Playing tourist

Heading out with the wife and kids this afternoon to go the picturesque Bavarian(tourist trap) town of Leavenworth.  Located in central Washington, on the eastern down-slope of the Cascades, Leavenworth is supposed to be a very pretty town to go visit in the winter.  Despite living in Washington for a long time, I've never been to Leavenworth before...when we lived on the west side of the states, I was never adventurous enough to brave the mountain passes to spend a day wandering around in the cold, looking at Bavarian facades and Christmas lights, while wishing I was inside a warm bar drinking a cold beer.

Now that I am on this side of the mountains, I don't have that excuse...nor do I wish I did.  I think the rest of my family will have a great time if it is even half as pretty as other folks have said it is.  The tricks going to be spending Saturday wandering in an out of various knick-knack and tchotchke filled shops without going harm with a car full of crap.

Gotta love the towns advertisements though...

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

Maybe not frightful, but at least interesting today.  Here in the Inland Pacific Northwest, we are dealing with some pretty stagnant conditions and temperature inversions, which means some days the fog comes in, and just never leaves.

Today was one of those days, meaning I'm able to take pictures like this:

This picture was taken at One O'clock in the afternoon, with the temperature hanging steady at a balmy 25 degrees.  It actually was kind of pretty...frozen sagebrush is somewhat appealing.

The only real negative when it is that cold and foggy, you need to scrape ice off your windshield every two hours...

Oops.

Mythbusters is one of my favorite shows.  It's very entertaining, yet scientific enough that one could rationalize it as being 'educational'.  In addition to their CYA disclaimer at the start of every episode, they do a pretty fair job of documenting all the safety precautions they are taking to keep things safe and sane.

Accidents will happen though...and when you are trying to test myths involving a cannon that fires a 10 pound ball at over 1000 feet-per-second, your accidents can catch some attention.  Especially when those cannon balls leave your 'experimental test facility(the Alameda County Sherrif's Department Bomb Range, where they have done many, MANY experiments) and punch through bedrooms and minivan's in the neighborhoods around the bomb range.

The good news here is that no one was hurt.  It sounds like the cannon ball missed it's target(several barrels of water) and skipped up and over the berm behind their target.  The show coveres insurance for just this reason(well, not this specific reason, but...you get it.)

The bad news is, this episode isn't going to be aired now!  In typical knee-jerk overreaction fashion, the show's producers already said that this episode won't be shown.  Lame! 

The damage is already done...finish strong and cash in on the ratings you could get showing the hole you punched in this house! 

Not so quick on the mental draw..

Another one of those 'With Friends Like this Who Needs Enemies' stories:

Quickdraw practice puts bullet in neighbor's house

A few thoughts here:  First...shame on this guy for being dumb and letting this happen.  Also, shame on this guy for firing a round, and then not only NOT showing some initiative to find out where his bullet went, but lying when the police showed up.  Lying to the police when they initially show up is not going to start them down a path of understanding.

Final thought would be I'm a little bummed, but not surprised, that the police took the guys gun's from his house.  I'm not sure if this is standard procedure in cases of an accidental discharge or not...or if it's just something they reserve for cases where the guy lies to the police when they show up.

Ain't no hole in the washtub!

Netflix hasn't done a lot of things right in the past year(and now they are saying the USPS decision to not do 'next day' shipping anymore may kill them) but one thing they have done right, and just in time for Christmas, is add Emmet Otters Jug Bang Christmas to their streaming selections.

Emmet Otter's is my favorite TV Christmas Special.  Along with Scrooged, A Christmas Story, Die Hard, and the Original Grinch who Stole Christmas, it would make my Top 5 Christmas Video's list.   

Anyway...we watched it last night(yup, daddy sacrificed some of that unwatchable Sunday Night Football game)...and, it's still as good as I remember.  The only thing missing from the netflix version is the Kermit the Frog intro, but that was more than made up for by the two girls who took turns sitting on my lap.  With my older onebeing 9 now, I'm not sure how many more times that will happen, and I try to treasure each remaining opportunity. 

The one thing that has always kind of impressed me about Emmet Otter is how, despite the fact that everything works out in the end, THE BAD GUYS WIN!  And make no doubt about, the River Bottom Nightmare Band, is one bad ass bunch of Alice Cooper Wanna-Be's, and not just a few hooligans like Emmet's mom thinks they are...they also deserve to win...

Cowboy Logistics

About two weeks ago, the amazing Oleg Volk had a post wherein he introduced me to a firearm I was not previously familiar with, the Just Right Carbine.  Now, admittedly, it was more his choice of model(her hair is the perfect shade of red, and Oleg's picture are always The Best), than the gun that caught my eye.  Despite the intriguing camo schemes on the pictured guns, it looked almost like any other M-4gery with a pistol conversion kit on it.  Ho-Hum.

I do like the concept of 'cowboy logistics' that Oleg talks about though...having a common caliber for use in both a handgun and a long-gun.  I already have that basis covered somewhat, with my S&W 686 and Marlin 1892 both being in .357.  It means I stock up on a lot of .357 and .38...would it be so bad to have a similar deal going in 9mm?
By coincidence(or maybe not coincidence) I was at my local ACE yesterday looking for a gift for a White Elephant exchange(got a sling shot), and I noticed the black rifle section had an M-4 with a Glock magazine hanging out the bottom.  'Why yes, I would like to see something...'

I still don't know if I was totally blown away or not.  It felt like a well madevM-4...balanced nice, and it was quick to the shoulder and pointed well.  The controls were almost, but not quite where the belonged...and all in all, it seemed an attractive pistol caliber carbine. 

The two negatives about it, for me anyway, were the price, and the magazine.  Asking price on the gun was $538.  Not that much more than some of the dedicated .22lr AR trainers out there right now, but twice as much as the Hi-Point Carbine they had next to it on the shelf.  Now, don't check out on me now...I'm not here to sing the praises of Hi-Point firearms, but I have seldom heard many complaints about their pistol carbines.  I think they are ugly as sin, but I actually know two people who own them, and they seem happy with them.  Under 50-yards with a red dot, they are a good time.

The other issue, and the killer for me from a 'cowboy logistics' standpoint, is that they run with Glock magazines.  I don't currently own a Glock...my 9mm of choice is a CZ.  If I bought this carbine, then I would need to go pick up a Glock or two also...and then a couple of 33rd magazine...

You can see how expensive this would rapidly become...

Knocked me out with those American Thighs...

My wife was shopping yesterday, and found a sale going on for chicken thighs...99 cents a pound.  Since we were low on 'ready use' chicken in the freezer, she picked up 8 and a half pounds, which might seem like a lot, but ties into my little rant yesterday about paying for convienience. 

Growing up, I was not a chicken thigh fan...ewww....dark meat.  Now, though, I have found that the thigh meat stay's moister and jucier, and more flavorful than the boneless/skinless breasts we used to use for most of our chicken applications. 

So...start with your chicken thighs, and give them a light olive oil massage, and then rub in some of this(garlic powder, 'chicken seasoning', Montreal Steak Seasoning) and that(cumin and paprika).

Then, get yourself a big, heavy skillet heated up, and throw in a little olive oil and some bacon fat(shame on you if you don't have some in the fridge).  Sear each piece on both sides(gives them some color, AND gets rid of a little of the fat), and then throw them in a baking dish, and once you have that all loaded up, cover it tightly with foil, and toss them in the oven. 

I do mine at about 350 for 1 hour(if I have longer, I will do 325 for 1.5 hours).  Even in the oven that long, in a sealed backing pan, with all the fat in the skin, they still come out juicy, juicy.  I had pictures to prove this, but due to a communication error, they were deleted priot to making it on the computer...whatever, you've seen cooked chicken before.

I then give them a few minutes to cool, before peeling the meat off the bones, and shredding it up.  Once totally cooled, we package it in zip lock bags(somewhere between 12-16 ounces each) and throw them in the freezer.  Now we have single use packages of cooked chicken meat that just need to be thawed and mixed in with anything...chicken taco's, chile, chicken alfredo...never mind, I feel like Forest Gump. 

So...was the .99 cents a pound a good deal?  Well...from a weight standpoint, I started with 8.5 pounds of raw bone in thighs, and ended up with 3 pounds, 14 ounces(fudging here a bit...I ruined the true scientific part of this by eating like two thighs worth of chicken during the process...yum.)  Redoing our math, we come out with $2.17 a pound, and that's not bad for a 'in-the-freezer, ready to go' protein source. 

Looking forward to chicken pot pie this week, now...