Miasmatic Review

Must read if you live in Illinois.

Illinois Senators Dave Syverson and Brad Burzynski held Breakfast with the Senator this morning. They had done this every couple of weeks last spring and I attended every one of them. I found each one to be informative and exposing of the problems of Illinois Government. They haven’t had one since last May, which I sorely missed. Shadoglare joined me for this one.

The point of the breakfast was to discuss multiple topics including the status of the Capital Plan, Status of the RTA-CTA (Regional Transportation Authority –Chicago Transportation Authority), Blagojevich’s Health Plan, and budget updates. There was also an open question time. While everyone was eating they showed the below clip from the CBS affiliate in Chicago, CBS2, report, “Exposing Blagojevich: Governor’s Style and Obstacle” It’s about 8 minutes long, but it is worth the watch.

The worst part of this clip is the interviews and quotes from not only political players in his own party, but also his own staff! I’ve said for years this man is trying to destroy Illinois, but I never imagined it was this bad. He continually tries to overspend our income. Illinois is already in fiscal trouble due to over spending, bad budgeting and poor money management by our government. If he can’t get the funding through taxes, he’ll sell 25-year bonds, take the money from pension funds or take monies from taxes earmarked to be spent elsewhere. He is trying to push a Health Care plan that covers everyone in Illinois with a household income under $85,000.00, including illegal aliens.

If he gets voted in for a third term, so help me I think that will be the nail in the coffin of any hope I have that this Nanny State will get any better.

She's Gone.

Grandma died at 8:10 this evening. At least now she'll know some peace and comfort.

Inevitable.

Last night my mother told me that my grandmother doesn't have long left to live. For the last two years she has given us a scare on a regular basis that it was her time to die. It got to the point that when my mother would call and tell me that Grandma didn't have long to live, I'd shrug it off figuring she would bounce back. And every time she would. Inevitably most of the family felt that way.

Now we have a slightly different situation. They put Grandma has gotten worse, last night they finalized all the paperwork for a DNR (Do not Resuscitate). They also instructed the staff to take Grandma off of her meds, only keeping her on her meds that will keep her comfortable. While at work this morning I receive a call from my mother, "The hospice called, they say your Grandma is going to pass shortly".

I left work quickly and drove to the nursing home as fast as I could, I wanted to see her one last time. I had been planning on stopping in today on my lunch break, but it didn't look like I was going to be able to wait that long. When I arrived at the nursing home, Grandma's breathing was labored and shallow, her pulse was up over 110 and they couldn't take her blood pressure anymore. Her blood oxygen level was around 65%. She sounded really bad. Nurses and attendants where in and out all day checking on her and kept giving us the same line, "anytime now".

I sat with her for 3 hours, finally I had to go get Clone. Mom runs a daycare and usually watches him, but since she was with Grandma, she had a substitute filling in for her. Unfortunately the substitute couldn't stay all afternoon and Clone was the only kid she had left. Now I'm sitting home with the boys waiting for the call.

Unfortunately I'm not sure if it's going to happen tonight, tomorrow or when. It's going to be a long wait.

Jaw-Jacker

Again tonight’s beer is sponsored by Bruce of Back to the Batcave… whom seems to have started posting again. However, some of them are complete lies! Last Friday, after being blamed for his “condition” due to festivities the day before, he gave me a bottle of Jaw-Jacker by Aracadia Ales.

This comes in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. The main label has the name of the Brewery at the top. There is a picture of a funky pumpkin headed scarecrow on it with a mouth full of sharp teeth. It looks like it’s trying to growl at the moon. Behind that it appears to be a door on an old building. The name of the beer is closer to the bottom. It has a quick blurb that says, “Ale with spices added. (Cinnamon, Allspice and Nutmeg).

It has a ruddy orange color to it. There is some cloudiness, but light does pass through easily. It poured almost no head. What film there was faded quickly to a film and then nothing. There is no lacing at all.

An overpowering scent of pumpkin, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon is noticeable. Caramel malts can also be detected if one concentrates. Though not as strong as the scent, the flavor is again a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and pumpkin. Floral hops finish it off with a bitterness. The aftertaste actually worsens before it starts to fade. It’s a bitter combination of beer and pumpkin pie. Actually this almost tastes like an IPA that had a slice of pumpkin pie dissolved in the bottle.

It’s a medium bodied beer. There is some prickly carbonation on the tongue.

This was an unpleasant beer to drink. The flavor was vile, the aftertaste disconcerting and the thought of drinking another will wake me up in the middle of the night screaming. In fact after the first sip I made such a hideous noise that the entire family came running to see what was happening. If I never drink this beer again, I’ll be a happy man. I may just have to kick Bruce in the dick the next time I see him for giving this to me. I give it 1.5 out of 10.

Privacy lost.

I get home tonight and I have an e-mail from my friend Smokepoles telling me that Google has implemented a new feature that allows you to put in a phone number and if you search you're able to find the information of the numbers owner. I had heard this before, but never saw it work... until tonight. I went out and sure enough I entered my number and up popped my first initial, last name, city and state. At first I wasn't too concerned, you really can't get too much from that, but I decided to remove it anyway. As I was going through the remove process, Google linked me to some other sites that also do reverse number look ups. Two of them, WhitePages.com and PhoneNumber.com not only gave out my full name, but also my wive's name, our home address and directions on how to get here. For the last forty minutes I've been on a rampage having all of my information removed from these sites.

So if you are a little concerned about privacy, you might want to check and see if you are listed on any of these.

Chili question number 3

You may recall I've asked you questions about Chili in the past. I have some more for you.

Chili: With or with out beans?

What is the best meat for chili?

Let me know what you think, a very important decision hinges on all of your answers.

A spoon full of Cinnamon

Earlier today one of my employees came to me and asked, "Can a human swallow a spoonful of cinnamon?" After staring at her blankly for about 30 seconds I responded with, "I don't know... and don't you have some work you should be doing?" Of course this planted a seed of wonder in my head as to why she would ask such a question. 30 minutes later I approach her and ask her "Why did you ask me if a human could swallow a spoonful of cinnamon?" At which point I was caught in the middle of a disagreement.

One of my people said they heard on the radio this morning that a human can not swallow a spoonful of cinnamon. They went so far as to try it on the radio show with multiple people and none of them where successful. My other employee stated it's baloney, there is no reason a human couldn't do it. Well I honestly don't know, and really don't want to try it. So I suggested each go home and give it a try and bring back the results tomorrow.

Until then, do any of you know if a human can swallow a spoonful of cinnamon?

Football and Friends.

I spent the whole day yesterday down at Fritz's in Stillman Valley. Over the last week I told everyone I bumped into that I was going to be down there all day and that if they wanted they could come down for a drink or two and some conversation. Through out the day various friends stopped in, some ate, some just drank, but all had a good time. The staff was nice enough to fill me in on all the local gossip and inquired on missing individuals. They were even nice enough to turn the TVs the the Tennessee Vols' game for me. Which turned out to be a great game. A real nail biter, they won in 4th overtime!

Now today I'm heading over to my friend J-man's house to watch the afternoon games with some friends there. I was going to host it at my house, but J-man doesn't like my TV. Since it's only a 27 inch TV, he doesn't think it's big enough. Thus he begged, pleaded and groveled to his wife to let him have it at there house, and she said yes. It doesn't matter to me any. I wouldn't mind having the guys here, but on the same side I don't have to worry about Clone climbing all over everyone and I don't have to pick up after them.

The best part about today is that since the Packer's already played and won, I can enjoy all the other games with out wondering what's going on.

Dead of Night

Here is a fun little time waster for everyone called Dead of Night. You have to defend your compound from zombie hordes. It starts out easy enough, but it gets difficult quickly.

Just remember if you lose your medic, you can't heal your units.

Biff answers questions.

Thomas Wilson, better known as Biff Tannen, the bully, from Back to the Future. I originally heard it on the radio yesterday morning while out buying ammo, after doing some searching I was able to find a video clip of it.

If you didn't enjoy that, then in the immortal words of Biff, "Butthead!"

Build your own phaser!

I know I'm a Star Trek fan and a techno junkie and I have many readers that are too. So when I found this I knew I had to share it. Below is a video clip of how to take a Blu-Ray laser and install it into a Star Trek Phaser to get a "functioning" phaser.

High Speed Photography

Last week I posted a high speed clip of a hollow point bullet traveling through ballistics gel. This week I found a montage of various high speed photos involving everything from bullets to drag racers.

I thought the scene with the tire on the drag racer was pretty cool. I never realized how much stress is put on those tires.

Black Friday Tradition.

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, went really well. There was no drama at all. Then again most of the day was spent with my father and I in the basement watching football. The Packer's won, after trying to give it up on Thanksgiving again, putting them at 10-1. Since both my father and I are Packer fans, we were damn delighted.

Of course today is Black Friday, that shopping day in which people become rude animals mugging each other to get some deal at what ever big box store. Seriously I've seen people get into fights at Wallyworld over TVs. Traffic is insane as people ignore the rules of the road to rush to the next store to buy items. It's just stupid. Until last year I avoided going out on Black Friday. That was when I found the good deal on ammo. Well they had the same deal this year. So off I went to try and get me a buy.

Dick's Sporting Goods had the sale of buy one box get a second 50% off. Unfortunately this year they had better trained staff and I didn't get 50% off all of my ammo. Also this year they jacked up the price of ammo right before the holiday, so I really didn't save that much. Even so I still ended up getting six boxes of .45 automatic. I went to Gander Mountain to try to get the deal there as well. My friend that worked there left a couple of months back to take a job elsewhere and they wouldn't honor the coupon from the competitor this year. I did end up picking up 10 boxes of 7.62X39mm and a Christmas present for Boopie. I didn't mean to do any Christmas shopping, but one of the few items he actually really wanted they had a Gander Mountain and it was a good price on it.

The nice thing is that neither store was busy at all. Heck I didn't get out of bed until 7:45 AM and when I arrived at both stores, they weren't overly busy at all. In fact I've seen them busier on normal weekends. Now of course the staff at both stores say they get busier in the afternoon after all the big electronic items are sold out at other stores. The only problem I had was the traffic. I really wish I had push bars on my truck. I also wish I had the right to pull people over and ticket them still. At one point traffic was grid locked because people were turning on red and the roads were backed up so they couldn't get out of the intersection. Cross traffic and on coming traffic had to stop because cars were blocking the intersection. I really just wanted to push the idiots off of the road so that traffic could get going again.

I didn't do it, but I really wanted to.

A picture that explains it all.

This billboard pretty much sums up how I feel about animals and hunting. Especially on Thanksgiving day.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving again. As many of my readers may recall the last two Thanksgivings have not been good for me. This year is shaping up to be a bit better. My in-laws were not able to make it this year, so that means I don't have a 4 day "Why Contagion sucks" fest. However, we are still going to my mother's were I've learned I have at least one aunt and cousin coming with as well. I would have backed out entirely except originally my in-laws were coming to town and I'm not cooking for that many people.

Yesterday we went to Clone's preschool for a Thanksgiving program/feast. It was a potluck style lunch with all the traditional Thanksgiving foods. After the meal the kids got up and did a little program for the parents. I learned a lot about my son's school that day. First it is ethnically challenged. There were no minorities at the school at all. Then this was the most un-politically correct Thanksgiving program I have ever seen. The kids dressed as pilgrims got to act with dignity, while the ones as Indians, "With their heathen ways", did the "indian dance", made the woo-woo-woo-woo sound and some came out with drums making the universal Indian drum sound, BUM-bum-bum-bum. And before you ask, hell yes I was laughing. Offended? no, not me and apparently none of the other parents either. It was really cute.

They also sang Thanksgiving themed songs like, "I don't want to be a Turkey on Thanksgiving" and "Turkey on a rail". These were hilarious, not just the way the kids acted, but the lyrics as well. The above picture is of Clone flapping his arms like wings trying to get away from being eaten.

I'm going to leave you all now to have a wonderful and fun Thanksgiving. Don't eat too much and hopefully you all have a good day! Oh, and before you I forget I left you all something in the extended entry to help brighten your day.

For the Ladies, a Pilgrim choking his chicken.

For the Guys, an Indian maiden ready to give it all for Thanksgiving.

Schlafly Summer Kolsch Ale

Tonight’s beer is review is sponsored by Bruce of Back To The Batcave (My latest blogspawn to abort itself with out warning) On his journey down state last month he brought back a beer for me to review. Schlafly Summer Kolsch Ale by The Saint Louis Brewery, INC. in St. Louis, MO. With a might THANKS to Bruce for his patronage, sponsorship and encouragement of my drinking habits, lets get this review started.

Like most beers this came in your standard 12 oz brown bottle. The body label is green with the brand name in a white oval with “Brewed in Saint Louis” on a black background spread above and below it. Only on the neck label to you get the type of beer, Summer kolsch ale. On the neck label there is some information about the beer itself. According to the date on the bottom of the main label this beer was “bottled with love on” April 12, 2007.

A nice thick white head forms when poured into a glass. I had an inch thick head with nice large bubbles on it. The head slowly dissipates. After 15 minuets I still have about an 1/8 inch head on the beer. There is some lacing on the side of the glass. There is a pale yellow color to the beer. A cloudiness can be seen when one tries to look through it. If it is held up to a light source you can really see how cloudy this beer really is. You can make out objects on the other side, but not much detail.

The scent is a strong citrus hop scent with a touch of sweet grass. There is also a slight bread aroma to it. The flavor is mainly of bread malts and citrus hops. There is a lemon accent to it that can probably be linked to the slight bitterness. The aftertaste fades quickly. Overall the taste is kind of weak and unimpressive.

This is a medium bodied beer with a nice crispness to it. The carbonation is at a good level for the overall body and taste of the beer.

I enjoyed drinking this beer. It wasn’t anything I would brag about, but I enjoyed it. This is a nice hot day or drink with pizza beer. The flavor acts as more of an accent than as the center of attention. I give this beer 4.5 out of 10.

Mandatory Service.

The other day on the radio they were having a political discussions and one of the guests made the statement that he felt that everyone in America should have to do a mandatory 4 years military service before the age of 40. It doesn't necessarily have to be in a combat role, but they have to serve in some capacity. (Clerks, supply, etc)

This topic was debated by the hosts, other guests and callers and made me wonder. I think military service is a good thing. Yet I don't know if I like the idea of mandatory military service as you may get undesirable candidates in the military. It's no secret that I never served. Not that I didn't try, but I was rejected from all branches of the military due to a medical problem... mainly that I had four metal pins in my left leg holding it together. After college I just wanted to get my career started. By this guests plan I would have served, probably as a clerk, but I still would have served.

But would I have gotten the same experience if I had? Part of the reason I was rejected is because they didn't think I would make it through boot with out damaging my leg even worse. So if I don't go through boot, am I not missing out on the opportunities and experience he wants me to have? You know, the discipline, camaraderie and spirit of our fighting men and women.

So what do you think, is mandatory military service a good thing?

Indecision 2008

Friend and long time reader Petey sent me this video clip for his candidate of choice, Mike Huckabee.

I'm in the Fred Thompson boat, but damn that was just too funny.

My Karma is strong.

TheKarmaQuiz.com - Online Karma Test Click Here!
Contagion, Your Karmic Alignment is: Zen Intuition!

Score: 19 You have a direct perception of truth. You are very keen and don't use it to take advantage. When you commit positive deeds, you don't do them to get ahead, you do positive deeds simply because it makes you feel good. Your intentions are almost always meant well and all this positive karmaic energy is bound to come back to you in a great way!

huh... who would have thunk?

National Ammo Day 2007

I know I'm a little late in getting this out, but today, November 19th, is National Ammo day. What is National Ammo Day? Well in their own words:

It is a nationwide BUYcott of ammunition. You buy ammunition. 100 Rounds a person.

The goals of Ammo Day:

The goal of National Ammo Day is to empty the ammunition from the shelves of your local gun store, sporting goods, or hardware store and put that ammunition in the hands of law-abiding citizens. Make your support of the Second Amendment known--by voting with your dollars!

There are an estimated 75 MILLION gun owners in the United States of America. If each gun owner or Second Amendment supporter buys 100 rounds of ammunition, that’s 7.5 BILLION rounds in the hands of law-abiding citizens!

The gun/ammunition manufacturers have been taking the brunt of all the frivolous lawsuits, trying to put these folks out of business. Well, not if we can help it! And we CAN help it by buying ammunition on November 19!

I actually bought 120 rounds. 100 .45 ACP and 20 7.62X39mm. It's not like its not going to be used, and if it helps send a pro-firearm message, even the better. So if you haven't done it yet, go ahead and do so, even if it is a day late.

NFL Fly Overs.

For Veteran's Day the NFL did a special report by Steve Sabol on the pre-game fly overs. Folks, I've been to many different football games and the fly over is probably one of the best parts about the game. It doesn't matter if you win or lose, the fly over touches a part of me that lasts. I know that since 9-11 I tend to mist up seeing the military fly over. Hell watching this clip brought a touch of moisture to me. There is just something touching about it. Even if you don't like football, it's worth going over to see the report and the fly overs. And even though they focus on the Chicago Bears, when they show the cockpit view, you can see my corporate headquarters. It's almost like they are trying to aim for it.

Below is the fly over from the San Diego Vs Packer's game I was at in September.

This one is a clip of the Minnesota Vs. Packers Veteran's day fly over. This one isn't as well made.

So you had a bad day.

The below clip is a hilarious compilation of people having a bad day at the office overreacting to their situation. To make it better they did it to the the song Bad Day by Daniel Powter. I know that at one point I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes... especially the guy with the axe.

Waxing nostalgia

It's almost time for Christmas, which means kids will be making lists about what they want. Now a days we have all these electronic and online wish lists, but when I was a kids it was the catalogs and wish books from various stores, I remember those fondly. I remember spending hours sitting in front of those books circling the items that I want. Over at X-Entertainment (I don't know why they named it that because there is nothing x-rated about it nor is that how I found it! It's all about toys and stuff.) they have an article regarding the 1985 JC Penny Wish Book.

I agree completely with the author regarding the USS Flagg. That was the only GI Joe toy that I wanted really bad that I never got. Sometimes, late at night when I can't sleep, I still think about it.

Watch it wiggle.

This isn't something normal for Saturday morning, but I found it interesting. This is a slow-motion clip of a hollow point bullet going through gelatin.

According to scientists ballistics gel has the same consistency of the human body, so this is what a hollow point bullet would do to the fleshy part of a person if they where hit by one... in theory.

Turkey warning!

Just in time for Thanksgiving this important warning has been issued regarding the dangers of Turkey. Ladies take notes.

Guys, make sure you get plenty of turkey for the ladies.

New furniture.

I had to buy a new addition to the house yesterday. With a little toy I brought back from Georgia, my firearm collection leaped to the count of 18. That includes black powder in case you are wondering. Well Ktreva was starting to get nervous about it. I normally kept them secured in cases under the bed. The ammo was locked away in boxes with me having the only key.

So I went out and bought a gun safe. It's not a huge one, but big enough to hold all the ammo and firearms in it. The problem is that it's still pretty big and takes up a lot of room. I ended up having to put it in the hall way, which is the only place it would fit. I don't think Ktreva is too pleased with the location, but she's just happier now that we have a proper safe instead of series of locked cases.

What's the new toy I brought back from Georgia? I'm not telling. It's a surprise. Plus I just don't want documentation that I have it.

Another 15 minutes of fame.

Tonight on my ride home I was listening to a local talk radio show. Admittedly it was a liberal radio show, but I like to listen to both sides of an argument before I form an opinion. The host, who usually states he doesn't want to own a gun, was talking about getting a gun and was asking for input from listeners. So of course I called, I had too.

The previous callers to me covered most of the points I was going to say, but I had some other points. He was looking for a firearm for home defense, I recommended a .38 revolver. It's big enough to stop someone, less maintenance, and it is compact enough for both him and his wife to use. He had also stated that he was going to buy it and would never use it. Thus I told him not to buy it. If he doesn't take it shooting at least once ever 3 months and clean it, he may end up having more problems. He agreed with that and said that he could do. He asked me how *I* would store a loaded firearm in my house. I told him I'd buy a good gun safe to keep next to the bed. One that him and his wife were the only ones that knew the combination too.

Then he inquired if I had kids and how do they react to firearms. I told him that I do have kids and that it's been my rule that every time that I bring a firearm home, I show it to the boys. That way they know it's in the house and I desensitize them to it. I told him that I teach them gun safety at a young age and that way they aren't inclined to play with them. It's how I grew up and I never touched the firearms with out my parents.

Overall I was on the radio for about 15 minutes talking the bonuses to owning a firearm, but I also told him that if he buys one and is going to be afraid of it, it's not worth buying.

Intruded upon.

This morning when I went out to the truck I discovered that someone had ransacked it. The center consol was opened and everything on it was spread all over the seat, different compartments were open stuff was strewn about. Whoever did it didn’t take anything, at least nothing I noticed. They left money, CDs, sunglasses, etc. I don’t generally leave a lot of items of value in my vehicles. They did however search the ashtray.

To be honest it is almost like they where looking for something specific. They tossed the compartments, but didn’t take anything and looked into compartments that normally you don’t store stuff in… like the ashtray next to the coin compartment. Places that are just big enough to say hold a cell phone.

Not that I have any proof. And I may be over thinking this, but allegedly the Ex told Boopie that if I don't return the phone by this Friday he's going to take me to court. Which would be a bad idea for him. At least I know it wasn’t Boopie, he couldn’t get out of the house in the middle of the night with out setting off the alarm.

Eliot Ness

Geez, I don’t do a beer review in two weeks and Shadoglare decides he’s going to take over for me. I’m just kidding, it’s nice to see others taking an appreciation of beer. Tonight I’m going to be reviewing Eliot Ness by the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, OH.

Again we have the standard 12 oz brown bottle. It has a shadowy picture of what appears to be a man standing at a beer drinking a beer in the 20s. I doubt this was Ness as he was the big prohibition enforcer in Chicago. Then again after 1933 when prohibition was lifted he did move to Cleveland as the director of public safety and according the Great Lakes Brewing Company, he was a frequent visitor of their brewpub… so maybe it is. Also on the label is a brief description of the beer, including the fact that Ness frequented their bar. It also states that it has 6.3% Alcohol by Volume.

There is a nice dark copper coloring to the beer with a touch of amber. It poured a thin tan head that quickly faded into a film on the top. There is no lacing at all on the side of the glass.

Your standard lager scent is present. A strong malt aroma with a slight hint of hops. It’s not very complex, yet at the same time it is appealing. The flavor isn’t much more complex. There is a nice malty flavor with roasted grains and a grassy accent. A slight citrus hop flavor is also present. The aftertaste is a little bitter, but it doesn’t last very long.

This is a light bodied beer. There is a normal level of carbonation to it and it is pretty easy to drink. It doesn’t sit heavy and would probably go well with a sandwich.

I thought this was a pretty good beer. It’s nothing too fancy, but it’s not bad. I don’t know if I would go out of my way to buy it, but I definitely would drink it if one was given to me or if I saw a six-pack at the store. I give it a 5 out of 10.

Tennessee the round up.

I’m sorry I didn’t post about Saturday’s game, but we were celebrating pretty hard. Bloodspite and I got up early on Saturday so we could find a decent parking space at the game. Since all the close by parking is reserved for alumni or season ticket holders, we had about a quarter mile walk to the stadium. Bloodspite dropped the bomb on me Friday that the stadium was dry… meaning no alcohol. So I figured the pre-game partying there would be beer available. Wrong! It was on campus so no beer. Oh well, we can live with out beer. Beer to football is like steak sauce to steak. The steak is great on it’s own, but the sauce just adds a little extra something to it. We did go to the Volunteer Village to hang out with all the co-eds, fans, co-eds, alumni, co-eds and cheerleaders. We also picked up some free swag they were giving out. Including pictures and autographs.

Two hours prior to the game the was the Vol-walk, a tradition where the players walk from the athletic center to the stadium so all the fans can shake their hands and cheer on the team. Now I’m not a Tennessee fan, but I was rooting for them. Bloodspite, on the other hand, is a different story. Folks let me say he feels about Tennessee the same way I feel about the Packers. When the walk started and he realized we picked out front row seats he was ecstatic. When the team started coming down he was down right giddy. After shaking Eric Ainge’s hand I thought he was going to start jumping up and down, giggling like a little girl. Hell, he damn near bragged about it to his mother the whole day. Then again if it had been Brett Favre, I probably would have been the exact same way.

After the walk we went to the stadium to watch the game. This is a huge stadium. Officially Neyland Stadium seats 102,037 but I kid you not there were like 105,600 some people there. They actually sell standing room tickets I guess. Our seats were three rows from the top of the southwest end zone. The only complaints I had wasn’t the location of the seats, we could see just fine and it was nice to see plays open up. My issues were that there is no legroom in this section; we were packed in tight. The reason there is no legroom is that this is a steep stadium. The people in front of me could use my knees as a headrest. If you have a fear of heights, do not get seats this high up. Hell it about caused vertigo in me.

The game was good, well good for us. Tennessee won 34-13 over the Arkansas Razorbacks. We were sitting in a sea of razorback fans. Fortunately their smack talk started dying shortly after the game started. After the game we headed back to the hotel and met up with Bloodspite’s cousin. We drank some beer, went to Wild Wings Café for some hot wings, nachos and more beer. Someone stole a bucket that was used to deliver beer. I’m not saying who it was… but I had two accomplices. After dinner we went back to the hotel were we had beer left over from the previous night’s beer search. About a case into the night T1G calls and proceeds to get upset with me over drunkenly questioning him about “a new roommate”. I just had to point out that it was his fault that he called me when I was drunk! Some people!

Sunday morning I headed out early. I wanted to get home in a decent hour and I had a ten-hour drive ahead of me. Everything started out great, there was almost no traffic and I was making good time. About an hour and fifteen minutes into the trip my phone rings. It’s Bloodspite wanting to know if I had his car keys. I hadn’t seen them when I was loading, but I told him I needed to top of the tank so I would stop and look. I checked the door, the floor, the glove compartment, under the seat, the center counsel, between the seats and there weren’t in there. So he went back to checking the room. I get gas, hit the bathroom, buy something to drink and get back on the road. He asks me if I’m sure they aren’t in my car. I assure him they aren’t. He asks me to check again so I tell him at the next off ramp I’ll pull over and research the vehicle. Now of course I’m curious so while I’m drinking up and down this curvy mountain highway I’m reaching around. I look up just in time to see me careening toward a guardrail. I slam on the breaks and swerve. Then something hits the back of my foot… There were his keys. In the wild driving the night before they must have slid under my seat. I didn’t even think to look under my seat. Now I have to turn around and bring him his keys.

To make up for all the lost time I’m driving a bit faster then before. I made the return trip in just under an hour. I did the same thing on the way home. I found a vehicle going faster then I was and pulled in behind them and kept this up all the way home. In fact on the stretch between Indianapolis and Chicago on I-65, I was doing in excess of 100 mph keeping up with the pack. What should have only taken me 10 hours took me 10.5 (with a 2.5 hour detour to return the keys). See I think this was Bloodspite’s way of balancing out the trip. He had a 14-hour drive and was trying to make me share his pain.

Overall I had a great time and to be honest I may have to look into heading back next year. It was just that much fun.

Tennessee day 2

First off let me say this. I snore, I know I snore and I snore badly, but Bloodspite snores like a grizzly being arse raped by a moose. It's loud, it's disturbing, and by god it gave me nightmares.

After realizing that it wasn't some kind of beastial orgy going on in the room, I was able to pull myself out of bed and get ready for the day. Which started with Bloodspite and I heading to Georgia so he could visit with his father and show me some of the sites around were he grew up. Folks, this really is some beautiful country down there, pictures will follow later. Th en after meeting his father and uncle they took me to were the movie Deliverance was filmed. Following that bit we ended up in the ER. Folks, do not be the only northerner arounde a bunch of Georgia boys! Finally we ended up at a gun shop/range to do some shooting... not at the northerner... Were I discovered that Georgia's gun laws rock!

We headed back to the motel were Bloodspite had arranged for a justice of the peace to meet up with Bloodspite's mother and sister and sister's friends. We decided to pick up some beer and discovered that Tennessee sucks! We went to three liquor stores to find beer and each one didn't have anything other then a very piss poor sampling of some so-so beers. When we asked were we could find beer I about lost it when the smart arse store owner told me to go to Citgo. After the third store we ended up going to Wallyworld and just buying some Miller Lite, I was too pissed, annoyed and generally sober to want to continue the hunt for good beer... Fark Tennessee!

Overall it was a good day and I'm looking forward to the game tomorrow. Now if I can only get my wife to understand the new toy I'm bringing home... Georgia gun laws rock!

Tennessee

I made it to Knoxville in plenty of time to have some fun tonight. That is after the first two rentalcars that had check engine lights came on, a stand still accident in Chicago, and having a stand still in Kentucky while the used explosvies to contruct the road. Yea, that's right, they were blasting the road.

Of course I get here to find out that Bloodspite requested a room with one bed. He then advises me he grew up 15 minutes away from where the filmed Deliverence. I'm really glad I brought my .45 with me.

So far we've sampled a lot of the local brew and have started drinking on some of the stuff we brought from home. However he did take me to a hippy joint called "The Mellow Mushroom" for beer and pizza. The pizza was damn good, the beer was hit and miss. Tomorrow we plan on drinking more beer and then on Saturday we are hitting the game. Depending on how things go I plan on blogging interesting things as soon as I can. Unfortunately sobriety and time dictate what I can do.

The room spins.

Last night was fun. Every time I laid down I would get nauseated. I had to try to sleep on my back with my head propped up to stop it. Unfortunately I can't sleep that way. It's very uncomfortable. I'm more of a sleep on their side/stomach kind of person. Thus I'm staying home again today. I really need to get over this. On Thursday I'm driving to Tennessee to hook up with Bloodspite for the Tennessee Vols vs Arkansas Razorback game. I've been planning this since September and if I have to drive there while horking, I will.

On the flip side, it's kind of nice to be able to spend the day home alone with Clone. We are going to watch some movies and play a couple of games together. I guess if I'm going to be sick, it's not a bad way to spend the day.

I feel like (BLECH!)

I'm staying home from work today. I've felt off for the last couple of days. It started Friday night after an evening at Fritz's. I thought maybe the beer wasn't mixing with me too well. The middle of the night fun and all day nausea I attributed to a hang over... The first I've had in 2 years. Then Sunday evening while at the ball I still felt off, but thinking it was just a persistent hangover I kept trying to drink it out of my system. In hind sight, that might not have been a good idea.

Sunday morning I still felt off, was having more bodily function "fun", and just had a general icky-bad feeling. I went to football Sunday over at Bruce's. I forgot all my stats, my flags, my chair, my clip board and was just kind of out of it. I'm still thinking hangover, but I'm starting to question it. I was also gassier than any man has a right to be.

Last night when my stomach was dumping it's contents in the middle of the night I realized... hey, it's not a hang over, I'm sick! Thus I'm staying home today because at 8:35 CST this morning I've been in and out of the bathroom 5 times since midnight. I really didn't want to be at work like this.

We went to the Fancy Dress Ball.

As I had mentioned I was inducted in the ONW Co on October 13th. Last night they had their tenth annual Colonial Ball. I've never gone before... because I wasn't a member. I Know Ktreva was psyched out about this. We'd been invited years past as guests, but I never felt comfortable going since I wasn't a member. I'm glad we went last night.

We ate a nice formal dinner, we danced, and we conversed with good friends and good people. Yes, I danced. I actually know some ballroom dancing. You'd be surprised what I know. Okay, I'm not good at it, but I know how. Some of the dances they did I didn't know, but they had an instructor there to teach us period dancing. It was a lot of fun and Ktreva looked spectacular.

Okay, so I wasn't exactly dressed too fancy. I did wear my great kilt, and was the only one there wearing a historically accurate kilt for the time period. Actually there were to guys there wearing skirts trying to pass them off as kilts. I groused about that a lot last night so I'm going to let it drop. I don't really own anything fancy for the time period we do, mainly because I don't portray anyone that would have fancy clothes. I did have to make a concession to Ktreva since I wouldn't buy fancy clothes to wear once, she got to wash my waistcoat. I've owned that waistcoat for 4 years and the last time I let her wash it was 3 years ago. I was trying for a period correct dirtiness to it. She washed it three times to get the smell out, but some of the dirt is still ground in.

We had a great time, in fact everyone did. As one of our table companions stated during the formal dinner, "This is like Prom, for re-enactors." That's true, except I enjoyed this and I liked the people I was with.

MMMmmmm Bacon.

I love bacon, but I'm not allowed to eat it with my dietary restrictions, but I've found the answer to get around that. No, it's not turkey bacon. Although it's not bad, it just doesn't taste the same. I've found Bacon Salt!

Bacon salt is a zero calorie, vegetarian, kosher certified, seasoning salt that makes everything taste like real bacon....

...Our mission in life is to make everything taste like real, delicious bacon, without the fat or calories.

Some of the testimonials are rather amusing too.

Why would you have fries if you could have bacon fries?

Just think of the possibilities. Bacon corn, bacon broccoli, bacon fish, bacon bacon. It's just never ending!

Momentum Missle Mayhem 2

Here's a fun little time waster for the day, Momentum Missile Mayhem 2. It's easy to catch on, but I'll tell you want, make sure you are watching your stability and energy meters when shooting your missiles, you could end up either destroying yourself or using up all of your energy. Also two vehicles hitting each other tend to do more damage than hitting them with the missiles.

Momentum Missile Mayhem 2

Tales from the Far Side.

I know Halloween is over, but I found these and I have to share them. When I was in High School I discovered The Far Side by Gary Larson. I instantly loved the humor in it. From that time forward I would get the day by day calender he made until he retired and stopped making them. He started up the day to day calendar again, but with no new comics in it. Back in 1994 (Not the 20 years that the clips state) he came up with an animated Halloween special, Tales From the Far Side. As far as I know it only aired once. It's a collection of animated shorts based on some of his comics and other idea's he's had. In the third one it contains my favorite short from the series, "How aliens disguised as cowboys in the old west." To this day I still make references to this short around the campfire.

I have them listed in the order they were shown in the show, not in the order whoever uploaded them labeled them as.

How my night went.

I’m a little disappointed in last night. First off I didn’t get the amount of trick or treaters that I thought I was going to get. Usually I get 200-300 kids, last night I got maybe 100-150. Trick or treating started at 5:30, but I didn’t get my first kid until almost 5:45. At first I thought it was because it was still light out and that a lot of people were waiting until it got dark, but no that wasn’t it. It did start picking up but it wasn’t until Ktreva returned with Clone that I realized why it was down by so much. Remember the flooding we had back in August, well a lot of the houses that were hit really bad are still condemned and abandoned. There were a lot of kids in that area.

Getting back to the daylight, how annoying. Half of my display doesn’t look scary in the daylight. In fact some of the scarier things you can’t see until it gets dark, like the free-floating ghost that is in the upstairs front window. Yet I still had a lot of people taking pictures of the house and me in the daylight. I lost count of how many kids I had my picture taken with or the kids had their picture taken with my display. You have to remember I dress up in a costume to hand out candy. Here I am:

I will admit that I do intentionally try to scare kids, but I have a rule. If they look like they are under the age of 10, I play nice. If there are kids under the age of 10 around, I play nice. If a kid under the age of ten gets scared, I will take my mask off just so they can see I’m not a real demon. I really do go out of my way not scare the younger kids, but sometimes bad things happen. There was on little boy, about two years old, that must have been in a panic before he got to my house. I could here him getting worked up as they approached. There were other kids there so I was handing out candy. My fog machine had been on and the wind had died down so there was thick fog bank on my obscuring my front porch from the sidewalk. As this kid in the stroller is pushed up to my steps a gust of wind clears the fog and he is looking directly at me. A shriek that only can be produced by a young child in fear for their life AND in pain was made. It was ear shattering! I ripped my mask off so fast I almost tore out my earrings. I said to the little boy, “See, it’s just a costume. Just like you are Spiderman, I’m a dark lord of the dead!” Sadly that actually seemed to calm him down a lot. Yet I still think he’s going to be in therapy until in his 50’s before he gets over this one.

I did get one legit scare last night. Two girls, about twelve, came walking up to the porch. At first they were hesitant and a little scared, but after they got their candy and were walking away I heard one say, “He’s not so scary.” So I jumped down the porch, ran up behind them and made a guttural scream. Both girls screamed and took off… in different directions. I don’t know if they ever found each other because I didn’t see either one of them the rest of the night. Maybe they went around the block to avoid my house.

What I don’t get was the extremes in reaction I received for the first time last night. Remember I said I had people wanting their kids to have their picture taken with me. Well I kid you not, one kid turns to me and says something like, “I want a pony, and a rocket ship, and a gun that shoots darts.” WTF?!?!?! What am I? Some kind of Satan Clause? Kids asking me for toys and stuff. That’s just not right!

Then on the other hand I had a lady who chastised me for scaring little kids. She arrived at a busy time when I had a lot of kids on my porch. The kids with here were probably 8-10 years old. A family with a young kid came up and the kid, of course, got scared. Thus as I stated I do, I took my mask off and gave the girl a piece of candy. After they left the Lady says to me, “You really should be ashamed of yourself for scaring little kids.” I replied, “It’s Halloween, I decorate and dress spooky. I don’t go out of my way to scare small children, but it does happen. That is why I took my mask off. This is for fun, if the parents want cute they’ll take the kids to see Santa or the Easter Bunny.” I mean c’mon. My house has a life-like skeleton hanging from a pole axe, zombies rising out of graves, a coffin with death hanging in it, ghosts, a giant spider eating severed limbs, rats, shrunken heads, severed heads, multiple skulls and me walking around. I think my decorations themselves speak as a warning that my house is PG-13 on the Scare-o-meter.

Eh, maybe she’s right and I shouldn’t do all of this…. Wait a second, I had one person complain and I had just about EVERY OTHER ADULT COMPLIMENT AND APPRECIATE WHAT I DID. I don’t know why, but her comment really got under my skin. I’m actually pretty annoyed by it. I don’t know why, but I am. Usually I let stuff like that roll of my back, but this time it’s still stinging a little.