Miasmatic Review

Daughter in-law?

It's taken me a little bit to post about this, because I needed to let the whole gravity of the situation sink in. It appears that the boy has gone and gotten to know a girl rather intimately. OF course when this happens, there is the chance that there could be consequences. Well It appears we have one here.

Last weekend was Clones Birthday... wait, you didn't think I was talking about Boopie did you? Sorry! Anyway, He invited some friends from school and some boys showed up, but only one girl. Talking with her mother, she told me that the girl has had a crush on Clone for most of the year. Ever since she received the invite for the party, that's all she's been talking about. The girls mother works as a part time aid at the school, and she says that every day her daughter and Clone each lunch together.

At one point the girl wanted to sit next to Clone and eat a cookie, but wouldn't because she was too shy to with me around. She also had to have her picture taken with Clone. At the end of the party, all of the kids had left except her. I told Clone we had to leave and he needed to go say goodbye to her. I turned to say goodbye to her mother and when I turned back around, I couldn't find them. After a quick search I found them.... behind a statute of Ronald McDonald... Kissing.

My six year old son... kissing a five year old girl... behind a statue of Ronald McDonald.

I didn't know what to do.

I didn't know what to say.

I just stood there before yelling "CLONE!!! Time to go."

He comes out from behind the statue, and the girl just hid back there peaking around to see if they were caught. Of course I was too in shock to acknowledge it. We just left and Ktreva laughed at me the whole time because in the immortal squeaky words of me... "I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!"

So now Clone has gone and done two things that Boopie hasn't. Get a girlfriend and kiss her. hehehe, okay that was mean.

More Drama, new actors

After work on Friday I went out with Bruce for some drinks. Last week was filled with so much trivial drama that it just pissed me off and I needed to work out some anger issues. What drama? Well I thought you would never ask!

First we have the on going issue with the Spoon and Blade review. Yea, it's still on going and some are now calling for me to be outed from the ONW. Which, honestly I don't know how the one involves the other since I never made mention of the ONW in the review. Also, it's not like I actually think anything will ever come from it.

Next, on the same day the above drama started I received a notice from the city of Rockford saying if I didn't take care of a brush pile behind my garage and move a trailer, I'd be fined up to $750.00. The funny thing about it is that the brush pile was there when I moved in, and the trailer too. Yes, I added to the brush pile, but I had been slowly burning it off. They listed four ordinances that I was in violation. I had to call on the fourth one, because I wasn't sure what it was about. Come to find out, it was because I had a big sign in my back yard. I called the number on the notice to get an explanation and see what they wanted me to do to rectify the situation.

After talking to the city, come to find out one of my neighbors complained. I asked why it was an issue now, especially since the trailer and brush pile had been there for 10 years. Even the lady that wrote the citation stated she wasn't sure why we were never contacted in the past. I wasn't mad at her, she was just doing her job. Since I was nice, polite and civil about the whole thing (Shocker I know), she extended the dead line to get it cleaned up by a week. Now I'm on the hunt for my narcing neighbor so I can return the favor. hehe.

At work there was so much Drama, I don't know where to begin. I had everything from my peers screwing over my people on the day I had to stay home to take care of Clone. To them talking about sending me back to Okla-farkooking-homa. Yea, that's right, they were talking about sending me back down there. Those talks were abruptly ended with me in a meeting making the following statement, "I will NOT be going back to Oklahoma for this company." There was all kinds of stuff between there, but I'm not going to bore you with all of those details.

Then of course there was Clone's Birthday and Birthday parties. Where, that wasn't really drama, but dealing with a 6 year old asking daily about his parties and presents gets really tiresome.

Yea, let's hope next week isn't as dramatic.

Clones Day

Well between the drama I've created over my Macktown review from a year ago, to Graumagus' triumphant return, I'm kinda tapped out.

Today we are having Clone's birthday part. His actual birthday was earlier in the week, but we are having the kid party today. Yay! A bunch of screaming 4-8 year olds! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go get ready for the party.

Graumagus is Back!

After a year and a half in federal prison for gun running charges, Grau finally showed up again. He's moved... kinda. He's now at WWW.Frizzensparks.ORG. Yes, that's ORG, not COM. As he put it, Now Less dot-Commie, More dot-Orgy! To translate that for everyone. That means he likes the Orgy (hopefully not the 11 way. You know what happens in prison).

Go over and welcome him back.

I have a secret, a big secret!

I have a secret, a huge one. I've been sworn not to tell anyone. The only hint I can give you is that it involves this sentence, "Sex! Naked women with huge tits and buckets of viagra!"

And trust me, this secret has nothing to do with me!

Stirring up trouble

In the last couple of days I've been getting flack over my review of The Gathering at Macktown on The Spoon and Blade. Some of it by e-mail, some of it in the Guestbook.

Last year at Macktown the weather has been horrible, as you can see on this post. IF you don't want to read it, lets recap. The weather was rainy when we got there, it turned to storms, the wind picked up, over half the camp bugged out. Over at the Spoon and Blade, I put my review up, including my opinions. Well in the last couple of days, people have found it and started leaving comments in the guestbook, unhappy with me.

Now some of the comments are true. Frenchman's is not Rock River, I was misinformed and can not go back and change it right now. My ISP and hosting company are not getting along and until they work things out, I can't update it at all. The review on there is for Frenchman's 2005, which I did attend.

If you are a re-enactor and want to see the kind of "trouble" I'm in, go over and check it out.

Honestly, I posted my opinion and I stand by it. If they don't agree with it, that's fine. It's no skin off of my back. But I'm not about to change it or apologize for voicing it.

Home with the Clone

Yesterday we got a call that Clone was sick. He had diarrhea and was "burping and it smelled funny". Sure enough, when Ktreva picked him up he was redecorating his shorts with colon paint. He was doing that all night long. This morning he was still at it. Thus I ended up taking the day off of work to take care of the poor kid.

I think the highlight of the day so far was around 7:00AM when he walked into my room to complain his throat hurt. Then he proceeded in puking all over the place.

Yea, sick kids are fun.

2nd Annual Beer Tasting

Alright folks, it is time to mark your calendars for the second annual Miasmatic Review Beer Tasting. This year we will be hosting the Beer tasting on Sunday May 24th Memorial Day weekend.

Having learned from my mistakes last year, this year will be run a bit different, and more organized. I will be supplying the beers for tasting. Any other beer you want for after the tasting you will need to bring your own. There will also be good provided by myself.

Before the beer tasting I will again offer a quick lesson on how to review beer for those that are interested. For those of you that were at last years, yes I will have the text book for you to take home again.

More details will be coming later.

If you are interested in attending, please let me know by May 17th.

Morimoto Soba Ale

Tonight’s beer is one that I picked up at a local beer tasting. I was going to try another beer that Petey gave me. It, like last weeks, had gone bad. Again there was some kind of slimy sediment to it. Fortunately, I still had a back up beer. This week I am reviewing Morimoto Soba Ale by the Rogue Ales Brewing. This is one of Rogue’s signature beers developed by Chef Masahura Morimoto, of Iron Chef fame.

The beer came in a 1 pint, 6 fl oz brown bottle. The label is silk screened on and is a blue circle with white oriental writing on it and Morimoto’s signature I assume. Bellow the art is the name of the beer in white lettering.

When poured into a glass, there is a nice golden orange color to the beer. There is a mild haziness to it, light passes through without difficulty. You can see carbonation bubbles flow up through the beer itself. It poured a thick white head made of a mixture of large and small bubbles. There was a nice thick lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell is different. I can detect malts and grains, but there is a scent that I am not familiar with. I’m assuming this is the Soba (Buckwheat). The smell is very pleasant, unlike any other beer I’ve ever had. The taste is malts and again something I’m not familiar with (probably the soba/buckwheat). A slight breadiness is also present. There is a touch of lemon zest to the finish. The aftertaste is pleasant and non-distracting.

It is a light bodied beer. Almost no coating to the mouth and the carbonation is a present if not mild.

When I first had this beer at a tasting, I didn’t know what to make of it. It was unusual, different and something I knew I had to try. I just couldn’t tell if it was good or bad after just 2 ounces of beer. I’m rather glad I picked up a bottle to do a full review on. I’ve found the taste to be surprisingly pleasant. I bet this beer would go really well with a lot of different meals. I give it 6 out of 10.

Kalamzoo

This past weekend Ktreva and I headed to Kalamazoo Michigan for the Kalamazoo Living History Show. We were meeting Wil and Red there Friday night. Ktreva and I made great time and beat them there by a couple of hours, so we ended up checking out some of the local bar scene to find places to possibly go.

The first place we went to was the Old Peninsula Brew Pub It was a bit pretentious of a brew pub. Most of their beers were okay. Out of the four different beers I tried there, I only really thought the stout would be one I'd drink on a regular basis, and their stout was a really mild and bland stout. The one thing they had that I really liked was a cozy for their growlers. I bought one so I could show it to Carlyle's as an idea for them.

After there, we found a Buffalo Wild Wings and went there for 2 dollar 23oz miller lites. They were trying to drain off their green beer from St. Pats. I was more than happy to comply. While we were drinking there, we received the message that Big Trouble and Lil' Irish Wil and Red were about out. Of course that was after 5 glasses of Miller lite.

We hooked up with Wil and Red at the hotel, got them checked in and went over to a Texas Corral across the parking lot from the hotel. We just went in to sit at the bar. I would tell you more, but I really don't remember. Allegedly I spoke with Wil and Red's daughter and promised we'd stop by on the way back. Then allegedly I was loud and belligerent. I really don't recall any of this. I think that was all of them making stuff up.

Saturday morning, after we could get Ktreva out of bed (she will sleep for 12 hours you know), we headed to the show. We ran into a lot of friends there, including Smokepoles and his wife. Ktreva and I hadn't been there in three years, I was wondering if they would be dead. Nope, they were busy as ever! I really wasn't looking for much, other than a canteen. Now I'm sure many people will laugh and ask why I traveled so far for a canteen. I'll tell you why, I've been looking for two year and couldn't find one. Well I have one now.

I ended up buying the canteen, a couple of more buckets, more historically accurate than the one I had. An all natural hand woven belt, a wooden barrel with brass spigot, a belt knife and canned Haggis. Ktreva bought some wooden dice, more accurate glasses and some Poppen Moccasins. I was also measured for a a new great coat.

Now most of what I bought was just something I found and liked, I really wasn't looking for it. Like the wooden barrel, which when I got home found out that the guy selling it lied through his teeth. The damn thing leaks like a sieve! I let it soak for over twenty four hours in water and some of the small leaks sealed like expected, but there is a couple of big leaks that just wouldn't seal. I think I can fix it. I'm really glad I only paid $40.00 for it. Because I'll get the money's worth out of it from the base and brass spigot if I can't fix the leak.

After the trade fair all of went to this Irish pub in Kalamzoo called Gallagher's. To make a long story short. The food was really, really, really good. The beer selection was fantastic... the price on the beer was ungodly! I had a Blacksmith (half Guinness and half Smithwicks), then I had a Kelpie (A Scottish seaweed beer, that was pretty good) and a Black Douglas (A Scottish Ale). The Blacksmith was about $6.00, the Kelpie was $9.50 and the Black Douglas was $10.90. Now I'm not a hundred percent sure about the price on the Blacksmith and the Kelpie, but the Black Douglas I know for a fact. Wil bitched about it for the rest of the weekend to anyone who would listen. The service there was also ungodly slow. I couldn't believe how long it took for them to get us beer, take our orders, bring us the check. It was a horrible experience. The sad thing is that I recommended this place because I had been there before. Not this one, they have a sister bar in Paw Paw, that Ktreva and I had eaten at in years past. Again, the food is excellent and reasonably priced.

Then we hit a brewpub called Bilbo's. It was a Lord of the Ring's themed brewpub. We tried three different beers there: Duff (as in from the Simpson's), Return of the King and Sledgehammer. To be honest all three tasted remarkably similar, and were rather plain. We had the manager serving us beer and neither Wil nor myself were quiet about our opinions. Yea, I do believe she thought we were going to start some trouble.

After there we tried finding another bar, but had no luck. We ended up going back to the room, drinking there for a while and then going back to Texas Corral. Were we drank and and joked and the waitress (with a broken foot) not only remembered us, remembered our drinks and was the best waitress we had the whole weekend.

On Sunday we visited with Wil and Tina's daughter in Indiana. We spent a good couple of hours there before having to head back home. It was good seeing her again. She's getting ready to graduate from Law School and make a new and exciting life for herself on the east coast.

Overall, we had a great time. It's just a shame it couldn't have lasted any longer.

Adventures in Moving

Monday night my mother called to ask if I could help her and dad move a recliner into the basement of their house. My mother had hurt her neck and the chair they had just wasn't comfortable enough for her anymore. She bought a new recliner and was getting rid of this huge white chair they had in the basement. She offered it to us. As soon as Ktreva heard mom was getting rid of the huge white chair, Ktreva was all over it.

She had coveted this chair for years. Now it could be all hers. The catch is that I had to come get it tonight.

I told Ktreva that if she wanted the chair, she would need to find a way to get rid of the couch. After a half day of calls, she discovered that the cheapest and easiest way to get rid of the couch is to throw it out in the trash, but we can't put it out until Tuesday.

I contacted Bruce and called in a favor. So tonight after work we came to my house and moved the blue couch out onto the front porch ala white trash. Went to my parents house, pulled the white chair up out of the basement. Took the new leather recliner into the basement.Then we came to my house and moved the white chair into the living room.

Of course the hardest part was moving the couch out. The thing weighs a ton. It has a metal frame and motors for the massagers. It barely fit through the door frames. IT was a pain in the arse to get out.

The new recliner weighed about 20 pounds and was easy to move. The white chair which is about the size of a small love seat, was right in the middle.

Of course afterwards I took Bruce to Old Chicago for Beer in appreciation.

Now I'm thinking it's time to get me my own recliner.

Bell's Cherry Stout

I was going to review another beer tonight, but when I poured it into a glass, there was some kind of unreasonable floating bits in it. When I say bits, I mean chunks! I went online before drinking the beer to make sure that wasn’t normal. (I’ve had beers that were supposed to have floater) After confirming that no, it was wrong on so many levels I had to dump the beer down the drain. (Sorry Petey, it was one of yours) Fortunately last week Bruce and I went to a Beer tasting here in town and I happened to pick up a six pack of beer to do a review on based on the tasting. So tonight I’m reviewing Bell’s Cherry Stout by Bell’s Brewery in Comstock, MI.

Mine came in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. There is a tan paper label that has a picture of a cherry tree with three huge cherries under it. The company logo is at the top, the beer name is at the bottom. They have a brief description of the beer, “Stout brewed with cherry juice.”

The color is a nice dark ebony. There is a slight reddish tint to it. It’s so dark and thick that light doesn’t pass through the beer. Even when held to the light you can barely see light passing through the edge of the beer. Almost no head formed when poured into the glass. What head formed was thin and tan. It faded quickly to nothing. There was some very minimal lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell is a combination of Chocolate and rich Coffee malts. A mild cherry mild scent enhances the malt scent. The flavor was much like the scent. The main flavor is a strong coffee and chocolate malt combination that is common with stouts. A slight tart cherry flavor rounds the flavor out. The cherry flavor really does enhance the rest of the beer. The aftertaste is very pleasant and fades quickly.

This is a full bodied beer. There is some creaminess, but for a stout there could be a bit more to it. Still there is more than what you get in most American stouts.

Anyone that has been drinking with me has heard me say, “Fruit does not belong in beers” or “If you have to add fruit to a beer to make it drinkable, then it is not a good beer.” This, however, is the exception to the case. The cherry flavor is so mild, that it just enhances the richness of the malts. It opens up the taste buds to really appreciate the total experience. Even if you are like me and am not a fan of fruit beers, I would recommend at least giving this one a chance. Overall I give it 7.5 out of 10.

St. Pats Eve

All right folks, I know tomorrow is the big day. So to help you all get into the mood I'm leaving you a couple of video's from the Dropkick Murphys. Over the last couple of days I've gotten quite a few people singing these songs. I will warn you that the lyrics are pretty much NSFW..

Yea, it's not traditional Irish music, but dammit, sometimes I like the new stuff!

There, that's a more traditional Irish song...

Day four of St. Pats celebration!

Yesterday I hooked up with Bruce and Wes for a day of drinking fun. We started at Fritz's for lunch and some beer. While down there we were talked into doing a shot that was called an Irish Trash Can... It was a shot of Blue Curacao dropped into a glass of Red Bull. The glasses in each other made the drink green in color. It was way too sweet for my taste, in fact none of us liked it very much. Of course I gave out beads to all the ladies and children! No, there was no showing of breasts for beads!

After there we went to Carlyle to have a couple of drinks. I had their new one called Creme Brewlee (get it?). It was way too sweet for my taste and at 9.9% ABV, you could taste teh alcohol in it. Carlyle was right along the route for the St. Pat's parade in town. There were a lot of people in there with their kids waiting for the parade to start. I couldn't help but to give beads to all the kids and ladies. Again, there was no showing of breasts for beads!

After there we went to Muligan's in Rockford. This is were our behavior started to go down hill. That probably had something to do with the Irish car bombs we started doing. Others started showing up to join us. Not going into details, but that's when glassware and bar signs started to "disappear". This is also were the good beads started to come out and the we started giving out beads for breasts. Yes, there was showing of breasts for beads!

All in all it was a good time. Now I'm just taking a break before going out and starting today's celebration!

Liver Don't fail me now!

PS. Barry O'Bama did not get his arse kicked

St. Pats kick off

I know I've been gone for a couple of days, and not posted. I promise to tell you about IGOLD when I get some time.

Right now however, I'm going to be taking the next couple of days to celebrate St. Pats day. Yea, I know, it's early.

Yesterday I started at Old Chicago doing a mini-tour. Today I'm doing a bar crawl across the Rockford Area, I know we are hitting Fritz's and Mulligan's, maybe some others.

And for the next couple of days my alter leprechaun ego will be coming out. I put a picture of him in the extended entry.

Yep, that's him!

Yep, that's my alter leprechaun ego!

Now Ktreva thinks I'm going to get my arse kicked! Because I'm walking up to poeple saying things like, "Hey, I'm a friendly leprechaun. I promise you things like riches and rewards such as pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, which I have no plan on delivering! My name is Barry O'bama!"

Yea, it's drunk out! lol

Off to IGOLD

I know I haven't been around much. I took Ktreva into Chicago last weekend for a little romantic weekend away. After all she went through with the Cancer, we had decided back in January that we needed a weekend alone. Unfortunately we had to wait until we both had a free weekend to do it, which was this past weekend.

As I said it was a romantic weekend, so I'm not sharing any details. Let's just say I could have bought a shirt that said, "I went to Chicago, and I got way more than this T-shirt"... if you know what I mean.

Work has been full of drama. I've pretty much put in my notice there. I haven't quit yet, but they know that my long term plans no longer involve working there.

Now tomorrow I'm heading down to Springfield with Bruce and our friend J-man. We are heading down for IGOLD to help lobby for pro-firearm rights, and to lobby against some laws that are trying to make firearms prohibitive. I'll be gone for a couple of days having some fun.

If any of you are down in Springfield, IL at the time... e-mail me and we can get together.

Second American Revolution

Over at Bad Example, Harvey has a post up regarding The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants. It's a short read, but it gives his take on how the next American Revolution could be done via the ballot. The title of his post is in reference to a famous Thomas Jefferson quote "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." In his comments the debate has been a rather back and forth with both sides giving their opinion.

I for one believe that at some point there is going to be an uprising of American citizens against the government. Why? Because no one has any faith left in politicians and the government anymore. I've been saying for years that it is coming. If you know where to look and talk to the right people you could see the movement growing. It's not just liberal or conservative whack jobs. It's your everyday person, you neighbors, bosses, employees and friends. It may even be members of your own family.

I've talked to individuals that are liberals, conservatives and moderates. People from every political affiliations have said they are just waiting for the right time and they would be more then willing to join the cause. There is only two things I can figure out at this time that is preventing anything from happening. The first is that so far there hasn't been any reliable movement with a competent leader. The second is that there is a fear that will the military side with the patriots/rebels or will they fire upon them.

Each year, month, week and day I receive more an more information about various people deciding that the time is getting nearer for the citizens to take back their country. I know that for last least 9 months various new groups have been forming. Back in July this video first started making the rounds:

Folks, I admit I agree with most of what he says. I had originally been sent this video back in August while in Oklahoma. It was sent to me again in October, December and now just today. I hadn't shared it at the previous times because I was waiting for the right time. Well, Harvey's post made this the right time.

In the video they are calling for a peaceful revolution by putting pressure on the government. Honestly, I don't know if that will work. I hope it does, but honestly I'm more prepared for the other.

Our Politicians.

My friend Smokepoles was upset over the whole stimulus plan that the government has proposed. With Billions of dollars being spent frivolously and wastefully that will have to be paid back in the future by our children and grand children. Feeling it was his civic duty he sent a letter to US Senator Dick Durbin D-IL expressing his opinion. Attached is the response he received. Unfortunately the original letter was sent by Senator Durbin’s website so he couldn’t forward it to me. This response is so helpful.

March 3, 2009 Mr. Smokepoles 1000 Main St. YourTown, IL 60000 Dear Mr. Smokepoles: Thank you for contacting me regarding the economic recovery package. I appreciate hearing from you. We are facing tough economic times. Americans across the country are feeling the squeeze of this recession as hardworking men and women lose their jobs, state and local governments cut services to avoid deep deficits, and credit is cut back. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) (P.L. 111-5) enacts a broad mix of tax cuts and incentives aimed at individuals and small businesses. The act also makes investments in infrastructure, moves forward on alternative energy development, and provides tax relief to working families across the country. These provisions are designed to help our economy on the road to recovery. Critics of the recovery bill argued that the measure does nothing to scale back foreclosure - the number one cause of the economic downturn. The Obama Administration has announced an aggressive new policy to stem foreclosures, and Congress is considering legislation to help homeowners stay in their homes and strengthen regulation of the mortgage market. Some have expressed concern that the bill adds to the federal budget deficit. While we need to address the deficit over time, the first order of business is to put our economy back on track. No earmarks were included in this bill. This legislation is a necessary step toward economic recovery. Thank you again for writing to me. I will keep your thoughts in mind as Congress considers legislation to address the downturn. Please feel free to keep in touch. Sincerely, Richard J. Durbin United States Senator RJD/ms

Smokepoles did NOT like the vagueness of the response. He responded with the following:

Senator Durbin, I appreciate you taking the time in responding to my letter. It saddens me however as I do not believe that you really have listened to the voters. The stock market and economists do not believe in your plan and America continues to suffer. Companies that run their businesses into the ground deserve to fail. If my company fails would you and Mr. Obama be there holding my hand and giving me millions? That answer is a resounding "NO" and we both know it. It would appear that this plan does nothing to benefit the everyday tax paying American, only the people that made huge donations to certain campaigns. No earmarks you say? Please take the time and re-read the document in which you back. There are too many hands in the cookie jar and the cookie jar is empty. We have borrowed so much money from foreign countries that even China will lend us no more. What is being used as collateral? Our county's national parks perhaps? Do you want to help stimulate our economy? Do away with the many draws on it. Here is something that should be of great interest.

Back during The Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American citizens that desperately needed work.

Harry Truman deported over two million Illegals after WWII to create jobs for returning veterans.

And then again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 13 million Mexican nationals! The program was called 'Operation Wetback' so that American WWII and Korean veterans had a better chance at jobs.

It took 2 Years, but they deported them!

If you have doubts about the truth of this information, enter "Operation Wetback" into your favorite search engine and like I tell my many friends, confirm it for yourself.

Now, if they could deport the illegals back then you can sure do it today!! I might suggest naming something else though.

This would help the health care system lower their costs, insurance companies would be able to lower our premiums as well as the costs to the taxpayers of the many welfare programs that get abused. Thanks to the banking institutions and their loan practices, Illegal immigrants were able to buy homes in neighborhoods that I would not be able to buy in.... and then there is surprise when the loans default?

This is but one aspect where funds can be found and used.

I am sorry that you have taken this stand on this topic and America will be even more sorry in the long run. Your plan will only build skyscrapers on a foundation of sand.

I understand that I am but one person but be certain that I am a voter. Many citizens have forgotten that this is a republic, but I have not. Do you really think that we aren't smart enough to figure out that socialism is where you are leading us?

I love my country, but my government disgusts me.

Sincerely,
Smokepoles Name changed to protect the innocent, the rest of the letter is as originally written

Now Smokepoles sent me this letter, because he knows that I share his disdain for the bailouts and stimulus package. Now before his letter I had never heard of Operation Wetback, in fact I thought he was making it up, but he wasn’t. Operation Wetback actually existed.

As for the rest of the letter, I agree with him 100 percent. I think the whole package in and of itself is a bad idea, and that it’s just going to cause more problems in the long run.

These letters reprinted with permission of Smokepoles

Posted by Contagion at 09:59 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Raptors

Yesterday was the first pre-season game for the Rock River Raptors. It was held at the Victory indoor sports center in Loves Park. Now just to give everyone an idea of what has been going on with the Raptors. I had to contact them to find out about renewing my tickets this year. Then I had to call them to find out about when I should be getting my tickets. They hadn't contacted me about anything at all. If I hadn't called them I wouldn't have known about this game and when to pick up the tickets.

Their communication has been severely lacking.

My initial plans were to get there, pick up the tickets, watch a quarter and then leave. Before we left Graumagus stopped by the house and decided to attend the game with Ktreva and I. When we got the to game, we met up with Bruce and another friend of ours. We all had the same idea. Watch until half time, then go to Fritz's for some drinking. Well, we ended up having a lot of fun watching the blow out of an exhibition game that we stuck around for the whole game. Then after the game we were all going to go to Fritz's.

I don't know what happened to Bruce and our other friend, but they never showed up. Grau, Ktreva and I ended up staying until closing time and had a great time talking and catching up.

I hope that the Raptor's get their act together before they doom the team, because as it stands right now I will not be renewing my season tickets next year.