Because the name is fun to say...

Most of the time, if we are going to make a road trip on my Friday's off, we try to include something educational in it, to justify it as a home schooling field trip.  We don't get tax credit for it or anything that, so don't get all offended, but it's extra stuff for my wife to include on her lesson plans.

Today, my wife wanted to run to Walla Walla to look at a few antique and second hand stores, so we decided to visit the Fort Walla Walla Museum while we were there. 

It was a good time...plenty of military history for me, and plenty of hands on stuff for the kids to play with, like this basic covered wagon you got to include pack full of all your belongings, picking and choosing what you wanted to take.
It took some convincing on my part to get them to leave the 'fine china' behind so they could make room for the barrel of whiskey and the bacon.

The exhibit that the girls enjoyed the best was the mock-up of the old prison.  My wife made it quite clear that they weren't allowed to sit on the bunks, OR touch the sheets. 

The display that impressed me the most was a full-size set-up of a Harris Combine with a 33-Mule team.  I had no idea they drug things that size around the hills of South-Eastern Washington.  That's a tough way to scratch out a living.



After the museum, we had some lunch at a place called Tommy's Dutch Lunch.  I'm glad I found it on yelp, because it is not the kind of place I would have stopped at on my own.  Kind of tired looking, inside and out.  But, at 12:45 it was PACKED with working class folks wrapping up their lunch.  My wife had the special: fish sandwich and bowl of chowder, with coffee.  Her lunch was $7.  Hell yeah.  I had the chicken fried steak, because along with a Reuben, it's how I judge a place.

My wife was happy with her lunch.  Her fish-sandwich was actually two hand-dipped pieces of cod, fried nice and crisp.  Her roll was toasted, which was a nice touch, and the chowder was good, even though it lacked bacon like some Northwest chowders have.  

I put Chicken Fried steak in 3 categories: Bad, Good, and Great.  This chicken-fried steak was squarely in the good category, with a nice thick gravy.  Plenty of gravy that I got to finish up with the crust from my daughters grilled cheese sandwich.

Best of all, we made it through the day without buying anything from any of the antique or 2nd Hand stores! 



That's not NEWS!!!!!!!!!

My schedule usually has about 10 minutes worth of slack in it each morning.  I split that time flipping between The Weather Channel, ESPN(Patriots fix), Headline News(Robin Meade Fix), and Fox News(just trying to check out how short of a skirt they are are putting on the blond on the couch). 

Today, I stuck around on Fox News because they were having LIVE COVERAGE of Punxsatawney Phil trying to see his shadow. 

I didn't stay because I was really interested, but more because I was trying to see just how long they were going to provide LIVE COVERAGE of something that doesn't matter(kind of like the whole Republican Party).

After 7 minutes, I couldn't stand it anymore.  I changed it to Head Line News.  Thirty seconds into a semi-serious piece of news, Robin Meade cut away to LIVE COVERAGE of a groundhog.

WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?

The Weather Channel was at least trying to use a map of the jet stream to prove/disprove whatever Phil decided.

I eventually ended up on CMT, where a song by The Band Perry was the best thing I saw this morning.

Boy, am I a big fan of them...snakes in the video, but NO ground hogs.

We don't need another law to fix the problem!

So.  Last year, an 18-year old kid died of a drug overdose, after attending a 'pharm party'.  That's a new one for me...a 'pharm party'.  You just grab whatever you can find in the medicine cabinet, and share with your friends.  It doesn't matter what you find, just bring it and share.  Heck...it doesn't even need to be a narcotic or a pain-killer...if you take enough of them, it will have an effect. 

In this case, 18-year old Tylor Runyon took FORTY gout pills, which pretty much caused his kidneys and heart to wave the white flag of surrender.  Who is to blame for his death?  His parents, for not throwing out all the medicine they reclaimed from his grand-fathers house?  Tylor, for stealing the medicine that his parents didn't throw out?  No!  Silly person...according to Tylor's parents, it's those mean old pharmacies, because they didn't have drug turn in boxes. 

Well, they are out to fix that, campaigning for a new law, requiring pharmacies to have drug turn in boxes.

Ummm...every pharmacy I have ever been to already HAS one of those, right out in front...it's called a TRASH CAN.

Before I get too riled up, the State House here in Washington already voted this bill down(even though it's still technically alive in the Senate). 

Should it have even made it to the Legislature?  Not in my opinion.  This was avoidable.  Mom and her partner cold have just thrown this crap out, right into the trash.  They could have over packed them with other trash and dumped them into a dumpster behind a McDonalds.  They could have flushed them down the toilet!  No...they put them in a bag to get rid of them 'later'  Am I supposed to believe that they would have gone through the effort to drop it off at a pharmacy on the way home, if there had been a law requiring pharmacies to have 'drop boxes.' 

Then, the son was a dumb-ass.  If you take 40 of ANY type of pills, you are asking for it.  Death might be a tad bit harsh of a sentence for run of the mill stupidity, but, it's not too over the top. 

What this isn't, is a tragedy, even though the news story calls it a 'tragic death' in the 4th to the last paragraph. 

Hello!!!!!! That's NOT 'Accidental'...

Because I'm perfect, and I have never had a gun discharge when I didn't want it to, it would be easy for me to get all high and mighty about accidental discharges.   But, since, as Jay points out, it can happen to even the best of us, I'm not so much here to attack the fact that ANYONE can make a mistake, but more the terminology involved when that mistake happens.

Case in point, this story made it in the Kitsap Sun today:

Chico man accidently shoots friend in leg

CHICO —A 23-year-old man was accidentally shot in the leg by a friend at a Fairway Lane apartment complex Friday night, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies were called to the apartment on the 3800 block of Fairway just before 10:30 p.m. They found a 23-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the thigh. Another 23-year-old said he had recently repaired his pistol and was putting it away when he accidentally "bumped" the trigger and it went off, hitting his friend.

Deputies found both men had been drinking. Both confirmed the shooting was accidental, deputies said in reports.

As part of their investigation, deputies collected evidence, including the firearm and bullet, which had lodged in a wall.

The injured 23-year-old was taken to Harrison Medical Center for treatment.

This is a perfect example of using the word 'accidental' when the word they are really looking for is NEGLIGENT.  Heck...drinking and 'accidentally bumping' the trigger is more in the realm of 'asking for it' than 'accidental' .

A sucker born every minute...

Last week, I was floating around Midway's site, and I found that they had some of the Hornady Superperformance .35 Whelen on sale...$27 a box, which is a pretty good price, so I picked up 5 boxes, which should get me through next hunting season.

Since I was buying that, I ordered a couple of boxes of Fiocchi .380 Hollow Points, and 1000 rounds of Aquila .22's.  Then, I did something silly. 

I saw that Midway had the Hornady Z-Max ammo, and unable to resist, I ordered a box of it for my wife's Firestorm .380(and most certainly NOT for my Kel-Tec).  I mean, the box was only $1 more than the normal Hornady Critical Defence ammo.  For one box, I'll pay the buck to see if my wife smiles.  It's not something I am going to stock up on though...

I also ordered a SOG Revolver, to bring the order up to an even number.  The Revolver seems neat...it's a knife/gut hook, and a bone saw on the same handle.  Last hunting season, I found myself in the hills without a bone saw.  'Luckily', I didn't end up needing one, but I am NOT going to let that happen again.

It's not as macho as some of the bone saws that I have seen out there, but, do I really need an 18 inch saw(especially if I am not harvesting anything?)  All I really need is something that can cut the legs off at the knees, cut through the neck, and maybe help split the pelvis.

Hopefully, in September of this year, there will be a review of the SOG Revolver.  

Simple tastes...

Well, it seems there is a meme(and I actually went to Wikipedia to see what that word means...my dad once stressed to me that I should always make sure I understand a word before I used it...on of his few lessons that stuck.) going around with people talking about the 5 guns they would get if money were not an issue.

Well, no one asked me, but I'll play the game on someone else's dime...saves me having to come up with an original idea.  I'm sure my list is going to appear very, very, VERY basic and uninspired compared to a true firearms aficionados like Tam, Borepatch, and Robb(who I think started this whole thing).

1. 4.25mm Liliput.  I'm a fairly huge Alistair MacLean(Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra) fan, and the Liliput Automatic figures in a number of his stories.  Because he was an author, and firearms accuracy has not always been a requirement in authors not named Larry Correia, Mr. MacLean referred to this gun as the .21 Liliput, when in reality it's about a .17 caliber.  Mr. MacLean frequently called this the smallest really effective gun a person could carry.  Cartridges of the World says it had a 12-15gr bullet at 800 fps for roughly 17 ft-lbs of muzzle energy.  CCI Mini-Mag's generate 135 ft-lbs at the muzzle.

Thank gosh I live in an age of micro 380's...

2. Colt Python.  Stainless...probably a 6-inch barrel.  I've never gotten a chance to shoot one, so I can only dream about how smooth the legendary trigger is supposed to feel.  Even if the trigger is not the best, well, I think they are the prettiest revolves out there.

3. .22 Caliber Gatling Gun.  I know that you can buy a kit for under $400 to make a two-barrel 10-22 based gatling gun online.  A lot of the reviews I have read say that feeding in an issue.  I would rather have one of the 6-barrel classic looking ones, but ONLY if it feeds good. 

4.  Marlin 1895 Guide Gun.  I want a big Boomer.  I guess I could I could pick something like a .577 Nitro Express Double gun, but like I said, I'm a simple man.  Given how much I enjoy my .357 Lever-Action, I think my Big Bore jones could scatched with this pretty guide gun.  Maybe throw some Magna-porting on the end, but I see no reason not to go with .45-70.

5. Long Slide 1911.  I just think they look neat.  Do I need any more justification than that?  Something like this STI Target Master would do...but Stainless please...

Victory!

Despite my displeasure with Tyson's Bacon yesterday, I rolled forward with making Brigid's Bacon Maple Whiskey Scones. 

One of the guys I work with got a job at the Point Beach Nuke Plant in Wisconsin, which is within half an hour of where he and his wife grew up.  I don't blame him for jumping on the opportunity, but I will make him question it...and these scones are the first step of that.

They were pretty popular, and I got two marriage offers.  Luckily, they are talking about making same sex marriage legal her in Washington...I'm not settling for a 'Civil Union'. 

The only thing I changed from Brigid's recipe was the alcohol.  I didn't have any open whiskey, so I grabbed the bottle of Sailor Jerry's spiced rum instead.  There is so little of it in the recipe that I don't think it made a difference.

I think that is the secret of this recipe...subtlety.  Yeah, it's got bacon, but nothing is overpowering.  You have the bacon, and a hint of the maple syrup...

These will get made again...