And Visions of Sugarplums...

How was your Thanksgiving? Good? Did you spend it stuffing your gut and watching football? Or did you spend it productively by moving, sanding, and painting? :P

I had mine all planned out. Get up at noon, eat, sleep, watch football. Sounds fun, right? Well... that is my dream anyway. Usually, my Thanksgivings always go the same way.

Get up as usual, feed some sort of animal, feed several other sorts of animals, get home, eat, then watch football while sleeping the afternoon away. Pretty standard, huh.

Well, I don't know if the hex came from PinTA or KTM, but I'll be dipped if Wednesday afternoon I didn't feel that familiar dryness on the back of my throat that portends an approaching sore throat. By the time my bro left that evening, I was starting to shiver uncontrollably. Oh joy.

I'd already had a dram of snake bite medicine, so my next stop was straight to bed. Without getting into the gory details of my usual sleeping attire, I knew that I'd be freezing for a couple hours, then dripping with sweat soon after. That meant I'd be keeping my shirt and longjohns on for the night. It was a long night, but on the bright side, once my teeth stopped chattering I fell right to sleep.

Thanksgiving morning rolled around much too quickly and my throat was not feeling much better. Along with the sore throat were the dry sinuses and stiff neck. All in all a potent combination that equals feeling poorly. Fortunately, my dad and bro did all the feeding that morning and I went back to bed for a couple more hours.

When I finally couldn't sleep anymore, I got up, made a pot of coffee and showered. I felt a little bit better as the morning went on, and decided to go ahead and try Thanksgiving dinner. I was mostly just there in spirit. Nothing tasted good, and I had very little appetite.

But on the bright side, I felt a lot better after my afternoon nap. Good enough that I was able to go back up to my folks place and watch Cars with my nieces. Something they'd been begging me to do for at least 3 days.

It wasn't my favorite Thanksgiving of all time, but all in all... it turned out ok.

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Today's Mystery Lyric:

My mother was a tailor
sewed my new blue jeans
My father was a gamblin' man
down in New Orleans...

Royal Dew?

I ran across this today in Les Nouvelles Fausses...

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Royal Dew.

Correspondent: John Deaux

NEB -- In a move that's sure to shake up both the soft and hard drink industry, U.S. soft drink megacorp Pepsico and Canadian liquor giant Seagrams today announced in a joint statement their plans to release a new combined version of two of their most famous beverages. Citing slumping sales figures, the two plan to combine Seagram's brand whiskey, Crown Royal, with the ever popular Pepsico product, Mountain Dew under the brand name Royal Dew for sale in both the American and Canadian marketplace.

Whether it will be sold in stores, or behind the liquor counter is as yet undetermined, but its mere existence raises serious issues for debate.

Pro Family Group spokesman, T. Totler, expressed outrage at the announcement. "This is outrageous. This is designed to target today's misguided youth and nothing more. We're thinking of calling for a boycott on both products." However, when pressed by this reporter, Ms. Totler did admit to having consumed both products separately.

A local steakhouse/bar owner, who wished to remain anonymous, told this reporter he was overjoyed, "Man, this is gonna save me megabucks. I'm thinking I might even be able to fire a bartender now. At the very least, my waitresses won't have to keep customers waiting as long while they're in the back getting loaded."

As for the rest of the industries, rumors have already circulated that other major soft drink makers, in an attempt to catch up, have already started negotiations with other major liquor distillers to try and compete.

Photo Courtesy of the Amazing Abbadon

BTW, if you think this is a real news story, you need to have your head examined.

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Today's Mystery Lyric:

There you stood a distant memory
So good like we never parted
Said to myself I knew you'd set me free
And here we are right back where we started
Somethings come over me
And I don't know what to feel
Maybe this fantasy is real
Now I know I see what I want it to be
But its still a mystery

Pimpin' Ain't Easy...

Did I mention that I've got a hoe? Yeah... I always wanted one, and finally broke down, negotiated with a guy, we came to an arrangement and I got her. She's not the newest, and she's kinda big, but... so far, she's gotten the job done.

Taking care of a hoe isn't always easy, you've got to make sure she's full up on all the vital things. Plenty of lubrication before she gets to the job, and then there's the fluids. Always gotta make sure that there's a place for them, and that they're not too disgusting. Otherwise you might have to do a flush... yeeeeesh.

But on the bright side, I get to use her whenever I want. The funny thing is, you find that you start to use her in ways and for things that you never imagined you would. But we won't get into those now...

No... today's post is about something that she was made for.

Today I spent all day digging trenches looking for a frelling plug in a pipeline. There's nothing more frustrating than looking for a plug in a pipeline, but the backhoe makes it a bit easier. At least I didn't have to dig up the darn thing with a shovel. No... my little hoe makes finding the pipe much easier. It's still not easy finding the plug, but them's the breaks. The best thing about today was that it was cold and windy, and I was playing in water, and I ran out of couplers, and we didn't find the plug, and the backhoe ended the day with a flat tire.

Yup... just another day in the trenches... and pimpin' ain't easy.

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Today's Mystery Lyric:

I'm just mad about Saffron
Saffron's mad about me
I'm just mad about Saffron
She's just mad about me...

Oh Honey...

Yesterday, it became obvious quite early on that it was going to be an "inside day". Rain and cold wind kinda makes that obvious. Which was alright, because I had a lot of paperwork to do (BTW... I hate discovery).

Anyway... a couple years back, I found a quite tasty beverage that is exceptional on cold rainy days. For some reason, I can drink coffee on cold snowy days, or hot days, but it just doesn't quite hit the spot when you're looking out the window at a cold dreary drizzle. No, on days like yesterday it's time to whip out the gunpowder.

Gunpowder is type of green tea, that I find exquisite. It's not too bitter, has a warm rich flavor, and is in all ways a superior tea. Some days, I even add a little dollop of honey, which combines to make it nearly orgasmic. Yesterday was a good day for the dollop. So I dug out my honey bowl, opened the top and... gone. Hmphf. Time to reload.

So... I went to the cupboard below the counter and drug out my bucket o' honey. A 25 pound bucket to be exact. Now while I was scooping out the now crystallized bee byproduct, it started me thinking. Damn, that's a lot of honey, and then that led me to reminisce about how we got so much.

30 years ago or so, some apieries came to my dad and asked if they could put their bees on his place. He thought about it for around a second, then said, "Yeah, sure. Where do you want to put 'em?" They told him where and he basically said, "Knock yourself out." and didn't think anything more about it.

Later that fall, we came home and there were 2 cases of honey on the front porch. "Erm... What's this?" was the general consensus between Dad and Mom, so they called the apiery. What was the deal? Barter. They figured it was a fair exchange for letting them put the hives there.

So for the next 20+ years, we'd get a couple of cases of honey every fall. Now that, as it turns out, is a helluva lot honey to use up, and we rarely did. Eventually, you end up having the honey not only catch up with you but surpass your consumption, and then you can't catch up. For the last several years, they've only been giving us a case of the honey products (Spun honey, honey in the little dispensers, honey salsa, honey BBQ sauce) and a 25 pound bucket of it. And that's how I came by such a large quantity.

The best thing about it all is that pure honey doesn't spoil. It's the only food that doesn't spoil, believe it or not, but it does crystallize and turn into a sugary blob. Of course, all you do is chisel the crystals out and then heat 'em up and it returns to it's liquid form. Sweet!

All told, it's been one of the best equal exchanges we could have had over my lifetime.

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Today's Mystery Lyric:

This chick's rockin' your bro on the dance floor
but she's draggin' an anchor
a junior investment banker,
who talks about herself, and not much more
so buy her a beer it's the reason you're here
Mighty Wingman...
you're taking one for the team,
so your buddy can live the dream...

Separated At Birth...

Ok... I admit it. I'm hooked on Lost. I picked it up midway in Season 1, and have pretty well been hooked ever since. I still need to add Season 2 to my collection, but that's another story.

Anyway, this season they've introduced several new characters, most of which are "others". Now one of these "others" is named Juliet (played by Elizabeth Mitchell) and she's a youngish blonde gal. But dang... she looked really really familiar. You know how it is, you recognize her from somewhere, but just can't quite place it.

Well... tonight, it hits me. Yup. That's it! That's who she reminds me of! So, what do you all think?




Uncanny... but I'd wager Liz is actually nice. :ewink:

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Today's Mystery Lyric:

Life it seems will fade away
drifting further every day.
Getting lost within myself
nothing matters, no one else

Seeing How Death...

... a necessary end, will come when it will come." -- Shakespeare, Julius Ceasar

I spoke about this in my comment a couple posts back, but anyway... another good friend died on Sunday.

He'd gotten home from church and eaten supper with his wife and two kids, then complained that he was quite tired and went over to the recliner to relax. His wife and children were still in the dining area or kitchen when they heard a large exhale of breath. His 13 year old boy went in to see what the sound was and saw his dad slumped down in the recliner, not breathing. He called out to his mom and they started to do CPR until the cousin they'd called got there and helped them. Unfortunately, despite all of their efforts, and those of the paramedics, he never was revived.

He was quite a guy, but now he's gone at 48 leaving behind his wife, young son, and younger daughter. We'll bury him this Friday. :(

Now... well a couple hours ago, my mom called me and told me that one of my Aunts just had a heart attack and they had to life-flight her to another hospital. So... I guess we'll have to see how this one works out too.

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UPDATE! Turns out she didn't have a heart attack, but she does have a major blockage and they're going to do a quintuple bypass in the morning. So... it's still not "good news" but it is better.

Better Late Than Never

Well... my bro called me up last night to tell me that he'd picked up the new arrival and that it's up there waiting for me right now. To make things even better, he'd plugged it in and it works and everything! But he was kinda sorry he'd plugged it in actually... He'd bought a new compy about 2 years ago, and this one put his to shame. "It's so fast, it's a freakin' rocket ship!" I believe were similar to his actual words.

Anyway... when he went in to pick it up, he told the guy behind the counter what had happened, and asked if we'd made the mistake or they'd made the mistake. "Yeah, we know about that, and should probably change it." was the reply he got.

Now as I've mentioned, my bro is a paid computer nerd, in fact, he and a buddy started their own business a couple years back, and tend to use this computer store to get most of their products for their high end clients. We're not talking about ram chips and cables, no... we're talking $80,000+ servers and such. So my bro, not quite liking the response he got from the "help" started talking to the owner of the store. When he laid out the whole tale from beginning to end about my little jaunt, and the store's little faux pas coupled with the "sucks to be you" attitude he'd just received, he said the owner had that look in his eye that he just realized how close he was to losing a major account. "Uh-oh." says the owner. Then he set out to make it right.

Did he knock off a few bucks? Sell him the compy at cost? Really make this right? Ummm... he gave me a T-shirt with the store's logo on it. *shrug* Meh... it was more than I was expecting.

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Today's Mystery Lyric:

Hangin' round, downtown by myself
and I had so much time to sit and think about myself
and then there she was
like double cherry pie