I did two things yesterday that gave me an epiphany.

Boopie is turning 15 and is getting ready to start driving. So I stopped at a car dealership just to get an idea of how much a decent used car runs. I explained to the salesman that I really wasnÂ’t buying at this time, but I just wanted to get an idea of what IÂ’m going to be looking at over the next year. There were some cars on the lot that had a good price on them and seemed to be in decent condition. After speaking with the salesman about the cars, I knew what I was going to need to be looking at when the time finally arrives.

Last night I caught the speeches from the three leading candidates for president; Obama, Clinton and McCain. I listened to them give basically the same message. It was during the last speech that I realized something.

I trust the used car salesman more than these three.

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Just once I would love to be able to take some time off of work and not return to a maelstrom of issues. So I took three days off of work to go to Winter Camp. When I returned I was nice and relaxed. Yesterday I spent the day getting caught up on some paperwork for other re-enactments I was planning on doing and some various other issues and no matter what happened, I was cool and collected.

I wasn't at work for more than 30 seconds when one of my people started complaining about what was happening while I was away. They were just the first of a long line of issues that came up while I was away. Apparently when I'm not in the office, people can't make a decision. They hold all the problems and issues until I return and have me fix the situation.

I was gone three days, THREE DAYS, and I had over 600 e-mails at work. When ever management asked for something all of my peers responded with, "I'm not sure, Contagion will do it when he gets back." or my people would respond with, "I'll have to ask Contagion when he returns."

By the end of the day I really wanted to tear my cubicle apart.

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What a fun and interesting weekend. IÂ’ve never participated in the ONW Co Winter Camp before, mainly because I was never a member prior to this past October. Having never participated before, I wasnÂ’t exactly sure what to expect, this post is written from my journal and memories of my journey this weekend.

7:00 AM 02/14/08: Left Rockford, IL with companion Randy. We have about a 5 and a half hour drive ahead of us. I am excited and looking forward to seeing my friends and meeting more of the Company men.

9:04 AM 02/14/08: Paynette Exit on I-90, WI. We have run into a snowstorm. The snow is heavy and has caused some sever driving conditions. Due to stopping for provisions, we are running a half hour behind schedule. Fortunately we are in no great hurry.

9:22 AM 02/14/08: Approaching Wisconsin Dells. The snow if falling faster. We have slowed our travel down to less than 50 MPH. I contacted Ktreva to have her check the size of the storm for me. She advised that we are going to be in the snowstorm for at least the next 100 miles of our journey.

11:30 AM (Approx) 02/14/08: Black River Falls, WI. We have finally driven through the snowstorm. We have counted numerous vehicles in the ditches or spun out. Every vehicle we passed has either been empty (Marked so by police) or already had emergency responders. Since help was already on the scene we did not feel the need to stop and possibly put ourselves into more peril.

2:10 PM (Approx) 02/14/08: Arrive at camp just northwest of Trego, WI. We made a 45-minute stop for lunch, gas and supplies. At this time there are only four other individuals at camp, neither my companion nor myself recognize any of them. We are staying in a cabin. There is a large fireplace and an electric furnace. ItÂ’s cold inside, but not as cold as outside. Things should warm up as time passes and more people arrive.

9:15 PM 02/14/08: Camp. Many more individuals have shown up, some of my friends from Illinois and other Company men. People have begun laying out trade items on the table. Much Alcohol is being consumed. The cabin is warming up some; the temps are probably in the 50s, which is comfortable with my clothing. Rumor has it that the temps are to drop down to –15 overnight and the High on Friday should be around 7 degrees.

10:00 AM 02/15/08: Camp. More people are arriving, including some that showed up in the middle of the night. New trade items are being set out. One of the guys that lives locally advised that the temps fell to –21 in Trego. They also speculated because we are in a hollow next to the lake that the temps at the cabin could have gotten as cold as –30. I slept comfortably with my wool blankets. I discovered that when using a porta-john in these temps that the urine can freeze to the side of the urinal before it has a chance to go into the tank. Also that no matter how many guys use it, the blue ice in the tank will not defrost. Also, after using the porta-john do not close the lid. The steam rising off of the excrement and urine can and will form ice on the seat and lid. They will sometimes freeze together. Also I’m not sure what temperature it is, but at a certain point a plastic toilet seat only gets so cold. It doesn’t matter how much colder the temps get, sitting on the seat after that point will still being just as uncomfortable as if it was another 20 degree colder.

9:00 PM 02/15/08: Camp. There are 48 bunks in this cabin and most of them are full. There is a second cabin that some of the members are sleeping in. They do not allow smoking in that cabin; originally I heard it referred to as the “non-smoking” cabin. I chose to stay in the main cabin because more people I knew were going to be there. Later on I learned that they actually refer to the second cabin as the “geriatric cabin” as most of the members that sleep there tend to be over the retirement age.

10:00 AM 02/16/08: Camp. I slept like crap last night. It was too warm in the cabin. Between the fire burning for 2 days, the electric heater and the amount of men in the area, I believe that the temps were in the mid to upper 60Â’s. It was so warm I had to kick off the wool blankets. In turn I would get chilled and have to recover. This cycle occurred all night long. Also the gentleman(?) in the bunk next to me had some of the most horrendous gas all night long. IÂ’m not sure what was worse, being woken up by the sound or the smell. More men have arrived and there are a lot of really nice items out on the trade tables.

Trade Table

4:10 PM 02/16/08: Camp. Company Meeting. My traveling companion and myself read the company charter at the opening of the meeting. Even though it wasnÂ’t said, IÂ’m pretty sure it was implied that we did it because only the French (My companion) and the Scots (myself) know how to read. I was able to see my friend and blogspawn Petey coronated as Bourgeois (BOOSH-way) of the ONW Co. Being a new member I sat back and observed the various members and how the interacted. There are some strong political undercurrents in this organization and some comments made during the meeting solidified observations IÂ’ve made in the past. If this isnÂ’t brought under control there could be potential serious ramifications to the company sometime down the road.

5:30PM (Approx) 02/16/08: Camp. Company Dinner. One of my friends, whom I shall call “Wind in his hair” or WIHH henceforth, was in charge of setting up the tables, place settings and serving food. He asked me earlier if I wouldn’t mind helping him out. It was a whirlwind of activity as the tables and settings were put into place. After dinner I was put back into service helping clean up and put stuff away. This included my cleaning of a large pot that they heated baked beans. Cleaning the pot using a scrub brush and bare hands in ice-cold water is not pleasant.

Dinner

7:00PM (Approx) 02/16/08: Camp. The company drew the numbers for the fundraising raffle. I purchased four tickets. I ended up winning a new copper mucket (Mug and bucket combined). IÂ’m really excited about this as I was going to purchase one of these anyway. It just saved me some money! After the raffle people were saying that bad weather was moving in and that it was going to start to snow again south of us starting at midnight. Some people that lived in Illinois left right way, others stayed.

3:00AM (Approx) 02/17/08: Camp. A lot of people were leaving to get a jumpstart on the long drive home. They did a good job of trying to be as quiet as possible for the rest of us that were still sleeping. If only they would have stopped slamming the screen door on the cabin. The nice thing about them leaving at that time is that the cabin was too warm for me to sleep again. With the door being left open it cooled down enough so that I could sleep under my wool blankets comfortably.

8:02 AM 02/17/08: Left camp, headed to local restaurant for breakfast and to use the bathroom. I didnÂ’t want to use a frozen toilet seat again today.

8:40 AM 02/17/08: Trego, WI. My companion and I left the restaurant hoping that the snow wouldnÂ’t be as bad.

9:23 AM 02/17/08: Chippewa Falls, WI. The snow has started. Upon calling Ktreva she advises that the storm will probably follow us the rest of the way home. The roads are getting slick and we see people sliding on a regular basis.

1:56 PM 02/17/08: Madison, WI. We stopped for lunch. We needed to get off of the road for a while. The weather has gone from bad to worse back to bad. We did take a 15-minute stop in Black River Falls for gas and drinks. Originally we thought we would be home by this time.

2:58 PM 02/17/08: I-90 at Stoughton Exit. The snow has turned to rain. WeÂ’ve never been so happy to see rain and just ice on the roads before. A small celebration was had in the vehicle. The vehicles in the ditches were much worse today than on Thursday. Today was say one truck flipped on itÂ’s side up by Tomah, WI and south of Madison there was a tanker truck that hand plowed into the median with two cars in the right hand ditch. We donÂ’t know what happened, but since we beat most of the emergency responders to the site, we know we just missed it.

4:05PM 02/17/08: Rockford, IL. Arrived home. The 5 and a half hour trip ended up taking seven and a half hours. Right as we pulled into the driveway, the snow started again. We must have caught up to and been just in front of the leading edge of the storm for the last hour.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:43 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Good grief - are you sure that was fun?

Posted by: Richmond at February 18, 2008 04:01 PM (9fBvK)

2 What a great weekend! Can't wait to go back next year. How 'bout you?

Posted by: Petey at February 18, 2008 09:48 PM (JhiOW)

3 Sounds like you really enjoyed it..... Apart from the kitchen duties..... And the latrines...... And the weather..... Apart from all that I guess you had fun.

Posted by: bx19 at February 19, 2008 03:53 PM (wr7x2)

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Okay I've returned. I need to unpack, shower and just unwind. I'll do a full post with pictures of the event tomorrow. I will give you these highlights though.

*Spent most of the drive up and back in a snowstorm
*Rumor is that the temps at the cabin reached -22 confirmed, -30 estimated.
*Port-A-Johns can and will freeze over.
*Urine can flash freeze.
*Don't volunteer to help a friend out with kitchen duty if you don't want to do dishes... in ice cold water... by hand.

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...in upper Wisconsin! Yep, camping in the winter. This is the second time this year. When I was younger I used to go winter camping as a Boy Scout all the time. Now KTreva doesn't like the idea, so we never did. Since I've joined the ONW Co. I've been able to do it again.

Needless to say I'm excited! See you all on Sunday.

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IÂ’m very excited about tonightÂ’s beer review. ItÂ’s a very historic moment here at Miasmatic Review as far as my beer reviews go; this one is 3,000 years in the making! After much anticipation I will be reviewing Midas Touch by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. This beer is made using a recipe that is based on the residue at the bottom of excavated drinking vessels.

This recipe is the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world! Our recipe showcases the known ingredients of barley, white Muscat grapes, honey & saffron found in the drinking vessels in King Midas' tomb!Â…

Â….Under a huge mound at the capital of Gordion, a University of Pennsylvania Museum expedition in 1957 excavated an intact burial chamber which likely belonged to King Midas himself. The body of a 60-year-old male was laid out in state on a thick pile of purple and blue-dyed textiles inside a unique log coffin.

Most remarkably, the tomb held the largest Iron Age drinking set ever found--157 vessels, including a ram-headed and lion-headed situla--for preparing, serving, drinking and libating a special beverage at the funerary feast of the king. The secrets of the beverage were revealed by the new methods of Molecular Archaeology. Dr. Patrick McGovern of the Museum discovered that the residues inside the vessels belonged to a "Phrygian cocktail," which combined grape wine, barley beer and honey mead. Starting with the ancient chemical evidence, Dogfish Head Brewery "re-created" a marvelous golden elixir, truly touched by King Midas.

The first time I heard about this beer was on the History Channel as they talked about the history of brewing. At that time I had difficulty trying to find some, as it is a limited production base. Fortunately for me a local store received a shipment and I was able to pick up a four pack of it.

It comes in the standard 12 oz brown bottle. There is purple label with a golden fingerprint on it. The name of the beer is imposed over the fingerprint. At the bottom of the label it states, “Handcrafted Ancient Ale. With Barley, honey, White Muscate Grapes and Saffron.” It also proudly claims it’s 9% Alcohol by Volume.

There is a nice golden amber color to it. ItÂ’s clear, with no cloudiness or sediment detectable at all. Light passes through easily. When itÂ’s poured it formed a quarter inch white head that fades quickly. There is no lacing or film on the top of the beer after a couple of minutes.

The scent to this beer is like none I’ve experienced before. It’s a fruity mix of grapes (like wine), a touch of honey, some malts and a hint of alcohol. The taste is a very complex mix. It’s sweet beer/wine/mead combination. You can taste the grapes, honey and malts. There is no bitterness, but there is a strong spice taste and at 9% ABV it shouldn’t be a surprise you can just taste the alcohol. The taste makes me think of a parody of the old Reese’s Peanut Butter cup commercials. “You got your wine in my mead! No you got your mead in my wine! (Takes a drink) HEY!”

This is a medium body beer. There is a nice tingly carbonation to it that really opens up the flavor. It is very smooth to drink, which with the high ABV, could lead to problems.

IÂ’m happy to say this beer did not let me down. It wasnÂ’t exactly what I was expecting, but then again I wasnÂ’t sure what to expect. I found it to be a very satisfying beer. I donÂ’t know how much of it I could drink in one sitting, but itÂ’s pretty damn good. I give it 7 out of 10.

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1 Interesting. I wonder if they sell it here. My husband might like it. I'll have to look around for it. But it IS Massachusetts... *sigh*

Posted by: Teresa at February 13, 2008 09:18 PM (rVIv9)

2 So the question is,.....was it worth the wait, the pain, the and the torture to finally get it? *Thinks back to the great beer hunt of 2007 in Knoxville*

Posted by: BloodSpite at February 14, 2008 09:43 AM (pOo0j)

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I was talking to some of my peers at work today as we waited for a meeting to start. The rebate/stimulus package was brought up and of course someone made the comment, "I could use that money now." I knew they should be getting $1,200.00 back and I made an offer to them. "I'll tell you what. I'll give you $900.00 tomorrow and you can give me the $1,200.00 check when you get it." We all had a chuckle, but then it made me think.

When is someone legitimately going to do something like this?

Think about it. All of the tax places offer an instant rebate or refund anticipation loan. Basically they give you the money for your anticipated refund right there, minus some fees, charges and interest. Plus you have payday advance loans, car title loans, etc. etc. etc. You have large financial companies that advertise that if you have a structured annuity, won the lottery, have payments from a court case coming to you, they will give you one large lump sum today, and keep the rest. If they can do all of that, when is someone going to legitimately say, "Getting a rebate? Need the money now? Come see us at Givenudashaft and we'll give you your money today*" (*in fine print: minus a 20% fee)

The sad thing is that I can actually see people doing this just so that can have their money NOW. What bothers me the most is that I know a lot of people that fall for all of the above. Okay some might justify the refund anticipation loans because it's only $50.00 out of $3,000.00 and they get the money today. Yea... but basically if you were patient and waited for the money you'd have an extra $50.00 or however much you might get. Remember, it's already your money, you just gave away $50.00 to get it back today instead of in three weeks. That's like paying your employer to get your paycheck.

There are people that work for me that use the payday loan places all the time. I could see them forking over 20% of the anticipated rebate just so they could get the money today. It just amazes me how many people can be that financially irresponsible with their money.

I wonder how long before someone does start this scam. Hell it may have started already.

Of course I still think this whole rebate is a really bad idea that we all going to be paying for over the next 25 years. Sure I'm going to take the money, only a fool would not. I'd just rather they not do it in general. I'd rather they save the money, decrease taxes, remove federal regulations and restrictions and let the free market fix itself. If they are that worried about it, start putting more tariffs on foreign products coming to the US so that products actually owned by American based companies have a fighting chance. It keeps the money in America, not in China.

Roughly forty percent of the money we are borrowing to make this rebate happen is coming from China so that the majority of people can go out and buy a big ticket electronic item made in China. Who's economy are we trying to stimulate?

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Fluffy the attack hound as been on a rampage for a couple of days now. I've tried leaving comments on other blogs and I've received e-mails from people saying that they have tried to leave comments here.

First off, let me apologize to all of you that are missing out on my pearls of brilliance in your comments. I know how much they mean to you and in some cases are the only reasons you blog. Once things clear up I promise I will resume my commenting. Hopefully this does not put any undue strain on your life.

Secondly, for those of you that want to comment here. I really wish I could do something about it. Unfortunately this is out of my realm of control. I know Fluffy is just doing as trained, but it can be annoying. Until then, please feel free to save your comments on a word document. When things clear up you can come back and make them at that time. IÂ’m sure it wonÂ’t be as satisfying, but at least it will help you get that release that you need.

Finally, for those of you that arenÂ’t on .MU.NU and your comments work. Since I canÂ’t comment on everyoneÂ’s blog, IÂ’ve taken to not commenting on anyoneÂ’s until things clear upÂ… yea. ThatÂ’s it.

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This upcoming weekend is the Old Northwest Company (ONW CO.) winter camp. This will be my first year attending as I was just voted in this past August. Ktreva is making fun of me because I'm running around gathering stuff and debating on what I should and should not take with me.

I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve.

I have a beer review I'm going to do on Wednesday that is very special. I'm not giving away anything about it, but lets just say it's probably the most historical beer I've ever reviewed.

I really have nothing else of value to talk about, I spent the afternoon chatting up Tammi down at Frtitz's. We talked about stuff and she told me that she thought it was a bad idea that I was leaving for my trip at 7:00AM on February 14th. I'm not sure why, and she really wasn't forth coming with details. I have the distinct feeling I'm forgetting something.

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There were a couple of primaries over the weekend, some of them had interesting turnouts, or so I thought. The fact that Huckabee won Kansas, Louisiana (although not by enough to get any delegates), and Washington was too close to count so they have to continue to do so today before they call it. Right now McCain is in the lead.

Since I brought that up, does anyone else get bothered when they call an election with less than 95% of the votes in? ShouldnÂ’t they at least pretend that our votes matter and count them all before they name a winner? I saw one last week where it was at 54% reporting, it was a narrow margin (Less than 4% difference) and they were calling a winner already. If IÂ’m not mistaken those other 46% could have voted for the underdog and it actually turned out they won.

Obama stormed the Dems winning Nebraska, Washington and Louisiana primaries. HeÂ’s still behind Clinton in the overall, but itÂ’s only a 30-point difference. At least this race is still close. Obama and Clinton really have their work cut out for them if the want the nomination, unlike the Reps primary. Heck, Huckabee doesnÂ’t even have as many delegates as Romney does and Romney is out of the race. McCain has three times the amount of delegates as Huckabee does. As for Ron Paul, I know some of my readers are staunch supporters of his, but seriously, he only has 14 delegates so far. Do you really think heÂ’s going to be able to pull this off?

Actually after doing the math, itÂ’s not possible for Paul to win. You need to have 1,191 delegates to win; there are only 2,380 total delegates. 1,265 of those delegates have been designated already. That leaves 1,115 remaining nominations. So if Paul received 100% of the remaining nominations it leaves him at 1129, well short of what is needed. If that does happen, no one would have enough, and IÂ’m not sure exactly what happens. I just donÂ’t see that as happening. ItÂ’s really looking like it is going to be McCain for the Republicans. Honestly I think a little part of me dies every time I type that.

IÂ’m still at a loss as to what IÂ’m going to do for the presidential race. No one has sold me on why one of the probable candidates would be best for the job.

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Maybe he's a retailer, maybe he's just a lame bandwagon jumper, either way there is a lesson to be learned. Nothing is a "Sure thing".

Free Patriots Gear.

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I've read a couple of books in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I thought they were enjoyable, clever and funny. That is if you like sci-fi/fantatsy fiction. The basis of Discworld is that it's a flat disk balanced on the backs of four elephants that stand on the back of a giant turtle. No seriously, it is. The reason I'm telling you this is because if you didn't know it, you wouldn't understand this wedding cake.

They must be huge fans, and the mother that baked it must really love her daughter. WOW!

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Beloit College, located just north of me in Beloit, Wisconsin puts out a "mindset" list every year.

The Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in the year that the entering first-year students were born.

Our effort is to identify a worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2007. We take a risk in some cases of making generalizations, particularly given that our students at Beloit College for instance come from every state and scores of nations.

The "Class of 2011" refers to students entering college this year. They are generally 18 which suggests they were born in 1989.

The list identifies the experiences and event horizons of students as they commence higher education and is not meant to reflect on their preparatory education.

I've read some of these over the years and some of it is funny, other parts are kind of scary. There seems to be some political bias, but what do you expect from any higher learning institution.

Go check out what our future has never experienced on the Class of 2011 Mindset List.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my Geritol.

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Last summer the Transformers Movie came out. I know that a lot of people really liked it, but I had some serious issues with it. First being that I was a huge fan of the Transformers when I was kid and I didn't like the way they made the robots look. They all looked like a jumbled mass of parts. Not like a robot. Then my fanboyness took over and I started complaining that they had 7th generation Transformers with the first generation and so on. Ktreva called me out saying that only I would have noticed that. Which isn't true, because I've talked to others that complained about the same thing.

However, I will tell you this. If I had a chance to do the movie, it would have looked like this:

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...thankfully I drive a tank.

The roads in Rockford,IL are getting worse by the day. The pot holes are starting to get way out of control. I really shouldn't be referring to them as pot holes, they really are more like craters. The prominent intersection of Alpine and Newburg/Broadway (East of Alpine it's Newburg, West of Alpine it's Broadway) is a prime example. It's not one pothole crater, it's close to a hundred of them, and they are huge! It looks like the intersection has been shelled by artillery. I kid you not, one of them is about two feet wide, twenty feet long and six inches deep. It's not just in the intersection it's bad, but in the roads leading up to it.

Traffic is horrible here as everyone has to do 5-10 miles an hour to keep from bottoming out or loosing a tire. It's gotten so bad between the potholes and traffic that I've taken to avoiding the intersection all together. Every time it snows it gets worse and the plows are pulling out more and more chunks of pavement. With all the snow we've gotten recently it's just killing the streets.

Now there are a lot of streets that are bad and maybe worse, but I travel through this intersection every day. Well I used to, now I go around it. I took a different route on my way to work today down 20th street. In the stretch between Broadway and Harrison by the train via duct, there is a pothole crater so big that I actually witnessed it swallow a VW beetle. Fortunately I had my spelunking gear and some tow chains with me or that poor lady would have been stuck down there for a long time. Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little, but I did see her bottom out and send sparks when she hit it.

I guess I could be like a lot of the people in my city and blame the government and their cronyism with Rockford Blacktop (The only contractor that does road work in the city), but it's really not their fault. The weather this winter as been farooking nutz.

It goes from unseasonably warm to really cold in short periods of time. We get snow, rain or sleet every time the temps change any. The roads falling apart is just a combination of natural erosion, wear and tear and plows digging them up. Until the weather gets warmer, they really can't fix them. It's just too damn cold, the patches won't stick and some of the roads, like Riverside, just need to be replaced in general now.

So my good readers, if you have to travel in the city of Rockford, make sure you have a vehicle with good suspension. I'm really glad I have a 3/4 ton Heavy Duty 4X4 pick up with off road package.

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First Bloodspite sent me an e-mail warning me. Then I get home and see this headline: McCain all but clinches: Romney Departs. Okay, he wasn't the most conservative candidate running, but he was more conservative than McCain. He actually had a snowballs chance of winning. But he dropped out.

It dawned on me. First I threw my support behind Thompson and he dropped out. Then I threw my support behind Romney and HE dropped out. So I got to thinking, hey, if I throw my support behind McCain maybe he will drop out. At this point my sadistically cruel loving wife pointed out that "The third time's the charm." Meaning that if I supported McCain he'd win.

DAMMIT!

I really hope a decent third party/independent candidate comes crawling out of the wood work. Because there is no way, no way that McCain will ever get my vote.

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I'm not sure what's more disturbing, the fact I took this quiz or the fact I only scored a 31. Seriously, I can swing one kid around like a bat and take the others out, it can't be that hard. Plus, think about it once you hurt one of them in any fashion they'll stop fighting and start crying. I seriously think I could take 31 on by just yelling at them.

As seen everywhere including here, here and here.

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My latest blogspawn, Petey of PeteyÂ’s Powderhorn, sponsored tonightÂ’s selection. He gave it to me at Winter Camp a month ago, and I wanted to wait until he started his blog so I could give him proper credit. TonightÂ’s brew is Samuel AdamÂ’s Black Lager.

Sam AdamÂ’s uses a 12 oz brown bottle, but theirs is custom with the/a signature of Samual Adams molded into the glass. It has a black and gold label with the name of the beer in the middle and a picture of Sam Adams at the bottom.

This is a very dark beer, almost stout like with its very dark brown coloring. What light that passes through has a garnet red coloring to it. There is no floating or impurities; itÂ’s just a thick beer. Almost no head formed when I poured it into the glass. What there was had a tan color with very fine bubbles. It left no lacing on the side of the glass.

The smell is mainly of caramel and chocolate malts. A touch of smokiness and a hint of coffee are also detectable. Chocolate and caramel malts is the main flavor of the beer, a slight hop spice puts a nice finish to it. The aftertaste is mild and fades quickly. What bitterness there is doesnÂ’t last long.

This is a medium to heavy bodied beer. There is a slight creaminess to it that coats the mouth when you drink it. ItÂ’s not as thick as your typical stouts, but this isnÂ’t a stout. ItÂ’s probably one of the more full-bodied lagers IÂ’ve tasted.

IÂ’m generally not a big Samuel AdamÂ’s fan, but Petey kept telling me to try this one. To be honest, itÂ’s a pretty good beer. I was more than pleasantly surprised with it. ItÂ’s almost like itÂ’s trying to be a stout, but fell just short. I really enjoyed this beer and owe Petey one for introducing it to me; I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:32 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I wrote and published a post yesterday that has since disappeared. IÂ’m really not sure what happened to it, but itÂ’s gone. IÂ’m not going to try to re-write it as it was a lot of my venting anger and frustration at the current state of politics and voting in the US. The main gist of it was that I backed down and actually voted for one of the candidates that were still in the running. I voted for Romney, mainly because out of the four front runners I felt he was closest to what I want for our government. It didnÂ’t matter because Illinois went to McCain. For those of you that think that if you vote for a third party or Independent candidate that you are throwing your vote away, well the same can be said if you vote for the loser.

Any way I canÂ’t replicate what I was feeling when I wrote that post, so IÂ’m not going to try. Mainly that is because I have a different anger and frustration today, McCain.

I can NOT believe that McCain is doing as well as he is. LetÂ’s face it; it looks like he is going to take the Republican nomination. He is the clear front runner and has a commanding lead over Romney and Huckabee. But since when is the Republican Party Liberal? DonÂ’t tell me itÂ’s not. If it really wasnÂ’t, McCain wouldnÂ’t be in the lead. Please, McCain, Clinton, Obama are all cut from the same material. There really is not that big a difference in on their platforms or positions.

The only thing I can figure out is that the sheeple of the US would rather see someone in the White House with an R next to their name, even if they truly don’t uphold the party beliefs. I know, I’m not Republican, but I am financially conservative. I want lesser taxes, lesser government, secure borders and national defense. Socially I’m liberal, or as some people say, “Libertarian”. I don’t care about abortion, gay marriage or religion; I don’t think the government really should be involved in those topics. Since I am more conservative I do look to the Republican Party more for politicians that I agree. How anyone that considers themselves a true conservative could vote for McCain is flabbergasting.

I will tell you this, if it does end up with McCain as the Republican candidate for president and there isnÂ’t a good independent candidate running, I probably will vote for Clinton or Obama. At least with them I know for sure what IÂ’m getting. McCain will never, ever get my vote.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:39 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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So yesterday I predicted the Pats to win in a high scoring game. Turns out Giants win in a low scoring game. I don't think anyone saw the score being that low and the Giants winning. Honestly I'm glad they did. My hatred of Tom Brady (Arrogant, cocky bastard that he is), Bill Belichick (Cheating bastard), Randy Moss (One of the cockiest, unsportsmanlike behaving jerks in the NFL) and the Patriots organization (They have some players I like and respect) didn't out weight my hatred of Eli Manning (Baby that threw a temper-tantrum when he was drafted because he didn't like the team he was drafted to). So I ended up pulling for New York, didn't think they would do it, but hey.

I was a bit disappointed in the commercials. None of them really made me laugh that hard. The NFL Foxbot Vs. The Terminator intros were hilarious!.

I just wished they would have shown who won the fight after the two additional Foxbots showed up.

For the game I went to Bruce's. Where I spent two hours grilling burgers and brats. Well okay, I used a grill but technically I was smoking them. I think everyone liked the burgers and brats. Yet, no one fought over them, I'm going to have to work on my smoke packet formula to see if I can get this to happen some time.

Graumagus crawled out of the woodwork to show up for the party. He shared some news with all of us about his blogging future. That is a post for another time, but all I'm going to say is that don't expect him back anytime in the near future.

Today I took the day off of work as my floating holiday. I always take the day after the Super Bowl, it' helps me to relax and unwind and drink in all that is the glory of the Super Bowl. I took Ktreva down to Fritz's and spent the afternoon. Of course I sent some text messages to some of my friends locally rubbing in the fact that I was there and inviting them down, but none of them showed up.

Overall it was a good weekend.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:14 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 376 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I didn't get no stinkin text messages!

Posted by: BloodSpite at February 05, 2008 08:07 AM (pOo0j)

2 I like that one where the baby is buying stock in the computer, and then hurls... That got a laugh out of me...

Posted by: RedNeck at February 05, 2008 05:21 PM (zVAJL)

3 The baby ads, and the giant rat busted me up... BTW, I didn't get any frickin' text, either.

Posted by: That 1 Guy at February 05, 2008 07:09 PM (O6lVU)

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