I was in the grocery store the other day buying some salmon steaks. Since the store prides itself on fresh fish, the clerk said that he would cut me some.

So, as expected, he went to the display case and picked up a whole salmon and place it on his cutting board. Then, as expected, he pick up his knife and began sharping it. And, when he went to cut the fish, he place the knife edge on the fish, like he was going to cut it. But instead, he smacked the back of the blade with at rubber mallet and a nice steak fell off of the end of the fish.

The mallet trick seemed to work as he was able to lop off four steaks in a matter of seconds. What he really needs is a Salmon guillotine.

Blue Iris is the official color of 2008. I just found that out. Of course, I didn’t even know that there was an official color for each year. I guess the 2007 official color was Chili Pepper Red. I am sure that knowing the official color will help me make my fashion decisions in the future.

But, more to the point, who decides on these colors and who gave them the authority to make these decisions? If there was a vote taken, I wasn’t included. Is the official color good for the whole world or just the US?

I wonder if there is an official flavor of ice cream for the year?

I got a package in the mail last week. It was from Gillette. Inside was a Gillette Fusion razor.

Now, I had not requested this item but Gillette sent it to me anyway. They did the same thing with their Mach 3 razor several years ago.

I am an old fashioned guy who shaves with a modest Atra razor. It only has two blades rather than 3 blades in the Mach 3 or the enormous 5 blades in the Fusion.

Some how, the Mach 3s extra blade didn’t seem like it would make that much difference over my Atra but the three more blades on the Fusion could reduce my shaving time. After all, I am the guy who has changed from shaving cream to the old mug and brush method because I got tired of the time wasted shaking the can.

So, today, I decided to give the Fusion a trial. After all, I didn’t have to buy it.

My initial impression was OK not WOW! The handle had a good feel and the razor had a nice balance. As for shaving, it had a little bit of a pull on my skin. But in all fairness, all new blade act that way.

I expected those five blade to give me a close shave. But that wasn’t the case. I had to go over my face and do touch ups.

Maybe after a few more shaves, I will come to appreciate those 5 blades. Anyway, my Atra is like 30 years old so I guess it is time to move on.

Since I have always had unofficial rule for site postings, I may as well make them official.

1. No porn or links to porn. If you have these in your posting, I will mark it as spam.

2. No multi URL links postings will be accepted. Some of you people have over 400 URLs in a posting.

3. Your posting needs to make sense. If your message contains nonsensical phrases such as “underwater puppy toaster scrapers” I will assume that you are a terrorist trying to send a message to a sleeper cell. You will be marked as “spam”.

4. If your posting is the same as the previous one that I have read, all of you will be “spam”.

5. If you are selling pharmaceuticals, you will be marked as “spam”. 90% of the responses that I receive are selling pharmaceuticals.

6. If you are posting dating sites, you will be marked as “spam”. Google on dating sites and you will get several million. You don’t need my blog to meet Mr/Ms right.

7. If the URL or the website listed in the header does not work, I will mark you as spam.

8. If your URL or website pops briefly and then pops to another website, I will mark you as spam. You are trying to hide something but I am not sure why.

9. Profanity will be edited. If there is too much to edit, the post will just be deleted.

10. Keep your comments civil. You don’t have to agree with what I write but if you attack me, I will delete your posting.

I am sure that there are others but this will do for now.

The ? store is closed. At least, there was a truck back up to it the other day and they were moving stuff out. I am not sure what they sold there. Something about Quality Lumber.

Maybe they moved. I am not sure that they needed a store front. After all, they were seldom there so they couldn’t do much business with walk ins. Perhaps these people are now operation their business out of their house.

Anyway, there is a realtor’s sign out front so that is a pretty good indication that they are no longer at that location.

Just when I though I had seen it all, Meijers’ (regional grocery chain) has started carrying honeycomb tripe. It is frozen but it is tripe none the less.

For those of you who have never heard of honeycomb tripe, it is the second stomach of a cow.

The stomach is first cleaned and then processed, ready for consumption. It can be cooked in a soup, stuffed in sausage (did you really want to know that?), stuffed with veggies and baked, broiled or fried.

But more to the point, how many people in the Lowell area are going to buy tripe? Or for that matter, how many people in the Lowell know what tripe is? Granted at a $1.49 a pound, it is cheaper than hamburg but I can’t see many people in Lowell buying it.

Maybe I could find a recipe that calls for tripe stuffed with artichokes.

Our 30 year old stereo system was dying. One of the speakers quit working, the amp needed constant cleaning, the tuner was flaky. All and all, it needed to be replaced.

My first thought was to replace the speakers. They were Magnapans, which is a company that makes speakers out of plexaglass. At only two inches thick and 5 foot high, they were unusual. But, they had a fantastic sound to them.

But, Kathy pointed out that we needed to get a whole new sound system and not just the speakers. So, for Christmas, Kathy gave me a present which said “new sound system”.

After doing a little research on line at Best Buy, I discovered that surround sound systems have come down quite a bit in price from what they were a few years ago. This really got me excited about getting a new sound system. So, even though it was the day after Christmas, we headed to Best Buy.

An hour later, we returned home with a new receiver, 5 disk DVD player and 6 speakers.

Now, all I have to do is to figure out how to put it all together.

Our local cable company was sold to Comcast. Consequently, our internet service will also be with Comcast. This transition will take place at the end of the month. In the mean time, out internet service is with the old company which is Sirus.

Now, Sirus is no longer interested in supporting their customers as they will soon be out of here. So, our internet service is really really bad.

Of course, it has always been slow. And even though Sirus claims to have a speed of a meg, in reality, it is less than 100K. And some times it is more like 20k, which is slower than dial up.

But, besides being slow, lately it is just unreliable. Our connection crashes several time a minute. And, on some days, it is almost impossible to use. Even as I blog, I must save my postings several times a minute as I never know when my connection will fail.

But, I only have a few more days until the new company takes over.  And if push comes to shove, I can always use the WiFi at the local coffee shop.

I was in the grocery store the other day and I bought some Feta cheese. As I was checking out, the clerk commented that my cheese was spoiled and that I might want to get a different package. I looked at her and said that it is Feta cheese and that it is supposed to smell that way. “Oh!” was her reply.

Meijers (regional grocery chain) has five types of shopping carts. First there is the traditional cart. It is big, holds a lot of grocery items and has seating for one. That style has been around for as long as I can remember. It is what I call the sedan of the shopping carts.

Recently, they have introduced a little sporty number. It is about as half as big as the sedan but it handles quite well and is quick to maneuver. At first, I didn’t think that I would like it, but once I took it out for a spin, I fell in love with it. Now, it is the cart of choice unless I have to purchase a lot of groceries.

Then there is what I call the club cab. It is a sedan style cart with an attachment on the back for additional seating capacity. And, like the club cabs, the longer wheel base makes it harder to maneuver. But, if you need seating for three, it is the cart of choice.

After the club cab, came the hybrid. These quiet, low emission electric carts are the green offering. Unfortunately, there is not much room for groceries. But then, most of the people who use these carts are grossly obese so they could probably get by with less food.

Finally, there is the kiddy cart. These carts look more like a toy than a shopping cart. They are made of bright colored plastic with an enclosed seating area. The doors open and close just like a toy car and even comes equipped with steering wheel and a flat screen TV. And, besides being bulky, they don’t hold many groceries. But they are perfect for the grandmothers of the world to entertain their grandchildren.

America, the land of plenty.