No family members were injured during this blog post.

The other night for dinner, we made open face turkey sandwiches, with mashed-potato pancakes.

Okay...it's not very photogenic, and there is nothing fancy about open-faced sandwiches...but it's special because it was the first time we have used any of the turkey I canned at home.    And yeah...I'm always a little bit nervous the first time we open a new type of 'something' we canned at home...and more nervous when it's a pressure canned protein than a water bath canned jam or pickle. 

By the way, the Sam Adams Summer Ale is easy to recommend.  There is something about the flagship Sam Adams Boston Lager that pleases me not...but on a hot day, their summer ale is right up there with Summer Shandy as a refreshing adult beverage. 

I do it for you!

And because I am weak. 

I stopped at the grocery store after work today, and a shiny end cap worked it's Jedi Mind Trick on me, causing me to walk out with not one, not two, but THREE items I hadn't planned on buying.

Three new flavors of Lay's Potato chips to try!

The least impressive of them was the Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese.  They weren't bad tasting, but they didn't taste any different than any other 'cheddar cheese' chip.  Fake flavor can only do so much for you. 

The Cappuccino ones were interesting.  My wife and I both agreed that the taste was 100% 'cappuccino'...it's just not a flavor we want to go 'crunch' in our mouths.  Strange. 

I'm not sure the ones in the middle are 'new'...but I had not previously seen them.  They were also the best all around chips, and the only one of the three I might spend money on in the future.  I like me some roasted garlic and salt. 

Glad I could save you folks your money and sodium intake. 

Well, now we wait.

Had an audition tonight for the Mid-Columbia Master Singers...it was a more nerve racking audition than any of the ones I had previously done for the musicals I have been in.  It was much more technical...instead of a 30-40 second section of a song, you had to be ready to do a 2-3 minutes solo, and some sight reading, and some vocalizes, and then sing part of 2 other excerpts.

Worst of all, it was specified that the solo piece could NOT be from a musical, or other 'popular' source...eliminating 113% of songs that I already knew.  The last time I had to sing 'chamber' choir type music was DECADES ago when I was in high school, and none of those were accompanied solos, so...I had to learn something new in two weeks.

Thank gosh for the internet. I love you, Al Gore.

By opening up a choral sheet music supplier website, and bouncing the available titles of songs off of youtube, I was able to find a song I felt was within my capabilities, and I figured since it was written in the 1600's, it wasn't 'popular'(Come Again, by John Dowland).  After making that decision, I was also able to use youtube to find the tenor part of the excerpts I had to do(His Yoke is Easy from The Messiah, and Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem.

Or at least,  I thought I had learned them.  It seems that singing along with a practice track on youtube is not quite the same as singing along with a real piano accompanist.  I had a few hic-ups, but did decent on the solos and excerpts.  I also believe I did really good on the vocalizes.

As for the sight reading exercises...well, dang...let's face it...I wasn't that good at that back in high school, and as you would guess, a skill does not improve by not using it for 20 years.

But...I believe that I did show a good ear, and on the things I did have a problem with, I showed a rapid improvement.

We'll see...the results should be out later on this week.

I'm blaming the camera

One of the things my wife does when she can stand to be apart from me is play bunco with a great group of ladies. Twice a year, once at a summer picnic and once at a Christmas Party, the Men-Folk are allowed to play. 

Usually, our host provides the main course, and other folks bring either sides or deserts.  In the past, I have brought such things as Brigid's Bacon Butterscotch Brownies with Salted Glaze, Brigid's Guinness Brownies, and The Best Brownies in the World, and the Best Brownies EVER, so I have a reputation to live up to.  I didn't feel like desert though, so I decided to wing it with some Smoked Jalapeno Poppers.

Yeah, they don't look like much in the pan, but...they were pretty okay.

Recipe? 

Well, start by splitting the jalapeno's.  Since I am not a huge heat guy, I use a spoon to get out the seeds and most of the ribs.  Then, you stuff them.  For my filling I used two packages of Neufchatel Cheese(it's healthy!)(well, not as unhealthy as cream cheese), and then whipped in one pound of hot pork sausage that I had browned up.  It turned out to be too much filling...I started with 20 jalapenos, and had about 1/3rd of the filling mixture left.  I might or might not have tried eating it all with a spoon, and might or might not have been defeated by too much richness.

Then you take your stuffed half a jalapeno, and in theory, you wrap it with bacon.  That theory only works with thin bacon though.  The thick-cut stuff I had was tougher to wrap, so for most of the poppers, I just draped a blanket of bacon over the top, and tooth-picked it into place.

Place said poppers on the grill for oh...about an hour.  Seems long, but I used indirect heat, with lots of wood chips.  The cheese does a fine job of absorbing smoky goodness.

I was pretty popular...until the next morning. 

Count to 10 next time, dad.

With hunting season only two months away, I took my daughter to the gun range again yesterday. 

Her accuracy is getting there...she is not flinching anymore, and she is consistently minute-of-venison.

From the bench.

Yesterday, I brought a blanket to the range, and after she had practiced for a bit from the bench, I lay the blanket out, and told her it was time to start practicing from the ground, since there aren't many benches out in the woods and wheat fields. 

She was not receptive to the idea.  I showed her two or three ways that I find comfortable, and she kept insisting that none of them were comfortable for her, and that she would rather shoot standing up than sitting down.

Sigh. 

So, I let her stand up, and I handed her the gun.  She then complained that the gun was shaking too much.

You don't say.

So, I told her to get back down on the ground and find a position that DID feel comfortable for her. She kept wanting to basically lay the gun across her lap and hunch over it...while I was trying to convince her to sit up, and pull the gun to her, instead of her going to the gun.

After about 5 minutes of back and forth, I finally let her do it her way.  I told her to get comfy, and when she was happy she could keep the gun on target, we would load it and let her try her position. 

Yup...you can guess how well it worked.  She was not happy with the physical result to her, or the result on the target.  And of course, I chose that time to lay it on thick, that maybe she should try it my way instead of arguing about what is and isn't comfortable.

GRRRRRR.

And yeah, that also didn't work well.  It's really the first time I have lost my patience with her at the gun range...and we decided that maybe we would work on new positions at home in the comfort of the house. 

I also had a buddy last night that told me I could borrow one of these Primos Tripod Walking Sticks that he has. 

I think I might take him up on it.

Just Because.

Sorry...busy tonight.  Got dinner to make, and a truck to load in preparation for a dump run tomorrow morning...and just...stuff to do.

Here...for stopping by, you might as well reward yourself with listening to one of the best songs from my formative years.



Alicia Silverstone, for the win.  Proving that if you are hot enough, crazy doesn't matter.

SOB!

Dang you Mother Nature.  If it's not the heat baking my containers, it's the wind knocking them over.

Stupid top-heavy container grown tomatoes.  Between broken branches and tomatoes that were just plain knocked off, I lost about 2/3rds of the tomatoes that had set in that pot.

Hopefully, there is still time left for them to set more.

For now, it might be time to try something I have always been scared to try...fried green tomatoes.

'Unusually Powerful'

Hey...look, I'm going to admit that I am proof that ANYONE can post stuff on the internet, and someone will be bored enough to swing by and take a look at it.

However, I'm not sure what the criteria are to write for 24/7 Wall St, and get stuff posted on yahoo...they must be low though, because this article about Beretta's New Super Rifle made me throw up in my mouth several times.

Paragraph 1:

Gun company Beretta is tone deaf when it comes to calls for restrictions on powerful guns sold in the United States. It must be the chance to make money.

I wouldn't say they are tone deaf...as Mr. Soyer pointed out this morning, Beretta hears well enough to decide the time has come to leave Maryland for friendlier climates.  As for 'the chance to make money'...isn't that what companies are supposed to do?

From Paragraph 2, THE line of the whole article:

Regardless of its origins, the gun is unusually powerful.

I'm not currently in the market for a semi-automatic rifle, so I actually had to go to the Beretta website to make sure I hadn't missed something, and that they hadn't suddenly started chambering AR's in .458 Winchester.  Nope.  Maybe he meant the ARX160, chambered in .22LR...as rare as that particular cartridge is in the stores, you might think it is 'unusually powerful'.

Sigh. 

I can't even continue to rip the article up...I feel like I'm getting dumber each time I click on it.

From the garden to the table.

What to do, what to do, with the pretty Anaheim peppers that are ready to be picked in my garden?  How's about scratching my jones for Chili Rellenos?

The victims.

The recipe I followed recommended seeding the peppers before roasting them, as it can be difficult to work with the peppers once they get super-soft.  I highly recommend this.  Of course, if you are someone who likes heat, you could skip the 'seeding' step...Anaheim's are not that high on the Scoville Scale.  I'm cooking for women folk though(and it's nice to be able to use them as an excuse). Plus, I find the seeds unpleasant to chew.

Now, blacken the peppers all up.

 

 

I probably could have gone a little darker...but, I wimped out and got impatient.

 



Once you get the peppers peeled, it time to stuff them with some cheese(queso fresco)...and then get creative with your toothpicks to hold them together.

 

 

Get yourself some oil heated up(360ish), dip the peppers in your egg batter(more on this), and then fry them to a golden brown(or some shade of brown).

 

 

Lesson's Learned: Next time, I think I will try this with poblano peppers.  There is nothing wrong with using the Anaheim's(especially because they came from the garden), but I think the poblanos would be easier to work with...much roomier inside.

 

Also...this is not really a week night dish for most folks. No single step is tough, but...the beginning to end process is not fast.  The toughest step is making the egg batter to dip the peppers in.  Some recipes just tell you to dip in flour, and then egg...but the one I followed has you separate the eggs, then whip the whites into stiff peaks before folding in the beaten yolks.  A bit longer and more involved...but the finished texture was perfect. 

 

Plus, the toothpicks make you slow down and chew your food. 

 



Nuptials were had.

Well, my mom's wedding went pretty okay yesterday. While overcast, the actual precipitation stayed away until almost 9pm, which since we kicked things off at 2ish, was plenty of time.  Dinner was done, the band was done, cleaning was started, and we were pretty much down to family and close friends sitting around the fire by that point.

More pictures and thoughts on the day to follow, but for now, I am a good son, so I did dance with the bride.

May you live in interesting times.

Whoa boy. We are currently in Western Washington, helping my mom get ready for her wedding today. We came over Thursday afternoon, and I was kind of worried that Friday might drag a bit. Yeah, there were tables to be set up, and ice and kegs to pick up, and out of town family to catch up with, but that was a bunch of small things, with what I felt was sure to be a lot of down time spread through it.  Heck, at one point I even floated the idea of leaving the kids with some relatives, and my wife and I leading a group into Woodinville for wine tasting. 

Ha, ha, ha.  We had plenty to keep us busy...if not physically, then at least emotionally.  And while it wasn't my fault, I was in the thick of it.

We are staying at a hotel, and I'm going to see how the next 36 hours go to decide whether or not to name it...based on yesterday, they are on their way to a HUGE crushing at some point, but I am trying to decide if I was the victim of an individual failure, or an institutional problem.

You might want to get a drink and pull up a chair.

When we checked in Thursday, everything was fine...gave them our car information, got our keys, and I got the girls bags unpacked into drawers since we are here for 3 nights. The room was kind of 'meh', but this hotel was one of the less expensive options in the area.  We then went out to dinner, and in the shuffle of dinner/'bachelorette party' for my mom, my wife ended up with out Mazda, and I ended up with one of my mom's cars. 

Back at the hotel with a different vehicle than we had checked in with, I Did The Right Thing, and I went back to the front desk to say that we had a 2nd vehicle in the parking lot, where the same efficient employee was working who checked us in.  She had another customer at the desk, but he was yelling at his credit card company on his phone, so she asked what we needed, and I explained.  She then passed me a pad of note paper and told me to write down the info for the car, which I did, before heading back to my room, happy, because I had Done The Right Thing.

You can see where this is going, right?

08:40 the next morning, I went to bring a bag out to my moms car...but it was gone.  I went to the front desk where a new employee was working, who told me a 'parking sweep' was done, and 5 cars, including my moms, were towed, because they didn't show up in any registration paperwork.

I told him my story...how I had Done the Right Thing the night before...and instead of saying 'oh, sorry sir, our bad, let's fix that', he told me he would call the night clerk at home to verify my story, and then get back to me.

My wife wanted to go full New England on the guy, but I prevailed upon her to be calm, and give good customer service a chance to come through.

45 minutes later, I went back to the front desk, because I hadn't heard anything.  The guy told me that their night clerk couldn't remember anything, and that he was trying to get the towing company to waive the towing/impound fee for me.  My opinion was that that was between the towing company and the hotel to work out, just get my car released.  HIS opinion was that since his night clerk couldn't remember anything, it wasn't their fault, and he was gracing me with a favor, and that by noon, he might have an answer for me.

Since I wasn't getting anywhere with the local folks, and we had to get to my moms, we left in OUR car, and on the way to my moms I called the customer service line(which I had to get through via the reservation #).  I told my whole story to the customer service lady, stressing the fact that this was ONGOING, and that while I had already pre-paid for two more nights, I was willing to risk eating that if I didn't get some satisfaction. 

She took the whole story down, and says, 'Okay sir...our policy is that you here from someone about this issue within 7-days, so by July 24th'.

WTF!?!?!?!

When I called back at noon to the hotel, someone on the phone finally accepted some responsibility, saying that the impound yard needed us to pay to get the car released, and that the hotel would then refund us that outlay on my credit card, but that was how it had to work on paper.

Fine. And that part of things wasn't without it's own challenges...and really looking at it, I'm still not sure I'm satisfied.  I know my wife and mom are not.  Like they pointed out, they really didn't do anything for us...they refunded us the cash we had to put out to get the car...but that really doesn't make up for the 6 hours of stress and the running around we had to put up with.  No comped room, no discount, no real official apology. 

Like I said, I haven't named names yet...but the next 36 hours, OR whatever response I do or do not get from the customer service folks could still change that. 

But hey...there is going to be one hum-dinger of a wedding today!

Pictures of celebrations to follow!

So Sad Looking

When I got home from work yesterday, this is what was waiting for me:

Ouch...that is some serious wilting going on there...but...those pots were saturated when I left for work this morning.  I think this is just the reality of what happens on a 109 degree day, especially when a convection oven type breeze pops up in the afternoon.  It dried that stuff out lickity-split.

Luckily, as soon as water was added, the plants perked right back up, and by sun down, they looked right as rain. 

I've moved them into an area where they are in shade most of the afternoon, and I have a few inches of wood-shaving mulch at the top of each pot...

I guess it might just be something I have to deal with on super-hot days.  I mean, I could ask the kids to water them around lunch time, but I've also been given to understand that it is not good for the plant to sit permanently in damp soil. 

The good news is that it is just the plants in the pots...everything in the raised beds is looking fine.

Stupid flippin' hobby anyway.

A bit like heaven, it is.

Instead of complaining about the heat(112 at work, 109 in town), I'm going to focus on the positive: That feeling when you get home to the A/C, and take off your hot, heavy work boots, and sweaty sox, and peel of your jeans. 

Then the even better feeling when you put on a fresh, dry pair of underwear, sprinkled with a bit of Anti-Monkey Butt powder. 

Ahhhhhhh. 

An ice cold Samuel Adams Summer Ale doesn't hurt either.

Consolation Prize.

My wife and I caught wind of the fact that one of the local wineries, Barnard Griffin, does a trivia night each Tuesday.  It seemed as good a way as any to celebrate 'Nothing to Do Night', with a little Date Night.

Unfortunately for us, the topic for the night was Tolkien...J.R.R. Tolkien.  It's unfortunate because while I enjoyed the Lord of the Ring movies, I can't say I'm a Tolkien fan...especially not in the way that I am Heinlein, or MacLean fan.  I actually KNOW stuff about those people.  Hell...my wife and I knew it was going to be a rough night when we couldn't answer the first question(What does J.R.R. stand for?).

That didn't stop us from having a good time though.  We split up a bottle of Riesling(it was a hot day!), and then we split a few appetizers(meatballs and a tasty-ass white beans and roasted fennel hummus) and a nice Caesar salad.  We didn't come close to winning the non-existent prize, but I got the best consolation prize, getting to bring the prettiest girl there home with me.

Nice day for a cruise.

A friend of mine shared this picture from the local Fox affiliate, Q13. 

That's a very pretty picture of the my former boat, SSN-21, U.S.S. Seawolf following a Washington State Ferry through Rich Passage out of Bremerton in it's way into Puget Sound, and then the deep blue beyond.

I'm just glad to see that even though the let me do maintenance on it for 5 years, its still able to stay out of port long enough to keep earning it's crew sea-pay.

I never did find out what that bolt went to. 

Ahhhhh....

Well, another one in the books.  Last night was the last showing of Sound of Music, and it went well.  My daughter was 6-6 on remembering her lines and owning the scene she was in. 

Now tonight, I get to sit back and do nothing.  Except cook dinner for the kids(fried matzoh), and help do some laundry(most of it mine) and then sip some fine Barnard Griffin 2009 Syrah Port while watching the MLB Home Run Derby.

Ahhhhh.

Of course, the reason I am doing all this is because my wife is busy making tissue paper flowers/pom-poms for my moms wedding this weekend.  By this time of year, a lot of the flowers in my moms yard are done blooming, so we are going to slide these tissue paper flowers in the Rhodies to give a pop of color. 

I also am predicting that I will be horizontal by 9:00 tonight. 

The ground has gone sour.

In Pet Semetary, since Louis is to dumb to figure it out himself after his cat comes back as Satan, the ghost of Victor Pascow warns him off, saying that the 'ground has gone sour'. 

I know how he feels.

Tomato Example #1:

 

 

Zucchini Example #1:

 

 

 

Tomato and Zucchini Examples #2:

 





Hmmm....there is something different here...wish I could spot what it is...

Holy Moly.  Actually, I do know what the difference is, and it pains me.  It pains me because I am usually someone who doesn't care what brand of something I get...I try to pretend that they are all the same.  But in this case, the difference is a brand...Miracle Grow.  All those years, I ignored/didn't believe the pictures of huge gardens that the Miracle Grow folks put in their adds. 

Man, do I feel dumb(especially because I'm not a big enough blog to make any money off this confession.)

So...yeah.  The first two pictures are the beds I did last year....I've hashed it out before, but it was the cheapest garden soil that Home Depot sold.  I mixed in some chicken manure compost in the off season, hoping it would make a difference...but not much of one. 

The surprising thing is that, it's not like the new beds are ALL Miracle Grow.  They are 50% generic garden/top soil, and then 25% generic 'compost' and 25% Miracle Grow garden soil. 

That is the only difference.  The plants are plants I started from seed and then put in the ground at the same time...the beds get the same amount of water, and within percentage points of the same amount of light.

The evidence is even harder to ignore in my peppers.

The top ones are just beginning to flower...the ones in the container have 7 or 8 Anaheim Peppers just waiting for me to be brave enough to try homemade chile relleno's.

I am already thinking I am just going to rip out my struggling tomatoes, and start a couple of beans/kale for a fall crop. 

After I mix in some Miracle Grow(which I am willing to test for free and review, if they want me too!)

I'm melting!

Holy crap...not to bitch and moan(too much), but while we were taking our bows tonight at the end of the show, it was still 91 degrees.

Ugh.

Never is a big word, but last night I told my wife I will never, ever again volunteer for an outdoor, summertime show while we live in Eastern Washington.

The hell of it, compared to the 106 when we started the show, 91 actually didn't feel too bad.  In fact at one point near the end, an actual breeze came through, and you could hear the sigh from all the folks sitting backstage in their costumes. 

Tonights nightcap is an alcoholic Arnold Palmer...some Crystal Light Lemonade, and some Seagram's Tea flavored Vodka.  It might not catch on in the bars, but it IS wet.  And as dehydrated as I am, I think my bed is calling.

Sounds like a better day than I had!

Long week. Rehearsals Tuesday/Wed night, and then tonight we had the first of 4 shows in a row.  The nice part about tonight was that our Number 1 and 2 fans(my wife and older daughter) came to see the show...which meant flowers for my daughter, and a picture. 

I still think I look like the bouncer at an upscale strip-club. 

After the show, I couldn't just go right to bed, so while I had my night cap(a glass of Goose Ridge Riesling ) I searched the internet machine for something to blog about...and found it courtesy of the Kitsap Sun's police blotter:

Lewd conduct, 1000 Kitsap Lake Road: Officers were called July 7 for a man lying nude on the railroad tracks. Police arrived to find him in that state of undress while engaged in sexual activity with himself. Officers told him to put on clothes and, after finding he was wanted for a probation violation, took him to jail. A bag with him was found to contain methamphetamine and related paraphernalia.

I think it's the terminology...Engaged in Sexual Activity with himself, lying on the railroad tracks...kind of takes auto-erotic asphyxiation to the next level.

It's not all bad...

Well, my daughter and I made it through the first weekend of performances for Mid-Columbia Musical Theatre's production of The Sound of Music.  It was a long week(with long nights), and we have another long one ahead, with rehearsals Tuesday and Wednesday, and then shows the next 4 nights in a row.

I bitch and moan a lot about the time being sucked up by this show...but it's not all bad.  I mean, as a parent, it never gets old hearing positive things about your kid...and my daughter is getting a lot of praise.  She doesn't have a huge part...a few lines, and she is part of a cute little dance...but she has nailed it both nights, which is not necessarily true of all the kids.  Heck, opening night she impressed a few folks because during her little dance, one of the other kids stepped on her shoe, causing her to lose it....but she didn't let it faze her. 

In addition to the quality time with my daughter, there is another nice side-effect of the schedule...it really doesn't promote eating dinner.  I'm making sure my daughter is all properly nutritious with her eating...but I have a tendency to go from a heavy lunch all the way to bed time, just making sure I stay hydrated through the evening. 

As a result, I am lighter today than I have in the last decade...under 240 pounds for the first time since the early 2000's.  I'm not doing as good as my wife, but over the last couple of years, I have been coming steadily down...at one point I was north of 280 pounds.

Before.  I'm the sloppy one in the middle.

Not the after...let's call in the In Progress.

There is less of me.  It's only been 10-12 pounds a year, but it is better than the 15 pounds I was putting ON annually the first few years after I got out of the Navy. 

How cute...they want to be farmers too!

So, for all the pretty I have gotten from my runner beans, there aren't ANY pods growing out there...and there should be.  I have noticed a few ants running up and down the vines, but to my way of thinking, they can't account for the lack of beans all by themselves. A closer inspection found a bunch of little dark spots gathered in the corners and elbows of the vines and twine holding them up.

Some research on the internet found that these are commonly called blackfly, and they are a type of aphid.  The ants are around because the essentially milk the aphids...they dig the sweet juice that that aphids produce as they suck on the plants.  To ensure they get to keep that juice, the ants protect the aphids.

I'm still not sure that these blackfly's are 100% responsible for the lack of beans, but, they probably aren't helping.  The two methods of making them go away are getting rid of the ants, predatory bugs come back, OR getting rid of the blackfly's, which is what I am trying to do.  When I find a bunch like that, I blast them with a soap/water mixture. 

I figure we'll give this a few days before considering scarier chemical options. 

The first step of fixing a problem...

Is admitting you have a problem...and in this case, I have been dodging the problem for a while. 

Our wireless router is headed south. 

In it's defense, it's at least 3 years old.  When we moved here, my old router died, and a buddy of mine told me he would let me have his spare, instead of having to buy a new one.  It's not like it hasn't given good service.  It's just that every time a new item is brought onto the Wi-Fi in the house, it crashes.  Walk in the door with my cell phone while my wife watching something on Amazon Prime?  Drops the Wi-Fi.  Flip open the cover of the laptop while my wife is using the Kindle to follow a knitting pattern?  Drops the Wi-Fi. 

Each time it's usually only for about 30-45 seconds...but it's long enough to time you out of Amazon Prime, or a stupid timewasting facebook games when you are getting ready to take the high score for the week.  90% of the time, I am the one performing the act that causes it to crash, and while my wife knows it's not really my fault, I am still the one who gets glared at.

So, time for a new router, which causes me to embrace the darkest of realities...I am not a technology guy.  When it's time for a new T.V or laptop, I usually look at prices, figuring something in the 30-40th percentile will meet my fairly non-demanding needs. 

When I tried doing that for routers on Amazon last night, I was stymied.  There is a WIDE price range for wireless routers...$20 on up to $250.  I decided I actually had to do some research, and so I actually read an article or two on pcmag.com, and decided that a lot of the more expensive ones had features I just didn't need.  I don't have a 'cloud' or even a separate wireless hard drive in the house.  What I do have is an internet capable TV, two lap tops, a kindle, a Wii, and an internet capable Blu-ray player.  And two cell phones.  That starts adding up, when you think about it. 

What I ended up going with(from pcmag's top 10 router list) was the Western Digital My Net N900.

It should be here sometime in the next week, so we'll see how much happier my wireless connections are in a week or so.   

Stupid thing to get in trouble over.

This story from the Spokane Spokeman is a good reminder for me as I continue preparations for taking my daughter hunting this year.

Sheriff’s detective said lying about hunting tag was mistake, records say

Gee, you think?

First off, my official answer.  Bad Sheriff's Deputy.  Bad, Bad Sheriff Deputy.  David Herrin, you are a bad, bad person who showed poor judgment.

Unofficially...on the list of things that qualify as poaching...putting someone else's tag on a deer that is otherwise legally harvested(in season, correct number of points, shot between daylight hours) is perhaps the most difficult for me to get all kinds of angry about.  Is it wrong?  Yes.  Is it something I have ever done?  No.  Is it something that I have heard about?  Hypothetically speaking?  Maybe I have heard the barest of rumors about something like this happening once in my 20+ years as a hunter.  And like I said...maybe it's rationalization, but as long as the harvest of the animal is reported to the Fish and Game folks...meh.

I am already worried at some point this hunting season, I might be tempted in this manner.  I have had my daughter out shooting several times now, and...she is getting better.  But, in the back of my head, there is that doubt, leading to the question 'How many times do I let her miss?'  The answer...as many times as she needs to.

It's not that same as spotlighting a deer at night and never reporting it, or shooting a deer in one area and reporting it as being shot in a different area.  Those things effect how many deer are available for other hunters, or throw off the data used to determine future hunting opportunities.  It's still against the rules as they are written.

Bah.  I'm not saying let the dude off the hook.  In the end, this wasn't even a case of dad shooting a deer and putting a kids tag on it...this was a buddy shooting a deer, and putting your daughters tag on it.  If you read the 3rd paragraph from the end, it's clear that this probably wasn't the first time this happened either....so...I'm almost tempted to scratch this whole post, because it's looking less and less like this was a one time lapse of judgment.

BUT.

What makes me the maddest about this whole thing is how the guy got in trouble.  His ex-wife and a co-worker who was NAILING the ex-wife(while she was still the WIFE!) reported him. 

Really...you were already sticking it the guys wife behind his back...and now you are turning him in for throwing the wrong tag(illegally, yes) on deer?

Bah.  You I can't defend any of you on this one...except the kids. 

In the end, that is why I wouldn't get caught doing something like this this year...I owe it to my daughter to teach her the RIGHT way to do things...it's one reason I went through the effort(and expense) to get her selected for a special doe tag that clears up the white-tail/mule deer restriction we were looking at initially. 

Lost Time

People who say they are kidnapped by aliens often report 'lost time'.  I think I experienced some of that this morning...but since I can't blame it on aliens, I will blame it on io9, for posting this 12.5 minute video compilation of people being hit by buses in movies.



Okay, so they aren't all buses...it's still a great way to lose 15 minutes of productivity.

For me, the Gold Standard will always be the blond in Final Destination.  It's the splatter factor. 

What, you were expecting something deep on Independence Day?

Imperial = Ass Kicker

Usually in the summer months, I prefer a lighter beer, but today, I was feeling spunky, and while I was staring at the 30-taps at Mid-Columbia Wine and Spirits, I asked for a recommendation on something 'dark'. 

'Dark' doesn't begin to describe the No-Li Wrecking Ball Imperial Stout I went home with. 

I tried taking a picture, but the beer acted like a singularity...it was SOOOOOO dark in my glass that light would not escape to allow my digital camera to work.

It packs a bit of a wallop too...9.5% ABV...but it's not all effect...there is a lot of flavor there too.

All I know is I bought a 32oz 'grunt'(or 'squealer' I have heard them called) and drank about 2/3rds of it(figure two 12 ounce glasses), and ummm...yeah...if I was at a bar and had drank two of these, I would have had to switch to coffee for an hour to even think of driving.

Luckily, I am at home. 

Party on Wayne.

Wow, hey...how you doing?

So yeah, about that whole blog thing...been a few days. 

I can blame it on two things...rehearsals, and a failure to pre-stage a few generic posts during those slow times I do have. 

The show opens this Friday night, so we started out this week with dress rehearsals.  Because we are essentially running two casts of principals, we are running through the show twice a night at rehearsals. Since it is an outdoor production, we have to move all the props and set pieces in and out of storage each night(that is one advantage of two crews...more hands to move stuff...it really only takes 12-15 minutes each direction). It's still a long rehearsal...Tuesday and Wednesday we were there from 4:15 to almost 10:30.  Outside. 

It was 99 degrees yesterday at 6pm.

Long days...I leave for work at 5:30.  I was actually then leaving work an hour early and swinging by the house for a touch and go to pick up my daughter, before heading right to rehearsal...essentially working a double shift. 

It's been worth it though.  Each run through was better than the one before it.  Some things you just can't anticipate in practice.  We had a lot of costume change hick-ups the first time though...there are a few quick changes for the kids in this show, and until they do it once or twice with assigned assistants.

I don't have to worry about costume changes...I only wear costume for my scenes. 

 

I don't think Sean Connery is worried.