Last year I ordered me up a flat top griddle. FedEx destroyed it and left the remnants mid way up my driveway. Took a month for Walmart to refund my credit card. Well after all of that a friend gave me a Charbroiler. 3 feet by 2 feet with three burners. The grill had cast iron grates which are very nice and easy to care for provided the grill is in doors. Mine is under a cover outdoors and no matter my best efforts, rust.

I had been eyeing Grill Grates which are aluminum replacements for grills and commercial stuff. I have a pair in my Acorn smoker that are about ten years old now. The cost to replace the entire top of the Charbroiler was $300+. Well happy turkey day comes and they have a 30% sale. I got the grates in the mail yesterday and can’t wait to install them and cook a big fat ribeye. They say to heat them up and rub them down with a raw onion to cure. I think they look cool right now, but after all of that they will appear dark brown.

Being aluminum they put on wonder sear marks. They prevent the juices from flaring up and scorching the meat above. We installed them on all our grills at work and everyone loves them. The only issue is leaving them on a grill, burning hot with no food, can cause them to melt/burn. I doubt i will have a problem less I ignore the grill as it warms.


I also got a new jig mold from Fat Guys fishing. Their Pill Head in 1/16th, with 14 cavities.


Then my wife says she wants to get me a new phone for Christmas. To replace the IPhone 6 I have been milking along like a sick cow. IPhones are expensive, but I have had the current phone a long time. So long it can no longer be traded in. So I thunk long and hard about the situation, and thunk that a new phone would be able to be traded in on the latest model. I don’t need a “plan” that offers a fresh phone every year. I can keep the new one for a couple of years and trade it in while it is still of some worth.

I also thunked that buying a 13 or a 14 doesn’t make since since they are already older models and I would save a fe bucks, but then be behind the curve on trade ins. So the latest model makes sense to me. Then it became a choice of the four models of the 15. Again, I went with the thought in my head to get the best one, which is their Pro model. To increase the diagonal size of the screen 1/2” costs $200. Instead I went with the standard size and spent the extra to get increased brain power. All in white you see.

I have to wait for Santa, even though it will arrive way ahead of him. I cancelled auto refill on my current model as I intend to try a new service. December 16th is last day of service. I will have to do without a phone for a week or so. I can use the WiFi to take calls and texts at work and home, just the driving around will have me without. The new service I am considering is Verizon’s cheap stuff called Visible. $20 a month for calls and texts and data at the 5G level.

5G is difficult to get in my rural area anyways. Having the phone and the service doesn’t mean you get 5G. You get other. They substitute on your behalf and give you the old 4 stuff. So why pay a bunch to get something they do not intend to provide ?

So IPhones are treated by society in much the same way as are cars. Oh sure you can get an older model phone and go around looking cheap and lame, but why would you when you can look all cool and sophisticated like I might look. Well…. I might.


So my Christmas is already shot. Except her. She will get some interesting things. She enjoys music a lot. So a nice sound bar for the TV so she can play music is in order. Just got her ears pierced again. Nope……can’t remove the studs until way after Christmas. Her birthday in Februgly will see her with new earrings. She likes pearls. I also know that she likes warm pajamas while watching the TV. They make some expensive ones for sure. Some essential lotions and and such. Then some whacky stuff for her to enjoy. You know toys.


She has hired Bark Busters to come train Charli. Yup, she sure did. A pile of money, too. I tried to explain that she chewed stuff like furniture, wallpaper, pillows, clothes and such because…….wait for it….wait…..because she was a puppy. Well she had her first birthday on Thanksgiving Day and I haven’t seen her chewing our stuff in some time. I think she did like I figured and grew out of it.

But she digs in her large yard. She digs over here, then she digs over there. She likes to dig in the mulched areas next to the house and that upsets her mother. She still gets excited to meet people and us when we come home. Too much enthusiasm for any of us. I do not think Mr. Bark Busters is gonna be able to do a thing about that. We already try to ignore the poor devil but she will have none of that.

I suspect what my woife will get for her money is a nice person that will lecture her husband for her. It will all come down to the bad things I either did or did not do that have caused poor Charli to become an absolute savage. I know this is how the deal is gonna go down.

The dog has this unreal amount of energy. She goes and goes and goes. She will spend hours trying to snatch dragonflys out of the air. Barks at squirrels, and watches birds fly overhead. Lizards, snakes, spiders and bugs of all manner are also game to her. I watch as she chews the limbs off of palmetto bushes then shreds then into little pieces. Sticks and limbs are just things to entertain the girl. I don’t think Butt Busters is gonna untrain that.

She does bark in the mornings when the squirrels first start to scurry about. I kind of like that because the neighbors have been jerks to us and I envision them awakening needlessly everyday. I know I know….. supposed to be nice. I have been but they must not be Christian because that ain’t what we get back.

Some look at Charli and see pitbull, some see American FoxHound. I see a mix of the two and that is why she is so rambunctious. At 60 pounds she can hit your legs and knock you down. She has almost got me down a few times. She went running by the other day and her hard head struck my soft knee. That was interesting as only one of seemed to notice.

I tested her a week or so ago. I snuck around and entered the house through the garage whilst she laid upon the couch next to her mommy. I held up a towel so as to hide my face. Then I entered like I was an escapee from Dahmer’s castle. The dog started barking but made no move towards protecting anything other than her backside. Coward. So I told my wife that if Ted Bundy bum rushes us, that she will need to protect Charli, because ain’t no way that dog gonna do squat.

Still we love her and she has a lot of love to give in return. I hope she knocks Buster Square Pants trainer boy down in the mud.