WeÂ’ve been working on potty-training Clone for a while now. Today for the first time we put him in underwear instead of pull-ups. HeÂ’s been good about telling us when he has to poop. HeÂ’ll tell us if he has to peeÂ… when heÂ’s not busy having too much fun. HeÂ’s also been waking up dry in the mornings.

We figured this was as good of time as any to try him in actual “big boy” underwear. So far today we’ve had two “accidents”. To be honest there was nothing accidental about it. He just didn’t want to go to the bathroom.

IÂ’ve potty-trained Boopie, I can potty-train Clone. I just forgot how annoying it was.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:52 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Yesterday I finally had a chance to take Ktreva to the range. We hadn’t had a chance to go since buying her Walther PPK .380 or my Colt 1991 Model 80 .45. Graumagus(Who is not dead) and a friend of mine from work, J, came with. I had helped J find a handgun a couple of months back and he also had never fired it. Combined we had a nice little collection of firearms. 2 Colt 1991 Model 80 .45’s, a Walther PPK. 380, a Taurus .357 6-inch barrel, a Taurus .357 4-inch barrel, a Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum with an 8 and ¾ inch barrel. (I think that was the length Grau said it was) and a .22 revolver.

On the way to the range, Grau told me he found a new way to get to the range, and took us this convoluted way through southern Wisconsin. I will be honest, depending on the traffic through one of the towns we travel through in our normal route, this could have been faster, but if there is no traffic it adds about 30 minutes onto the trip. Then again if we hadn’t gone that way, we wouldn’t have seen the warning sign on the 4 lane limited access highway that read, “Watch for low flying aircraft”. We were making fun of it when we saw that there was a runway that ran perpendicular to the highway and started about 200 feet from the edge of the road. That got us to wondering how you would explain that to your insurance. “Yea, I was traveling down the highway when I was t-boned by a Cessna.”

Ktreva had wanted a handgun, but she had always been afraid of them. She admitted it was an irrational fear, and she did want to go shooting to help get over it. At the range she quickly overcame that fear. I did learn a valuable lesson, if you are going to take your beautiful wife to the prominently male shooting range; sheÂ’s going to get attention from other shooters. Ktreva ended up getting special shooting lessons from one of the range officers. ItÂ’s about damn time guys flirted with her in front of me. For once I can give her crap instead of having to take it from her. Normally some scary girl flirts with me, and Ktreva makes fun of me for it.

That Aguila Ammunition I was to try out was pretty good. It fired nice; it wasnÂ’t anywhere near as dirty as I thought it was going to be. Hell it shot cleaner then the WinClean ammo. IÂ’m going to go see if he can get some more of it in for me. ItÂ’s a nice shooting ammo that gave me no problems what so ever. Now I had a box of the .357 American ammo that my revolver just did not like. I donÂ’t know if the lip on the bullet was too thick or what, but it kept jamming the revolver so the cylinder wouldnÂ’t turn. When I switched to another brand of ammo, the problem went away.

Ktreva really got into shooting. On the way out to the range she was saying how she only wanted to shoot her .380 and the .22, she didnÂ’t think she could handle the larger caliber firearms. I had wanted to try hers out so at one point I offered to let her shoot my .45 while I put ten rounds through her .380. She let me shoot hers, but didnÂ’t want to shoot the .45. Grau also put some rounds through it. During one of the breaks, we were all talking and Grau and I had the same experience with the .380. Not only do you have to be careful holding it, we all had been bitten by the slide at least once, but also it had more kick then my .45. After telling Ktreva that she decided to try the .45 and then the .357 (with a .38 special round in it), both had less kick then her .380. Even funnier is that she was most accurate using the revolver with the .38 special rounds.
When my .357 was acting up I thought maybe it had to do with fowling. Unfortunately my wipe down rag was accidentally left at home. Wanting to see if I could fix it, I used the only thing I could find, my shirt. Now I was wearing one of my standard shooting shirts. My Dr. Phat Tony t-shirt is one of the standard shirts I wear shooting. During a break, Grau tells me I got something on my shirt. So I explained what happened. Grau spouts off that Dr. Phat Tony probably will be proud of the fact that I used his shirt as makeshift cleaning patch. I wouldnÂ’t be surprised if heÂ’s right.

My buddy J hadnÂ’t done much shooting, but says he had a lot of fun. We tried to get him to try shooting some of the other firearms, but he was only interested in shooting his. I donÂ’t know if he just wasnÂ’t comfortable or what, but we tried. IÂ’m trying to get him to go black powder shooting with me in 3 weeks.

After the range we hit The Vaj (actually Vaj’s Garage), for food and beer. We compared notes and talked about how good/bad we were. Where we needed improvement and what all we had to work on. While we were there some strange intoxicated bar fly comes up and says to me, “Excuse me, you just walked past me. I just wanted to say you smell good.” She turns and walks away. Grau, J and Ktreva are all looking at me with a smirk. DAMMIT! That was ten times creepier then the ranger officer flirting with Ktreva! At least it’s nice to know that there are women that enjoy the smell of BO and cordite.

We all had a good time, lots of fun. Ktreva canÂ’t wait to go again, and to be honest I canÂ’t wait to take her again. ThereÂ’s just something sexy about watching her handle a firearm.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:11 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I really hate mowing the lawn. The last time I mowed was July 24th. I just finished returning my yard back to a lawn and not a natural prairie state. It only took an hour and a half with 6 yard bags. (If I did it weekly I can get it into 2.5 bags.) What makes it worse is that just as I finished mowing I received a ticket from the Department of Natural Resources for destroying a prairie restoration area.

IÂ’m going to go have a drink now.

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Rumor has it that my blog daughter, Virtue of The Rantings of an Indentured Servant, done gone and got herself engaged. When she comes up this weekend to baby sit, IÂ’m going to have a long talk with her.

Congratulations Virtue, I expect the wedding to NOT be on a re-enacting weekend!

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This week's beer is Dragon's Milk Ale by the New Holland Brewing Company. My wife had seen this at the store a month back and wanted to buy me a bottle of it because of the name and the fact it has a picture of a dragon on it. For those of you that have not met my wife, she has a deep love of Dragons. When she originally was telling me about it, she couldn't remember the name; she just said it had a dragon on it. Dragon's Milk is a term from the 1600's that describes a beer that was mainly for royalty. It's a strong ale that is barrel aged and has similar qualities to whiskey. True to its name, this beer is aged in reclaimed bourbon barrels. When I was looking for this week's beer, I remembered her telling me about this beer and went to the store where she saw it.

It comes in a 1 pint, 6 fluid ounce bottle. That's a total of 22 ounces for those of you that don't want to do the math themselves. It comes in a brown bottle with the name on it and the picture of a dragon over a barrel, very eye catching. There is also some informative writings about the beer on it.

The beer is a dark coffee color that light doesn't pass through. Very much like Guinness or Murphy's Irish Stout. When poured into the glass it forms a nice firm half-inch head tan in color. I've been drinking on this beer for 20 minutes and the residue of the head is still along the edge where the beer and glass meet.

The smell is heavenly. You can smell the oak of the barrel, a hint of bourbon and a hint of vanilla, coffee and malt. The smell itself was enough to make Ktreva want to take a sip, and she doesn't like dark beers. I don't think words can describe the taste, but that won't stop me from trying. The taste is like happiness. Roasted malts with a hint of vanilla and bourbon entice the tongue and mouth. There is a very slight bitterness to it that enhances the flavor. Even Ktreva liked the taste, and she doesn't like many beers. This is a beer to be savored and appreciated, not gulped down to get another. What is even more surprising is that it is High Gravity ale with 9% alcohol by volume. Tasting this beer you would not suspect that at all.

The texture in the mouth is very much like milk. It's extremely smooth and doesn't leave a bad aftertaste. It coats the mouth and throat as it easily passes by in a pleasant way.

I've never had a beer like this before. When I say it's unique, I truly mean it is a one of a kind. This is the type of beer that beer lovers hope to find, and then are disappointed, when after sampling it, they can't find it anymore. It is a bit pricey at $6.99 a bottle, but well worth the price. If you ever get a chance to sample one, you'd be a fool to pass it up. There are only a handful of beers that I've had the pleasure of tasting that goes into my, "Special guest" category, but this is one of them. If I know I'm going to have an avid beer drinker over, I'll make sure to have a couple of bottles of this fine elixir in the house. This would be the 30-year single malt of beers.

So for those of you that have been coming around to read my reviews of vile beers, I hate to disappoint you. This beer gets a 9.5 out of 10. My only regret right now is that I only bought one and it's now gone.

This beer is proof that my wife loves me. If she had not told me about it, I wouldn't have gone looking for it.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:59 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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ItÂ’s nice making friends with people that work the gun counters in sporting goods stores. Besides the obvious reasons of discounts and inside tracks on firearms and ammo, you get the benefit of being the test subject for new products.

I had been visiting a local sporting goods store for a while now perusing their shooting supplies, buying ammo and just generally talking to the counter guys about various things… like, “How come you’re so much cheaper then that other big name sporting good store in town?â€� Today I go in and the guy working the counter sees me and waves me over. He pulls out a box of .38 ammo and says, “My supplier is trying to get us to start carrying this ammo. I don’t have any experience with it. I’ll give you a box if you test it and tell me what you think.â€�

Well hell yeah! IÂ’m gonna take a free 50 rounds of .38 special full metal jacketed ammunition. He goes back to the stock room and brings out this box. I look at it, and start to have second thoughts. Why? 90% of the writing on the box is in Spanish! Aguila Ammunition. .38 especial. Cartuchos de fuego centrat. Detonador Non-Corr/Non-Corr Priming Mantengase fuera del alcance de los ninos! But the price was right and I couldnÂ’t pass it up.

So if any of you out there know anything about Aguila Ammunition, let me know. Other ways IÂ’m going to find out first hand this weekend.

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Come one, come all. A week ago I posted that the Pool was started. Now today I have the pleasure of announcing that the Sal Cap (Fantasy) football league has started. If you are interested in playing and I missed you on the invite, drop me a line and IÂ’ll send you one.

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I know I said I was going to quit posting about our vacation, but I forgot to tell you about a place we almost went to, but opted not to. While watching Clone when Ktreva and Boopie went horseback riding, I saw a sign that at first I thought I had misread. Upon a closer look I had not. The Golgotha Fun Park.

The place was closed, and by closed I mean permanently. It looked like it had not been open for many years. Maybe it was their advertising campaign:

Golgotha Fun Park: More fun then an execution.

Golgotha Fun Park: You donÂ’t need nails to be put up for the night.

Hang around a while, Jesus did. Golgotha Fun Park.

Even Barabbas came away grinning from Golgotha Fun Park!

It makes me wonder if the owners knew what Golgotha was, or if they just like the sound of it. Either way it looks like it was a bad idea.

Yea, I know, IÂ’m going to hell.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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ItÂ’s 11 o PM my timeÂ… too late to do some drunken dialing?!?!? I have the urge to call and talk to people. Yea, you read that one right.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:05 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Man, you've got to be pretty messed up to actually WANT to talk to people...

Posted by: That 1 Guy at August 04, 2006 10:31 PM (d2V9K)

2 thank you for NOT calling and wishing me a happy birthday personally.

Posted by: vw bug at August 05, 2006 05:00 AM (4cj0N)

3 Between your Jack D and my Jim B we could have had some jim dandy conversations

Posted by: BloodSpite at August 05, 2006 06:52 AM (i81Vx)

4 Shows where I rate. All I got was drunk emails....

;-)

Posted by: Tammi at August 05, 2006 01:46 PM (3UQTn)

5 So are you still coming to the Galesburg Vou? Maybe us girls could break in your JD dispenser properly with a dice game. So how many bottles does that thing hold? I think the most bottles we have emptied during a really good drinking game is 4, 5, ? Took drunk to remember for sure!

Posted by: Red at August 05, 2006 08:09 PM (qeobF)

6 For only a small monetary consideration, your long-distance service can offer you one or both of these new services:

Booty-Call Blocking: prevents drunken or horny ex- or soon-to-be-ex boy/girlfriends from calling you late at night for sex; and/or

Booty-Call-Disabled: prevents you from making "booty calls."

Posted by: Consul-At-Arms at August 06, 2006 05:39 PM (JBFWV)

7 What is this "talk" of which you speak?

Posted by: Ogre at August 08, 2006 07:25 AM (/k+l4)

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All right, itÂ’s Friday night, IÂ’m home, and I have this brand new Jack Daniels dispenser IÂ’ve been aching to try out. So we all know what that means. Yes, Mr. Contagion has been drinking. Before I go into too much detail, IÂ’ve had a couple of people ask me exactly what it is that I bought.

Duh, itÂ’s a Jack DanielÂ’s dispenser! Think beer taper, except itÂ’s for hard liquor. You place a bottle in it and when you open the valve it pours you a perfectly measured drink. Well, at least that was what I was told. Anyone that has seen me drink Jack knows that what is perfectly measured for me, and what is perfectly measured for everyone else is two different things.

Now of course I could have gotten one of the many new fangled pre-measure pour spoutsÂ… but what fun is that?!?! This is pretty much the same thing, except that the holder is made from a barrel they actually used to make Jack DanielÂ’s. Thus this is better, the fact that itÂ’s signed by the Jimmy Bedford, head distiller of Jack DanielÂ’s, makes it a shrine in this house.

Well after reading about Bloodspite trying to base jump with out a chute and Quality Weenie being down on her luck, I figured it was time to break her in and have a drink or twelve for them. Hey itÂ’s my liver and IÂ’ll do what I want! Plus I've had the pleasure, nay the honor of meeting both of them, I feel it's my civic duty! Crap, glass is emptyÂ… IÂ’ll be right back. Okay backÂ… sorry. Anyway, so I popped the olÂ’ bottle in and decided I needed to figure out how much it pours when the valve is opened.

The answer is about 1.2 ounces or 35 Ml. Now, whoever made this contraption is a little off. Depending on where you go, a standard shot is 1 to 1.5 ounces. ItÂ’s usually closer to 1 ounce. Where the hell did they come up with 1.2 ounces? Eh, who cares, ItÂ’s not like I drink it by the shot anyway. IÂ’ll just hit the valve three times and be happy.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:04 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 I assure you it wasn't a willing sport to start undertaking

And in answer to your question yea, teansion induced rapid deceleration feels like someone grabbing your spinal cord at about 50 mph. I hurt like raccoon thats been wrastlin a armadillo all night.

Save some for me dammit!

Posted by: BloodSpite at August 05, 2006 07:19 AM (i81Vx)

2 Sounds like a good idea to me! (But how does it feel today??)

Posted by: Richmond at August 05, 2006 09:17 AM (e8QFP)

3 Ah, but do you have the special bottle with the upside-down label?

Posted by: Ogre at August 08, 2006 07:33 AM (/k+l4)

4 Gawd, you sound like me on tequila.

Posted by: tink at August 10, 2006 02:22 PM (wi/sM)

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All right, last day, I promise. Then I get back to the normal drivel that I post.

Our final stop on our vacation was Springfield, Illinois. ItÂ’s the state capitol and the site of many Abraham Lincoln historic spots. WeÂ’d driven past before, but never stopped so the boys could see anything. One of the places we visited was LincolnÂ’s tomb in Oakridge Cemetery.

The tomb itself is rather impressive. ItÂ’s also the only tomb IÂ’ve been in that is air-conditioned. There was about a 15 minute talk given by one of the custodians that gave the history of the tomb, including the temporary resting places of Lincoln and his family while it was being constructed. The tomb is maintained solely by the State of Illinois and receives no funding from the Federal Government. According to the guide the only support that was received from the Federal government was 20 brass cannon from the civil war that where melted down to create the four statues commemorating the infantry, cavalry, artillery and navy from the civil war on the exterior of the memorial.

In the burial chamber is the sarcophagus is inscribed with the words, “Now he belongs to the ages.” A misquote by Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s secretary of war at the time of Lincoln’s death. What the guide told us he really said was, “Now he belongs to the angles”. He was misquoted and it has stuck ever since. Which if you think about it, the misquote is appropriate.

After the tomb we stopped at the Museum of Funeral Customs. Yes, the Museum of Funeral Customs, yes I know. Everyone I’ve told that to has said something along the lines of, “You took your kids to see what?!?!” It actually was rather interesting. They had a scale replica of Lincolns burial train, many different styles of mourning clothes, hearses, embalming equipment, caskets, coffins and other mourning paraphernalia. It was rather interesting.

A Hearse from the early 1900Â’s.

Next we went to LincolnÂ’s New Salem. ItÂ’s a replica village of the first settlement Lincoln lived in when he came to Illinois. Since we arrived on a Saturday we were hoping the place would have all kinds of activities going on. Living history demonstrations and re-enactors portraying life in the time period. Maybe even some kind of tour. Unfortunately it was pretty much vacant. There where a handful of volunteers, but nothing was really going on. It was pretty disappointing. None of the trades were being demonstrated and occasionally you would find someone in costume that would give you a brief talk about the building style you where in.

The boys outside a coopers (barrel maker) house.

This was also the hottest day of our vacation. After walking around for a couple of house we decided we had enough and were ready to leave. If it had been cooler or if maybe there were demonstrations or talks going on we would have stayed longer. We just didnÂ’t feel like walking all over the site looking at empty log cabins that looked like all the other log cabins we had seen over the last 5 years.

Jumping into the van we headed home. Much of the time was spent looking for exploding pavement, as we were traveling down a section of highway that was known to do that in the heat. Not two hours from home Clone took his first nap of the vacation. All the excitement of the previous week had worn him out.

Tired guy.

That was our trip in a nutshell. We had a lot of fun and saw many different things. I didnÂ’t go into everything we did, as it would have taken another week to write these posts and share pictures.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:27 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Jealous?

Yea, I would be too.

October 8th Green Bay, Wisconsin. I'm already excited. If anyone wants to meet for a drink or two before or after the game, let me know!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:31 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Last Friday we had the longest day of driving in our trip. In fact that is mainly what we did. We drove from Savannah Tennessee to Springfield, Illinois via St. Louis Missouri. This was about a seven hour, 20 minute drive according to mapquest. Which is a long time for a 3 year old that isnÂ’t too found of riding in a car. Fortunately we had stops along the way planned to help break up the drive.

Our first stop was in Sikeston, Missouri. About two months before leaving for vacation Ktreva was watching the Travel Channel. She was saw the show “World’s Best Places to Pig Out”. We had been saying earlier in the show it would be neat to actually stop by one of these places and check it out. When they reached the number one place, it was Lamberts Café in Sikeston just off of I-55. I had just been planning the route and making reservations and knew we were going to be traveling on I-55. Checking out the maps I confirmed that the restaurant is going to be on our route! We planned on stopping in for a meal there.

We walked in right as they opened and were seated right away. They had people walking around giving everyone fried okra, black eyed peas, fried potatoes, Macaroni with tomatoes, throwing rolls to hungry diners and someone walking around with sorghum for the rolls. That was even before we ordered our food; the “pass arounds” are free to anyone that orders from the menu. When our actual meal arrived we knew we were in trouble. The portions were huge. Mix that with the all you can eat pass arounds, I can see why this was the number one place to pig out. Oh, and by the way the food was amazing. It tasted excellent and the price was not bad at all. Writing about it makes me hungry.

After leaving Sikeston our next stop was St. Louis. The rest of the family had never seen the Gateway Arch, so we had decided to stop and see it. While driving into the heart of St. Louis, we start seeing billboards that have a picture of a baby and says, “Who’s my Daddy? DNA Testing. 1-800-MY Daddy”. Is this really that big of a problem in St. Louis? I mean there were numerous billboards; this has to be a thriving industry down there. On our trip we drove through Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville and Nashville. None of them had a place advertising this service. To me this means that if you want to go some place and have anonymous unprotected sex, St. Louis is the place to be.

We had no problem getting to the Arch, we turned off the highway too soon, but it was easy to follow the city streets to the arch.

We parked, bought our tickets for the tram ride to the top and went to go see the museum. There was a line as they where inspecting people for hazardous and dangerous objects entering the Arch complex. I guess someone might want to blow up the Arch or take it hostageÂ… but I canÂ’t imagine why. It was then I realized that I forgot to take my handy-dandy pocketknife and leave it in the van. The arch is part of the national park service and they frown on any type of knives in their parks/memorials. They had signs up saying it was a federal offence to bring knives into the complex. I had to hike back to the van and drop off the knife.

Upon returning I found the family just ready for some fun!

Boopie and Clone where fascinated with the tram ride. Once we were all the way to the top, the boys quickly forgot the tram and were fascinated with the view outside the arch.

Clone got excited at seeing a riverboat on the Mississippi. He demanded that a picture be taken of it.

The Mighty Mississippi, a riverboat and the State of Illinois.

We walked around the Museum of Westward Expansion looking at what they had there. Okay people, by now most of you probably realize that I am a museum junky. I love the dang things. This museum had some interesting artifacts, the Indian Peace Medal Exhibit. ItÂ’s the only museum IÂ’ve been in that has had such a wide collection of them. Other then that, this museum was not that good. Fortunately it was free. Too many of the items on display where not labeled, they really didnÂ’t explain the history very well, oh and if you criticize the museum while you are standing in it, and uppity ranger will come over and give you a lectureÂ… I kid you not.

They had a steering wheel from a riverboat but it wasn’t labeled as to what boat it came from or what it was. If you’ve never seen one of these, they are huge. Not everyone would instantly recognize it for what it was. I was talking to Boopie about, “This place is really missing an opportunity to teach and educate the public about their history. There are no placards telling what any of the items are, like what ship did this wheel come from.” At that point a ranger interrupts me and says, “It came from that.” Pointing to a picture of a riverboat on the wall, The River Queen. Okay, I thought maybe he was going to answer some questions so I ask, “Did it sink, run aground or just discontinue being used?” He responded with, “It didn’t come from that ship, but that style of ship…” He then went on to explain exactly what it was and how it was used, which I already knew. The whole time he seemed annoyed.

After leaving the arch we tried to make our way back to the highway. I say try because it was 5:00PM on a Friday in St. Louis. To quote the Malibu Rum “If Jamaican’s took life as seriously as the rest of the world” campaign, “It’s total gridlock mon!” It took us an hour to go 5 blocks. Mainly because at all the intersections people where pulling out and blocking traffic so that when the lights would change, no one could go. It was insane.

Tomorrow we will go over the last day of our trip.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:15 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We had just returned home from vacation and I was doing a little grocery shopping. As I walked through the beer aisle, not looking for anything in particular, a bright yellow sticker caught my attention. "NOW AVAILABLE LEGALLY IN THE U.S. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ALMOST 100 YEARS" At first glance I thought it was just another new energy drink (Our supermarket mixes energy drinks in with beer in the coolers), but upon closer examination I discovered it was beer. Well to quote the can a "Premium malt beverage with caffeine, wormwood oil, taurine, guarana, natural and artificial flavors and certified color (FD&C red #40)" WHAT?!?!?!??! I thought that nasty Budweiser B to E was the only caffeine and herbal enhanced beer. I guess I was wrong. Then I noticed it was on sale for $1.99; ah hell I know this is going to taste nasty, but I had to buy it.

Four

Plain white 16 oz can with the name of the beer on it sideways. Other then the above mentioned phrase, the surgeon general warning, the only thing on this can that is interesting is the sticker the slapped on it. Oh, and it says it is 6.0% alc/vol.

The beer is pink in color, very reminiscent of Strawberry Crush. There isn't much head on it, and what there is dissipates to a film quickly. Then it leaves a slight ring around the edge of the glass. It looked more like I was drinking Strawberry Crush then a beer.

There is a fruity aroma to it of berries and stale light beer. The smell is very reminiscent of an energy drink that was poured into a glass that had previously held beer. Which, unless you like such things, is not appealing to me at all. The flavor was sweet. The taste of strawberry is most prominent. There is a hint of a beer flavor to it, again as if it was Strawberry Crush mixed with light beer. Way too fruity for my tastes. The strawberry is almost overpowering. I think I would rather just drink a strawberry pop with a beer chaser. The aftertaste is sweet and sugary; it left me wishing I had a Guinness to wash away the taste.

This is just another novelty beer that will only have a following in the club scene or in college towns. I can't see any serious beer drinker ever thinking they might want to buy a case of this for a weekend trip. It's made by the Four Brewing Company in Cold Springs, MN. The funniest thing about this is that after doing some research on their sight I find out that this company has been around since 1999. I'm not sure what then about this beer that has not been allowed in the US for almost 100 years. Except that it has wormwood oil in it, which is the active ingredient in Absinthe. So far, there are no pixies dancing in my house.

I'm going to give this "beer" a 2 out of 10. It's too sweet and fruity. I think I'd rather drink a Zima then one of these again.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:43 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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For those of you that know me, know that IÂ’m a Civil War buff. I love learning about Civil War history. I refuse to re-enact it for reasons too numerous to list right now, but I enjoy learning about it. So when I saw we were going to be driving past the Shiloh National Military Park, I decided we were going to stop and visit. It is one of the few major Civil War battlefields I had not been to.

At the museum center we saw some artifacts and a video about the battle. The video was helpful in explaining the pace or “flow” of the battle. It explained the time line and troop movements so that everyone could follow. After the museum we visited Shiloh National Cemetery, which is on the grounds of the battlefield.

I would like to take a moment to go over proper cemetery etiquette. When we were at the national cemetery, I witnessed numerous people walking over the graves of the soldiers. This is the final resting place of the fallen soldiers that gave their lives at this battle. Many of the graves contain Unknown Soldier with only a number or “Unknown” on the headstone, but they still where are heroes. Walking over their graves is just tacky. There where many brick or mowed walkways for people to be on, yet on numerous occasions I saw people just stepping over headstones and cutting over graves. Some were being loud and making inappropriate comments, “I need to find a place to sit, I’m dead tired.”

After leaving the cemetery we started our tour of the battlefield.

Here Ktreva, Boopie and Clone are standing with a cannon from PowellÂ’s Battery, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery, PrentissÂ’ (6th) Division, Army of the Tennessee. (The Union named their armies based on major rivers. In this case the Tennessee River)

Before I go on I need to say that I donÂ’t doubt the existence of the supernatural, but I need hardcore evidence. The following photos while interesting I donÂ’t accept as proof of ghosts or other world activity. Kodak, a local camera shop and I cannot explain what happened in these photos, but there are many things that naturally could have caused something like this happening. However usually it affects the entire roll of film and not just two blocks of photos. All the photos on this page came from the same roll of film and are in the order they where taken. (Not all photos are displayed)

Where the union soldiers, and two confederates, where buried in the national cemetery, the rest of the confederates where buried in 5 mass graves. On our way between stop 2 and 3, Ktreva noticed on the map that one of the mass graves was a short walk from the road. She wanted to see it. After a hike down a hardly used trail we found the grave. I snapped a couple of photos. All had some kind of weird discoloration to it.

Confederate Grave and ???

Then I took some photos that turned out normal. One of them was the Confederate Soldier memorial.

All normal here

Next we went to the HornetÂ’s Nest where most of the fighting occurred on the first day. Every photo had some kind of varying anomaly to it. The below photo is of the 62 Confederate cannon that bombarded the Union at the end of the battle.

Boopie thinks it looks like the smoke of cannon fire.

After that stop we visited the largest of the Confederate mass graves. This is where I took the below picture.

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Ghost? Notice the strange discoloration

The white blur in the middle is most likely glare on the lens... through the polarized cap to prevent glare.

After leaving there we saw the Tennessee State monument to honor the soldiers that fought and died here from the great state of Tennessee. It, and every photo after, turned out normal. As I said, I canÂ’t explain it, I donÂ’t know how happened or why, but it is weird.

Tennessee State Memorial

We spent the rest of the time touring the battlefield, which is really well marked. I did get a little irritated after a while when I couldnÂ’t find the Illinois State monument. They had a monument from every other state that had a soldier fight and die here. Illinois had more soldiers fighting, wounded and killed in the battle then any other state. Finally I found it. It was on a side road in the middle of a one of the battlegrounds.

Illinois State Memorial

Again I was surprised at how much the rest of the family enjoyed this trip. Boopie really got into it, asking questions about the Civil War and troop movements. We ended up having to leave the park with out getting to do everything we wanted due to itÂ’s closing and a matter of our being very hungry. We stayed in Savannah, we discovered that the people in Savannah do not believe in restaurants that are not fast food. Or if they do, they hide them from the damn tourists!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:41 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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After our two fun filled days in Kentucky we headed to Tennessee. Contrary to comments made, the sun does shine bright in Kentucky. My Scotch/Norwegian legs just donÂ’t take to tanning. They burn, peel, freckle and start over just as pasty white as they where before. Be thankful that they are hairy, less you would go blind from the sun reflecting off them.

After passing through Nashville, which no offense to any of my Tennessee readers is cesspool of what is other ways a beautiful state. I might be mistaken, but IÂ’m pretty sure the rest of Tennessee ships its garbage to Nashville for storage. We were much pleased once we had finally exited its foul limits and onto the Holy Land. Well, okay for me itÂ’s the holy land, Lynchburg, Tennessee. It is the home of Jack DanielÂ’s Distillery and the oldest registered distillery in the United States.

This was a stop that I wanted. I had been trying to visit for years and it just never happened. When we were planning our vacation this year, I put down my foot and said, “We re-enact as a distiller, we should do the Jack Daniel’s Distillery… for research.” Yea, Ktreva didn’t buy that either, but she still agreed to go. Upon arrival I was like a kid at an amusement park. I could barely contain myself. I was bouncing all over the place trying to speed up the family so we could get inside and start the tour! While we waited for the tour, we spent some time browsing the museum.

Boopie and Clone in Front of the famous Jack DanielÂ’s Statue.

We were led on a tour of every aspect of the Jack DanielÂ’s distillery. Everything from them making their own charcoal from Tennessee Sugar Maple to the final bottling process was a part of the tour. Some of the original buildings are still on the site, like the first office, and we were able to see those. We also where able to see the natural spring that all Jack DanielÂ’s fine Tennessee Whiskey is made from.

The grotto in behind this statue of Jack Daniels is where the spring comes out of the ground.

We learned many different things while we were in godÂ’s country the distillery. Such as you can buy an entire barrel of Jack DanielÂ’s and they will ship it to your local retailer for you after they bottle it. You receive a personalized neck medallion, a special label, the actual barrel that the whiskey was made in with a brass plague and framed certificate of ownership. For those of you curious that makes about 240 750 ML bottles of whiskey.

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Here I am standing with a barrel and all the bottles of whiskey that came out of it.

Of course it’s not exactly cheap. According to their website it costs about $8,400 to $9,600 purchase one. (Depending on the state you are in.) The tour guide had me sold on a barrel as soon as he started talking. When he came to the price, I did the math in my head and figured that in Illinois a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel is usually about $40.00… it was worth it! I looked over to Ktreva all filled with excitement. Before the words could even come out of my mouth she says, “We are NOT buying a barrel of Jack Daniel’s!” It’s not like I was going to mortgage the house… I was just going to drain the kids’ college funds! I mean if you think about it this way… That is almost a two-year supply of Jack Daniel’s for me. I couldn’t go wrong with that! Later in the tour we did learn of some of the people that bought the entire barrel.

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Lucky Bastards!

After the tour we went to the White Rabbit Saloon for lemonade. At this point I must point out that Jack DanielÂ’s is in a dry county. You cannot buy a drop of liquor there. The only samples of Jack Daniels we could get where sniffing the fine product dripping through the ten feet of charcoal, and when the tour guide pointed out that one of the barrels in the barrelhouse had a slow leak. I think every guy on that tour was licking their fingers as they left the barrelhouse. However, the state, in anticipation of me, passed a law that would allow the distillery to sell commemorative bottles of Jack DanielÂ’s. Of course I ended up buying a couple. Then, for a surprise of all surprises, Jimmy Bedford, the master distiller himself, was in the saloon. I had him sign the two commemorative bottles I own.

Jimmy, Me and my bottles of J.D.

After we finished up in the distillery we walked into the historic downtown Lynchburg. We went through many shops, bought souvenirs, and had a good olÂ’ time. I even bought myself a Jack DanielÂ’s dispenser made out of an actual barrel used to make Jack DanielÂ’s in. And yes it is signed by Jimmy tooÂ…

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Ktreva even got into Jack DanielÂ’s fever. She found herself some Jack DanielÂ’s Martini glasses (Even though sheÂ’s going to be drinking nasty appletinis out of it) and for dinner she ordered herself a Jackarita (A Margarita made with Jack DanielÂ’s). Boopie made the announcement that Jack DanielÂ’s is his favorite whiskey. (I donÂ’t think heÂ’s ever tasted a drop). Contrary to what some might believe, the entire family had fun at the distillery. It was probably the most popular stop we made with everyone.

Tomorrow, we head to Shiloh!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:25 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 You didn't buy the barrel? Who the hell wears the pants in your house?

Heheheh...

The distillery looks like a tour I'm going to have to take.

Posted by: That 1 Guy at August 01, 2006 07:12 PM (8pWv9)

2 We did have a great time! I would LOVE to go back again someday and buy a bunch of that furniture made from the used Whiskey barrels

Oh, and to be technical *I* purchased the two commemorative bottles of Jack as a gift for you!

Posted by: ktreva at August 01, 2006 07:13 PM (0m/ho)

3 I'm told that you get a cup or so of booze in the empty barrels if you want to buy one, or more of those.

My Great Grandpa and his brother fought at Shiloh and then went to Vicksburg. Then, when Grant moved east, he took the walking tour through Georgia with Cump Sherman.

Posted by: Peter at August 01, 2006 10:35 PM (UQ3sK)

4 So did you ask Jimmy if he really makes coffee like in the commericals?

Were people from the distillery following you around, making sure you did jump into one of the copper kettles?

Posted by: Quality Weenie at August 02, 2006 09:55 AM (DRZIY)

5 ... next time, come further east and we'll shoot some pool....

Posted by: Eric at August 02, 2006 03:49 PM (r5XsL)

6 Yes, breweries and distilleries often have great tours. That one sounds like lots of fun. If you haven't done the Anheuser-Bush tour in St. Louis - they have a good one too - it includes the Clydesdales and everything (or it did a few years ago).

We did the Bacardi tour when we were in Puerto Rico - that was fun. We didn't buy anything at their store (good thing as it cost the same in Chicago!).

Sadly all this alcohol is wasted around me - I don't like Bacardi, Jack, or beer of any kind. But the tours are fun. *grin*

Posted by: Teresa at August 02, 2006 06:50 PM (o4pJS)

7 I'm still a little upset about you not inviting me since it was such a short drive from my house, but I'm glad you had fun. It is on eof the best tours I've been on. I like the vintage firetruck they had there too, no pictures of that? If you ever get back this way let me know. I'll take you to the Space and Rocket Center.

Posted by: Dr. Phat Tony at August 02, 2006 08:23 PM (SXElV)

8 Email me if you are serious about the furniture. Mine isn't Jack Daniels brand, but it is a set of 4 chairs and a table. I am in Central Ohio (don't know where you are) but I am moving and want it gone. Willing to let it go for a fabulous price =)

Erin_joann@hotmail.com

Posted by: Erin at August 12, 2006 03:06 PM (/H/yG)

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