Miasmatic Review

Halloween 08 so far.

Okay, this has been a busy day for me so far. First I went to work for four hours. I had to distribute a little goody bag to all of my employees. It wasn't much, just a bag with a Halloween themed pencil and pencil sharpner, a tombstone eraser, a Halloween pin and a little spring toy that jumps. They where just meant to be something fun for all of them to play with todya. I wanted to try to get them into the Halloween spirit.

I had to leave work early so that I could decorate the house. We don't do it the night before because of vandals. I put a lot of time and effort into this and I don't want stuff stolen or broken. I refuse to not do it, because I enjoy it. I snapped some pictures in the daylight just so you can see how things are going so far.

Here is the front yard from two different angles:

The best Candy Bowl ever

The upstairs bedroom ghost, which only really looks scary in the dark. I'll try to get pictures of that later as well so you can see.

I've got to go get my costume on now. I'll try to get a picture of that as well so you can see what I dress as.

Now of course before I did all the work I needed to get something to eat, so I stopped by Hooters for lunch. And you know what, bless the staff there for keeping the holiday spirit alive. Everyone was in costumes and it really helped get me in the mood.

My waitress Tyler

She looked good, but not as good as Ktreva will later in her costume.

I love Halloween!

Halloween!

It's the morning of Halloween! I've got a couple of hours of work then I finish the transformation of the house into a haunted house for the kids. I'll keep you posted as the day goes on.

So what are you doing for Halloween?

It's pumpkin time!

Tonight the boys and I carved our pumpkins. We started at 7:30 and Boopie is still working on his. Now, I've seen some cool pumpkins out there, ones that have some great designs. None of ours look like these:

I'm not sure who carved all of these, but they are impressive.

Whew, that's a weight off my back.

According to all of the media sources I don't need to vote for president. Apparently Obama has already won.

They are calling that Obama has 355 electoral votes and McCain has 156. I guess us third party voters don't even get enough to get our candidate even 1 electoral vote.

Beamis Irish Stout

This week’s review is sponsored by Petey of Petey’s Powderhorn. He donated a can of Beamish Irish Stout by Beamish & Crawford in Cork, Ireland. Thank you Petey!

It came in a 14.9 fl oz nitro can. Yes, this is one of those beers that have the widget that when the can is opened it injects nitrogen into the beer making it creamier and have a thicker head. The can is black with a cream colored ban at the top, which may be trying to emulate what the beer looks like. In bold read letters running the length of the can is the name beamish. The company logo, a red B in a red circle, is in the middle with the worlds Genuine Draught Irish Stout.

There is a nice dark mahogany color to it with ruby highlights. It’s almost black like a cup of coffee. When the can is first opened and poured into a proper pint glass the bubbles flow on the inside of the glass as the head forms. It gives the look of waves flowing down the inner part of the glass. The head is a thick and creamy tan color. It leaves a decent amount of lacing on the glass.

The smell is a faint combination of Cocoa, Coffee and nuts. There is also a nice undertone of roasted malts. The flavor is mild for a stout. There are subtle notes of roasted coffee and chocolate malts. A mild bitterness is noticeable in the finish. As well as a very slight nuttiness. There is not much of an aftertaste to it at all.

This is a medium bodied beer. There is a nice creaminess to it that coats the mouth and throat and helps to keep the flavor fresh. Even though it is creamy, I’m surprised that it isn’t heavier bodied. I like my malts to be a touch thicker.

This is a pretty good stout, it’s very easy to drink and goes down smoothly. It wouldn’t be my first choice of stouts, but I definitely wouldn’t pass one up. I could also see myself picking up a four pack when I was in the mood. It’s pretty good. I give it 6.5 out of 10.

The elections, I've had enough.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I know my posting has been off the last couple of weeks. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I've been up to my eyeballs in the upcoming elections. I'm not talking just Federal, but also state and local. I've been spending a lot of time doing research, listening to radio shows and watching debates and news reports. Sometime in the last couple of days I've reached a boiling point of anger and frustration that folks, honestly I just kind of started not caring.

I'm tried of all the mud slinging. Look, I don't need a commercial that twists the facts, gives partial truths and is biased to try to sway me to vote for their candidate. Seriously mud slinging is the lowest form of campaigning that I, personally, compare to bullying and playground harassment. Seriously, I know that there are some people that will fall for this type of shenanigans, I just think that if you are going to use mud slinging you are highlighting your opponents weakness because you don't have any strengths.

Then there is the endorsements. I have some news for these candidates, some of your endorsement hurt you more than help you. IE when you get an endorsement from Governor Blagojevich (with his 13% approval rating), you may not be getting the boost that you want. IE if you are trying to get me to vote for you, getting an endorsement from Blagojevich, Rockford Mayor Morrissey, local hero I've never heard of, anyone being investigated by the feds, any foreign government or figure or any celebrity is not going to help your case. I'm sorry. I mean seriously there is a local politician that has a quote from Blago on his mailer, two more have Morrissey. A man running for an elected office is using a "ten time local high school championship winning hockey coach" for an endorsement. I've never heard of this guy before, and honestly just because he can coach a high school hockey team to a championship doesn't mean his opinion means anything to me.

Then there is the buddy-buddy campaign. You know, the one where the candidate is trying to be your friend and he makes all of these promises on what he's going to do for us in the position he's running for. Then at the end he makes "the promise". ie "I'm going to save the tax payers money, you have my word on it!" Really? You're word, you don't say. Well that changes everything. I mean, c'mon, I don't know you from Adam yet I'm supposed to take you at your word that your going to do something. Since I'm just a naturally trusting and gullible individual, I'm just going to blindly take you at your word. I mean it's not like you've done anything to prove yourself trustworthy to me. As far as I'm concerned your word is no better than that of the bum that sits on the corner that promises to pick up the trash in my alley if I give him $10.00.

Now mix that in with the fact that I honestly don't like most of the candidates that are running for positions, I've just had enough. Especially at the presidential level. I stopped caring if Obama or McCain win, because honestly folks, we're screwed either way. I'm voting libertarian because I honestly can't cast a vote for either one of those tools.

Slacking again

I'm starting to get really bad about posting! What the heck is up with me? Well, I can let you in on some things. Friday night I went to Fritz's with Bruce. We spent some time there having fun. I hadn't been back down to Fritz's since before I left for Oklahoma. It was good to get back there and see all the familiar faces and help put Fritz's daughters through college.

Saturday afternoon we had some family fun. We took Clone to some local seasonal attractions. The Pumpkin Patch and Edwards Apple Orchard (Or as Clone called it, "The apple torture"). Edward's was destroyed by tornado back in January and it was good to see that they were up and running again. The new buildings looked nice and the new layout was much more customer friendly. I hate to say this, but it almost looks like the tornado was almost beneficial to the business. It may have been heart breaking, but the buildings look fantastic and are much larger.

Some of the highlights from the day are:

My impressing the crowd and staff at The Pumpkin Patch with my skills at the pumpkin launcher. Think of a water balloon slingshot set on a permanent pole. They have two smaller ones that are actually water balloon slingshots and a large one that is custom made using what looks like surgical tubing. The guy running the games was verbally impressed with how far I could pull the tube back. The other people out there had trouble pulling it back with in feet of how far I could pull it. Now, I'm not saying I'm strong, I just have a good technique for these things. Another guy that tried between my two turns came over and was talking to me about how far I flung those pumpkins.

Clones favorite souvineer wasn't anything we bought, but a piece of wheat I picked while we took a hay ride. The boy wouldn't let go of it all day and even brought it in the house at the end of the night.

At night we went to a Haunted Hayride at Lockwood Park that was put on by the Rockford Park District. It was fun, Clone was brave and didn't get scared. He just sat there and looked on entertained by the antics of the monsters.

Overall we had a great time. It was something we needed.

Explaining politics to kids.

Yea, it's about like that.

Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale

Bruce of Back to the Batcave donated tonight’s beer for review. He actually gave this to me about a month ago, and I’m just now getting around to reviewing it. Tonight beer is America’s Original Pumpkin Ale by Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Haywood, CA.

It came in a 12 oz shortneck brown bottle; the label has a black background with a picture of a pumpkin on it. The name of the beer is at the top and the name of the brewery is at the bottom. Under the name of the beer it claims, “Ale brewed with real pumpkin and spices.”

There is an orangish/amber color to the beer. It’s clear and light passes through easily. I was unable to detect any haziness or cloudiness at all. There was no head when poured into a glass. As it poured it fizzed like a carbonated soft drink, but nothing lasted more than a couple of seconds. Almost as soon as I finished pouring the beer the head disappeared to nothing. As it sat in the glass it almost looked like I had a glass of some kind of dark apple juice instead of beer.

The smell is an overpowering combination of pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg. It gives the beer a scent of pumpkin pie or my friend’s wife’s pumpkin squares. I was unable to detect the scent of malts, hops or any normal beer scents. The taste is almost like the scent. A very strong combination of pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg. There is a strange slightly bitter aftertaste.

It is a light bodied beer that is kind of watery. It’s very easy to drink. There is no coating to the mouth or throat, which helps the aftertaste to fade even quicker.

I really did not find this beer to be very pleasurable to drink. The flavor, while fine if eating a desert, is not really something I look for in a beer. It was overly sweet and really not much of any beer taste. Seriously, it was almost like drinking a pumpkin pie smoothie. Yet, it didn't taste too bad with Apple Cider Doughnuts. Honestly I think Bruce bought this for me because he’s on a personal quest to find the nastiest, most horrible beer for me to drink. He must take some kind of sadistic pleasure in having me drink some really god awful swill. Heck, this isn’t even the first pumpkin ale he’s given me to review. With that being said, I’m sure it takes no one by surprise that I’m giving this beer a rating of 2 out of 10.

He only has 9 days left

...as of this post. Go help this poor schmuck out. I mean, how much lower can you get?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Dork!

I've been remiss

Man, I have been neglectful! Holy cow, it's been almost a week since my last post. Now I guess I could have rightfully claimed that it was because I was out at Trail of History for most of that time and away from a computer, and that I was just too damn tired last night to post. But I know how much all of you demand my attention and I really should have tried to post something last night... and I didn't.

October has been flying by so far. I can't believe it's almost over and I'm just now getting around to starting to put up Halloween decorations. I'm WAY behind this year.

I do have some stories from Trail to share with all of you, but they'll have to wait. I've gone and hurt my back and I took some pain killers to help take the edge off, it's making it so I can't think clearly. I'll wait until things get better.

Belhaven Scottish Ale

This week’s beer is brought to us by Petey of Petey’s Powderhorn. He gave me a can of Belhaven Scottish Ale Draught by the Belhaven Brewery Company LTD. In Dunbar, Scotland.

It came in a 14.9 fl oz nitro can. You know, the can with the widget in it that injects nitro into the beer making it extra creamy. The can is two tone with the upper half a tan color and the bottom a dark brown, which may be in homage to the way the beer looks in a glass. On the front of the can there is a picture of an old Scottish village. In a half circle above the picture is the name Belhaven. Below the image it says Scottish Ale in gold outlined boxes.

When poured into a glass it has a dark reddish copper color. It’s clear with no cloudiness to it at all. It’s too dark to make out what’s on the other side of the glass, but light still passes through. The head is thick and creamy. It has a nice tan color to it and it lasts for a long time. There is a very minimal amount of lacing on the side.

The scent is grainy and cereal like, almost like a whole grain or bran cereal. The gentle scent of hops follows along with a touch of fruit. The taste is much like the taste. There is a sweetness of toasted malts with a mild hop follow up. There is a fruit flavor that is reminiscent of apples or pears. A slight nuttiness is also present. The aftertaste is mild and fades quickly.

This is a medium bodied beer. There is a creamy coating that washes through the mouth as it is drank. It helps to lock in the flavor. It’s easy to drink and is refreshing.

I’m a huge fan of Scottish Ales. I’ve drank many of them, and this is a pretty good one. It’s a little light in the color and flavor, but still not bad. The smokiness and dark roasted malt flavor is not present like in most Scottish ales. Overall I like this beer; I’m giving it 7 out of 10.

The misadventures of Princess Patina

This last weekend the family and I went to Fort Obie in Colona, IL for a re-enactment. I was able to procure a keg of Scottish Ale from Carlyle Brewing Company to bring along. That’s right fellow beer lovers I got my hands on 15.5 gallons of the malty goodness from Carlyle! There was some debate on whether or not we tap the keg Friday or Saturday night. Since I brought it, I wanted to make sure it got drank and we tapped it Friday night. A couple of hours later I had Red come in and tell me that the keg was floating and we were almost out of beer.

I went and checked, sure enough that giant aluminum tank was already three quarters empty! In order to preserve some of it for Saturday I pulled the tap and we switched to other beverages. Needless to say other than my shaving hair off of my arm to prove how sharp my knife was and scorching a table top in the cabin by setting peanut shells on fire, not much happened.

Saturday night is a different story.

At dinner I was cutting potatoes to put into the stew when I must not have been paying as good of attention as I should have been because I cut the tip of my thumb off. Oh, I did it good, there is a nice chunk missing. I had to change bandages four times because I kept bleeding through them. It’s fine now, it just looks like the tip of my thumb is missing… because it is.

I went and tapped the keg, we started on that until it emptied out and then we switched to other malted beverages. My lovely wife, Ktreva, went to play games with the other women… which led to many interesting stories that I’m not at liberty to go into. But to give you an idea it ended up involving her hording a bottle of Captain Morgan Private Stock, putting objects down her cleavage to hold them… like bottles and spoons, biting people and finally earning herself the new nickname, “Princess Patina” after she redecorated the outside of the fort with her gastro-squeezins. Oh, and a two day hangover.

Last night I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Rockford for Monday Night Football with some friends, including Bruce, Shadoglare and J-man. I ended up cheering for the Cleveland Browns, not because I like them, but because I don’t like Eli. That and there were some NY Giants fans in the bar and it was fun to give them a hard time. The fact that it turned into the Browns spanking the Giants made it funnier. The Giants fans were less and less amused by my antics, but their reactions where amusing!

Happy Anniversary!

Today, October 9th, is Ktreva and mine's 9th wedding anniversary. 9 years ago today my beautiful and loving wife took one for the team and threw herself on the grenade that is Contagion.

I couldn't be happier.

Happy anniversary honey! At least we get to spend it together. A month ago at this time we thought I'd be in Oklahoma still.

Life is good.

Blue MArble Organic Pilsner

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done a beer review. Last week I was busy with stuff and the review suffered, sorry. This week I’m reviewing a beer that Blogspawn Bruce of Back to the Batcave donated. It’s Blue Marble Organic Pilsner by the Blue Marble Brewery in Chico, CA (subsidiary of Butte Creek Brewing Company). Why he decided to get me a hippy beer I don’t know.

IT comes in a standard 12 oz brown bottle with a tan label. There is a picture of the earth in the upper right corner and the name of the beer takes up most of the label. Below the name of the beer it claims, “An Earth-friendly beer with an out of this world taste.”

It has a pale yellow color, like lemonade. There is cloudiness to it with floating bits. Light passes through easily, but you can’t make out images on the other side of the glass. It poured a thick foamy head that fades really slowly. When I poured it into the glass, I poured it gently, but it produced more head on a beer than I’ve ever seen before. It took three pours before I could pour all of the beer into the pilsner glass. The head was so thick that on the second attempt it actually extended out of the glass.

The smell is mainly of bitter hops. There is a hint of lemon grass, corn and sweet malts. It has a very mild taste that starts with sweet malts and finishes with a bitter hop flavor. As the beer warms to room temperature it takes on a biscuit finish.

It’s a light bodied beer without much mouthfeel to it. There is no coating which could be good because the unpleasant aftertaste would last longer than anticipated. The carbonation is at a nice level, but is inconsistent with the amount of head that formed.

This isn’t a bad beer, but it really is bitterer than I would prefer, especially in a pilsner that is supposed to be mild and maltier. It was pretty easy to drink, but the taste kind of haunts you and not necessarily in a good way. I really did not enjoy this beer, but I can see how some people would. Overall I give the hippy beer 3 out of 10.

Bob Barr

Shadoglare of Refractional Darkness is fed up with the Candidates. To be honest so am I. I've been caught muttering "McCain, Obama... either way we're screwed". Shadoglare decided to look at the Libertarian candidate running for president, Bob Barr. After checking out his website, I think I found my new candidate. I don't agree with his war strategy, but the other issues I'm concerned about are either acceptable or I agree with them. So I say, Vote Bob Barr!

So true.

My blogless friend Smokepoles sent me this little joke.

John was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called 'pullets,'and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs.

He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced. This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

John's favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, could run for cover.

To John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pullet surprise as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Vote carefully this year, the bells are not always audible.

Yea, it's the moral of the story that really rings true this year.

Work is returning to normal.

Well, after a month of being back work is starting to return to normal. I'm still getting the shaft, but I'm not getting screwed.

Our inventory manager went off on vacation and since I used to hold a similar position to her, I got nominated to cover for her while she was gone. Of course I wasn't in the meeting that this was decided. They communicated I was going to be doing it by e-mail, why I was in a staff meeting. So I didn't find out until I was out of the meeting. When I responded by e-mail to the inventory manager that she would have to show me what to do, I received an out of the office message. Come to find out she left for her vacation right after she sent me the e-mail.

I've spent the last couple of days trying to figure out how to do her reports, which are completely different from what I used to do. Then I've spent hours trying to figure out how she got her data, which I'm not being very successful. Unfortunately I'm not getting very far. I'm getting pressure from other people in my office, however they aren't willing to step up and help. So I'm just doing the best I can and letting it go, my excuse is, "I'm teaching myself."

Now I'm going to sit back, have a drink and work on my resume.

Research.

This last weekend I was having a conversation during football with some of my friends regarding what historical research I've done over the past couple of weeks.

When I uttered the statement, "Now that I can document zombies in in the 18th century, I can talk about them while at a re-enactment." Graumagus made the comment, "That statement is wrong on so many different levels of geekdom."

I think he might be right.

Greatest football catch... EVER!

Holy crap! I've seen some impressive catches over the years, but this high school kid makes a great one-handed, back flip catch.

WOW!

Idiots with pepper spray

I've been hit with pepper spray before, because I was going through a training course on self defense. When it came to the pepper spray portion the instructor said that each person had to be hit with it in order to understand how it works. To be honest, this video is pretty accurate in peoples reactions. When I worked in security and Law Enforcement I used it on people multiple times, including once in a jail fight.

The fact that they kids did it just to see what happens shows you that they are idiots.

However, I did find it amusing that the guys friends laughed maniacally when he was suffering.

I'd eat there.

I stumbled across pictures of a restaurant in Chandler, AZ called The Heart Attack Grill. Now, as un-PC as this is, I find it refreshing that a restaurant is actually marketing food that people want with no regards to any type of reprecussions from the "Everyone should eat lettuce" crowd. Which from the look of the burgers, there is no lettuce on them! I really wish there was one of these places in Illinois, I'd so go there for a double bypass and some Flatliner fries! Although the waitress staff looks mighty tempting too.

MMMmmmm burgers and nurses.

Sports fan Jersey Rules and laws.

Over the last couple of months I have had discussions regarding the wearing of sports jerseys. At one time there was a great online list of the rules, but I can no longer find the website. I had it bookmarked, but it looks like it has been taken down. Fortunately for me I copied and pasted the rules to my own computer for a quick reference. I feel that these rules should, nay… NEED to be out there.

I’ve had a lot of discussions regarding the wearing of jerseys and what is acceptable and what is not. For some reason I became a guru regarding jersey rules amongst my friends and acquaintances, probably because I memorized them.

Now before anyone yells at me over the rules, I did not come up with these. In fact I’m not sure who did as there was never any credit given and the original site even stated they were not sure where the rules came from. Legend has it that they where handed down over time since the late 1800’s. (If by legend you mean me making shite up) Now I did update some of the rules a little by adding examples. Anything in the parenthesis is something I added. I did that just for clarification. Since its football season and the only sport I follow is football, I only used football related examples. However these rules to apply to all sports and the wearing of jerseys.

Rules for Wearing a Jersey

1. All Jerseys should be an actual jersey, authentic or replica. Cheap knock-off and shirts that look like a jersey are not acceptable.

2. Only wear a jersey for a player that is a current member of your team. If you bought a jersey in the previous season and the player is let go or traded to another team you are no longer allowed to wear that players Jersey. (Example: Bret Favre’s Packers Jerseys should not be worn because at the time of this post he is a New York Jet.)
2A. Players that are retired are acceptable as long as it is a jersey from the team in which they retired. (Example Jerome Bettis’ Steelers Jerseys are acceptable)
2B. Players that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame as long as the Jersey is from the team they were inducted into the Hall of Fame. (Example: Joe Montana. He was traded to Kansas City in 1993. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000. From 93 to 2000 you could not wear his 49ers Jersey but once inducted into the Hall of Fame it was okay.)
2C. Players that have had their numbers retired it is acceptable to wear their jersey
2D. All Star/Pro Bowl jerseys are acceptable to wear. As this is a mix game of the best players in the sport, it is acceptable to wear their All Star/Pro Bowl jersey even if they are no longer on the team they were with at the time of the All Star Game/Pro Bowl. (Example: TE Alge Crumpler was in the 2007 Pro Bowl as an Atlanta Falcon, he is with the Tennessee Titans at the time of this post. It is okay to wear his 2007 Pro Bowl Jersey.)

3. Throwback and retro Jerseys are acceptable as long as the jersey matches the style of the time the player was on the team. (Example: Do not get a Joe Namath Jets Jersey in the current style. Joe’s last season with the Jets was 1976). Most official retro jerseys are correct.

4. It is not permissible to wear a customized team jersey. If you didn’t play for the team you should not wear a jersey with your name on the back.
4A. If you share the last name with a player on the team it is okay to have that player’s jersey, as long as it complies with section 2.
4B. Customized jerseys that have the numbers 00 and a non-last name are okay. (Example: A Seattle Seahawks fan wearing a Jersey with the back saying “12th Man” is okay, however it is not recommended.)

5. Jerseys must match the color scheme of your team. If your team does not play in color scheme of your jersey, it is not acceptable. (A lot of teams sell third color jerseys. The Green Bay Packers have Green as their primary color for home games, and white for the away. You can get a jersey where yellow is the primary color, the yellow jersey is not acceptable).
5A. Throwback jerseys of current players are acceptable if the team played at least one game in it.
5B. The specialized jerseys for females are acceptable for females. (They sell pink, fluorescent and rhinestoned jerseys fitted for women.)

6. Do not attend a game wearing the jersey of a team that is not playing. (If you are going to a Tampa Bay Bucs VS. Oakland Raiders game, do not wear an Arizona Cardinals jersey)
6A. It is permissible to wear jerseys of teams not playing to championship or all-star games. (Example: It would have been okay to wear a St. Louis Rams jersey to the Super Bowl (NY Giants VS. NE Patriots) or Pro-Bowl)
6B. This applies only to games where the wearer is in attendance at the stadium or arena. (If you are spending an afternoon watching the games at home, with friends or at a sports bar, you can wear your team’s jersey)

7. Jerseys should only be worn by an individual in support of their team. (You are a Washington Redskins fan; you should not wear a Chicago Bears jersey)
7A. If you are a fan of an individual player, than it is okay to wear that individual’s jersey even if they are playing for a team that is not your favorite as long as it complies with section 2. (IE If you are a Packer fan and a Brett Favre fan, you can wear a Brett Favre Jet’s jersey in support of Bret.)
7B. It is permissible to wear a rival team’s jersey if you lose a wager. (Example: A Pittsburgh Steelers fan bets a Philadelphia Eagles fan that if the Steelers make it to the Super Bowl the Philly fan has to wear a Steeler Jersey and vice, versa.)

Those are the rules, if you are caught in violation you may have a penalty thrown at you and be expected to make amends. It depends on the group of people you are hanging out with. Also, now I’m going to go rule by rule and break them down based on my opinion.

1) I think this one was pretty self explanatory. We’ve all seen the really bad knock off and cheap jerseys out there. If you are going to support your team, buy the real thing. Don’t get something cheap and just embarrass yourself. If you can’t afford the real thing, that’s fine. Get a regular t-shirt or something.

2) This is pretty cut and dry and I agree with it 100%. If you are buying a jersey you are not only supporting the player, but also the team. If you want to continue to support the player, then you need to support the new team they are with. Sure this impacts me as I can no longer wear my Favre jersey, but he is with another team. If he had retired from the Packers… or stayed retired sure I could still wear it, but no he went to another team.

3)All I’m going to say about this is that the last time I went to a Packer Game I saw a guy wearing #66 Nitschke jersey in current uniform style. He was a great player and a Packer legend, but he played in the 60’s not 2007. The uniforms, similar, are nowhere near the same. You can buy the retro jerseys, I’ve seen them. So this just doesn’t make sense to buy a modern jersey for a legendary player.

4) Okay, I saw a guy wearing a Packer jersey with #15 and the last name Ecklinburg. First off, 15 is a retired number of Green Bay legend Bart Starr, this just looked goofy and gave the impression the guy was a huge dork. He was not on the team, and no one is going to believe he was. Seriously most fans know who has been on the team and the numbers, especially the famous numbers. If you are going to get a personalized jersey, at least get the number 00. As for the non-last name portion of this I can see both sides of the argument.

5) I agree with this one 100%. I’ve seen guys wearing the goofy off color jerseys, they look horrible, and to be honest, pretty dorky. I’ve also seen a guy that had a customized Bears jersey done in Black and Silver because it looked “cool”. It was hideous. Now for the female jerseys, I’m sorry I think they look sexy and if it’s what it takes to get more females into the sport, let it happen. Drunken females at games are fun!

6) This rule is pretty self explanatory and makes complete sense. Every game I’ve gone to there has always been “that guy” wearing the jersey for a team that isn’t playing. It’s okay to support your team, but if they aren’t in the arena you are in, honestly just wear normal clothes or buy a t-shirt for whichever team you are rooting for. I’ve done it.

7) Nothing is more annoying then wearing a jersey for another team because you like the way it looks. I have a friend that does this and I’ve revoked his man card over it. He claims to be a Packer fan but owns jerseys for different players on different teams… because he thinks “they look tight”. Yea, I get that annoyed. In fact mutual friends have gotten as annoyed. However, thanks to clause 7B I had to wear a Grossman jersey when the Bears went to the Super Bowl. The bet was just Bears gear… but I got a jersey. Sigh.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go look at the collection of jerseys that won’t be worn again. It's thanks to these rules that we have the Bad Jersey Blog.

SWEET!

For all of my re-enacting friends I have great news. I have a lead on zombies in the 18th century. Okay, they called it the walking dead, not zombie... but same thing!

I

AM

SO

EXCITED!

Update: I have documentation that they called them "Zombys" in 1697.

"Auteur(s) : Blessebois, Pierre-Corneille (1646-1700?). Auteur du texte
Titre(s) : Le zombi du grand Pérou, ou La comtesse de Cocagne [Texte imprimé] / (par P.-C. Blessebois)
Publication : [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1697
Description matérielle : 145 p. ; in-12
Note(s) : A la fin : "Portrait de la comtesse de Cocagne : vers irréguliers"
Titre alternatif : La comtesse de Cocagne""

Well, that wasn't fun.

Today was a very interesting day for me. Around 11:30 this morning my health issues came rushing upon me with a vengeance. I've normally been eating good and taking care of myself. I've been taking my medication and trying to make sure I don't do things that aggravate my stomach too bad. Occasionally I have problems, but not very often. When I do have complications it's usually something mild and over with in ten minutes.

One of the complications I have is gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). When it flames up, one of the issues is chest and back pain. Normally when this happens to me it lasts about ten minutes until the medication kicks in. The pain has been likened to having a heart attack. In fact my father, who has had multiple heart attacks, has stated that when his GERD acts up, sometimes he can't tell the difference. In fact twice he went to the ER thinking he was having a heart attack when in reality it was a GERD flair up.

This morning my acted up that way, and it kept getting worse. Finally after about 45 minutes I contacted Ktreva and told her I needed to go to the hospital. I was sure it was my GERD, I just wanted to get the "Gastro milkshake" that makes all of the pain and acid reflux to go away. Unfortunately when management in my office heard the words "Pain" and "chest" they wigged out and called 911, against my will.

I didn't want the drama so I walked to the front of the building and then even walked to the ambulance. I kept telling them it was nothing, but they wouldn't listen to me. The whole time I was telling them what the issue was and that they were over reacting. When I was in the ambulance I apologized to them for making them work. Heck I apologized to the ER staff for making them work too.

To make a long story short after two IVs an EKG, some x-rays, blood tests and 3 hours of my life lost I was diagnosed with...

... GERD.

Yea, I went back to work for a couple of hours, much to the chagrin of the other management, especially after I explained that I was again, correct.

The funniest thing about all of this is that I was asked 4 times if there was any stress in my life. After explaining Oklahoma and some other situations I had one of the ER techs said, "I'm surprised you didn't have a heart attack!"