Friday, March 29, 2013

I may need an Intervention

Belle has a Netflix account.
I discovered that I could watch Netflix on the Xbox 360. Hundreds of bad kung fu movies were at my beck and call.  Life was good.
Then I discovered that I could get the Netflix app for my Kindle Fire and watch bad kung fu movies upstairs while the Lovely, and loves her soaps recorded on DVR, Belle whatched her..uh, soaps, dancing with the stars and other assorted bad citcoms, on the big screen TV*.
While holed up in a hotel in Nashville cycling through crappy hotel cable TV channels (why the fuck is there no TV guide on crappy hotel TV cable!?!?) I wondered if there was a Netflix app for my smaht phone.
There was. And now, I have netflix everywhere.
As time has gone by, I have found myself gravitating to foreign films.  The stuff out of Hollywood being so predictable and mundane. Even movies with, gasp, subtitles.
I felt an urge to grow a pencil thin mustache the other day, but brushed it off. Then thoughts of how dashing I'd look in a beret crept into my mind. I realized I had a problem when I started fantasizing about skinny jeans.  The mental image of a Bartlett pear on two toothpicks snapped me right out of it, thank the Lord, but it was a dicey situation.
If I commencer à taper en français, please, someone slap me and take me to a gun range and put a pistol in my hand.




* if you hold your kindle or smaht phone close enough, the screen size appears the same as your whopping ass TV across the room. No, really try it sometime. When I discovered this I wondered why I spent so much money on the TV.

** I mentioned I have a sampler this evening earlier, yes? No apologies.

The Alternative

Alternative Country / Blues that is.

Two of my faves from the Cowboy Junkies below. Apologies for the add at the beginning...youtube, ya know.
I've been searching for their cover of Gram Parson's "Ooh Las Vegas" mp3 for a while and finally just broke down and bought the tribute CD, "Return of a Grievous Angel".
First up, "Common Disaster", followed by "Ooh Las Vegas".  I hope the CD arrives before I have to drive to Austin in a couple of days. Good drivin music.
Not to mention Margo Timmons has that "girl next door" thing going big time. <I said that out loud, didn't I...shit>
















Beer Thirty

Time for Cerveza Importada.
Stopped by the grocery on the way home for Red Beans and Rice fixins, some vino for Belle and a nice hoppy beverage for moi.
Picked up a sampler 12 pack of Mexican beer, most of which I've had before.
The one I haven't tried before is named "Indio".  As described on the label, " A darker colored lager, brewed with caramel malts."
It's pretty tasty. I like it. Shame there's only three two one left in the box.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Attaboy

Senator Ted Cruz emails to say,

DEFENDING THE SECOND AMENDMENT
Sens. Cruz, Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter today to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pledging to use any procedural means necessary to ensure Congress does not pass any legislation that would prohibit Americans’ Second Amendment rights. As the Senate prepares to consider guns legislation, Sen. Cruz is committed to ensuring that Americans' right to keep and bear arms is defended and upheld. Congress should not create new legislation restricting the rights of law-abiding Americans. The Democrats' proposed legislation would require universal background checks for private sales between law-abiding citizens, which according to DOJ would be effective only if accompanied by a national gun registry. This raises serious constitutional issues, and would divert resources from prosecuting felons and fugitives who try to illegally purchase guns.

I cannot tell you how glad I am that Ted Cruz beat David Dewhurst in the Texas race for the US Senate. If Dewhurst had won the race, you would already know why I dislike*  the the guy, bless his heart.
On a more local level:
  I also cannot express how dismayed I am that my state senator, Dan Patrick, endorsed David Dewhurst.  Dan Patrick owns an independent AM talk radio station down here and just excoriated Dewhurst over his self serving liberal politics before Patrick got into politics. Dan Patrick is a self described bible thumping conservative.  I cannot fathom why he turned like that and endorsed Dewhurst.  I have never seen power corrupt someone with such a long standing righteous public persona so fast.  I'd love to hear an explanation. None was ever given to my knowledge.



* I'm bein' haved . Dewhurst (R) is self serving political scum in my personal opinion.




Wednesday, March 27, 2013

I think the washing machine is unhappy

at the BAR Corp. HQ.
It has recently begun attempts at walking out of the laundry room while in the spin cycle.
This is a relatively new development. It seemed quite content for so long.
Apparently its fragile self esteem isn't being fostered in a supportive way.*








* Or one of the feet has gone out of adjustment, or the foundation has, gasp, settled. I'm betting on the self esteem thing. The other two possibilities require my participation. The warshing machine is just going to have to butch up.

.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

On green energy

Omg
The sun went down
And I can't recharge my smart pho

Refrigerator Art

Nanase', from Street Fighter EX2 (or was it EX3? I forget)
Regardless, it's the character my daughter used to kick my ass with on the PS2.
I've kept this piece of paper somewhere near a decade now. Artistic that child has always been.
She's 23 now. She has some bird images she's been doing lately on translucent mylar that I want.  Hinted a while back. She's in a graphic arts program now, looking to turn her talent into a living.  Looks like I might have to buy one or two off her.











Monday, March 25, 2013

Pressure Cooker

Man work has been a bitch lately.
No, wait, that's not right.  (well work has been a bitch, but that's off topic)
I used to have a pressure cooker.  Somewhere in my past life of moves and divorces, it disappeared.  No recollection whatsoever.
Out of the blue the other day, it occurred to me that I no longer had a pressure cooker, and I really like the way it cooks a pot roast, and I have several Amex gift cards* with which I could purchase a replacement.
I hope there have been no technological "improvements" on pressure cookers since I last had one decades ago.  A pressure cooker is simplicity defined. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I'm almost afraid to go look.
But, I want one.




* I've accumulated an assortment of gift cards by buying out, for cash, the gift cards my brood has received for various holiday and birthday gifts over the years. For the universal gift for my nieces and nephews, I just go get cash.  They spend it down and they know exactly how much they have left without having to remember, or go to a website and type in the card number or keep an excel spreadsheet ledger on a $25 gift card. My kids hated getting gift cards.


Hmmm, what to do with my refund

No.
That can't be right.
[blink, blink]
Amount owed = big buckage.
No refundy goodness for me.
Some of my tax deductions grew up and we made juussst enough that we don't qualify for some others.
Now I 'm glad I procrastinated about doing my taxes, and that check won't get mailed till Apr. 15.
And, while it took me quite some time to earn the total amount I paid in federal taxes last year, it will take the gubmint far less than a second to spend it.*

Hard to get ahead. The federal government makes sure of that.




*In reality, it was spent in less than a second decades ago.

Friday, March 22, 2013

There's eating

And then there's eating.














Once the ribs were separated it was all  fingers and teeth.*

For me, there is something intrinsically satisfying about tearing meat off bone with my teeth.
I've come to the conclusion that I am not, in fact, a highly educated and licensed redneck.
I am a highly educated and licensed cave man.

Pork ribs. It's what's what was for dinner.



* I did use a fork for the 'tater salad.  Even a caveman understands efficiency.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Hard Times



A movie out of the formerly great Britain. I watched it on netflix the other night.
What would happen if you knocked over a big pharma delivery truck, stole the pharmaceutical drugs* and dumped them down a well to hide them?
It is a simultaneously funny, heart warming and telling story about the state of affairs in gB.






* little blue pill

Junk Mail via Fedex?

Has the US Postal Service sunk that low? They can't even deliver junk mail adequately?
I got a Fedex envelope containing an offer for a mortgage refinance from  CitiBank.

Not having ordered anything on line lately, nor expecting any bidness documents, at first I thought I was the recipient of some kind of legal nasty-gram.

I am so pleased to note that this was delivered via Fedex's carbon neutral envelope shipping.  Must have been carried by the Pony Unicorn Express.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Bumper crop

Got out of the car this evening to a cacophony of Morning Dove calls from the trees in the neighborhood.
Three hundred and sixty degrees they were coming from.
There was a male morning dove that used to roost on top of the streetlight next to the house, so fat he would cover the light sensor and the street light would never light up.  He was very lonely. Hoo hoo'ed constantly.  I named him dinner*.

I need to stock up on BBs and rubber bands.
forked sticks I can find anywhere.
In the suburbs, morning doves have so few predators, they barely know to walk to the side of the street as you drive to workl
If I can't run up and snap them senseless with a wet towel, a good old fashioned slingshot loaded with BBs will do the job.
Now that I think about it, some surgical tubing would not be a bad thing to have.

Have you ever shot a penny out of a wrist rocket?
Really a wicked sounding and random trajectory projectile.  Shooty, but kinda scary, goodness when you are a kid.




*If the shtf there won't be a bird of any kind with in walking distance of my house in very short order, including the newly nested Bald Eagles the next neighborhood over.  The Lovely Belle will Kavetch mightily over that comment, and perhaps pass on that meal.  That's fine. Go hungry, and you go kill something to eat.
Owls in the daytime,  you can grab by the neck and wring them. When they sleep, they are out, end of story. (I have one somewhere back in the blog posts.)
I have blogged in support of trying to save this great Democratic Republic via political means a number of times. Go ahead and hope to hasten the downfall in hopes of of rebuilding it. Once it is gone, it will never be regained in your lifetime, or your children's, or your grandchildren's. Ever.
And if it comes to that, and your are not a friend, stay off my lawn. If you know what is good for you.
DHS watchlist here I come...probably already on it.
Hi Guys!

It's the blue moon talking, I swear.


What we have here is a failure to communicate

Subtitle: Huh? What?
Belle on the cell phone while I'm driving:  What do you want to do about dinner?
kx59: I don't know, what's in the freezer?
Belle: I don't know.
kx59: Are you home? Go look.
Belle: Why don't you just get Popeye's
kx59: Nah, I don't want pot pies. I'm going by the grocery on the way home, I'll call you back when I get there.
ring ring: Hey you need anything from the store?
Belle: No, why don't you just get Popeye's for dinner.
kx59: I Don't Want Pot Pies. I'll pick up something to cook.
Belle: Well, ooookay.

Get home, get a few groceries out of the car, haul my work crap out for the weekend, feed yappy dog and stupid cat and now I'm on the couch just in time for happy hour at the BAR Corp. HQ with a blue moon in hand.

On the couch:
Belle: So what are we having for dinner?
kx59: I got some skinless chicken breasts and fettuccine  I've got fresh spinach in the fridge and a Knor alfredo sauce mix in the pantry...chicken and spinach fettuccine alfredo.
Belle: you should have just gotten Popeye's
kx59: I DIDN'T WANT POT PIES.
Belle: Chicken
Brain says: Yes I do in fact know pot pies containing chicken can be purchased. I don't want pot pies.
Belle: You know, Pot Pies...Love that chicken from Popeye's



kx59: oh.
Of all the things I wish I could do over, it would be shooting that custom .357 mag revolver after the dove hunt near Del Rio as a teenager without hearing protection. The ringing never stopped.

I still don't want pot pies or Popeye's. Clear the kitchen kx59 is cooking tonight.
And, later....googling hearing aid stores within 25 miles of the BAR Corp. HQ.
The category assigned to this post applies to moi only.


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Fractured Day

I had such finite plans for today.
I was going to focus on my small project to make some headway for a deadline next week.
The small one*, 26 million dollars that I'm single handing like a 26 foot sloop across the Atlantic.
I'm not sure what happened. I had a meeting with my Nashville team, then a conference call with some folks working on the small project, during which my son tried to call me. Not getting me on the phone, he texted to let me know he was at a gas station not far away, at the gas pump and his Jeep wouldn't start.
So, I'm trying to listen and talk on the conference call while texting back and forth with the man child.
The call wrapped up and I headed off to save the day.  I've nary a tool in the Scion and I'm thinking that I'm going to have to call my neighbor yet again to tow the Jeep and have his mechanics  breath some life into it.

I get the key and give it a good crank, no fire. At least I can smell gas, so it's not the fuel pump.
Pop the hood and start checking sensor connections. Check the wires routing into the fuse box under the hood. Pop the top on the fuse box and start pushing down on fuses. Hmmm, 30 amp fuse not seated all the way. Hmmm, 4 of 5 relays not seated all the way...by a lot.  Get back in turn the key and the Jeep coughs out the excess gas and sputters to life. 20 minutes round trip from the office and back.
I'm thinking, "awesome, I'm on top of it today."
Then things just kind of went to shit.
I can't recall what happened to my afternoon.
There were some phone calls, some email which needed response, then something, then something.
Around 5pm, I finally put some "lines on paper" for my small project. At 7pm I crapped out and went home.



*  Don't be impressed, there ain't a lot of Architorture in a 9000 square foot central plant expansion.

Apparently, I need to get my own

Mouse Pad
















Stupid Cat.

At least she's not attacking my hand anymore for territorial rights.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Happiness is

A heavy range bag.
G'night y'all. 
Sleep tight

Netflix



You know you are watching a really good "bad" movie when the "Navy Seal" presents his sidearm in a teacup grip.

spammage

Had to turn the word verification thingy back on for comments.
Some random post I made about Direct TV back in November of last year has become a honey hole for some spammer. 124 pageviews / 124 "comments" in the last 24 hours.

Rubie Ridge, Waco and now Anchorage

Lot's of folks moving into Texas...again.  I've seen this a few times in the course of my life. Every time the blue states shit their bed and tank their economy they start migrating down here.
Belle and I rolled up behind a duelly pickup truck with Alaska plates this morning on the way to the Range.
On said truck there was a Bumper sticker, "Rubie Ridge, Waco and now Anchorage"
Hmmm, curious says we.
I find nothing via google about any FBI / ATF siege involving shooting innocents or burning down buildings in Anchorage, Alaska.
wtf?
Is this something?

New Range Date protocol

I miss the good old days, way back in 2012.  You know, back when you could find a case of 1000 9mm rounds on sale for 199.99.
Belle and I had our first Range Date Saturday this year. The great ammo shortage of 2013 has put a real crimp in our shooting frequency.
We've come to the conclusion that we are going to have to scrounge ammo to rebuild reserves.  Our shooting range has 9mm for patrons of the range, so we each bought three boxes, shot two and brought one home.
No more grabbing two or three boxes out of the case and heading off to the range. A new protocol has been instituted.  Each range trip now has to net one box incoming to the BAR Corp. HQ.

Last year we shot just about every weekend. We added up our range fees for the year and discovered that an annual membership would save us a few hundred bucks, so we became annual members back in  December.  A day late and a dollar short.
Six boxes of ammo and  two extra targets came to $103 and change.  Inflated ammo prices are going to rapidly consume any savings on range fees.
Sigh.
Oh well.  Today was still chock full of shooty goodness.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Who Says?

Blog shoots aren't festive and fun?



TRE with his .50 cal party favor* at DAB II

Video at Five, here.




* He does look pleased with himself, doesn't he? :-)

Kudos to Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and my own Senator Ted Cruz


I have got to give a resounding round of applause to Rand Paul for his nearly 13 hour talking filibuster on the Senate floor.

Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee joined in the efforts as well.

Apparently, the rules regarding a talking filibuster allow for other Senators to ask questions, but it's not specific in the manner in which the questions are asked.  Each Senator took the opportunity to speak at length while throwing in a question or two during their monologues.

Unfortunately, mother nature called on Sen. Paul and he had to end his filibuster.  He said, "“I would go for another 12 hours to try to break Strom Thurmond’s record, but I’ve discovered that there are some limits to filibustering and I’m going to have to go take care of one of those in a few minutes here.”

Ted Cruz took the floor and read a letter from the Alamo, noting that Paul's filibuster comes on the 177th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo and how he, like those Texans defending the Alamo is standing on principle against tyranny and defending freedom.

Rand Paul is a man of principle and while he may not have won the battle against the appointment of John Brennan, he certainly won the argument.

Thank you Senator Paul for speaking out and turning our attention to the issue at hand, which is of course, whether or not the US Govt is authorized to use drones to kill American citizens on US soil.

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

DAB III








* Shade of blue photo and quote credit: TRE.
It was just too funny not to steal.

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead - Citgo Sucks


Yes, Hugo Chavez has died.  Yay!!

Apparently, the Citgo building in downtown Houston is flying an American Flag at half mast!

WTF is that all about?

First off, that slimeball was NOT an American.. in fact he hated America.

Secondly, that bastard did not stand for liberty and freedom, he was an opressive, murderous dictator.

Third...   well, need I really say more?

What a slap in the face of every single person who has defended our civil liberties and who have served the public ( emergency responders included) both living and dead, who truly deserve to have our flag at half mast in their honor.

Shame on Citgo (owned by Venezuela btw, so I stopped buying their gas years ago) for their insulting actions.

To Hugo Chavez... may you rot in the depths of hell for eternity... too bad it didn't happen sooner.


/end rant

Saturday, March 2, 2013

There's an App for that

Uhm, no there isn't




Embracing the current spirit of this great Socialist Republic, I take no personal responsibility for this post whatsoever.

.

Dad shot well

Or is it "shot good"..whatever, my lower grammar processor has gone tits up.

I drove down to Clear Lake yesterday to visit my Dad.  We had dinner last night on the water and went to a shooting range*  near his house this morning.  He'd asked a while back if I'd come down and introduce him to pistol shooting - said he was considering getting something with a little more impact than his .22 pistol.
So we went through some basic safety instruction before we left for the range; proper grip and how to handle the firearm on the line, awareness of muzzle direction, etc, etc.  Most importantly I told him, when you are on the firing line, just go slow, because you will be nervous when we first start shooting.  He was, but he did go slow.
He was really pleased with his first two groups of five shots, so much so that he kept turning to smile at me with the pistol still in his hands.  I stopped him before he turned very much both times. I finally told him, you are shooting good, but do not turn around to me for approval with the gun in your hands.
Now if I can just break him of presenting the pistol like he's dueling with a musket, pointing the barrel upwards and bringing it down into his site picture.**
All in all, he did just fine on the firing line.  He struggled with the proper grip a bit.  I recall how awkward it felt when I first started shooting pistols and how natural it feels now.
I think he was pleased with his performance.  He kept his targets.
As we were leaving the range he said, "Did you see that lady's target two lanes down? There were no groups at all, it just looked like it had been blasted by a giant shot gun."
Yep, I saw that. I also saw her paint our target with her laser two times.
At least the little red dot wasn't on the wall next to us.
A little bit of proper instruction goes a long ways.


*Best Shot Range in Friendswood, TX. It's a really nice indoor range. I'd definitely go back.
 I will note however, that I should not have to ask for the range rules when I am asked to sign a document that states I have read the range rules.  The kid behind the counter had to track down the document on the computer and print them out.
Bad juju right there, from a range liability standpoint.

**Imprinting from watching too many Hollywood westerns where the gun slinger goes for the long range accurate shot with his six shooter, no doubt.