Everyone is a little drunk

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. This coming Sunday is St. Patricks day which means this year it is a three day event starting today. The parade will be tomorrow March 16th starting at noon  and will begin at Rice Park, travel down 5th St. E, and end at Mears Park. For those who are not from around here Rice Park is in downtown St. Paul. It will be sunny and in the low 40’s for parade time which is not warm but not too cold either.

2018 St. Patricks Day parade
2018 Saint Patricks Day parade- Kid friendly

Celebrate the luck of the Irish responsibly and get a free ride on Metro Transit on Saturday, March 16, 2024, from 6 p.m. to end of service on all routes–buses and light rail. No fare, no coupons; simply hop on and take a seat for free.

dogs in parade
Pet friendly

I am never even the smallest amount Irish but I do enjoy photographing parades.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

The pans I used to hate

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Decades ago when I was young we didn’t have much in the way of cookware. My mother bought us a set of pans at one point and I still have them today. I also have her set of pans and both of the pans that I bought for myself.

I always had cast iron pans and never liked them. They were very common in the 1980s. Yes, I am that old. I have no idea what happened to those pans. A couple of years ago I looked for them in the camping gear and in the basement but never found them. Did I give them away? Toss them out? Did they get lost in a move?

Cast iron pans are not non-stick. I think that is why I hated them back in the day. They don’t go in the dishwasher and they need to be seasoned and in general require care but they are worth it.

When it comes to cooking nothing beats a iron pan. They work on any cooking surface, I use them in the oven on the stovetop, and on the gas grill. They work on conduction cooktops, electric burners, and gas stoves.

Last week I used my 8-inch pan to bake a chocolate chocolate chip brownie, and I used the same pan to bake some chicken thighs in and roasted some veggies in it on the outdoor gas grill. I use a larger castiron skillet for cornbread, pizza, and pancakes. Yes, I like to cook, it can be fun and everyone has to eat.

chocolate chip brownie in a cast iron pan
Chocolate chip brownie

 

March is here and spring is on the way

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Today is the first day of March. March is always an interesting month in Minnesota. We might have spring weather in March or we could have winter weather. This year we didn’t have much of a winter.

With the warmer weather, it might be tempting to put the snow shovels away. Putting snow shovels away in March almost guarantees a large snowstorm. I am going to leave the shovels out and keep the snow blower gassed up and ready to go. Please do not put your snow shovels away.

Here is a picture I took last Tuesday:

Crocus
Crocus blooming 2.27.2024

The iris are popping up and the lilac bushes have leaf buds.

Enjoy the weekend and be sure to get outside. Keep the snow shovels handy and remember that only you can prevent forest fires.

Good fortune is just a cookie away

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun.

This one is my all-time favorite fortune from a fortune cookie: “The fortune you seek is in another cookie” That kind of sums up my life.  Nice to see that even the people who make fortune cookies have a sense of humor.

Fortune from fortune cookie

Warm weather this weekend will melt the snow. Temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s next week. Nothing like a little late April weather in February.

A career in pins

Pins
Lapel Pins

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I was cleaning out my office supply cabinet and found these pins. They are lapel pins and I rarely wear anything with a lapel.

For those of us who are self-employed, there is no retirement party. There isn’t a gold watch or a cake either. That is alright because I am not sure retirement is even a thing anymore.

Maybe I could set a goal for myself. Three more pins and I retire. 🙂 LOL

The oldest pins are pins with backs to hold them in place. The newest pins aren’t pins at all. They are held on with magnets. I am sure I have some more of these but I don’t know where they are.

Maybe I’ll take a better picture of these and build a page on the internet to show them off, or I could just leave them where I found them.

 

I should be more excited about AI

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. AI (Artificial Intelligence) has taken the real estate industry by storm. In fact, some say that real estate agents who do not take advantage of AI will soon be out of business.

Yesterday I was playing with generating images using Image Creator from Designer. It is a Microsoft product.

I wanted to generate an image of a “woman warrior on a mountain at sunrise”. When I saw the images of women who were in their twenties and shaped like Barbie, I decided to ask for an image of an older woman. I got several images of men with long hair.

Older women are invisible, especially on the internet. Computer programming is a male-dominated profession and so is photography.  The end result is that AI generates images that appeal to men.

Here is one of the images I got when I asked that my character be an older woman. Notice I didn’t ask for an old woman, just an older woman.

AI generated image
Image generated by AI

When I asked for an old woman dancing, I got an image that was a little closer to reality.

Old Woman Dancing
Old Woman Dancing – AI generated image

In general, AI takes the biases we already have and doubles down on them. There is something to be said for original content. Especially original art, photography, and writing created by older women.