 potatoes to a bag. That makes each potato around $0.50 each – so $1.00 for french fries.
Entire Steak and Fries dinner – $5.93 per person. Is your mouth watering yet? And to think, that steak was cooked on an indoor grill just by rotating it twice upon flipping. I’m going to show you a picture below of the grill pan I use. Happy grilling my friends.
We had great plans here at the Hotel Thompson this past weekend. They required lots of rest and relaxation and most of all being couch potatoes while watching endless mind wandering television shows. You know shows that are not to mind provoking or where you have to figure out who did it. Television shows that you just watch and laugh carefree without having to use that mind… endless mind shows is what we call them. Things went well Saturday.
Then Sunday the humans get up and turn on the television in the living room. They hear a big BANG. Mom looked over and the small cable box had popped and was smoking. She immediately went over and pulled all of the cables out of the wall and television. Okay, so maybe they watched too much television the day before? Snorts with piggy laughter.
Mom gets on the phone to inquire about our cable store to see where and when they are opened today. Guess what? They were closed on Sunday. What the cream cheese? Really. So Sunday was long, no television. Do you know how old school that was. I’m not sure who it killed more – mom/dad or us anipals. I mean hey I can admit it. I love my television. So Sunday we did what we ‘use’ to do before television. We talked. We cooked. We played games. We rested together. It was kind of awesome.
Then Monday, mom took the cable box to the store and explained what happened to it. They said it had happened to others and they were doing away with that type of box. What? Are you serious? Something like this has happened before and you didn’t recall these types of boxes? What if mom/dad had not been home? What if was just us anipals and this happened? Amazing customer service to boot huh?
So mom gets a new box (see picture) and was told all you have to do is plug everything in and there you go it works. Mom of course rolled her eyes and said sure. That’s when the great customer service told her, “Well we can come out to do it but it will be $75.00 for the service call”. Really?! That’s highway robbery. Mom took the box mumbling some choice pirate words on the way out of the store under her breath.
Mom gets home and opens the box. How cute. The box says, ‘”Let’s get started”. Of course mom did what no man has ever done. She read the 3 page instructions first. Then, mom had to move the giant television out and pull bookshelf/table out from the wall. This in itself about blew mom’s inner strength. Huffing and puffing, she gets everything pulled out so she can get behind the television. Now, I’m on the couch minding my own business and watching the circus start. Hemi then jumps behind the television to check things out. Houdini tries to get in on the action. All the time, mom is brushing them out from behind her war zone.
Mom follows the 3 easy steps. Plug in cable box in from cable line – √. Plug in cable from cable box to television – √. Plug in cord from cable box to wall outlet – √. Simple right? Then the final step. Turn on the television and you should have cable. Easy peasy. Mom felt great. She turned on the television. Nothing. Mom dropped the F word – fudgescicles. Oh boy. This is not good. Mom doesn’t use that word.
That’s when dad made his first mistake. “Is it plugged in?” Insert more use of the F word. Then dad made his second mistake. “Is it plugged into the right holes?” Insert more use of the F word.
Mom gets the house phone and calls the cable company for tech support. She puts them on speaker so she can have hands free for doing whatever they tell her to do. Now this is where America has went wrong. She gets a customer service rep who is clearly outsourced somewhere other than the states. She can barely understand him through his heavy accent but clearly him ask, “Is it plugged in?” Really? Now mom asks him in a very nice way could she talk to someone else who doesn’t have such a heavy accent. Nothing wrong in that. If you can’t understand someone, you are not going to get the help you need. And, she wasn’t being mean. Can you believe he was not so nice and
said a few words she couldn’t understand before transferring her. What happened to customer service these days?
Phone gets transferred and picked up by another who immediately throws mom on hold. Finally after 12 minutes, it is picked up again by another person with an accent . But this time, mom can understand them more. And of course the first thing they say, “Is it plugged in?” Really? Mom counted to 10 and said, “Yes. I’m literate I can read instructions”. Of course, the guy laughed so that eased mom down some. Through the course of about 25 minutes, every thing was attempted. Pings were sent to the box. Programming was changed. New remote was set up. Mom climbed behind the television. She pulled lines. She took everything out. She put everything back the way it was. She stood on one foot. She touched her nose. She prayed to the cable Gods.
After an hour of customer service (which I might add that this person was cool), we had cable. Eureka! Clearer and better sound quality cable. Clearer and better sound quality than we ever had. Of course mom lost her mommy mind but through an adult drink later in a sippy cup she found it.
Now, I know mom is not the only one that hates dealing with these things. What about your mom? If dad could, she would have so thrown it in his lap and said deal with it. But we know she couldn’t. And I guess this is better than waiting for the cable guy who never gets there on time and yes it saved us money because she did it… but, to what extent do you deal with things like this? Do tell my friends to cheer mom up.
Dear Bacon – Dude, I hear you talking all of the time about having to do chores there at your crib. I know you hate them but think of me. I’m the glass carrier. Yep, I think this picture says a thousand words. My human is forever losing her glasses. So I go behind her, find them and bring them to her. My job is endless. And please no smudges when you deliver the glasses. The human already can’t see – Barks! Signed Corgi Services
Dear Corgi Services – My friend – I am highly impressed. And no smudges. You are the finder of glasses and you keep your human on task by bringing them to her. I must see if I can help my mom out too… she’s always losing her contacts…. I’ll try not to smudge them or swallow them – snorts!
Dear Bacon – HA! That’ll teach the old cow to try to outplay me in my own field. He’s always getting his picture taken by the farmer and his kids. “Look at the cow, he’s so cute”, blah-blah-blah is all I hear. How about look at the squirrel and my powerful horns. That’s right. Those are my horns… not the stupid old cow. Signed Bull Squirrel
Dear Bull Squirrel – WOW, those are some mighty big horns you have there. It must be really hard with your every day life. I can only imagine little things like just moving… or heaven forbid you should run. I say you are a blessed little creature for sure and you have some mighty fine horns.
Dear Bacon – I don’t get it. So I like to dress in clothes – so what. So does a lot of other dogs. But all of a sudden people are calling me names. I don’t get that. And they keep looking at me and saying, “Khakis?” Well, yes khakis. I think they make my legs look longer. Please help me. Signed Jake
Dear Jake – Give me a second dear friend. Your name is Jake? Really for sure? I’m so sorry pal. Can I ask who you have your insurance with? Okay I’m sorry. I digress. You know you shouldn’t worry what people think about you. It’s how you feel about YOU. And Jake, if wearing khakis make you feel good about YOU, then go right ahead and do it. I’m off now. I hope that helps. I need to make a call to my insurance company, State Farm.
Dear Bacon – Listen little guy. I belong to a secret club. It’s called the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes. We meet once a week. You know to discuss important things that we have in our lives. I can’t tell you specifics because well you know it’s a secret club for men. This is my hat that I wear and then I do the secret shuffle and they let me in. If you are ever in my hood, look me up and I will take you to a meeting. Signed Grand Poobah
Dear Grand Poobah – Dude! That looks so cool. And a secret club with secret moves and knocks. I am so there the next time I vacation in your area. Count me in. What do I need to do to get that awesome headgear. I know I can rock it just like you!
❤ Friends – Please remember that Dear Bacon can’t happen without YOU. Please continue to email me your letters/pictures ❤
Welcome my friends to our weekly issue of Journey with Friends. This is a time that we come together for support, for encouragement, for fellowship – all with one single goal in mind – to live better. Welcome to our journey to share our goals and our accomplishments and our disappointments and frustrations.
Together we can do this!
Hello my friends. How was your week? Isn’t it odd how you can have a fabulous week and then the next week is crap? It’s like everything that can possibly go wrong all get together and pick one week to enter your life. Sighs. Such as life huh? It’s hard to keep your stamina and will power when you have that kind of crash. But I keep smiling. I keep juggling right along. This is life. It has moutains and valleys. Last week was moutains. Hopefully this week will be valleys to a healthy week.
Today, August 26th, is a great day for all of the pooches in the world. Today is National Dog Day. Today we shall recognize and honor all dogs, to appreciate the importance of having them in our lives. Whether you have them as a personal pet, a working dog or you work in a place homing dogs, take this day and let them know how much they are valued. Even if you don’t have a dog of your own, perhaps today is the day to fix that and adopt a dog for your household.
Remember, dogs as well as other pets ask for nothing but love in return of you taking care of them. They are always there when you are having a good or a bad day. They lean their shoulder when you have a good cry and make you laugh with all of their antics. They keep you company and protect their home. Be sure today and every day – give them some extra hugs and cuddles and perhaps a favorite treat or two.
Hello friends. How was your week? We continue to live in hell here in the south. The weather has gotten much better. It’s still so very hot. Of course, we have had a couple of thunderstorms here/there. And yes, my Mellow Shirt is great comfort. But these storms don’t bring much relief in the heat. Being in the south with all of this humidity, after the storms it is so much worse with the clammy heat. I know I talk about the heat a lot but it’s hot! I can’t even walk to the mailbox with mom without huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf. Relief has to be soon… I hope.
This week I thought I would leave you with some of my philosophy in a picture. I hope that you enjoy it my sweet friends. Here’s to a fantastic weekend with lots of snuggles and extra treats!
Welcome my Friends to August – Bacon’s Show and Tell
This month we are talking about that ONE thing that you had growing up that impressed your life all of these years that you still think about it? Something that maybe perhaps you still have somewhere put away in your home? Something that when you look back at and think of the times you had with this ONE thing that it makes you smile so wide and your heart just glows?
Today I want to talk about one of mom’s things that has touched her all of her life. Something that she has kept and would never do without. See this little dresser – three deep drawers with foxes/bears on the front. This little dresser has been in mom’s life close to 46 years. You see, shortly after mom was born her daddy built this little dresser for her. And mom has kept it all these years.
It has lots of dings and scratches and some of the stickers on the front are even starting to come off. But still mom has it and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It sits in my and Houdini’s room and we treasure it too.
In fact, currently it is being used to store all of Houdini’s clothes. So you can kind of say that it’s second generation now doing it’s thing. ❤
Miniature pot bellied pig and friends - Bacon, Houdini, Hemi and all of the Rock Clan with Journalist Rocky the Squirrel all out looking for adventures from the Hotel Thompson.
e my friends. Let’s take another stroll down memory lane with our friends Bill and Jean from Canadian Cats who visited us back in February of this year. There are still so many pictures that we come across that we haven’t shared.
hey tell her to do. Now this is where America has went wrong. She gets a customer service rep who is clearly outsourced somewhere other than the states. She can barely understand him through his heavy accent but clearly him ask, “Is it plugged in?” Really? Now mom asks him in a very nice way could she talk to someone else who doesn’t have such a heavy accent. Nothing wrong in that. If you can’t understand someone, you are not going to get the help you need. And, she wasn’t being mean. Can you believe he was not so nice and
After an hour of customer service (which I might add that this person was cool), we had cable. Eureka! Clearer and better sound quality cable. Clearer and better sound quality than we ever had. Of course mom lost her mommy mind but through an adult drink later in a sippy cup she found it.
Piglove 