In a effort to keep my blood pressure down and my feet from swelling, I have been watching my salt consumption. I am at the point where I need very little salt on my food. So, a lot of the food in restaurants tastes very salty to me.

Well, the other day, I ate at the Olive Garden. One of the dishes that I had was a potato and sausage soup. It was delicious! But, out of curiosity, I went to the Olive Garden web site to check the salt content.

WOW! was I surprised. My soup had almost 1,000mg of sodium. But then again, that is what most soups have so I guess it is not outrageous.

But, what really caught my attention was the entrees. Some of them had over 3,000mg of sodium!

I guess with all of that salt,  they sell more wine. It makes me wonder how the Italians stay so healthy.

The other Saturday, as I was driving through Grand Rapids, a woman, in an SUV, passed me at a high rate of speed. Since it was 7AM and there was a hospital just down the road, I assumed that she was on her way to emergency. So, I was surprise when she turned into the local farmers market.

I guess she needed some fresh fruit and veggies for breakfast.

Burger King has a new item on their menu; Ribs. So, since I love ribs and am always looking for fast food alternatives, I decided to give them a try.

The ribs are sold in packages of 3, 6 and 8. Since I wasn’t sure what to expect, I order the package of 8 figuring I can always eat the leftovers later.

When I handed the clerk my $7, she handed me a small bag. What is this? I thought. Extra sauce? Napkins? Slaw? No, it was the ribs.

I looked in the bag with disbelief. Underneath the napkins was a small cardboard box with 8 teeny tiny ribs. Each rib was about 2 inches long and an inch wide with maybe a half inch of meat on it.

I took a bite and immediately noted the taste of smoke and soy sauce. They were tender but the flavor reminded me of beef jerky.

It only took me a couple of minutes to finish them off. I was glad that I got the large order.

All and all, I wouldn’t order them again. They were too pricey, too small and not very tasty. Close, but no cigar.

The other day, we purchased a new cell phone.  Even though it was the bottom of the line model, it still had a build in camera. And, since every now and then, I see something that I want to take a picture of, I thought the camera function might be handy.

Well, the other day, I decided to take a picture of the “Interfaith Reflection Center”. So, I got out the phone and clicked off a couple of shots. The photos looked pretty good. Great. Now, all I had to do was down load the pictures to the PC and then I could add them to my blog.

So, I plugged the cell phone into the PC and the PC immediately recognized the phone. Great. Now all I had to do was down load the pictures.  So, I went to the media section of the phone menu, selected “my pictures” and then choose the “send” option. Piece of cake.

But wait, the “send” option would only let me send it to an email address and I wanted to send it to my PC. So, I tried the PC instead.

Now, whenever I plug a USB drive into my PC, I can access the drive and move any files that I want into my PC. So, I figured that I should be able to do the same with my cell phone. Not so. The PC didn’t recognize the phone as an intelligent device. Rats!

So, it looks like if I want to send photos from my cell phone to my PC, I will have to send them to my email account.

But, why would a phone have a USB port but not the capability of transferring files with it? Ah! Air time! The cell phone company wants me to use their air time because they can make money off of it.

I have a cheap little digital camera. I’ll have to start carrying that with me when I travel.

The other day, as I entered the cafeteria at Hutzel Hospital, one end of it was taken over by a big sale of sports shoes, sports attire and fragrances.

At first, I thought it was a strange combination. The shoes and attire seemed to be a natural fit but the fragrances seemed out of place. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. After all, if you are going to exercise, you are going to sweat. And if you sweat, you are going to smell, so thus the need for fragrances.

Now, it all makes sense except for the fact that they were selling this stuff in the cafeteria.

Here at the Hutzel hospital, they don’t have a chapel. They have an “Interfaith Reflection Center”. It is located right next to Quiznos.

The other day, I went into Quiznos for lunch. I looked over their menu but couldn’t decide on what to order.  So, I went next door to the reflection center to “reflect” on it.

Now, I was not sure what they meant by “interfaith”.  Was there going to be a statue of Mary on one side of the room and a statue of Buddha on the other side?  So, I decided to check it out.

There were a pair of wooden doors at the entrance. And as I approached it, the doors opened automatically. Kind of eerie.

Once inside, I noticed some strange art work and a fountain.  I sat down.  Reflect, reflect. Do I want an 8 inch or a 12 inch?

The fountain was soothing but after a few minutes I had an overwhelming urge to use the bathroom. I put lunch on hold.  I guess reflecting paid off.

As if Detroit didn’t have enough problems with their crime rate rising as fast as their unemployment rate, they now have an even bigger problem. Sparrows!

That right, sparrows. It seems that the McNamarra terminal at the Metro DTW airport is infested with sparrows.

Now, with the exception of the occasional turd bombs, the sparrows are not harming anything. And, since the sparrows have been hanging around since the terminal was built 10 years ago, it is hard to imagine that they are major source of annoyance.

But, be that as it may be, the birds have got to go. I guess they saw one too many Hitchcock flicks.

The hospital where Kathy is staying at has a Wendy’s. And since they serve breakfast, I decided to check them out.

Now, I am a big breakfast person. No danish, no bagels, just meat and eggs. So, first, I tried out their breakfast burrito. In spite of the fact that it was flat, it was not bad and the price was right. But, it was very salty, which I blamed on the cheese.

The next morning, I tried their top of the line sandwich. It was a maple flavored biscuit with sausage, eggs and cheese.

WOW! It totally blew me out of the water. It was the worst thing that I have ever tasted. I tasted like a pancake with maple sugar and salt. I suppose if you like maple sugar and salt, this is your ticket but after two bites, I threw mine away. I cleansed my palate with coffee.

Caveat emptor! If I need to eat breakfast at Wendy’s I will order their chili and a fruit cup. I am not inclined to try another breakfast sandwich. YUCK!

FWIW, their coffee is very good.

The floors at the hospital where Kathy is staying are always clean and shiny. Naturally, I figured that a custodian spent the wee hours of the morning polishing these floors with an electric buffer. But, that thought was soon banished when I saw the “Hallway Zamboni”.

Just like at the ice rink, the “Hallway Zamboni” patrols the hallways, cleaning and restoring the shine on the floor. Though the machine is about the size of a garden tractor, it’s small size makes it very maneuverable. Plus, they operate during normal business hours so the driver does not need a special schedule.

I wonder it shopping malls use these machines?

I am a person who has to have breakfast. Now, I am not talking about a donut and a cup of coffee, I am talking about bacon and eggs. So, when I headed for the hospital cafeteria the other morning, I was set for a big breakfast.

When I got there, they had link and patty sausages, hash browns with and without cheese, biscuits and gravy and bacon but no eggs. Bah! So, I got a couple of sausages and a muffin.

Well, about 2 hours later those sausages extracted their revenge. Bad choice.

Since cafeterias usually vary their menu, I figured that they would eventually eggs but, so far, this is not the case. The only variation that I see on the breakfast menu is that they are now serving fried chicken wings.

I guess that people down here don’t eat eggs in the morning.