Caution

The sign at the other end of this road said "Caution Rough Road." It looks like someone in southeastern Ohio has learned how to hack electronic road signs. It was college football Saturday, but there was no sign of the promised party.

New Rice Cooker

I've lost count of how many rice cookers we have worn out over the years. Our rice cooker in Pennsylvania was the most recent to stop working. Ali replaced it with the Tatung model shown below.

The pink color is a little different for a rice cooker, but it works with our countertop color. Is it me or does the controls area look like the cartoon face of a fat baby crying? The tabs to hold the panel look like small ears. The lights look like a pair of eyes while the switch opening looks like a mouth and tongue. It's takes getting used to, but here's hoping we have many, many happy meals including rice from this cooker.

They Are Back!

Big smiley face for the return of Hostess! They are back on the shelves. I was in a grocery store in Kendallville, Indiana and spotted them on the way to get orange juice. The new product seems to be more of a throwback to the Hostess products of my youth. The cupcakes were a little less sweet and quite tasty.

It has been a long time since they left the shelves, but I am happy they are back. I must admit, while Hostess was gone, I cheated with the product's Canadian sister, Vachon.

Hotel Televisions

We live in a world filled with a wealth of technical toys and gadgets. After all these years, why hasn't someone worked out a hotel television that starts at the same volume you switched it off. Our television at home works normally, but hotel units all appear to turn on at very high volumes. When traveling, I do all I can to make the world peaceful for the other guests near my room, but my television never seems to cooperate.

The volume when the unit is switched on (18).

The volume I use when I watch a program. (4)

Fisker Karma

I recently saw my first and last (?) Fisker Karma outside a local lunchtime eatery. At $100K this plug-in hybrid isn't within the budget of most tree huggers like me. It's $100,000 sticker doesn't seem to be catching on with too many auto enthusiasts either since there have been big layoffs followed by rumors of bankruptcy. Too bad, it is different, and the lines are pleasing to the eyes. Automotive history is littered with electric and near-electric vehicles that were little more than a blip on the horizon, but few had lines this nice.

Chevy Tornado

The Chevy Tornado is one of those global vehicles which is not available in the states. The vehicle is sold in Brazil as the Chevy Montana and is based on an old European Opel platform. Anyone who remembers the old Chevy pick-up/car hybrid called the El Camino will be familiar with this concept. The Tornado is equipped only with a 4-cylinder and a five-speed transmission. In this US day of re-awakened fuel economy, the four wouldn't be a problem, but not many of us in the stateside can handle a manual transmission. The bed is a little short, but it holds a half-ton payload.

Snack Smart

I don't have a great diet. I expect it is better than most, but not what one would call good. That said, I watch with amusement as people seem to distill their dietary knowledge on everyone these days. An understanding of the words moderation and exercise have been pitched out the window so we can collectively chase the next get healthy/stay in shape scheme which is promised to require no work or effort from us. I was visiting one of our sites when I noticed someone had taken it upon themselves to mark "good" junk food items in the machine.

Yep, frosted pop tarts are snack smarter in someone's world. At least they are in comparison to candy bars and chips.

I'm not sure how these stack up against the other offerings in the case, but at 400 calories and 340mg of sodium for the two-pack, I'm not sure I would spend the snack smarter sticker on these items.

I must admit to being prejudiced to the unfrosted variety. I was really suprised to see the unfrosted option checked in with just as many calories and even more sodium. Does that mean the frosted goop on top has no caloric value?

The other winner in the case with a snack smarter sticker was double salami.

While the calories are fairly low, I'm not certain too many doctors would be thrilled with a one-shot, couple-minute intake of 630mg sodium.