Okay, my in-laws come into town Wednesday night. For those of you that don't remember, my in-laws dislike me. I'm talking in the sitcom kind of dislike, not the everyday someone dislikes me kind of way. So I try to avoid anything that is going to set them off.

So Wednesday I spent the day with T1G and Graumagus. We started off at Hooters and then went to Fritz's that evening. It was good seeing T1G again, he even had the opportunity to try Glogg. Ktreva joined us for a while at Hooters prior to her mom and grandmother coming to town.

On Thanksgiving itself I took my Dad and Bruce down to Fritz's for Tom and Jerry's. When we arrived, T1G was sitting in the exact same spot that I left him the night before. Fritz's had raffles going on and we all bought tickets. I actually won something! A smoked sharp cheddar cheese spread. Dad and Bruce each won cookies and a pen. We were hopping for crackers so we could eat the cheese spread, but he we weren't complaining.

After Fritz's we headed to my dad's secretary's house where her husband makes his own Tom and Jerry's so he could try them. We weren't about to complain because hey, it's free booze. Now I had promised my mother and wife that we would be to my mom's house by noon. Everything was on schedule for that to happen until Dad realized he left his coat down at Fritz's. So we had to head back there to pick it up. Which ended up making us 15 minutes late!

Once at we arrived at my parent's house I encountered my in-laws for the first time. We spent most of the day there. Dad and I ended up spending most of our time in the basement watching two horrible football games. So boring.

This morning I had the privilege of taking them and the boys to Toys R Us for shopping. Yea, that was fun. I'm not ready to speak of the horrors that I experienced. Maybe after some counseling I can. Right now I have the boys and am at home just waiting for their call so we can get back together again.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:21 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Sorry, I know that I promised an update to how the Glogg was going, but I just didn't have a chance to do so. Not because I was preoccupied, I just wasn't physically able. After conducting the quality control on both batches, I lost control of my senses. I also lost a huge chunk of my memory. The stuff is potent, yet tastes really good.

So far most people that have had my Glogg have really liked it. In fact I have a little fan club that have been asking when I was going to start making it for months now. Of course I only do it right around Thanksgiving since it's a traditional winter Holiday drink.

Now for those of you that really want to try glogg, and just aren't sure where to get it, let me warn you of a couple of things. There are prebottled versions of glogg, but it doesn't taste the same. In fact I wouldn't recommend any of them. I tried many of them and, to be honest, prebottled or prepackaged glogg is like boxed food. Sure it's quicker and easier, but it just doesn't taste the same as a good home made meal.

Most of these mixes require Everclear to give it the "kick" it needs. Hence why Richmond is finding end caps filled with it at the local Wallmart. If this is all you can get your hands on is this style of glogg, then I guess it's better than nothing. However, I'm sure if you have any kind of Scandinavian population in your area, you should be able to find someone that makes glogg, real glogg.

And trust me, it's worth it.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 God love you - I shoudda known you would have an explanation for the end caps of evercclear...

Posted by: Richmond at November 25, 2008 07:06 PM (qjnEO)

2 It's all for me glogg...

Posted by: Wes at December 01, 2008 03:50 PM (1crE/)

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It's that time of year again, the time of year that I make Glogg. Now some of my readers have had glogg before, some of you have not. I've been working on it for a couple of hours now. I'm doing a double run at this point, and am planning on making another double run sometime in mid December.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go stir the glogg... and later do the field tasting.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:14 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Okay, I started cleaning the firearms around 8:00 tonight. I just finished, it's 11:14 PM here. I thoroughly cleaned my .45, .357, M44 and AK. As well as Ktreva's Walther PPK .380. I never knew how stress relieving cleaning firearms can be.

Ktreva on the other hand was a little creeped out by how I treated the firearms. Such comments as:

"Oh, you're a dirty girl. Look at you, that's okay I'm gonna scrub you all over."

"You like it when I coat you in oil don't you, it just makes everything move around better."

"I'm just gonna slide this right inhere. (slight grunt) Yea, that's what she likes."

"I love the way you feel in my hands. Your slender form. The curve of your body, how firm and sleek you are."

And those where some of the tame ones.

Then again, spending three hours with some very strong chemicals has made me feel a little... different. If you'll excuse me, I have the munchies.

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On Saturday Graumagus and I took my dad down to the range to go shooting. It's been 50 years since he's fired a gun and I felt he was long overdue for some range time. Long overdue. Plus I really could use some range therapy. We spent three hours on the range putting about 1,500 rounds through various firearms. Dad tried everything at least once, but he really liked the Colt 1991 .45 that I have.

I mean he REALLY liked it.

I swear he honestly thought of taking it home with him. In fact during shooting and then even after he kept making comments that he could really get into shooting and wanted to know how much the Colt costs. Graumagus even asked him, "So how mad do you think Contagion's mom is going to be when you come home with one?" Dad didn't answer at all, he was just... quiet.

Anyone that knows my dad knows that him being quiet speaks volumes.

After shooting we headed to Fritz's for an afternoon of beer, burgers and booze. We ended up spending three hours there... doing a different kind of shooting. Well, at least shooters. Bruce met us down there. He liked Fritz's just fine, but then again he is my father. In fact after draining my third beer in less then 20 minutes of being there, he asked me where I learned to drink like that. I couldn't help but yell out, "I learned it from you Dad! I learned it from you!" Which of course was received with much laughter from the 4 other people in the bar, only two of them customers that weren't with us. Bruce had to leave in order to get back to Batmite.

We all had a good time. Then again what could be better than a morning of shooting and an afternoon of drinking!

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WeÂ’ve all heard the saying about how tossing a pebble into a pond causes ripples on the surface. Those ripples may have an affect on a lot of things, including stuff on the other side of the pond. You didnÂ’t intend for those consequences to happen, yet they did.

Oklahoma was the pebble in my pond. Except I think in my case Oklahoma was the boulder in the pond that is my life. Before I left for Oklahoma everything was okay in my life. IÂ’m not saying it was perfect, but everything was pretty much normal.

When I returned from Oklahoma IÂ’ve discovered that in my absence my family life broke down because Ktreva and the boys couldnÂ’t handle the hardship of my being gone. IÂ’m not going into all the personal details, but there is such a strain in my relationship with Ktreva that we are having a hard time dealing with each other. WeÂ’re able to keep up appearances in public, but there are some serious problems.

Boopie has slipped not only into old habits, but worse. A lot of that, in my opinion, is because of the sever lack of consistency in home life, especially while I was away. Even though IÂ’ve been back for two months, itÂ’s hard to counteract that damage that was done. Ktreva convinced me not to kick him out of the house for now. I took him to his counselor last night. After speaking with him and explaining everything that is going on the counselor and I spoke for a good 20 minutes alone and he supported my theory on where most of BoopieÂ’s issues stem from and what caused them to be worse.

IÂ’ve told close friends this next part, but IÂ’m just coming clean with the whole thing. IÂ’m having issues dealing with my experience in Oklahoma. It wasnÂ’t the state, Tulsa or the people that lived there. It was the people I had to work with and the details of the job. IÂ’ve been having nightmares; yes nightmares that IÂ’m still down there trying to get everything settled. IÂ’ve actually woken out of a dead sleep in a cold sweat in a combination of fear and rage. Out of all the things IÂ’ve seen and done in my previous career or just in my life in general, itÂ’s a stupid trip to Oklahoma thatÂ’s haunting me. I mean, IÂ’ve pulled bodies out of rivers, IÂ’ve assisted on autopsies of infants, IÂ’ve listened to people burn to death over a phone, IÂ’ve drawn down on peopleÂ… but no, transferring work to another state has my subconscious in a panic.

I now find work almost completely unbearable. I view it as a prison. Each morning I wake up to head into a place that I know has no appreciation for anything I’ve done, the sacrifices I’ve made or the efforts I put forth. My management and peers have taken to disregarding my input on anything. They make changes and decisions that affect my people with out even consulting me, or if they do it’s more of a “we’re going to do this…” type of thing. When I head into meetings a sense of dread comes over me that can only be equated to the feeling you get before a colonoscopy. I try to stay at my desk or in my unit as much as possible. At least there I feel somewhat comfortable. Prior to Oklahoma, I had issues, but not like this.

IÂ’m waiting to see what happens with a job opportunity for Ktreva before I make any moves, but I canÂ’t leave my job until I find another. With the way todayÂ’s economy and job market is, IÂ’m not holding my breath on finding anything in the near future. At least nothing that pays me anywhere near what I make now.

I really wish I had never gone to Oklahoma. Except for getting to meet Rave and her Husband and getting to visit Bloodspite, nothing good came out of it.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:00 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Halloween was a smash. We had a great time, I have some pictures, I just haven't downloaded them yet, so I'm not sure how they turned out. Hey taking pictures in the dark is difficult!

There was only two things I had issues with on Halloween. I'm not complaining the weather was bad, because it was beautiful. Temps in the 60s, no wind, it was great... if you weren't wearing 4 layers of clothes and a heavy mask with grease paint makeup and latex glue! It was pretty hot. In fact I was sweating so bad that I thought I was going to drown in it. The nice thing is that all the kids could wear their costumes with out bulky coats on. The children where actually able to show off their costumes.

Speaking of costumes that was the other problem I had. There were a lot of older kids Trick or Treating. I'm talking middle school to high school aged kids. Now, I don't mind as long as they are in costumes, and the vast majority of them did. However, the costumes some of the girls were wearing they really ought not to be wearing... anywhere. They are just too young for the "I can't believe it's not fetish wear" costumes. One girl was wearing a pirate costume that she needed to shave in order to wear, and I'm not talking her legs. She was all of about 16... if that. I'm so glad I have boys.

I did get some good scares. Some of them screamed so loudly that a neighbor of mine from a block and a half away came down because, "She thought someone was getting killed". Yea, good times. One group of kids got so scared they all ran in different directions, and I never saw any of them again, so I don't know where or when they ever met up again.

Saturday, Wil and Red picked up Ktreva and I and we all went up to the ONW Colonial Ball in Janesville, WI. Ktreva looked extremely beautiful in a French polonaise dress she borrowed from Red. Her stunning beauty made my frontier heathen dress look even shabbier. Hell, the only thing special I put on was my kilt.

Yea, I just drag her down, but she sure does make me look a hell of a lot better.

The ball is the only time of the year that Ktreva actually gets me to dance with her. Mainly because neither of us dance, and I really don't like to make a fool out of myself. That doesn't stop me, I just don't like it.

We both had a great time. How could we not? We spent 24 hours with some of the best people that have walked the earth.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:17 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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