People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed

I mentioned yesterday in a postscript a podcast that I recently discovered called The Simple Reminder with Patrick Lencioni. He's been recording this for the past couple of years, but I just discovered it as he hasn't promoted it on his business podcasts, the wonderful At The Table and The Working Genius, both of which are highly recommended.

The Simple Reminder it's a delightful short podcast (usually under 10 minutes) that he puts out weekly that focuses on spiritual formation and following Jesus. It's really a refreshing take from a layperson who loves Jesus and is working to follow him more closely. He often will begin with some prepared thoughts and then have a brief discussion with some family, friends, and coworkers. I highly recommend it.

(The title of this post is a quote from Samuel Johnson that Lencioni references in the podcast introduction.)

Moderatation and Extremes

"Moderation in all things."

That's usually a good rule of thumb for most of life, especially when it comes to food, drink, exercise, finances, and so on.

But what about when it comes to our faith?

Jesus calls for his followers to be fully devoted. All in. Sold out for the Kingdom of God.

Extreme.

Moderation when it comes to faith is just another word for "lukewarm."

 

(Thanks to "The Simple Reminder with Pat Lencioni" podcast for the inspiration for this post.)

The Great Root Beer Barrel Saga of 2022

If you know me at all, you know that I am a big fan of root beer barrels. 

I first began to consume them about five years ago when I started running a losing a lot of weight. They are great for helping curb your appetite while also giving a little bit of a sugar boost to keep you from crashing. I often kid that I should write a book called The Root Beer Barrel Diet Book. 

Because I would always carry some with me, I began to share with friends. It wasn't long before I got to be known for sharing root beer barrels with students on my cross country team or at school.

I would always stock up on root beer barrels at Fleet Farm, but a few months ago they ran out of stock of the good Dad's brand. Then a week or so ago they began to sell their own brand of root beer barrels. I was hopeful that they would be as good as the Dad's brand, but they were a major disappointment. (You can see the comparison in the above picture.) They have a less pleasant taste, and they tend to come out of their wrappers in your pocket.

A couple months ago I bought some from Amazon, but the prices went way up recently, so I spent several hours the other day researching different places to purchase them in bulk. I finally stumbled upon Nuts.com, which had them at a decent price with shipping included. Plus, they were running a Black Friday sale when you could buy one, get one half off. Needless to say, I am well stocked for a while now and able to share. (And maybe drop a few pounds again!)

Return to Running

I had to take a few weeks off of running earlier this month because I was sick. My whole household came down with some form of influenza or something. It made you feel really rundown and tired and gave us a nagging cough for a couple of weeks.

I finally was feeling better and got back to running last week, determined to take it slow and ease back into my routine, which is usually a 5k a day, minimum. The first day went well and I was feeling pretty good about the fact that I hadn't seemed to have lost much stamina. I came home, showered, sat down to do something.

And then I went to stand up. Arggh. My legs were so sore! I guess after a three week break it will take a bit to get my muscles back to running form, at least at my age.

I did lose some endurance, as well. I was out running a different day this week and struggling a little to maintain my pace, but I was glad for the opportunity to push myself physically. Running is a challenge at times, but there's something about doing hard work that is satisfying. So much of our world is about ease and comfort, it's good to be able to do something that stretches you physically. Plus there are a lot of mental and even spiritual benefits to running. 

Running isn't an option for everyone, but there should be something you can do physically to get your heart rate up. Even walking is really good exercise. I know that at least for me it's really easy to fall into the routine of not doing anything if I'm not intentional about it. 

Cool Stuff: Churro Popcorn Seasoning

I came across this gem the other day at Walmart. We don't make a ton of popcorn at home, but every once in a while when we do it's nice to shake it up a little bit. Some of the Kernel Season's brand seasoning is quite good while others leave a little to be desired. This one is definitely a winner and my favorite so far. 

Rob's Review: Wakanda Forever

I finally got a chance to see Wakanda Forever (aka. Black Panther 2) with Jonah this afternoon. As I anticipated, it was very enjoyable and kept me engaged the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes of the run time. It was a worthy successor to the original Black Panther.

I would say that if you haven't seen the first Black Panther movie, you will be fairly lost watching this movie. I only saw Black Panther one time when it first came out in 2018, and although I remembered most of it, there were several scenes in the movie which presupposed that you were very familiar will all the characters and what had happened before. So this movie would have benefited from a little more time (or any time!) reintroducing all the characters or recapping the first film. 

Nevertheless it was a fun afternoon with my son and an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. If you are a Marvel fan and have seen the original movie (and remember it well), I'd recommend it. If not, go see the first one first.

My Grade: B+

Thanksgiving Doesn't Come Around Often Enough

It's Thanksgiving Day here in the US (for all of my international readers who may not be aware of that.) It's so important to have a day set aside for people to count our blessings and reflect on what makes us thankful. I think we'd all do better if we practiced Thanksgiving more regularly. At least weekly, if not daily (although not with all the food, because we'd all be way too fat and probably not very thankful about that!)

Thanksgiving also helps remind us that we have a Creator/Father/God/Provider to be thankful to! 

One of the nice benefits of Thanksgiving is that it helps put life into perspective. Sure, I'm thankful for a great job and home and stuff (literally, the stuff I have). But if you ask most people what they are thankful for, the first think they will respond with is something like, "I'm thankful for my friends and family." And I would certainly echo that sentiment. I have a tremendous family and wonderful friends and I am so very thankful for them.

Ultimately, it's people that are the most important, not our careers, finances, or acquisitions. Thanksgiving helps us to remember that, and it gives us the opportunity to express that. (As Andy Stanley says, unexpressed gratitude is experienced as ingratitude.)

Now we just need to figure out how to keep being thankful throughout the year. And then keep expressing our gratitude. 

Cool Stuff: Bullzip

I haven't done a "cool stuff" post in a while. And this is kind of cool, but mostly just extremely helpful, and that is Bullzip PDF. It's a free printer driver for windows that basically turns your printout into a .pdf file. (It's Adobe's Portable Document Format for all you file-type nerds out there.) 

I have it installed on all on my computers and use it a ton. If you don't have it, you might want to check it out. Their website is bullzip.com and they've got some other free software there, but that printer driver is the one I use all the time.

Rob's Recommendations: Terminator 2

It was the summer of 1991. I was attending Bethel Seminary but spending my second summer up at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp in Pembine, Wisconsin, on Summer Staff Team as a camp counselor. We were very busy throughout the week, but after the campers left on Saturday morning we had free time until Sunday afternoon. Almost a whole 24 hours!

Sometimes we would hang out at camp or go to someone's home who lived nearby, but this one particular Saturday I decided to enjoy a day away alone. I drove down to Green Bay (about an hour and a half away) and did some shopping and wandering around. I decided to go see a movie. I didn't really know what was out, having been relatively cut off from news and information during the summer. 

I did see that a new movie, Terminator 2, had come out. It was a new release and I wasn't familiar with it at all. In fact, I don't think that I had seen the first Terminator, although I was familiar with the plot. For example I knew that Arnold played the bad guy who was from the future trying to kill Sarah Connor to prevent her from having a son, John, who would lead a rebellion against Skynet and the machines that had caused a nuclear apocalypse. 

I'm not normally someone who enjoys going to movies alone, but I was enjoying the time away and wanted to see a movie on my day off. So I bought the ticket and found a seat. 

The reason I remember so many details was that it was one of those kind of defining moments in my life as far as movies go. The last one had been the first time I saw Star Wars. I remember watching the Star Destroyer and feeling the rumble in the theater and I knew that movies would never be the same after that. This was the same kind of thing, especially when the big fakeout reveal happened (spoilers ahead - highlight to reveal) when Arnold was revealed to be the good guy! A reprogrammed terminator who was sent back to save John Connor!

I'm sure you've seen the movie, but if not I would highly recommend it. In fact, it has my highest recommendation as it is my favorite action movie of all time. Time travel. Arnold. Great story. Great acting. A killer soundtrack (I immediately went an bought a copy of the soundtrack on cassette to listen to on the way back to camp!) What's not to love?

There's an extended special edition that is very enjoyable, as well, but the theatrical version remains my all-time favorite.

My grade: A+

The Walking Dead Sputters to an End

I watched The Walking Dead finale last night. (No spoilers if you haven't seen it.) My expectations were fairly low as I've been underwhelmed for the past couple seasons, so that was good, because the finale matched my expectations. 

It's a shame, because The Walking Dead started out so, so great. The pilot episode was one of the best pilots ever and set up this wonderful world with a great lead character. It just did so much right, and then the rest of the short first season just knocked it out of the park. Second season was just as strong, in my opinion, and the third, fourth and fifth seasons were almost as good. The characters and the writing were spectacular. There was a sense of danger as any of the main characters were at risk of dying at any time.

But the show began to falter in later seasons for whatever reason. Partly the cast became too big and it was hard to follow so many different people over the lengthy season breaks. And the risk factor went away for the most part. For example, the series finale saw the loss of, what, two or three minor characters and one longer-term character? Really? I guess you can't kill people off if you are planning a bunch of spin-offs featuring those characters! Money over concept integrity.

I blame the writing and leadership (showrunner), but there's other issues at work such as maintaining the concept over 11 seasons. There's a great article here titled The Walking Dead Didn't Survive It's Own Success that does a great job of outlining the history of the show and some of the problems it encountered as it aged.

I won't go into a lot of detail because I don't want to spoil anything for those who may be interested in watching. I talked to someone recently who was watching the first seasons. My advice would be to watch through season 5 maybe. Sure, there were some good episodes after that, but the decline story-wise was noticeable. 

I'm sure there's some application or takeaway to this, but I can't think of it right now, other than to say that any narrative has to have a clear theme and guiding hand and not just keep going for the sake of making a buck. Sorry, Walking Dead. I'll remember the good first half of your run, and the rest can be a cautionary tale.

Rob's Recommendations: North Branch Dental

Most people already have a dentist, but if you moved the area recently or are just looking for another dentist, allow me to recommend North Branch Dental. 

The doctors, dental hygienists and staff are all extremely professional, very friendly, and they don't do a lot of unnecessary work on your teeth (unlike some dentists I could name). The only downside is that they are so good they are very popular and it can take a few weeks to get a regular cleaning appointment. They have, however, been able to accommodate emergencies and get us in quickly. 

North Branch Dental has done a great job for our family over the years, so if you need a dentist, check them out. 

Rob's Recommendations: Pearls Before Swine

I was going to share a funny Pearls Before Swine comic with a student yesterday when he said, "Pearls Before Swine? What's that?"

What?! You haven't heard of Pearls Before Swine?! That's one of the problems with newspapers not being as popular as they used to be - people can't discover wonderful content on the comics page like Pearls. (Okay, other than Pearls and Dilbert, there's not a ton of wonderful content anymore, to be honest.) Given that this was a high school student, he may never have actually read a comics page before. Sigh. 

Anyway, I did blog about Pearls Before Swine before, but I realized it has been 14 years since my last post about it, so perhaps you haven't gone back to read up on my entire life since 2008. Pearls Before Swine is maybe my all-time favorite comic strip. Here's a description from Wikipedia:

Pearls Before Swine (also known as Pearls) is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis. The series began on December 31, 2001. It chronicles the daily lives of an ensemble cast of suburban anthropomorphic animals: Pig, Rat, Zebra, Goat, and a fraternity of crocodiles, as well as a number of supporting characters, one of whom is Pastis himself. Each character represents an aspect of Pastis's personality and worldview. The daily and Sunday comic strip is distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication (by United Feature Syndicate until 2011).

The strip's style is notable for its black comedy, simplistic artwork, self-deprecating fourth wall meta-humor, social commentary, mockery of itself or other comic strips, and occasional elaborate stories leading to a pun.

Here are a couple more of my favorites strips over the years. This will give you a sense of the humor:

And finally, one of my favorites, for obvious reasons:

There are a number of Pearls collections available. I have a few that I am happy to lend you if you live near me, otherwise you can check them out from the library, or better yet, buy them and read them! Or give them to someone as a gift (hint, hint), as long as they have a twisted sense of humor. You can also read the daily strip at HERE or subscribe on that site to daily emails or Facebook posts.  

Go check it out. My rating: A+

Fun Picture Friday: Our crazy dog

It's fun picture Friday! This is our dog, Tucker, who likes to hover like a vulture near Rosalie when she is eating anything. He thinks he can go anywhere the cats go, including on the shelf that runs around the perimeter of our basement. 

As long as I'm sharing pictures of Tucker, he's a bonus for fun picture Friday. This is how Tucker often likes to sleep: 

What if...?

What if...?

"What if" is all about possibility. It helps us see reality from a new perspective. It helps us break out of a rut. It motivates us to change.

After "what if" is "what's next?" 

Otherwise nothing changes.

Don't be a Settler

Why do you settle for ordinary? 

What would it look like for you to live an extraordinary life?

What's stopping you, really?

So, what do you need to do about it?

Rob's Recommendations: East Central Audiology

I blogged earlier this year that I got my first pair of always-in Bluetooth-enabled earbuds with ambient audio amplification and clarification. (Some people call them hearing aids, but that makes it sound like something an old person would have.) My always-in earbuds allow me to listen to podcasts (or music) whenever I want as well as talk on the phone. I have them paired with my laptop and my phone and sometimes my tablet, so they are super useful.

Oh, they also help me hear more clearly. 

If you are in the market for such a device and live in the area, may I recommend East Central Audiology (soon to be Audiology Concepts), and specifically Jennifer Boblett, Au.D. (Doctor of Audiology). She did a wonderful job fitting me for my earbuds. She is very knowledgeable and super helpful at explaining all of the capabilities of these devices. Plus she's just really friendly and very nice. She sees patients in both Cambridge and Forest Lake, Minnesota. 

I know that they recently passed a law allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter. This may help drive prices down in the long run, but in the meantime, I think it's a matter of you get what you pay for, and if you're going to be spending several thousand dollars, you should get professional assistance. I know a lot of people who cheaped out on hearing aids and are not satisfied with the results, even though they may have saved a few bucks in the short run.

Not Smart

Seth Godin had a great blog post the other day that really resonated with me because I heard several different students at different times say words to the effect of, "I'm not smart."

First of all, I don't think that was true of any of them. They were saying this as kind of a way to excuse the fact that they didn't know something. But that's not smart, that's just informed. 

Secondly, that is horrible self-talk. You start listening to yourself say that very much and pretty soon you'll end up believing it.

And it's not true!

Anyway, here is the link to Seth's post and a copy of it below. 

"I'm not that smart."

Someone said that to me the other day and it was heartbreaking.

The number of tasks in our culture that require someone who was born with off-the-charts talent is small indeed.

Just about everything else we need people to do is the result of effort, practice and care. It’s true that variations of that work are easier for some folks, but no one finds all of it easy going.

The correct thing to say is, “I don’t care that much.” I don’t care enough to do the reading, to fail along the way, to show up, to make a promise, to learn as I go, to confront failure, to get better at the work.

All of that might be true.

But you’re almost certainly smart enough.

Pastor Appreciation How To

Pastor appreciation month was last month. I think back to many of the great pastors I've had over the years. I learned so much from each of them. (There were a few less-than-great pastors, and I learned from them, as well, but that's another post for another day.) My youth pastor, Carey, when I was in high school was hugely instrumental in my spiritual development. I don't know that I'd be in ministry today without him. So thanks to all who faithfully served and made an impact on my life.

Some churches do big appreciation moments during the service or give the pastor(s) a gift. Other times it's a card or something smaller. I had someone take me out this year for lunch, so that was really nice. (Food is always a winner.) 

It's nice to be appreciated and while gifts aren't necessary, it's not like I'll turn one down! It wasn't until I started as a senior/lead pastor, though, that I realized how important just showing up is for a pastor's morale. When Sunday attendance is strong, it's a real encouragement to the leader/speaker.

If you want to show your pastor how much you appreciate them, one of the best ways is just to be there on Sunday!

Fast Food Prices Are Higher... Duh.

[Rant ahead. You are warned.]

I love all the articles recently about how expensive fast food is getting. (Here's one example.)

What did people expect? People complained that the minimum wage was too low. "You can't raise a family on $8 an hour!" (In the first place, what are you doing trying to raise a family while working at McBurger Whatever? Maybe you should shoot higher than an entry-level position. But that's another rant for another time.) 

So wages have continually increased, doubling or more over the past few years. Did people think that this wasn't going to translate into higher prices? That's why you're paying $7+ for a decent fast food hamburger now or for a premium coffee drink. Add in higher food costs, fuel costs to deliver the food, inflation, etc. and of course it's going to get passed on to the consumer. 

It's almost like people don't understand basic economic principles. 

Oh, wait...

Fun Picture Friday Family

I haven't done a Fun Picture Friday in a while, so I looked back over some pictures in my camera roll and came across this one from mid-August. My dad was up visiting for a few weeks from Tennessee and my sister, Cindee, came up from Florida and spend the day with us and we got this great shot together (thanks Jen Hansmann for taking it!). 

Nothing profound here, just remembering a great day together with my family of origin! Hope you have a great day with your family today.

Rob's Recommendations: Rick's Auto

One of the most difficult tasks when you move to a new area is finding a car mechanic you trust. Surprisingly enough, I even know people who have lived in Pine City for a long time who still take their cars to dealerships for service. 

Instead, allow me to recommend Rick's Auto in Pine City (over by Airport Road). I've taken my vehicles to Rick Stolp and his guys for over a decade and they have always treated me fair and done a great job. If you're new to the area, or even if you're not, allow me to recommend Rick's for your auto needs. You can tell them Rob sent you. (Not that you'll get anything special for that, although if you have a Dragon Discount Card you'll get a discount, so that's good.)

The Future Isn't What it Used to Be

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like there's not a lot of exciting entertainment content to look forward to right now, especially when it comes to movies. 

I love movies and I love going to see them in the theater, but it seems like there's not a lot of "I can't wait to see it" type stuff in the pipeline. There's nothing like a super blockbuster that everyone seems anxiously awaiting.

There's a new Marvel movie coming out this weekend, Wakanda Forever, that I'm sure will be fine. Most of the upcoming Marvel movie slate is the same way. I'm sure they'll be enjoyable, but is that enough?

Then there's the next Avatar movie which looks like a special effects extravaganza, but the trailer left me cold. It was a little like watching someone play a video game. I frankly don't know if I'll end up seeing it in theaters. There's no big Star Wars or Star Trek movies in the near future. I guess the only thing that looks kind of fun is the new Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell movie Spirited, but it turns out that's an Apple TV+ release.

Really, the only ones I am excited about is the Flash and the next Indiana Jones movie, both coming out next June! Yikes. Hopefully there will be a sleeper hit in the meantime that is really good.

So what do you think? Any theatrical releases you're looking forward to?

I Don't Understand Why Someone Would...

It's election day. I hope that if you are old enough to vote that you made an informed vote.

This whole election season has highlighted how we often view people who disagree with us on something as either less intelligent, less informed, less cultured, less educated, less sophisticated, or less whatever - fill-in-the-blank. Just less. Less than me and the people who think like me.

It may be about something serious, like a political opinion, religion, abortion, inflation, war, or something as simple as your favorite movie or what kind of pizza is best. 

"You like Domino's pizza? Philistine!" "Pineapple on pizza? Don't get me started!" "You've never seen The Princess Bride? What's wrong with you?" "You don't like Star Trek..." (okay, I'll just stop right there before I get carried away.)

Whenever you find yourself saying, "I can't understand why someone would think that way..." you are admitting something important: you don't understand. 

People's opinions are shaped by their experiences, upbringing, people they've encountered, and so on. Instead of looking down on someone who disagrees with you, seek to understand their point of view. It doesn't mean you will agree with them, but maybe it will lower the temperature on disagreements. And maybe you'll end up building bridges instead of burning them down.

Pizza Hut Melt? Melt Down is More Like It

One of the few times I watch television ads is when it's unavoidable, such as during a live broadcast of a Green Bay Packers game. One of the ads that showed up yesterday was for Pizza Hut's new Melts. If you've seen the ad, you know it looks really good - kind of like a combination pizza and calzone (which is kind of like a pizza anyway). Or it's kind of like a pizza without sauce, folded over with some seasoning on the outside and dipping sauce. 

I was still recovering from my recent bout with the flu or cold or whatever it was, and so nothing sounded that good to eat, but this actually looked appealing, so I thought I would give it a try. I ordered one pepperoni (Jonah's typical order) and one meat lovers. Then I headed down to our local Pizza Hut to pick up our treats (because I'm too cheap to order delivery unless there are very extenuating circumstances).

Our local Pizza Hut, like some other local restaurants, has not resumed in-store dining due to lack of staff following the pandemic, so I got in the line of about seven cars in the parking lot to pick up my order at the window. 

I finally received the order, checked quick to be sure that both were in the single box (as they looked too big on tv to fit in one box). They were there, so I headed home, only to discover that they had given me two pepperoni melts instead of one with meat lovers (maybe they thought I only loved pepperoni?) I get it - mistakes happen. Especially during a dinner rush when they are obviously understaffed, anyway. I would have preferred what I ordered, but I wasn't going to throw a fit over getting pepperoni over meat lovers. (If it had been veggies, we would have had to have a different conversation.)

The reality of what I received (see second picture) verses what was advertised was startling in the contrast. Really, it was just sad. A lot of the insides had melted out of it, and what was left was fairly tasteless. 

Now, I'm used to things not living up to the hype from an ad, but this was pretty bad. Unfortunately, this has become common with Pizza Hut for the past few years (or more?) I used to love Pizza Hut and have great memories of it as a kid, but it really has fallen on hard times, both in terms of product quality and overall service (or lack thereof). 

I still hope Pizza Hut can pull it together, but without a radical reinvention of their main products (and, trust me, the Melt is definitely not it), I fear for their long-term viability as a company. I should have gone with my first impulse and ordered a pizza from Casey's.

Melt grade: D

Pizza Hut grade: C- and dropping.

Catching Up on Some Fiction

One of the other benefits of being sick is that, in addition to catching up on some movies and tv shows that I've been wanting to watch, I've also had time to work on some books I've been meaning to read. I just finished The Last Colony by John Scalzi, which is the third book in the Old Man's War series. 

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but I would definitely recommend reading the first two books in the series first, Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades first for context. I started reading more of Scalzi after reading his excellent Redshirts. I enjoy his sense of humor and his easy writing style. It's very easy to read, and he doesn't get bogged down in a lot of descriptive details.

If you're looking for a good, fun read, I'd recommend any of these works. I'm looking forward to reading more of his stuff.

Rob's Reviews: Strange New Worlds

I've been laid up this week with a cold or a flu or something, so I've been catching up on some tv shows and movies that I've been meaning to watch. But I've also gone back and started rewatching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

I realized that I blogged about this a week before it came out, but I never talked about it on here. It's amazing. 

I love all Star Trek, classic and new. Some series are better than others, of course, but they all have their strong points. I would have to put Strange New Worlds near the very top of my list of all Star Trek. It's got great writing, acting, and a wonderful premise (Captain Pike's adventures on the Enterprise ten years before Kirk became captain.) They do a great job honoring the original and reinventing some parts for a modern audience. I like to think it's what Gene Roddenberry would have done if he were making Star Trek today. 

If you haven't seen it yet, I'd highly recommend you check it out. You may want to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 2 for some background first, but it's not required. 

My grade: A+

Stupid cold/flu/whatever

Back to being sick today. (Turns out it was more than just a man cold!) At least there's no fever, but the nagging cough is getting really annoying. Was feeling a little better for a couple of days, but hardly have enough energy to do anything - including blogging, unfortunately. So I'll check back in tomorrow and hopefully will be feeling better.

Ciao. 

You Deserve A Break Today

One of the things that being sick reminds you of is the need for adequate rest.

Being under the weather the last couple of days has forced me to slow down and cancel some of the appointments I had for the week. I took myself off the list for subbing this week and scaled way back on my obligations. 

And it was glorious. 

We tend to have an inflated sense of our own importance, and so we continue to schedule more and more things in. (And I'm speaking for myself here, but really, I know most people struggle with this.)

That's why God was so serious about enforcing Sabbath for his people. It wasn't a punishment; it was a gift. A weekly time to stop working and enjoy God.

Our culture runs at a very fast pace, and we will burn ourselves out if we don't intentionally sometimes just stop. 

Breathe.

Find margin.

Remember, you are God's child, and He loves you.

I could write more, but it's time for a break.

Retro Cereal Frute Brute is Back

I picked up a box of Frute Brute cereal the other day at Aldi. I used to love Frute Brute as a kid, along with Boo Berry and Franken Berry cereals, but they discontinued it in 1982. Frute Brute made a return as a seasonal cereal last year, although I didn't get a chance to check it out then. 

This year I did get my hands on a box and it's not bad. The original Frute Brute cereal had lime marshmallows instead of cherry flavored ones, but to tell you the truth, I don't really remember the taste as much as I remember the experience. 

This new one is pretty good if you like cherry flavored cereals or are just looking for something different for breakfast. My usual breakfast consists of a bagel, but every now and then I like a change of pace. I'm guessing it won't be around much longer now that Halloween is over, but you might be able to get it cheaper!

Under the Weather

Came down with something last night. Not sure what. Have a feeling it's a man cold.