'Tis the Season

Late Fall and Early winter used to be my favorite time of year, and perhaps still are to some degree – mostly the memories of autumns past. There is something about the scents, sight, and sound of a wood lot in Fall that is hard to explain to one who has never been in the forest. The feeling of awe and reverence inspired by the formal gathering of the trees, most naked their sleek lines and shining bark exposed, Some with leaves clinging tenuously to the branches, their colors faded by time, their mates litter the forest floor in a colorful fragrant carpet for chipmunk royalty to promenade in search of hickory nuts.

Sitting quietly, waiting in ambush for some unsuspecting buck, I hear the stirrings of mice in the dead dry leaves looking for acorns missed by the chattering plump squirrels. A noisy Jay perches above my spot braying its call as if to warn that all is not right in the woods on this crisp afternoon. A red squirrel scolds from a nearby branch as the drumming of the woodpeckers fills the woods.

It is a time of solitude and reflection, the chocolate bitten from the frozen bar in my pocket never tasted so rich, the dance of the trees fills my vision and my senses sharpen to take in even the diehard bugs flitting through the trees.

Far off shots echo through the moraines some hunter luckier than I, some deer not so lucky. I have seen a few does, but my hunt ends with no fatalities. That is ok, because I venture into the wood not to hunt for my food, but rather for the awakening and sense of humility the forest provides. Another Fall day well spent.

Note: My computer has an IFE so I will have some down time to effect some repairs. I will visit and post as I can. It shouldn't be too bad, just awaiting a replacement drive, video card, and a new Nic.

Chili Weather

Time to prep for the big chili cook-off on Friday. I am smoking the tri-tip roast tonight, after leaving it smothered in Chipotle puree overnight. That will be cut up and added to the regular chili- I am also preparing one pot of vegetarian chili, just for grins. I'll cook it tomorrow night so it has time to meld a bit before Friday. I still have to pick up some habanera peppers to add a little heat for the back of the throat, but everything else is pretty much ready to go.

Harry Potter and the Startling Strap-on

The big revelation today is that Albus Dumbledore, head master at Hogwash School of witchcraft and wizardry was gay. That doesn’t come as a big surprise but Rowling did tone down the series a bit. The first book was supposed to be “Harry Potter Gets the Sorcerer’s Bone” to be followed by “Harry Potter and the Phantom Teabag”, where our hero Harry wakes up every morning with a mysterious salty taste in his mouth. As we know, both were retitled to make the gayness a bit more subtle.

Albus wasn’t the only gay in the book. While Ginny Weasely and Hermione were know to share a bed in the dark of the night, it was just harmless experimentation, and in fact both were to have been approached to do “Hogwarts’ Girls Gone Wild” with host Danny Bonadouchebag in “The Goblet of Fire”, but that part got edited out. In fact Neville Longbottom was queer as a three dollar bill (like we didn’t see that coming), and Sirius Black was also gay, because as everyone knows, a few years in Azkaban is bound to change your sexual preference. We were led to think McGonagall was a lesbian, but aside from being caught in a lewd act with the Sorting Hat she was about the most sexless old cow you’d ever care to meet.

We were first introduced to Albus’s gayness when in “The Sorcerer’s Stone”, as it came to be called, he asks the ministry of magic’s head queer Cornelius “Packed” Fudge to make Hogwarts a Boys only academy – and the younger the better, as Albus put it. He was always trying to start up a course called “The mystery of the Disappearing sausage", but he was once again thwarted by the editor’s scissors. Even the Wand of Power, wasn’t really the wand that Voldemort wound up with, it was Dumbledore’s pet name for his dick.

Now the tale of Harry Potter is ended and there is no more, leaving with us with the thought that sometimes a wand is just a wand and sometimes it is a …well you get the idea. One final note, if ever visiting Hogwarts and you happen to drop your wallet, just kick it along in front of you – don’t try to pick it up!

Good Night, All

Time to sleep off that wine. Have a great night and see you all at work tomorrow...

Phos's Very Pleasant Day

#Pm and it is still in the 70's, very nice. Hummingbirds are humming, butterflies buttering and no hornets stirring. I think the weapons of mass destruction I employed against them were effective. Time to go out and catch a little sun, a bit of wine and clean up the husky land mines in the backyard.

Big project for the weekend, moving the furniture around int he bedroom is complete. There seems to be more room than before. The main problem with Tiny House is that there are only a couple options for furniture arrangement in each room. We have exhausted all the possibilities so now it is a matter of getting rid of some furniture that we no longer need. So far attempts to pawn it off on the kids have been fruitless, but we'll try my son again when they come out for a visit between stations. It is nice furniture, there just isn't room.

Well, off to snap a few shots and perhaps drink a little chianti in the bargain. Remember friends don't let friends photograph drunk!!!

Where u @???

You know where I M @!!

Been a busy week, and spent most of it trying to catch up. I think I am there, especially with the updates I had to do. The weather is getting nicer and nicer, down in the 60s at night, which is nice. Yukon loves lying out in the evening and soaking in the (relatively speaking) cold temps.

Tonight I am frying up some burritos and hitting it early. Got to be at my best for Pantsless Friday after all! Hope you all are doing well and the storms have given Little Lamb and the rest of you Floridans a pass. Head on over here if you are really bored and you may see a familiar face...

Here's a shot of some new kids in town:

Way Too Short

Here is ti Sunday afternoon and we're on the downhill track to Monday. Shit. Yukon is crashed out in front of his fan, Austrella is MIA and the washing machine is going full bore to catch up from last week. The Wx is gorgeous and I plan to spend some quality time with a bottle of wine out on the patio later. Maybe even snap some more backyard wildlife shots. Now that the Wx has cooled a bit I may journey a bit more and try to get some more desert pictures. It is a pretty place.

There hasn't been much in the news aside from the usual Iraq body count (the newsie proudly announced the killing is down, there were only four deaths this week, isn't that wonderful news!), the inability of our government to actually do anything about anything and Gore getting the Nobel Prize. I suspect that in the near future anyone who sends in three boxtops from Captain Krunch along with USD5 for shipping and handling will be able to have his or her very own Nobel prize. I do believe there is global warming and man has certainly had impact on it- especially the wealthy man whose investments have increased the number of polluters and the amount of greenhouse gases. The sooner we are rid of the ruling class here in the US the sooner we'll be able to help the people in our country. Rant over.

Hope you had a good weekedn!!!

Let Me Be The First

Merry/Happy christmas!!!!

My first tree sighting in a store. 'tis the season and we haven't even had Halloween yet. To all you non-christmas types, Merry Beerfarts!! Don't want to leave anyone out in our PC world. Ironic thing is I don't buy into any religion, but still do X-mas. I like the smell of cheap plastic evergreen wafting through the house, the sand blowing through the front yard and a hot X-mas morn. Very romantic.

One of Those Weeks

Haven't been on the computer in a bit, as you may know. No reason really, just chilling, I guess. I was doing some yard work yesterday, went to trim the neighbor's vine (it grows over our wall) and got stung by a hornet. The little buggers have taken up residence in what I like to refer to as my neighbor's devilweed. I hosed it down with some hornet spray but to no avail. Tomorrow night, when everyone is asleep a murder will occur- the devilweed must die...

Then today I went to roll down the window in my car, heard a loud snap and now the window is down permanently. All little things, but the piss-me-offs are piling up.

I did start a local Blog on a local news site. Some cross posting and some crap having to do with local news. It did get a mention in the paper, which is cool. In fact all in all more cool things have been happening than not so cool things. Jin made a Phos cookie, /t. had made one of his fantastic art pieces for me, Gnat awarded me a Blue Gnat, Ruela featured me in two of his masterful works - all in all most excellent. What a great bunch of folks we have here, that is all I can say.

Lazy Monday

The Columbus Day weekend has been very nice so far. We had a wonderful visit from our daughter, her husband, and Sharai, our grandpuppy. Sharai has been added to the pack at Tiny House and all dogs get along well.

I had talked to my brother who had been up to Minocqua, WI for a run and also the Beef Festival. The culmination of the beef festival is the “Parade of Roasts.” A squad car slowly drives down the main street, and as it passes each business, the owner comes out with a beef roast he or she has been working on – soon there is a whole line of business people carrying roasts behind the squad car. The parade ends at the park where the roasts are all sliced and made into sandwiches for the hungry parade watchers. I got hungry just thinking about it, so ran out and bought a rump roast.

I had some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (canned), put them in a blender and made a puree. I salted the rump roast, smeared it with the chipotle puree and wrapped it in foil. The roast spent the night in the fridge and then spent three hours on a 200-degree grill with indirect heat. I let it rest a piece of tinfoil loosely wrapped around it for about fifteen minutes, then slices it with my electric knife. It came out pretty good. My apologies to you browsers out there…

Using the camera to sneak a peek at Mrs. Phos's tiles

We got into a heated game of Rummi cubes – I actually won once, you may have felt the resulting orbital wobble as this miracle occurred. We all went on a Wii hunt, my son-in-law wants one – Mrs. Phos (there’ll be no fun of any kind) won’t let me have one. Never did find a WII, but did wind up at the new Rio in El Mirage for some outstanding Mexican food. I had El Ocho, a red beef tamale and beef enchilada with beans and rice. I need a tamale fix once in awhile and this was just in time.

Lunch at the Rio

The most important part of the weekend was celebrating Sharai’s birthday. She has been part of our daughter’s family for a year. She is a great addition to the family!! Happy Birthday Sharai!!

Not quick enough - Sharai "enjoying" her birthday Twinkie

The Birthday Girl

Goodbye Columbus!

Columbus Day is coming right up, a day dedicated to someone who was basically lost. It has come to be an Italian celebration, now that we are in a time where very nationality needs to have its own special holiday – though the Irish get the short end of the stick as usual as St Pat’s isn’t a national holiday. The Norwegians don’t even really have a day, though perhaps they should, say Leif Eriksson day.

Leif brings up the point that the Vikings of yore actually discovered the New World, in particular North America. Wrong-way Columbus most likely discovered Hispaniola, an Island in the Caribbean. Some Native Americans protest on Columbus day, but in reality they are after the wrong guy. I can see them being sore for being tagged as Indians, when in fact Columbus wasn’t anywhere near the place (one has to wonder if Columbus had ever met someone from India as they look nothing like the Indians settled on the carib islands). Anyway the Native Americans should be after old Leif, though I would caution against upsetting a Viking. Leif may have also been one of the first in recorded history to be impacted adversely by climate change, forcing his folks to abandon their holdings in the new world, much to the dismay of the local natives that were about to broker a really sweet casino deal…

Have a great Columbus Day and try not to be sore at the guy, it wasn’t really his fault, after all.

Ideas That Spring From Too Little Sleep

Now You Are Just Being Silly

I have been thinking about Arizona’s problems for some time and have been toying with an idea that might help alleviate a lot of them in one fell swoop. We’d need some cooperation from neighboring states, especially New Mexico, but I think it would work out well for everyone.

Arizona doesn’t have enough water, the housing market is slow leaving workers and builders in the lurch, people are at each other’s throats over immigration, there is flooding in the Midwest and Texas, and so on and so forth. I want to propose the construction of a canal starting in Ohio, dipping South through the Southern states and Texas ending in a containment lake, the former state of New Mexico (would you miss it?). It would be a massive construction project giving unemployed housing workers and volunteers from Mexico plenty of work, enough that no one will mind folks crossing the borders to help out, as well as siphoning all the excess floodwaters from the South and Midwest into the droughty South West. Everyone wins – well, except New Mexico. Side benefits are that AZ would gain a shoreline without a cataclysmic Earth Quake and people could over-seed their lawns to their hearts content. I just called it the TPK Canal, since I came up with the idea, but I am sure the University of Phoenix would pony up a couple Mil to have their name on the canal. There possibilities are almost endless…