I put my Christmas present on layaway today!

Santa is bringing me a John Moses Browning (PBUH) designed, Brazilian manufactured, Taurus PT1911! My scary, black pistol will sitting on the shelf at Impact Guns for a few weeks and coming home in time for me to take advantage of the 75 dollar rebate!

Seventy-five buck rebate? How sweet is that? It was too good a deal to pass up. So me and Santa are in cahoots and I'm getting a nifty new pistol.

Its about time, really. After all, I do have 500 rounds of ammo in an ammo can already and nearly 2000 rounds of brass waiting to be filled up with 230 grain goodness. I really do need something that can shoot up all that ammunition don't I?

I also found a 2nd hand North American Arms Mini-Master that I think I'm going to put on layaway as a little stocking stuffer to myself!

There's an barely used ATV for sale-

And I know that you can get a great deal on the 4-wheeler and a two place trailer, both were new just a few months ago. But there's a story behind the reason this primo new gear is for sale and you can read about it on Kenny's blog.

Go wish him speedy healing because he is hurting all over.

Obama's message to America-

"I am gonna fix the fuck out of you." I'm afraid it will be too true.

Black Friday? Shopping?

Get real! I did NOT go shopping today, with the exception of 1 trip to Home Depot for some neccesary wire cable clamps. I did spend the day hiding out in my shop.

I reinstalled a big shelf that had been removed for the re-roof job last fall and then put up a bunch of boxes and bags that were taking up floor space. I put up a couple big hooks to hold power cords and c-clamps and I found a place to stack the reload ammo tubs. Overall, I got a lot of cleanup done and some floor space recovered, so the shop isn't quite so cluttered looking.

During the week I also fixed all the gaps between the walls and roof that were letting the light and the heat out. Some of the gaps were small enough to fill with caulk, some of them required some patch panels installed and then the caulk made everything tight.

My aged Visla dog, Sandy, is standing next to my chair right now. Her nasal cavities are whistling a tune with so many sounds that she sounds like a steam calliope! I don't know if dogs have septums like a human, but if they do, hers is busted, deviated, worn out or something because she has a real panopoly of tunes emanating from her grey haired muzzle!

Bill Clinton named by Obama to head Oval Office team

This just in:

WASHINGTON DC - Ending weeks of speculation and rumors, President-Elect Barack Obama today named Bill Clinton to join his incoming administration as President of the United States, where he will head the federal government's executive branch.

"I am pleased that Bill Clinton has agreed to come out of retirement to head up this crucial post in my administration," said Obama. "He brings a lifetime of previous executive experience as Governor of Arkansas and President of the United States, and has worked closely with most of the members of my Cabinet."

Mr. Obama also has this to say:

Obama also announced that he had accepted his own appointment of himself as an Assistant Undersecretary in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"It's a fairly low-stress job that I'm reasonably qualified for," said Obama. "I really can't do much damage there, and it will give me plenty of free time for Oprah specials. Plus work on my next autobiography and re-election campaign."

Its from Iowahawk, of course and the entire post is hilarious. Go read the whole thing.

From one guy to every other guy out there

Watch this video and make sure you heed the warning so you don't end up in the Doghouse!

I'm pretty certain my Grandpa Harry would have liked this guy-

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and much more. Dean has invented a water purifier that produce clean drinking water anywhere in the world from nearly any bit of contaminated sludge. Its a terrific machine but he can't find any agency, anywhere in the world that will finance the production of enough of them to really help people that need the water.

And yes, Kamen is a character. But this article about him really gives some insight into how a smart guy thinks- and is always thinking. So read the article, its good!

Traveling to the safest place in all of Utah-

Kenny's got all the details of our trip to the Crossroads of the West gunshow, so go get his take on the fun. There were 5 of us that met up, shopped, browsed and carroused and then enjoyed lunch at Hooters.

Interestingly enough, in a giant expo center, packed full of rows upon rows of guns, of all sizes, shapes and calibers, and enough ammunition to offset the world's gravitational pull all piled up in the same place, I didn't see a single violent act, either by any of the hundreds of customers or by the nasty, evil guns that the gun-fearing wussies of the world are so afraid of.

What I did see was families and friends, customers and sellers of guns, ammunition, accessories, artisan breads, toys, glassware, jerky and old military uniforms. I saw dads there with their kids and their dads, people of numerous colors and age groups. And everyone seemed glad to be there and enjoying themselves.

I didn't even spend much money- I wish I could have spent much more, but I had a great time exercising my rights as an American, and spending time with my friends.

Cows with guns!

Go here immediately and listen to the terrific song, Cows with Guns! It is a hoot and I've played the entire thing 2 nights in a row. If you are in a shopping mood-what with it being the giving season and all, I'd love any of this guys's T-shirts!

And thanks to Xavier to turning me on to this fantastic song and video!

Got the internet back!

Its been busted since last night and even after a marathon, 1 hour+ phone call with the Comcast techs [snark] it wasn't fixable until a technician came to the casa this afternoon.

And- of course I had to wrassle with the wireless router to get it back on line. But it's working now and I can sit and relax.

I get SO stressed out when I can't reach my internet connection!

Still loving my iPhone!

I've got the 2 best timewasters on my phone; Red Mercury's Acid Solitaire and Freeverse's Flick Fishing. I've been a big fan of the Acid Solitaire game since I first installed it on my ancient Palm Pilot with its black & white screen several years ago- heck its the only reason I kept the Palm around was for that game. The iPhone version is a huge improvement over the previous version, has beautiful color and addicting play action.

And the Flick Fishing game is the most addicting 99 cents I've ever spent! It's huge fun, intuitive and colorful. I just added this game to my phone for a few days but it is quickly wrestling my playtime away from the Solitaire game. If you have and iPhone- go get it before the price jumps up!

November 19th already?

You know what that means, right? It's the 7th annual National Ammo Day! If you are a self respecting American firearms owner, you are encouraged to get out tomorrow and buy 100 rounds of your favorite ammunition.

Even though there's a gun show this weekend, with lots of ammo to be bought and reloading supplies to be purchased, I may just participate tomorrow with a hundred rounds to celebrate the event.

Maybe just another brick of 22LR would be ok in my locker...

This light is making me verrry cranky!

Back in September when I was rebuilding the shop roof, I replaced the motion sensor floodlight that had been up there for 8 years with a new one, this light, from Home Depot. The old one was working but the lense cover was pretty cracked so I decided I'd just stick up a new light as part of the project.

The damm thing doesn't work!

I've had this light off the wall 3 times now. I've purchased and installed a second sensor. I've bench checked this light and it seems to work just fine. I've rehung it on the wall, 3 times, and it seems to work for a week or two, then it defaults to an "always on" mode. I've followed the reset instructions- repeatedly, without success. I'm using the same wiring that I used with the previous light.

I'm really fed up! I need a light back there to provide illumination on the front of the shop but this light is not working for me. I haven't decided what my next solution is going to be but I've got to have a new solution for my shop!

Fishing in November? Yes!

And no ice was harmed during this fishing trip! I have to tell you that it seemed like summer and fishing ran out just too quickly this year, mostly due to the overhaul of my workshop. But temperatures here were tolerant of a fishing trip yesterday and buddy Kenny and I headed out to East Canyon reservoir to see if the trout were biting. Here's the reservoir:

And here's the results of a morning's fishing:




That's two limits of 4 fish each for Kenny & me. We had a great time just relaxing in the low hanging sunshine and telling stories and comparing the results of nightcrawlers vs. PowerBait on the trout. I prefer the nightcrawlers but I did catch one fish on PowerBait yesterday so it did redeeem itself a little.

It was a bit chilly- hey its November here and we were at a pretty high elevation, but it only got cold when the wind kicked up, which it did a couple times. But catching fish made the time pass with pleasure and once I had my last fish on the stringer, we warmed up in the truck on the way home.

Next weekend? Gunshow!

Took a 4 day vacation at home!

With yesterday being Veterans Day I took the opportunity to switch a regular Friday off with Monday and turned the weekend into 4 days off. And since we had some time off, we decided to take a little vacation.

We talked about going to Vegas.

But the BSU got cold feet so we decided to stay at home and still vacation a little bit. Friday night we had a great dinner at Jeremiahs which is a nice, casual restaurant with really terrific food. We've been there a few times but not in a couple years, so it was a dandy treat and a great meal. The service was friendly and polite and the food came out of the kitchen fast! After dinner we saw Madagascar- Escape to Africa and got to catch up with our animated friends, Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman along with the bizarre penguins and King Julian the Lemur king. The story's funny and silly and since the critters were originally from Africa before living most of their lives in the New York Zoo, they find friends and family they didn't know existed in Africa. It's a hoot, so go see it!

Saturday and Sunday were pretty well filled up with chores and preparation for winter. I fixed the floodlight on my shop front- again, fixed a leaky gutter and drained the secondary water system so hopefully I won't have any freeze problems next spring. Saturday night we go to a Grizzlies hockey game and the BSU invited along the eldest boy and he brought his latest girlfriend, so we all had a good time. The game was wild and the Grizzlies might have won except that they really didn'y get warmed up and playing for the first 10 minutes of the game while the Ontario Reign got 2 goals on the scoreboard. Our team lost, 6-5 but it was a terrific fight with some great skating and hockey in between.

Monday we did something fun and entirely different, we went to see Body Worlds in Salt Lake. This traveling exhibit has been selling out in Salt Lake for a couple months now and everyone is talking about it, so Monday seemed like a good time to see it. Body Worlds is a display of human bodies, preserved in a unique fashion and then displayed in an artistic and educational manner that is really something to see. There are displays of every portion of the body's systems on display, right down to the complete nerve system or every capilary, artery and vein, in place on a skeleton. There are comparison displays of healthy and damaged lungs, cross sections of complete torsos so that you can see where everything fits inside your body and more. But the big draws are the entire bodies on display with their muscles, organs, ligaments and brains on display. The bodies are freaky at first but have a bizarre beaauty too and as you look at them and remember that these displays were people that donated their bodies for this purpose, it becomes a respectful view too.

Body Worlds is an educational and artistic display and if you get a chance, I really recommend that you go see it.

Most of Monday was more chores around the yard and I finally got the scooters moved around and tucked in. Sleek Black Beauty is in the shop and sitting on a dolly so that I can move it around as I need to and the Phantom is under the Bike Barn, under the carport. And last, we went to see another movie, Soul Men. It's a funny story, starring Samuel L Jackson and Bernie Mac as 2 retired and down on their luck back up singers, making their way to the memorial service for the recently deceased front man from 30 years ago. There's bad blood, and a road trip in a Caddy Eldorado convertible named the Muthaship and a jail break as they travel to New York City and the famed Apollo Theater. Its a pretty funny movie but it earns it's R rating with language so if you don't like to hear course language and lots of it, this won't be your movie. Its also the last work accomplished by both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hays before they passed away so it is a tribute to them both.

And this morning? I had to get out of bed and go back to work! It sure was good to have 4 days off though.

Test post

On our way to the movies in just a minute.

Sent from my iPhone

[UPDATE: This wireless technology stuff is really pretty amazing! As you can see, I sent this post, through my email on my iPhone, as I sat in front of my laptop. Just as fast I hit the "send" button on my phone, this post appeared on my blog, on my laptop. It was immediate. Somehow the signals go out through the airwaves, pass through AT&T's antennas, into the cables that connect to Comcast's servers and sent back to my house and then wirelessly to my laptop. Much faster than the tiime it took me to write this update. Its pretty cool.]

I shouldn't make fun of this, but I'm going to...

Just outside the building I'm working in now, there's a dedicated motorcycle parking area. I parked Sleek Black Beauty there on the days I rode it for a couple weeks before the weather turned into winter. There's a motoercycle that parks there too, a Suzuki as it turns out that is really something to see. Check out these pictures and, as always, click on the thumbnails to see it in all its full size glory-











I think whoever owns this bike found an accessory catalog and rubbed the numbers off his credit card buying everything single geegaw that would fit his bike! The fairing and front fender have leather covers, there are flame cut covers on the fork legs and more studs than I would care to count! How about the giant white lettering on the tires, that's classy right?

I looked at this JC Whitney refugee for quite awhile before I even figured out what company originally produced it and was just in awe, (not really) of the owner's creativity. I'm certain the owner is mighty proud of his bike but I'll bet he will have a dickens of a time if he ever decides to sell it!

I hope you have voted already-

I know that there is a much bigger turnout at the polls today and I hope you have done your civic duty by voting today or sometime recently if you voted early as the BSU and I did.

I also know that it is the right of every American citizen to vote if they aren't excluded for particular reasons but after you watch this video, you might feel that not every American is smart enough to earn the voting privilege.

Obama Is Going To Pay For My Gas And Mortgage!!!

Ha Ha!

What a dumbass!

Another movie- a hilarious love story-

Its called Zack and Miri Make a Porno except here in Utah where it is only being titled Zack and Miri. This is a funny story about 2 down-on-their-funds best friends that share an apartment and just about everything else except sex. To get the utilities turned back on in their drafty Pittsburgh apartment, they cook up a wild idea- to make a porno movie!

They draft some friends and recruit some additional strippers and set to work making a porno, a film that will require them to have sex, which they have convinced themselves will have no affect on their friendship. Their first rented film set gets bulldozed and so the next attempt takes place after hours in the coffee shop where Zach (barely) works. Hilarity ensures as each of the scenes takes place with the weird assembled group of characters as they all become friends.

But this is a love story in spite of the raunchy porno that the gang is determined to produce and after Zach and Miri have sex, on film and in front of the rest of the cast, they discover that there really is more to their relationship than they first realized. From there the movie takes a pretty predictable course that involves breaking up, moving out and finally intervention by the friends to get things back on an even track.

Yes, its raunchy. There's nudity and crudity. But it's also laugh out loud funny with great lines and funny sight gags. There's a love story in there too. If you like Seth Rogen in The 40 Year Old Virgin or Knocked Up, you owe it to yourself to go see this movie and enjoy the laughs.

I don't know what happened

But somehow this AM I tweaked my back something fierce. I got up early because Kenny & I were supposed to go shooting. But the weather didn't look promising so we mutually cancelled those plans and I went back to bed for an extra hour of snuggling with the spouse.

When I got up, I could barely stand up. My lower back had just locked up tight. But I took some pain meds, took the BSU out to breakfast- we're never going back to the Flying J for food, and struggled for a couple hours putting my air compressor back together in the shop.

Then I was into my recliner for a couple hours rest before we headed out to the movie. Its better- not good, but better and I hope a good night's sleep makes me feel even better tomorrow.

Made it out to the movies tonight-

And the BSU and I really enjoyed The Changeling. It stars Angelolina Jolie, John Malkovich and was produced by Clint Eastwood, so it has real star power in front and behind the cameras in this movie. Its a true story that took place in 1920s and 30s Los Angeles and centers around Jolie's character, Christine Collins' search for her abducted son. The LA police department produce a boy that they claim is her son after several months but she knows, from the minute of introduction that the boy is not her son and is an imposter.

LAPD puts up every lie and delay possible, including throwing Collins into the county mental hospital where she can't reach the outside world. Only through the efforts of an activist preacher who has taken up Collins' case does she get released and the story taken public. In the mean time, a detective in the force is uncovering a tragic multiple homicide story told by a young boy that interconnects with Christine's search for Walter.

It's a good story. It is a dramatic tale of one woman's uncompromising search for her lost son as she brings down a corrupt police force in a growing California city. The acting and period clothing and vintage autos and sets are just as excellent as any movie I've seen lately. That it is a true story brought to the big screen makes it even better.

There is one detraction- ok, 2 distractions in this movie; Angelina Jolie's lips! She has terrible, big fat lips and glossing them up with vintage cardinal red lipstick just makes those lips stick out like giant, puffy flags that distracted me through out the movie. Otherwise this film gets 2 thumbs up from the BSU and myself!