It is world Philosophy Day

Check out this article from the BBC.

Four philosophical questions to make your brain hurt and......a link to an article about a Czech super model with no belly button!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7739493.stm

Deciding 2008

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Happy Halloween

Where's The Trout!

Another Nail in the McCain/Palin coffin.......

And this is just plain funny (and being updated daily thru November 4th)!

http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Trick or Treat

I found this kind of amusing........

RECORD HIGH JUMP FROM A KNEELING POSITION
A new world record in the 'high jump from a kneeling position' was set last week at a beach in southern France.
This picture was taken just two seconds before the jump took place.

Redneck Fire Alarm

(Compliments of my friend Mike Belcourt.)

 

I refer you to "The Onion"

I found this amusing...........

Palin Bio

Draft Day

Today was fantasy football draft day. It started at 8:15 this morning. W e took a vote and it was unanimous...... If Bill (the commissioner) ever schedules another draft for 8:15 on a Sunday morning, we are going to cut his nuts off!

We drafted two leagues and; I have to say, my teams are clearly superior in both. ( But the I am also on record as having said the Cubs will win the World Series, the Dolphins the Super Bowl, and the Hawkeyes the National Championship..........)

Only drafted 2 guys on IR........What a good year!

Howard's Plunge (The name of the rapid......and no, I don't know who Howard was!)

 

 

For The Record

The log ride at Adventureland ain't got nothin on the North Fork of the Payette River. 14 people and 4 dogs had a blast out on the water today. I hope to have some pictures in a couple of days

I am kind of excited!

I am going white-water rafting tomorrow. This is something that I have wanted to do since I moved to Idaho but for some reason just haven't gotten it done. I am going with a group of friends, one of whom is a very experienced river guide, so it should be a ton of fun. The tentative plan is to run the Carbarton stretch on the North Fork of the Payette river but we may end up doing the Main Payette. We will see what the morning brings........ I'll let you know how it turns out.

An Homage To Lone Wadi

Hi. I know......it has been a while since I have posted. Between the new job and a general lack of ambition the blog has kind of fallen by the wayside. I'll try and be better about posting.

Speaking of the new job, it is going well. However it is my day off so I do not wish to speak of the new job.

I fired up the smoker this afternoon. There is a 3.74 pound pork butt in there that is about 14 degrees from being done.  The fire has been a little screwy tonight. (Might be the cheap charcoal) Anyway, my sweet corn got done way early so I had to eat it as an appetizer. Life can be pretty rough out here on the frontier......but like Lone Wadi in " The Outlaw Josey Wales" I will endeavor to persevere........

I really miss good sweet corn. Most of what you get out here is shipped in from Washington/California/Colorado, but Winco (Boise's version of Hy Vee) actually had some local stuff today. It is not bad but it is not Iowa sweet corn if you know what I mean. Maybe working for Joe Hankins as a kid and getting used to eating corn that was on the stalk three hours before it was on the plate spoiled me.........

I have decided that smoke cooking is not for the impatient. I am fighting off the urge to pull that butt early cause it smells fantastic.  I can wait another 12 degrees. I made up a batch of Carolina vinegar sauce to accompany it earlier today and I am going to make some onion rings too. (I crunched up a couple of cups of corn flakes and mixed in a spice mixture that will remain proprietary for the moment as a coating. It is a first attempt. We will see how they turn out.) Gonna make a dump cake for dessert.

My buddy Major just came back from Chicago. He brought me a 12 pack of Old Style, so I'll be washing it all down with one of those. In fact, I hear one calling me now................

Please Join Me Before It Is Too Late.........

I am sure you saw the headline this morning:

Catfish chokes on soccer ball in German canal

Tragic Soccer death

What is the deal with soccer anyway? I don't get it. I tried to watch the World Cup the last time it was played and the alleged best soccer in the world bored me to tears. In fact, the only match that I have ever found remotely interesting was the one between the great German Philosophers and the ancient Greek thinkers that was part of Monty Python's Hollywood Bowl show.

It is bad enough that parents sign small children who don't know any better up for soccer in lieu of little league.... I won't even bring up the sordid escapades of Reynaldo..... but when a "sport" claims the life of an innocent catfish it is time to act.

Please join me in calling for an International Ban on Soccer!

You Make The Call!

Okay.....I know I haven't posted in a while. I'm back in Retail.........I've been busy.

 

Anyway, it was my day off today so I went in for four haours and threw freight.

 

I decided to stop at Winco on the way home ( translated from Boisean that = HyVee). I bought .93 pounds of salted in the shell peanuts from the bulk bin. I love the bulk bin. I also bough a frozen pizza and a 5 1/2 pound pork but. The checkout guy looked at me like I was crazy.........

 

You Make the Call!

My new job

Just finished a stretch of 10 straight days and something like 15 of 17 at my new Dollar Tree gig. (Welcome back to retail!) So far, so good. I don't know if you have been in a Dollar tree lately, but they are interesting places. Busy all the time. A lot of repeat business. Some decent bargains to be had too. The merchandise mix is much deeper than I think many people realize. If you have a chance, stop in and check one out. (Just bear in mind that you are not in Saks on 5th)

I have decided that retail is like riding a bike. I have been out of the game for ~3 yrs but the basics came back just like that. Some things are the same no matter where you are working. I mean a Z read is a Z read right? Another thing that never changes is the fact that you never have enough payroll hours. 400+ Customers (399 of the being unattended screaming children I swear) can trash a Dollar Tree in no time. It is a real challenge picking up the pieces at night. One thing that is new to me is the single price point. I think that will necessitate a greater emphasis on merchandising (especially impulse items). We'll see. I have only been there 2 full weeks. It is not like I have all the answers.

I am closing tonight so I need to think about some lunch and then head for work. I guess the one thing I am not thrilled with is the 48 mile round trip commute, but what the Hell, gas is only $4.00/gal ( Okay its $3.99/9.......). Until next time

It Worked For Rachel Ray.......

And I would have to say, it worked for me too! I was watching Rachel on the Food Network the other day. She was making fried spaghetti. It looked good so I decided to give it a shot.  Her recipe was pretty simple. She sauteed some scallions in a garlic infused olive oil- butter concoction and then fried some spaghetti on top of it. 

Fantastic in its simplicity, but to me a recipe like that is kind of  like playing the basic rules to a war game. Naturally, I had to screw with it. I decided to add mushrooms, a little spice, and then top things off with a little six- cheese Italian blend. Turned out great.

(My apartment smells like olive oil, garlic, mushrooms, and sauteed scallions right now. Glade should make an air freshener that smells like this.) 

On a completely unrelated note, I have been unemployed since March 2nd. That is no longer the case. I accepted a management position with the Dollar Tree corporation this afternoon. More about that later..............

Atari delisted by NASDAQ

The End Is Near!

http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9940423-52.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Caught My Spatula On Fire Yesterday........

It is officially Summer. I fired up the smoker yesterday afternoon. It was sunny and 72 here in Boise and I figured that would keep me out of any other sort of mischief for a few hours. For the most part, it did.

The guest of honor yesterday was a 4 1/2 pound pork butt done up "Carolina Style".  His day got started around 10 A.M. with a nice dry rub massage of brown sugar, paprika, ground mustard, garlic, onion, salt, and of course, cayenne. My mortar and pestle contributed a healthy dash of pepper and some cumin (lightly toasted before grinding).  He went into the refrigerator and just sat there for about 7 hours. I watched a baseball game, had a late lunch, and screwed around on the computer while he was in the refrigerator.

My smoker is not real fancy or anything. It is an "inexpensive" little offset firebox model.

 

When I first started cooking on this thing my results were wildly inconsistent. I finally figured out that the thermometer it shipped with was about 60 degrees off. (That makes a difference.) I went to Home Depot and upgraded it to a $10 model.  That was better, it was only about 30 degrees  off.  I finally got smart and bought a dual probe digital thermometer. One probe monitors the chamber temperature while the other one monitors the internal temperature of the meat. Good investment.

Since I had a late lunch, I figured I might as well have a late dinner so I fired this guy up about 20 after 4, got my temperature stabilized and threw mister pork butt in for what I guessed would be a leisurely 5-6 hours of smoking.  This is the first time I have smoked anything that was going to take that long. I encountered a new quirk in the design of this smoker. The grate in the firebox sits to low. As the ash started to build up, it was restricting airflow to the fire. This is where I caught the spatula on fire. It was the only thing I had handy that I could reach into the firebox with and rearrange some of the ash. Yes, it was a wooden handled spatula. Yes, I should have known better.  It wasn't going to be in the fire that long.........

To sum it all up, after 5 1/2 hours the pork butt emerged beautifully smoked. I served it with a homemade Carolina vinegar sauce, coleslaw, and some tater tots. Finished it off with a cold beer and called it a day. (The first of many this summer I'm sure!)

Naturally, I couldn't resist this........

As you (may)  know, I love a good pun, am a bit of a history buff, and like to screw around with Unix/Linux on the computer. I ran across this photo which encapsulated all of these things. I hope you find it as amusing as I do........

 

The Headline made me say hmmmm

Afghan leader: U.S. must stop targeting Taliban

President Karzai does know how he got the job right?

Okay, the headline just struck me as odd. To be fair, I'm taking it a little out of context. There are some valid points made in the body of the article.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24321473/

Library of Congress

I was nosing around the Library of Congress website recently. It is quite the site. If you have never taken a look at it, I encourage you to do so. Here is the link:

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

I found this while I was nosing around and thought it rather amusing. Enjoy!

Elmer Fudd on American Idol

KWISTIE LEE GOT SCWEWED!

Are you telling me that compound refugee David Archuleta and ukelele boy Jason Castro are in the top six and Kristie lee is not?

WIDICULOUS!

The 10 3 letter body parts

Meant to get back to this sooner but I have been busy being unemployed. The 10 3 letter body parts are:

Ear, Eye, Toe, Arm, Leg, Lip, Gum, Rib, Jaw, Hip

Please refer to the comments in the original post for a couple of other possibilities (Thanks Kevin!).

3 letter body parts

There are 10 body parts that consist of three letters. Can you name them?

Inquisitive Squirrel

I was reading the paper in the park yesterday when this rather inquisitive squirrel paid me a visit. I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of him(?) spread-eagled on the front windshield looking in on me, but I did get this shot as he checked out the passenger seat.

Cheney or Sauron?

I'll take Sauron..................

Fizzlebot

No....It's not the latest swear word floating around Galactica's flight deck. It is an amusing little PHP game. Try it you'll like it!

http://fizzlebot.com/gridgame.php

My high score (so far) is 938

Greenbelt Photo

I went for a walk on the greenbelt the other day and took this photo. Something about it appeals to me, so I thought I would share.

Great Cubs article in the Tribune

It is entitled "100 questions for 100 years"
Even if you are not a cub fan it contains some amusing trivia. Check it out.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-080329-chicago-cubs-century-world-series,0,3725629.story?page=1

My World Series Prediction..(It is a shocker!)

I spent a chunk of this afternoon watching the Cubs beat up on the Mariners in Vegas. I think it is a foregone conclusion that this is the Cub's century. So here it is......the Cubs will go 107-55 to win the Central by 6 1/2 games over the villainous Brewers. They will breeze through the playoffs and defeat the hapless Twins in 5 games for the World Series title.

Put it in the book..........

Remember QBasic Gorilla?

I ran across this game called "Appleshooter" and it reminded me of the old QBasic Gorilla game (except it is way more twisted!). Lance Kephart and I used to waste hours at Radio Shack screwing around with that game. To think we got paid for lobbing virtual bananas at each other. Anyway the premise here is that you have to shoot the apple off your buddies head. Give it a try when you have a chance....... (I couldn't stop laughing, but then my sense of humor is a little off sometimes.)
http://www.officegamespot.com/officegames/appleshooter.htm

Testing 1-2

Is this thing on?