We're Ice Cream Junkies

Those who know us, know we like ice cream. We always have ice cream available in our home freezer. When we go somewhere, we usually find an ice cream parlor to try. When away from home we like to try gelato. Usually we have a bowl of ice cream every evening about an hour or so after supper. The grandchildren think it's special to come to Paw Paw's house and have ice cream because they have a choice of flavors.

For several years we have been faithful to Blue Bell. It's just good ice cream. There are some flavors that we aren't overly fond of, but we like the vast majority of flavors we try.

We always like to have a choice of flavors on hand. Since we eat so much, we try to load up when it is on sale. Well, it was on sale this weekend. We were down to a partial half gallon of Home Style Vanilla.

Now we have a fine choice to last us until the next sale. We have Butter Pecan, Chocolate Chip, Dutch Chocolate, Strawberries and Cream, Chocolate Brownie Overload, Mocha Almond Fudge, Pecan Pralines and Cream, Groom's Cake, and the remainder of the Home Style Vanilla.

Grooms Cake is a new flavor that we liked so much, I went back to get another half gallon for future consumption. It consists of chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, chocolate coated strawberry hearts, swirls of strawberry sauce and chocolate icing.

So, if you're in the neighborhood and have an ice cream attack, stop by. We love to share.

New Speakers

A few weeks ago I ordered some new speakers for my sound system. After lots of looking, I decided on Bose Acoustimass 16 speakers. It's a 6-1 speaker system, meaning there are three speakers in the front and three in the back and a powered subwoofer to pick up the low lows.

My old speaker system is pushing 20 years old and is a 6-1 system. It still works well but sound has changed a lot in the last 20 years. My old system was new in the advent of Dolby surround sound. Then about ten or fifteen years ago, audiophiles were introduced to Dolby Digital which put out a crisper sound with explicit delineation through out the sound spectrum of the human ear.

Then there was the advent of THX surround. That was the sound system used in the original version of Star Wars. THX surround has been around for at least 20 years but not on the medium priced end of home systems. A couple of years ago I purchased a new receiver/amplifier that can handle THX surround. As much as I tweak my old speakers, I can't seem to get the full range of THX.

Knowing I had new speakers on the way, I tweaked my system again last week. Right now it's probably putting out at peak performance and by golly it sounds pretty darn good.

I've heard the Acoustimass 16 system play THX and it was really a fine sound...almost exquisite. Yeah, yeah I know there are other systems that the high end folks like better and systems with better stats than Bose. But speakers are personal. They're like wine in that your taste may like a $10 bottle more than a $40 bottle. It's all in what you like.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to unhook the current speaker system very carefully by labeling each wire I have in the back of my receiver. All 22 of them. (I'm currently running front left, center, and right speakers, rear left, center, and right speakers, two woofers, one powered subwoofer and two additional speakers in the basement.) Then I'm going to hook up the new system, fine tune it, and listen to it for a week or so to see if it really is better than what I've got. If it's not, I'll pack it up and ship it back to the store where I bought it.

And then again, I might like the new system so much that I want to permanently install it before the weekend is out. I'll let you know.