August 21, 2007
From past experience I know that any dealing with Illinois Government for me usually ends up with at least a good shot to my groin.
Wish me luck.
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August 20, 2007
Go over and see Shelagh MacKellan's as Ms. August 2007 and tell me that women don't get better with age.
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August 19, 2007
I made the local newspaper. I participated in a fashion show and the Galesburg Register Mail ran a story about the rendezvous side of the show.
'It was a very dark, bloody time'Re-enactors interact in character, but not politically correct
Sunday, August 19, 2007
By JOHN R. PULLIAM
The Register-Mail
GALESBURG - While Saturday's Civil War portion of Heritage Days Ladies Tea and fashion show was rather dignified and informative, the rendezvous portion of the fashion show, although also educational, was more street theater in its presentation. The re-enactors' interaction with each other kept the audience laughing throughout.Will Crouch, who portrayed a farmer in 18th century Illinois, said conditions were not as they have been portrayed in movies.
"It's not Daniel Boone, it's not Davy Crockett," Crouch said. "It was a very dark, bloody time."
He warned the audience not to expect a politically-correct presentation, as the re-enactors would be in character.
He first introduced an Indian and the Indian's "woman."
"A lot of the clothes I have on are French or English," the Indian said. "It didn't matter, whoever paid better."
The man had black paint around his eyes, giving the look of a mask, with a black stripe down the left side of his face and his neck. His head was shaved, except for a top-knot on the back of his head.
He said the red ribbon on his rifle was so the British would know which Indians were loyal to them. He also carried a French safe passage coin, to use when needed.
"You've had your say, Indian, move along," Crouch said.
"Scalps paid very well, too," the Indian said menacingly.
An English lord of the manor said the king gave him thousands of acres in Illinois for his help in fighting the French.
Sarah Crouch, his female companion, said she knew little of her past because the English lord "killed my family."
She said he treated her well.
A wizened Scottish trapper took exception to her attitude. While it was difficult to understand his thick, Scottish brogue, it was obvious the lord of the manor received a well-deserved dressing down.
Ray, a long hunter, carried a Brown Bess musket. He said he became a hunter and trapper because he had no desire to enter his father's trade as a blacksmith. He said he traded with Indians, "However, I don't care much for the natives. They're pretty well savages."
Two mountain men entered. One, wearing a coonskin cap, said, "I came from Missouri. I'm here to buy a few women to trade back to the Indians."
His friend asked a woman if he could trade some trinkets for her daughter. The first man asked the woman, who was not a re-enactor, to stand up.
"Sit down, you're too skinny," he said.
A British militiaman, Noah Crouch, was a farmer but grew tired of that life.
"I'm not going to stand up here and gawk at the women or chase my sister around the room," he said, referring to the mountain men. "I joined the British, not that I agree with them, but because I dislike the French."
Seamus, a Scottish Jacobite - a member of a political movement dedicated to returning the Stuarts to the thrones of England and Scotland - said he hid in the moors of Scotland when the English soldiers arrived. When he returned, he said the " 'Anglish' killed my wife and children and put a price on my head."
He fled to Ireland, then Canada, where he helped the French.
"There is nothing that makes me happier than to kill an 'Anglishman,' " he growled.
As Will Crouch concluded the program, Seamus stayed in character. He stared at one Englishman, "I'll give you 30 seconds before I start shooting."
My alter-ego is Seamus MacPhail. But now let me give you some of the un-PC points that were not brought out in the article.
The "wizened old Scottish Trapper" was Duncan, Sarah's "uncle" at one point he was yelling at her for associating with people that "fight with their feet, and fornicate with their faces."
The Mountain Man was wearing a coyote skin cap, not a coonskin cap... and yes they did start sizing and pricing women in the crowd. When he told the one to sit down he actually said, "Sit down you're too skinny and your butt is too big."
As for me, they abbreviated my entire closing speech. It was more along the lines of "Now that the Anglish and the French have started fighting, I'm going to help the French fight the war. Nothing would make me happier than killing some Anglish and their manky american colonial lapdogs. And if I'm lucky I'll kill some of their women and children as well."
I got the only audible response from the crowd. And yes I did threaten to shoot Noah and when he gave me lip I cocked my musket loudly. At which point someone yelled out, "Move it, I don't want to get caught between the two of you."
The best part was the look on Will's face when he came out of the building. He had a look of bewildered disbelief. He told us he wanted us to stay in character and I asked if he was sure he wanted Seamus the Surly Scotsman. He assured me he did. But later he told me he just didn't think I would say I was going to kill the women and children.
Well I'm going to go finish cleaning up and unpacking, I'll give you more details later. I just wanted to share the article with everyone.
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August 17, 2007
We'll start with the good news. They have once again ruled out the funky growth as cancer. So after going back and forth between yes it is cancer and no it's not cancer... they have confirmed it is NOT cancer. So when they told me I had a malignant neoplasm last October, they were wrong. Now to defend them we'll go to the bad news.
They still have no frickin' clue as to what it is. No one does. They've sent the samples off and we are getting nowhere. Every doctor and specialist that has studied has give the same report, "Testing inconclusive". So they can rule out what it isn't, but can't confirm what it is. Since no one can figure it out, I'm going to cut them some slack for misdiagnoses.
Worse news: Folks, I know most of you are sitting already because you are at a desk reading this on a computer. However, if you aren't, you may want to have a seat now. Today they tell me the worse news they could have ever told me, and I'm not sure I can deal with it. I know that Ktreva and the boys will support me in this time, but I really don't want to burden them with my issues and my problems. My friends may or may not be supportive, it all depends on their moods.
The doctors have told me today that I MUST reduce my beer consumption. They have given me a grocery list of foods and beverages I am no longer allowed to eat or drink other than occasionally. It includes all things like fast food, junk food, pop, beer, etc. IT also has things like tomatoes and tomato based products listed. So all the food and beverages that I hold near and dear to my heart are no longer acceptable for me to eat or drink.
Of course I'll still do my weekly beer review, as I did talk to the doctor about it and he said a couple each week won't kill me, literally.
So there it is folks; I'm cutting beer from my life.
Well after this weekend of course, I have to drink those 5 growlers, and the left over six-packs. I mean, I can't just dump it down the drain now can I?
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August 16, 2007
Once again we have our standard 12 oz brown bottle. The label is black with the name of the beer inside a red circle. There is a little blurb on the neck label that they add yeast to the beer just prior to bottling to start a secondary fermentation.
There is a nice dark brown, almost black color to it. Light just barely passes through it. The head pours an inch thick tan with very fine bubbles. You get the nice cascading factor down the side of the glass as the head dissipates. Unfortunately the head fades to almost nothing quickly, not even leaving a ring around the edge of the glass.
The scent is a mix of roasted grains, chocolate and coffee. There is a slight after scent of hay as the beer starts to settle. The flavor of the beer is mainly coffee malts with a touch of bitter cooking chocolate to it. There is also a nice roasted malt backbone that really brings the flavor to the tongue.
It is a medium bodied beer. A little water for a stout, there is none of that creamy mouth feel one generally associates with a good thick stout such as Guinness or MurphyÂ’s. ItÂ’s lightly carbonated and slides past the tongue easily.
Overall this was not a bad beer. I was expecting a bit thicker than it was, being a stout and all. IÂ’m going to give this beer a 6 out of 10.
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August 15, 2007
Here is what happened: Work sent me to Texas for a Supervisor Conference. (Not fun)
I didn't want to go and was told it was mandatory. (Then a bunch of other people didn't go, or once they got there they skipped out on the conference to go shopping.)
I learned that most of the females in my office are witches (-w +b) and they were probably that way in high school since they still act like they are. You know cliches, being judgmental, talking behind others backs, are only nice to you if they want something, etc.
I met a lot of people that I really liked and/or wanted to meet. It was great for networking, unfortunately most of my peers didn't take the opportunity for it as they where too busy being in their own little cliches.
Oh, American Airlines can mangle a suitcase like no one else, and they have crappy customer service in the baggage assistance area. Yea, I don't think I'm ever going to get that replacement suitcase.
Anyway I'm back.
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August 11, 2007
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If itÂ’s anything like Batman Begins, then IÂ’m all for it, if itÂ’s more like Batman and Robin, then IÂ’ll pass.
UPDATE: I removed the video from this site, I could not for the life of me get the autoplay feature to turn off. And I hate when it's automatically on. You can click on the link to see the teaser.
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The graphics are pretty simple, and it doesnÂ’t seem that hard, but you only have limited ammo and if you run out, game over.
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Anyone else think they have an issue with fire?
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09:08 AM
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Mingle2 - Dating Site
Seriously this is much higher then I thought it would be. A couple of years ago when I was posting 3-5 times a day and commenting daily on every blog I read I thought it would be this high. Damn.
I found this one over at VW's and Tammi's.
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August 10, 2007
I had to ask him why, and he told me that it was “just in case”.
And who says kids canÂ’t learn.
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And when I say stupid, cheesy game, IÂ’m not talking like some of those online games I post occasionally. IÂ’m talking about some of those stupid Yahoo games.
Why wonÂ’t my villagers stop trying to push the rock?!?!?!
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August 09, 2007
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August 08, 2007
It came in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. The label is a tan color with an evil looking winged monkey on it. Above the monkey in red letters is the name “Flying Monkey” and under the winged monkey on a red banner is “Amber Ale” There is a diamond checkered pattern on the lower third of the label.
When poured it barely forms a head. What head that is produced quickly fades to almost nothing quickly. The only thing that remains of the head is a slight ring around the edge of the glass. There is no lacing on the glass. It has an amber color to it that is clear. There is no cloudiness at all.
It has an aromatic smell of malts with a slight floral hop accent. There is a taste of roasted caramel malts with a slight citrus finish. A mild bitterness from hops rounds of the flavor. There is almost no aftertaste. What aftertaste there is doesnÂ’t distract from the beer.
There is a crisp, dryness to it. ItÂ’s light bodied with a decent amount of carbonation. Not so little to make it flat, but not enough to bite the tongue.
This was a decent beer. I had higher hopes for it, but itÂ’s not bad. I donÂ’t know if IÂ’d go out of my way to find it, but I wouldnÂ’t pass it up the store I was in had a six-pack of it. Over all IÂ’ll give it a 5.5.
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I thought I would share with all of you just exactly how close this was to my house.
Okay, obviously I did NOT take the above picture, I found it online. But it shows what my neighborhood looked like. This picture is actually 3 blocks north of our house.
This is also not a picture I took, but I didn't get any good ones of the boats in the water. When I found the above picture I found this one as well. This was about four blocks directly north of me.
This was three blocks directly north of me after the water had subsided a lot already. I spoke with this gentleman and he was telling me his story. He stated that last year when it flooded he didn't have any structural damage, but he lost a lot of personal items and belongings. They were still trying to recover from having to buy new appliances, furniture, carpet, clothes, etc and paying to have it cleaned out. Now all the stuff that they had replaced is gone. He doesn't have the funds to be able to replace it this time.
I'm sorry for the quality of this picture. The battery was dead on my good camera, so I had to use Ktreva's little point and click digital. It takes good close up pictures, but not at a distance. What I was trying to get was the water geysering up out of the water. This was taken hours after the city officials stated that the flood waters were subsiding, and gave a clear for people in the surrounding areas to return to their homes. Yet as you can see there was still enough pressure running through the storm drains to cause water spouts in 2-3 feet of water.
This picture was taken after the flood waters had subsided a lot. This is a garage door that is almost exactly 500 feet from my property. You can see how high the water reached. It was about a 15 inches deep there. If you look out of my back yard toward this garage there doesn't appear to be much, if any incline at all, but obviously there is as the flood waters did not make it to my property. Yes, I had about 11 inches of water in my basement, but nothing that bad... thankfully.
I honestly feel that the majority of this could have been prevented. Maybe not completely, but at least reduce the amount of damage. The city has known for a while that Keith Creek needed work, but all they have done is sat in committee and made plans. They've stated there is no money. Yet they can find money to buy a Hockey team, redo the Metrecentre, build a riverwalk, have a study for a white water rafting park, etc. But they can't even fork out the money to clean out the creek bed of debris and sediment.
Our city administrator Jim "I got a DUI in a government vehicle and kept my job" Ryan stated they cleaned out parts of the creek. I'm not sure where, but nowhere near where I lived. Those creek beds where filled with plants and debris in my neighborhood. FYI the creek is housed in a man made cement drainage ditch. He also made the statement that cleaning them out wouldn't have prevented the flooding. He doesn't know that for sure, but using his same sense of omnipotence I can say that it sure would have lessened the overall impact.
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August 07, 2007
There is supposed to be more rain today so IÂ’m not sure if the water is going to be rising or not, but if it does we could be in a lot of trouble.
UPDATE 11:56: Power came back on about an hour and a half ago. I've spent the last hour draining the basement of about 4 inches of water. I rigged a pump to do the work for me. The problem is that I'm still getting some water rising up through the storm drain in the floor. Mental note: Cap and seal storm drain after this is over.
There are helicopters flying around surveying damage. The fire and rescue crews are on the scene pulling people out of the houses by boat. The have issued a warning in our area asking for a voluntary evacuation just in case the damn breaks. However the Army Corp of Engineers are saying it isn't that bad and as long as we don't get another down pour we should be fine.
Update 14:10: The basement is pretty much dry. All the water is gone, the humidifiers are doing their thing and I've bleached the area for all that it's worth for right now. I'll go back and do more disinfecting later once it's all dry.
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August 06, 2007
ItÂ’s completely free, you donÂ’t have to pay for anything and if you take first place, you get a prize of nominal value for the team of your choice. But the big thing is that itÂ’s for fun and bragging rights.
See if you can make the leader board
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08:28 PM
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We went to the Sedgwick County Zoo, we were there a couple of years ago and it was pretty good. This time it was kind of crappy. Not only was it ungodly hot, but also by 4:00PM half the animals were put inside where you couldnÂ’t see them. Although watching Clone interact with a gorilla was amusing.
We did go to see Transformers the movie. The movie was enjoyable, but seriously lacked in many departments. Luckily it wasnÂ’t just the movie we went for. The theater it was showing at was a full functioning pub/theater. You would sit in your seats, push a button on the armrest and a waiter would come out and take your order. You could get Pasta, burgers, steaks, salads as well as junior mints and popcorn brought to your seat for no additional charge. Plus they served beer!
On the way home we missed being in a horrible accident by seconds. We were about 30 minutes out from our hotel when Boopie said he had to go to the bathroom. Since IÂ’m the type that wants to get to the destination ASAP I asked if he could hold it for 30 minutes and he said he could. Ktreva said she also had to use the bathroom but could hold it until we arrived. As we were driving down the highway I saw a rest stop coming up and decided we that IÂ’d just stop so the family could go to the bathroom. We all went and were back on the road in 5 to 10 minutes. We werenÂ’t on the road for more then a minute when the vehicles ahead of us were slamming on the brakes and traffic was backed up. A Semi was flipped upside down alongside the road. There were no emergency vehicles on the road. Ktreva called 911 and they advised they were aware and had help in route.
From what we could see it looks like the semi was traveling westbound on 80. The tractor blew a tire, jumped across the median into oncoming traffic and flipped over into the cornfield. From the looks of the traffic and everything it looked like that if we hadnÂ’t stopped we very well could have been involved in the accident. It was kind of scary.
The boys fought and got on KtrevaÂ’s and my nerves for most of the week. I finally snapped 30 minutes from home. I told both of the boys that if they made one more sound I was going to make it so neither could sit for a week. It was the only time when they werenÂ’t sleeping that they both were quit for more then 3 minutes.
I also felt like a bootlegger. IÂ’m not exactly what the law is about carrying alcohol across state lines, but IÂ’m sure I broke them. Between the cases of wine, multiple six packs and liters of beer, and bottles of whisky, I think I would have made some of my ancestors proud. Hell, once we got home Ktreva pointed out that I didnÂ’t buy anything on vacation that wasnÂ’t alcoholic for a souvenir.
Anyways, IÂ’m home. Oh, and BTWÂ… whereÂ’s the comment party? Jebus, I left black powder, firearms, artillery, whisky, beer, whiskey and the contents of the night stand out for you all to play with. IÂ’m disappointed.
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