Ask Luke’s Mother-in-Law: Banning, the Bomb

Martha Boyd is not just Luke’s mother-in-law – she’s also an ex-cop, a landlord, a self-described crazy cat lady, a major Star Trek geek and the widow of a green beret. So go ahead: ask her anything. And we mean anything. Comment below with questions, or email them to boydappraisal at yahoo dot com.

Well, I have been busy since our last meeting. Last Thursday I was pleased to be invited to The Anaheim Police Department’s Retirement and Awards dinner. It was held at the Grove in Anaheim. There were several retirements and medal of honor/valor awards given out, but also my mom, who is a volunteer with APD presented a scholarship that was just named in her honor. That was so cool.

My mom has been a police volunteer for 40 yrs. She goes 3 times a week and she just turned 90 at the end of May. Great dinner and I got to see some people that I used to work with on the department.

After Anaheim I went down to Los Angeles and saw LYT and Julia. Miss Francis is well and she was helping to doggie sit the cutest little puppy named Chi Chi. That was fun – then we went shopping and treated LYT to a new experience: going material shopping. Yes we did drag the poor man thru Jo-Ann’s fabric and crafts. He was a great sport at holding the My Little Pony, Hello Kitty and Simpsons material that we were purchasing, and then having to look through and decide on which needle point cat I was going to do as a project. For his efforts we then took him to Toys R Us and he got an Axe Cop collectible – it was the least we could do. We then went home and I got an education on Axe Cop. Not bad, I must say.

Sunday we were off to Banning for a private party for nerds at Twin Galaxies. It is a large warehouse in the middle of nowhere in Banning. For those of you who don’t live in this neck of the wood,s Banning is on the I-10 in the desert before you get to Palm Springs. They have big windmills and a casino with outlet center. Twin Galaxies is not going to be open to the public, but more used for corporate things. There were 2 large rooms of pinball and arcade games to play for FREE. My fingers were sore after 4 hours of playing. We had a blast.

Got to do a red carpet and even an interview for TR. Julia and LYT were Instagramming, Tweeting and Vining during the day. I used to have such fun in high school going to the arcade and playing pinball. Don’t know how many quarters I lost in those years. Going to the arcade was a big social event for us; now the kids just stay home and play games. I think we had much more fun going out, playing games, getting a pizza and messing with our friends. Sitting at home on the couch seems sort of dull now.

Anyway we had a great time and my thanks to LYT for the invite to the arcade.

Gallen Dugall:

QUESTION! Google seems to think that the future of technology is based on cardboard boxes
http://www.nytimes.com/…/google-intensifies-focus-on…
Is this brilliant minimalist technology really “what’s next” or just another sign that a race of super powerful alien cats have taken over the company? And why do cats love cardboard boxes so much?

I bet that cats have taken over the NY Times. For the answer to the second part of your question I did a survey with my cats.

I asked the question, “Why do you like cardboard boxes so much?”

Frizzy: because it makes my claws feel good when I scratch them

Boo: good place to hide, you can’t find me in the box

Felix: not sure, I’z to lazy to jump in anymore

Lovey: they make good noise when I jump in them

Pirate: nice bed and I can scoot them around the living room and then you trip over them – funny

David N. Scott:

I liked the pop tart review. Do you eat twinkies? If so do you think the ‘new formula’ ones taste funny? I do.

Twinkies? Only sometimes. They have never been my most favorite. I like Ding Dongs, and the Hostess cupcakes with the orange frosting much better. And yes I agree the new Twinkies are not quite the same and don’t taste as good as the old version.

Glad you liked the review. I will do more in the future.

Jeffrey L Deltano:

Speaking of junk food, do you have any favorite junk food combinations that sound weird but taste surprisingly good? I used to love eating funyuns with chocolate milk, tasted sooo good. Also, cool ranch Doritos with funny bones. I really miss funny bones, I am a sucker for peanut butter.

One of my most favorite combinations is peanut butter and tuna fish with sour cream and onion ripple potato chips. It must be the ripple chips and not the flat sour cream onion chips. Ripples hold more of the flavoring. I also prefer the chunky peanut butter and only Best Foods / Helmann’s Mayo with the tuna.

I will also put cool ranch Doritos on almost anything. If I don’t have the chips on the above sandwich the Doritos are a good substitute.

Patch Ninetynine:

Seeing the pop tarts gave me this question.
What is your favorite junk food snack? Mine is a toss up between Oreos and Chocolate chip cookies.

My all time favorite junk food is kettle corn, followed by coffee ice cream. Sometimes in the same dish. Also love sour cream and onion ripple chips, Doritos (ranch), chips and salsa. For cookies I love Thin Mints and Snickerdoodles.

Well guys, that is about all for this week. Not that many questions this time, so I’ve included more of my Pioneertown photos for you to enjoy.

Have a great next week. Until we meet again be good to each other. Huggs

As always, keep your questions coming, be they foolish, philosophical or anything else! Any questions submitted in comments below or by email will be included in future columns.