Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween

This is probably the best music video ever.

Michael Jackson had a ton of talent, but unfortunately he ended up being a total freak... what a waste and yet what a tragic story...


Enjoy the video, it's got warewolves and zombies!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Range Day

Truth be known, we should have probably gone to the golf range and hit a bucket of balls, being that we have a golf tournament coming up soon. Neither of us is really a golfer, although Belle will tell you that she'd like to be. I like shooting better. I don't have to chase down my projectile.  We took the Tokarev, the little 22LR saddle gun and Belle's beloved Alexa (XDM).  The Tokarev was hit and miss, feeding from the magazine. We are looking into sourcing an aftermarket mag for it to use for shooting. The last gunsmith told Belle the problem resides with the original magazine. The 22LR saddle gun hadn't been shot in ages and cycled through about 50 rounds before it jammed, and jammed but good. Needed cleaning.
Yours Truly, shooting the saddle gun ( my good side, all hat and ears )















While I trudged off to the gunsmith with the 22 to get some help with the egregious jam, Belle proceeded to drill the Bullseye dead center with the very first round out of Natasha. Rounds from both rifles were run through these targets.
Belle's Target:















Don't mess with the Zohan Southern Belle.
Kx59's Target: (one little 22lr solidly in the bull)















With me, it's more like feeling for the center. With my eyesight and bifocals, I can't actually discern the bullseye at 25 yards. But, I know it's there somewhere.
Our targets from shooting Belle's XDM at 7 yards.  It seems the harder I tries the worser I shoots. Once I dial down the GSF*, and settle in I get more rounds in the red parts. I got more in, than out, so I 'm good with that.  Belle is still having troubles with shooting low and left. (perp is still dead, but it annoys her)






































After the afternoon's recoil therapy, we headed over to our favorite Vietnamese Bistro for a late lunch.  I feel good all over now.  I've spent a lot more time shooting shotguns than rifles or pistols.  My old 22 is just anticlimactic after shooting Belle's Tokarev.  When you pull the trigger on her SVT 40, you know you have shot a Rifle.


*GSF: give a shit factor

Saturday, October 29, 2011

It was a fun night.

I went to go and play darts last night and I had only a couple of beers. I got home at exactly midnight, which is early on a dart night.

Last night's live entertainment was an Elvis impersonator, Vince King. He was pretty decent and puts on a good show.

I shot pretty well, but my partner and I were out after 4 rounds, which was pretty good considering the 'pro crowd', which actually used to include me, way back when, decided to show up. It was nice and I got to see some folks I haven't seen in months.

So while at the bar, I got to talking to my buddy, Jay and he asked if I wanted to go shooting today. Well of course, I said "yes" and so that was my reason for taking off early and not hanging around waiting for the mystery out. I wanted to get home and get to bed.

I walk in the door, expecting to crawl into bed with the hubby and much to my surprise, he was up! He was of course beer blogging and had made several posts.

Hubby and I stayed up for a little while after I got home. I think we went to bed about `1:30 or 2 this morning.

He knows we're going shooting, I hope he feels up to it....... heh.

Lips Like Sugar

I love this song.........

Hubby actually has this album........ it's a typical 80's sound but it's awesome....

Friday, October 28, 2011

I have an IPuD!

My oldest Granddaughter's term for Belle's high fallutin' Ipod...  Ipud.
Actually, I don't have an Ipod. But I do have an IPuD. It is a 4 Gb USB thumb drive that plugs into my JVC head unit in the BeAtEr VaN, replete with 4 three way Panasonic speakers and a Bazooka 100 watt subwoofer. An audiophile's nightmare. I'm half deaf, so bite me. I digress.
The JVC head unit rips the MP3s off the USB stick in alphabetical order by song title (also known as file name). None of that namby pamby play list crap, you gets what you gets when you gets it.
The juxtaposition of music is rather eclectic. The musical shift I like the most, goes from this:



To this:

Definite signs of the End Times

Cats and Dogs laying down together.


















Although, current dog looks a bit pensive. Please make the cat stop moving around

World Series, the final game

I've no skin in this game, and frankly haven't paid attention to spectator sports, much less baseball, for some time now. My doc told me I have a missing spectator sport gene which inhibits spectator sport enjoyment.
The lovely Belle and I got into the L'Astros back when the killer B's were playing on the team. Watched the games on TV and went to Enron Field Minute Maid park to see a fair number of games live.  Since then not so much. Last night's game was pretty exciting, well for baseball anyway. Last night I was marginally rooting for the Rangers, for no other reason than they were from Texas. Then they got up on the Cards and my loyalty shifted. One of the killer B's is playing for the Cardinals now, Lance Berkman. He pretty much turned the game for St. Louis last night with one strike left, switch hitting a single to right field and driving in the tying run.  Belle and I both have always considered the Cardinals and the St. Louis fans to be a class act, unlike...cough..snort..spit..the mets, yankees or red sucks fans.
Right now, bottom of the 7th, St. Louis is up 6 to 2.  It will be interesting to see if the Rangers can pull this one out of their ass. Personally, I'm rooting for St. Louis.  I might have to change my blog handle to "Tejas Heretic". Or, maybe I just need some gene therapy.

Anarchy

Anarchy seems to be the ultimate goal of the OWS protests. VerumSerum has a thought provoking article posted regarding the potential originating source of the protests. No, it's not Ellen Warren, who recently had her own Algore "I invented the internet" moment with respect to OWS.
VerumSerum posits that the short term OWS goal is experimentation with alternate forms of "democracy". The long term goal being the destruction of Capitalism and the State.  And, I assume, ultimately Anarchy.
I cannot get the image of the Underpants Gnomes from the TV Cartoon South Park out of my head whenever I contemplate the OWS'ers on any level. The Gnomes three step plan for success was; 1. Steal all the underpants. 2. ???? and 3. Profit!  In the case of the folks participating in OWS, question marks belong in the final phase of their glorious plan.  They should be very careful for what they wish.  In a microcosm, they are experiencing results already. The "Vunables",  as the CongressWOMAN! Shiela Jackson Lea refers to them, have already descended upon their encampments like locusts.  And, gee, the OWS'ers don't like having to provide for the freeloaders. Ain't that a bitch?
In all the high minded, ivory tower ruminations about a Utopian "democracy" there seems to be a complete denial or lack of understanding of human nature. More to the point, a denial of a permanent criminal element in the human species.  No amount of "counseling" will root this element out of the population. A drum circle is a poor defense against armed bands of Goblins. Anarchy. Careful what you wish for...

Nice Music........

Today is Friday and I typically will listen to Pandora radio, via the web.

Usually, because I enjoy classical music, particularly Baroque so I have a channel set up called the Baroque channel and it gives me a nice variety of classical and Baroque era music.

Every now and then they will hit me with some Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Carribbean soundtrack, The DaVinci Code soundtrack and many others) and today they delighted me with this piece of music that I cannot, for the life of me place but it's so lovely and relaxing and has a nice, steady beat to it.

The song is Kecharitomene which means Hail, full of grace.

The artist is Loreena McKennitt I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.




Have a great evening.... it's dart night tonight!

The votes are in who all is coming?.........

Okay, the votes are in and poll is closed. We had 2 votes for Lockhart and 1 vote in comments for the Bryan/College station area.

I looks like on November 12th we will be meeting up in Lockhart. Now I just need to know who is going to show up. So please leave a message in the comments to let me know if you're in.

So far, it's me, Kx59, Borepatch, YeOldFurt and hopefully his wife, HossBoss and I believe that Aretae is going to make it as well.

The gun range outside of Lockhart is in the middle of nowhere, but it's got a good set up and good prices. After the shoot, I'm sure that we will be heading into Lockhart to get some BBQ.

If I've mentioned your name above, please confirm in the comments section.

I want to at least give the range a warning about how many of us there will be..... hope to see y'all there!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

King Tut

I've been fascinated with all things ancient ever since I was a little girl.

I have an uncle (my dad's brother) who is a very gifted yet eccentric man.  He worked at NASA during the space race and then moved on to work for the Department of Defense doing super-secret defense stuff that he can't talk about.  He's an electrical engineer.

When I was growing up, I was always fascinated with my uncle not only because of his scientific mega-mind (how many kids could say to their friends, "My uncle designs stuff that goes to the moon") but because he is full of very interesting facts and knowledge about the ancient world, in particular, Ancient Egypt.

For a time, he worked and lived in Jetta, Saudi Arabia and while he was over there, he got the opportunity to see Egypt.  (this was before the terror threats that we have today, the region was much more stable back then)  He has a treasure trove of slides that he took while in that part of the world and when I would go and visit him and my grandmother over the summers, we would look at slides for what seems like hours.

With each click of the slide projector and with each image on the large screen, there was a story to be told.  He would explain what each image was, what it meant and/or what it was used for.  I was always fascinated.  To this day, if there is something on TV about Ancient Egypt, I will always watch.

My uncle had a book about King Tut and the discovery of his tomb witten by Howard Carter himself.  Howard Carter is the man who discovered Tutankamen's tomb.  Granted, Carter originally wrote the book in three volumes; however, this was a modern (at the time) compilation of all three volumes but Carter is listed as the author and nothing was changed.

I loved to read that book and look at the photos in it and my uncle, bought a copy of the same book for me as a gift.  Funny thing about that book.  At the time of Tut's discovery, they didn't know who his parents were but thought that he was probably the son in law of Akhenaten, the heretic King who had changed his name from Amenhotep IV.  Carter states in his book that for all they know Tut could have been a common boy who married a Princess.  (We now know, through DNA testing of the two mummies, that Tut was the son of Akhenaten)

So fast forward to this past Sunday when I was able to go and see the King Tut exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.  I constantly thought of my uncle as I looked at artifact after artifact and as I moved through the exhibit I recognized several of the items from my book.  At the end of one room, in a case by itself I recogonized one piece in particular which is on the cover of my book.


The above is the book that I've had since I was 10, but on the cover is a beautifully detailed alabaster lid to a canopic jar.  A canopic jar is where the organs of a mummy were stored.  Each jar had 4 separate compartments with 4 separate lids and each set of organs were placed in individual coffins and then placed in the canopic jar.  The organs (except for the brain) were kept because they believed that the dead King would need his organs in the afterlife.  The heart remained in the chest, the lungs, liver and kidneys were placed in the tiny coffins and stored in the jar in separate compartments.  The brain was discarded.

The piece in the above photo was exquisite in person.  The detail in the carving and painting was simply amazing.  In a case nearby there on display was one of the tiny coffins for one of the organs.  This was made of solid gold and the detail was just as amazing as the canopic jar lid.

My day was simply wonderful as I moved through that exhibit, not only was I looking into a world of ancient times, but I was pulled directly back to some of the happiest times of my childhood.  I hope that my uncle knows how much his knowledge and his own experiences have shaped my own personal interests.  To be sure, I will send him an email today just to say hello and get him to come and read about my day at the museum.

Something else that my uncle taught me.....    he taught me to write my name in hieroglyphs.  Assuming that I did this correctly at the time, I wrote my name inside my book (just like he did in his copy).



If I've never thanked you for all the wonderful times my beloved uncle.........     thank you and I love you.

End of Season 3 on Top Shot

It was a really good season and the finale was what I think, the best ever.  After a round of Horse, which is a Top Shot tradition, it came down to Mike and Dustin.  The challenge was for each shooter to move through each of the previous challenges from earlier episodes.  The first one to finish won.

Dustin smoked Mike. I was glad to see a self-taught shooter, who is an all around good guy, win.

Some pointers for Top Shot (in no particular order):

1.  Do not put all the winners on one team and the losers on another team
2.  More lady shooters, please
3.  Quit with the drama!






Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Live Blog Starts Now! Season 3 Finale!

Okay here it is...  I'm hoping for any of the 4, though I don't think that Mike Hughes should be there since he was taken out earlier.......  




Top Shot Finale - Live Blog tonight

Tonight is the season finale for Top Shot.  We will be live blogging again this evening during the show.  Hope to see y'all here tonight!  I'll make a new post just before the show starts.  It starts at 9pm Central, 10pm Eastern.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Dangit! I missed the end of the World!

It completely slipped my mind.

A Novice Shooter Testing Ammo

Caleb over at Ammo For Sale asked me to check out his web site and also asked me to test fire some ammo for him and then blog about it.  I emailed him and explained to him that I am a novice shooter and so my knowledge on ammo and firearms is rather limited.  He didn't mind that at all and sent me a box of Magtech 9mm 115 gr ammo.

I decided that I would test the ammo for cleanliness and accuracy.  First thing I did was give my pistol a very good cleaning.  (Apparently I impress hubby with the speed in which I can field strip, clean and reassemble my gun, which I didn't know he was watching me.)  After cleaning the pistol, I took a box of Remington 9mm 115gr ammo and the box of Magtech with me to the range, along with my cleaning kit.

So first I shot 50 rounds of the Remington ammo.


I have to say that this ammo was okay for target practice but it was very dirty.  I took a photo of the outside of my gun near the bore and you can see the black residue on the outside of it after 50 rounds.  Also, you can see at the end of the black area of the gun, the gray look to it...  all of that is powder residue.  As far as accuracy goes, well, for me, it's always the Indian not the Arrow; however, the Remington was accurate enough.  (Typically I shoot Winchester which is also dirty)  I couldn't tell the difference in the two brands as far as 'feel' and accuracy.



So after I finished off the box of Remmington, I then cleaned the gun again and got her all nice and shiny so that I could test the Magtech.



I could tell there was something different about this ammo from the start.  The smell of it was slightly different.  I can't really describe what I was smelling, but it didn't smell dirty.  Granted, this is really from the point of view of a novice.  The ammo itself fires fine and I didn't really notice any difference in accuracy of the rounds.

After firing 50 rounds of the Magtech I placed my pistol on the bench and looked at the muzzle.  The difference in the two was significant.  The end of my gun, while a little dirty, was MUCH cleaner than the Remington.


If you look, closely, you can see the difference in the cleanliness of the gun from the outside.  I can only imagine the difference in the two on the inside.  Keep in mind that I used the game grain count for both brands.

I really liked the Magtech ammo but it tends to be pricey if you buy it at a gun range or at the store.  The gun range where I typically shoot sells it for $17.00 for a box of 50.  That's a lot of cash for ammo.  After browsing around www.ammoforsale.com I noticed that same box was $12.00 and they also sell it in bulk for a very reasonable price.

They have a nice, professional website and Caleb was very easy to deal with.  I know that when I decide to buy ammo by bulk I will certainly give them a look. For 9mm ammo just go to http://www.ammoforsale.com/9mm-ammo-for-sale and shop until you drop!




So that's my little bit of ammo testing.  I guess that sometimes it's even a good thing to get an opinion from a novice.





Sunday, October 23, 2011

You wouldn't know by the pics

But, sometimes, I can actually shoot. [Be forewarned, long rambling post due to fatigue (also known as overhang)]
The day started with the King Tut exhibit.  It was a prime imperative, planned some months ago that we would be attending.  The lovely Belle is enamored with anything ancient Egyptian.   She got the prerecorded thingy that gave the history about each of the artifacts, which she would occasionally share with me, and then add a few facts that were left out.  In spite of my profession, I'm more of a European WWII history buff. Scholar by no means, much more a dilettante. I can watch documentaries endlessly as long as it's the Nazis getting their asses handed to them. (I digress, as usual)
Where was I? Oh yes, the King Tut exhibit.  This was just incredible! Do you know that the artifacts look exactly like they do on the History Channel!!?  Standing and walking slowly through a crowd for a few hours just kills my lower back.  This isn't something related to being half a century old. I've had this problem my whole life. Not to mention that we went to a barbecue party yesterday, at which I consumed, perhaps, just perhaps, a few too many hoppy beverages. (ok, I admit it, I was pretty wobbly when we left). So, I was not terribly energetic today.
So the plan, as I was informed this past Friday, or so, was to go to the gun range after the Tut exhibit. I recall no discussion about this whatsoever, but it wouldn't be the first time I've missed the finer details of the BAR social schedule.  So, as I was *Reminded*, the plan was to take the Tokarev and Belle's XDM to the range for some recoil therapy. So, me thinks, "perhaps we should take the plinker saddle gun too!"
Ithica 22 LR with a heavy duty barrel. I bought this in my late teens, back in the brief moment of history when the gubmint decided that if they could send us off to war to die at the whim of old white men in three piece suits, we could consume alcohol legally and buy firearms at the age of 18. I bought this gun because it looked like the rifles John Wayne used.  Frankly, I had no real use for it whatsoever. It has less than 100 rounds put through it.  So, I was going to put 100 rounds through it today.



Didn't work out that way.  Deer season is nigh upon us. Take a number. Hotwells Shooting range was packed...standing room only. Even the 25 yard range where the Lovely Belle and I embed .762 rounds half way through the berm behind the paper.
So, we punted and headed to the pistol range to shoot her XDM.  I was tired, and not a happy camper.  My "Give a Shit Factor" was off the bottom of the chart and it shows.
This was after several mags. Shit, "thinks me" I could do that with the 12 gage in two rounds. Hell, at 7 yards, the wad would have blown a hole through it.

















It got a little better after a target change. Nice little group there to the left of the Bull. But I was still pushing the trigger left, and not really "feeling" it.  This is not to say that if you are larger than a 6 inch diameter target, I won't ventilate your rib cage with every round in the mag. I'm just not that anal.
The sun was setting as we packed up from the pistol range and made the final attempt to get into a rifle slot. All the 25 yard stations were occupied. So we punted, and the folks at Hotwells were kind enough to give us a refund for the rifle range tickets. The range officer apologized, and so did the young man behind the cash register. I just told him, "I'm glad to see you guys so busy". "It means business is good, and you'll be here the next time we come here to shoot."









Tomorrow, the Lovely Belle will post about the Tut exhibit, in a much more eloquent manner, and the ammo which she was requested to test. She cleaned the XDM, (the speed with which she can do that is a little unnerving) before today's shoot. We ran 50 Remington rounds through it, and then she cleaned it again on the bench. You'll just have to wait until her forthcoming post for the results.

Look! It's Rick Perry and Mitt Romney

This is what the debates have reminded me of





Good luck getting that nomination, dweebs.......

Sunday Cool Stuff and Shooty Goodness

Yesterday was a nice day.  We went to a party/barbeque at a friend's house where there was beer and margaritas a plenty and good conversation and a very nice day outside.  We got in about 8:30 and my wonderful hubby was pretty well into his cups but he behaved himself and was just totally cute.  After a plate of leftover bbq and a piece of pie he slept soundly last night and is feeling pretty decent today.

While at the party, the hubby found a guitar and entertained us a little by playing some nice music.  At this party, there were quite a few folks that work with the hubster and he never ceases to surprise his employees when he pulls a 'new trick' out of his bag to wow the crowd.

Well today is the day that I get to go see the King Tut exhibit.  I'm really excited about that because I have been fascinated with all things ancient ever since I was a little girl.  When I was about 10,  my uncle gave me a book on King Tut and the artifacts that were found in his tomb.  I remember flipping the pages, looking at the pictures and reading about what the artifacts were and what they were used for in Tut's time.  Today, I will get to see some of the very things that were on those pages and I can't help but to be excited.

After we're done there, we're going to the gun range.  We're going to be shooting hubby's old 22 rifle and I just so happen to have 300 rounds of 22 rifle ammo.  The ammo is old, but upon inspection, it is not corroded and so it should be okay to shoot.  Of course, we're taking the Tokorev out as well, along with my pistol.

I will be testing some ammo today for a guy who sent it to  me for free.  I informed him that I will only be able to give an opinion from a rookie's point of view, but he was cool with that.  I will be comparing the ammo to what I normally shoot at the range and will be looking for accuracy, how the ammo 'feels' when I fire it and cleanliness of the ammo itself.  Needless to say, I have stripped and cleaning my gun very well, so I should be able to put up a decent comparison at least for what a novice's opinion is worth anyway.


Friday, October 21, 2011

Wow, if this is true, somebody's going jail

Let's hope it's the Won.
Illegal campaign contributions.
And I thought Solyndra and Fast and Furious were bad.

Ouch! That hurt!

Murphy's Law tells a funny little story about his dog, Murphy's total dislike of the UPS man.

I've written about my blue heeler, Patch and how he would herd hermit crabs and about how he was pretty darn aggressive, as was his nature.  In fact, he was very difficult to keep under control as he was constantly wanting to rise to the dominant position in the house.  He didn't stand a chance with me or the hubby, but we were constantly having to assert OUR dominance over him in subtle ways such as not letting him go into a room before us, or eat before us, etc. etc. occasionally, subtle would not work, then we would have to use more aggressive techniques.

For the most part, Patch was a very sweet and loyal dog.  I could look into his eyes and see the love and devotion there which admittedly sometimes would borderline obsession.  If I was in the front yard working in the yard, I could see him watching me out the window, or if he was in the backyard, he would peek through a knot hole in the fence at me.....    I digress.....

So, ML's story about Murphy's dislike of the UPS man reminded me of the scar that I have on my leg from Patch.

The UPS guy had come to the door and Patch was going nuts as usual....   typically I could keep Patch back by simply saying 'stay', but this particular time was different.  The UPS guy needed a signature and when he was handing me the electronic clipboard to sign, my protective, loyal companion took that as the UPS guy grabbing at his mommy.

Patch was having NONE of that.  Nope!  So in a valiant effort at protecting me, Patch lunged at the door, barking and baring teeth.....    unfortunately (though better me than the UPS guy, I would not want a lawsuit on my hands), my leg got in the way and as he was barking, he ended up with my calf in his mouth.  This resulted in him sinking his tooth into my skin.

I looked down at him and it was really surreal.....  when he bit, he realized that he screwed up and he immediately opened his mouth and 'spit out' my leg as if he had bitten into something that tasted really bad....  he then sat back on his butt and looked up at me as if to say, "I'm so sorry mom!  I didn't mean to do that!"

As for my reaction, it was in slow motion... I could see him let go of my leg and has his teeth exited my leg I could see the flesh slide off his tooth and I could feel my stomach churn as I was thinking, "This is going to be bad."  I looked down at a single hole in my leg (luckily he only got me with one upper canine and the lowers and the other upper only scraped my skin) but there was no blood......

I handed the UPS guy his tablet and shut the door.... Patch was still sulking and then I looked down and blood was beginning to flow.  I bled for a little while but I was okay.  It was sore for several days but I didn't get an infection or anything like that.  I didn't need a tetnus shot because I had one less than five years prior to that incident thanks to a car accident (but that's another story).

I'm not sure what it is about the UPS man, if it's the brown uniform or the big truck they drive or what, but dogs really don't like them.  Patch and Murphy aren't the only dogs that I've heard that hate guys in brown uniforms.

Moral of the story, don't let your leg get in the crossfire of an angry dog and the UPS guy!

Here's a pic of Patch



I miss you buddy....   you were loved every bit as much as you loved me.


Happy Friday everyone! Don't forget to Vote

It's Friday and I'm really looking forward to the weekend.  Not much really going on today, just work, more work and what is going to be a busy day I'm sure.

I'm not playing darts tonight, so that I can not be so tired tomorrow for the party.  Sunday is the Tut exhibit and then the gun range.......  what a life!

Also, there are only 7 days left for voting on where we want to have the blogshoot!  Other ideas are more than welcome as well.  Right now it's looking like Lonestar in Lockhart which will add an extra hour or so to the drive for the folks in the DFW area.  I will say that YeOldFurt said that Lockhart is a better range than the other two and Aretae likes the idea of Lockhart since there are also great places to get some grub in town after the shoot.

Right now only two folks have voted so if you plan on attending on the 12th please cast your vote for the location.  Read here for details on the three ranges.

I'm really looking forward to this!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Halloween Target Art and an Old Cartoon Character


























Monkey Skull
Why I Rorschach'ed Pogo out of the fuzzy little image at the bottom I've no idea. It just looked like a bedraggled little Pogo sitting on a bent and broken tree to me. Perhaps it's my state of mind about the state of things in this country. We have met the enemy..and he is us

The Lesson Paid Off

Went to the range today and shot my pistol for the first time since my Tuesday evening lesson.  I still shot low and low left from time to time, but I now that I know why I do that, I can correct myself in pretty short order....  I'm very much pleased with the way I shot today.

My target is in the middle, number 18.  My buddy, Jay's target is number 19.  His Ruger SR9c is really sweet, though the trigger is tight and has very little play in it.  When I fired it, it did catch me by surprise...   it's a nice gun though, smooth action, feels nice in my hands and I shot it well.  It's a little smaller than my XDM, which my buddy said, "I'm surprised that gun's not too big for you."

I just looked at him and laughed a little.

So here's the target photo.....  I'm sooo proud!  Keep in mind that the backboard to the target is also white, I never missed the paper!  Also, keep in mind that you can see light through the back of the target as I took the picture at the range while it was still hanging and didn't wait for a target change so that I could bring the target home.  If you click it to make it big, you can tell the bullet holes from what's light coming through.

I'm really pleased, especially with all the holes in the middle!






Qaddafi confirmed dead........

Well, Qaddafi has been confirmed dead....  this is good news, well... er...  maybe.

Who knows what will take over Libya now that he is dead and what has happened to his gazillion rocket launchers and who know what other weapons of nastiness that he may have had stockpiled somewhere.  Will they end up in the hands of terrorists?  Most likely.

One question that I have on my mind is that they are showing pictures of a dead Qaddafi but refused to show a picture of a dead Osama Bin Laden...........    I wonder why?   Inquiring minds wanna know.......


Friday is almost here!

Yay!  Friday is just one day away and it's going to be a beautiful weekend here in H-Town.

Hubby and I are going to a party on Saturday and on Sunday we're going to see the King Tut exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, then after that we're going to go and shoot the Tokorev and his cute little .22 rifle and of course probably shoot my pistol.

After work today, I'm taking my buddy, Jay to the gun range.  He just bought a new pistol and would like for me to go with him to the range since it's his first trip to this particular range.

Last night at darts the conversation went like this:

Jay:  "Hey Belle, would you do me a favor?"
Me:  "Sure Jay, what do you need?
Jay:  "Well you know I bought my gun and I was wanting to go and shoot it, but I don't want to go by myself, would you go with me so that I don't make a fool of myself at the range?"
Me:  "Well..........   okay.........   twist my arm............"
Jay:   LOL

Hubby found it really comical as well, knowing full well that I'm not likely to turn down a trip to the range!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Target from Belle's shooting lesson

The lovely Belle lectured me mightily to explain that a sticker was put over the center of the target because she had shot out the whole circle on the first go 'round (anal). This pic is the same target from the second round of shooting, and her little chicken wings got ..tired.  Poor baby.
























don't mess with the Belle.

Top Shot The Final Four

Well the final four has been decided for the season finale next week for Top Shot....

Mike, Gary, Chris and Dustin

The first challenge was really good.  They had to shoot while being turned slowly on a 'wheel' while shooting at targets that were in a large circle.  Dustin and Chris both hit 12 targets a piece so they were immune from elimination.

Alex hit 2, Gary hit 1 and Mike hit 0.  Mike and Alex went to the elimination round.

The elimination round was full of win.  There were targets in various places on the ground and the guys had to shoot while going backwards on something akin to a ski lift.  There were 20 targets in all and Alex hit 13 of them and Mike hit all 20....   great shooting for guys but Alex was sent home.

Next week is the season finale and as is the newly started tradition, I will be once again doing a live blog for the finale!  I'm sure that I'll bug you all about it as next Tuesday rolls around.  From the looks of it, it's going to be a great show.

Right now, I would like to see Dustin take it all but I'm thinking that either Chris or Mike will be the ones to win it.


Republican debate

Holey cow. I had all this crap I wrote in real time and I back spaced it out. I feel like I've been trying to teach a 13 year old to drive a standard transmission in rush hour traffic.

Oops I stepped on my pecker!

Said Rick Perry after arguing with Romney about illegal immigration..........


good grief!



What a lesson!

Well, I found out what my problem is..........  trigger finger placement and at times it's anticipation of my shot...    I shot really well today and even when I had some misses with low shots my instructor said, "Well, if it makes you feel better if you were taking your CHL shooting qualification test, you would have scored 100%"

I just looked at her and smiled....


Yes it made me feel MUCH better........



On the possibility of another Obama term...........

Borepatch brings some good insight as to why he won't vote for Mitt Romney for President.  Apparently he's upset some of his readers by saying that another 4 years of Obama (with a Republican congress) is preferrable then Romney.

I happen to agree with Borepatch on the matter.

I think back to the Clinton years.  Granted, I was duped into voting for Clinton the first time around; however, I had buyer's remorse pretty much immediately after he took office.  When Clinton was up for reelection, I skipped the box because I couldn't stomach Bob Dole.  What we ended up with was another 4 years of a castrated Clinton. He was ineffective as the Democrats lost both the House and the Senate.

Now, let's fast forward to Bush.  The Republicans (the establishment Republicans) had the House, the Senate AND the White House.  Granted we could not have forseen 9/11 and the cost of not just one, but two wars which drove the budget sky high, that part of the deficit I cannot blame on Republicans.  What I do blame them for is No Child Left Behind, the expansion of Medicare/Medicaid and what I blame them ALL for... the economic downward spiral that came after 9/11 and the housing bubble burst.

With Republicans in charge we ended up with the federalization of the TSA the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.  We had no choice but to sit by and watch our individuals freedoms get widdled away via the Patriot Act.  More government expansion, to supposedly keep us safe.  But who are we kidding?  I have never known government to let a tragedy go to waste and I've never known government to be able to effectively keep us safe.

When the checks and balances are in place and you have opposite parties controlling the Executive and Legislative branches, government is forced to reign itself in.  Nothing gets done, which means our wallets are more safe and our individual rights.

So yes, I think that I would prefer a castrated Obama term to a Romney term with a Republican majority.  As Borepatch likes to say, Democrats aren't the problem and Republicans aren't the answer.  Vote them out........  All of them.


What will he do now???? The Horror!

Someone stole a truckload of Obama's stuff, including a podium and presumably his teleprompters........

I'm sure the only thing that he will really miss are the teleprompters, without them, he doesn't know what to say!

The Horror!

You can link to the story over at Uncle Jay's place and along with it some comical commentary.


h/t TBG

Today's the Day!

Well, today's the day that I take my private lesson at the indoor range.  I'm really excited about it although I'm a little nervous.  I keep thinking that this woman is going to tell me, "nope...  you're hopeless!"

Actually, it's probably just a few minor tweaks in my stance, posture and my grip that need to be made to get me shooting better.  I will post tonight when I get home from my lesson and let y'all know how it went!

Monday, October 17, 2011

1968 VW Beetle

The first car meme.
Courtesy of my parents. They were the original owners, then handed it down to my older sister.  1600cc displacement with a 3 speed semi-automatic manual shift.  Weird no? No clutch pedal. It was rusty and the engine and transmission were trashed when it came my turn to inherit it. I'd have much preferred ...well pretty much anything else, but beggars cannot be choosers.  Dad, being the generous man he has always been, found a VW mechanic that moonlighted out of his garage that rebuilt the engine, and at my request put a 4 speed manual transmission in it.
When it was new, it had air conditioning, but you had two choices, you could go, as in move forward, or you could have air conditioning, but not both at the same time. The AC went by the wayside during the rebuild, but I didn't care. At the age of 16, this was my escape capsule.
The upholstery inside was rotting and split in multiple places.
There were rust spots all over.
The inside of the car smelled like battery acid (although this was not unusual given the battery was under the back seat)
My high school buddy taught me how to drive a stick in the neighborhood. The first foray out into real traffic was a lot like Mr. Frog's Wild Ride, including but not limited to killing the engine and restarting it while on the roll.
I had been working a part time job since the age of 15 and had money in the bank.  Then, for better or worse, I discovered the JC Whitney catalog.  And...they had...all this cool stuff...FOR VWs!
The summer of my 17th year I set out to make the bug into a respectable vehicle for a young man of high school years. I had mom's car to commute to work since she was off during the summer, being a high school counselor.
Now comes the list (and this is not in sequential order)
I stripped out the interior and bought replacement seat covers for the buckets and the bench from ...wait for it...Sears Catalog (those were the days)
I peeled the vinyl, pardon me naugahyde, off the  door panels and rear seat side panels and replaced them with, yes you guessed it, black shag carpeting. The most beautiful swirly patterns would display in the door panels when you rolled the windows up or down. (cool or what?!)
Upon removal of the original carpet from the floor panels, I discovered my elder sister had run over something that ripped and 18" long gash into the floor pan right under the spot where the passenger's feet would reside. (she has yet to tell me that story..might not remember..tokillyou might be involved, but I digress)
Having no welding skills or equipment, but having some boat building skills, I laid in a few layers of fiberglass and solved that problem.
I replaced the rear shocks with  coil over shocks and put heavy duty shocks in the front end.
The windshield washer ran off pressure from the spare tire. This seemed non-optimal to me (duh, flat spare?) . I found a 6 volt conversion kit, in the JC Whitney Catalog, that had an actual electric pump.
To shorten the story, I tricked out everything I could on that little 1600cc engine that could be done without pulling the engine, stripped the whole vehicle, manhandled it to a 45 degree angle in my parent's two car garage and repainted it inside and out.  A nice frosty bright white. It was this period in my life where I discovered much to my dismay that I fucking hate wet sanding. (later I found my misdiagnosed glasses hanging on the rear view mirror in case I got stopped by the cops. Frosted..white)
Oh wait, I have to tell the part about the high output distributor, which I also ordered from JC Whitney, now this is the check in the mail, wait for 4 weeks, long before Algore invented the intertubes.
Distributor arrives..in a box..with no instructions.   Fortunately, the VW distrubutor had a flat blade on the bottom end of the shaft and not a worm gear. Happy days! I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right the first time!
After the install I had a cousin fire it up while I was back at the engine bay.
The coin toss went against me, BUT seeing a 2 foot long blue flame shoot out of the chrome glass pack exhaust pipes on both sides was one of the cooler things I'd seen by the ripe old age of 17.   Once I was relatively sure I wasn't on fire, the brain says..K..maybe I need to rotate that 180 degrees.
Things I learned about a hopped up Bug:
Given the relatively flat and complete floor plan under the vehicle and the curvaceous upper profile, the vehicle has similar characteristics to a really pudgey wing.  At 70, the steering seems a bit light as the front end begins to attain "lift". At 80, you need a wide open freeway at 3am in the morning because steering is touch and go when the front end occasionally touches the pavement.
And, when you hit a 16 foot sunfish sail boat that the jackass in front of you neglected to tie down to the trailer at 60 miles an hour, the spare tire in the front makes a great shock absorber.  It lofted off the trailer and stood straight up right in front of me as it came down and landed on it's transom. Then if flopped down and had the unmitigated gaul to immediately slow down, at which point I rammed right into it.
Dirty water and pine needles from the cockpit covered my windshield so I quickly rolled down the driver's side window and stuck my head out like a happy dog and steered to the shoulder.  Amongst all this mayhem, I watched the sunfish explode into many pieces and hit at least 5 other cars.
I drove away. I was running late for work. A few days later, I discovered a crease up under the front end of the bug where I'd hit the transom of the boat. The spare tire had cushioned the impact and you couldn't see what little damage there was unless you got up underneath the front end.
It wasn't a muscle car, but it was quick and would take a 90 degree turn at 30 miles an hour with barely a squeal from the tires and it was all mine. (Shhh, don't tell my parents)

Get to know your Range Marshalls and your Gunsmith...

As you all know, my SVT-40 was in the shop getting some work done on her.

I have to say that the Gunsmith, Clint with Cypress Gun Works located on the Hotwells shooting range property, is one of the nicest young men that I've ever met.  He was more than pleased when I dropped off that rifle to him because he rarely sees them around. 

When I went to pick her up, I went to shake his hand and got a hug instead......  He loves guns (obviously) and enjoys talking about all things that go bang.  He's very good at what he does and I recommend him to anyone.

After picking up my gun and testing her out, I went to the pistol range at Hotwells and the Marshall recognized me.  He's a nice guy, a bit older than me but when he realized that I was starting to collect my brass, he went around to all the slots and emptied them out, picking out the 9mm brass and gave them all to me.  What a guy!

The only thing that I dislike about Hotwells is they are very strict on their rules and the pistol range does not have a target system that you can move in and out at your leisure like an indoor range.  Oh well.  What I do like about them is that they are inexpensive, they charge per gun, not per person and it's $7.50 a gun.

Everyone that works there is very nice but they all seem to look at me kind of funny, I guess maybe because you rarely get a woman shooting at a range without a guy with her.  I don't know, maybe I'm just goofy looking........  haha!

 

Back to the old grind

Well, it's Monday again, another day at the office.

The weekend was really nice.  I played darts Friday night, and just sat around all day Saturday watching old movies.

I did call my oldest daughter on Saturday morning as it was her 24th birthday.  She answered the phone and I sang happy birthday to her while she giggled.

When she was growing up, every year on the morning of her birthday I would go into her room and jump on her bed while singing happy birthday to her.  She would giggle every year until she hit about 13, then it was "MOM, STOP!  MOM!!!  STOP!!!!"

On her 16th birthday, I decided to give her a break and let her sleep in.  When she woke up, I told her happy birthday and she got mad at me.... she said, "YOU DIDN'T EVEN JUMP ON MY BED THIS MORNING AND SING!"

"Well I thought you didn't like that..."  I replied.....    she sheepishly looked up at me and said, "Well.....   I do."  Sometimes you can never do right.

Sunday was nice.  Hubby and I went to a gun show here in town and saw some really nice guns.  Lots of shooty stuff to look at, drool over and fondle.  I think that some day I'm going to end up buying myself a Smith and Wesson 38 Special.  I really like the way the feel in my hands so next time I go to an indoor range, I might have to rent one and see what it feels like to shoot.

We saw quite a few Mosin-Nagant M91's and they were selling for a little over $100.  Their condition wasn't all that great so we took a pass on purchasing one of them....  though I was drooling over them to be sure.

I have decided though that it is sacrelidge to place the color pink on anything that goes bang.  I saw revolvers with pink handles, semi-auto pistols that were all pink.........     YUCK!

After spending a couple of hours, though it was probably less, walking around the gun show we went back home and tinkered around the house.  Hubby worked on the beast in the driveway trying to fix the blower motor to the AC/Heating system, with no luck.  I did some housework and goofed off some more.

All in all it was a good weekend and this week promises to be great!  Tomorrow evening is my private shooting lesson and it's looking like Friday is going to be a nice afternoon once I get off of work (maybe I twist hubby's arm enough to get home from work by 5 so he can come with).  A buddy of mine bought himself a Ruger SR9c and he's just dying to get to the range with it (and me).  He sent me a text message yesterday to tell me he bought his gun.  He was in the Navy for while and I met him through darts of course.  Great guy and he and my hubby are really hiliarious when you get those two together.

So happy Monday everyone and I hope that you all have a great week out there!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Range Report on the fixed Tokorev

Well, her sights are fixed and she's running like a champ.  I shot a box of ammo and was quite pleased with my shooting.  She is still jamming up at the breech, however, the gunsmith says that it's the magazine, which is no surprise considering that it's the original magazine.  I am going to have to find a replacement for it but will hold on to the original one.

So here's my target from today:


I started out shooting low but once I settled in to I was much improved!  Either way, it's all really nice for me, considering that I'm still a newbie at all this.

Tonight I may have to see how at do at the dart board since I'm feeling loads better.

Occupy 'this'

The whole Occupy 'whatever' protest is starting to get interesting.  It seems there is much more of a back story to this than just a spontaneous gathering of hippies joined by anarchists and unions.
BigGovernment.com is crowdsourcing an email data dump concerning the groups behind this.
I may download the data dump just for some interesting reading. Heck, it was fun (and eye opening) when the climate gate emails were leaked.
Pass the popcorn. It's going to be interesting to see which organizations turn up in this thread of emails.

Okay Texas Bloggers November 12th is the date...........

Mark your calendars!  November 12th is the day for the blogshoot.  Please let me know who all is going to go.

I have basically narrowed it down to three places and have placed a poll in the right hand side bar beneath the news gadgets.  Poll closes in two weeks.

So, I have called a few places and here is what I know about each of the three.

Lone Star Gun Range
They are close to Lockhart  and is where we had the last shoot.  Their prices were around $11 per shooter.  They were pretty relaxed as far as the rules go and very friendly up there.  Also, the upside to Lockhart is that there are some really good BBQ places in town for afterward.
Downside is that it's a little far for folks in South Houston and not to mention folks in the DFW area.

Arrowhead Shooting range
They are just north of Bryan off of Hwy 6 before you get to Hearne.  They charge $10 per shooter.  It's a 2 hour maximum unless the range isn't very crowded then they won't hold you to that.   The guy sounded nice on the phone, but at the moment he doesn't have a rifle range up and running.  Apparently he's had some sort of legal action trying to stop him from having a rifle range there.  He said that he would know something by the 27th for sure.

Gunsmoke Shooting Range
Gunsmoke is in Snook which is close to College Station.  They charge $10 per shooter per hour and it sounds like they mean by the hour!  I was told that if we were like 5-10 minutes over, no big deal.  The range on their website looks nice and they have pistol, rifle, skeet and trap.

So go and vote on one of the three....   please leave in the comments if you are attending and if you have a better suggestion on a venue, please, by all means make the suggestion.  Nothing is set in stone.


Usually this takes longer

Maybe I just don't pay very close attention to this stuff. It seemed to me that formerly successful child actors slipped in to obscurity for years before they really started the serious work of destroying their lives.
I mean, it really hasn't been that long since the release of the final Harry Potter movie now has it?

Happy Friday!

It's a nice cool temperature outside, though the weather-chick (or weather babe has hubby would call her)on the local news says that it's going to get up to 87 this afternoon.  87 is good though and it won't bother me one bit when I get to the range this afternoon!

I'm patiently watching the clock, anticipating being reunited with my old gal that packs a nice punch.

Geez, I sound weird right now.  I just hope that she's truly fixed.  We shall see.


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Moonbats of Atlanta

Okay, this is just plain scary....   it's a long video but funny in its own way.

Notice the collectivism, talk about zombies!  Then they go through this whole thing with hand signals and voting if John Lewis can speak.... they vote multiple times and several vote that they agree......   every time!  So after all of it is said and done, they don't even let Lewis speak.....  The whole time, Lewis is looking at the crowd as if he's thinking........  "what a bunch of fools!"


Good news!

As you all know, my beloved Natasha, the Tokerev SVT-40, is by far my favorite long gun.  Oh wait, it's my only long gun, though we do have a couple of good shotguns at home....

Well, Natasha has been at the gunsmith for the past three weeks and I got a phone call about an hour ago that she's ready to come home.

I had the sights adjusted and I had him check out why she's jamming up at breech.  I'm hoping that she's fixed properly but I will find out tomorrow when I go and pick her up.  I would pick her up today but I have a toture session scheduled at the beauty salon so no time.

I will give a range report on her tomorrow evening when I get home.  I can't wait!

Even better.......

I'm feeling much better today which would not be the case had my wonderful, show pity on poor wifey, hubby had not played darts in my stead last night.

Yes, he subbed for me and apparently did really well.  This was good as it allowed me to get even more rest last night.

Also, there's a gun show at the George R. Brown in Houston this weekend that I'm going to try and drag him to, his birthday is coming up in a few weeks so I asked him if he would like an AR15 for his birthday.  He said, "Hey!"  Which translates to, "yeah you want to buy me something that YOU want for MY birthday."

Funny thing about that... my dad was the master of getting what he really wanted via Mother's Day or Mom's Birthday.  Yes, it's horrible but he made up for it in various other ways.

One year, he got her a meat slicer for mother's day (um.. gee thanks, dear) and another year he got her a radial arm saw, which actually worked out to her advantage since dad was a carpenter and mom worked with him on the job sawing lumber.  then one year he bought her a beautiful diamond ring.

Someone once said that you should never give a woman a present that has a power cord.  In a lot of cases that's true, but I can say that when it comes to that, hubby hit the jackpot.....   one year I asked for a leaf blower for my birthday....  another year it was a gas weed eater.  This year is was a pistol and I already have my christmas list ready:

Holster
Extra magazines
Magazine holster
lots of ammo
New range bag

Update:  The hubby informed me in comments that I forgot something........

Spotting Scope


Oh...well then,

That makes it all better. It wasn't a keylogger after all, so says the US Air Force. Nothing to see here, move along.
 It was just  malware designed to steal passwords for online gaming, not directed at the drones in Iraq and Afghanistan.. No mention of whether or not they've rooted it out yet. I'd bet not. I'd be surprised if the hacker that created said malware spent the extra time to make the malicious program that specific.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Top Shot - How about some cheese with that whine?

Well, Jake certainly proved himself not only a poor sport and a whiner, but a coward.  I can't believe this guy coaches football.  Some example that guy presents to his team.

Jake shot poorly in the initial challenge using the Infinity 1911, which is a cool gun.  Apparently he engaged the safety and then panicked so he finished the challenge at the bottom of the pack.  Naturally everyone pretty much voted for Jake, which upset him but what clearly upset, or scared, Jake more was that Jake figured Phil as more of a threat than Gary and he was going to have shoot against Phil.

You might wonder why I think that Jake was more worried about competing against Phil than Gary... well his vote told it all.  He voted for Gary, which he made clear early in the competition that he only wanted to compete against the shooters he thought were the weakest.

When Jake came to the realization that he was going to have to compete against a potentially threatening opponent, he chickened out like a little weenie.  Instead of shooting, the nancy left.

So in light of that, Top Shot had a rule in place that the last one eliminated got to try to win their way back into the competition.  I thought it was a fair rule and so it was Phil against Mike Hughes in a really nice rifle competition.

Phil, a rifle specialist, lost against a less experienced rifleman, Mike.  So Mike is back in the competition... this is good and YAY!!   Jakeass is gone!

Now there will be less drama and more competition in the show...  good on them.

Disclaimer:  Please pardon all grammatical and/or spelling errors and typos.....   my head feels like a balloon

yoiks what a creepy thought

so I'm watching the republican debate and I see three that are handling the debate pretty well; Romney, Gingrich and Cain.
And I'm wondering how  president zero will stand up against any one of these three guys in a non-telepromptered unscripted debate. There's just no way.
So, for one, I'm wondering if there will be a presidential debate after the republican candidate is chosen for us.
The creepy thought was that if the debate is scheduled will a convenient crisis be created requiring the cancellation of president zero's participation by his handlers to protect the tatters that remain of his image?

watching the republicrat kabuki theater debate

Perry is toast.
Talked about Texas too much.
Can't stay on topic, keeps going back to getting people back to work when asked about health care.
lot's of blah blah blah from all the candidates, hearty fake laugh when queued.
lord I'm jaded on all this. Heard it all before.

On the mend......

Well, the super strong antibiotic that Doc prescribed along with my favorite soup in the whole world, Pho, and hot tea with honey,  and of course that dreamy cough syrup/decongestant is helping me a bunch.  I expect to be back in the office tomorrow.  Of course my sinuses feel like I've been punched in the face and my ears are starting to hurt a little bit, but I think that the meds will fend off any ear infection that may be brewing.

So tonight there is a debate but to be honest, I'm having a hard time deciding on if I want to watch that or my usual TV line up.  There's a new comedy with Tim Allen premiering tonight along with the DWTS results show.  I may just forego those two shows and watch the debate instead.... Priorities ya know.

It's a good thing that Top Shot doesn't come on until AFTER the debate, nothing would make me miss Top Shot.

Thank you all for the comments and well wishes, it means a lot to me.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Belle's muse is sick

Not me. I'm certainly not her muse. That's not to say I don't amuse her, but that's a whole nuther blog post.
She doesn't even have it in her to  make a whambulence post.   She's a sick baby. I've been reading blog posts from our favorite sites to her this evening.
She'll be ok. Went to the doc today and got some really dreamy "cough" syrup.
Even though I'll pay for this...send her some commenty love.

Global Warming causes Little Ice Age, or something

A little over a year go, Louise Gray, Environmental Correspondent for The Telegraph, wrote "Met Office report: global warming evidence is 'unmistakable'.

"The State of the Climate report shows “unequivocally that the world is warming and has been for more than three decades. And despite the cold winter in Europe and north east America, this year is set to be the hottest on record."

Quoting Dr Peter Stott, Head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution at the Met Office, Ms. Gray wrote, "“Despite the fact people say global warming has stopped, the new data, added onto existing data, gives us the greatest evidence we have ever had,” he said."

But, wait...
Today, The Canada Free Press reports, "New Climate Scare:  Europe May be Facing Return Of ‘Little Ice Age."
"The Met Office is working with academics to try and predict the likelihood of severe winters over the next 20-30 years. The work aims to help transport authorities understand the risks of further severe winters after the coldest December since records began in 1910. But the work was criticised this week by Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. “I would strongly advise not to rely on any 20-30 year winter forecasts,” he said. “The point is that nobody really understands the basic feedbacks and climate dynamics that drive annual winter variability, let alone that long in advance.”
All emphasis in quotes is, of course, mine.
However, with cleverly crafted data (random phone numbers) fed into the appropriate computer models (hockeystick V1.0), warmists can accurately predict that the earth will be burnt to a crisp due to Global warming 50 years or 100 years from now, whichever comes first.
Someone has not been reading the interoffice memos regarding the correct climate narrative. They obviously have a serious messaging problem at the Met.
For a less snarky, and more sciency, post, head over to Al Fin. which is what set me off on this little rant in the first place.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Funny Photo

Saw this on Facebook



I thought it was rather creative..........



My favorite scents........

In no particular order:

Chanel No. 5

I love the smell of baking bread, chicken and dumplings and chicken frying.

I love the smell of the sea air

I love the smell of fresh cut grass

Finally, I love the smell of the rain.

We are still here at the crik and it's raining outside.  The temperature has dropped a good 15 degrees.

We have the front door open and I can hear the rain on the roof and hear the rain hitting the water in the creek.  Thankfully, we are not in a hurry to get back home so we're just sitting here and relaxing, listening to the thunder and the rain.

Life is peaceful at this very moment.

UPDATE:  I forgot another favorite scent..........     gunpowder......  :),  WD40 is another nice scent, that and machine oil and carborator cleaner...  all of which remind me of my father.


Texas Tech Students get Sh*&(y

Literally.

Real shitty move, Tech.  I understand pranks, but this is just disgusting.  Whatever happened to shaving cream and toilet paper? Or stealing and shaving mascots or sawing off horns? Oh wait, that's what Aggies and Longhorns do to one another....

Read the story here.

On the upside of things, the Aggies beat the Red Raiders 45-40.  It was a really good game.  GO AGGIES!

The weekend........

We spent this weekend down at the crik again, where the wind was blowing and we got some rain.

Driving down on Friday evening, I had to stop and take a few photos of the rainbow that greeted me.


Once I got to the house I had a great view of the rainbow which was in full arc, however, I couldn't get the whole thing in my camera view, so you'll have to settle for the top part of it.  I kept thinking of the song "Over the Rainbow" but changing up the words a bit to fit a parody on the smelly hippies who are occupying our cities and Wall Street.


So after unloading the car and putting things away, we made the short trip to our favorite spot on the intra coastal waterway and had a nice meal.  I had the flounder (sorry no pics of food here) and hubby had his usual fish basket.  We both had a few drinks, he had beer and I had wine, and then after we got back to the house more adult beverages and a great time commenced.

This pic is the edge of the porch at the restaurant and you can see the lights from the swing bridge in the distance.

So, after nursing a hangover on Saturday morning, we just basically hung out around the house, enjoyed one another's company and then early evening, it was back to our favorite spot on the water for dinner....



These two signs hang behind the bar on the patio so we had to get a photo of them.  Then our appetizer arrived.  This is a spinach artichoke dip with crap meat on top.  The chips are fried flour tortillas.  This  dish was fabulously yummy.



This is the swing bridge on the intracoastal waterway which allows boats and barges through.  The road goes to the beach.

Here's a sail boat going through the swing bridge.  Not something that we see too often down here.  Our little town is a fishing town and so sailing just isn't really something that you see folks doing.


This sign totally cracked me up.  It hangs over the entrance to the bar area at the restaurant.  Click to make big so that you can read it.


As we were leaving the restaurant, we were walking along the pier at the entrance of the place and these two women were in front of us who seemed like they had a few drinks in them.  I was kind of looking out at the water when suddenly one of the women turned and started to double back, almost running into me.  As she did this, she looked up at my hubby and said, "I'm going to go pee."  It took every ounce of self control to contain our laughter until we were in the car.  Both of us wanted to say, "well alrighty then, you go on ahead".
I'm sure that the lady was talking to her friend, but god it was funny.


So really that's about all we've been up to this trip to the coast.  Last night we had some thunderstorms roll through which kept waking me up at all hours of the evening.  Between the storm and the wind howling it was not a restful sleep.  In a while, the hubby and I will clean up the house (which there's not much to do this time), lock up and head back to base.  I do look forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.


Saturday, October 8, 2011

How about another Blogshoot???

Borepatch and I have been trading email today and are thinking that Saturday November 12th would be a good time to have another Blogshoot.

Lockhart was nice, though I would need to check on whether or not they are still there with all the fires over the summer in the area.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions on another venue?

I've found one link to American Shooting Center in Houston, anyone ever been there?

There is a place in Snook, Texas (close to College Station) but they charge by the hour on the rifle and pistol range.

What do you all think?

I love the Coast Guard

I've always been rather fond of the Coast Guard, especially since a dear friend of mine served over 20 years in the USCG.

In the news today the Coast Guard managed to talk a pilot down in the ocean about 13 miles off the Hawaiian coast.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/08/pilot-ditches-small-plane-in-pacific-ocean-after-fuel-shortage/


Pretty amazing thing considering the pilot was not injured and the plane, while it sank, was in tact when it was ditched.


I'm Feeling Better...........

Bloody Marys work great!

Just for laughs though.........





Enjoy!

The hangover.........

UGH

I drank too much wine and not enough water last night.  I'm not feeling so good.

The coffee will kick in soon so that will help and as soon as my pet Wookie rolls out of bed (that's wookie, not wingnut), we'll have breakfast which should help even more.

I'm sitting here drinking my cuppa and wondering if I really want to fish today...    

Of course I want to fish today, but the question is...........   am I up for it?

We shall see............

UPDATE:
Found some Vodka in the liquor cabinet....  a Bloody Mary might be just what I need...........  or a Red Eye (bloody mary mix and beer)


UPDATE 2

Ha!  The Wookie is hungover, too!  Looks like we're fishing later.