Welcome Home...........

I went to pick up my baby today.  Kx59 thinks I'm going to try and commandeer his Barretta 20 guage.  Why would I want to do that when I have one of these?

I think I'll name her Natasha.

I can't wait to take her out to the range.  Will let y'all know how it goes.  The gunsmith said that she fires beautifully.  He also informed me that she's a rare gun because there aren't many SVT-40s left that are all original.  Yeah I'm a little proud.

Hubby can have his little old Baretta.  Of course that is a lovely gun, too.

This post started to be about...

My Berreta 20 gage semi-auto shotgun, which comes home from the gunshop tomorrow. Funny how you can't separate the history of a fire arm from the simple fact that it's fixed and back in action.

I was 12 or so when my Dad gave it to me for my birthday, or was it christmas, I forget.

My uncle owned the same gun. He is the kind of guy that will take a 410 and hit 24 out of 25 clay pigeons shooting trap, turn around and tell you that was so good it was scary. He backed me while I was shooting his Berreta, with his single shot 410, when I missed he powdered it.

We'd been down at his house in Alvin Texas shooting trap in his backyard. The cows in the field beyond the barbwire fence were pretty good about moving yonder after the first shot. We had a great time shooting his 20 gage Berreta that day. It was light, and would rip off three shots in no time flat. I did pretty well, not having shot trap before. I've not yet had the black eye from a scope on a rifle, but I did manage to plant my sweaty cheek againt the stock that day and felt like the side of my face had been removed.

My uncle chuckled.

I suspect my uncle suggested to my dad he should get me one. I believe that shotgun cost about $250 in 1972,

I've had that shotgun 40 years now. Somewhere along the line, the bolt quit locking on the Berreta and it was resigned to the closet. I'd graduated to a 12 gage goose gun with a 42" barrel, hunted geese in 18 degree weather, gone off to College Station to college, married once, divorced, married again, two children, divorced again, and then I found the Lovely Southern Belle.

As you've noticed, she's gotten a bee in her bonnet (or a bullet up her...er, nevermind) to start shooting again. So she up and decides she going to take the Tokorev svt40 she inherited from her Dad, to the gun shop to have it checked out. So, I figured as long as she was going, the Berreta should go too. Day before yesterday, the guy at Jim Pruitt's gun shop called to let her know they were ready. He seemed genuinely pleased to report that they both fire reeeal nice. Southern Belle was salivating tonight over the thought of shooting my Berreta. I've seen that look in her eyes before. I made it quite clear that the 20 gage is still mine. I've had a few things that have graduated from my possession to hers.

I'll take an aside here to gloat, if you can ever find a woman that will fish with you, play video games with you, watch sports (actually she likes watching baseball more than I do) and likes guns, You had better buy the biggest diamond ring you can find. Eat your hearts out.

So, anyway, She's going by Pruitt's tomorrow to pick up the hardware. No snarky comments, she works 10 minutes from the house, Pruitt's is maybe 15 minutes, I work 26 miles down the worst freeway in the Houston metroplex. A good day is a 1hour commute one way.

We are going trap shooting soon!

Landmines

not this...

this:

Pop Quiz question:

“Does this ___ make me _____look ___?” Fill in the blanks. There are endless possible entries. An actual incorrect response can bring days of unmitigated pain.

Dancing with the stars is on. It's a show I'd skip in a heartbeat, but the lovely Belle likes it, so we watch. Kirstey Alley is competing. Belle comments that she thinks Kirstey is still pretty.
Between chewing and breathing the best response I have is an 'uh uh” with a subtle negatory head rotation ( had I known what was coming, it would have been an uh---oh). She replied “I do too think she is pretty”. (I thought I was participating in a conversation.) Unaware of my predicament , I responded “ I wasn't saying you didn't think she was pretty, I was saying I don't think she is still pretty”. Foolishly thinking that this snippet of dinner time conversation had drawn to a close, I assumed it was safe to take another bite.
She says, “ She's bigger than me, but I think she's prettier than me, don't you?”
That's when I heard the first click of the mine trigger under foot. My brain raced, uncertain if I should lift my foot and dive for cover. Mouth full, I gave a heartfelt negative head gesture, grimacing mightily and wondering how I'd managed to walk into this situation. Fortunately, she read's Borepatch's blog while we eat dinner on the couch, in front of the TV. While she was engrossed, I managed to replace my foot with a fairly large chunk of stupidity and survive.

Not Bad for My First Outing...........

Well, I have to say that I'm rather pleased with the way I shot today.

I fired a Glock 19 and I did like it but am anxious to get back to the range and fire some different guns before making a final decision on the gun that's right for me.

I was impressed with the instructor.  He was nice, patient and knowledgeable.  He made everyone feel comfortable and didn't talk down to us at all (I like that).

While my shooting is rough around the edges considering I haven't fired a gun in 15 years, I have to say that my target speaks for itself.

If he were an intruder, he'd be dead.

I do need a lot of work on the precision shots to the side, but I plan on going back often to work on that and shooting with the instructor again.

I had a great time and I encourage all ladies to learn to shoot!

Tomorrow's a big day.......

Tomorrow evening I take my gun class and I have to admit that I'm a little nervous and excited.

Thanks to my hubby for picking up the slack and posting a couple articles this weekend.  Actually, his most recent made me blush a little.

Anyway, I'll check in tomorrow and let y'all know if I at least hit the target!

Patrick F McManus

If you were born into a hunting or fishing family and you've not read Pat's books, you are missing some of the funniest stuff you will ever read. My mother's side of the family came for deep East Texas dirt farms. My Father's side came from house painters and carpenters. More on that later, but my family were avid hunters and fishers
The only thing better than reading Pat's books myself, is having the lovely Belle read them to me. She can tell a story quite well, as you may have noticed from her blog, When she gets to laughing about what she's reading, and then reads it back to me, it's even better than when I read it. Her laugh is most infectious.
I found Patrick McManus's books by chance years ago in a book store. I've purchased most of them. I don't know why I thought of this today, but I googled his name and found he has a website.
http://www.patrickfmcmanus.com/index.html

My recommendation would be to start with “ The Grasshopper Trap” and go from there.

I thought I was going to take a nap

The past week pretty much wiped me out. I was spent, but I'd promised my Dad I'd go down to the creek with him Friday night to bring his boat back to town. So, we arose before daylight ( on a Saturday...the Harrah!) we got the boat over to the shop on the south side of town, drove back to his house and I drove back home to the northwest side. I got home around noon or so.
The lovely Southern Belle was happy to see me, which always makes me feel good. I dropped my stuff and headed to the frig figuring I certainly deserved at least a light beer. A few landfill units later I was feeling like a nap was in order, not having slept well the prior week. I just knew it was going to glorious, expecting to sleep like a dead man. So I headed up to the bedroom, kicked back and clicked on the TV, found a discovery channel show thinking the droning narration would send me into a coma.
Unfortunately, on the drive home to the Hacienda de Campano I had a thought. I try not to do that, but sometimes I can't help it. So, I stopped at Le' Home Depot and picked up a new pruning saw and a pair of long handled pruning shears. I lay there trying mightily to drift off into blissful slumber and in spite of my efforts I could not. I hauled my tired ass out of bed, cursing my previous thought and commenced to prune the Oleander and the Crape Myrtles. So now, I sit here writing my first post to the Lovely Belle's blog. And..... I still feel like I need a nap.

Earth Hour may be losing steam as novelty wears off, expert says

Earth Hour may be losing steam as novelty wears off, expert says

Okay, do they really think that this is going to help anything? Seriously. They turn off their lights to 'protest climate change'. Are you freaking kidding me?

Maybe Earth Hour is losing steam because people are starting to re-think the steaming pile of shit that the scientific community has been feeding us for years.


George Carlin had something to say about it....  and he's right!

Never let a crisis go to waste........

Apparently that's status quo for the government now days.  Never to let a crisis go to waste, grab all the power and money that any bad event will scare the public enough to allow.

Tragedy struck for 4 families in Houston a few weeks ago when an in home daycare center burned down.  The fire killed 4 small children and 2 were injured badly.

Licensed daycare owner, Jessica Tata had left something cooking on the stove and left the kids alone while she went shopping.  Tata fled the country to Nigeria but was tracked down by the US Marshall and flushed out of hiding by Nigerian residents.

Tata was extradited back to the States where she was held in Atlanta for a couple of days before being extradited back to Houston where she faces multiple charges including manslaughter, child abandonment and child endangerment.

Houston City Council isn't going to let this tragedy go to waste.  They are going to start charging an annual fee to daycare centers of around $150.00 for extra fire inspections (once a year rather than every other year) and annual inspections by Child Protective Services (which CPS inspects daycare centers every other year as well).

While it's hard for me to argue against inspecting daycare centers more often, I can't help but to think that the city is just using this as a money grab.  The fact of the matter is, the fire wasn't started because of faulty wiring or unsafe conditions or fire hazards.  It was started because an idiotic woman left 6 toddlers alone while leaving something cooking on the stove.

More inspections will not prevent this from happening again.

Either way, I hope Jessica Tata goes to prison for a very long time.  If they gave her the needle, I wouldn't mind one bit.

Hypocrisy still lives..........

Why is it that when Bush started bombing Iraq it wasn't okay, the media focused on how many civilians were killed during the bombings?

I remember the screams of us going at it alone, which of course we weren't, we had quite a few allies helping us out.

Is the media not worried about possible civilian casualties while Queen (yes I called him the queen, he is after all attending garden parties) Obama bombs Lybia?  Are they so naive that they think that there is no collateral damage this time?

Of course these are all rhetorical questions.

When we went into Iraq, the media was all up in arms over us not having UN approval, never mind that the UN Security Council had reasons of their own for not wanting to oust Saddam.  Remember Oil for Food?

We went into Iraq for the same reasons that we are bombing Lybia, to get rid of a tyrant.  Somehow, it's okay this time and not the last.

Hyprocrites.

Do I Hear Crickets Chirping?

Apparently, there are anti Obama protests in Brazil and in Chile'.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/03/21/obama-visit-chile-protests-await/


Where is the main stream media?

Picking its nose as usual.

Commenting on a Comment

ASM826 said:

"The President of the United States took the time to go over, in detail, his picks, and the reasons for them. It is news. If I have no other way to judge what's important, seeing the President on live TV from the Map Room of the White House means I need to pay attention. He might might be talking about the crisis in Libya, or the potential meltdown of the damaged reactors in Japan. If he shoves that aside for college basketball, well, it's time for March Madness. Don't blame the news outlets for following along."

The fact that the President took the time to go over his picks in detail is an issue all on its own.  The problem that I have with this is that the bias of the media is as conspicuous as a pimple on the nose of a supermodel.

It's not what they DO report, it's what they AREN'T reporting.  I don't care if it's a weekend or the middle of the week.  If this had been a President from another party, any party, they would be screaming that he was wasting time and resources on nonsense and I would agree with them.

I most certainly DO blame the media for following along, especially when they give their golden boy a pass.

I expect better from our news sources.  Fat chance I guess.

Well this is news...........

Obama loses Final Four team with Pittsburgh upset

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/mens-tournament/2011/03/20/obama.bracket.ap/index.html#ixzz1HAINmsaR


WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama lost one of his Final Four teams Saturday when Butler upset top-seeded Pittsburgh.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/mens-tournament/2011/03/20/obama.bracket.ap/index.html#ixzz1HAIdauCE






What the hell?  The world is going to hell in a hand-basket and they report THIS?




Idiots.

Karma

It's been a while since I've told a story here and considering the doom and gloom that is happening in the world today, I think that we could all use a little diversion.

I am a sucker for a lost or stray animal.  Every now and then, there will be a dog that has gotten out of his yard and I always feel compelled to get the dog to safety, bring it home, and then track down its owner.  Of course this is a very annoying trait of mine and my hubby will confirm that he gets annoyed when I do that.

One day, about 7 or 8 years ago, my neighbor's toy poodle, Turbo, got out of their yard and was just sitting on their front porch barking to get inside.  I went over to their house and knocked on the door, there was no answer so like a good neighbor, I brought Turbo home and waited for the neighbors to get home.

Turbo, for some reason fell in love with my youngest daughter, who was 8 or 9 at the time.  He followed her all around the house and every time she sat down, Turbo would start humping on her leg.  My youngest was getting fed up with it and I was busy trying to keep myself from laughing out loud.

Finally, enough was enough and my youngest yells at the top of her lungs, "MOM!  Can you PLEASE get this dog away from me!  He has fallen in love with my leg!"

My son, who at the time was 10 or 11, said to her, "Well Sis, that's Karma for you!"

Without missing a beat my daughter yells, "KARMA!!!  What do you mean KARMA?!  I've never humped anybody's leg!!!!"

Out of the mouth of babes.  I don't know what impressed me more, her quick wit (she takes after her mother, ha ha) or the fact that she actually knew the meaning of the word Karma.

Kids have a way of expressing themselves that can sometimes really make you either laugh or say, "huh?"

New Contributor To My Blog

Well I've done it!  I've finally convinced my hubby, kx59 to contribute to my blog.  Am sure that you all will be seeing some musings from him from time to time.

As Borepatch would say, 'he's a wicked smaht bastid', which is why I married him.

Stop it already........

Today I was on my way to the doctor, listening to local talk radio.  The news was on and there was a story about the possibility of a spelling bee for black kids only.  Then there is a sound bite of some woman saying that she believes that this will give black kids an opportunity to participate in a spelling bee that may not have a chance otherwise.

WTF is that THAT all about?  Are they not allowing black kids to enter spelling bees these days?  It seems to me that any kid can enter a spelling bee at their school and the winners move on at a district level, then city level, then state level, then it's on to the national spelling bee contest.

So my question is, why the segregation?  Why do black kids have to be separated and have their own spelling bee?  This does not send a positive message to the kids at all.  What it says is that black kids can't compete with kids of other races because they aren't as smart.  That idea of course is NOT true at all, but that IS the message that they are sending.

Is this really good for kids' self esteem?  Is this really good for race relations?  I think not.

Liberalism really IS a mental disorder.

Sick

I hate being sick.  I've caught some nasty bug that my granddaughter no doubt shared with me.  That child really loves her nana!

Back in the Saddle Again

Well, as I've posted in the past, I do enjoy shooting targets, whether it's throwing a dart or aiming a gun.  The fact of the matter is, it has been about 15 years since I've fired a gun.

For whatever reason, I have decided that now that the kids are grown and out of the house that I would like to start shooting.  As previously posted, I took a couple of our guns to the gunsmith for a good cleaning and some repairs.  While I was at the gun store, I looked at some pistols, fell in love with a Smith & Wesson 1911, but there were several others that I liked as well.

So, without further ado, I have chosen a safe route.  I have signed up for a beginners class at a shooting range that will provide a rental included in the price of the class.  The class is March 28th and I can't wait.

I'll keep you all posted on how it goes.  I do know that I will continue taking classes, even after I decide which gun I want to buy.

Confirmed!

Okay, so I just got back from the gunsmith and he has confirmed that my rifle is definitely a Tokorev SVT-40.  The interesting thing about it is that it's all original, including the magazine, in very good condition and there aren't even any import stamps or markings on the gun that he can find, so I have a call in to my Uncle who purchased the gun long ago about where he bought it, etc.

I'm so excited that I can hardly stand it!

On a side note, I was looking at pistols while I was at the gun shop and the 1911s are really nice but one that felt really good to hold was the Glock 19.  In  a couple of weeks and going to the range and will rent several guns to see what I like.

Will keep you all posted on the rifle AND what I end up deciding on.

Cleaning out the Armory

For whatever reason, I have been having shooting on the brain.

I still love darts, but the problem with dart shooting is that it requires being in a bar, with second hand smoke.  Now, don't think that I'm one of those non smokers that look down on the masses for smoking, because I'm not.  What I am is a former smoker desperately trying to become a non smoker.  I succeeded for over a year and then picked them back up again when I started playing darts again.

There is something that is innately uplifting when I aim at a target and fire (whether it's my arm as the gun or a gun or even a bow) and ultimately hitting said target.  The fact of the matter is, I enjoy aiming and shooting at things.

So, I've been thinking of heading back to the firing range but needed to clean out the closet and check out the guns.

My husband has a 12 gauge shotgun (not sure what model), a really nice Baretta A2 20 semi automatic shotgun (which needs work) and a very beautiful Remington 870 (which I will probably adopt as my own).  He also has a little .22 and a pellet gun and a BB gun.

Unfortunately (smirk) the only thing that I have in my arsenal is a 1941 SVT 40 which I need to have cleaned up and am considering selling it.  I also have a bunch of ammo for it as well, which is god knows how old and I'm pretty certain that I need to get rid of it.

I'm considering in the very near future, purchasing my very first handgun.  The only handgun I have ever fired was a Smith & Wesson, semi auto .45.  It was a beautiful gun, but I would like something that is a little smoother to shoot.

Now, I don't want some small, wimpy gun but I am leaning toward a .9mm but I'm not sure if I want a Smith & Wesson, a Glock or a Baretta.  I know that when the time comes and I decide to buy, it will be a gun that when I pick it up, it speaks to me.  It's like that with any kind of weapon, it has to feel at home in your hands, you have to form a partnership with it and it has to become an extension of you.

So, I'm asking for any suggestions.  Oh and before anyone suggests that I take safety classes in both handguns and shotguns, that is a definite 'must do' on my agenda.  You never know, I may join a shooting team at some point.

It's official........

While I enjoy a lot of shows on TV, I have a new Tuesday night favorite.

Top Shot is the bomb!

I've watched it before, but kind of reserved it for comment until I was sure that it wasn't hokey or something.  It's totally not hokey.