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The sky is not completely dark at night. Were the sky absolutely dark, one would not be able to see the silhouette of an object against the sky.

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    And Then There Were Three

    Our daughter-in-law shares photos of her family through an online album titled “And Then There Were Five”.  She used to have individual collections for her two girls but once daughter three came along she combined everything into one album.  Add her and my son to the equation… “and then there were five”.  It’s a phrase I thought about as I passed through the state of Alabama earlier this week. I’ve never been to Alabama but now I can claim that I have.  To which I say… “and then there were three“.

    In my (almost) sixty-five years of existence I’ve managed to visit 46 out of the 50 U.S. states.  None of these visits were intentional, as in “I just want to say that I’ve been there”.  Rather, they happened for the usual reasons we find ourselves in states other than the one we call home.  Sightseeing.  Visits to colleges and universities.  Reunions with family and friends.  Or simply traveling through one state to get to another.  If you identify with any of these reasons, the number of U.S. states you’ve visited may be higher than you think.

    Growing up out west in California, my parents recognized the value of a trip to the East Coast to see the sights of Colonial America.  They designed a single month-long drive for me and my brothers that accounted for at least fifteen states in and around New England.  Since then I’ve managed to visit most of the western states through short driving trips here and there.  My wife and I honeymooned in Hawaii.  One of my nephews got married in Alaska.  And so on.  All these years later the only states I haven’t visited are Arkansas, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.

    But never mind the leftovers.  Today we put the spotlight on Alabama, my most recent “acquisition”.  Off the top of my head, here’s everything I know about Alabama:

    • Montgomery is the state capital (memorizing in elementary school is a beautiful thing).
    • Auburn University and the University of Alabama are consistently ranked among the best football programs in the country.
    • Alabama was a legendary country music band.
    • An Alabama Slammer is a fruity shot made with Southern Comfort.
    • “Sweet Home Alabama” ranks among the greatest rock songs of all time.

    Now then, having just driven from South Carolina west into Georgia, then southwest down “The Yellowhammer State” and on into Florida, here’s everything new I’ve discovered about Alabama:

    • A good chunk of the state is covered by national forest.
    • They have a Buc-ee’s travel center.

    Let’s be honest; I’m feeling a little rain on my parade of states right now.  I mean, virtually every U.S. state has a national forest, right?  As for Buc-ee’s, if you’re not familiar with their mega gas stations you will be soon.  Buc-ee’s has added larger-than-life dimensions to the term “rest stop”.  The convenience store in their Luling, TX location is a world-record 75,000 square feet of retail.  The car wash in their Katy, TX location also breaks a world record – 250 feet from one end to the other.  In Alabama you have four opportunities to stop at a Buc-ee’s.

    To all of its residents, I say Alabama deserves more respect than a walk in the woods or a stop at a glorified gas station.  A little online legwork tells me I can opt for the following instead:

    • Visit the world’s largest space museum, up north in Huntsville.
    • Raft on North America’s longest mountaintop river, just outside of Ft. Payne in the Little River Canyon National Preserve.
    • Spelunk in Cathedral Caverns outside of Woodville, including a look-see of a 45-foot stalagmite column nicknamed “Goliath”.
    • Reacquaint myself with America’s Civil Rights Movement in a multimedia museum in the heart of Birmingham (which is pretty much in the heart of the entire state).
    • Board the USS Alabama, a World War II battleship turned into a floating museum, docked in a memorial park down south in Mobile.
    “Roll Tide!”

    Okay, Alabama just moved up a few rungs on the ladder of respect, even if my upcoming drive back home only includes more views of the forest and a stop at Buc-ee’s.  At least I know somewhere beyond all those trees and gas pumps lies worthwhile attractions.  That’s more than I can say about Arkansas, North Dakota, or Oklahoma.

    Some content sourced from Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

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    Checkmate

    For those of you who know the game of chess, the rook (also known as the “castle”) is a powerful piece to have in your corner as things progress. The rook can take out an opponent’s pieces through long strides across the board. More importantly, if all you have left at the end of the battle is your king and a rook, you can still win. It’s the sort of thing I had on my mind as I wrapped up my latest LEGO build: A king (Ludwig II)… his castle (Neuschwanstein)… game over.

    Three months ago I spilled 3,455 LEGO pieces onto my home office desk and wondered how they’d all come together to represent the wondrous architecture of the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany’s Bavarian Alps (read about the start of this project in Fit for a (Fairy Tale) King). Today I can take a step back and admire this completed “cottage”. Well, sort of completed. Don’t judge a book by its fairy-tale cover. Only a handful of Neuschwanstein’s 200+ rooms were ever fleshed out. King Ludwig II himself never lived there, even though Neuschwanstein was designed to be his vacation getaway from nearby Munich.

    Bags 21, 22, and 23 – of 23 bags of LEGO pieces – put me fully in the forest of the Bavarian Alps. The castle itself wrapped up two weeks ago, so all that remained was to grow a bunch of centuries-old trees in the immediate surrounds. All that remained… HA!   LEGO trees are more involved than you’d think. Start with the trunk, snap on four pieces of branches, then add a bunch of tiny, finger-numbing “leaves” on the ends of those branches, and each tree can consume up to 37 LEGO pieces. Now repeat the process 41 times. No wonder the final chapter took me two weeks instead of one.

    Here’s an interesting twist on LEGO models. The Neuschwanstein Castle allows you to “change seasons” with the look. Since we’re in fall right now I’m using trees of gold and brown. Come spring I can replace those trees with fresh ones in varying shades of green. It’s like having the black pieces on the chessboard set up and ready to go, only to be quickly swapped out by the white ones. “Nice move”, LEGO.

    If you’ve read these castle-building posts all the way to the end, you know my journey through the chapters of Neuschwanstein was accompanied by the music of movie soundtracks. It’s been an adventure to choose my favorite scores, let alone find them on Spotify or elsewhere. My final choice – the one that brought unbridled joy to all those tree builds – is a forgotten gem.

    A Little Romance, the 1979 film with Laurence Olivier in his later years and Diane Lane in her younger, tells a story of young, innocent love, set in the beautiful surrounds of Paris and Venice.  It’s a sweet story with unexpected adventures, and Georges Delerue’s Oscar-winning music accompanies every step of the way.  The theme song is the flight of a happy flute, while the sadder scenes are the wandering of a lonely mandolin with a background of strings.  I never get tired of listening to this one.  Alas, the soundtrack to A Little Romance is an almost impossible get.  You won’t find it on any of the streaming music services.  You’ll have to pay too much for the CD someone hung onto for decades and is now trying to sell through Amazon.  Instead, you’ll have to settle for the ten-minute compilation on YouTube I’ve included below.  But have a listen anyway.  The music will warm your heart and maybe even have you give the film a try.

    Checkmate!

    The completion of Neuschwanstein Castle – once again – brings my interest in snapping LEGOs together to a close.  My discretion in choosing these models (and the shelf space in my home office) limits the ones that interest me.  Yes, LEGO tempts me with its models of Spain’s Sagrada Familia (12,000 pieces!) and more recently London’s Tower Bridge but neither really appeals to me.  Not to worry.  LEGO is sure to add new members to its Architecture Series in 2027 and beyond.  Before I know it I’ll be spilling out plastic pieces onto my desk again.  Until then, as they say, game over.

    Running build time: 12:10

    Total leftover pieces: 75 (including tree trunks and leaves!)

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    Soon To Be Crumbs

    Fall has arrived around here, even if Mother Nature is reluctant to usher in a new season. Our temperatures will be summerlike for another day or two. Regardless, autumn always brings baking to the forefront of my to-do list. I’ve already cranked out a breakfast pizza (three cheeses!), I’m sure to serve up a pumpkin pie before Halloween, and just this morning I whipped up three dozen gingerbread cookies. But whenever I bake cookies I always find myself thinking, “Should I have just gone to Crumbl instead?”

    Happier days than today…

    You know Crumbl, or some other cookie chain just like it.  For ten years running Crumbl has tempted impulse buyers with their overly-large, overly-sweet, overly-everything baked goods.  Crumbl cookies are so big they’ll sell you a small device much like a pizza cutter so you can share a cookie with friends.  But let’s be real – if you’re spending as much on a Crumbl cookie as you would a Starbucks latte are you really gonna share?  No, you’ll probably down the entire cookie within thirty minutes of purchase, your only regret arriving somewhere during digestion.

    Now for something even harder to digest:  Crumbl is on its way out.  The clock is close to striking midnight on a company that somehow convinced us five dollars was a reasonable price for a cookie.  They’re closing stores in big numbers.  Despite the contraction I don’t think Crumbl’s demise is a symptom of the cost of living as much as it is all of us finally emerging from our sugar comas and declaring, “Enough is enough”.

    It took me awhile to give Crumbl a try.  When we lived in Colorado they opened a store next door to one of our favorite restaurants.  For a long time we wondered what the fuss was all about.  Then one day we skipped the dessert menu and decided to give the cookies a try.  We bought four (for twenty dollars).  If I’m being honest they were just okay.  Some choices worked (frosted sugar cookie with raspberry jam – yum!) while others didn’t measure up (standard chocolate chip – meh).

    Honestly what I remember most about Crumbl was not the cookies, but rather the wait in line to order.  While I did I watched the nearby people waiting at the pick-up counter.  It didn’t take long to realize most of them were DoorDash drivers, delivering cookies to the college dorms a ten-minute walk from the store.  So not only were those students paying big for big cookies, they paid to have them delivered when they could’ve walked off a few of the calories themselves.  Can I get a What’s wrong with Americans?

    Our daughter embraced the Crumbl craze when she got married in 2022.  She ordered two hundred of their “minis”, wrapped them individually in elegant boxes, and placed them next to the dinner plate of each guest at the reception.  When the party was over we discovered at least half of the cookies left behind.  Perhaps the beginning of Crumbl’s end actually started years ago.

    Side note: If you place an order through Crumbl’s website the first decision you’ll have to make is whether to “reject non-essential or accept all cookies”.  How appropriate  🙂

    Can you find a “mini”?

    Just this week Crumbl announced the closure of seventy-five stores and significant layoffs at its Utah headquarters.  The critics are blaming the cutbacks on the failed promotion of “dirty sodas”, another Utah-based product (popular with Mormons and their non-alcoholic ways).  I don’t buy it, even though I wouldn’t buy a dirty soda either.  I just think we’ve reached our tolerance for high-priced cookies and have moved on to the next comfort-food indulgence trend (like the gelato I wrote about several weeks ago.

    The Crumbl store we have here in our small town opened just over a year ago, in the same shopping center as a popular supermarket.  People go in an out of the supermarket by the dozens, but I have yet to see any of them wander down the sidewalk to Crumbl.  It’s a sad sight when you drive by the storefront: the lone cashier standing behind the counter waiting for anyone to buy a big cookie.  Even sadder, it won’t be long before her manager asks her to go into the lobby and lock the front door – for good.

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    LEGO Neuschwanstein Castle – Update #10 (read about the start of this project in Fit for a (Fairy Tale) King

    Not what I’d call “castle parts”!

    The castle is complete at last, even if the surrounding landscape is not.  Bags 19 and 20 (of 23 bags of pieces) focused almost entirely on the completion of the western palas (one of two residential buildings).  Not only is this structure much taller than I expected but it’s topped by an intricate roof that consumed a good portion of Bag 20.  Dozens of pieces went into the black top of the building you see below.

    Neuschwanstein’s western palas

    I also felt like I was building a couple of rocket ships today.  Neuschwanstein’s tall, dramatic stair towers start out as long plastic LEGO dowels, onto which you spin circular piece after circular piece.  Finally you set the whole assembly upright and snap it into the surrounding castle.  Two of Neuschwanstein’s stair towers are located intentionally where the terrain of the ridge below takes a bit of a turn; a very “castle” look.

    LEGO rocket ship?

    Sometimes LEGO pieces have a hard time mimicking the small details of a structure.  The western palas claims to have “a copper lion atop the court-side gable, while a knight’s likeness is on the outward facing gable, offering a protective touch to the castle.”  The knight is up there on the rooftop all right but I didn’t find a “copper lion” anywhere in the bags (let alone in my pile of leftovers).

    Hard to fit all of Neuschwanstein into one photo!

    The very last step in today’s build was to add thirty-two tree trunks to the landscape.  That’s a lot of logs.  You have to zoom in on the photo above to see these tiny brown poles but tune in next week, because in a flourish of a finish, we’ll use the final three bags of pieces to top them off with bursts of color.

    Running build time: 10:55

    Total leftover pieces: 65 (including 2 tree trunks!)

    Accompanying movie soundtrack: Pride & Prejudice (2005).  Today’s choice was something of an experiment.  Pride & Prejudice shows up regularly on “elegant soundtrack” lists but I’ve never seen the movie (let alone read anything by Jane Austen).  So I figured, maybe the music will have me wanting to watch the film.  The soundtrack includes several classical-sounding piano solos, probably tied to slow, dramatic scenes.  You also get a few instances of lively fiddle-playing, probably connected to formal dance scenes.  But for the most part the soundtrack had me imagining moments where the camera dwells on a character’s face, and their expression says it all.  Will I watch Pride & Prejudice?  I just might.  After all, any movie that dwells on Kiera Knightley is worth the watch.

    Some content sourced from the bonappétit.com article, “The End of Cookie Chains”, and the ksl.com article, “Utah-based Crumbl closes dozens of locations…”.

  • Local Flavor

    On a trip to Philadelphia last weekend to visit family, I was reminded the city is well known for its cheesesteaks (among other things). You’ll find several restaurants claiming to offer “the best” in the downtown area. But my niece – a resident of the city for ten years now – was careful to point out which establishments cater to tourists versus those preferred by the locals.  It’s advice someone like me wouldn’t know off the top of my head.  At least I knew to call the sandwich a “Philly” instead of a “Philadelphia”.

    Sure, no matter where you live it’s referred to as a “Philly Cheesesteak”.  But what about the city itself?  Calling Philadelphia “Philly” is a privilege reserved for its residents… or so I thought until I asked my niece.  “Oh, heck no“, she said. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a local or not – you always call it ‘Philly’.  Call it ‘Philadelphia’ and it’s pretty obvious you’re not from around here.”

    Huh.  And here I thought city nicknames were reserved for those who actually lived there.  Maybe this is Philly’s way of sharing “brotherly love” beyond its downtown streets.

    “The Garden” in front of “The Peak”

    I find it interesting how locals come up with jargon for the places in which they live.  It’s a semi-secret language that can only be learned by spending enough time there.  When we lived in Colorado Springs the city was never referred to by its full name, but instead by just “The Springs”.  (A visitor might wonder why you weren’t referring to adjacent Manitou Springs instead.)  Pikes Peak, the mountain forming the majestic backdrop of The Springs, was always just “The Peak”.  Garden of the Gods and its famous sandstone rock formations was always just “The Garden”.  And so on.

    Maybe all of this name-shortening is a nod to the more relaxed world we live in today.  Corporations could be said to use jargon as well.  Remember when it was “Federal Express” instead of “FedEx”?  “McDonald’s” instead of “Mickey-D’s?”  Kentucky Fried Chicken instead of “KFC”?  Even “Subway” was once known as “Pete’s Super Submarines”.  Credit American Express – they might’ve been the original shortener of names.  “Amex” has been used since the company’s founding in 1850.

    Cities may have their nicknames but I also think I’ve heard a few imposters.  Seriously, does anyone refer to San Francisco as “Frisco” when the more common option seems to be “San Fran”?  Chicago will always be “The Windy City” to me; not “Chi-Town”.  Dallas is too short a word to mess with so you’ll only get “Big D” from the locals on occasion.  And more recently I’ve heard “Cali” and “So-Cal” out west but I couldn’t tell you if that’s what the locals go with.

    Washington D.C. is “D.C.” whether you live there or not.  St. Petersburg just sounds better as “St. Pete”.  Oklahoma City is “OKC” just like New York City is “NYC”.  I never grew up in Los Angeles but I did grow up in LA… maybe like you grew up in KC, Indy, or Cincy.  Where does all of this jargon end?  Right here… right now… at the end of this blog post where, now that I think about it, you’re welcome to call me “Dave” instead of “David”.

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    LEGO Neuschwanstein Castle – Update #9 (read about the start of this project in Fit for a (Fairy Tale) King

    Do you recall how we added the “Palas” (living quarters) to the castle the last time around?  Apparently King Ludwig needed two of these structures.  Bags 17 and 18 (of 23 bags of pieces) finished off one Palas and began another – the latter building at the far west end of the castle complex.  All of a sudden we’re entering the home stretch of this entire project.  Next week’s LEGOs will complete the castle itself, while the following week’s will give it a final flourish of landscape elements.

    The “Palas” is the very tall element on the left

    As you can see above, Palas #1 has been completed and installed.  For the record, “completed” was much easier than “installed”.  When you build an element like the Palas separately from the overall model, it’s a delicate process to bring the two together.  You have to position the structure just right before you snap it down in amongst the rest of the castle.  Easy to illustrate in the instruction manual; not-so-easy to do in reality.  My first attempt was a mini-disaster, loosening several pieces from the castle base.  My second attempt – mercifully – came together with a satisfying series of LEGO clicks.

    Palas #2

    Here’s a look at the “Western Palas”, still under construction and destined for the askew foundation you see on the far left of the larger model.  Palas #2 includes a two-story balcony for views of the surrounding Alps (the big opening on the top floors of the structure), and a whole lot of living space underneath that was never ever completed.  The Western allocates two floors to a “grand throne room”, also never completed.  I find it sad, for all of the details of this wondrous castle, Ludwig never sat on his throne, let alone in a throne room from which he would’ve/should’ve performed his royal duties.

    Running build time: 9:32

    Total leftover pieces: 59 (!)

    Accompanying movie soundtrack: Titanic (1997).  It wasn’t my plan to go with the epic of the sinking ship, not today nor in any chapter of this build.  But the music from Field of Dreams – a favorite movie of mine – just didn’t deliver the goods.  Like Chariots of Fire, all you get with Field of Dreams is its theme song followed by random bits of music.  Don’t save it to your listening library.  But its composer James Horner scored Titanic as well, and for this one the Academy Award was well deserved.  Subtract Céline Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” – the song just overlaps the ending credits.  The real magic of this soundtrack is in the haunting instrumentals and wordless vocals.  The theme song starts with the wailing tin whistle and morphs into the utterly lonely vocals, brought to you by the incomparable voice of Norwegian soprano Sissel. It echoes the despair and futility of it all – literally – which is exactly what Horner intended.  Listen to it here.

    Some content sourced from Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

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    Thinking Inside of the Box

    When my wife and I travel we toe the line on the weight limits the airlines impose on baggage. Our suitcases, looking ready to burst, always come in at 48-point-this or 49-point-that on the front counter scale. There’s a sigh of relief when we don’t hit the number where we’d have to pay more. So call it unfamiliar territory when my suitcase was only two-thirds full for a weekend getaway earlier this month. I mean, there was space in there still looking to be filled.  I was tempted to throw in the pillow I sleep on just to keep everything from jostling around. It was a dilemma that came back to me just this morning over breakfast.

    Allow me to introduce you to one of my favorite foods.  Nature’s Path Organic produces grain-based cereals with the rare double-win: they taste great and they’re good for you.  Nature’s Path combines exotics like amaranth, quinoa, millet, and spelt, and somehow makes them taste delicious alongside a little fruit and milk.  My wife loves their “Golden Tumeric” variety while I prefer their popular “Heritage Flakes”.  Sometimes I go with the sweeter “Flax Plus Maple Pecan Crunch”.  Trust me, breakfast cereal has come a long way since Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

    Two-thirds full (probably less)

    What hasn’t changed about breakfast cereal however, is the amount of product you find in the bag when you first open the box.  The photo you see here is a source of constant irritation for me.  You have a box, a bag, and some cereal.  The size of the bag is consistent with the size of the box.  So why-oh-why (like my recent suitcase) is the bag only two-thirds full?  Why not a) dial up the setting on the bag-filling machine to top things off, or b) reduce the size of the box to match the amount of the cereal?

    This is the age-old game manufacturers choose to play with us consumers, of course.  As production and material costs rise, they find subtle (or not-so-subtle) ways to make us believe we’re buying the same amount of the same product for the same price.  At least Nature’s Path doesn’t swap out their ingredients for some chemical alternative.  But they do fill the box with air along with the cereal.  Honestly, I wonder if the box was ever completely full.

    Here’s another sales ploy.  Nature’s Path claims this cereal has a “new look” with the “same delicious taste”.  What exactly is the new look (and do I even remember the “old look”)?  Did the flakes change shape or size or is it the box that has a new look?  More importantly, why would I care about a new look when all I want is the same bowl of cereal I bought last time?  What aren’t they telling us here?

    Texture matters because…?

    Now note the fine print at the bottom right corner of the box.  First we have a disclaimer of “fruit shown as serving suggestion”.  Followed by “enlarged to show texture”.  Both statements let me know that what I see is not what I will get.  There is zero fruit in the box.  The cereal flakes are not as large as the photo suggests.  And for today’s water cooler question, does cereal flake texture make it more likely you’ll buy a box?

    Finally – and this one probably goes back to the early days of cereal production – the “serving size” suggested by Nature’s Path is one cup.  One cup.  Try the following some time: Without measuring, pour out what you’d think would be one cup of cereal into a bowl.  I guarantee you’ll pour more than a cup.  Imagine the saddest, smallest portion of food you will ever see and I present one cup of cereal in a decent-sized bowl.   But “one cup” allows Nature’s Path to boast “about 9 serving per container”.  No sir.  My serving size (and yours) means I’m lucky if I get four bowls out of the entire box.

    Look, I get it; organic foods are expensive.  A box of Heritage Flakes would run me ten dollars or more if Nature’s Path filled the bag to the top.  Add blueberries and milk and it’s an even pricier breakfast.  But I’m willing to pay more for flakes instead of air.  I suggest Nature’s Path go with the plan for my two-thirds-full suitcase instead.  Throw in a giant marshmallow to take up all of that extra space.

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    LEGO Neuschwanstein Castle – Update #8 (read about the start of this project in Fit for a (Fairy Tale) King

    Neuschwanstein Castle’s (unfinished) “Palas”

    Today’s construction felt like building a miniature castle within the walls of a much larger one.  Bags 15 and 16 (of 23 bags of pieces) were entirely dedicated to the “Palas”, Neuschwanstein’s main residential structure.  Within the walls of this building you’ll find King Ludwig’s stateroom, his servant’s quarters, a conservatory, a salon (a room to entertain guests), and an enclosed grotto at the very top.  Makes me wonder why Ludwig needed to build the rest of Neuschwanstein, but I guess that’s just his way of showing off.

    See the swan parked in the middle of the Grotto?

    The grotto sounds like a nice place for a king to hang out, even if the LEGO equivalent makes it look a little cramped.  It’s a covered outdoor space with a waterfall, colored lights, and sliding glass doors for unobstructed views of the surrounding Alps.  Pretty darned progressive for a castle built in the late 1800s.

    Finally, Ludwig had a thing for swans.  He probably had several live ones living at the base of the waterfall but he also had the large sculpture you see above, placed prominently in the grotto.  For the record, it’s a futile exercise to create a realistic-looking swan out of LEGO blocks.  And the “headpiece” is so small LEGO threw in an extra one in case I somehow misplaced it.

    Running build time: 7:57

    Total leftover pieces: 52

    Accompanying movie soundtrack: Chariots of Fire (1981).  The theme song from Greek composer Vangelis is iconic; easily one of the most recognizable pieces of movie soundtrack music ever composed, whether the leadoff with the hunting horn or the sweeping piano tune itself.  The melody really does evoke images of the human body in motion.  However, I was quickly reminded this film score hardly represents a satisfying listen without watching the film at the same time.  The rest of the synthesizer music can only be described as bizarre.  Some parts are designed to accompany dramatic slow-motion running scenes.  Other parts have zero rhyme/reason when they stand alone.  And right in the middle of the soundtrack you get an abrupt shift to church organ music and the voices of a beautiful choir.  But never mind all that.  Just listen to the famous theme here.

About Me

The sky is not completely dark at night. Were the sky absolutely dark, one would not be able to see the silhouette of an object against the sky.

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