A few months ago I casked 2 two gallon oak barrels with unfinished white whiskey. Last week I bottled one of the barrels and even made my own cool labels. Last Saturday I uncorked a bottle at my wife’s 60th birthday party. The bourbon was a hit. I was expecting some harshness like cheap bourbons but mine was really smooth and tasted fantastic. I’m going to bottle the other cask this week, can’t wait to taste it. The second cask has a much higher rye content than the first, the little extra time should help smooth the bite that comes from the rye.
That’s not insignificant. That’s really great. Good on you.
My wife and I took the grandkids to the Auto Show yesterday, and I found a place to park in the convention center parking garage. As opposed to last year, when besides the auto show there was also a basketball tournament and some cheerleading competition going on nearby, the garage was full, and we had to park about six blocks away. So that was nice.
When I was a teenager, my dad taught me how to change the brakes on our family car. That’s not the cool part.
I recently taught my teen aged son how to change the brakes on his car. Also not the cool part.
My son took his new found skills, and some tools, and changed the brakes on his friend’s car. That’s the cool part.
Unclogged the bathroom drain (after some effort). Didn’t have to call a plumber!
OK, you’re going to have to take my word about this. I’m very good at catching flies and other flying insects (moths, etc.) in my hand. I have no idea why, since I’m a complete klutz in most other respects.
My (fairly new) adult stepdaughter was at the house and a fly made its way inside yesterday afternoon. My wife casually mentioned that I would eventually grab it, but my stepdaughter got that “Oh, really?” look and sort of rolled her eyes. I watched the fly for about ten seconds and then grabbed it with one try as it flew past my face. The look I got was priceless, made even better when my wife said, “Yeah, I didn’t believe it either until I saw it the first few times.”
I recently underwent an angioplasty and the placement of a stent in one of my brain arteries. The stent part was not expected there was a brief period during the procedure when things were not going so well. One of the team later told me that asked the neurosurgeon if he needed to change his underwear when all was said and done. The doc said “Not quite, but those five minutes will be subtracted from my lifespan. MikeF owes me!” I DO owe him and when I returned for my first follow-up appointment I gave him a nice five minute “hourglass” and said “Here’s your five minutes back”. He thought it was great and had a good laugh. When I thanked him in a little more serious fashion he said, “These are the things we spend our lives training for. You’re welcome” I sensed the pride of a batter hitting the big one in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, one on and down by one. It was a big deal and I think he appreciated that I understood it. So, maybe minor but significant as opposed to insignificant?
A few years ago, someone got stuck out in almost the same place, and managed to get 3 of his friends who came to pull him out stuck, too.
They ended up having to hire a back-hoe to pull them all out.
Found $20 in front of the casino next to my apartment on my way to work this morning. I felt bad because this place caters to the more down-and-out crowd, so I gave it to the homeless guy that sleeps in the storefront next door.
Better keep this straight, Carl. After all would you have moved to “Cockroach Bay”? And don’t even try this if the alien from “Men in Black” is nearby.
Dennis
This goes back a couple of years, not recently, but it fits in here in sort of a grandiose way. I invented, built and used the “continuously emptying, self contained sluice”. Think gold mining. Not just self emptying, which would be excellent in its own right - continuously. And it operates in a closed cycle, so no huge amounts of dirty water running back into the environment. I made a handsome amount of money from it using it that one time. It would be worthy of a patent, and I would be rich. Except:
It is only useful in a very particular niche endeavor of which there is exactly one in my area of Ohio. And since it is a prototype that does need constant babysitting to make sure things operate smoothly, I didn’t feel right selling it to them. So it sits under wraps in my back yard. A wonderful solution desperately seeking another problem.
Dennis
Not so recent, but this was something I did last summer at a festival.
A booth was giving away some unexciting freebie (I can’t even remember what) to anyone who was able to toss a beanbag from about 25 feet into a hole just slightly larger than the size of a softball cut into a board tilted about 25 degrees off horizontal. It wasn’t a busy line, and a couple of peeps went before me, soft-tossing arcing lobs and missing. My first two lazy lobs missed as well. Out of boredom I decided to throw the last one really hard overhand, baseball-style, complete with leg kick. And nailed it. The booth operators were stunned. I guess, after seeing so many soft-tosses, to them, it was a throw out of nowhere. Even the exhibitors in the adjacent booth handing out small cups of iced-tea samples were impressed enough that they spontaneously decided to reward me a full bottle of delicious, cold iced-tea for my effort. The summers spent playing pickup baseball with my cousins in my youth had finally paid off. I left the festival on a high note. 
I have four large-ish house plants in my house. Their continued survival is a testament to their fortitude alone as I am not gifted with a green thumb.
The orchid I was gifted last mother’s day, which stayed beautifully in bloom for what seemed like forever, is currently getting ready to bloom again!
I’m shocked it survived the winter in my difficult climate, but absolutely stunned it’s getting ready to bloom again!
I was gonna mention getting a copy of The Mankuku Quartet’s 1968 album Yakhal’ Inkomo, but now I think the coolest insignificant thing I’ve done lately is get burpo’s reference!
Kudos, Bo! My wife didn’t get the reference; she’s only four years younger than me, but has never seen the commercial!
And I’m the one that could use the Geritol! 
I posted a photo on facebook and it was shared a few hundred times and several strangers commented things about how important it is for shelter animals to have a professional photo and how nice it is of professionals to volunteer their time for this.
I am very much not a professional. The photo was cute, but the quality wasn’t even that great. I was tickled by it, though.
The dogs in the photo were adopted together the next day by someone who saw them on facebook, by the way.
You’re gonna have to try again; that is so un-insignificant (and incredibly cool) that it borders on heroic. HUGE Karma points for you, Dot!
When I teach proportions in elementary algebra (college level), I do the following example for the class:
I start by reading the problem aloud. If anyone goes “hey!” or something, I’ll acknowledge the reference. But more often than not, the kids in the class have no clue. So I just go on and do the problem, playing it straight.
A couple of weeks back, after reading this problem, one of my students (a young’un) raised his hand. I nodded at him to go ahead, and he asked “why didn’t he just make 10 louder and make it the maximum?” Of course, I paused for a couple of seconds, then said “these go to eleven.”
He nodded and smirked. I looked around the room and no one else was even smiling. They were all completely clueless to our little unplanned improv. So I just went on with the problem… playing it straight.
Once I was done, though, I couldn’t stand it, so I said “oh and by the way…”
I just gave GESancMan a pass. But, I don’t get the joke. I know alittle about amps. I see you posted words but I don’t understand them.
Algebra is not something I get.
But, dude that is funny. ( I think)
I made a truly awesome cheese board for me and my honey to eat as our dinner while we watched the Oscars.