Hello World!

As a computer programmer of untold years, my first post on this new blog has the obligatory title of "Hello World!" as that is the desired output of the first program which every computer nerd writes when learning a new language.

My name is Flint Calvin (yes, first name is "Flint" and last name is "Calvin" despite whether it sounds better the other way 'round). I'm just an average, middle-aged "Flint" residing in the Midwest. And by saying "Midwest", I really mean the center of the U.S. (both North/South and East/West). It has always bothered me that we are still using location terms from the 1800s. People still refer to Ohio as being in the Midwest despite it being in the eastern quarter of the U.S. In this day and age, we ought to be using much more meaningful location descriptions. For example, we could say that New Mexicans reside in the "South Midwest" or that North Dakotans are from the "North Mid". Well, okay...those terms do need some beautifying, but I'm sure Congress could come up with something we could all live with. On second thought, it's probably not a good idea to get our government involved. But, I digress...

The intent of this blog is to provide me with an outlet for recording everyday things which I find to be funny. I hope that it also provides others with a laugh from time-to-time. I've never done a blog before, but my daughter (Summer) has had great success at it. I'm hoping that she got some of those "blog" genes (specifically, string "GAACUCCCUUUGGCUGGGGGAGUUCCCCCUUGGGAAAAAACCUUU" for those of you interested in that sort of thing) from me so that I don't fall flat on my face with this blog.

So let's get this baby fired up and see where it takes us!

Today's post: The love of money may be the root of all evil, but the love of food is the fertilizer of fat.

My friend Paul and I are (shall we say) a little "height-challenged" even though we both are over 6'. That is to say, we are a little short for our weight (see today's photo above of me and Paul with our wives Renee and Shelly...I'm the one on the far left...the skinnier of the two guys). Since we have found no viable methods for getting any taller at our ages, we recently decided to go on a diet together. BTW, we need to both be dieting at the same time or the one that isn't dieting inevitably ends up coercing the one dieting to fall off the wagon.

Anyway, we both had some restaurants that we wanted to eat at before we hit the food austerity trail. We basically came up with a list of places to eat before we start the diet. It was all starting to sound like the movie of recent years which stars Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson as terminally ill patients who come up with a list of things they want to do before they die. Since our situation is a little different, we have adjusted the title of our agenda to be "The KFC Bucket List".

Have a good weekend,
Flint