NUTS AND BOLTS

I added a weather gadget to my blog the other day.  It's over to the right just above my picture.  When you first come to Oddball, you can check to see what the weather is at that moment.  Then I won't have to brag tell you about it.  Nobody has mentioned it so I wasn't sure anyone had noticed it or if they just weren't going to give me the satisfaction of continuing to grin.

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One of the advantages of moving is having stuff in boxes that you hadn't seen in a long time.  And, in my case, having lost a really nice compass in the deluge of boxes.  Somewhere that dang-blasted compass is hiding but so far I haven't been able to find it.  What I DID find was a collection of QSL (confirmation) cards from my second ham radio career.  I got my first amateur radio license when I was 15.  I held it for about 11 or 12 years before I let it lapse during a divorce.

15 years later I got interested in the hobby again and re-tested and got my license again with a new call.  That lasted for about 15 years until SWMBO and I opened a bookstore and I just didn't have time for the hobby anymore.  But in that second stage of my amateur radio career I "worked" (made contact with) other "hams" in over a hundred countries on every continent in the world.

QSL cards are personally styled postcards with your call letters, location and pertinent information about the contact which the hams exchange.  I didn't quite get to 100 countries confirmed but I came pretty darn close.

Well I ran across those foreign cards I'd received last night and I went through them today.  I no longer found any reason to keep them but I just didn't want to throw them away.  So I contacted a local ham radio club and they've agreed to take them.  Maybe someday they'll become an exhibit on QSL'ing.

Here's my card from back in the day.

And here's one that I was particularly proud of.  It's the QSL card of the late Tom Christian from Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific.  He was one of the descendants of Fletcher Christian, who led the mutineers of the Bounty episode to settle on the island, scuttling the ship so they could never escape.  Tom was the "Voice of Pitcairn" for decades with his ham radio setup.

Another card I'm especially proud of is this one, of another of the most well-known amateur radio operators in the world.

The owner of that card, posing jauntily by the sports car, is none other than the late U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater.  Pictures of his "ham shacks" in Washington, Scottsdale and Newport Beach are displayed as well.  I never talked to Barry on the radio but I did handle a lot of get well messages for him when he was in a Phoenix hospital recovering from a surgery.  And, in my professional career as a television newsman, I interviewed him on numerous occasions.

But that's another story for another day.

HOW TO TELL IF YOU'RE LIVING IN ARIZONA - PART 2

HOW TO TELL IF YOU'RE LIVING IN ARIZONA

It's the middle of February.  Much of the United States and many other parts of the world are struggling with fierce winter storms of ice, snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain and flooding.

Meanwhile, my former neighbor and his new dog are relaxing in Phoenix.

(His wife told me the pool heater wasn't turned on and the water was freezing.  But what does he know.  He's from Edmonton, Alberta, and when the temperature gets above 40 F. he puts on shorts and a t-shirt.)

THE FULL MONTY . . OOPS, I MEAN MOON!

The first photo was taken the day before the full moon.  The waxing gibbous moon . . 99% of it . . can be seen faintly high up.

X marks the spot.

Well not really.  These were just a couple of random jet contrails marking the sky.

O.K.  Now comes the full moon and some of the worst photos ever taken of it.

This was taken through a window from my desk.  Kinda looks like a reflected 60 watt ceiling bulb, doesn't it?  But it's the moon.  I swear it.

Then I went outside armed with my mighty Nikon Coolpix 1.22 and my smartphone camera.  The first three photos are from the smartphone.

And the last one is from the Mighty Nikon.

About the only thing you can tell from my excellent photography is that the moon is round (full).  I've tried to photograph it before with the same results.

If you really want to see good pictures of the moon, go to to Dr. M's blog.  He has more sophisticated cameras AND knowledge of how to use them.  He gets photos like this.

Not too shabby, eh?

FRIDAY FUNNIES

You didn't think I'd forget what day it is, did you?

Happy Valentine's Day!

And Happy Birthday, Arizona!  102 years old today.

But back to the subject at hand.

Oooohh, that was rough, wasn't it?  And today of all days.  Oh, well. Onward!

Today's quiz . .

And finally (as one of the anchormen I used to write for said before the last story of every newscast) . . .

Have a great day, folks, and be nice to your mates!

STOP WHINING - HERE'S THE RECIPE

O.K. In response to thousands* of calls for the recipe for the pie I made today, here it is.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

1 cup shredded coconut

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all purpose flour

8 Tablespoons butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Place all ingredients except nutmeg in a blender and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured pie plate.  Sprinkle nutmeg on top.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (more or less).

I baked mine for an extra 8 or 9 minutes because it looked really loose after the initial 45.  Center was still loose when I took it out but it solidified upon cooling.  And it sank down, too.

And like I said to another recipe requester, you men who may decide to make this might not want to show the recipe to your significant other.  She might be horrified at the amount of sugar and butter.

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(* - two, actually.  So far)

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THIS MORNING?

I've been trying out a new recipe I found on the Internet.  It's called Impossible Pie, I guess because all the ingredients are mixed in a blender.  Here's the picture that sold me on making it.

I don't know enough about baking to know if I should have changed some amounts of ingredients because of being at a higher elevation (5,100 feet) but mine went crazy in the oven.  Here it is right after I took it out.

As you can see, the sucker rose very high and some of it went over one side and dripped onto the bottom of the oven.  

By the way it's kind of a coconut cream pie.  The recipe says it will have a coconut vanilla flavor.  Two of my favorites!  So I'm looking forward to what will happen when I cut into it.

As you can see by this picture mine didn't get that nice even crust, probably because it rose so much in the baking.

SWMBO says mine looks like a macaroon.

(To be continued once I taste it.)

O.K.  Here's an update.  I took some of the pie that overflowed the edge of the pie plate.  It's DELICIOUS!  Tastes just like it should and a little crunchy because of the overflow.  I will, however, have to do some research to figure out how to keep it from rising so much.