To Add Insult to Injury......

Totally disgusting, IMO.  If anyone should be invited to the 10th anniversary ceremony it should be the NYFD and NYPD.  They were goiing INTO the Towers when people were leaving.  Those who are now serving in both these organizations lost their brothers and sisters on 9/11 and deserve to be there if they so choose.


Full article here.

They were the first ones on the scene when the towers fell on September 11, 2001, but ten years later, the 9/11 first responders are being told that they will not be invited to take part in this year’s ceremony at ground zero. The city announced that due to security and space issues, there’s no room for the first responders. Instead, they’ll be invited to a private ceremony on a different date

I am just shocked that those who serve and protect us are snubbed in such an awful way.  What an embarrassment.

One more thing, why does anyone need an 'invitation' to attend a ceremony remembering a horrific event that affected all of us?
WTF is that all about???

Seriously?

I saw a commercial tonight featuring Michelle Obama and an unknown (to me) woman.  The theme was 'joining forces' and the commercial was for an organization helping the military and their families.

This bothers me to no end because I believe that Michelle Obama is merely doing this commercial to score her goofy husband some points with the military.

It's obvious to me that this is the real motive for the simple fact that Michelle Obama has proven on numerous occasions that she has no respect for our military and she thinks that our Air Force exists to provide her personal taxi service when she wants to steal a jet and get the fuck out of dodge on vacation ahead of her husband.

I'm sick of those two in the White House.  Vote them out............   please!

Tonight's Top Shot........

Meh......

The Gatling Gun was really cool though.

tonight the show was okay.  The challenges were interesting but last week was better.

Would somebody please get rid of Gary and Jake?

oye!

The Bane of the Help Desk

I started to post a comment over at  Borepatch's place, which in short order turned into a soliloquy.
So I ctrl C'ed it, and brought it home.
The family help desk.

This would be why when the cold calls come in telling me that they can do IT support remotely, for far less "money", I tell them I don't believe you.
The magnificent remote IT guy salesman does not know exactly how to react to that statement. The call usually ends shortly thereafter.
I am not an IT guy in real life but I play one in real life.
User: " I got an error message"
me: "what did it say"
User: "I don't know, I closed it"
me:' " ok, I'll be there in a minute"
I know if I hooked one of these remote IT maintenance firms into a set monthly fee contract, my users could bankrupt them inside of three months.

Guns Over Texas

The title of this post is also the name of a radio show on am KSEV in Houston.

Those guys are great, they're friendly and knowledgeable about firearms of all shapes and sizes.

They're on the air every Sunday from 5pm to 7pm Central time and you can listen to them on the web at www.ksevradio.com

Now that I've given them a free plug (as if I make money doing this pfft), one of their sponsors is Shiloh Shooting Range which is in my general neck of the woods.

I've been wanting to get my hands on a 4th Generation Glock 19 to see how it feels in my hands as compared to the 3rd generation.  My best bet is to rent one and fire it.  So today, I called Shiloh and asked if they have rentals but to my disappointment they do not.

I was informed that they have a 4th Gen. Glock 23 (I think that's the model he said) that I am more than welcome to stop by and fondle (his words).  He said this of course after a relatively lengthy conversation about various guns that I've fired and how careful I'm being about choosing my weapon before I buy.

It was a good conversation and I got a kick out of his reaction to my questions and I could tell that he just loved talking about guns.  What I'm finding about the world of firearms is that it's no longer just a good ole boy's club.  The men in the business are not as patronizing as they used to be when talking to a lady interested in guns.

Years ago, when I would look at guns, the guys would always want to put a pea-shooter in my hands, those days are long gone and I couldn't be happier.

As far as the radio show goes, give them a listen if you like talk radio and if you're ever in Northwest Houston, stop in at Shiloh and check out their range.  Eventually, once I have a firearm of my own, I will check out their range and if I like it, I will take my future shooting classes from them.

True Love

Apparently the cat that disdains all humans, missed me over the weekend.
She is laying on the arm rest next to me as I type and she is purring. I would not be so honored if she had thumbs and could open her own canned cat food.

Statewide hog shoot coming up

LUBBOCK - Residents in all 254 Texas counties will soon gear up for a now-annual feral hog killing contest.
The three-month "Get the Hogs Outta Texas" competition is set to begin Oct. 1.






hat tip/ JT

Blogiversary just around the corner........ Best of Part One

Well, September the 4th is my one year blogiversary.  I have 406 prior posts, 1009 comments and 13,666 hits on the hit meter.

It's a lot of fun and I have so enjoyed sharing my opinions, my life, my thoughts and my dreams with all of my readers. 

I have readers from all over the world and I have had hits from every inhabited continent on the planet it's simply amazing that someone in South Africa would find something interesting to read on my little part of the interwebz.  The top 10 countries where I get the most hits are:

United States
Germany
United Kingdom
Canada
Russia
Australia
Ukraine
Italy
Singapore
France

That's a very interesting list to me and I'm truly happy to have readers from all over the world.

So enough of my back patting.  Over the next few days, I will be posting some of my favorite posts starting with my very first, below.


APATHY OR JUST PLAIN TIRED

With November just around the corner and yet another election under way, I can’t help but to find myself strangely apathetic towards the whole deal this time around. It’s really not like me to be so disinterested during an election cycle but the fact of the matter is that I don’t particularly like my choices

In the Texas Governor’s race, I have either Rick Perry or Bill White to choose from. Neither is a viable choice in my book so needless to say I will most likely vote 3^rd party, much to my husband’s angst. I realize that a vote for third party might be a vote for Bill White but to be honest with you, I see very little difference between Governor Good Hair and Mayor Monkey Face, except for the hair and face. Both are ineffectual and neither have the people of Texas’ best interests at heart.

My district is a solid conservative district and I really have no problems with my elected officials. It’s unfortunate, however, I have no control over how people in other districts vote. All I can really do is sit and wait and hope that the people in Sheila Jackson Lee’s district wake up and smell the coffee and vote her butt right out of office. Of course, that is about as likely as the possibility that she would refuse a photo op.

I think that my biggest problem is that I really do not see any difference in the two parties which represent the status quo. Both parties are corrupt and both parties are hungry for power. That is power over you and me. The only difference between the two is that one wants to control our daily lives by forcing us to drive cars they think we should drive, and force us to buy government healthcare, the other party wants to make our moral choices for us. Neither scenario is acceptable to me.

I can only hope that at some point, these grass roots movements will take hold and people will wake up and realize that they are simply voting away our freedoms, our individual liberties, our lifeblood simply by sticking to the status quo. My advice? Fire them all……..

This is gross........

Okay, reporters are totally stupid. This guy is wondering about this "sea form that's some sort of organic material."

Did anyone bother to tell this guy that the foam means that it's most likely raw sewage or dead animal matter that causes this?

Reporter Gives Update Covered In Sea Foam: MyFoxNY.com

Geez.  Reporters aren't always very bright, are they?

H/T KSEV Radio, Sam Malone Morning Show

Well that was fun

Had a good time fishing with good friends. This fish were biting, but not very many keepers. As long as I'm catching something, a good time is always had.

My legs are a little sore today, no doubt from rocking and rolling in the seas on the boat. You never realize the muscles that you use while on a boat, until the day after.........:)

I almost got sea sick for the first time in my life on Saturday, of course I think that had to do with the way too large amount of wine that I had to drink on Friday night...... god, boating and hangovers do not mix. At least my wonderful hubby took pity on me and took me back home instead of making me actually chum the water.

Now it's back to work and all is well.......

Gone fishing...........

I think that's pretty self explanatory; however, we might be checking in periodically throughout the weekend, depending on whether or not they're biting and if we're drinking too much. ;-)


Enjoy the weekend folks!

I wish I could write snark like this

Earthquakes.
Tam nails it.
Lord, that made me laugh.  Thank you. Amen.

Well! Aren't we just screwed

Everything causes Global Worming and,
Global Worming Causes everything.
Take that Hippies. I will mock you and call you Nancy.

I like this guy............

Whoever gets the nomination to go against Obama, I hope they choose Marco Rubio as his running mate.

This guy can speak and he is so passionate about this country..........    all I can say is wow.

It's been a long time since a politician could move me like this, in fact, I think Ronald Reagan was the last...   until now.  It's a long speech, but worth every second.

Though I will say that I don't 100% agree with everything he says, considering that I'm more of a Libertarian than anything, but still............   wow.

ok, Me Too

I've seen this list multiple times now and grabbed it off Tam's site. And I saw the original post the other day, but can't remember where I was saw it. (boy there's some dysexlia). So help me out here so I can post the proper interweb cred for the original post.


1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien (skipped "The Hobbit" I see.)
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (thought this one was a hoot)
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert  (holeewood has tried this one multiple times, they all suck, and by the fourth book, the books sucked too)
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell 
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (publik school made me)
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (publik school made me)
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov 
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein (might be the second sci fi book I read)
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick   (bladerunner? holeewood is remaking this one, whyyyyy?  The original movie was perfectly good IMHO)
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King      ( no freaking way, can't stand King's books)
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King  ( no freaking way, can't stand King's books, ok I'll admit, The Green Mile was good. That's the only one I've liked, liked the movie too)
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury 
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein  ( boy the movie they made from this sucked)
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein (one of my faves)
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells 
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys        (publik school made me)
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells 
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury 
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury   ( might be the first sci fi book I ever read)
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle  (loved it, one of my faves)
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony 
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis
And literally every other book that Heinlein wrote. Although, when his daughter started co-authoring with him the stories started to lose some appeal for me.
Now? I read repair manuals and blogs.

Well there goes some more paint off the Beater Van

I'm more than willing to take one for the team. It's raining again. Yay us!
It's a might windy outside, but we are getting the wonderful August thunderstorm lightning shows. Better than Fireworks!
The power keeps browning out.
And no comments on my edging job on the driveway. It was dark last night when I did it.


update: Well alrighty then, I may have to recant my "better than fireworks" comment. We just had a lightning strike on the street and it sounded like someone fired off a howitzer in my front yard. Car alarms went off all down the street and my smoke detectors were mewling like scared mice. (that was strange) Now it's getting ugly out there.

For whom the Bell Tolls

No, it's not a pun. It is all of us.
A warning. Listen or perish.


link via IOTW

Top Shot Season 3, Show 3

Well, not only do I not like Jake, Gary has made my official shit list, too.

Gary is a tool, plain and simple.

After they voted, Gary was giving a 'pep talk' to Drew and all it accomplished was that it made me hope that Cliff would win.

Cliff pulled through with an amazing show of a cool head with an unfamiliar firearm in a crazy challenge.  The challenge was designed to make you panic and Cliff did not panic.  In fact, he waxed Drew's ass.

At this point in the competition, I am pulling for Justin, the self taught shooter, and now Cliff who pulled himself through a tough challenge against jackass Gary's prediction.........   heh.

The fact that Gary puffed up like a toad when Cliff kicked ass made my day.

Top Shot

WooHoo! shotguns and slugs. That's sum fun rat thar!
But they're doin it wrong. Ya need a 12 ga. 3 inch magnum load with a 42" barrel.
That'll put some hurt on your shoulder, and put that slug rat whar you want it.
Apologies, channeling my inner Rancid Crabtree.

Chris Christie for President?

Lot's of bloggers out there beating the drum for Christie to enter the race.
Yeah...uhm no.  His belief in this tripe gives me serious pause about the man.
If he'll believe this, he'll believe anything. NJ can keep him.
I know there's no perfect candidate, but his belief in global worming portends future policy and legislative decisions that would be very bad for this country.  Now that he has let this genie out of the bottle, it can never go back in. Even if he did a complete about face tomorrow on the subject, I don't think I could ever trust him.
We definitely do not need another president that is going to enable the EPA to further crush the economy in this country.



via a link from Climate Depot

My Boss Rocks........

Okay, just a quick kudos to my boss.

He actively supports The Second Amendment and encourages us to exercise that inalienable right............   gotta love it.

I swear I think that I have found heaven.

I'm doing this........ why?

Apparently, before I got my wonderful job, they had been audited by the Department of Labor and were not compliant in a few areas regarding record keeping and other stuff like color coding files, and other nonsense that our lovely government spends money to have business waste their resources on.  They weren't in violation because they are bad people, in fact, my boss is a very good and generous man.  They were in violation because the company grew very quickly and the people that he had working for him at the time were basically incompetent when it came to labor laws.

All of that said, the third week of each month that I've been there so far, I've been scrambling to get data for the Department of Labor that they have requested from us.  Data such as how many total employees and how many contractors in the field.  The lengths that I have to go to prepare this data it time consuming.

So today, the phone call with the Dept. of Labor came and the payroll gal gave the DOL the numbers.....  well the numbers didn't seem quite right.  So I was to look into the problem and call them back.  So I did that and discovered where the problem was and made the call back..............  good grief.

So the lady on the phone is still telling me that the number of hours worked just didn't seem right for the dollar amount of payroll.........   I explained that I couldn't figure out why that would be so the conversation goes something like this.....

DOL person whose salary that I pay via tax dollars:  "well, the numbers just aren't right."
Me:  "Well, I'm sorry I don't know what to tell you.  What's not right about them?"
DOL buffoon:  "Well the money paid out is just too low for a construction company.  Construction workers make a lot more money than that."
Me:  "Well yes, if they're unionized and actually skilled labor.....   our guys are mostly unskilled workers....  they paint.  They don't make all that much per hour really."
DOL buffoon:  "Shouldn't they make at least $19 an hour?"
Me laughing:  "Maybe in California where the cost of living is through the roof, but not in Texas, sweetheart.  Our cost of living is very low here."
DOL idiot:  "Oh!  Well yes, that makes sense.  But that's okay, we don't have to use those numbers, just the numbers from the first two columns, you know, the number of employees and whether you are up or down from last month."

pause

Me:  "Excuse me, but what exactly is this for?  In other words, why am I doing this report for you if you're going to leave out information?"
DOL Obamuffoon:  "Oh, well all that stuff that's on the news about jobs and stuff?  Well we are gathering information from your industry."

We got disconnected.  When she calls back next month, I am going to ask if my participation is required.  All along I thought that this was because of the audit.  Turns out it's apparently about getting the jackass in chief and his jet-thief wife re-elected..............    fuckers.

Oh! those sneaky Police!

The global warming gig just isn't what it used to be. Jail? Really?
Even the police are tired of it.

This and That

I have kitchen patrol this evening.
All of This:

Goes in That

 With a lot of this mixed with Ketchup for dipping.

And, of course, some of this.

















If your shrimp and crab boil does not make your eyes and nose run when you walk into the kitchen, you are doing it wrong.

Let the bodies hit the floor!

The very artistic and beautiful second oldest daughter emails a link, about which she could not stop laughing.



The oldest granddaughter could not say her name when she first started learning to talk.
so the Hat Tip goes out to "Duh".

postscript: either blogger is effing up again, or youtube's embed html is purposefully not working.
I'm beginning to see the wisdom of YeOldFurt's slow migration to wordpress.

Update from the Belle........  it was a user error... I got it to embed just fine.

update from kx59: now sitting in the "box of shame".

Handing over the keys......

I can't tell you how spot on that car commercial where the man is handing the keys to the car to his daughter and as he's telling her to be safe and don't do this, don't do that she's only 5 years old.  Then when she actually starts to drive away, she's in fact grown.

Today, Kx59 and I drove the youngest daughter's car over to her house and as Kx handed her the keys, all I could see was my little girl at the age of 5 with her curly hair and bright green eyes, grinning at me.  She was so very happy and so sweet to me today, which was a nice change.

It's hard when they grow up, I just hope that she stays safe.

In the world of the bizarro.....

Crazy Man Bites Woman claims to be vampire, then claims that he was drugged.

GALVESTON - A Galveston man who claimed to be a vampire after being arrested for breaking into a woman's apartment and biting her was under the influence of the date-rape drug Rohypnol, his attorney said Friday.
Someone put the drug in punch that Lyle Monroe Bensleydrank at a party, attorney Adam Brown said.
"He literally had no idea what he was doing. None," Brown said. "He literally blacked out for 12 hours." Brown said his client had no history of mental illness.
Police arrested Bensley, 19, after discovering him howling in the parking lot of the apartment building where he is accused of assaulting a woman. He was arrested on a charge of burglary with intent to commit assault and remains in the Galveston County Jail with bail set at $40,000.
He is accused of breaking into the apartment of the woman, whose name has been withheld, before 7 a.m. Saturday. Bensley, whose body is covered in tattoos, wore only boxer shorts as he growled and hissed while pummeling and biting the woman, police said.
She escaped as he dragged her out of the apartment, then she got into a car driven by a neighbor. Police said Bensley beat on the car as it sped away.
Bensley begged police to restrain him so that he wouldn't hurt them in his attempt to feast on human blood, police said after arresting him.
Galveston officer Daniel Erickson said at the time that emergency medical personnel determined that Bensley did not appear to be under the influence of drugs.
Brown, however, said his client accepted a glass of punch at a party that he believes was spiked with Rohypnol. He was uncertain whether the drug was put in Bensley's glass or the punch bowl.
"He's a very nice young man and he's never been in trouble before," Brown said. Bensley did not realize what he had done until he saw it on television at the jail, he said.
"In this particular circumstance, he had no idea that somebody had drugged him," Brown said.
Bensley works for a landscape company and has a 3-year-old daughter who lives with her mother, he said. "He's just a good kid in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Police skepticism
Brown was appointed by the court because Bensley cannot afford an attorney, he said.
Bensley asked for a blood test at the jail but was denied, Brown said.
He said he would have Bensley's hair tested for traces of the drug. He also will ask the court to allow him to hire an investigator to interview people at the party.
Capt. Jeff Heyse, a police spokesman, said police do not normally administer a drug test unless it's related to the charge, such as drunken driving. He expressed skepticism about Brown's explanation.
"Why would anybody give Rohypnol to a guy?" Heyse asked.

You would think this story came out of L.A. or something.  

Overheard in the living room.......

KX59, "So!  Do you want to play?"

Granddaughter: "Yeah!"

KX59, "What do you want to play?"

Granddaughter:  "Candyland!"

KX59, (long pause) "Oh"


I guess he was hoping she wanted to play Xbox with him again.  He should look on the bright side...  at least she's no longer wanting to dress him up in her tiara and costume jewelry...

He's such a great paw paw.

More auto Me-chanics

 This is what I got to do today instead of heading up to Austin for a blogmeet and a gunshow.
Fortunately, things went well today. Copious amounts of swearing and Rum were not required.
One thing I have learned is when dealing with mostly symmetrical assemblies is to take pics before dis-assembly.
When it was time to put the brake pads back in, this and other pics came in handy.
We replaced rotors and calipers. The brake pads looked new and almost unworn. Unusual. I knew the rotors were warped from the rhythmically lurching stops.  The brake line bleeding process produced an enormous amount of air out of the passenger side line. Hence the spongy brakes.

Notice the shade line on the hood in the lower right corner of the pic. The Prodigal Son was working on the passenger side while I was on the driver's side...in the shade.  Around 11am, we headed to the auto parts store with dead brake parts in hand to trade in.  The Bellemobile thermometer indicated it was already 100 degrees outside.
I am so tired of writing about 100+ degree days. Mostly because I keep having to go outside in them.
I see so much of myself in my son. The heat brought on fatigue which brought on his impatience and then some frustration, which lead to the only swear words of the day.
I've been there. I've flung wrenches across the garage. I've learned not to do this anymore because it makes them really hard to find later.
We took several breaks to go inside and cool off. Belle decided she needed a power nap, so we fired up the xbox and killed bad guys while we cooled down.

My oldest granddaughter is visiting today and spending the night. She wanted to play too. This mostly involved her uncle and I leaping into her line of fire so she could "kill" us.  She had fun.  The prodigal son and I amused ourselves by jumping around and spinning in the game to see which could achieve the most ridiculous "death".
She shot up a bunch of air and dirt playing the game. When she ran out of the million rounds she had, she switched to the locket rauncher and asked "what's this?"  I said, "pull the trigger and find out"
A few more years and Belle and I will have her on the firing line with the Ithica .22.  I know, I'm a terrible, terrible paw paw.

She's starting big girl school and she's very excited about it.
As for me,  I was relieved that the manchild came over to help prep his youngest sister's new ride.

Epic Fail.......... or not?

A friend of mine found this at Target and took a picture......

 

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are!

H/T my buddy Lee.

Suspicious

While posting a comment at a blog, a google popup appeared as I logged into my google account, requesting my phone number.  Some mumbo jumbo about needing it for security reasons in case I "lose" my password or my account gets hijacked. Aaalrighty then, click the red x thingy. Buh-bye.
How about the google guys beef up their security a bit more instead.
Isn't google in the process of buying a cell phone company? The name escapes me.
So google is getting in the cell provider bidness, and wants my phone number...hmmmm.

Really cool stuff

Last night, while playing darts, a buddy of mine pulled out a ballpoint pen to show me.

He knows that I'm a chick that likes not only shooty goodness with pointy things, but that I enjoy things that go boom as well.

The pen that he had was made out of wood and a 30 cal.  shell casing.  It was badass.

You can find these custom made pens here.

My buddy's pen looked like this and it was great.  It would make the perfect gift for any gunnie!  He has other cool stuff on his site, go check him out.

Gotta love the weather folk

They predict this each season....... *above average storms in the Atlantic this season* and they link it to 'climate change'
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110519_atlantichurricaneoutlook.html

It's still early in the season but so far it's been a wrong prediction (as usual).

Liberals and Militant Muslims

Being the "Smartest People in the Room", I have to wonder when Liberals will snap out of their drug induced stupor.  Libs have the misguided notion that the Islamo-fascists are useful idiots. I think the Libs see militant Muslims as a useful tool in their quest to subjugate the United States. And of course, once their work is done, the "Smartest People in the Room" will be able to control said fascists.

I have bad news for them...and so does libtard David Letterman.


"First they came for the communists,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."
pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

The Revolution will Not be Televised, but every millisecond of your Political Life Will

Unfortunate "pose"

Advise to the Perry Team, don't do that anymore.

Perry's feet of clay, and other crap

I knew it wouldn't take long for the Gardisil vaccine issue to come up.  Michele Malkin flogs Perry pretty good in a long, and frequently updated article.  Her indignation and ire are not unfounded.
 Pretty much the whole State of Texas had a whiskey tango foxtrot reaction when this was going down.  Personally, I've never forgiven the man for attempting to mandate the vaccine.  I have three daughters.
The other tidbits rising to the top of the cesspool in the blogosphere are Perry's crony capitalism and his push for the Trans Texas Corridor.  Environmentalists were unhappy due to the massive width of the proposed corridor. Landowners were mightily peeved over the state's exercise of eminent domain given that the corridor would have consumed just shy of 600,000 acres. The rest of us were none to happy that a Spanish toll road development company, Cintra, would be collecting the toll revenue.
The Trans Texas Corridor keeps popping up in other re-branded legislation like a bad zombie movie. It brings to mind a variation on an old joke,"what's the difference between gonorrhea and the trans-texas corridor? you can get rid of the gonorrhea."
If they haven't already, I'm sure the libs will beat him to death with the "loser pays" legislation here in Texas.  In abridged terms, you bring a lawsuit in Texas and you lose, you pay.  Some years back legislation was passed limiting malpractice lawsuits against Doctors. There was much gnashing of teeth and wailing by the democrats socialists and of course the Loiyas (also known as "Attorneys"). It was Armageddon and Global Warming Climate Change Climate Disruption all rolled into one, so they said. It was the End of the Freaking World!
Hasn't turned out that way.  So yes, loser pays may keep the occasional righteous plaintiff with a marginal case from bringing a lawsuit with the assistance of a loiya working on contingency.  It will definitely keep bottom feeder loiyas from bringing spurious lawsuits, and I suspect make this state a much less expensive location to do business.
It's not so much that I'm bashing Perry, I voted for the SOB man, being the lesser of 3 or 4 evils.
I'm just removing his shoes to show his feet of clay. Son of a sharecropper or not, he is a politician.
Being that opinions are like..er..uh..orifices, and everyone has them, my thoughts on the other candidates.

Ron Paul is like good lie; there is just enough fact there to make it plausible, other than that, I think the man is an isolationist and a wingnut. (his son, Rand Paul, however, shows some promise)

Mitt Romney: I could care less that the guy is a Mormon. The decaying carcass of RomneyCare hanging around his neck is an absolute non-starter for me. And, he doesn't even pass the smell test for a RINO.

Michele Bachmann:  I like what I've read and seen, but that is a short history. She showed up on my radar with the tea party.  As Borepatch noted in a comment a few days back regarding Perry, Ms. Bachmann is an "unknown poison" to me.  So I'll keep my eye on her.  If I had to vote right this second, I could cast a vote for her.

Herman Cain:  I love this guy.  And, when he first threw his hat in the ring, I was all "Hell Yeah!"
Except..as able and straight forward as he is, were he to win the office of the POTUS, the inner beltway leaches in DC would eat him alive.  Business in the real world is reality.  Politics on the federal level is the worst kind of Kabuki Theater Nightmare there is, and requires selling your soul (and all of your constituents souls for that matter) to the Devil. There's a reason Presidents go in looking 50 and come out looking 70.

Newt Gingrich: ??? sit down and shut up. If you are lucky you'll still have a gig on Fox News as a political analyst.  Your services are no longer required. Personally, I think this run at the office is to build a retirement account from his campaign donations. After all, after it's all said and done, what remains of his campaign war chest is his..right?
John Huntsman:  Who?

Rick Santorum: Finished in the Iowa straw poll behind the guy that quit.
Tim Pawlenty:

And there's a whole bunch of "write in" candidates out there hoping to siphon off 0.0001% of the vote. So, I'll offer an equivalent opinion on those guys....."No".

Where is Ralph Nader anyway.  Did that guy finally kick the bucket?
He was almost as much fun as Pat Paulson:
Embed thingy no workie so I'll just have to post a link.

postcript: if you do nothing else, click that link and watch the video, it is an absolute hoot!

More on Top Shot A Suggestion for History Channel

In the comments section of my previous post, Maura makes a comment about being disappointed that the women shooters didn't do well.

I realize that shooting, in general, and shows about shooting is geared toward the male audience; however, more and more women are taking up arms and learning to shoot.   When I go to the gun range, I notice that there is always at least one lady shooting, other than myself.  I think this is fantastic!

It seems to me that each season of Top Shot, the guys try and get rid of the girl right off the bat.  Season two, a girl lasted close to half way in the season; however, her team kept winning the challenges.  As soon as they lost their first match, they voted her to go to the elimination round, and unfortunately for her, it was an Archery match.

I realize that these matches take a certain amount of speed, agility and strength and by and large, women are not as fast, strong and are more prone to panic than our male counterparts.  (yes, I know that this is not always the case, however, biologically speaking, it's safe to say that it's the norm)

I think that The History Channel should do one of two things:  perhaps they should have 8 men and 8 women on the show, then do a blind draw between each sex, determining which team they are on.  You would have 4 men and 4 women on each team.  Another option would be, as a trial run to see how the viewership would be, do a 'Lady Top Shot' edition.

All of that said, it really is a great show and so far, I have decided that I am hoping that self taught Justin takes it all.  We will see.

Comments on Top Shot

So far I do not like Jake, I think that he's an ass.

I was quite happy that the red team beat the blue team in the team challenge, especially since Jake was unable to catch the last red team guy to shoot. ....

Good stuff.

Schematics

I can read an automotive wiring diagram, but electronics schematics pretty much look like this to me.
WTF?
Amusing stuff there.

update: nerd/geek humor. couldn't pass this one up.


H/T: TheProdigalSon

Lay down with dogs, get fleas

Shepard Fairey, the artist that created the infamous "hope" poster for Obummer's 2008 campaign discovers the unbound, and loving tolerance of the left wing(nuts) in Denmark.
He has a black eye, and bruised ribs to prove it.

Rick Perry 2012

Truth be known, I haven't settled on Perry just yet. There's a long road ahead.
But, I like his bumper stickers!
I'm particularly partial to the one in the second row, center.


H/T: BJF

This is hilarious

Sometimes Jon Stewart and the Daily show hits a home run.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2012 - Corn Polled Edition - Ron Paul & the Top Tier
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

I love this!
H/T my cousin Wes, via Facebook.

And it starts

With Gov. Rick Perry entering the race, the libs are already on the attack.

I'm not a huge fan of Governor Good Hair, but I would rather have him as our nominee than RINO Romney.

This is from moveon.org (not linked because they aren't worth linking) 10 Things You Need to Know about Rick Perry.  I am responding to each item .

1.  He actually believes that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional.

Well duh.  Technically they are unconstitutional.  There is nothing in the constitution that states that the Federal Government should provide medical insurance and as far as Social Security is concerned, the Soros gang fails to mention that FDR had to stack the USSC by adding more liberal justices to get Social Security found constitutional.  It's the redistribution of wealth, plain and simple.

2.  He let a likely innocent man be executed despite new evidence.

Actually Perry was following state law and the new evidence wasn't confirmed until after said execution.  However, I'm not a huge fan of the death penalty and if there was reasonable suspicion that the guy could be innocent, I would have given him a temporary stay.

3.  One in four Texas kids are in poverty yet that didn't stop him from gutting child services.

Okay, this statement is disingenuous.  Keep in mind that Texas is overrun with illegal aliens so IF this statitistic is true, you need to stop and look at the kids who are in poverty.  Are they children of illegals that we are forced to educate via Federal law? Yes they are.  The fact of the matter is that because of required bi-lingual education and other programs that are designed to keep kids dependent on government, our budget was headed for trouble.  Cuts HAD to be made and I'm sorry but cutting services in an area where a large amount of the recipients are here ILLEGALLY doesn't bother me one bit.  Our resources need to go to those who respect our immigration laws and of course to our citizens.

4.  Texas is the most uninsured state, again they claim one in four (they love that number) do not have health insurance.

Again, it's illegal immigration.  If they are not here legally, do you really think they're going to buy health insurance?

5.  He strongly supported laws that made it illegal to be in a gay relationship.

I give them that one.  Yes, that is awful of him and I disagree with Perry on the gay issue, however, it's not fair to leave out the fact that we had an election regarding gay marriage and making it legal or illegal....  While I voted against the proposed amendment, Texans voted to define marriage in Texas between a man and a woman.

6.  A climate change denier, he is responsible for the nation's most polluting state.

Really?  Has anyone seen the smog in L.A. lately?  I can't really believe that they are still on the whole climate change issue considering that their junk science has been totally debunked and proven to be a lie.  But let's say that we are the most polluting state, could it be because our industry is alive and well here and the economy is the strongest in the union?  Nah.  couldn't be.

7.  He used emergency measures to force women to get sonograms before abortions.

Yeah, I don't agree with this one either, however, what they leave out is that these women aren't forced to look at the sonograms.  The doctor just has to perform one to be sure that the fetus isn't too far along to perform the abortion, and to be sure that the woman is not in danger of complications after said abortion.  Sounds like responsible 'doctoring' to me.

8.  Glenn Beck says he wants to give Perry a French Kiss.

Okay, how does this reflect on Perry?  Glenn Beck is the boogy man or are they just closet homophobes?  Glenn Beck is a little off his rocker, however, he exposed Soros and Co. for what they really are, so could it be the folks at Moveon.org have an axe to grind with Beck?  No... couldn't be.

9.  He denounced Obama's stimulus and then used to rescue his state's floundering budget.

Really?  I don't think that our budget was ever really 'floundering' except in some areas.  As far as stimulus money goes, last I checked, Texas citizens pay taxes so if stimulus was accepted, it was done so that we get a bit of our tax dollars given back to our state rather than it all going to states like Illinois and California, and New York, etc. etc.

10.  He's issued vague threats of Texas seceeding from the union.

I knew they would use this one.  The fact is, that Perry said that Texas could do it one day if we were pushed far enough and the Feds made Texas citizens angry enough.  Taxes and regulation and the fact that the federal government is constantly grabbing power away from the states could indeed cause Texans, who by nature, are proud and independent and want to be left alone.  I don't think this is a bad attitude for any state to have.

We are citizens, not subjects and it does the Federal Government some good to be reminded of that every now and then.

So as far as Gov. Good Hair goes, the Soros crowd is as wrong as ever in most of their points.  The sad part is, the MSM thinks that this crap is gospel.  We'll just have to see how it plays out.

Romney drills to the net...and..GOOAAL!

My favorite sound bite of the day "Magical Misery Tour"
From  NYPost.com, via Drudge
The Presidential Campaign Kabuki Theater is just warming up. Pass the popcorn.
And for the record I am not a Romney fan.  If I'm forced to hold my nose and vote again, I'd go Perry in a heartbeat.

Well there's a conundrum

The Swiss Franc is so rock solid, it is "overvalued".
Today, 1 Swiss franc = 1.2737 US dollars.   Really? I didn't know we'd coined thousandths and ten thousandths of dollars.  (lord almighty, I hope it doesn't tweek up above the .005 mark, we'll have to round it up to $1.28)
I'm expecting U.S. dollar denominations in the thousands and tens of thousands a la post World War II Germany.
The Swiss Franc has apparently "run away".
Per  Simone Meier at Bloomberg:
"Even a cup of coffee at Café St. Gotthard in Zurich costs $8.30"
"Switzerland’s currency is 41 percent overvalued against the euro, based on purchasing power parity as calculated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That’s “a headache,” according to ABB Ltd."
That'll cut down on your tourism dollar right there, I don't care who you are.
So from what I gather,  Switzerland is trying to figure out how to devalue their currency.
Simple, think PIGS. Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. 
Scenic, no? Viva Italia!

Obammunition

I posted an uninspiring blurb about this the other day, having run across it on Snarkybytes.
My hope was to drive some traffic toward Blackfork, and drain a few cents from the obumanoid's political war chest while refilling Robert's ammo can.
Borepatch has picked up the flag and laid down a post containing fifteen dollar words concerning the subject.
So, I'm bumping this one more time. Go. Click. Feel the Joy.

Snark

I posted earlier and took it down, but now I'm putting it back up again............

Apparently, Obama is considering creating yet another 'department' (yes I'm serious)

The Department of Jobs........

I wonder if he'll appoint Monica Lewinski to head it up, of course she'd probably just blow it.....

No wonder

No wonder employers aren't hiring new people.

I have been doing journal entries that were way behind, at the new job.  I'm looking at the taxes that my employer pays.

FUTA (federal unemployment) avg. $300 per week
SUTA (state unemployment) avg. $1,000 per week
Medicare avg. $2500-3000 per week
Social Security avg. $8000 per week
This of course doesn't include the employee portion of Medicare and Social Security, just the employer side and it doesn't include income taxes that he pays at the end of the year, along with various licenses, permits, EPA fees, Workman's Comp insurance, which is mandated by the Federal Government (roughly 20K per month). 
We roughly have 160 employees.  It's obscene.

Government needs to get out of the damned way!

Opinions on the budget....

The Lee's Summit Conservative once again brings an insightful take on the budget crisis.

I know this guy personally and he's a proud American.  He was born in Argentina and earned his citizenship the right way.

He is spot on though in his article.  Go give it a read.

Hark! What is that I hear?

Cannon fire?  Giants walking? God Bowling?
No! it is Thunder!
The August afternoon thunderstorms have finally returned from their long annual migration to the midwest.
There may be hope for the parched Lone Star State yet.

update:  It's actually raining. And as Forest Gump says, it is "Big Ole Rain".

Sorry, I'm easily amused...

update 2: Ok, so now it is blowing 90 to nothing and getting all my good junk wet via the open garage overhead door.  Visibility out the windows is next to nothing.

Sun baked and Salt Cured

Whew! it is hot outside.
The first part of the day's chores are done.
The newish Saturn has been serviced.  New radiator fan motor installed. Now the AC blows cool at idle and the temp gauge doesn't climb alarmingly towards the Satan's hell mark.
Oil change and transmission fluid change done.  The transmission filter is external, basically the same as an engine oil filter.  Why they don't do this on all transmissions I don't know. It made that job a whole lot easier than normal.
The one thing I do not like about this engine though, it the placement of the oil filter. It sits right above the passenger side half axle, and when you remove it, oil runs everywhere but where it's supposed to.
This was not the day to be short on paper towels.
That Saturn SL2 is not a bad little car. Even with the 1.9L engine, it has enough get up and go to get out of its own way, it is quite stable and handles well as you cruise at highway speeds.
I discovered moments ago, that it does not have a spare. So, I will have to remedy that problem in short order.

New Old Car

My pocket hurts.......

Today, I just bought my youngest daughter a 1998 Saturn SL2.

It's a nice little car and it runs good and it only had 74K miles on it which was low considering its age.

I'm happy to be able to do this for her, it's a good feeling.

Now I just hope she doesn't wreck it......... ugh.

Politically incorrect email

IN RESPONSE TO THE  EMAILS CONCERNING MY DOG:

Please be advised I am sick to death of  receiving questions about my dog who mauled six illegals wearing Obama tee shirts, four Democrats wearing  Pelosi tee shirts, two rappers, five phone operators who asked me to press #1 for English, nine teenagers  with pants hanging down past their cracks,  eight customer service desk people speaking in broken English, and three flag burners...

FOR THE  LAST TIME...THE DOG IS NOT FOR  SALE!!!!!!


H/T SH

Just for the heck of it...

Make Obama buy Robert some ammo
So, I went and I clicked.
I'm curious as to how many rounds might be procured if a few like minded folks were to link to Alan's or Robert's post...
If you could see me, you'd notice my cheezy grin right now. 

Funny, but a little sad

This says it all

The progressive fungus is as bad as "they" say

A quick post regarding the riots in not-so-great Britain.


The meme that progs have infiltrated the education system and have been indoctrinating children for decades is often seen in blog posts.


Here's a bit of confirmation from the Daily Mail Online.
The middle class 'rioters' revealed: The millionaire's daughter, the aspiring musician and the organic chef all in the dock


From a link at Drudge

Enough already

Okay, I am going to give a little mini/rant here so bear with me.

I am sick and tired of hearing the pundits talk about Obama's vacation.  Yes, I know that he's gone on vacation a lot this year and that it shows a total lack of concern on his part for the state of the Union.  Here's what is driving me crazy.........   the intellectual dishonesty and the philosophical inconsistancey of everyone.

Ronald Reagan spent a fair amount of time at his Ranch in California and George W. Bush spend a lot of time at his Ranch.  Yes the media gave them shit about it to no end and yes liberal friends of mine would whine and complain (about Bush) going to Crawford during that time.

I would always respond to the whiners, "The President is never really on vacation, it's not like he can just drop off the face of the planet (though we often wish they could!)."

Even the pundits would say the same thing about the situation.  The President can still conduct the business of the country from whereever he is.  Consistency people, consistency.

So I am saying it, "The President is never really on vacation, he can still conduct the country's business no matter where he is."

With all of that said, here is where the true criticism should rest.

When the President goes on vacation to a place that is not his private residence, there are a lot of security clearing procedures, setting up for his arrival, ensuring that the location is equipped with all the techo stuff that he needs so that he can conduct business.  All of this at Tax Payer expense!

At least when Bush and Reagan were at each respective Ranch, all the techno stuff, security stuff, etc. was already in place.  It was much cheaper for them than it is every time Obama decides he want's to run off and hide somewhere.

It's not a bug, it's a feature

so blogger was down while they updated some things. One of which is a new interface for the users.
I give them an F for Fail.  While I was waiting for blogger to become available again, I was composing (composing, sounds all official and stuff doesn't it?) a rather long post.
The "new" and " improved" text font, style and color widgets pretty much ate the first paragraph of my post. To the point where after trying multiple times to "fix" it, I gave up.
In addition, the Bells A Ringing homepage sidebars are still, and I apologize in advance, fucked up.
You just can't get anything good for free these days can you. I think the federal government should get involved in this. They do the "free" thing for the downtrodden so well.
 I demand my right to a free blog hosting site that works!

Just a quick thank you....

I would like to thank both North and Borepatch for participating in last night's live blog.  TBG got hung up at work or he would have been there so a thanks to him for thinking of us.  Teke apparently had some technical difficulty so couldn't make it there.

It was fun, though participation was lower than last season's finale live blog.  We will do another live blog at the season finale of this season.  I have a feeling that will be more popular because folks have had a season to figure out who they hope will win, etc.

Top Shot Live Blog right here, right now!

Okay, here we go folks!   It's started.. let the comments commence!

Top Shot Live Blog Countdown

We will be starting in about 20 minutes.  Once the show gets started, I will start a new post and the comments can begin!

This is too exciting!

Everyone Recite after me...

Owwwwww!

Police urge holster use after man shoots his own penis

via a link on Drudge

blogger seems to have gone wonky

The sidebars have gravitated to the bottom of the homepage at Bells a Ringing.
It happened last night right after my last post. Curious.

I am encouraged and uplifted

via IOTW:

The people of this country are waking up.

Top Shot Season 3 Premier

Tomorrow night, 10 Eastern, 9 Central the season premier of Top Shot begins.  We will be doing a live blog again during the show right here.  I can't wait!  Hope to see you all here!

The Obama Effect

The stock market lost more than 600 points today.

Obama gave a statement on TV today and while he was speaking, they were showing a split screen of the stock market ticker and it was steadily falling with every lying, slimey, can't take responsibility for being an unqualified buffoon, blame everyone else, word out of his idiotic mouth.

Coincidence?  I think not.

I am so sick of this jackass in office and I'm sick of the idiots in Congress.  We need to vote them out... vote them all out.

One thing that the USA always had was our good name.  The world knew that we could pay our debts, but now even that has fallen.  Why?  Because the left has created a 'gimme' mentality in their constituency and have consistently punished those who work hard and are successful by taxing them to death so that the libtards can continue to buy votes.  Why work when someone else will pay your bills?

The Lee's Summit Conservative has a good article on the new rating  I suggest that you all go and read it.  The guy is a smart guy and has a pretty cool blog.

On the radio today, I kept hearing the campaign speech that Obama gave when he was talking about wealth being a pie and how everyone needs a piece of the pie.  What liberals tend to forget is that to really enjoy a piece of pie and appreciate that pie, you need to make the damned thing yourself.  Why do they think that it's okay to demand someone else's pie?  Why do they think that wealth is some closed, circular thing with limited amounts?  Wealth is limitless if government stays the hell out of the way!

Okay, now I'm kind of ranting and raving like the crazy bag-lady on the park bench, but I'm pissed off.  The problem is not just the democrats it's the republicans as well.  The republicans, unfortunately, are our best hope though which is flipping scary since they have no idea how to govern.  (more on that later)

Anyway, I'm going to go and calm down a bit before I give myself acid reflux.

Car Shopping for the youngest Girl Child

I'm leaning domestic (whatever that means these days). Belle's chevy and Boo's chevy both have engines made in Ijerkyoustan, or somewhere or other. So well made, they deemed it not necessary to provide a dipstick for the transmission. So I've read, there is a level check "port", from which a plug must be removed and while the engine is running, you stick your FINGER in the hole. Yeah...No, I think not.

We're shopping for a car in which the youngest girl child can have her first accident. I'm not being pessimistic. just statistical. So far, with 3 now "young adults" driving, we are 2 for 3 in the accident category. One....managed to have three accidents, one of which was backing into the beater van parked directly behind "her" jeep...in the driveway. Another gave the Cherokee, coincidentally, the Cherokee (as in American Indian) punishment for infidelity by a squaw. Which was having their nose cut off.

The unnamed girl child managed to remove everything outboard of the radiator. Everything.

I'm leaning domestic not because I have the "buy 'merican" thing going. Japanese cars do tend to last longer, but a quick search of parts prices for, say, a 2001 Honda Accord vs. a 2001 Ford Focus yield: Rear motor mount - Honda $65, Ford $16. I rest my case your Honor.

So the search begins.

K, the 2001 Saturn L200 is right out.

Recall info:

"The passenger air bag inflator modules were built without the correct amount of generant, which produces the gas that fills the air bag. Some were built with a double load of generant and some were built without generant. "

So the air bag blows your head off, or fails to deploy. Good riddance Saturn.

Ugh, I hate car shopping.

The Romance is Gone......

Saturday, TBG asked me how the romance between Romeo and Miss Kitty was going and it dawned on me that I hadn't posted on the subject for a while.

Miss Kitty had injured her foot and endured a traumatic trip to the vet.  You can read about that trip to the vet here.  She stayed in the house for a few weeks after that foot injury and so in that time, Romeo had gone on the hunt for another female to admire.

About a week ago, I was outside and I heard a couple of cats meowing back and forth at one another.  I looked around and saw Romeo laying down in the neighbor's drive and this cute, saucy little female cat rolling around in front of him, meowing, obviously in the mood.

The female gets up and walks by Romeo, giving him a look and immediately as she passes him, she shakes her tale and heads off into the bushes.......

Romeo, recognizing the fact that he had gotten 'the nod', followed suit.

I went back inside, not interested in listening in on the gymnastics that was sure to go on in the bushes....   I'm sure the neighbors didn't care for it because they were right under their window........

So the romance is over between Romeo and Miss Kitty.  I'm thinking that when she injured her foot, she did it while running him off.  Apparently, Romeo can take a hint.

Worn out today

Belle and I had a great time yesterday, hanging with TheBigGuy, but man am I wiped out today.

I stayed up way past my bedtime. After lunch we went by Tomball Pawn to check out their selection of guns, where we learned of an indoor shooting range of which we were not aware. Tomball Pawn had some really nice toys. We weren't far away from Spring, so we saddled up and headed over to Spring Guns & Ammo to do some shooting. Belle rented her favorite, the Springfield XDM 9mm. TBG rented a Beretta 92Fs, I think it was. Belle and I traded off on shooting the Springfield and fired a few rounds through the Beretta as well. That is one nice handgun. Belle's starting to reconsider her choice for the handgun she wants to buy.

TBG and his partner hung in there for quite a while at last night's dart tournament. What a day we had. We played hard for a good 12 hours. It felt like I was away on vacation.

The Morning After

Oh my goodness, what a good time we had last night.

TBG is a natural at darts.  He shot a few really good shots and seemed to catch on to the strategy of Cricket pretty quick.

After the tournament, we sat around and TBG told some stories that I will be laughing at for years to come.  What an interesting fella he is and just a pleasure to be around.

I learned a few more lessons from the wise TBG:

If you discover a dead whale beached close to shore, keep walking and try to pretend you didn't see it.
If you are a tourist and happen up on the removal of said beached dead whale, stand WAY back.
When in a storm on a boat, don't wear your taser and finally.............
never use a taser on a snake that's wrapped around your motor.

All in all, this was the best time that I've had, since.........  well Lockhart comes to mind.

This morning, my tummy muscles are sore from laughing and I'm sleepy.  Hubby, who partook in many more hoppy beverages than I did, is probably going to be a little hung over today....  poor baby has to fix the alternator on the son's Jeep (haha).

TBG swears that he had a great time, I can only hope that he wasn't just saying that to be polite, but what I do know, is that after we parted ways, all the hubby and I could say on the way home were different variations of the phrase, "Oh my God, what a great day!"

It was incredible.  Thanks TBG for a wonderful time, it was truly an honor meeting you.