Anniversary Dinner.

For dinner tonight I'm making something special for the family.

Shrimp cocktails, Stuffed chicken breasts with an apple and raisin stuffing, Baked Sweet Potatoes and fresh garlic cauliflower. It takes a little time to make all of that, but Ktreva likes it and I think she's worth it.

Well I'm off to steam the shrimp and stuff the chicken boobs.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:21 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 64 words, total size 1 kb.

8 years and counting.

Today is an important day in my life. Eight years ago today I was lucky enough to marry the perfect woman for me. We are having a good run and aren't showing any signs of slowing. I just can't believe I was as lucky as I am to have found her.

Lets look at the facts.

She loves to shoot, yep that's her shooting a Colt 1991 .45 ACP commander model. She liked mine so much, I had to buy her one of her own just to leave mine alone. At one point she was afraid of firearms, but now she can't wait until the next time we hit the range. She also supports my dream of buying a large farm and making our own shooting range some day.

She's a Packer fan! She likes to go to the games with me, go shopping for gear and memorabilia and even sit in a bar and watch the games. She once even went so far as to try on Cheerleader outfits to see if one fit her so she could wear that on Football Sundays. Unfortunately for me they didn't have any that fit her.

She re-enacts. If you ask any male re-enactor they will tell you just how lucky I am to have a wife that will re-enact. It's easier to do the events as we are doing them together. There hasn't been a re-enactment that has gone by that I haven't had at least one person tell me that when I die, they get my wife. To make it even better, she loves to cook over the campfire. So I can spend the day demonstrating, shooting or what not and come back to camp to a damn good meal.

I know how lucky I am to have Ktreva for a wife. She's made me a better person. It's been a good 8 years, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for us.

Happy Anniversary Babycakes! I love you.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:00 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 339 words, total size 2 kb.

Big weekends coming up.

I have a re-enactment both this weekend and next one. This weekend I'm going to be doing Fort Obie in Colona, IL. The weekend after I'm going to be at Trail of History in McHenry, IL. (oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!) I'm looking forward to doing both events, even though they are definitely nothing like each other. Fort Obie is a rendezvous with a shoot and competitions. Trail of History is a re-enactment that's demonstrations and battles. This will be my first year participating in Fort Obie, last year we just day tripped it. Trail of History is the event that Ktreva and I got engaged at and the only event we still do from our very first season of re-enacting. It has sentimental values.

We have friends at each of these events that this will probably be the last time we see them until next year. It's sad that we don't get to see them that often, but it makes those weekends hanging out with them that much better.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go stare at the calendar and try to will the week to go by faster.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 202 words, total size 1 kb.

Sounds like some good beer

Shadoglare sent me a link to an article over at Inventorspot, 10 Best Beers With Balls of 2007.

I don't know if I agree with that list, I've had a couple of the beers on there. And there are ones I've never heard of. But as the author states, "With that in mind, we here at Inventor Spot bring you 10 of the ballsiest beers we could find." Which means some of the ones I've had, they may not have. Overall there are some interesting beers on that list.

Bilk anyone?

Posted by: Contagion at 10:48 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 101 words, total size 1 kb.

Got a lead foot?

I know I do, I also know where all the hot spots are in my daily drive for cops. Maybe you don't, or maybe you're going someplace you've never been to before or just moved to. The SpeedTrap Exchange can help you find where all those cops like to hide out. Just choose your state, then your city and viola, a list of speed traps as well as comments from users on how good or bad the tip is.

Not everyone can talk their way out of a ticket.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:37 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 97 words, total size 1 kb.

I'm at a loss.

I don't think I could handle being in this bowling league.

I know it's labeled Furries Vs Klingons, but I saw guys dressed as members of Star Fleet in there too. I wonder what the beer frame is like.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 47 words, total size 1 kb.

Who ya gonna call?

Want to be a Ghostbuster for Halloween? Here's some step by step instructions on how to make a "movie accurate" costume. I should build one of these just to take to work.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.

It looks good.

I love historical movies. It doesn't matter what time period or genre, I love them. I also tend to tear them apart for various reasons. It doesn't matter if it has received good reviews or bad ones, I will end up seeing it. So it was with great delight that I found out that a German company is making a movie about Baron Von Richtoffen, or more commonly known as The Red Baron. (The direct link is slow to load).

However I did find a clip on YouTube that loads much faster, but is not as clear.

I'm stoked!

Posted by: Contagion at 10:04 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 105 words, total size 1 kb.

Beer surplus?

Today at lunch I headed to a local grocery store to pick up some munchies for the weekend. While I was there I decided to take a walk through their liquor department to see if they had any new beers to review. As I went down the aisles, Ktreva pointed out that the Great Lakes Brewery beers were on clearance for $2.99 a Six-Pack. Folks, the price on this beer is normally $7.99 per sixer. Now Great Lakes makes the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter that I reviewed back in June, and received a damn good rating. Of course I picked up a six pack of two of their other beers, the Elliot Ness and Dortmunder Gold to review at a later time.

As I stood there I did the math in my head. $2.99 a six pack. That comes out to $11.96 for a case. That's a damn good price. And even though I'm not supposed to drink beer, I do entertain. Ktreva suggested I buy as much as I can at that price. So I did, I ended up buying a total of 10 six packs for $29.90. And as my wife put it, "That's premium beer for Keystone Light prices."

This morning I was thinking there was a large surplus of beer in this house that wasn't getting drunk. Those weekly beer reviews I generally only drink one and give away the rest. But I haven't had a gathering or re-enactment in a while so I have a lot of sixers sitting around waiting to be drunk. After today, I have a ton more.

Yes some of those six packs only have 5 beers in them, but that's 86 beers (15 six packs X 6 beers - 4 missing). That's over three and a half cases of beer. And that isn't counting the growlers I have in the fridge.... and I don't drink beer... as much... anymore.

So which one of you drunks is going to be knocking on my door tomorrow?

Posted by: Contagion at 07:08 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 337 words, total size 2 kb.

I can't believe I did that!

I was talking to one of my peers at work as we were putting together an appreciation gift for our employees. We were in the middle of it when out of the blue she asks me, "What were you doing Saturday night?" My first thought was, "trying to kill off enough brain cells to not think about this place." But I responded, "Oh, just hanging out with some friends. Why?" She then tells me that she was just curious since I called her.

uh.... what???

Okay, as we all know last Saturday was the BlogCrawl. Which, I would like to personally thank each and everyone of you that participated or stopped by to see what kind of trouble I was getting into. During the time to get drunk phase of the crawl, I was down at Fritz's. After getting a damn good drunk on I decided it was time to start making some drunk calls. Hell, the only time I like talking on the phone is when I'm lit.

I started making my calls and I decided to call Boudicca to say "Hello! I'm drunk!" I picked up my phone looked her up in my directory and made my call. I start talking to her on the other line, only she has no idea who I am. I confirm using her real first name that I am indeed talking to her. And it takes forever to get her to recognize who she is talking to. She then tells me she is heading out with her husband so before I get a chance to pass the phone around to everyone, we hang up. At least five minutes of this conversation was trying to establish my identity.

I was a little hurt that Bou wouldn't recognize me to the fact I left a drunken comment on her blog about her not recognizing me on the phone. But then again I never call her so how would she recognize me. It never occurred to me that I called the wrong person. Because you know there is only one person on the planet that has that very uncommon first name of hers. (note sarcasm)

So now I have to back peddle and try to protect myself. This peer knows nothing about "Contagion" or Miasmatic Review, or the fact that I blog and apparently I made some references to myself that way. Fortunately enough for me, she and her husband were drinking too so she doesn't remember everything, that and because my phone call started a fight between her and her husband. Apparently he is the possessive and jealous type and wanted to know why another guy is calling her on Saturday night.

I guess next time I need to double check who I'm calling before I dial.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:12 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 475 words, total size 3 kb.

Oh why.

Guh, it was one of those fun days at work. Besides everyone of my football buddies confusing the hell out of me regarding what the plans were this weekend for the games (It's at Bruce's, no it's at Bob's, It's at Bruce's, Bruce has to spend time with his kid, so it's at Bob's.... etc), I also had to have one of those meetings. Actually I ended up having two of them.

You know what I mean by those meetings. Yea, the "Can I see you in my office, please close the door." meetings.

The first one was because of something I did. I guess my disgruntledness was getting the better of my tact filter in my brain and I slipped into old time Contagion. Not the "You're a farking Idiot" guy, but the one that would say things like, "You have no clue what you're talking about do you?" I guess it just irritated me that someone was preaching to me about inventory management when A) It's what I used to do for years and at one point they corporation modeled the position off of my style and B) It's from someone that has no clue about inventory management other then saying, "The inventory is too high!" Well no shite, anyone that can do basic math could figure that out. It was a fun two hour meeting.

The second one was because one of my employees did something that they really ought not to have done. I mean on a serious level. I had to get a private room for feedback and get everyone's sides of the stories and try to alleviate the situation. That was good hour long meeting that I think will result in another one tomorrow.

So from today I think I'll be seeing sensitivity class again. Or they could fire me... I don't think I'd get that lucky.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:53 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 317 words, total size 2 kb.

Honker's Ale.

Oh my heck! With the BlogCrawl and all I forgot today was Wednesday until I was driving home. It was that long four-day weekend that threw me off. As I was driving home, I stopped at a local liquor store to pick up a beer to review this week. Unfortunately since I didnÂ’t want to review a warm beer, I was limited in my selection. Thus I ended up choosing a beer that others have said was pretty good. TonightÂ’s beer is HonkerÂ’s Ale by Goose Island Beer Company in Chicago, IL.

It came in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. It had a bright red label with a black oval that had the name of the brewery on it and a smaller red oval in the middle of the black one with a goose head. A red banner with white lettering had the name of the beer on it. There is a little history about the beer on the label.

When poured into an Ale pint, it has a hazy copper/amber coloring to it. Light passes through, but you have a difficult time making out shapes. The quarter inch head faded quickly to a ring on the edge of the glass, there is no lacing at all.

My first sniff of the beer was a mix of citrus and malts. The strong citrus scent almost drowns out the rest. You can smell a touch of coriander as well. The taste is much like the smell. A taste combination of malts and biscuits, but with a strong citrus finish to it. Surprisingly there was a slight alcohol tinge to it that one doesnÂ’t expect from an ale. There is also a bitterness that lingers into the aftertaste.

This was a thin-bodied beer. It was very light with almost no coating at all. There was a decent bit of carbonation to the bottle. ItÂ’s very easy to drink.

I canÂ’t say I was overly impressed with this beer. In fact everyone IÂ’ve talked to totes this as the jewel in the Goose Island crown. To be honest this beer didnÂ’t impress me much. IÂ’m giving it 4 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:26 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 363 words, total size 2 kb.

Forks in the road.

IÂ’ve been in a funk for the last couple of days and I couldnÂ’t figure out why. Last weekend was great. I spent four days hanging out with a lot of good people, having a lot of fun and just having a good time overall. There was no reason for me to be in a funk over anything.

Then it dawned on me about ten minutes ago what a big part of my problem is, my job.

I donÂ’t fit in at my company. In my office I am one of two supervising management positions that are male. IÂ’m one of four overall male management. The office itself is 87% female. Not that being one of the few guys in the building is difficult, itÂ’s that I think differently than my female counterparts. Thus in this office my opinion doesnÂ’t matter. Management in my office is a good olÂ’ girls club and I just donÂ’t belong.

I get the crap assignments and when things go wrong in my department, I catch the blame for it, even if it was another Supervisor and teamÂ’s responsibility. IÂ’ve been singled out in meetings, IÂ’ve been harassed and when I try to voice my issues they sweep them under the rug. IÂ’ve even been retaliated against.

The only reason I havenÂ’t left is because of the stability. Yet if certain politicians get their wishes, that stability will be gone. Eh, maybe things will get better.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:56 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 249 words, total size 1 kb.

Claim Jumper!

You scored as An Old Prospector, Get out to the river and pan for gold!! You are more than suited to be an old prospector!! OH, PEACHES!! An Old Prospector 83% Drug Lord 68% Mafia Boss 65% Cowboy Outlaw 60% Ninja Assassin 58% Pirate Captain 53% Pretty Princess 43% Break-dancing Machine 10% What should you be doing for a living?! created with QuizFarm.com

Sadly enough I was just thinking over the weekend that I'd love to go live out in the middle of no where and give up the city life. I don't think I meant this rugged, but hell. I already own most of the equipment I'd need.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:17 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 113 words, total size 3 kb.

BlogCrawl and Football Survivor.

Okay, I am alive. Although IÂ’m not sure that my body wouldnÂ’t want it to be the other way. Where to start, well probably where I left off Sunday night after finishing DAS BOOT! I sat around for a couple of hours, as the beach ball of beer sitting in my gut was kind of hard to move around. Folks seriously itÂ’s fun to do, but IÂ’m never, ever drinking that much beer that fast again. ItÂ’s just not good.

Saturday Grau, Ktreva and I headed down to the range to do some shooting. Harvey caught up with us about a half an hour after we arrived. The place was packed. They had a pig roast and a lot of people were out there shooting. There was even a guy with a 30-caliber machine gun. Grau and I were the loudest shooters at the range with the Russian M44s we brought until some guy showed up with a .50 cal BMG. We couldnÂ’t compete with that kind of noise. Those M44s are a nice firearm. Accurate, durable and with the proper ammunition you donÂ’t get bolt jam. I really loved shooting it. Although I think that putting 100 rounds down the barrel of it by myself in less then 3 hours may not have been a good idea. My shoulder is still bruised and sore two days later.

After the range we headed to FritzÂ’s. On the way there we almost got into an accident because some guy in another vehicle was waving at me trying to tell me something. I thought he was trying to point out something wrong with the van. It turns out it was just a crazed Minnesota Viking fan who did not appreciate the Green Bay Packer license plate holder. I be he appreciates it even less after the Packers beat Minnesota.

Before we got to Fritz’s Grau and I dropped Ktreva off at Tammi’s so she could “freshen up”. Grau and I didn’t care, we walked in dirty and smelling of gunpowder… the way we like it. Shortly after Harvey arrived and then Tammie and Ktreva came walking in. I had started double-fisting it as soon as I walked in. Jack Daniel’s in one hand and a beer in the other. This didn’t seem to surprise anyone as the showed up.

Shadoglare and Bruce joined us around 4:00PM and then we all started drinking the night away. Harvey had cigars and shared with everyone. Everybody had their chance to tell stories or just make jokes. I know I was complaining I wasnÂ’t get drunk fast enough, and shortly after that things got a little fuzzy. But what I do recall is this:

The girls were taking their shirts off.
Tammi wants to date a midget.
Bruce wants Tammi to date a midget.
Tammi likes it deeper.
Apparently no one recognizes me over the phone.
The shocking realization of how cheap it is to eat/drink at FritzÂ’s.
Saving a seat with a beer mug on it for That One Guy who refused to join us. (BASTARD!)

On the way home I know I was in form because I started singing, and demanding a chili cheese burrito from Taco Bell. When I got home I drank another half bottle of Jack DanielÂ’s while making comments and I remember thinking, drunken blogging can be difficult, itÂ’s almost like work. I also discovered that Grau and Harvey need to clean the blogroll. Some of the blogs on there are blank or havenÂ’t been posted on in over a year. Milk carton kids I tell ya.

Sunday Morning Clone gets me up nice and early, which is good because Grau passed out on our couch from his inability to drive himself home. In fact IÂ’m not sure he was fit to drive Sunday morning when he left, but I was a good friend and just let him leave anyway. Bruce calls me and says heÂ’s coming to get me so we can go watch football. Okay, I never puked once, but I was feeling rough. Hell, I got drunk Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The thought of drinking anything other than water was not appealing, but itÂ’s football. So we head out, grab some beer and want back to BruceÂ’s place to meet up with Shadoglare and our friend Scroatie so we can carpool to the football party. Where it was discovered that by my drinking a bottle of water it reactivated alcohol in my system and I was technically still drunk from the night before.

At this point I would like to point out that yes IÂ’ve been drinking beerÂ… no IÂ’m not supposed to. But it was my birthday dammit and IÂ’m celebrating it the way I wanted to. IÂ’m back to no beer today.

At first Bruce and I thought the two cases of Miller Lite, Six-pack of Blue Moon pumpkin ale, six-pack of Berghoff and six-pack of Fat Tire would be sufficient. When we ran out of Miller Lite sometime in the third quarter we knew we were in trouble. In fact someone showing up late to the party made a beer run. I will admit that by half time the day gets a little fuzzy, but I do remember some things. Like:

Bruce sitting in the gayest chair IÂ’ve ever seen in my lifeÂ… and itÂ’s his.
Being hit in the eye with a penalty flag, and not letting myself get pissed about it.
Coercing Bruce and the host into a beer-drinking contest based on their favorite teams performance.
The cops showing up because the host was out driving a go-cart around the neighborhood.
Raptor girl setting the chicken wings on fire.

It was a good day. IÂ’m really not sure how I got home, in fact IÂ’m not sure when I got home.

Now today IÂ’m recovering. The thought of having any more alcohol in my system actually makes me physically nauseous. Now if youÂ’ll excuse me, I have a doctorÂ’s appointment I need to go to.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 1011 words, total size 6 kb.