New Years

Well good morning everybody.  Been a couple of weeks now, so I figured I give you a few words to take you into the New Year.  My Christmas was spent in the great state of Alabama.  I got to see family and friends, get some gifts, give some gifts, drank a few cocktails, and I ate real bar-b-que.  Now I say real bar-b-que because if you live above the Mason Dixon line then you have only had imitation “Southern style” bbq.  I don’t know what it is but it seems if someone up here in the north decides to open a bbq joint they can’t get it right. For some reason they don’t have the ability to make it correctly.  It just doesn’t taste the same.  Well I guess all you can do is give them yanks an A for effort. Another thing the north can’t seem to grasp is sweet tea.  Sure you can go to McDonalds and get a big ol’ sweet tea and it might taste good until you get in the south and drink the real thing. Again, I am baffled why the north can’t get it right. Oh well, I'm sure there is things in the north that the south can’t get right.  Anyway, I love Alabama; it is a beautiful state that has mountains in north Alabama and a beach on the south end.  My sister lives on top of a mountain down yonder and there is nothing like waking up in the early morning and walking onto the front porch and seeing valleys and mountains in front of you.  Here in Ohio when I get up all I see is houses and buildings, ain’t no mountains off my front porch.

If you are not familiar with some of the words above then you are not from the south so here are a few definitions to help you better understand the above paragraph;

1. yonder- somewhere other than where you are;
2. yank or yankee- someone who lives above the mason Dixon line
3. ain’t- if “isn’t” and “aren’t” had a baby you would get the word ain’t

I have been thinking about New Years resolutions and how everyone comes up with them but hardly anyone actually follows through, so this year I decided on trying a different approach.  My new approach is to claim the opposite that way if I don’t do it I go in the right direction.  For example; if my new years resolution was to loose weight I’m going to make it to gain weight, that way if when I don’t keep to my new plan I actually loose weight.  Or I could just not make a resolution that way I wouldn’t be disappointed in myself for not keeping up with a plan.

Speaking of plans, my fruit cake challenge was a bust.  I didn’t realize it takes weeks to actually make a good fruit cake.  Apparently to make a good cake they fruit has to soak in alcohol for days or even weeks and around my house alcohol is lucky to be there for more than 24 hours.  No sense on wasting alcohol on fruit or cake for that matter, so I didn’t bake or mail a fruit cake.  However, I did try some fruit cake, well fruit cake cookies, and they were delicious.  I need to research my challenge a little better before making them. 

Moving on, my blog has a stats page that allows me to see how many page views I get per day, where they are viewing them and what device they view them on or through.  I mostly enjoy seeing where people are viewing my blog from. I get occasional views from the UK, Germany, Singapore, China, Turkey, Russia, Canada (eh), India, and my favorite Denmark.  Now I don’t know if these are real people viewing them or spammers or the company that I do my blog through or what but I like to say thanks for taking a peak, and to the people in Denmark, how am I doing when I talk about Denmark?

Well I think that’s about enough for this week, I don’t really have a challenge for myself right now but I’m open to suggestions.  So until next time, happy New Year.   

“New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions.”

                                                                                    -Mark Twain

Penny Lane

            Well, we got a dog.  Well, actually a puppy that will grow into a dog, a cute 8 week old Australian cattle dog or blue heeler.  She is a little chunky and fuzzy soft, she looks at you with a pitiful look as though you don’t show her enough attention.  When she sleeps she has little puppy dreams and she grunts the cutest little grunts. I mean, come on it’s a puppy, how could anyone not love the thing. 

            She is a bitch.  And I don’t mean Webster’s definition of a female dog, I mean, a bitch, like the woman in the coffee shop that yells at the clerk for not telling her that her hot cup of coffee that she always gets is hot and she found out by dripping a little onto her hand while putting creamer in it with her hands full and talking on the phone.  I’ve never witnessed that but I bet it has happened.  Anyway,

Penny Lane

, our new bitch puppy, has decided that it is time to terrorize the house.  She yelps, barks, bites, hides under the couch, poops and peas inside, and doesn’t listen when you say no. Ugh, she is a pain.  But she is our pup and we love her and will fight her until she learns who the boss is.  The good news is she is good when she sleeps which is about 20 hours of the day.

            So since I have my work cut out for me for the next few weeks then my challenge is to train a pup.  So until next week…Penny! No! Damn it.  

Post-Thanksgiving post

                Three pounds heavier and one week later… 

            Yes I gained three pounds, actually two and three quarters but who’s counting.  I did exactly like I said I would do, ate too much and drank too much, then try to eat some more and drink some more.  Got to spend time with some of the family, which is always an adventure.  We watched old home movies, looked at yearbooks, played games, and made fun of each other.  Good times. 

            And since Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever it is you celebrate is coming up I didn’t want to give the traditional where and why the holiday came about.  So instead I chose the mighty fruit cake to talk about this week.  Also because I mentioned it last post. 

            The fruit cake has been around literally for centuries and the recipes range from candied fruit, dried fruits, nuts, spices, spirits, basically whatever you want mixed together into cake.   The recipes have changed over the years and are different from country to country and family to family.  In 1913, mail order fruitcakes took off in the US and even though mass produced cakes are alcohol free, traditional recipes include brandy or wine and covered with powdered sugar.  I can’t say that I have ever tried fruit cake, so I guess I don’t understand the joke of the fruit cake, well I didn’t until I looked it up.  Apparently Johnny Carson started the joke of there only being one fruit cake in the world being passed from one family to the next.  The joke was carried on by “the Fruitcake Lady” that appeared on the tonight show after Johnny passed.  Since then the cake was a ridiculed dessert.   Aside from there only being one fruit cake in the world, there could actually be a cake passed from one fam to the next for years.  If a cake is made with our dear friend alcohol, then it can remain edible for years.  In Michigan there is a cake that was baked in 1878 that a family has kept as an heirloom and was tasted by jay leno in 2003. 

            So, fruit cake, my holiday challenge, I will taste, bake, and mail a fruit cake.  I wonder who will be the lucky one that gets the cake, and if they will send it on to someone else. Until next time, shake it out.

“Great things happen when men and mountains meet.”         -William Blake

Pre-Thanksgiving

                I recently have been made aware of a few things; one, stop writing about politics, it’s boring.  Second, I am starting to slack, again, it’s been almost three weeks since my last post.  And third, it’s the holiday season.  Ugh, it’s that time again to eat way too much, drink a little (or a lot) and spend time with the family. Not to mention the traveling, weaving in and out of traffic just to make it on time, the shopping, fighting hoards of people just to get the last fruit cake (just wanted to be the first person ever to use that phrase),  and throw cold and nasty weather on top of it all, I love it.  Well, maybe not the traffic, shopping, or nasty weather but the food, drink, and family.   The cold weather, surprisingly, I like.  I like waking up in the morning getting my hot coffee and walking out into the briskness of that crisp morning air with the sun slightly topping the trees.  And at lunch time walking outside and immediately getting blinded by the bright sun and hit by a cold breeze at the same time.  It seems the air is clearer during the fall and winter time, like the earth went from standard definition to HD.  I don’t know if it’s from the lack of humidity in the air or what, but I enjoy it. 

                Enough, about weather, I’m trying to keep it short today because I have decided to do a pre- and post-thanksgiving blog, don’t worry no cheesy “what am I thankful for” post is coming or recipes for food.   No, no I’m going to keep it simple.  I’m at 183 lbs now (weighed this morning); I plan to see how much weight I gain over the next few days.  I’m guessing over 5lbs.  I also will add some highlights, thoughts, ideas, and maybe my plan on how to lose those extra pounds in the post blog, maybe even add some photos.  So, until next week, eat, drink, and be merry… or crabby, your call.     

“Gobble, gobble.”         -turkey

Politics. Keystone, and Fracing

            I would consider myself an environmentalist (yes this is going to be a political post), so when I heard the stories about the Keystone Pipeline and the ban on hydraulic fracturing, in New York, being lifted I was a little disturbed.  If you don’t know what the Keystone pipeline or fracturing is, then don’t fret kiddies I’m going to go into detail about them.  Now I realize there are two sides, maybe more, to every argument, especially in politics, so I am going to attempt to look at each side and the pros and cons of both.

            So, the Keystone pipeline is an oil pipeline that will go from Canada all the way to the US Gulf Coast.  Now there is already an existing pipeline from Canada down to Oklahoma but that’s not enough, they want to expand it down to a port in Texas for distribution. They also want to run a new line from the same area in Canada and down into Montana then meet back up with the existing one in Nebraska. The oil comes from oil sands in northeastern Alberta, make a few stops at refineries in Illinois and ends in Oklahoma and if the expansion is approved, it’s off the Gulf.  Now, when I first heard about this I jetted off into internet space looking for facts.  Needless to say the resources were endless so I attempted to set my opinions aside and reason with facts and tried to prepare an unbiased post.  If the pipeline were approved, pro side first, then that would create jobs for quite a few unemployed Americans.  It would also provide oil, thanks Captain Obvious, which would alleviate some reliance on oversea oil, which in turn will help us in our time of debt and lower gas prices.  Anti side, let us start with the destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlife habitat (this phrase will be used again later on).  As an environmentalist this is always our number one concern. With oil there is always fear of a spill, thanks BP and Exxon Valdese.  I’m not sure if the plans call for it to be above or below ground, not sure if they even know yet, either way they would have to take or buy land from land owners to “lay the pipe” (ha-ha) which would cause problems with the landowners who don’t want the pipe in their back yard. If it is above ground, how hideous would that be, driving across America and have to see this massive snake of metal cut across your path.   On the top of the anti list is the fact that this crude oil is some of the dirtiest burning transportation oils, which is what it’s going to be used for, so much for America for cleaner energy. 

            Speaking of cleaner energy, let us talk about fracing.  “What the hell is fracing,” you may be asking yourself.  Well hydraulic fracturing or fracing is the technical term used for drilling natural gas where they fracture rock to obtain natural gas.   Same as above with the pros and cons on both sides are jobs, more fuels, destroyed environment, land take-over, etc.  However, the main differences are there won’t be a pipeline but massive oil rig type pumps every so often across the land and transported by tankers from one location to the next. Another key ingredient to the pro side though, is it is a clean burning fuel and is readily available, but do you destroy the land?

            Aside from these issues, Greece is struggling to stay with the euro and may get bailed out by France and Germany, President Obama is fed up with the republicans against his jobs act to rebuild bridges and roads in the US which will give us jobs, and the 99% took over Oakland.

            With the elections coming up in the next year I have obviously been looking at politics lately.  Now as far as Herman Cain goes (possible republican candidate and possibly sexual harassment accused) or other republican candidate, vs. the reigning democrat champ “Big O” Obama in the election race not sure which way I would lean.  So, considering that I would claim myself as an independent because I'm unsure which way to lean in politics,   I came across a site called americansellect.org which is a political site that apparently is going to let America chose their possible candidate in the 2012 election as an independent.  On the site you can rate your priorities to help you chose which candidate to vote for to run in the 2012 election.  So if you already know which way you are going to lean next year then good for you, if not then check out the site.

         

Halloween

We dressed up for Halloween and went out with friends.  We drank, we danced and we drank some more.  By the end of the night our costumes and make up looked a mess and we had a great time.  Here are a few of the pics from the evening.  Mine and my wife's makeup were done by her.   We were dressed in celebration for Día de los Muertos (day of the dead).

Really like this pic.  Took and edited with my phone. 

new phone pic

This is actually looking out my window at work.  It is a picture i took using only my phone and editing with only my phone.