Archive for category: Friday Afternoon

We are so lucky to have enjoyed so much great music over the years – blues, pop, country, hip-hop, soul, R&B, rock, funk, punk, and so much more. I was driving the other day and heard one of my classic favorites from Earth, Wind & Fire. Something about their joy for music and fun got me singing out loud (no, you don’t want to hear that) and bopping around in the car, always fun to see people looking at me while driving past! The song is called “September”, and I just had to dig in and learn more about the band and the era. To really enjoy this post, just click on the link below, and if you can, turn up the volume – I’m sure it will put a smile on your face and make for a great Friday kickoff to the weekend – you can certainly appreciate the horn sections!  If you have more favorites like this, shoot me an email so I can boogie along (Boogie Nights, anyone?) Here’s to all the great bands and especially Earth, Wind & Fire. Be sure to pencil in Sunday the 21st and have a dance party at home or just boogie a little bit in the car. ENJOY!

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Recently Jackie and I were driving back from a trip up to northern Michigan (it has amazing landscape, water, quaint little towns and shops – you need to go!). During our drive we kept encountering these beautiful farms, often featuring amazing red barns. Of course, our conversation led to barn design, what it must be like to live on a farm, and wondering why barns are still painted red, and of course the history of when it all started.  This of course led to Jackie laughingly knowing there was going to be a blog coming out of this conversation!  So…, after a little digging, here is some cool stuff about barns, barns design and the story behind the red color. 

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Yep, it’s that time of year when the little munchkin’s head off to another exciting school year – some have started already, and some do not go back until after Labor Day.  I can remember the excitement I had, seeing old friends, going to a new classroom, finding my seat, and getting to use all of those “new’ back-to-school supplies. One, of course, was a new box of crayons.  I’ll bet you can agree – especially the 64 pack with the built-in sharpener!! (never went for the 96 or 120 pack – anyone who has seen my coloring skills would understand!!) There’s something magical about opening a brand-new box of crayons – the waxy scent, the pristine tips, the rainbow of possibility – it’s a small ritual that signals the start of a new school year, full of hope and creativity.  I have to admit, using the crayon sharpener was always a bunch of fun, my friends and I would have contests to see who could have the sharpest crayon or biggest pile of shavings (unfortunately for my parents/teachers – the shavings ended up everywhere!) Here’s some fun trivia on crayons in the US, and a cool “how they’re made video. Enjoy, and thanks to Google, Wikipedia, and Smithsonian.com for the info.

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Curiosity is a great word. For me (and for the gang here at KHT), it’s our never-ending pursuit of wonder, knowledge, exploring, testing, and problem-solving. There are so many people throughout history who were driven by curiosity, from the mundane to the amazing discoverers. I love reading about remarkable adventures – those who “headed West” with a wagon and bunch of horses, or the folks grinding away in the lab. Over the past few weeks, I’ve really enjoyed some clear skies at night, causing me to “look up” and ponder the stars – it’s fun to find the satellites circling the earth. Today, August 8th, marks a historic achievement in the amazing discovery life of Galileo Galilei, known as just Galileo (think Tiger, Oprah, and Lebron, Michelangelo). When Galileo Galilei pointed his rudimentary telescope at the night sky on this day in 1609, there is no way he could have imagined that centuries later, humanity would be observing the universe from spacecraft and mountaintops with instruments so powerful they can see galaxies billions of light-years away. Here’s a little history about Galileo, along with a list of milestone astronomy achievements, as gradual technology improvements and good old “know-how” bring us to today’s far-seeing telescopes.  (Be sure to watch the YouTube video below on the newest billion-dollar telescope in Chile – it’s truly amazing!!) The “know-how” and engineering that went into it is mind-boggling. Enjoy! And, feel free to dig deeper on each one with the links – amazing!!) Read more

Doesn’t it seem like things we use all the time, we just take for granted, and don’t think much about their origin or original design? You know – things are just what they are – stoplight design hasn’t changed much since it’s inception, US cars have drivers on the left, TV’s have bulky, easy to misplace remotes, mobile phones barely fit in your pocket, two handle faucets have hot on the left, new shoes come wrapped in tissue paper, eggs are mostly sold by the dozen, butter sticks come in four packs, microwave ovens beep when they are done and almost all English language computers use the QWERTY keyboard layout. Looking down at my keyboard the other day, (not only do I peek sometimes when I type, but I’ve realized that I’m always wearing out the “E and R” keys first?) I remember early on that I struggled a bit to understand the logic behind the layout – I wasn’t the best typist in High School Typing class. Why does the top row begin with the letters Q, W, E, R, T, Y (followed by U, I, O, P.) Now, of course, the center row left to right makes sense: A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K, L – perfect logic there, right? And I’m not even gonna comment about the bottom row – Z, X, C … – YIKES! Found on nearly every computer, laptop, and smartphone worldwide (at least in countries that use a Latin-script alphabet), this seemingly random configuration of keys has an interesting history, though perhaps not the what you have been led to believe. Thanks to Wikipedia, historyfacts.com, techcrunch.com, invent.org and YouTube.com. Enjoy!

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