But, “It got better“.  I’m going to go a little off topic today…

Family values and religious conviction were thrown out the window by social conservatives yesterday with the selection of Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina primary, and they no longer have the right to talk about ‘moral fiber’. After cheating on two wives, and undergoing two religious conversions, you would think he social conservatives would try to get as far away from Newt as they possibly could. Yet, Newt won South Carolina through the strong support of both this group and republican women!  Go figure…

I don’t think the picture today is actually a newt.  It’s really a Long-tailed Salamander, Eurycea longicauda longicauda, taken on a hike last summer.

Although I haven’t been a big user of Kodak products for many years, the news of Kodak filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is still a sad event. It’s hard to believe that the company that brought photography to the masses at the turn of the century (1900 to be precise) will, at best, become a shadow of what it once was. In 1883, they promoted their camera with the advertising slogan “You press the button–we do the rest”.  You had to send the whole camera in for developing.  Before digital, I learned darkroom techniques using Kodak T-Max film, and still have hundreds of negatives stored away, along with a few rolls of unexposed film that is long past its shelf life.

Not alien crop circles, just beach grass blown by an indecisive sea breeze, with the long shadows of a winter afternoon.

Just so everyone knows, the Indian River Bridge isn’t done yet.  The weather was too nice not to do something outdoors yesterday, so we packed up and headed to the beach.  Lots of strollers on the Bethany boardwalk, the beach is again being reclaimed, many of the stores were open and there was even outdoor merchandise being sold.  Fenwick had a barefoot jogger and folks sitting on the beach and flying kites.

I’m not the best dental patient.  I wake up anxious the day of the visit, tense the moment I walk into the office, and have a tendency to gag throughout any procedure. So I never thought I would be describing a visit to get a dental crown as an entertaining experience.

I’ve had a broken molar for some time but have been putting it off due to memories of the first time I needed this procedure. You know how it goes – needles, grinding, a mouth full of putty while they make an impression (gagging), the temporary cap that falls out before the follow up visit, and then a second visit to fit the final crown (more gagging).  Only Bill Murray would willingly go through this procedure.

Anyway, technology has found an answer to all this.  I found Dr. Fink at Delaware Dentistry who, for about 10 years, has been practicing digital dentistry and providing a dental crown in just one visit! Even with the grinding and what not I was in and out of the office in under two hours with the final crown in place. This guy knows his stuff!

The entertaining part was watching the crown design and creation process.  Being a bit of a geek, I got a real kick out of the CAD/CAM process that involved an image of the space where the new crown would go, the design of a tooth to fit that space, and the manufacture of the crown on this neat little dental lathe in about 20 minutes.  All of this accompanied by a blow-by-blow explanation of the process by the good doctor. The picture above is the ‘tooth bot’ that created my new tooth.

All this is possible because the crown is ceramic (yes I have a glass tooth!).  There is a slightly greater chance of fracture with ceramics, but all the research I’ve read suggest this crown will last as long as I do.  I should also mention that my regular dental visit with these folks was the most gentle tooth cleaning I’ve had in ages.  Anyway, I can honestly say I’m no longer anxious about my next visit to the dentist.

“Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.”

Maybe it was the Scotch, Irish and Bourbon last night (the holy trinity), but I don’t usually see daylight when I get out of bed in the morning. As I was getting dressed, this is what I saw as I glanced out the window.  It was a Christmas present from Marianne  - a panel of stained glass that replicates a window done by Frank Lloyd Wright.  This is the Tree of Life art glass pattern found in Wright’s Darwin D. Martin House. I’d love to live in a smaller version of this house.

A nice way to start the year.  Happy New Year!

On this day 12 years ago, I bought a brand new 2000 BMW 328 ci with the sport package.  Oh!  And 32 years ago today Dan was born!

Anyway, the BMW now has 192,000 miles on it and needed to be replaced (we’re keeping Dan). So today I brought home a 2012 Infiniti G37 s.  This is roughly equivalent to today’s BMW 335, except that it’s faster and comes with a ton of included extras for the same price as an unadorned BMW 335.  I love the paint on this car.  The photo above is a reflection of winter trees on the hood as the car sits in my driveway.  The color is called Malbec Black, which is black with a metallic purple fleck that is only visible when the light hits it right. A shiny black car is a thing of beauty.

The picture below is a head-on shot, with a bit of a self portrait included.

During the holidays, eating habits go to hell in a hand basket! We decided to make a sinful (to us) dinner the other day with a menu including porterhouse steak, baked potato with sour cream, and broccoli with cheese sauce.  So what was that recipe for the cheese sauce?  The way my mother made it, it involved Velveeta (that liquid gold of processed cheese).  Off to the grocery store!  I spent fifteen minutes browsing the cheese aisle.  There were rows and rows of Cracker Barrel, Boars Head, Cabot and even Kerrygold, but no Velveeta… I finally used my iPhone to Google ‘what aisle is Velveeta in?’  Turns out it’s in the pasta aisle (thank you Google).  It’s the only ‘cheese’ that doesn’t require refrigeration.

A little more research revealed that Velveeta is a ‘pasteurized process cheese product’.  That’s something that doesn’t rise to the standard of ‘pasteurized process cheese food’, much less real cheddar.  And the Velveeta underground?  Another bit of Velveeta trivia:  About 5% of the population buys about 75% of all Velveeta sold in the United States.