T+62 -- It's Been An Exciting Two Weeks -- January 7, 2019

For those who have been gone for the past two weeks, this is what you missed:

• Grapevine, TX, will get first US location of Peppa Pig play center; containers should be moved to Grapevine Mills starting today -- January 7, 2019
• North Dakota State University takes 7th FCS (football) championship
• a whopping jobs report
• the government remains shut down (few have really noticed based on social media discussions)
• Dallas Cowboys advance
• Chicago Bears do not advance; lose on a missed field goal from only 33 yards
• shale producers delivering a one-two punch to OPEC
• China sets LNG import record
• US sets record holiday sales; up 42% over previous record set last year
• North Dakota announces huge taxable sales and purchases, 3Q18
• Commodity prices plummeted worldwide
• Saudi charges the usual suspects with the Khashoggi killing
• RGB will phone it in; won't attend arguments; first time ever; sort of tells me how important it is to actually listen to these cases if one can phone it in
• Week 1 of the new year
• Week 52 of last year

And we begin another week.

Shocked. "Named as a key Saudi suspect in Khashoggi killing, former top royal adviser drops out of sight." -- The Washington Post -- I'm shocked. Shocked.

Nursing home alternative. Many, many links. Google cruises instead of nursing home. This is one link.

Echo Dot. Incredible. We have a two-bedroom, 1140-square foot apartment. We have three Echo Dots. Incredible. One in each bedroom and one in the kitchen. How did we ever survive before Amazon?

Making America great again: from Reuters --

Steel producer Nucor Corp said on Monday it would spend about $1.35 billion to build a plate mill in the U.S. Midwest, taking advantage of President Trump's federal tax cuts that has resulted in windfall gains for several companies. 

Nucor is also benefiting from higher steel prices for domestic producers due to tariffs imposed on imports by the Trump administration last year.

The new mill, which is expected to be fully operational in 2022, would produce 1.2 million tons a year of steel plate products and create about 400 full-time jobs.

Nucor currently operates plate mills in North Carolina, Alabama and Texas. 

Unless I missed it, the location for the new plant was not given; the Midwest is a huge region -- but sounds like Ohio. 

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The Book Page

If I'm distracted while blogging this week, it's due to all the books I've acquired (gifts, library, etc) over the past two weeks.

While blogging the morning note this week, I will be reading:

• So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be and Why It Endures, Maureen Corrigan, c. 2014
• 109 East Palace: Orbert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos, Jennet Conant, c. $17.99; 2005

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Frozen

While on vacation in New Mexico recently, Sophia suffered a minor bruise. She wanted "Frozen" band-aids.

I put her on my shoulders and we (actually, I) walked 2.5 miles to the nearest store that might sell band-aids. I walked down aisle 6 where they said the band-aids were. I saw band-aids but did not see "Frozen" band-aids. I was looking at "my" eye-level.

But there they were. Sophia saw them -- right at her eye-level. I was truly impressed. And she put the band-aid all by herself. Look at those eyes. Pretty happy.