Every Halloween and certain other times of the year, I run into someone who has a bag or a candy dish of the Hershey’s miniatures that include the Hershey bar, the Mr. GoodBar and Krackel bars.

If I am somehow able to gain control of that bag or dish, and I usually am; the one that disappears first is – the Krackel. It’s my favorite and since I’m an average person in many ways, in fact, I’m extra average, I’m guessing it’s your favorite too.

Now, if you were to visit a store selling candy and by that I mean just about any store, you could easily find a regular size Hershey bar. A bit more rare perhaps, you can even find a regular size Mr. GoodBar bar. But can you find a regular size Krackel bar? NOOOOOOOOO!

So, my question is, WHY THE HELL NOT?

I’ve searched the internet and have found many other requests, even demands, for the regular size Krackel candy bar. I’ve even found responses from Hershey to letters from consumers, basically stating that this product is not currently available as … Tell us something we don’t know, geez. I’d even be happy with a bag of Hershey miniatures filled with just Krackels. C’mon guys.

So, it is that time of year again and I’ve bought several bags of the miniatures only to overdose on the Krackels and now I have gobs of other little candy bars I don’t like. Hey, hold on a minute… You don’t think that Hershey could be holding back on Krackels, you know, because they are so popular. You don’t think they’d do that to boost sales of the miniatures during holidays do ya? Na, not Hershey. Say it a’int so Hershey, say it a’int so.

Debuting at #1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Chart and #43 on the Billboard Top 200, Actor/Author/Funny Man Steve Martin, in collaboration with the North Carolina based Steep Canyon Rangers, does it again with their new album Rare Bird Alert. Steve and his 40+ years of banjo mastery grace this collection of bluegrass songs which tops his 2009 album The Crow – New Songs for the Five String Banjo.

Written by S. Martin, these instrumentals and songs with lyrics are lovely tunes that will get both feet tapping and would certainly raise the spirits of even the slightly depressed. As he did on his last album he features other artists as well including Sir Paul McCartney and The Dixie Chicks.

The primary featured artists on this album though are The Steep Canyon Rangers, a well established bluegrass band in their own right. Having played in and won major bluegrass festivals, appearing on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, Austin City Limits and Late Night with David Letterman and producing four other albums since 2002, The Steeps as they’re called back home, bring precision vocal harmonies and truly artful acoustic instrumentals to the game. Steve is quick to credit the Rangers with inspiration, encouragement and fine tuning on the development of this album.

Steve’s first bluegrass album The Crow, which won a Grammy by the way, introduced me to Tim O’Brien, now one of my favorite artists; I now look forward to Read Full Article & Comments…

I and my iPhone 3G have been with AT&T for two and a half years and I recently told them to “STICK IT”.  Parting is such sweet… well, it’s just sweet.

For the first year or so, I was happy with the iPhone, its features and the service.  I was a good girl; I didn’t jailbreak it, I didn’t tether it to my PC… Didn’t really have a need to I suppose.  But then things changed.  My job keeps me on the road 95% of the time and I wanted more out of my iPhone featurewize such as, saving email attachments, print wirelessly, access the underlying file system to store files like a thumb drive, and download data over the 3G network that was typically limited to WiFi – including using Skype.  Traveling around the country, I experienced countless dropped calls, having to reestablish the same call four or more times.  I also discovered that I only had a signal slightly more than half the time.  Apparently, there simply is no signal in a big chunk of this great country of ours.

So, I set out to make these things happen.  I figured out how to jailbreak the device which opened Read Full Article & Comments…

Here are a bunch of my tweets from the road. Start at the bottom and work your way up.
Cheers,
Maggie

# A bunch of kids just started a softball game in the empty eastbound lanes of I 90. And a couple just got their bikes out. Crazy. about 12 hours ago

# Snoqualmie Pass shut down for rock blasting. The interstate has become a makeshift campground. We’re all visiting & roaming around. Neat. about 13 hours ago

# Oh man, the leaves are starting to turn here in Washington too. Fall is my favorite season, but I’m just not done with Summer yet. about 17 hours ago

# Was buzzed by thee fighter jets about 100′ off the ground in a river canyon south of Wenatchee last night. Pretty neat. 4:59 PM Aug 20th

# Spending the night on the beach in Newport. Again. Lighthouse in the distance. Cool breeze. Reading a book. Supper cooking in the Read Full Article & Comments…

I’ve been a fan some time now of the political/news quiz show, wait wait… don’t tell me, broadcast weekly on Chicago Public Radio and picked up by NPR. My current job has me traveling 95% of the time and I get through Chicago frequently so I’ve been trying to time it so I could attend a taping, but I just haven’t been able to swing it.

I came to find out they would be touring this year so I checked the schedule and lo and behold, they were going to be in Seattle on June 3rd. So, I arranged some home time for the designated date, called my friend David, a fellow fan, and we got tickets to the taping at Seattle’s Paramount Theater.

We arrived with ample time to get seated in the nose bleed section, three flights of stairs up. I think there were only three or four more rows of seats behind us. Oh well, I am a girl on a budget, so… The staged was adorned Read Full Article & Comments…

4/30/10
I had been planning on taking the guided walk through Georgetown and George Washington University last night but wimped out.  Well, I wish I had gone.  This morning during a nice long leisurely breakfast, the gang all showed up to eat and share the previous night experiences.   They apparently had a good time, whilst I just sat around doing nothing.  Oh silly me.   Oh well, my loss. But it was nice to see them all and hear about it anyway.

So, Jason, the doctor, a pretty good guy.  I had this internal impression of him as a good looking, well educated, well traveled man, a fairly cool cat.  In the course of conversation, a passing reference to Star Trek was made, I’m not even sure who it was; could have been me I suppose.  Anyway, Jason had one of those lapses of clarity moments and confessed that Read Full Article & Comments…