Miasmatic Review

Zombie Quiz

Doesn't surprise me... especially since Romero's are the true style of zombies.

Perfect decoration!

Ktreva found the perfect Halloween decoration for me. It combines two of my most favorite things in the world together. According to her she was just walking through the store when she found it. As soon as she laid eyes on it she said she thought of me, it was something "I had to have".

Want to know what it is?

See the extended entry!

A Jack-0-football! Or is it a Football-o-lantern, Maybe a carved football? Anyways what ever it is, it's perfect. How can you go wrong with Football and Halloween?

Halloween

From my family to yours, Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Clone and Boopie with their pumpkins

The boys had fun carving pumpkins and are excited for tonight, almost as excited as I am. Just remember people, Halloween is a fun time, make sure those out there with you and that you meet are all having fun.

And if you scare anyone, make sure to share the story with me.

All Hallow's Eve Eve

It's almost here! Tomorrow is Halloween! Which for those of you that don't remember is one of my favorite holidays. It and the Fourth of July are are so close that I really can't decide between the two of them. Tonight we are preparing for the fright fest that is my front yard!

Every year I decorate the house with all kinds of ghouls, zombies, skeletons, ghosts and other scary things. Then I hand out a ton of good candy. No, we don't use the cheap stuff, I'm talking Kit Kats, Baby Ruth, Reese's, Snickers etc. I even dress up like a demon to hand it out to all the boils and ghouls that come to my door. Of corpse I always get a scare or two into some of the older ones. I have a rule that I don't scare the kids that appear to be under the age of 10.

This year the weather is supposed to be warm and nice and it would be an almost perfect Halloween... if the Government hadn't gone and screwed things up. Remember last spring when they changed daylight savings time? Well the clocks don't turn back until next weekend, so tomorrow night it'll still be light out when the kids come trick or treating. That is really going to screw up a lot of the decorations. Hell some of my effects only work in the dark. Since the official start time of 5:30 PM and ending at 7:30. That will give the kids about an hour of darkness to trick or treat in.

Owell, I'll just have to make the best of the situation.

More proof!

As we all know that I'm a big fan of zombies and I even have a zombie contingency plan. Of course many of you think I'm insane for this, but I hate to break it to you, it can happen. Don't believe me? How about 5 scientific reasons a zombie apocalypse could actually happen.

You have Brain parasites, neurotoxins, the real rage virus, neurogensis, and nanobots. So see, having those plans is a good thing.

Thanks to Shadoglare for the link!

Best Zombie Movies.

Halloween is just a couple of nights away and I’ve actually received a couple of e-mails from people asking me what would be a good zombie movie to watch. Well, I am nothing if not helpful, so here is a list of what I think are some of the best zombie movies ever.

Night of the Living Dead. The original 1968 version and the 1990 remake are both good. "They're coming to get you Barbara!"

Dawn of the Dead. I think the 1978 original is better, but the 2004 remake is still good.(even if the zombies run.)

Day of the Dead. Do not get Day of the Dead 2, Contagium. It’s not work watching.

Land of the Dead. Not the best of Romero’s work, but still good.

Return of the Living Dead. Okay the zombies are about impossible to kill, but it’s a damn funny series. I’ve seen 1-5 and enjoyed all of them. Especially if you are looking for boobs to go with your blood.

28 Days Later. Sure they aren’t real zombies, but it’s still a good movie.

28 weeks later. See above, only add the fact that it’s a respectable sequal.

Brain Dead (AKA Dead Alive in the US). See Peter Jackson’s Genius before he did the Lord of the Rings.

Evil Dead Trilogy (Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness) Okay, it’s not really a zombie movie, but they have zombies in it and Bruce Campbell is a god.

Resident Evil series: All three in the series are good. Again these aren’t real zombies, but who cares when you Milla Jovovich running around killing zombies.

Undead: Okay, this is an Aussie cheesy zombie movie, all I have to say is “zombie fish”

Re-Animator. It’s based on an HP Lovecraft story, and shows how doctors and scientists are the root of zombie outbreaks.

Zombi 2 (Aka Zombie in the US). This is the film by Lucio Fulci that features a fight between a shark and it’s only natural predator, the zombie.

King of the Zombies. Really this is a zombie movie oldie from 1941.

Shaun of the Dead. Okay, it’s a zomedy, (Zombie + Comedy), but it’s still fun to watch. Heck even Clone loves watching this one.

There you have it, what some of my favorite Zombie movies are. There are a lot others that I really like, but if I was going to fill a day with zombie movies, it would be these. Sadly I only own a couple of them on DVD. (Hint Ktreva, Hint).

That wasn't very sensitive of me.

Ktreva and I have been married for 8 years and have been together for ten years and in that time I have never, ever come unhinged at her ex. Until last Saturday that is. I also did something that I told myself I was ever going to do; bad mouth him in front of Boopie. I couldn’t help it. I was so angered at the whole situation that I finally blew my lid.

If you recall we’ve been having some problems with Boopie and his behavior. One of the incidents I hadn’t shared with all of you is that he started a fire in the house. It was a small paper fire that he put out, but anyone that has been reading here long enough knows that I have enough highly flammable and explosive items around that open flame is bad. We aren’t sure why he was burning paper, but he also denied it for a good 45 minutes while we were in his room able to not only smell the smoke, but also see the haze around his ceiling light. He has also been lying about a ton of other stuff I haven’t shared with you.

He has a cell phone; I didn’t want him to have it because I didn’t think he would be responsible with it. But his Father bought him one anyway. Since nothing else was getting to him with school and lying I told him he was no longer allowed use the cell phone in the house. Well of course he was using it one evening so I took it away for the rest of the week and told him that if he uses it in the house again, his Father will have to come and talk to me about it. So of course last Wednesday he’s in his room and I can hear him using it, so I took it away.

Friday he calls me at work adamant about getting his phone back and I told him again if he wanted it he needs to have his father come talk to me. When I got home I was curious about why he wanted his phone so bad, so I did what any parent does… I look through his phone. Lo and behold guess what I find. Not only was he using it during school (which is a huge no-no in our school district) but half of the messages where to his Father. There were also messages regarding his Father coming and taking him out of school and I no know for sure where all of Boopie’s money went. He gave it to his Father. On three separate occasions the deadbeat hit his 14-year-old son up for money in a three-week period.

Saturday night I have some friends over and with out my knowing Boopie and his Father pull up. I was out on the front porch with my friends while they smoked just socializing and I told them they needed to finish up and go inside because this was about to get very uncomfortable for them. I started off calm explaining to his Father what all Boopie had done to lose the phone and verify that Boopie knew the consequences. Then, being a devious person I tested the waters and stated that Boopie had been using the phone during school hours. His Father acted all shocked and preceded to try to scold him and saying he didn’t know. That was when I lost it. I don’t remember all that I said, but I do know that I called him a farking liar. Explained that I had looked at the phone and saw that half of the in school messages were from him. Then I went on to explain I also knew that he was pulling him out of school. Then I went off on how it’s bad enough raising a 14 year old with a 15 year old mentality I shouldn’t have to deal with a 40 year old with on too.

I tore the man to shreds. I called him out on not being able to take care of himself let alone a kid. The fact he lives with his grandmother in her house and she does all the work. (I think he’s lived on his own for maybe 18 months since I’ve known him, the rest of the time he was living with his parents or his grandmother). He had threatened to kill himself to Boopie back in September and I told him that it was a shame he hadn’t followed through with it. The world would be better off if he went home and started sorting gun barrels by flavor, wait that would be wasting a perfectly good bullet, just slice your wrists. I know I called him an idiot or a moron at least 40 times and at one point I told him that “(he) is depriving intelligent people of oxygen.” At one point he accused me of telling him not to raise his voice and I shouted back, “I don’t care if you raise your voice, I’m raising mine!” It really devolved from there. The only part I regret is that Boopie witnessed the whole thing.

The sucky part about this whole thing is that they have joint custody. Thus there is little to nothing else I can do. In Illinois we would need to prove he is delinquent as a father in order to get prime custody, and that’s hard to do. I really wish this lump would drop off the face of the earth.

Zombie Preparedness.

As Halloween is rapidly approaching I feel that it is my duty to once again and remind my loyal readers of the impending threat of a Zombie Uprising. Folks, it is just a matter of time before it happens. This Wednesday, Halloween, there is the next logical time for that uprising to happen. Now is the time to be proactive and get an Emergency Zombie Defense Station.

Don’t be a statistic during the uprising, be a survivor! Or at least add a nice Halloween decoration to your house. BTW, a hunting rifle is much better then a shotgun for zombie killing.

Thanks to Bloodspite for the tip.

Drinking Stories.

Most people have one. Either it is one of their own or one that involves a friend. Some people have a lot of drinking stories, me personally I have a 39 volume encyclopedia of drinking stories. And there are two different types of drinking stories. You have the “drank too much” variety, which seems to be the most common.

For example: The summer before my junior year of college I worked as a welder’s assistant. The company I worked for let me keep some of the equipment including a really good pair of welding gloves. When I returned to college I brought them with me, I don’t know why, but I did. Some friends of mine and I went to a big party bonfire party and for reasons beyond reasonable explanation I brought with the welders gloves. Hey, there was fire and the gloves may come in handy. Well they did, but not for reasons expected. There were about a hundred or so people at this party, we were all drinking very heavily. There were multiple kegs and bottles of hard liquor going around.

At some pint one of the other party goers brought out some bottle rockets and started setting them off. Now I was pretty drunk at that time and remembered I had my welder’s gloves with me. Putting them on I said “You want to see fireworks, watch this” and I grabbed a burning log out of the fire and started swinging it around. Of course the drunks all thought this was cool and funny. And then I did something that normally I wouldn’t do, but I was young and drunk. I threw the burning log up in the air as hard as I could. Sparks flew everywhere. Then the log came back down to earth… in the middle of a corn field. A very dry corn field in October at the end of a draught. The next thing I know flames started leaping up out of the corn field.

Party goers are running in every direction, in the end about a quarter acre of corn was destroyed by fire, I think about a half acre was destroyed in trying to contain and put out the fire. It made the local news and I lived in fear for months that someone was going to turn me in. Needless to say I’ve never brought wielding gloves to a bonfire party again.

On the other hand you have the “You didn’t get drunk, but alcohol was involved” variety. These tend to be more just on the quantity or quality of alcohol. A good example of that is many years ago we attended a re-enactment and I had brought two cases of beer, Bucktooth Billy brought a couple of cases of beer and Maelduin brought a couple of cases of beer. We arrived at the event on Thursday. Late Friday night we ran out of beer. Bucktooth Billy and Maelduin made a beer run on Saturday, while wearing kilts. Ktreva had asked them to pick her up a bottle of wine while they were there. Just after picking the wine from the shelf a female patron made a comment to Maelduin. He turns and filled with anger howls, “IT’S NOT A DRESS!” The lady gets scarred and runs off. Bucktooth Billy comes over to Maelduin and says, “She didn’t say anything about your kilt, but commented on the choice of wine.”

Now these aren’t my best drinking stories, but to hear those you need to buy me a drink or two. So why am I talking about drinking stories? It’s because CNN did an article on “Drinking Stories That Put Yours To Shame.” Now I’ve heard many of them before, and there are some really good ones in there. I don’t know if they are the greatest, but damn! They really do have some that make you laugh or cringe.

So tell me, what one of your favorite drinking stories is. Let me know either in the comments or post on it and let me know.

Carlyle Scottish Ale

Tonight’s beer is more of a teaser then anything else. Only a select few of my readers are able to get their hands on this beer and a handful more have actually been lucky enough for me to bring a growler with someplace so they can try it. Tonight I’m going outside my norm and reviewing a beer a drink on a regular basis. Mainly because, despite what I said, I can not bring myself to dump out a full un-opened growler of beer. Tonight I’m reviewing the Scottish Ale by Carlyle Brewing Company.

There is only one way you can get any beer from Carlyle right now and that’s in a 64 oz brown glass bottle they call a growler. (Someday I’ll do a post about what real growlers are.)On the front in white screening is the name of the company. There is a white circle with a picture of a foaming mug in the center of it. Across the bottom it says “Blessed is he who drinks beer.” It also has their address and phone number on it.

While one could attempt to drink this from the bottle, I highly recommend pouring it into a pint glass, just for the ease of handling. For this special occasion I used my Drunken Wisdom Pint. There is a dark brown coloring to the beer that passes through with difficulty. When poured you get a nice half inch tan head. The bubbles are small and it fades slowly to a film on top. There is some nice thick lacing on the side of the glass.

When first smelled you get a strong scent of roasted malts. An earthy undertone is noticeable if you take a second sniff. A slight chocolate accent is also detectable. The flavor is a good mix of roasted chocolate and coffee malts. There is a pleasant hop finish to it. The aftertaste has a slight bitterness to it that is not present in the beer itself.

This is a medium to full bodied beer. It has a great mouth feel that coats. There is only a slight carbonation to the beer. It’s a beer that is easy to drink when it’s either warm or cold out.

This is a favorite beer of mine. Not only do I enjoy drinking it, but I will buy growlers full of it to share with others. Unfortunately unless you are visiting Rockford, Illinois or have someone bring you a growler, you can’t try this beer at this time. I’ve been talking trying to talk them into starting to bottle it for years, but they just won’t do it. If you like a dark beer that isn’t as thick as a stout or porter, you’ll love this beer. I give it 7.5 out of 10.

Thanks for the memories

Football legend and Packer great Max McGee passed away over the weekend. Max is known for scoring the first touchdown ever in Super Bowl history. The best part of it was that he was hung over when he did it.

"McGee had only four receptions for 91 yards during the 1966 regular season. He didn't plan to play in the title game against the Chiefs, because he violated the team curfew and spent the night before partying. The next morning he reportedly told Dowler: "I hope you don't get hurt. I'm not in very good shape.""

I actually had the privilege of meeting Max about 10 years ago up in Green Bay. My Father and I went up to the game and he was at an appearance at Lambeau before the game. Since my father actually got to see him play I think it meant more to him then to me. Yet I still remember meeting him.

Back to reality.

Ktreva and I got back from our last re-enactment of the season yesterday. We had a beautiful weekend and had a ton of fun. The wind on Thursday and Friday was killer. Event staff told us it was gusting up to 45 mph at a time. I ended up assisting in setting up or rescuing 20 pieces of canvas from the wind. After Ktreva and I got our wall up, we decided not to set up our fly because the wind was just too strong. We arrived out there at 10:30 AM on Thursday. When we drove to our camp we saw two tents already blown down. After we finished setting up our tent, a Trader that was setting up a large marquee and having a hard time with the wind. Ktreva and I ran over to give them a hand. Now I know that normally they can set up their canvas by themselves, but the wind really makes it ten times more difficult, so they were grateful for the help.

To give you an idea of how bad that wind was at one point Ktreva was holding down the edge of the canvas as we tried to attach the large center ridgepole. A gust of wind came up and picked her up 2-3 feet off the ground. The owner in a panic said, “Hold down the canvas!” Ktreva replied, “It’s not that I’m not holding it down, It’s that it is picking me up!” She went through the same thing two other times on Thursday.

Friday was much of the same, only with an off and on light rain. Saturday was beautiful. Highs in the 70’s, lows in the 50’s with a gentle breeze and sun. Sunday was even warmer except the wind picked up a little. Nothing like what was on Thursday and Friday, I it gusted up to 15 mph.

I was sadly disappointed about one thing at this event. I brought two coolers filled with beer to this event. I started drinking on it Thursday night, Saturday night when all was said and done I still had about a third of my beer. I could not give the stuff away and I had good beer. Two growlers of Scottish Ale, two growlers of Black Walnut Stout, six bottles of Dragon’s Milk, 28 bottles of Edmund Fitzgerald, 2 bottles of Arcadia Ale Scotch Ale. The two growlers of Scottish ale, the arcadia Ale and 3 of the Edmund Fitzgerald didn’t get drank. Except for 4 bottles of the Dragon’s Milk, maybe half a growler of the Walnut Stout and a couple of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I drank the rest. This was on top of hitting a bar Thursday night and an Irish Pub on Friday. I was so disappointed to have to dump all that good beer out.

Other then the lack of beer drinking I had a great time. A friend of mine that I haven’t seen in 4 years because he moved to upper Minnesota actually came back for the weekend. It was great to hear him playing his pipes in camp. We have a piper that is with the local Ranger group and she does a fine job, but Jeremy is a master at the pipes and can really make beautiful music on them.

If you want to see some pictures from Fort Obie last weekend and Trail of History I have the reviews up over at the Spoon and Blade. I also finally got around to putting up the Galesburg Heritage Days review from last August up as well.

Yuengling Black and Tan

Last weekend at Fort Obie my friend Will brought me another beer by Yuengling to review. This time it’s Yuengling Black and Tan.

He made sure to get me a nice 12 oz brown bottle so I didn’t have to review on a can after all of you complained. It has a black oval label with the name of the company and the beer on it. There is the Eagle logo for the company at the top center of the circle. In a gold ribbon at the bottom it says America’s Oldest Brewery. The label says this is a combination of the Dark Brewed Porter and Premium beer.

There wasn’t much to the smell. After much consideration I figured it had a scent of roasted malts with a fruit undertone. Nothing that was very complex like one would expect from a Black and Tan. The taste was a very mild malt flavor. There was not much depth at all, it was very simple. Again with a Black and Tan there should be a bit more to it.

It is a very smooth beer. It’s light bodied and very easy to drink. However it was almost like drinking water. The body didn’t really hold any mouth feel at all.

Okay, first off I have to pick this beer apart. This really isn’t a black and tan, this is a half and half. A Black and Tan generally is Stout or Porter and Ale. A Half and Half is a Stout or Porter over a lager. A proper black and tan or half and half are layered. Generally they pour the lighter beer (ale or lager) first and then using a spoon pour the darker beer (stout or porter) over it in a pint glass. When you look at the glass you should be able to see the two different layers of the beer, the dark on top and the light on the bottom. When this poured into the glass it looked much like their Porter only slightly lighter in color. This is just Yuengling mixing their Porter and Premium lager together in hopes of marketing on a pub trend. If you want to know what a real Black and Tan is like I suggest going to a reputable pub and ordering one. I’d suggest Guinness over Bass.

As much as I know I’m about to bring the wrath of many loyal readers upon myself, I’m not overly impressed with this beer at all. I can see where it would be good with pizza or pub food, but nothing that makes me want to go out of my way for it. It’s really a dark beer for people that don’t like dark beers. I give it 4 out of 10.

Contagion2, Neighbors 0

We all know how much I love my neighbors. For those of you that don’t remember or just didn’t know, I like to keep my neighbors in a healthy level of fear of me. Not that I think I’m big and tough or that I’d actually do something. I just want them to think I’m a wack job so they leave me the fark alone.

Unfortunately many of my neighbors are new, the old ones have moved out. (I don’t know why.) So that means I have to restart operation “Leave the Burly man alone”. Last month after I bought my Russian Mosin Nagant M44 I couldn’t just bring it into the house in the box. Nope, I took it out of the box, affixed the bayonet, slung it over my shoulder and carried it in. On the walk from the truck to the house the new neighbor to the left came walking around the corner of her house and I heard an audible gasp and an exclamation of “Oh my!” The white trash across the street were all sitting in the front yard smoking stopped talking and very quietly watched me walk into the house. Shortly there after they all abandoned the front of the house and went inside.

Today I needed to clean my .75 caliber Brown Bess musket. After shooting last weekend, I really wanted to make sure it was nice and clean. I grab all of my stuff and go into the front yard. The trash across the street watch me uncase this monstrosity and start cleaning it. After a couple of minutes they have all disbursed. Some went inside and other just left. The neighbors around me kept peaking out their windows to see what I was doing. A couple of them were walking down the street actually crossed to the other side instead of walking down the sidewalk in front of my house. I was there for 30 minutes just waiting for the cops to show up.

Now, tonight, it’s nice and quiet outside. Nobody hanging around making noise or just being obnoxious. Ahhh.. the freedom of having neighbors afraid of you.

I think they may actually like me.

Today is boss's day. Typically I don't like getting gifts, it embarrasses me, and my people know this so they leave me out of all the gift exchanges and stuff like that. Today, however, I come back from a meeting and my desk is decorated in balloons and crepe paper. While I was in a meeting they swarmed my desk and decorated it to the hilt. Then they gave me a gift. Of couse now I'm embarrassed and my ears and cheeks are turning red so they are loving it.

They got me a new lunch cooler. The one I had was over 10 years old and looked like I pulled it from the bottom of a lake. In fact I know for a fact that one time I did exactly that after I dropped it while fishing. They got me a brand new, lighter and nicer looking cooler that has all kinds of pockets and compartments for different things.

To make it even better they packed it full of water and carrots. Since that 's mainly what I eat and drink at work is water and carrots. I thought it was a cool Boss's day gift. I think they just liked the facts my ears were red for about two hours.

Down at the Fort.

This last weekend I did the Fort Obie re-enactment. Last year I day tripped it to this event and it looked like it was going to be fun so Ktreva and I added it to our calendar of events. After this weekend, this is going to be a permanent addition. If you do pre 1830’s camp and are looking for a good October event, I would highly recommend this event.

After arriving we quickly staked out a spot and set up our wall tent. Since it’s a colder weather event and Ktreva and Clone tend to get cold we had to bring the big tent and the heater. To be honest with the new blankets we have, we never used the heater, which means we could have brought the wedge, which means I would have been happier than carrying around our wall. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the wall tent. But in the direction I’m taking my re-enacting, less is more. I don’t want the big camp anymore. I want the nice small compact camp.

Since my beer consumption has been cut back drastically I had a ton of left over beer from all of the reviews. I also happened to get my hands on a case of Dragon’s Milk. That’s right a case of it. I brought 6 of the 22 oz bottles with. Friday night as soon as we were set up and dressed in costume, I busted out the beer. I gave a bottle of Dragon’s Milk to frequent commenter and good friend Petey and a bottle to my good friend Will. Neither of them have had Dragon’s Milk before. They were pleasantly surprised by how good this beer is. Anyone they let take a drink tried to steal the bottle. Such comments were made as, “Dragon’s Milk, it’s rocket fuel for fat men!” Now I kept warning them too be careful, it has a high alcohol by volume. Will finished off his bottle, snagged a second one from me and I kid you not power slammed it. Later on Petey and I figured out that drinking one bottle of dragon’s milk is equivalent to 4 regular beers. Between the Dragon’s Milk, the Edmund Fitzgerald and all the other review beers, we had a damn good time Friday night, and to quote someone, “Contagion, you are a good man.”

The next morning as I leave my tent I’m greeted with, “Contagion, you are an evil, evil man!” Will and Petey were nursing some hangovers. Will lost a chunk of his life, including where he put his glasses. Petey started referring to Dragon’s Milk as “The Scaly Teat”. There were some other bleary eyed individuals walking around camp that would occasionally give me acknowledgement for their condition. I brought over 60 12 oz bottles of beer and 6 22 oz bottles of Dragon’s Milk. Saturday morning I had 10 12 oz bottles left. Other than the good natured ribbing I was getting for the hangovers, I’m pretty sure everyone that shared of the cooler appreciated it. In fact I know they did, I had a lot of people compliment me on the quality and range of beers I brought.

Saturday morning I participated in the black powder shoot. Yea, I’m not going to go into much detail, but let’s just say I didn’t end up in last place… but not by much. They also had a tomahawk, knife, bow and fire building competitions. I didn’t play in any of those, but I did watch and commentate.

After the competitions were over I had my final introduction for the Old North West Company (The O. N. W.). I had my first introduction at this event a year ago. At this meeting I was voted in and am now officially a “Company Man”. I’m actually pretty damn psyched about this. Once I decided it was something I wanted, I started to wonder if I would make it in or not. After the meeting my sponsor, Garrett gave me my medallion. This wasn’t just any medallion though, it was his. Apparently it was given to him by his sponsor and so he was giving it to me, which is really cool. These are a good group of guys and I’m proud of that fact that I can count myself among their numbers now. But I think all that beer from the night before played a part in me getting voted in.

After dinner that night they opened up the period tavern. You walk in and no modern equipment was in sight. Beer bottles and cans had to stay outside. Their was one exception made. I brought four growlers of Scottish Ale from Carlyle per a request from Will. So we passed those around. I had never seen growlers of beer disappear so fast in my life. Wes of Bodhran Roll, Please day tripped it in to sing songs and play music. It’s too bad he couldn’t camp the night, I think he could have had a lot more fun AND been able to entertain us much later into the night. Unfortunately he had family obligations, and we all know how that goes.

All in all it was a great weekend. Good people, good friends, and just a lot of fun. I was able to get to know some people a bit better after this weekend. There were a ton of good conversations and jokes. People laughing and singing and just carrying along, good times. I’m just sad that this very well will be the last re-enactment I will see them at until April. Most of the people at this event don’t do Trail of History next weekend.

And away I go

I'm off to Fort Obie in Colona, Illinois this weekend. If any of you want to stop by, this event is open for the public, and the weather is looking to be GREAT!

I am their hero

It’s the magical Karma thing. You know, you do something good for someone else and something good happens to you. I went to an off site retreat today for work. I was kind of dreading this, as these things are usually nothing more then how to be more sensitive to your employees crap. As we all know I’m the most farking sensitive arsehole in my company. Thinking that is what this was going to be, I really was not looking forward to it.

It was held at a log lodge owned and operated by the local YMCA. It’s a nice location and I love the atmosphere of the place. The problem is that the heat in there is not exactly the best, but it does have two fireplaces. When I walked in the building had a good chill to it. Outside it was about 45 degrees and inside it was about 55 degrees. Everyone was complaining about the cold. I looked at the fireplace and made the offhand comment, “Well, we could always build a fire.” Our Director (Above manager) emphatically said yes, lets build a fire. Now I was just joking around, I like it cold and thought it was fine in there. But I thought, hey if they want one, I can build it. Then someone stated, “You can’t build a fire, we don’t have any fire starters or newspaper. All we have is wood.” Oh it was on. I’m a re-enactor; if I couldn’t get a fire started then I don’t deserve to call myself a re-enactor.

I look at the wood supply, nothing but big logs. Okay, no problem. I pull out my handy dandy pocketknife and get to work. I peal the bark off some of the logs, scrape the inside and get a nice bundle of fiber. As I was digging through the pile I found a birch log with some bark still on it. Score! This stuff is fire making gold. Then I used my knife to whittle off some smaller kindling and tinder. When I asked if anyone had a lighter, no one did. But they found a book of matches… that had two matches in it. Again I heard, “You’ll never get it started with only two matches and no newspaper or fire starters.”

I scoffed.

I chortled.

Hell, I even giggled.

One match was all it took. I touched the burning match to the bundle I had made and it went up faster then house set to torch in any movie. People actually cooed and awed as the bright glow of warmth spread across the fireplace. They actually took peoples pictures standing around warming themselves by it. I had a lot of people thank me and tell me that I was there hero. These were sincere thanks and actually appreciated what I did.

Then Karma set in. Not only was the retreat anything but sensitivity training, it was actually kind of fun. It got out early and I was able to hit Carlyle Brewing Co. I needed to pick up some growlers of beer to take with down to Fort Obie for my friend Will. When I got there I noticed they had some new beers, including a Walnut Stout. I couldn’t help but to sample a pint. OH… MY… HECK. If you like their regular stout, you should get down to sample one of these before it’s gone, they only ran single batch, but it’s damn good.

It was a good day.

Ichabod

Since it is the Halloween season I figured I should do some Halloween themed beers. I’m starting going with a beer from one of my favorite Microbreweries, New Holland Brewing Company. They have a seasonal ale brewed with pumpkin they named Ichabod.

They used a standard 12 oz brown bottle. The body label has a picture of the headless horseman in the middle of an oval. The name of the beer is in old style white script lettering below the horse. On the neck label they have the name of the beer again with a Jack-o-lantern on it.

Into a bar style pint glass this ale poured a hazy copper color. Light passes through, but there is a lot of sediment that prevents you from being able to see through properly. There was a very thin white head that quickly faded to nothing leaving only a ring around the edge of the glass. There is some lacing, but not a lot.

A strong scent combination of pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg compliment the malt backbone. It reminded me a bit of pumpkin bread. On the first taste one gets a strong spice and caramel malt flavoring. It is followed by a light pumpkin taste. It almost tasted like I was eating pumpkin bread while drinking a beer.

There is a nice medium body to it that gives a slight coating to the mouth. It is slightly high in carbonation, a bit more than I generally enjoy.

This beer pleasantly surprised me. Normally I don’t like pumpkin beers as they have an over powering pumpkin taste to it that really kills the flavor. This one has more of a pumpkin accent that really enhances the flavor. I’m still not overly fond of fruit beers, but this one was pretty good. I give it a 4.5 out of 10.

Dead Boopie walking.

I’m so pissed right now. Last night Boopie came out of his room to throw something away, as I walked past I could smell smoke. It was the definite scent of something burning. In general I asked both him and Ktreva what was burning. They both said nothing. After pointing out that I could smell smoke, Ktreva agreed she could. The smoke was closest to Boopie’s room. So I asked him what was burning, and he kept saying nothing as he tried to hide a lighter. When I confiscated it, it was still warm. He said he just flicked it on. I asked him what he needed a lighter for and he said he didn’t know, he just had it.

After his continual denial that he didn’t know what was burning, I went to check the trash. He then confessed that he was burning paper and threw it into a plastic bottle with water to put it out. I knew he had been lying, but there was always the benefit of the doubt until I found the evidence. He wouldn’t even tell me why he lied. Since he’s already grounded from going to friend’s houses due to his grades. I took away the TV for two weeks and made him write sentences.

Today when I get home he’s skulking around writing his sentences and got pissed because I told him he had to mow the lawn. As I was sitting in the house getting ready to do something else I heard a loud thud against the truck. I open up the window and ask him if he hit my truck. “Yeah”… So I ask him if there’s a scratch. “Yeah”. Then I ask him why he would do that, and he said, “It was along the grass and tried to avoid it but I bumped into it.” So I go outside to look. As I get to my truck there is a scratch down the drivers side front and back door and the bed to the steering wheel and not just a scuff, but a scratch.”

I’m about livid, this wasn’t an accidental bump this was an intentional scratch. This is going to cost money to get fixed because if I don’t it’s going to rust. I’m so mad that I can barely speak. I go over with him the consequences of bad decisions and for the first time I actually threatened military school to him. It took every ounce of restraint I had to not beat him to near death. I told him that “You had better get back to mowing this lawn and doing it properly with out damaging anything else. Meanwhile I need to go inside before I do something I’m going to regret.”

As I was just started typing this trying to work out some of the anger and frustration I hear him hit something in the back yard. He ran over the corner to the grill cover. It had been there for months and never got touched. Again he talks about he was trying to “move the mower” and accidentally hit it. The problem is that the cover was about a foot away from the edge of the grass.

Right now I want to just go into his room and smash everything he owns that he likes. Take everything away and give it other people or just permanently disable it and make him live in a room full of dysfunctional junk.

I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I do know that if I don’t calm down I’m going to blow a gasket.

Anniversary Dinner.

For dinner tonight I'm making something special for the family.

Shrimp cocktails, Stuffed chicken breasts with an apple and raisin stuffing, Baked Sweet Potatoes and fresh garlic cauliflower. It takes a little time to make all of that, but Ktreva likes it and I think she's worth it.

Well I'm off to steam the shrimp and stuff the chicken boobs.

8 years and counting.

Today is an important day in my life. Eight years ago today I was lucky enough to marry the perfect woman for me. We are having a good run and aren't showing any signs of slowing. I just can't believe I was as lucky as I am to have found her.

Lets look at the facts.

She loves to shoot, yep that's her shooting a Colt 1991 .45 ACP commander model. She liked mine so much, I had to buy her one of her own just to leave mine alone. At one point she was afraid of firearms, but now she can't wait until the next time we hit the range. She also supports my dream of buying a large farm and making our own shooting range some day.

She's a Packer fan! She likes to go to the games with me, go shopping for gear and memorabilia and even sit in a bar and watch the games. She once even went so far as to try on Cheerleader outfits to see if one fit her so she could wear that on Football Sundays. Unfortunately for me they didn't have any that fit her.

She re-enacts. If you ask any male re-enactor they will tell you just how lucky I am to have a wife that will re-enact. It's easier to do the events as we are doing them together. There hasn't been a re-enactment that has gone by that I haven't had at least one person tell me that when I die, they get my wife. To make it even better, she loves to cook over the campfire. So I can spend the day demonstrating, shooting or what not and come back to camp to a damn good meal.

I know how lucky I am to have Ktreva for a wife. She's made me a better person. It's been a good 8 years, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for us.

Happy Anniversary Babycakes! I love you.

Big weekends coming up.

I have a re-enactment both this weekend and next one. This weekend I'm going to be doing Fort Obie in Colona, IL. The weekend after I'm going to be at Trail of History in McHenry, IL. (oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!) I'm looking forward to doing both events, even though they are definitely nothing like each other. Fort Obie is a rendezvous with a shoot and competitions. Trail of History is a re-enactment that's demonstrations and battles. This will be my first year participating in Fort Obie, last year we just day tripped it. Trail of History is the event that Ktreva and I got engaged at and the only event we still do from our very first season of re-enacting. It has sentimental values.

We have friends at each of these events that this will probably be the last time we see them until next year. It's sad that we don't get to see them that often, but it makes those weekends hanging out with them that much better.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go stare at the calendar and try to will the week to go by faster.

Sounds like some good beer

Shadoglare sent me a link to an article over at Inventorspot, 10 Best Beers With Balls of 2007.

I don't know if I agree with that list, I've had a couple of the beers on there. And there are ones I've never heard of. But as the author states, "With that in mind, we here at Inventor Spot bring you 10 of the ballsiest beers we could find." Which means some of the ones I've had, they may not have. Overall there are some interesting beers on that list.

Bilk anyone?

Got a lead foot?

I know I do, I also know where all the hot spots are in my daily drive for cops. Maybe you don't, or maybe you're going someplace you've never been to before or just moved to. The SpeedTrap Exchange can help you find where all those cops like to hide out. Just choose your state, then your city and viola, a list of speed traps as well as comments from users on how good or bad the tip is.

Not everyone can talk their way out of a ticket.

I'm at a loss.

I don't think I could handle being in this bowling league.

I know it's labeled Furries Vs Klingons, but I saw guys dressed as members of Star Fleet in there too. I wonder what the beer frame is like.

Who ya gonna call?

Want to be a Ghostbuster for Halloween? Here's some step by step instructions on how to make a "movie accurate" costume. I should build one of these just to take to work.

It looks good.

I love historical movies. It doesn't matter what time period or genre, I love them. I also tend to tear them apart for various reasons. It doesn't matter if it has received good reviews or bad ones, I will end up seeing it. So it was with great delight that I found out that a German company is making a movie about Baron Von Richtoffen, or more commonly known as The Red Baron. (The direct link is slow to load).

However I did find a clip on YouTube that loads much faster, but is not as clear.

I'm stoked!

Beer surplus?

Today at lunch I headed to a local grocery store to pick up some munchies for the weekend. While I was there I decided to take a walk through their liquor department to see if they had any new beers to review. As I went down the aisles, Ktreva pointed out that the Great Lakes Brewery beers were on clearance for $2.99 a Six-Pack. Folks, the price on this beer is normally $7.99 per sixer. Now Great Lakes makes the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter that I reviewed back in June, and received a damn good rating. Of course I picked up a six pack of two of their other beers, the Elliot Ness and Dortmunder Gold to review at a later time.

As I stood there I did the math in my head. $2.99 a six pack. That comes out to $11.96 for a case. That's a damn good price. And even though I'm not supposed to drink beer, I do entertain. Ktreva suggested I buy as much as I can at that price. So I did, I ended up buying a total of 10 six packs for $29.90. And as my wife put it, "That's premium beer for Keystone Light prices."

This morning I was thinking there was a large surplus of beer in this house that wasn't getting drunk. Those weekly beer reviews I generally only drink one and give away the rest. But I haven't had a gathering or re-enactment in a while so I have a lot of sixers sitting around waiting to be drunk. After today, I have a ton more.

Yes some of those six packs only have 5 beers in them, but that's 86 beers (15 six packs X 6 beers - 4 missing). That's over three and a half cases of beer. And that isn't counting the growlers I have in the fridge.... and I don't drink beer... as much... anymore.

So which one of you drunks is going to be knocking on my door tomorrow?

I can't believe I did that!

I was talking to one of my peers at work as we were putting together an appreciation gift for our employees. We were in the middle of it when out of the blue she asks me, "What were you doing Saturday night?" My first thought was, "trying to kill off enough brain cells to not think about this place." But I responded, "Oh, just hanging out with some friends. Why?" She then tells me that she was just curious since I called her.

uh.... what???

Okay, as we all know last Saturday was the BlogCrawl. Which, I would like to personally thank each and everyone of you that participated or stopped by to see what kind of trouble I was getting into. During the time to get drunk phase of the crawl, I was down at Fritz's. After getting a damn good drunk on I decided it was time to start making some drunk calls. Hell, the only time I like talking on the phone is when I'm lit.

I started making my calls and I decided to call Boudicca to say "Hello! I'm drunk!" I picked up my phone looked her up in my directory and made my call. I start talking to her on the other line, only she has no idea who I am. I confirm using her real first name that I am indeed talking to her. And it takes forever to get her to recognize who she is talking to. She then tells me she is heading out with her husband so before I get a chance to pass the phone around to everyone, we hang up. At least five minutes of this conversation was trying to establish my identity.

I was a little hurt that Bou wouldn't recognize me to the fact I left a drunken comment on her blog about her not recognizing me on the phone. But then again I never call her so how would she recognize me. It never occurred to me that I called the wrong person. Because you know there is only one person on the planet that has that very uncommon first name of hers. (note sarcasm)

So now I have to back peddle and try to protect myself. This peer knows nothing about "Contagion" or Miasmatic Review, or the fact that I blog and apparently I made some references to myself that way. Fortunately enough for me, she and her husband were drinking too so she doesn't remember everything, that and because my phone call started a fight between her and her husband. Apparently he is the possessive and jealous type and wanted to know why another guy is calling her on Saturday night.

I guess next time I need to double check who I'm calling before I dial.

Oh why.

Guh, it was one of those fun days at work. Besides everyone of my football buddies confusing the hell out of me regarding what the plans were this weekend for the games (It's at Bruce's, no it's at Bob's, It's at Bruce's, Bruce has to spend time with his kid, so it's at Bob's.... etc), I also had to have one of those meetings. Actually I ended up having two of them.

You know what I mean by those meetings. Yea, the "Can I see you in my office, please close the door." meetings.

The first one was because of something I did. I guess my disgruntledness was getting the better of my tact filter in my brain and I slipped into old time Contagion. Not the "You're a farking Idiot" guy, but the one that would say things like, "You have no clue what you're talking about do you?" I guess it just irritated me that someone was preaching to me about inventory management when A) It's what I used to do for years and at one point they corporation modeled the position off of my style and B) It's from someone that has no clue about inventory management other then saying, "The inventory is too high!" Well no shite, anyone that can do basic math could figure that out. It was a fun two hour meeting.

The second one was because one of my employees did something that they really ought not to have done. I mean on a serious level. I had to get a private room for feedback and get everyone's sides of the stories and try to alleviate the situation. That was good hour long meeting that I think will result in another one tomorrow.

So from today I think I'll be seeing sensitivity class again. Or they could fire me... I don't think I'd get that lucky.

Honker's Ale.

Oh my heck! With the BlogCrawl and all I forgot today was Wednesday until I was driving home. It was that long four-day weekend that threw me off. As I was driving home, I stopped at a local liquor store to pick up a beer to review this week. Unfortunately since I didn’t want to review a warm beer, I was limited in my selection. Thus I ended up choosing a beer that others have said was pretty good. Tonight’s beer is Honker’s Ale by Goose Island Beer Company in Chicago, IL.

It came in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. It had a bright red label with a black oval that had the name of the brewery on it and a smaller red oval in the middle of the black one with a goose head. A red banner with white lettering had the name of the beer on it. There is a little history about the beer on the label.

When poured into an Ale pint, it has a hazy copper/amber coloring to it. Light passes through, but you have a difficult time making out shapes. The quarter inch head faded quickly to a ring on the edge of the glass, there is no lacing at all.

My first sniff of the beer was a mix of citrus and malts. The strong citrus scent almost drowns out the rest. You can smell a touch of coriander as well. The taste is much like the smell. A taste combination of malts and biscuits, but with a strong citrus finish to it. Surprisingly there was a slight alcohol tinge to it that one doesn’t expect from an ale. There is also a bitterness that lingers into the aftertaste.

This was a thin-bodied beer. It was very light with almost no coating at all. There was a decent bit of carbonation to the bottle. It’s very easy to drink.

I can’t say I was overly impressed with this beer. In fact everyone I’ve talked to totes this as the jewel in the Goose Island crown. To be honest this beer didn’t impress me much. I’m giving it 4 out of 10.

Forks in the road.

I’ve been in a funk for the last couple of days and I couldn’t figure out why. Last weekend was great. I spent four days hanging out with a lot of good people, having a lot of fun and just having a good time overall. There was no reason for me to be in a funk over anything.

Then it dawned on me about ten minutes ago what a big part of my problem is, my job.

I don’t fit in at my company. In my office I am one of two supervising management positions that are male. I’m one of four overall male management. The office itself is 87% female. Not that being one of the few guys in the building is difficult, it’s that I think differently than my female counterparts. Thus in this office my opinion doesn’t matter. Management in my office is a good ol’ girls club and I just don’t belong.

I get the crap assignments and when things go wrong in my department, I catch the blame for it, even if it was another Supervisor and team’s responsibility. I’ve been singled out in meetings, I’ve been harassed and when I try to voice my issues they sweep them under the rug. I’ve even been retaliated against.

The only reason I haven’t left is because of the stability. Yet if certain politicians get their wishes, that stability will be gone. Eh, maybe things will get better.

Claim Jumper!

You scored as An Old Prospector, Get out to the river and pan for gold!! You are more than suited to be an old prospector!! OH, PEACHES!! An Old Prospector 83% Drug Lord 68% Mafia Boss 65% Cowboy Outlaw 60% Ninja Assassin 58% Pirate Captain 53% Pretty Princess 43% Break-dancing Machine 10% What should you be doing for a living?! created with QuizFarm.com

Sadly enough I was just thinking over the weekend that I'd love to go live out in the middle of no where and give up the city life. I don't think I meant this rugged, but hell. I already own most of the equipment I'd need.

BlogCrawl and Football Survivor.

Okay, I am alive. Although I’m not sure that my body wouldn’t want it to be the other way. Where to start, well probably where I left off Sunday night after finishing DAS BOOT! I sat around for a couple of hours, as the beach ball of beer sitting in my gut was kind of hard to move around. Folks seriously it’s fun to do, but I’m never, ever drinking that much beer that fast again. It’s just not good.

Saturday Grau, Ktreva and I headed down to the range to do some shooting. Harvey caught up with us about a half an hour after we arrived. The place was packed. They had a pig roast and a lot of people were out there shooting. There was even a guy with a 30-caliber machine gun. Grau and I were the loudest shooters at the range with the Russian M44s we brought until some guy showed up with a .50 cal BMG. We couldn’t compete with that kind of noise. Those M44s are a nice firearm. Accurate, durable and with the proper ammunition you don’t get bolt jam. I really loved shooting it. Although I think that putting 100 rounds down the barrel of it by myself in less then 3 hours may not have been a good idea. My shoulder is still bruised and sore two days later.

After the range we headed to Fritz’s. On the way there we almost got into an accident because some guy in another vehicle was waving at me trying to tell me something. I thought he was trying to point out something wrong with the van. It turns out it was just a crazed Minnesota Viking fan who did not appreciate the Green Bay Packer license plate holder. I be he appreciates it even less after the Packers beat Minnesota.

Before we got to Fritz’s Grau and I dropped Ktreva off at Tammi’s so she could “freshen up”. Grau and I didn’t care, we walked in dirty and smelling of gunpowder… the way we like it. Shortly after Harvey arrived and then Tammie and Ktreva came walking in. I had started double-fisting it as soon as I walked in. Jack Daniel’s in one hand and a beer in the other. This didn’t seem to surprise anyone as the showed up.

Shadoglare and Bruce joined us around 4:00PM and then we all started drinking the night away. Harvey had cigars and shared with everyone. Everybody had their chance to tell stories or just make jokes. I know I was complaining I wasn’t get drunk fast enough, and shortly after that things got a little fuzzy. But what I do recall is this:

The girls were taking their shirts off.
Tammi wants to date a midget.
Bruce wants Tammi to date a midget.
Tammi likes it deeper.
Apparently no one recognizes me over the phone.
The shocking realization of how cheap it is to eat/drink at Fritz’s.
Saving a seat with a beer mug on it for That One Guy who refused to join us. (BASTARD!)

On the way home I know I was in form because I started singing, and demanding a chili cheese burrito from Taco Bell. When I got home I drank another half bottle of Jack Daniel’s while making comments and I remember thinking, drunken blogging can be difficult, it’s almost like work. I also discovered that Grau and Harvey need to clean the blogroll. Some of the blogs on there are blank or haven’t been posted on in over a year. Milk carton kids I tell ya.

Sunday Morning Clone gets me up nice and early, which is good because Grau passed out on our couch from his inability to drive himself home. In fact I’m not sure he was fit to drive Sunday morning when he left, but I was a good friend and just let him leave anyway. Bruce calls me and says he’s coming to get me so we can go watch football. Okay, I never puked once, but I was feeling rough. Hell, I got drunk Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The thought of drinking anything other than water was not appealing, but it’s football. So we head out, grab some beer and want back to Bruce’s place to meet up with Shadoglare and our friend Scroatie so we can carpool to the football party. Where it was discovered that by my drinking a bottle of water it reactivated alcohol in my system and I was technically still drunk from the night before.

At this point I would like to point out that yes I’ve been drinking beer… no I’m not supposed to. But it was my birthday dammit and I’m celebrating it the way I wanted to. I’m back to no beer today.

At first Bruce and I thought the two cases of Miller Lite, Six-pack of Blue Moon pumpkin ale, six-pack of Berghoff and six-pack of Fat Tire would be sufficient. When we ran out of Miller Lite sometime in the third quarter we knew we were in trouble. In fact someone showing up late to the party made a beer run. I will admit that by half time the day gets a little fuzzy, but I do remember some things. Like:

Bruce sitting in the gayest chair I’ve ever seen in my life… and it’s his.
Being hit in the eye with a penalty flag, and not letting myself get pissed about it.
Coercing Bruce and the host into a beer-drinking contest based on their favorite teams performance.
The cops showing up because the host was out driving a go-cart around the neighborhood.
Raptor girl setting the chicken wings on fire.

It was a good day. I’m really not sure how I got home, in fact I’m not sure when I got home.

Now today I’m recovering. The thought of having any more alcohol in my system actually makes me physically nauseous. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a doctor’s appointment I need to go to.