The new Weber grill came yesterday. We bought it from Amazon – everything comes from Amazon these days. Anyway, they sell an assembly service. Better yet, sometimes they don’t charge for the assembly. If it hadn’t been free, we probably would have assembled it ourselves. However, after seeing the process, I’m really glad we didn’t do it. So now Jim has a grill that is bigger than the Weber Q1200 he’s been using for eleven years.
Aye…………….. she’s a biggun.
I will say, one thing I do really like about the house is having a cooktop with sufficient BTUs to get things done. In the RV, things cook for a long time. On the gas stove top in the house, things cook much faster.
Other than grill assembly, there is not much upon which to report. I could go off on our 45th president’s behavior at the G20, or his continued assaults on democratic norms and the FBI, as well as people who cooperate with law enforcement, but I think I’ll just give it a rest.
Here are some pretty pictures instead.
The neighbor across the street puts out blocks of seeds for the quail.
Happy bougainvillea.
One interesting thing I saw was a NYT article about DNA testing. I personally haven’t done it and probably won’t because ultimately it’s immaterial where my ancestors came from, and I’m not about to hand over my data to a company with unclear privacy policies. Last July pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline invested $300 million in 23andMe and gained exclusive rights to its customers’ data. The thing that’s interesting is how the companies generate their reference samples, and the fact that over time, their interpretation of where you came from may change. It strikes me as lucrative voodoo science.
Ideally, ancestry-testing companies would compare customers’ DNA to that of people from premigration days. But given that impossibility, the companies use an imperfect proxy: people alive today who have a deep family tree in a particular geographic area, and sometimes a paper trail to prove it. Those people’s DNA becomes the company’s reference data set for that geographic area. When a segment of your DNA closely matches the data for that location, the company assigns you that ancestry. The more segments on your genome that match that genetic pattern, the larger your estimated percentage will be for that ancestry.
It’s a long article but I found it to be very interesting. The testing has been known to allow adoptees to find biological family members, so that’s a good thing.
So that’s all I have to report.
That looks like a little bigger version of the grill we acquired with the lot. Since discovering those non-stick grilling sheets, I have been going crazy grilling veggies.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article. I always wondered how accurate those DNA tests really were. I'm with you, I find it irrelevant to know where my ancestors come from.
We ordered a grill from Amazon and it was a whole lot bigger than we thought it would be. But we love it. We did our DNA just for the fun of it. I pretty well knew where my ancestors were from. And I guess if they think my info is worth anything, have at it. But that's how I feel about a lot of things any more.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many husbands are jealous of that Weber. I know my BIL would be drooling.
ReplyDeleteThe last thing I want to do is offer up a sample of my DNA these days. I shutter to think the ends of which it may be "tested." But an even more insane thing I saw recently was a DNA test for one's dog. For $150. We are curious consumers.
ReplyDeleteI read that article -- it WAS very interesting. I had my DNA tested and I must say, to the extent that I have knowledge about my family, it was very accurate. But I know that isn't true for many people. I'm not too troubled about giving up a sample of my DNA. That's a big ol' grill, and I LOVE the quail!
ReplyDeletewhen 23 and me first started we paid top dollar for family to have genome workup. Back then it was organic and thorough and quite valuable. I am glad to have had it done and in my files for referencing. Lifestyle , diet, stress all of that of course can trash any genome work up, however.As for learning from where my conglomerate of make up has come, not much of a mystery. It now has become something other but they still send new information re: drugs that might interfere with my genome in an allergic reaction way. Thank you for that, I know what to avoid.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE where you live, looks like fresh air!