Week of 20260419 - Toastmasters Talk; Sample Website for Young Single Adult Conference; Raised Garden Containers; Walking Pad; Physical; Tires; Longhorn; Autoharp; No Pain - No Gaines

Week of 20260419 - Toastmasters Talk; Sample Website for Young Single Adult Conference; Raised Garden Containers; Walking Pad; Physical; Tires; Longhorn; Autoharp; No Pain - No Gaines

= Sunday, there were several talks. Jesus praised the man who had authority to baptize Him. God helps us overcome temptation. Ceding your will to God is the only gift you can give him. Make your heart a safe place for others.

= Monday, work was as usual. At 3, we participated in a Zoom call with the support vendor for the Young Single Adult conference we're advisors for; a representative of the Director of Temporal Affairs for the Southeast Area of the U.S. was on the call. The support vendor walked us through a finished website for a conference such as ours so we could see the content and decisions the vendor will need from the conference committee.

= Tuesday, I gave a talk at Toastmasters. I didn't send my slides in time; so, I wound up giving the talk without PowerPoint. After, we ate at Fat Man's BBQ (nice). We picked up items from storage, then went to Montgomery Ollie's Outlet, filled our cart, and only then found what we came for: six raised garden containers.

= We added notes to the meeting minutes the support vendor provided and forwarded the result to the conference committee. Then I finished a book we bought today at Ollie's Outlet: No Pain, No Gaines (by Chip Gaines, half of the couple that created Magnolia magazine, hosted TV shows documenting home renovations, etc). Instead of telling you how to build a network, Chip focuses on what your personal network should look like: people you have learned to trust.

= Steph signed us up to help with hot air balloon demonstrations this Saturday!

= Wednesday after work, we assembled a walking pad: a no-frills treadmill; it was definitely a group effort. The device comes with a bar at barely waist height that will hold a cellphone and its remote control. We learned [alas!] that the balloon demonstrations have been put off to July by expected bad weather.

= Thursday, I had a physical. Everything that could be checked on-the-spot says I'm OK. I did ask for an X-ray of my neck; turning it from side-to-side has become painful.

= I tried to replace two tires at Walmart, but they said they couldn't get them off safely; so, I had Tire City do it at what turned out to be twice the price. And, the minivan will need more work down the road.

= I assembled one of the raised garden containers; it has an internal porous floor which holds water underneath and an indicator that shows the water level: "self-watering".

= Friday, I pulled key performance indicators for four locations. I was asked to come by on Tuesday to talk about them. I picked Tuesday afternoon so as to not interfere with Toastmasters.

= Our date night activity started with a long-awaited meal at Longhorn [steak house]. Once home, Steph played autoharp while I sang. We slept. When I awoke, I looked at old emails in preparation for being a guest on her podcast. When she woke up, I read her chapters of "No Pain, No Gaines" until she fell asleep.

= Saturday, I bought vermiculite at Prattville Farm Center. I picked up storage boxes from our RV and was blessed that the owner saw me having trouble with the gate to the storage park and showed me how to reset it; I could have been stuck there for a while.

= By 11, I was in bed but Steph had not recorded her weekly podcast episode yet.

Church

9385 Park Crossing
Montgomery AL 36117

Isaac Garner

(He was at the prom the day before, hence the boutonniere.)

Garlic Oil Pasta by Samyang

Steph tore a paper towel into a circle to begin to teach me how to stuff a tortilla.

Fill it; fold in the sides.

Reach one remaining side over the stuffing.

Tuck its edge under the stuffing.

And close the remaining side.

Now for the real thing.

Too much stuffing. I eventually used twice as many tortillas.

{Juicy Squid}?

Ho-Chunk Nation - Deer Clan

[primarily in Wisconsin]

Shopping for the cat

The purpose of my talk was to encourage members to use the Toastmasters evaluation form. Toastmasters "new" education program with new projects and new forms has been in existence for only a few years; I've been a Toastmaster since the 80s.

I had expected to use PowerPoint, but it didn't get loaded in time.

Merideth Pieper was the evaluator for my project.

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I've reached the minimum time, but I don't realize it. I've forgotten I can look at the laptop in front of me to see the people behind me, including Ben McGhee, who is today's Timer. He's made his background green to signal me that I've spoken long enough.

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Steph pointed out later that I should have unstapled these papers; sliding them is less-obtrusive than flipping them.

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Liz Burgess

Ready to administer Table Topics

Don Langham

Miles Joye

[plus those on line]

Beau Lore

Dorcas Opendi

Kenny Robinson

Steph, responding to one she picked for herself

Ken Hairston

Fast and good: at Coliseum Boulevard and Federal Drive. (They close at 2; hurry.)

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Except for truckers, how many new drivers can use a stick shift?

Hardee's is gone. It was across from Fatman's BBQ.

Expressing her feeling about the concept of Dr Pepper-flavored Peeps.

{creepers}

I'm Enuf

Perky

Reheating Walmart rotisserie chicken

(in the new pan that fills a large eye on the range)

Fancy

Powerful

Testing the walking pad

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OK, but narrow, and stay off of the back end.

Seeking adjustment

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Group effort: Steph held the flimsy wrench it came with while I used the screwdriver-tipped Allen wrench it came with.

Better: the front end is raised slightly now. (The lamp on the floor was used to test the outlet, which failed momentarily.)

Light shining through a rear corner of the cat box

Through this window, with the sun low in the sky

Can't season anything half-way.

    

This went in there, too.

These taco racks are great. The tacos were, too.

Don't Miss This (scripture discussion)

In the waiting room of my doctor's office

Part of Taylor Crossing was getting a makeover.

The Pivot Path's hours are 3-8 PM; useful hours for a great concept: a focus on helping adults complete the GED. "Equipping adult learners to excel." thepivotpath.org


[On Atlanta Highway between Wendy's and Arby's]

"Meat and 3" from Arby's: Choice of Crispy Chicken or Ham & Swiss Sandwich [I bumped mine to a Gyro for $2 more] with a Small Fry, 2-pc Mozzarella Sticks, 1-pc Peach Cobbler Roll, and a Small Drink. Great buy.

The minivan oil pan gasket is leaking.

Raised garden beds (from Ollie's Outlet)

The dirt sits on this.

I had to read about the indicator. When water is added, the indicator rises and you'll see red. When it's running out of water, you won't.

[Self-watering gardens would have been nice years ago. We hurt our garden during our annual July honeymoons.]

Assembled. Or, you can replace the legs with short feet (included). The little crosspiece is a stabilizer.

Peppers to be dipped in hummus

The hummus

I cleaned out a lunch bag and started over.

They *really* don't want vehicles to cross here.

Cute van wrap

You don't see this every day. The driver has a personal vehicle to go home in after his delivery of two, count 'em, two tractors.

At Longhorn (near Troy Highway), awaiting our meal

The loaded mushrooms were good.

More meat than I could eat. How good was it?..

I couldn't finish my half of our chocolate stampede.

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"Not all who wander are lost" refers to Strider (Aragorn) in "The Fellowship of the Ring", the first book of the Tolkien trilogy. -- tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Riddle_of_Strider

Steph played hymns on her autoharp while I sang.

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A reminder of how much infrastructure is needed for a cell tower

I picked up items from our RV.

These three foam boards were our projection screen to watch movies (via Internet).

Our "Majestic Penny"

Vermiculite. "Mel's Mix" for square yard (meter) gardening was one-third vermiculite, one-third peat moss, and one-third compost. We're preparing to replicate that in our raised beds.

A can of pulled pork (which had no sauce!), a quarter-cup of BBQ sauce, and a quarter-cup of brown sugar

Two boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese; a half-cup of shredded cheese

to which the sauced pork was added; there were leftovers

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