Well....that one won't bother anyone again...

Violent home intruder shot and killed in North Bend

At first glance, this shoot looks about as kosher as they come.  The police were already in the area, looking for someone prowling around.  The resident called in the break-in, and retreated to a different room not just once, but twice.  When the time came to shoot, he shot. 

Game over.

What really blows my mind over this story, and actually fires me up a bit is this:

As deputies set up a perimeter around the home, they heard loud noises coming from inside. Deputies then received a second 911 call from the homeowner saying that he had shot the intruder.
So....the resident reported the break-in to 911.  Deputies could here noises coming from inside the house...and they set up a perimeter. 

What if this resident DIDN'T? have a gun?  Would they have kept that perimeter safe while this guy beat the resident and his girlfriend to death with the propane tank he used to break the back window? 

Just another example of being ready to protect yourself.  I appreciate that law enforcement will do everything it can to solve the crime after it happens...but can't/won't be WITH you 100% of the time to protect you.

Disco Distraction/Disaster

I was flipping through the new additions to netflix yesterday and OMG they have added Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band!!!!!! 

I seem to remember really, really liking this movie as a kid.  I mean...it was up there with Xanadu(couldn't be as good as Xanadu, because it didn't have Olivia Newton-John at her prime).  Re watching it now, I can't help but wonder of the secret ingredient in my all my mom's cooking was acid, and if maybe they kept me stoned for 10 years. 

In reflection, there is 100% no doubt that the movie is crap...complete and utter crap.  The plot is made of WTF, and the acting is poopy-kaka. 

There is a slight golden lining...the songs belong to The Beatles, and some of them survive their adaptation okay.  I would hazard a guess that most folks today are more familiar with Aerosmith's(The Future Villan Band) version of 'Come Together' than The Beatles. 

Also, Sandy Farina, as Strawberry Fields, is a cutie, and knocks her two songs out of the park. 





The Bee Gee's and Frampton do okay...those Gibb's brothers could sing some harmony.  And Barry, with his feathered hair and rugged beard was quite tasty, according to my wife(it was just about the only positive thing she came up with from the movie)

I don't blame her.  Some of the movie is just plain bad.  Steve Martin must have been brought in an told 'Just pretend you are still on Saturday Night Live doing 'King Tut' when they had him do Maxwell's Silver Hammer.  Then there is the plot...

Anyway...what with the fast forward function on netflix, it's an entertaining 40 minutes or so...but I'm not sure ANYONE should sit through the whole thing.

Yes, I know the odds!

I buy lotto tickets each week no matter what the jackpot amount is...State Lottery, Power Ball, Mega Millions...with the occasional Scratch Ticket thrown in as funds allow.

I'd rather not know how much I spend on an annual basis...I'm sure I could roughly estimate it(I mean, 12-15 a week?).  I'm also not the type to go dump 20 on Mega Millions tickets just because the jackpot is huge Frickin' YUGE!   I figure if it is meant to happen, all it will take is one ticket.  I did spend a bit more than that on this Mega Millions, just because I had a few winners earlier in the week...I think I bought 8 total for this drawing.

Boy...it would be nice.  I could handle being a gentleman farmer...

Because I'm a sicko, I already have a few places picked out...

A different kind of Dad and Daughter Day.

A few weeks ago, I took my older daughter out for a range trip.  Since her behavior since moving into our new place had been exemplary, I also took her out to breakfast, making An Event out of the trip.  Upon returning home, I told my younger daughter that if she had a period of great behavior, we could make a similar event out of my next Friday off.

She did, and so this morning, we did.

At only 6-years old, my younger one is not yet ready to go to the gun range.  I'm not saying no 6-year old is ready to go shooting, but mine is not.  The combination of overall maturity, being small for her age, and JUST NOT LISTENING makes me think she is still a year or two away, which is fine.  I didn't bring her sister for the first time until she was 9. 

With the gun range out of the question, we headed out for breakfast, going to her favorite restaurant, Shari's.  She likes the smiley faced pancakes, although there was almost a minor revolt last year when Shari's started using raisin's for the smile instead of chocolate chips.

After that, we went and did something quite the opposite of the gun range...I took her for her first Mani/Pedi. 

I know, it's fine in this day and age for men to have these type of things done, but I voted to just be a spectator instead of actively participating. 

Although, I did get to act as a 6-year old to Vietnamese accent translator a few times. 

If it's that important to you, PAY for it!!!!!

Picture, if you will, the horror of, GASP...not being able to use your cell phone in an emergency!!!!!! 

I mean, that would be sooooo 2001. 

Well...for some people, that horror is a reality.  There is a 25 mile stretch along State Highway 410 between the Crystal Mountain Sky Area and the hamlet of Greenwater with almost NO CELL PHONE COVERAGE.  If you had a problem on the way home after a day of skiing, you might have to wait in you car up to TWO HOURS!!!!!! until a State Trooper drove by that you could wave down! 

ZOMG!!!!!!!!

So yeah.  One day, Janet Scholl was driving home from skiing. A car bumped her, and her car ended up on the side of the road, where she had to wait two hours to wave down a state trooper.  Obviously, the problem is a lack of cell phone coverage, and not the fact that the guy driving the car that bumped her didn't stop to help.

Janet has made it her mission to see that cell phone coverage is provided to this area.  It's SOOOO important to her that she has been working on collecting signatures on a petition.  To date, she has collected 4,185 names of people that would like to see cell phone coverage in the area...with no one thinking it's a bad idea!  Like anybody would...
This is 2012...we are all spoiled and expect our modern conveniences anywhere at any time. 

Hey...it is a nice idea...even the local Fire Commissioner says it would make things safer.  It comes down to money...no cell phone company thinks that they will make money off it, so no one wants to put out the $500,000-$800,000 it would cost to put it in.  And I don't blame them...

But let's look at this petition...this cell phone tower is SOOOO important that folks are willing to sign a petition...why aren't THEY putting up money.  With just 4,185 folks supporting things so far, less than $200 each would have raised that $800,000.  Hell...if they got even half that amount of money, I'll bet at that point, SOME company would have put up the rest. 

Show that you are more invested in an idea than just doing what it takes to sign your name on a piece of paper.

Heck...when I win the Mega Millions tonight, I'll buy them a cell tower. 

Might be trying to arrest the wrong one...

Interesting story yesterday out of Puyallup, that kind of tries my patience as a parent:

Child safe after thief abandons mother’s car in Puyallup

So...to summarize.  Mom pulls into the day care parking lot, and hops out to drop one kid off inside.  Because it is raining, she decides to leave her 16-month old(whose not feeling well) in the car.  The car that she left running. 

The parking lot is being staked out by a car thief.  Obviously, this is a good location to steal cars...people are often in a hurry when they drop their kids off, meaning their cars are left in an easy to steal condition.  On this morning, one mom doesn't just leave the keys in her car...she leaves the car unlocked and running.

You can't ask for a much easier target as a car thief.

The car thief, after driving about 6 blocks, finally looks around the car.  What's that in the back seat?  Holy Crap!!!!  A baby!!!?!??!?!  Now I'm not just a car thief...I'm a kidnapper!!!!!!!

Not wanting to be a kidnapper, the guy pulls over, and jumps out of the car, making his escape. 

End of story. 

Now...obviously, I don't want to make it out like this guy is a hero...I mean, he did try to steal a car.  I have to say though, that as a parent...I'm much more offended by the idea that this lady left her child in a running vehicle, outside of her sight than I am by the idea that someone was stealing a car.

I'm not perfect...never claimed to be.  I have left my kids in the car before while running into the store to pay for gas.  However, I turned the truck off AND brought the keys with me.  Plus from inside the gas station, you can still see my truck.  Rationalization, sure...but I felt safe with what I was doing. 

What I'm trying to get at is that if the catch this guy and charge him for stealing a car...sure.  Try him.  I hope they don't try to throw the book at him because he stole a car that a parent decided to leave a child in. 

As for the mom...she should probably have a long talk with the police.  Even if charges aren't pressed against her for 'endangerment', she needs the fear of God thrown into her. 

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/27/2457224/stolen-car-with-child-inside-found.html#storylink=cpy

Sweet Pain!

I left work early today to take my wife out to lunch for our anniversary, and instead of going back to work I decided to rent a tiller to put in our garden plot in the back yard. 

The work went much faster than it would have with a pitch fork, but Oh Sweet Blazing Baboons....my forearms are on fire, and I can't make a fist with either hand. 

Good thing I swore off beer at home...I couldn't hold a bottle right now any way.

Are there really people that do this for a living?

It solves everything!

In honor of my 11th Wedding Anniversary(long, sappy post to follow), one of my friends sent me the following picture, which practically begs to shared.

Hey...I know what's mine is hers, and what's her's is hers...but the chances of me sharing bacon with my wife are slim.  

Nalley's Emergency Rations...

Okay, not really an emergency ration, unless you feel like carrying A LOT more weight around that I do, but a relatively interesting stock-up opportunity. 

A few weeks ago at Win-Co, I spotted a can of Nalley Campfire Beef Stew next to the Dinty Moore Beef Stew.  The big Nalley can was 40 ounces, and less than half the price of the big cans of Dinty Moore, making it less than $2 for a 40 ounce can, a pretty good price for beef stew. 

Recognizing a good price, but reluctant to be stuck with too much of something we couldn't stand, I picked up two cans.  After staring at them for a while, I begged my wife to do something with one of the cans for dinner this week...whether it was over rice, or egg noodles, or with a biscuit crust as a casserole...just please, open one up so I can see if we should stock on more of them.

And so, she did.  Monday night for dinner she opened a can, and dumped it into a 9 X 13 inch pan, and covered it with some fake flakes and Munster cheese, for a little faux shepherds pie.  She had planned on using some Jiffy for a cornbread topping, but changed her mind after opening the can.  She admitted to me that her initial instinct was to throw the whole can away...the smell wasn't bad, but she said there was an orange grease sheen that turned her off.

From a looks standpoint, I have seldom seen anything as falsely represented as this Nalley Beef Stew.

It didn't look like the front of the can:

There wasn't a piece of anything in that can larger than a nickle.  For those folks used to the gristle chunks in a can of Dinty Moore, the appearance of this stew was depressing...the largest chunk of meat I saw was about the size of a pea.  My initial thought is they are using the same ground meat they use for their chili in their beef stew.

Appearance aside...the flavor wasn't bad.  My wife's first bite was very tentative(she was not impressed after opening the can), but then she dug in. 

My opinion is that this is not a 'stand alone' meal...but as an inexpensive protein source...not bad.  It's something you could use to pour on top of either baked/mashed potatoes, or rice.  The meal my wife made the other night fed the four of us, PLUS gave me two days worth of lunch for a total cost of like $3.50($2 for stew, .50 for fake flakes, and then another buck worth of cheese). 

My wife is hitting Win-Co tomorrow...I'll probably ask her to pick up another 10-12 cans of this.  It looks like a good option of long-term storage, as well as being something I could work into the food rotation once every two weeks...



Why? Most likely because I'm an idiot...

So, this evening after work,  I walked in the front door of our house to be greeted by the smell of a tasty and satisfying dinner ready to placed on the table.  So ready in fact, that my wife was plating it up before I even had my shoes off. 

When my wife cooks dinner during the week, we usually eat in the 5:30-6:00 range, giving me 15-45 minutes to 'decompress' after coming home...kick of my shoes, and visit important websites before dinner.  Sometimes, I'll even get a hug from my girls too. 

When faced with a hot and filling meal waiting for me, how did I respond?  By flipping my wife a load of poop about how 'now I don't have time to kick back for a minute before dinner.'  I was trying to be at least half-funny, but that funny part missed the target, the woman who had been in the kitchen for half-an-hour, by a country mile.

Did I mention that tonight is the evening before my 11-year Wedding Anniversary?  To a woman I have repeatedly called the Most Amazing Woman in the World?  And I had the gall to flip her even minor amounts of crap for having dinner WAITING for me when I get home? 

I could blame it on the 2 hours I spent in a dentists chair this morning, or the 5 hours I spent in my chair at work after the dentist appointment, but those are lame excuses to deflect from the truth...

Sometimes, I can be an idiot. 

Anyway...luckily, the damage was minor...no knock-down-drag-out fight, just a few minutes discussing the hurt which I had levied upon her...and nothing I didn't deserve. 

Something to work on before our 12th Anniversary, I guess.

What...do you think you are running for President?

It must be contagious.  After this last year of near endless Republican Primary Debates, Rob McKenna, current AG Republican candidate for Governor has challenged Jay Inslee, former US Congressman and the Democrat candidate for Governor to FIFTEEN Debates over the next few months.

Hey...I'm all for putting Inslee on the spot, and despite the fact that I am pro-McKenna(not perfect, but, who is other than me my wife?) even I will probably stop paying attention after the 7th or 8th time he trounces Inslee.

For his part, Inslee has agreed to three debates so far.  I'm much more interested in what percentage of the debates occur East of the Cascades.  As someone who grew up on the West side of the state, and pretty much ignored everything east of Manastash Ridge where I went elk hunting, it's interesting to be on the ignored side now.

 I thought Dino Rossi had a chance to break this habit, but after losing three state-wide elections while just about sweeping everything other than the I-5 Corridor, if anything, he reinforced the Truth that the Everett to Olympia stretch is what really matters in this state.

Female drivers...

Caution: Humorous Misogeny Alert!

Biker arrested after allegedly leading chase that reached 130 mph

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/03/24/2081223/biker-arrested-after-allegedly.html#storylink=cpy

Well, smart decision by the police to back off and track her from the air...certainly the safe decision...I'm glad the plane was able to keep up.

Here is where I get mad though...every time someone does something stupid with a gun, you here screaming for tougher laws and mandatory punishments.  What this person(and it makes no difference if they are male or female) was doing had the same element of risk to it as this chucklehead in Bremerton who got drunk and decided to fire random shots in a parking lot. 

He is being charged with reckless endangerment and 2nd-Degree Malicous Mischief, both of which are gross misdemeanors...and not nearly strong enough punishment in my opinion. 

Just like it wouldn't be enough for this motorcycle driver, who was already driving WITH A REVOKED LICENSE!!!!!  That means she is a repeat offender.  At least they are talking charging her with 'eluding' which would be a felony charge. 

If I was in charge, both of these cases would be facing attempted murder charges. 

Of course, my daughters would have ponies too...so it wouldn't all be perfect.

Work Smarter, not Harder.

Got some of what I wanted to accomplish today done, and gave up on some other things.

The supply of pre-cooked easy to use meat was getting low in the freezer, so Saturday morning I hit Win-co and picked up a few of their boneless pork picnics, and a 5-pound package of chicken thighs.  I rubbed them both down, and proving I wasn't too drunk last night(had a going away party for my buddy and his wife whom are moving back to Wisconsin...7 beers and two shots of Fireball used to not effect me like it did last night) I threw the pork in the oven at 250 degrees before going to bed last night.

Pulled the pork from the oven, and after searing the thighs in a skillet, I threw them in the oven at 275 degrees for about 3 hours. 

When it was all said and done, I had 4 packages of shredded pork, and another 4 packages of shredded chicken thigh individually wrapped and in the freezer.  That way, when we need to add some meat to something for dinner, we have the meat, which is usually the long leg, already to just thaw out and toss into a casserole.  

After lunch, my wife packed the girls up to go stand in front of Safeway to push Girl Scout Cookies.  Cute sells.

After they headed out, I was faced with a beautiful 70-degree afternoon, so I went to the hardware store and picked up some torture tools for the yard, with the goal in mind of attacking a plot of land with a pitchfork so I could start prepping a section of the back yard for a garden. 

Things went much slower than I thought they would.  That is a very healthy lawn out there, and being armed with just a pitch fork, I didn't get nearly as much done as I want to.  At the rate of progress I made, I might have the garden ready in time to plant some pumpkins. 

Tomorrow, I'll call a few of the rental companies in the area, and ask how much it costs to rent a tiller.  I'm not sure what 'too expensive' would be, but if I know me...and I think I do, I'll be willing to pay up to 50% of what it would cost to buy one, OR up to what it would cost to put in a raised bed or two...

Could just be a lot of containers out in the backyard at this rate...

Wow...they are getting their Wookie on in Indiana...

While talking about all the fun they got to have running around on their Girls Day Out, some of my favorite Hoosiers might have forgotten to mention getting this ball rolling:

Indiana Libertarians set to pick 'Survivor' star

Could there be any doubt that Tam, Brigid, and Roberta had something to do with this? 
I mean, Brigid even took a picture of him the other day(pictures borrowed shamelessly from Brigid and yahoo).

Alas...I'm not making fun of Indiana(especially not those three particular ladies from Indiana).  I'm certain that the Washington State Libertarian Party is going to also nominate someone goofy for Governor...I just need to hope that he was never on a reality show so it's not considered news worthy. 

Yeah, she works for me.

My 'volunteer opportunity' went well this morning...essentially my group was tasked with cleaning and weeding in The Parkway section of Richland.  To call The Parkway a 'strip mall' wouldn't be fair...it's nicer than that...a combination of shops, restaurants and a plaza. 

One of my few real responsibilities as the Team Leader was ensuring that folks knew how to find The Parkway, since the population of The Tri-cites has a tendency to sprawl, you can't assume folks know where everything is.  One of the ladies on my team, when I asked if she knew where she was going, kind of scoffed.  'Yeah...I'm the city manager'. 

Now despite the words she said, what I heard was 'I'm a manager for the city'.  Fine...you know where going, see you there.

A few hours later, I was talking to my wife, and she said that Cindy was pretty nice.  I told her yeah, she's a manager for the city of Richland, so she actually knew more about the project than I did.

My wife looked at me and said, 'No...she is THE City Manager for Richland'. 

Doh!

Now...taken as a whole, the Tri-cities would be the 4th largest city in Washington.  Individually, Richland has a population of about 60K, so, it's not like this is the same thing as Mayor Bloomberg turning out to help turn back the wheels of urban decay, but it was still neat to see the City Manager out pitching in.  She's got my vote if she ever runs for office(well, as long as she isn't a communist).

And not for a photo op either.  Cindy spent a good three hours out there on her hands and knees, helping weed and clean up leaves by hand since someone didn't think wasn't expressly told to bring rakes.  Yeah...that's me in charge. 

Anyway...things went well.  I wish there were before and after pictures...between my team and a team from another church, we filled three pick-up truck beds with trash bags. 

I forgot what NAVY means...

Back when I was still playing sailor games, we used to joke that Navy meant Never Again Volunteer Yourself. 

Sometimes, we forget our lessons.  Tomorrow, I am sacrificing five or 6 hours to participate in Sharefest, which is a volunteer opportunity run by all the local churches.  It's the kind of thing I think that churches should be doing, getting out and doing good things for people and the community, and even a non-religious guy like me can get behind that.

Last year, my family and I helped build and fill raised garden plots at a community park...and it was a back buster...6 hours of filling and moving wheel-barrows full of soil and manure. This year, I signed up for something a little easier on the back...cleaning and weeding the concrete flower beds at a local shopping plaza.

I also ended up accepting a position as the Team Leader, allowing me to set a steady pace for the day...

Can't wait to crack the whip on my kids...

The times, they have a changed...

Occasionally, you can get slapped in the face by the way things 'used to be.'  Last night, I had one of those moments as I was reading the kids their story at bed time.

The choice for the evening was Curious George...the original Curious George, written in 1941.  There is a page in the book where George and the Man in the Yellow Hat have returned home after a long day of traveling.  Attempting to show how a monkey would settle in after a day on the road, the book says:

George had a good meal, and then George had a good pipe, before having a good sleep.

And there is a picture of George sitting in wing back chair, puffing away on a relaxing post dinner pipe! 

Heck, guess I should be happy it's not a hookah. 

My kids didn't notice, and I wouldn't have noticed 10-15 years ago.  Heck, it's not like I'm offended.  I just can't begin to imagine how a scene like that would go over in a new children book today...but I'm not sure Dora the Explorer having a shot of tequila before tucking herself into bed at night would be well recieved. 

More time to meditate on sea lions...

Over the weekend, I talked a bit about the mean old sea lions that are taking advantage of returning salmon as they try to make it back over the Bonneville Dam.  After a two year break, the Feds were going to start letting the authorities in Washington and Oregon remove the offending sea lions in a 'permenant manner'.  I wondered what you might do with a sea lion, and got recommendations ranging from an impressive full body mount(I've been close to a 700 pound bull sea lion...it would be an impressive mount), and a nice water-proof leather coat.

Well, thanks to the Humane Society, we've got a bit more time to debate what you do with a used sea lion.  They have launched another law suit, claiming that the 4.2% of salmon eaten by the sea lions is a small number compared to the 17% of salmon eaten by people.

As far as straight number go, they are right.  Two things to point out though...first, fishermen only get to keep hatchery fish, while the sea lions aren't looking for clipped fins as they chow down.

Second...PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN SEA LIONS!!!!!!! 

Maybe I'm just a little biased, because...well, I am a human(or at least a sub-human), but I'm offended by the idea that we should keep letting the sea lions eat salmon, while telling fishermen they have to cut back on their quotas. 

Don't bring a knife to a mop fight.

Further proof that mindset, and willingness to fight back are(sometimes) more important than the weapon at hand.

Bellingham clerk with mop fights off armed robber

Hopefully, they can use the surveillance camera footage to track the dude down. 

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/03/20/2445816/bellingham-clerk-with-mop-fights.html#storylink=cpy

Staying Strong!

Thanks to the Girl Scouts of America, I have had over 250 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies in my new family room since Saturday afternoon.

Total Number of Cookies that I have eaten: ZERO.

That includes spending yesterday handling 80 boxes of them in my office at work so I could get them distributed. 

Of course, don't ask me about the vanilla ice cream that used to be in the freezer at home. 

A smart man knows to pick his battles.   

And that's why we experiment...

My wife has become quite addicted to The Hub in Richland, with 'The Hub' being short for The Northwest Regional Food Hub, kind of an indoor Farmers Market/Food Co-op. 

I'm fine with a minor addiction...supporting the little guys is important, which is is why I have several Black Heron Distillery products in the house.  I'm also a believer in competitive pricing.  I know someone on a hobby farm can't match the price of something in the supermarket...but, there is also a limit to how many times I am willing to pay $3.50-$4 for a dozen eggs, when I can get a fully functional 18-pack on sale for $2. 

Even more shocking than $3.50 for a dozen is $3.50 for half-a-dozen eggs...which is what my wife paid for duck eggs last week.  Not an every week price, but I am fine with it since it let us satisfy a curiosity.

For 2-3 years, ever since Back Woods Home magazine ran an article on Khaki Campbell Ducks, I've been fascinated by the idea of raising ducks.  Who cares about chickens...give me ducks.  They just sounded so much neater and more fun than chickens.  Plus, you can have a drake without him making the same non-city friendly noises that a rooster would make.  I guess it's the same reasoning that caused to me to get a .35 Whelen instead of an -06. 

The big question though, is, would we use the duck eggs?  As far as I am aware, I've never had a duck egg before.  Tonight seemed like a good chance to try them out, since I was making corned beef hash with left-overs. 

First impression...meh.  The eggs looked different...the yolks were a much larger percentage of the egg...and those yolks were TOUGH.  In deference to the kids, we made scrambled eggs, and those yolks needed some convincing to break up.  I am just not sure that was the right use for duck eggs.  These are not just big chicken eggs...the makeup of them is different.  The scrambled eggs came out a little...mealy.  And very yolky.

I'm not going to give up on the idea of duck eggs after just one try.  I have heard that the extra proteins in the egg that make it tough, make duck eggs excellent for baking cakes and brownies.

Oh, Mother Nature...you tease...

Well...Mother Nature fooled me but good.  Two weeks ago, I started a couple of trays full of seeds so I would be ready when spring sprung.  Based on the weather at the beginning of March, it looked like that was going to happen any minute...but now, things are backing off again a bit.  Day-time highs are where they are supposed to be, but night time lows have dropped back down to the 26-27 range for a couple of day span. 

Luckily/unluckily, with a few exceptions, my seeds haven't quite exploded the way I thought they would. 

The only things even getting close to being ready to go in the ground are two of the green beans, and one of the spinach plants.  The spinach can stay in the grey pot for A WHILE...but those two green beans are not going to last long in the egg carton.  Luckily, I do have a few empty pots from when we moved, so if I need to give them a temporary home until other things catch up, I can.

I'm a little bummed that my most successful plant so far is the marigolds...you know, the one that wouldn't help feed my family. 

Here's the stats so far, as much for my future reference as for yours(at this point, I'm just counting successful sprouting): 5 of 12 Green Beans.  7 of 14 Spinach.  9 of 12 Marigolds. 

ZERO of 8 Peppers.  Ouch.  I'm tempted to poke around in the soil so I can see if anything is happening with the seeds...but I'm going to try to be patient. 

Just in case I might throw some a few more pepper seeds in some of my spare pots. 

St. Patricks Dinner, a day late.

Because of our 'date day' yesterday, we skipped the big, traditional St. Patricks dinner(we made the girls chicken strips and fries...we were still full from Bobs Burgers...and wine).  I had bought two packages of corned beef, so, I set to useing one of them today.  The other will stay in the freezer for about 2-3 months.

My wife's corned beef history is 100% the Traditional New England Boiled Dinner.  You boil your corned beef with the seasoning pack for a few hours, then pull the meat, and place carrots, potatoes and cabbage in the used water, and boil those for about half an hour...serve. 

I find that kind of blah, and so I now combine a few different techniques.  I braise the corned beef for about 3-4 hours in a nice beer(today was Iron Horse Brewery Irish Death).  Braising is not boiling...I add enough beer to cover half the meat, and then seal the container well.  Place it in the oven at 300 for an hour, then down to 275 for the next 3 hours.

At that point, I pull the corned beef, and keep it warm.  I then dump carrots and potatoes into the beer, and throw it in the over at 450 for half an hour, before adding the cabbage for 15 minutes...I like my cabbage to have texture still. 

While that is going, mix some honey and spicy brown mustard 50-50, and smear it on the corned beef.  Toss is back in the oven for the last 10 minutes of the veggies...you want the mustard and honey to glaze up.

The bread to complete the dish was Buttery Sweet Bread, which was neither as buttery or as sweet as I hoped it would be.  Still, fresh bread is very rarely bad...especially when topped with some of my wife's canned cinamon apple sauce(might as well be apple butter...yum, yum, yum.)

The only downer is that my New Years Resolution, which I am still following, did not allow me to have a beer with my dinner. 

Luckily, the company more than makes up for it...



Because it's too hard...

In the Big Picture, when you are talking National and State Budgets, $2,000 is something you would think of as 'chump change'.  Even at the city or county level, I doubt most budget types track stuff down to that level.  At some point though, like, say, the city park level, $2,000 can make a difference...fresh paint, fixing broken boards in picnic tables, lawn maintenance.  I mean, it's not the type of money you would just want to leave around rotting...

Ooops.

E. Wash. city leaves thousands of dollars to rot outside

Well...at least they came up with a way to keep it from happening again...

Stupid Wind

Today my wife and I had what I would have refereed to in my Navy days as a 'target of opportunity'.  Late in the week, one of our friends called my wife, with an idea.  She and her husband were going out of town for the weekend, and leaving their 17-year old son behind.  If we wanted him to, he was available to do a little baby sitting on Saturday afternoon, which was good for us...and it also ensured that their son would see the light of day, and actually have to act human for a few hours while they were out of town, which was good for them.

He's a good kid, but let's face it...in this day and age, if a 17-year old is left home alone, he's either going to throw a party, or camp out in front of the computer for 72 hours.  This kid isn't the partying type, so we took it upon ourselves to make the ultimate sacrifice so he would have some forced human interaction for at least a few hours.

Our original plan called us to go have a quick bite to eat, and then swing by the gun range.  It's been the better part of a year since I've had my wife out shooting, and I NEED to get her out again...but, the weather was out to get us...today was a sunny day, but the afternoon was quite breezy...a very steady 25-30 MPH wind.  Enough of a breeze that I felt my wife wouldn't enjoy herself...and it's just as important to me that she enjoys herself, as it is when I take my daughter shooting.  I want her to enjoy shooting as much as I do,  Right now, she can point a gun and pull the trigger without hurting herself...but I hope that someday, she'll become a 'shooter'.

Anyway...too windy, today wasn't that day. 

The consolation prize was okay though.  I still got to take my amazing wife to lunch.  We checked out a new restaurant today...a local chain called Bob Burgers and Brew, recently opened a new location in Richland.  It was pretty okay...I had a tasty burger they call the Jalapeno Popper, and it was good, once I picked off about half the Jalapeno's.  My wife had the fish and chips(yeah, fish and chips at burger place), and that was a smart decision.  Best fried cod I have had since moving to the Tri-Cities, which isn't saying much...I'm distrustful of fish in the desert. 

After lunch, we hit a few wineries for some well...wine.  Tagaris and Barnard-Griffin, both of which we have been at before, but it really never gets old...especially with my best girl by my side.  Truth be told, it was probably a much more romantic day than we would have shooting.  It's hard to hold hands and gaze into each others eyes at the gun range.

Shooting would have been cheaper though...I still haven't figured out how to go to a wine tasting without buying a few guilty bottles of wine...

Not sure what you do with a sea lion...

For decades, there has been a huge problem with sea lions abusing salmon populations, as the salmon back up at the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.  This also happens to a lesser extant at the Ballard Locks from Lake Washington to Lake Union.  For years, they attempted to 'relocate' the sea lions...capturing them and transporting them hundreds of miles away.  However, tags on the sea lions let them know that the same animals kept coming back...and it wasn't cheap, either.

Things weren't always this way...until the late 1960's, Oregon actually had a bounty on sea lions.  The Marine Mammal Protection Act put a stop to this.  Things were all still happy until the early 1990's, when folks realized...you know...salmon populations had fallen to 5% of their historic highs.  The sea lions, taking up to 6,000 of them a year, just at the Bonneville Dam, were an easy target to blame. 

For several years, non-lethal methods were tried...firecrackers, rubber bullets, and relocation.  As I said above...it didn't really work. 

Finally, in 2008, .gov decided it more important to protect the salmon(and salmon fisheries) than the sea lions, which had bounced back from 1000 animals in the 1930's, to 238,000 in 2008.  It's the right call...I had no problem with it then, and have no problem with it now.  After two years of killing the 'repeat offenders'(like 10 sea lions a year), things were put on hold for a few years by a Humane Society lawsuit.  Because, to the Humane Society, sea lions are more important than fishermen.

Earlier this week, the Feds said it was okay to start reducing the population again, allowing the killing of up to 92 sea lions a year.  I guess they normally trap them, and drug them, which seems like a lot of work and money.  Normally, I'm one of the first to rant and rage when a government agency spends tax-payer money to reduce an animal population that I KNOW hunters would be willing to pay to reduce for them. 

I'm just not sure you are gonna get a lot of hunters to want to go 'sea lion hunting'.  I know a few salmon and halibut fishers who might want to go take some revenge...but I can't see 'sea lion' being high on the 'tasty meat' or 'impressive living room wall mount' list. 

So umm...yeah...carry on smartly folks.  If the Humane Society, which says 'this hardly seems a situation that requires fatal mangment' really wants these sea lions treated humanely...then they can get out there and trap them and relocate them with their DONATED funds...not tax-payer money.

When I'm in charge...

Currently working on getting all the boxes of canned goods unpacked in the garage, and until the Worlds Perfect Wife gets a chance to assemble the Shelf Reliance Can Rotators, things are just going on the shelves in rows.  And what a pain in the butt that is...

I'm trying to make her eventual job easier, by placing the cans on the shelf in some sort of chronological order(hey, that either happens now, or later) but the tough part is just getting the can to stack properly...

Of all the silly, spurious things .gov sticks their nose into, you would think they could have come out with some kind standardized can top/bottom.  The Del Monte don't want to play with the Dole, which don't sit cleanly on top of the Libby...and no one wants to associate with the store brand cans...

Besides, if The Man is focusing on making my can's stack neatly, they won't have time to mess around with more important stuff...

An okay start to the weekend.

Last night I asked my older daughter if she was interested in going to the gun range today, and because she is an awesome kid, she said yes.  It was her second trip, and as I have said before, I'm doing my best to keep it stress free, and not push anything on her the way my dad pushed golf on me.

Since moving into the new house, she has been absouletly great, tying to set a good example for her younger sister, who has been sneaky and hellionish since getting a room of her own again(two days after moving in, we found she had sneaked a bar of Bakers Chocolate into the bathroom(eww) where she kept it under the counter, snacking on it during her potty breaks).  Eww.  My wife says that what the younger one is doing is perfectly normal 6-year old behavior after something like a move, but it still lights my fuse. 

So...in addition to going shooting, I brought Bella out for breakfast also, to make it a little more special and rewarding.  Right away, she did her best to make me cry, by ordering her breakfast off the normal menu, instead of the kid specific menu 'because I'm not a little kid anymore Daddy.'  SOB!

That's hot cocoa, not coffee

Nope...I know you aren't a little kid anymore...but did she have to rub it in like that?  At least her eyes were bigger than her stomach, and I got to help eat some bacon and eggs.

At the range, things went smooth.  She was much less shaky than she had been first time...and I did a little less hovering, and more 'standing by'.  Her thumb isn't strong enough to operate the safety on the Walther P22, but is strong enough to work the slide release. 

I even put her behind a few long guns this time...the Marlin Model 700 that was my first gun, and the Marlin 1894C that is my favorite gun.  When loaded with .38's, that 1894C doesn't kick much more than a .22, and is a forgiving gun.  Because of her (lack off) arm length, I had to work the lever on the 1894 for her, but she seemed to like it much more than the Model 700. 

The only real issue she had with the long guns was keeping them socketed into her shoulder.  Because she is attempting to insist that she is left-eye dominant, she wants to either drape her whole head over the gun, OR put the butt of the gun squarely in the center of her chest.  Not a big deal at her age(yet)(SOB!) with a .22 or the .38, but, hey...it's the right way to learn.  Plus I had to convince her to keep her middle finger off the trigger...I don't have that problem...with my sausages, only one can fit in the trigger guard at a time.

Best part, is she made sure to say she would like go again sooner than the 6 months I made her wait inbetween her first trip and second trip. 

Now see, that's your problem...you're eyes are closed!

Just throwing this out there...

I think I'm following the wrong blogs.  Tam and Roberta are planning one of their Broad Ripple based Blogmeets.  Borepatch is advertising a Dallas Area Blogshoot, and Jay has his blogmeets, and then flies to exotic places like the Shot Show, and NRA Convention to meet and great.

I meanwhile, feel quite isolated in the Inland Pacific Northwest.

Once upon a time, I hosted a group of about 8 folks from The High Road at a BBQ/Group Shoot, and that was a blast..so I'm gonna go ahead and throw out there that I am more than willing to host a Pacific Northwest Blogmeet/greet/shoot for anyone is interested.

The Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility is a nice site for some shooting, and I know a few guys qualified RO that might be willing to open up more than just the basic range for a well behaved group.  We also have quite a few decent restaraunts in the area, and The Atomic Ale Brewpub could handle a good sized group. 

So anyway...just throwing it out there.  No real sence in talking the when until we know if there is actually any interest in being the who. 

And you kids stay off the lawn!

After my earlier rant at the difficulty of finding RC Cola, I had another grocery store related disappointment today.

One Thursday a night, my wife heads out to a friends house for a 'Stitch and Bitch'.  On that night, historically Daddy takes the girls out for dinner, but this evening, both girls actually voted to stay in, with one wanting Ramen Noodle Soup, and the other requesting Grilled Cheese.

Fine...except that leaves nothing but Raisin Bran(or I suppose I could do something with one of the 68 cans of tuna we have) for daddy.  So...I swung into Safeway on the way home, determined to have something bad for me.  My goal: Steak-Umms. 

But I couldn't find them.  I looked around Safeway for Steak-Umms for 20 minutes, and couldn't find them.  I got SO desperate, I, a MAN, actually asked for help. 

No joy...it seems the Safeway nearest my house doesn't carry Steak-Umms...or at least the employee helping me didn't think so.  I looked with Frozen Meat, I looked with hot dogs, I looked with Pizza, I looked with all the other heat and serve meats...nothing.

Poor me.  I simply endeavoured to persevere, and bought some chuck that I brought home and sliced real thin before pan searing, and throwing on a roll with some cheese. 

It was okay..and probably no where near as bad for me as Steak-Umms would have been...but it's the principle, gosh darn it. 

The end is near.

For the last week or so I've had an itch I've been trying to scratch, and I have ZERO luck.

The fact that I can find 5 different varieties of Mountain Dew at Safeway and Fred Meyers, but I can't find a single bottle of RC Cola, has to be a sign that the End of the World is approaching.

Or it's not approaching soon enough. 

Win-Co also let down, but I finally found a dusty/sticky bottle at Albertson's.

Luckily, I've never been a big 'moon pie' fan...I might just needed to use the internet for that one...

Just call it what it is....

Unfortunately proving that bad things do indeed happen in three's, here in Washington we have had another case of someone leaving a gun horribly accessible, and having a horrible outcome.

3-Year old accidentally shoots, kills himself at Tacoma gas station. 

I'm not sure I believe this initial story...that a three year old can get out his car seat?  I believe that.  That a three year old can get out of his car seat, crawl into the front seat, and get the loaded gun out from under the front seat while a conscious adult is adjacent to the car pumping gas?  Seems harder to believe.

IF this is the true scenario, then...well...I'm sick of hearing let's call it what it is...MURDER.  By leaving a loaded handgun under the front seat of this car, this unnamed boyfriend MURDERED this three year old. 

I'm curious WHY he left the handgun in the car in the first place.  The article says that he had his concealed carry permit...why not just keep the gun on you while you are pumping the gas?

I don't want to see a law passed requiring mandatory storage requirements/trigger locks...but when stupid f*#($ing idiots like this, do things like this...I can kind of understand why some people are pushing for that.

Stop beating around the bush with punishment for people who do this.  The mom and boyfriend in Bremerton who let the 9-year old boy bring a gun to school, which resulted in 5 surgeries and now no small intestine for an 8-year old girl SHOULDN'T be charged with 3rd-degree Assault...it's Attempted Murder. 

PUNISH THE GUILTY!!!!

I just can't get away from it!

While cruising the internet machine, looking for something to make me mad enough to rant about, I instead found this article in the Tri-City Herald:

Crane slows 'pencil tank' removal at Hanford plant (w/video)

Hey...that's what I do for a living!  Well, close to that...the Plutonium Finishing Plant, as a whole, is a bit nastier than the Tank Farms.  PFP is where they made the poop, while Tank Farms is where we store the poop, so, things were/are a little more controlled at the Tank Farms.

It's close enough to what I do that I could show my wife the video, which is new for me.  For most of my married life, my wife had had to take what I do on faith.  She's never been able to see what I do.  They don't exactly give tours of submarine reactor compartments.  All I've been able to tell her is that it is nothing like what they show in Hollywood. 

Except for Homer at the beggining of The Simpsons.

Of course, now she is more worried about it than she was this morning, but I told her that since I'm a manager, I'm the guy outside the tent, telling the working guys not to lick the pipe. 

I'm not sure that made her feel any better. 

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/03/13/1862197/crane-slows-pencil-tank-removal.html#storylink=cpy

That's unexpected...

As I pulled into the driveway after work yesterday, I noticed I had some visitors...a covey of about 7 quail picking around in our front yard.  They weren't spooked by me driving, or pulling into the drive way, but the act of opening my door so the 2MP, non zooming, non focusing camera on my phone could get a good picture proved to be the last straw for them.  They took off and took roost in a couple of 45-foot fir trees across the street.

I'll have to keep an eye out for them...something about the way a momma quail and and her chicks run around always makes me smile.  Maybe I can get a good shot at them...you know, with my real camera. I would never think of using my 1200FPS Gamo on a quail. 

Out of Season.  In the front yard. 

But when I'm watching Doomsday Preppers tonight, it's nice to know I can supplement the squirrel in my diet with some fowl...

You don't say...

More burglaries spur more gun sales in Puget Sound

Kind of a cream puff article...I mean, it quotes one store owner, and one police department spokesman. 

Then again, it does quote one idiot also:

"There's this concept that if you don't have a gun in your home, your home is unprotected. Well, get a baseball bat or a knife, if you are really concerned about that," says Washington Cease Fire's Ralph Fascitelli.

Really?  That same arguement?  A knife?  Or a baseball bat? 

That's what $50,000 gets you?  What would $100,000 have produced?  'Don't struggle when the rapist shows up, and he'll go easy on you?' 

Dumb-ass. 

Update: Accident becomes tragedy.

Earlier today, I went on a little rant, and pointed to an accidental shooting in Stanwood to draw an example between something Jay talked about on Saturday, and something that happened in Bremerton a few weeks ago...basically asking, will a police officer face the same punishment as a non-police officer when involved in a similar situation. 

Well. in a way that question has already been answered.  This evening, the 7-year old daughter who was accidentally shot passed away. 

One major difference that I failed to point out earlier between the accidental shooting in Stanwood, and the accidental school shooting in Bremerton, is that in the Stanwood shooting, the officer's own child was the victim, and not some random classmate. 

What difference is that?  Well...now that the child has passed away...let's face it....there is nothing that the legal system can do to this guy that is worse than what he is doing to himself.  He left a gun readily available, and one of his children used it to accidentally kill one of his other children.  Both the child, and the father, are NEVER going to get over it. 

This is now past 'making an example'.  My heart goes out to the family.

Sometimes, we need a reminder.

I've been grumbly the past few days about what a pain in the ass it is to move.  Even with us throwing some cash at the problem, and bringing 'Help-U-Move' in to handle the big stuff, it's still a pain.  We have used this company twice in the last year, both times to help handle anything big enough that my wife and I would, you know...actually have to cooperate on carrying.  This is good on both the back, and the continued marital bliss.  Their workers are very fast, and very professional.  Their office seems to have scheduling issues though.  Last year, they called the day before asked if they could do a morning move instead of a PM move(we said yes). This year, they called me the day before, and asked if they could do the move Wednesday afternoon(as in 3 hours from the time he called) instead of Thursday morning.  We had to say know.

Yesterday, after finishing the third trip of the day for 'random crap', my older daughter pointed out a spot of color in our new yard. 

Oleg Volk, I ain't.

We have some crocuses(croci?) growing in a ring around the birch tree in the yard.  How sweet.  I had to have walked past that tree 113 times in the last two days, and I hadn't noticed those flowers at all.

It was a good reminder that my wife and I are putting ourselves through this moving torture for a reason.  I know we aren't buying this house, but renting here for the next two + years is SOOOO much better than being in the apartment already.  The girls are digging having their own rooms again, and we have a family room...and we have flowers. 

We need to turn the keys in for the apartment by Thursday, and realistically we only have 2, maybe even 1, run of stuff to still pick up.  My wife has already cleaned the upstairs bathroom and bedroom, so, we are on the homestretch.

Just in time to go to work tomorrow!

The Goose and the Gander.

Yesterday, Jay had a story(which he referenced to Brad_in_MA) about some police officers in Connecticut who injured each other with a firearm in a training situation.

The point of Jay's post was that if you or I had injured a buddy during a 'firearms demonstration', we would be expecting SOME form of legal trouble, and he is right. 

A few weeks ago, there was a sad story out of Bremerton where a 9-year old boy 'found' a gun at his moms house.  He brought the gun to school, where it 'went off', critically injuring a class mate.  There was a lot of discussion about who to punish...the kid for bringing the gun to school, or the mom and boyfriend who left it accessible.

I was all for getting the kid some help, but saving the real punishment for the mom/boyfriend, and that is what has happened.  Hooray for the system.

Now, we have a new case to test Jay's theory. 

Sibling injures girl, 7, in accidental shooting in Stanwood

So, the siblings are children of a Marysville police officer.  They were left in the car alone, with a gun.  One of the children gets his/her(the story is vague) hands on the gun, and shoots the 7-year old sister.

This situation is DIRECTLY comparable to the Bremerton school shooting.  If the Kitsap County Prosecutors office got it right, I hope the Snohomish County Prosecutors do too. 

They are being presented with a perfect opportunity to show that with gun crimes, enforcing the existing laws is more important than establishing new mandatory 'trigger lock' laws, from which I'm sure police officers would be exempt anyways...

My dad was right!!!!!

So...when I was younger, I used to have a problem with forgetting 'things'.  This wasn't a knowledge problem...I could memorize stuff with the best of them(my strong 'verbatim understanding' skill is one of the things that got me through Nuke School), it was more of a 'Where did I leave this' or a 'Hey, can we go back home...I forgot my wallet?' 

More than once, my father hit me with the 'You know, you'd forget head if it wasn't attached to your shoulders!' line.

The apartment we were living in has a fenced/gated patio in the back.  When we first moved in there, my wife was talking about wanting to put a lock on the back gate.  I threw the brakes on her buying a new lock at the store, and instead we used one of the many 'free' gun locks that any gun owner will accumulate over time. 

Now...I am 100% certain, that after placing that lock on the gate, I made eye contact with my wife, and told her 'Okay, let's put the key's to that lock RIGHT HERE so that we can find it really easy when we move in a year. 

Which is why I was just at the ACE Hardware buying a new metal blade for my jigsaw. Hopefully it works...it was $20 cheapet than a set of bolt cutters.

Burn the witch!

My wife pointed out this story to me this morning, about a 5 year old girl who was left at Chuck E. Cheese, al a 'Home Alone'.

Ummm.  Ummm.  Ummmm.  Wow.   How the F*%$! do you FORGET A CHILD!?!?!?!?!!  I mean, if I'm out a public place, I get twitchy if I don't see my kid for about 10 seconds...

Damn.  I've got two girls...I have been to Chuck's more than once, and I know a bithday party at Chuck E. Cheeses can be a mind numbing experience...but how do you rememeber the presents, but forget the Birthday Girl?

Then you don't realize you don't have that kid until you're trying to figure out why there is an extra bowl of cereal in the morning. 

I don't think that is the type of mistake you 'get a second chance' on.  Take away the kids, lock up the parents, and throw away the key.

Besides...who has a 5-year olds birthday party at 9:30 on a Thursday night?

Oops.

Hey trust me, I've been trapped in the cosmetic section of a store once or twice with a 'female companion'.  I just never thought of having an accidental discharge as excuse to make a fast exit.

Man accidentally fires gun in Silverdale store

For the life of me, I just don't understand how your gun 'goes off' when you are reaching for your wallet. 

.                 .                 .

In other news, moving is tough work.  I played hooky yesterday from work, and it was the wort playing hooky day EVER. 

'Where does the tuperware go?' 

'Can we put the extra boxes of serial on the shelving above the washer and dryer, or do you think the heat/humidity would be bad for it?'

'Do we really need 4 different types of cork screws and wine bottle openers?' 

'Do we, now both in out 30's as are our friends, really need 10 shot glasses?' 

We have a bin going for yard sale type stuff.  Even if we aren't motivated enough for one, one of my wife's friends is going to be doing one to raise money for an adoption. 

I also smell like bleach.  Some how(most likely to preserve marital bliss) I loss the coin toss to clean up the mouse poop on the garage shelving.  Pretending I was at work, I raided our supply of gloves, and filter masks, and went out there with a 25% bleach solution to make sure I was safe from the hanta virus.  Even once I cleaned it up, we are still lining the shelves before putting food stuff on them.  Given the evidence of mice, we are going to stick to just cans/jars in the garage for now.  At some point, when we have some of our plastic totes/bin empty, maybe we'll start putting other stuff out there.

Bed time was early last night...I was in bed at 9pm...and it wasn't for fun reason, so get your brain out of the gutter.  I was asleep by 9:10. 

We probably have about 2 or 3 loads of stuff back at the other apartment, so, my Saturday is pretty well spoken for. 



Moved, but not nearly done.

So, the movers showed up today, and took care of the big stuff: Couch, dresser, hutches, beds, tables, chairs, and the elliptical.  Basically, anything I couldn't carry alone, they took care of.  That still leaves a lot of miscellaneous stuff, and things we didn't want them to handle, for us to move.

Luckily, I was actually on the ball, and called the cable company LAST week, so the cable guy showed up at the new house about 3 hours after the movers were done, so we were actually only without the Internet machine for <24 hours. 

Things are fitting well in the new place, and I don't have much argument with where my wife has decided to initially locate things.  The tough part is going to be taking a serious turn on unpacking.  We have stuck a lot of stuff in the garage...I don't want to still be unpacking in 3 months. 

Which means it is time to wrap this up.  The only real new negative discovery, other than dog poop in the backyard, was poop in the garage.  There is some nice shelving installed on one of the walls, and when we went to go start placing boxes on it, I noticed little black specks, looking strangely like mouse droppings. 

I'm thinking about just putting a space heater in the garage and letting the corn snake loose in there...that's a good way to make friends with the new neighbors. 

And THAT is why I need a flamethrower...

I'm not a spider fan.  I wouldn't go as far as to say I've got arachnophobia, but there were times early in our marriage that I had to have my wife go take care of a spider for me.

On the other hand, tarantula's don't bother me.  I've let the ones folks keep as pets crawl over me without any heebie-jeebies. 

So...this story from Australia, about a town that is being over-run by spiders because the flooding river is chasing them from their normal home freaks me right the heck out.

Spider webs so thick on the ground that they look like snow?  Yeah...I'm calling in sick to work that day instead of walking through those to get to my truck.  I'm sitting at home right now scratching at myself just thinking about it.

Oooo! A nugget, a nugget!

I first learned about the show Doomsday Preppers because one of my co-workers, knowing I liked to 'stock up on things', mentioned it to me.  My wife and I have watched it from the beggining, and for the most part, while it's kind of neat to see what some folks choose to focus on, I haven't really learned anything other than: Man, wouldn't it be nice to be to be rich, so I could have a 4500SF house, three rooms of which are supply storage.

Since that's not going to happen anytime soon, it would be nice to pick up a neat idea or two, and last night it finally happened. 

The show was focusing on a family outside of Atlanta, Georgia.  Not being a place with a lot of trees to hack down, the man of the house had his family making home made 'presto logs', with shredded newspaper amd crumbled cry leaves.  It was nothing I had ever seen before, and is the type of reason I have sat through 4 weeks of this show.  Not that I'm going to start making my own presto logs...but it looked like an interesting skill to have.

Of course, the very next person they focused on is a kook who is going to hide from the Fukishima Radioactivity in a Wall Tent for the next 4 months...

sigh. 

Groan.

The only time I really question/dount my decision to be a modest prepper? 

When it's time to move.

Especially when it is the 3rd move in 18 months.

Luckily, the place we are moving into is a rambler...only two steps to go up to get into the house. 

Grrr...more 5 gallon buckets and ammo cans tomorrow. 

I guess it's a good problem to have. 

Moving in.

Yesterday afternoon we went and did our walkthough and got the keys to the new house we are renting.  Things went smooth, and we already got about 20 boxes worth of stuff dropped off at the new place. 

I might have to give the property management company a call about one thing though...

The property has a decent sized back yard, and I walked around the outside with the manager, mostly with an eye to identifying exterior damage I didn't want to be held responsible for.  Later on, after unloading my truck, my wife and I did more thorough inspection of the back yard, mostly trying to decide where we might want to put the garden, and we noticed we had quite a 'land mine' problem.

The previous renter owned two dogs...and while she did a good job of keeping the area directly around the house maintained, the back half of the yard is a mess.  I stopped counting at 40 separate 'feces' occurrences that are going to need to be cleaned up before I can let the kids go roam in the back yard.  Plus, my understanding is that stuff doesn't make the best fertilizer for a garden.

I figure I will give them a call this morning and make a polite request for them to bring in some kind of a yard cleaning company...they can take it out of the previous owners security deposit for all I care, but it shouldn't have to be my problem right off the bat.

Lesson learned. 

My cup runeth over...

Got a phone call this afternoon from my real estate agent, who had some good news and some less than good news. 

As is to be expected, he gave me the good news first...not only did we have an offer on our house, but we also had a pending offer on the house!  Two offers in one day, as opposed to two offers in 14 months!  Yes!

So...back in the real world, neither the real offer or the 'pending' offer are perfect. 

The first offer, which was actually officially submitted on a piece of paper, was a major lowball.  The first time I was low-balled, I was fairly offended.  This time, I'm not as offended...I understand what people are looking at...a house that has been on the market for a LONG time.  Might as well throw an offer out there, and see how desperate the homeowner is. 

Not that desperate yet.  Our current asking price is $160K.  Todays offer was for $154K, with us covering $5500 worth of closing costs...so, effectively an offer of just over $148K, with us needing to come up with $35,000 at closing, and taking a loss of 20K after relocation help from my job. 

Just can't do that. 

The other 'pending' offer is interesting, but not without risk.  

There is a guy that is interested in buying our house, but he is lacking in credit.  Not bad credit...just no credit history.  He attempted to place an offer about a month ago, but was told his credit history wouldn't get him approved for a loan...take out a few credit cards, pay them off, and see what happens to his credit rating. 

Things aren't moving fast enough for him.  What he wants to do now, is make us a full price offer, and as part of that offer, RENT the house from us for 3 months, and then try again on his loan approval. 

The good...some money coming in each month...not quite the full mortgage, but the rent rate is a fair market value.  The bad...there is still the risk that in June, he won't be able to get approved...which is fine..try again in July, and then in August if need be.  The problem lies in September, when I go over two years at this job, and my relocation package expires. 

So...the low-ball offer now, and be done with it in April, or take the chance on June? 

Neither...yet.  We offered a counter offer to the low-ball offer.  It's not meeting them in middle, but I'm not hard lining them either.  My wife and I had already discussed that by dropping the price to 160K, we were probably going to see offers less than 160K, and so we have countered at $158K, which, when you figure in what we will lose over three months from renting for less than our mortgage payment, makes the offers equal on paper. 

Looking forward to what tomorrow brings...but a slim hope is better than new hope. 

Because it's Monday...

I'm not very excited to head out to work this morning, but what's new.  What is new is that I am leaving work early to do the walk through of our new place we are renting.  If everything goes right, then by 5:00 tonight, we should have the first load of boxes moved into the new place.

None to soon...our apartment is starting to look like a cross between 'Hoarders' and a 2nd hand liquor store. 

My life isn't nearly as tough as I make it out to be, on an absolute scale.  We don't live our lives on an absolute scale though...all I really have to compare it to is the day, week, and year before it.  When I have MY tough days, I think about this Trace Adkins song.  It's about putting one foot in front of the other.  If you haven't seen it before, the video is worth watching, and reading.

The right tool for the job...

Yesterday I bought a new set of HDMI Cables at Big Lots.  Of course, these cables come hermetically sealed in plastic bubble. 

Recognizing the homicidal glee in my eyes as I attacked the hard plastic case with steak knife, my wife intervened. 

'You know...an pinterest the other day, someone posted an idea about using a can opener on plastic cases like that...'

Grunt.  Whatever...I figured it wouldn't hurt to humor her before slitting my wrists, so I took the can opener out of the drawer...

Bloody Frickin' Brilliant.  Just clamp that can opener on, and crank it down one of the long side, and you can basically unfold the bubble...

I knew there was some reason I was keeping her around...

Double Feature

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Netflix.  If you go to their site, the selection of movies that you can get mailed to your house isn't bad...but, their streaming selection, which they themselves are pushing, is increasingly anemic, and tends to be TV show heavy.  The other day, I looked through the Netflix Top 100 movies, and only 7 of the selections were available for streaming online. 

Thus, I found myself in front of Walgreens yesterday, perusing the selection at the RedBox machine.  Since I failed to consult my wife first, I did my best make suitable his and hers selections: Captain America, and Bridesmaids. 

Realising that at 10:30, my eye lids start closing on their own, we decided to start watching one of the movies before the kids went to bed, choosing the PG-13 Captain America over R-rated Bridesmaids. 

Captain America was a good movie...not as good as the first Iron Man, or Thor, but a better overall movie than the 2nd Iron Man, and just as entertaining.  They do a good job on the back story, although my wife thought the pre-transformation CGI unbuff Chris Evan's was a 'bit freaky'.  She had no problem with the shirt off/tight shirt real thing though.

Tommy Lee Jones is a treat as the gruff Colonel, but, really...he's just being Tommy Lee Jones.  Hayley Atwell plays the eye candy/ love interest, and God Save the Queen, because I am okay with British Girls.  For all the jokes about bad teeth, your average British Actress is more likely to have a little curves to her...I'm not a big 'waif' fan.  I'm certain her Army Uniforms needed a little custom tailoring.

Hugo Weaving does good as the Big Baddy, but then Hugo has 'menace' down to an art(note to self: watch 'V' for Vendetta....SOON).  I like Agent Smith Hugo more than Elrond Hugo...but they are both good(of course, then there is Megatron Hugo...and I was okay with that replacement...not happy, but okay). 

Solid Flick.

I''m glad we waited until the youngin's were in bed for Bridesmaids.  It lived up to it's reputation...fairly naughty, and 'raunchy'...but funny, funny, funny.  The kind of funny that my wife had to keep hiding her face behind a pillow because, you know if this was a real person, you would be embarrassed for them.  Not for kids though, or anyone who is easily offended by sexual talk, or bodily function humor. 

That doesn't include me...so I enjoyed it.  The first half was more consistently funny  than the second half.  Because this movie was aimed more at women, then men, the second half has a half-hour stretch that is fairly serious...or at least 'down' as the main character deals with friendship and relationship issues. 

Kristin Wiig is great...and another reason The Academy Awards confuses me.  I have to say that I am more impressed by an actor/actresses ability to just play CRAZY STUPID FUNNY, without having it come off as 'campy' than I am someone doing 2 hours of staid and somber.  The only part I have a hard time buying is the 'oh, I'm so sad and lonely and down on my luck.  No man would ever want me' part.  Umm...no.  Kristin Wiig is funny, pretty, and has killer legs.  Men would hurt other men for her if she asked them to.

In the end, I would say I liked Bridesmaids a little better than Captain America.  Bridesmaids was a good movie by itself, but Captain America felt just a little too much like a building block for something else...2 hours of back story to make you appreciate what Captain America goes through in the upcoming Avengers...and bravo to Marvel for having the long range vision and motivation to make that happen. 

I think it was supposed to be a compliment...

This evening for dinner, my wife had admitted to having a craving for shrimp scampi.  Since I had plenty of free time(I didn't have to participate in the caucus today) I decided to make it from scratch. 

Scampi is really pretty easy to throw together...get some butter and olive oil and shrimp going in a BIG skillet.  Add some garlic, and peppers, and tomatoes, and then some lemon juice and a little wine(Desert Wind Semillon(got it on clearance)) before throwing in some angel hair pasta...and it's done.  I was soooooo worried about overdoing the garlic I actually wimped out on it a bit...but it was good.

My older daughter likes shrimp, and she was trying to describe the texture as a little bit soft, and a little bit chewy. 

 'Daddy...I like the shrimp.   It's like a meaty, fishy gummy bear.' 

Now that's something you can't find in every grocery store...

Complete Failure of the System.

I'm not a happy person right now.  My attempt to participate in the political process was a complete and total failure this morning, and I'm not sure any of it was my fault.

My opinion is that 95% of the blame belongs to the Benton County Republican Party.  Instead of doing a few precincts at this high school and a few more precincts at this fire station, like other counties did, Benton County decided to 'centralize' things, and have everyone other than the folks in Prosser get together at the Three Rivers Convention Center, in Kennewick. 

Disaster ensued.  The caucus was supposed to go from 10-11:30, with check in being from 8:30-9:45.  I showed up at 9:03...and did not make it to the front of the line by 9:45.  Or 9:55.  I made it to the front of the line at 9:58.  It wasn't a slow moving line either..there were 8 different stations checking people in on the computer...verifying people were registered voters, and telling them their precinct numbers.  I had already used the Washington State Secretary of State's website to identify my precinct...but I still had to stand in line because I didn't bring my voter registration card.  I would estimate that when I got there, there well over 1000 people in line in front of me...and when I made it to the front of the line, there were at least 1500 behind me.

I almost made it...I was at the computer when whoever was in charge said the doors were being closed on the caucus rooms.  It didn't matter to me...despite the fact that two days before, I had verified my address and precinct # on the Secretary of State' Website...whatever database the Benton County GOP was using didn't have my name in it.

I stood in line for an hour...and I was doubly screwed...ruled out by a computer database, and locked out because the rooms were already filled to capacity. 

Because I'm getting better, I was very polite with the volunteer working the computer...and I'd like to think my politeness wasn't directly related to the fact that she was young, female, and of good breeding stock.  She has been at the computer for an hour and a half, and was in danger of being locked out of her caucus room herself.  She even showed my the computer screen...when my last name was put in, my first name did not show up.  I simply thanked her, and walked away.

I didn't stick around to see what happened when the 1500(AT LEAST) behind were told they weren't going to be allowed in to the caucus rooms.  Up to that point, the people had been very polite.  The line had more twists, turns, and double back then you would encounter at Disney World, and was entirely self-policing.  There were no posts, or ropes...just common Americans doing what is right.  Turn out was at least 3 times what was expected, but THAT IS NO EXCUSE FOR PEOPLES VOTES NOT COUNTING!!!!!!!!!

I'm still very emotional about this...I have been looking forward to supporting Ron Paul at the caucuses all winter...I had even researched what dates the County and State Convention were, in case I got to be a delegate to those(April and June).

What a Cluster...the Tri-City Herald already has story about it...but I'm telling you, their numbers are low...if there were less than 1200 people turned away, I would eat mushrooms with my dinner tonight.