Wonderful Friday!

Beersnob and Teehee came over and had a cigar with me last night. Wonderful conversation for well over an hour as our Churchill sized cigars relaxed us on a crisp evening. Our coffee warmed us up and everything was peaceful and calm.

We talked past, present, future, goals, and dreams. That's one thing cigars can bring out in a conversation is plenty of honesty and frank talk. If more Washington politicians would talk things over like the three of us are able to then our country would probably be on a better path than it is right now.

But of course cigar smoking is surely banned in congress, forever dooming them to a life less lived than what Beersnob, Teehee, and I are capable of...go figure:)

Turns out Beersnob and wife were married on the exact same day five years ago, November 6th. The Date has been very excited and the family (I'm not using the term friends anymore when referring to my circle of friends) has shot down the next nickname for her after The Date. I was thinking Ball and Chain and got a menacing look and a No. I've shot down her suggestions such as Light of my Life, Reason for Living, etc.

The Date might just very well stick if I can't come up with something else. Everyone knows who I'm referring to by now anyway.

I watched The League after work yesterday. Great show! More adult than I was expecting but incredibly timely! No one has delved into the comedy that is fantasy football! How many posts have I dedicated to my prime diversion? Many! It's about time a production company catered to me!

This is a brilliantly low brow show, the writing is good, the comedy made me laugh out loud, the characters have lots of room to grow into themselves! I LOVE this show!

Seventeen Hundred Posts

Yeah, that's a lot of posts about pretty much about everything and nothing.

Got off work last night, The Date had supper fixed when I got home (very cool) she went to class and I headed off to have drinks with Chianti. Had a great time for a couple of hours, Witchy showed up and then The Date after class let out early:)

So we all got to sit around for a while in my favorite watering hole and relax as we talked. It would make for a great Mastercard commercial tagline, Priceless.

I've got the most amazing friends/family ever. I know I've blogged this before but my friends really are family. You all know who you are too, if I've hung out with you then you are included, you are my family.

I DVR'd The League, I hope I'm able to watch it tonight. I'm really looking forward to a show all about the funny side of fantasy football! I know it'll be reviewed on Two Guys, A Girl, and a TV Set so you can check that out but be aware they are probably spoilers. I know Mr. Feeny does an outstanding job of reviewing shows and I look forward to reading it after I've seen the show:)

World Series Game One

Though I'm not much of a fan of baseball anymore I do try to catch a game or two of the World Series and if a playoff series becomes compelling I'll catch one or two. I love the NBA playoffs, I watch a few games of the regular season of that though, way more than baseball.

Cliff Lee pitched an amazing game last night. He kept the Yankees at bay by pitching a complete game and allowing six hits. It was really fun to watch, well until I went to bed. They start these games just too late in the evening for people who work for a living.

I can't imagine how they are going to promote the game to children when four innings into the game they have to go to bed. MLB has problems. The Obama count stands at one as Michelle was there.

Had quite a storm last night! I love it when I get woke up by thunder and get to sleep with that as background noise:) It's very good for inducing a restful sleep!

Going to grab a drink after work with Chianti. Been ages since she and I have been able to sit down and have a quiet drink. She (as well as TC and Witchy) are knee deep in planning the reception right now.

I've got the best friends in the world!

Two Blogs Of Note

The Lost and Found Section and The Cauchy Sequence. Both are slices of American life as these gentlemen see it. One is very very new as there are two posts with one very good explanation on how the name The Cauchy Sequence was derived.

I'm a math guy as long as it is simple math and I have a calculator handy otherwise I don't bother. The point the author is driving at is what I connect with though, through its complexity I see the abstract idea that the author was aiming for. It is brilliant in its conclusion and has the cool cerebral edge to it. I feel I can read his first post and actually gain IQ points.

The Lost and Found Section is as the author explains, a blog simply about nothing. So far it is compelling as it is updated daily and we see how the author thinks about....um...nothing!

If I may offer advice to both authors, stick with it. Update it daily, let the readers inside and hold very little back on what you think, how you think, and why you think it. Reality TV as we know it has been around for over a decade now and it just isn't going anywhere but blogging...blogging will be around for decades to come.

Americana has evolved, some might think it has devolved (I think in some ways it has) but it is changing and some change is good. From journal writing with a quill to typing on an illuminated keyboard with the cool glow from LCD monitors staring back at you, our thoughts count for a little too, not in an egocentric way but in the way that gives voice to the voiceless.

These slice of life diaries in the virtual nonexistence existence will be out there for decades. I mean they aren't carved in stone for eternity or anything but for someone who wants a lonely, tiny voice in the dark they are the perfect medium.

The Sons Roll

With Jax and Clay fighting for control of the MC chaos is erupting around them all. As last night's show ended they were all further apart than they had ever been. I believe next episode Clay's secret will come out and either turn the entire club against him or they will be so disillusioned they will end the MC as a chapter.

I doubt that will happen, the show is getting better ratings than The Jay Leno Show. No doubt that has some NBC suits very nervous about their long term employment! In any event I am sure that by season's end everything will be up in the air and the table set for next season!

Tonight the World Series throws out its first pitch. I wonder what the over/under is on Obama appearances. I'd say three either video taped or live from the White House or possibly a live showing.

Watched Ice Age Three last night. Very funny, I love me some Scrat! They really created one of the funniest characters that never utters a syllable. Does Scrat find love? I'd recommend this movie for anyone, Simon Pegg has a great character and it's a fun, funny movie!

I'm disappointed in some of the cable channels this year who aren't showing classic monster movies as they have done in years past. I'm looking at you TCM! I enjoy black and white monster movies and with five hundred channels you'd think you could find one leading up to Halloween!

My Friends

Are the best ever. When they found out about the impending events three of them took it upon themselves to secure the lobby to the Theatre for the reception! I kind of got choked up over the matter.

Love my friends dearly and believe me I count them as family and I'm blessed to have each one of them in my life. I'm looking forward to decades of fun and frivolity to come:)

Each one of you who personally know me, and you know who you are, thank you for being my friend and I hope The Date and I bring as much enjoyment to your lives as you do to ours:)

Life Is Going To Get Good

Yep today I did it, I talked it over with the iPhone and Rocket the cat and we decided to ask The Date to become The Wife and The Things to well remain The Things but to become my family.

November sixth will be the day. Was considering October thirtieth but there is just way too much going on this weekend to get things in order by then.

Yeah, it's good already but it'll be that much better in two weeks:)

My expansive family of friends and family of family have given us their wholehearted blessing and I couldn't be happier:)

Nice Sunday

Although my fantasy football teams went 0-2 my fantasy NASCAR team took second place this weekend and cut the lead of the first place team in half. If I can keep this up then I'll have my overall lead back in a couple of weeks as the season winds down.

The Date and I went to Chianti's house and watched the Dallas game in the afternoon. Beersnob came over a little later on and he brought cigars so we stood outside and enjoyed them and conversed. I had a 5 Vegas Gold and he had a CAO Italia.

It was chilly out but it really didn't matter, the moment was good and everyone had fun.

I'm blessed to have friends like them but more than that I'm blessed to have The Date and The Things. It's getting hard to remember what life was like before they moved in.

Week 7

Well this week is going to be a tough one. I've got three WRs who are on a bye. No big deal, I'll chalk this week up as a loss and be full strength the rest of the season. Hopefully they will pick it up from here on out and be a force in the league.

In my main league I'll have a full roster but it won't matter as I'm still middle of the pack. I fully expect to be 0-2 this weekend at this point. I've become the Titans in both leagues. High expectations after a stellar last season and a better team than is showing up on the field but still not producing.

It sucks but such is the world of fantasy football. It happens in this game and in one league I can build on and field a better team next season, in my main league it's time to fold the tents and donate the rest of my weekly payments to the eventual winners.

Yeah it's tough to take, it really is but again this is the game I love to play and this is what can happen even if you have one of the best teams on paper.

Friday Was Fun!

Yes my day off was really nice. The Date and I spent pretty much the whole day together until she went to work in the late afternoon.

At seven on TCM one of the best thrillers of all time, Night of the Hunter with one of the most iconic villains of all time (Reverend Harry Powell) with his Love and Hate tattoos.

Robert Mitchum burns up every scene with his menacing presence as he hunts down ten thousand dollars he believes a condemned man hid with two children. This classic was Charles Laughton's directing debut and the end of his directing career as well. As with many movies of the time it was a box office failure that found an audience years later.

It is hard to imagine how this movie would have been received. It is a very dark movie as Harry Powell stalks and terrorizes children while beguiling the adults with his prison charm. Laughton did a masterful job of using shadows, room angles, and camera trickery to bring you into the scene with Powell and all of his malevolence.

It is a shame that he only directed one movie. Laughton was a brilliant actor in his own right from the blood thirsty Captain Bligh to the sympathetic Quasimodo, his acting range was untouched by many of his peers.

After Night of the Hunter was over I flipped channels for a while until Stargate: Universe came on. Again this series shows me why it is quickly becoming one of the best scifi shows on TV today. I wish I could get into the details of this episode however you know I hate spoilers and won't. It is worth it to watch it for yourself though and see what I'm talking about. So I'll give a spoiler free summary for those of you not inclined to take my advice.

SG:U isn't becoming an episodic show with the alien race of the week format. Instead it is more serial in nature with the story carrying on episode to episode. The imminent threat that was to destroy The Destiny in the last episode wasn't neutralized and in fact became a very good thing. The Destiny is a very smart ship, almost with a life of its own. Ancient technology, again the race that built the Stargate system, has a way of taking care of the things it has set in motion. Not so much a deus ex machina as it is just plot point of not knowing what The Destiny is capable of.

Without spoiling things The Destiny is in trouble and a lottery is held to draw the people who are to be sent off to safety. The emotional effect of the lottery on the characters was heart stopping as they knew they were going to certain doom. The survivors were certain to deal with their own issues as they were to be saved from a horrible fate by the luck of the draw.

I'm hoping SG:U enjoys several seasons of twenty episodes each. It is that good to me.

Who Left The Fridge Door Open?

It's cold all of a sudden! It's in the low forties right now!!!
I took off today as my leave was about to breach one hundred hours:) Don't want it getting too close to the magic mark. Had a good time last night with The Date and Jdub at Bdubs playing some brutally hard trivia.

When The Date and I showed up we played some even harder trivia based on the periodic table, if you think you could do it I'd say I doubt it. It was things like who discovered element 79 and things like that. I'm just going to go on record right now and say that the periodic table does not a good trivia game make.

After that was a long game called Six. It was more trivial pursuit based as there were categories. The questions progressively got harder as the game went on. I wound up fourth overall and won one block of questions out of four. Jdub did very well and landed very high despite missing out on the first block all together and having a bad playmaker to start. The Date also finished in the top ten again with playmaker problems as the battery went dead.

It was a fun evening for sure:)

Thursday:)

Had a really good evening. It was Ghost Hunters night and that's always a good night:)
They investigated a theatre in Chicago that really had some weird activity going on. The bad thing is that they didn't capture a lot on film though but they did get some thermal images that were very bizarre.

Before that I had built a good fire of charcoal in my charcoal chimney for grilling chicken. We made a grilled chicken pasta salad that was very good:)

The Date had purchased some Mexican hot chocolate in these hexagonal blocks and we had hot chocolate. It really is very very good! It has more of a cinnamon taste to it than our hot chocolate.

It was rainy and drizzly outside so it was perfect for hot chocolate and a cigar on the patio:) That was really fun! Me and some country legends on the patio just enjoying the weather and cool evening. Loved ones inside all warm and snug, sometimes life is better than you hoped it would be.

New Favorite Starship

A few hundred posts ago (I looked and couldn't find it) I listed my favorite starships and proclaimed the USS Cygnus as the best looking one. I'm going to update that and bump the Cygnus to number two on the list.

The Destiny from Stargate: Universe by far looks like a starship I'd like to be on. Well not in the situation that the occupants of the Destiny find themselves on by any means but say if the ship was in optimal condition.

Destiny is really a work of art among the geek world of starships. It has long and fluid lines, narrow in the front and flares out wide like an Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars. It is really quite the opposite of the more gothic styled USS Cygnus.

Destiny is massive but not nearly as big as Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer, The Executor. Probably far bigger than The USS Enterprise from TNG which is pretty large but again not the behemoth Executor.

There are starship comparison charts out there for the searching but none of them have the Destiny on it.

Stargate: Universe is quickly becoming the best (and sadly very few) Scifi show on TV. This show rocks. The show is still really dealing with the basic conditions on board the Destiny. Food rations, air problems, water rationing, and power shortages.

I'd like to compare it with something but unfortunately the only thing that comes to mind is the new Battlestar (now deceased and someday in rerun heaven) Galactica. It has lots of human drama, lots of potential for more, and a premise that has really intrigued me in the Stargate realm.

The characters are developing. There are more than a few who you really don't have a handle on as of yet. One guy for sure is very unlikable and unsympathetic and it isn't Rush the doctor. Dr. Rush is just very high strung but he also has everyone's survival interests at heart and will work on them nonstop despite his social shortcomings.

I'm hoping for a few seasons:)

The Ballad Of Anita Tse Tung

Ok I want to provide the context of the following clip of video. Mao Tse Tung (or Zedong)was one of the absolute evil men of the twentieth century. He was the direct cause of death for over seventy million people. He was more lethal than Hitler and Stalin. Mao is also one of the heroes (unbelievably so) of the unreasonable left.

Not all the left, just the loony left. I know lots of very reasonable lefties who would spit on Mao if given the chance. I just want the video clip to be in context.



This is Anita Dunn. As you can tell if you venture over to the link she is the White House Communications Director. I am forced to ponder if there is anyone in the administration who doesn't look up to leaders such as Hugo Chavez, Saul Alinsky, Bill Ayers, Castro, or other radicals. I'm just not wired to see how these people who either suppress or promote the suppression of freedom loving people should be admired.

What's wrong with a White House official saying how they admire George Washington, Ben Franklin, or John Adams? Without splitting hairs the Founding Fathers believed that man's natural state was one of freedom. That men were given that state of freedom by their Creator NOT by any government institution. This was written out, debated, and finally approved as our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Our President has described the Constitution as a document of negative liberties or in other words what I see as a document that limits what government can do to you he sees as something that keeps government from doing something on your behalf. Which leads directly to the nanny state and redistribution of wealth (stealing from one person to give to another) debate which I'll not delve into here. It would be similar to FDR's Second Bill of Rights which is right out of Marx's playbook.

You are guaranteed a house, job, practically everything so there is no reason to do anything. The government will take care of you because you are too stupid to do it yourself, just keep voting for X and the checks will keep coming.

Ok so to wrap this up Anita Dunn, White House official, admires Mao one of the most murderous leaders of the twentieth century and hero of the unreasonable left. She does not cite the Founding Fathers of her own country.

Just ask yourself, would you hire someone such as her to be in YOUR administration?

A Win Anyway

I won one game in my keeper league so that'll bring my record to 2-4 which is nicer than 1-5. Tom Brady's magic arm saved the day as the Patriot's offense appeared to click but it was against the hapless Titans. Brady was lights out yesterday tossing five TDs in the second quarter alone. They called off the dogs in the third quarter after his sixth TD pass.

Spent football Sunday at Skate's house with friends, great time too! Good food, good friends, good football to watch, it was even nice outside! It was a good end to a good weekend:) Got it? Good!

The Date and Thing 2 finished off the fourth season of Lost. Now it is a long wait until December when season five comes to DVD. She also finished John Adams on Saturday. Brilliant series and it helped her with her history class, lending perspective and context to her book.

It is a great series and John Adams is often overlooked today as a Founding Father in lieu of Thomas Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington. Adams did a lot of the unsavory work that never got the attention.

Well I'm off to start another week!

Fantasy Drought

I'm doing poorly in both fantasy football leagues this season and now I've dropped to second place in NASCAR after dominating for a couple of months. After being a couple of hundred points ahead I now find myself seventy seven points down.

In my keeper league today I'm going to drop LenDale White and pick up Cedric Benson who has really re-energized his career this season.

As I predicted earlier in the season my teams would succeed or fail on the RB position's performance. They have failed to deliver the goods thus far. In my main league I'm up and down. I'm decent points wise, middle of the pack, but my record is 1-4. I'm bad in my keeper league points wise and share the identical record of 1-4.

I'd have to win out in both leagues to have salvaged season and I don't really see that happening. Never say never but it would be a feat on par with the Miracle on Ice at the Olympics.

Really Nice Friday Evening

After a particularly long week at work and a very slow Friday afternoon I decided it would be time for Irish Coffee and cigars in the evening. My friend Narrator came over but I'm going to have to come up with a better nickname for him, I'll think it over.

Anyway we are chatting on Facebook and I mention my plans and invite him over to share in the relaxation that is my evening. He agrees and heads over. I make coffee and prepare a cup until he arrives.

When he does get here we go through the humidor and I explain what a few cigars are that he might enjoy, the kind, shape, flavor profile, etc. He says surprise him so I select a Oliva Serie O, a mild to medium cigar that will go well with the coffee. I make my selection, an Ashton VSG and we head outside with our coffee in tow.

We set down and we just chat. It was very nice. Yeah it got kinda chilly but it wasn't distracting. After the first cigars I offered a second so I selected two more, Cubans. I found a Partagas and something else I knew was Cuban but unbanded. I gave the Partagas to (I'm going to call him Teehee, I know everyone who knows him will know who that is) Teehee and we enjoyed some small Cubans. Fortunately these were actually good! I've found that about 50% of the Cubans I've had have construction problems and quality issues, but are generally smooth. These were good.

After that we joined The Date and Thing 2 inside as they were watching John Adams, the miniseries. Great show:) Teehee played with Zip for quite a bit and thankfully wore him out:)

All in all it was a very nice evening and the perfect capper for my week:)

Captain Queeg

-- Post From My iPhone

Whewwww

Made it! It's Friday after a particularly grueling week at work. I know The Date is frustrated with me at times because she will ask about my day at work and I really just say it was fine or some such nonsense. I know she is concerned and wants to know but I don't like talking about work.

I forget it exists until I have to clock in the next day. I'm appreciative of my job, the benefits, and the strike taught me how perilous I'd be without an income however I don't want to talk about it when I'm off the clock. I like a lot of the people but it is getting to where they make you jump through so many hoops just to accomplish the smallest thing.

Things have to be checked out of a secure location, signed out, inventoried, and put into a portable secure box for transfer just so you can go to where the job is, that is before you even do one shred of work. It is very demoralizing and it's ridiculous and lately a lot of it is because of Captain Queeg the inspector.

He is disgruntled. He came here a few months ago because he didn't get a transfer to a place he wanted to be. He feels personally slighted by life I guess and is taking it out on everyone, abusing his power because he is mad at the world. He has made every section slower and more inefficient because of his write ups.

Our supervisor, a former inspector, believes he is an idiot as Queeg's citations are dubious and have no merit. He writes things and then you are supposed to cite the source where you are in error, Queeg's sources are 90% wrong, they are either old and not valid, they apply to other sections and not the work section you are in, he is essentially making things up to prove he is right.

He is just one facet of my job though and the day to day stresses I forget about after I clock out. There is one good thing though, today is doughnut day! For a small donation each week you get doughnuts on Friday!

Fall Break....

I'm doing my normal routine this morning. I get up and shower, take Zip out, and then let him in and turn on The Date's light to get her around. Zip jumps up and down on her which helps wake her up. Then I go up stairs to turn on Things one and two's lights.

I tell Thing 2, "Let's go!" as she is always the first to get up anyway after me. "Where are we going?" "Wake up," I reply back.

"It's Fall Break..." They should really tell me these things sometimes.

I did not know this so I go back down and check with The Date who confirms that none of them have school today. Go figure. I'm all alone this morning enjoying the aroma of coffee I won't have time to drink before going off to work.

It is still drizzly outside. I found an old Coast to Coast AM show in my archives that featured a guy who tried to crack the Jack the Ripper case. Thought it would be great listening as I was dozing off in this weather. Very Rippery weather for sure over the past few days.

It Passed

The Baucus bill passed the Senate committee yesterday. Now Harry Reid will combine elements of it with another bill that got out of committee and that bill will go to a vote on the floor.

Meanwhile the House bill will be assembled in a similar fashion and sent to the floor to be voted on. Once there is is a Senate and House bill passed they will go to a conference committee and hash out the differences and produce a bill to take to the President to sign.

The House bill will have to have a public option, the Senate bill will have to have penalties for people who refuse to get insurance and tax plans that cost over eight thousand per year (a number that is sure to fall to pay for this behemoth of a bill, along with a possible VAT, and windfall profit tax on all insurance companies).

I'm all in favor of a VAT (Value Added Tax) or a national sales tax in lieu of income tax. Naturally you'd exempt food and clothing so it isn't regressive but that isn't Speaker Pelosi's plan. She wants the VAT AND the income tax to be adjusted up a bit to pay for the ultimate bill that Obama wants.

The weird thing is that the taxes won't start for two years (after the midterm elections) and the health care plan won't start until at least 2013 (after the next Presidential election) very shrewd moves on the liberal sides. As a sitting President he has a good chance of being reelected, I believe he will be more Carter like and go down as one of the worst Presidents ever though. Regardless he would stand a great chance of NOT being reelected if his plan kicked in while he was in office in his first term.

Since Congress is up for election every two and six years they have timed the tax increases to start just after their elections, again very shrewd political move. They are banking on short memories of the public.

Even though I don't like what is happening I am marveling at the adeptness in which they are exhibiting in doing it.

Important Vote Today

The soon to be very infamous bill which will make and break many career politicians in D.C. will be voted on. One of the center pieces of Nobel Peace Prize winning President Obama's agenda, health care reform.

No one disagrees that the insurance system needs reformed. I stand on the side that America doesn't need a Canadian, or UK style of government run health care. Senator Max Baucus disagrees. His bill is expected to be voted out of committee today and head to the Senate floor.

I couldn't break it down here in a hundred years as it is so densely written so I'll make it black and white as many issues in Washington really are. Do you believe it is moral to tax someone who earns insurance now to pay for those who do not? Keep in mind that the government isn't in any kind of business to pay for anything, their only business is tax code which produces their revenue.

The Baucus bill does tax "Cadillac" plans which really is most health care insurance plans as far as I can tell. You can bet they will only say it is the plans of the upper 1% of earners who have these plans. I disagree as I have one of these plans and I'm far far from one of the top 1% of earners. In fact everyone where I work has one of these plans and some of them barely make twelve dollars per hour. Actually it taxes the insurance company offering the insurance and those costs are then passed over to the consumer such as myself.

So is it right to tax someone who is making twelve dollars per hour and take that money to buy an insurance plan for someone who doesn't have it?

Most of you readers know me personally but for those of you who don't let me fill you in a bit. If you are hungry, come over, I'll cook you a meal. If you have trouble paying your water bill and I have the spare money, I'll give it to you or what I can. If you are stranded on the side of the road, I'll stop. What I object to is when someone tells me I have to give X to Y because Y doesn't have a job, or their job doesn't offer insurance.

I'd say change the tax code, let the business keep more of its money so they can do right by their employees. Don't tax them to death and penalize them. I'd say change the tax code so that you can buy your own insurance. Let the health care insurance businesses compete against each other as Geico and Progressive do for car insurance.

Yeah I know it is an oversimplification however it is valid nonetheless. For the money they want to spend they could BUY insurance plans for every single uninsured person out there and it would cost half as much. Instead they believe several layers of bureaucracy is the solution. More bureaucracy riddled with fraud like medicaid and medicare is the solution. They actually said that once that fraud is eliminated it will almost pay for the entire bill....if so then WHY haven't they done so already? Obviously they know it is there, so why not fix that first and then tackle it from there?

Because that isn't their goal. Their goal is the total single payer system and once that is in place America as we know it is on its financial death bed. This system has NOT worked in Massachusetts but that doesn't deter them from wanting to do the same thing on the federal level. They actually believe that more government intrusion into your life is the answer.

I've got lots of liberal friends, some of my best and closest friends in fact. I can't think of any but maybe one who would like to live under the nanny state our feds are proposing. Most of my friends are hard working and pretty independent. They earn their livings doing going out into the world as I do to pay their bills and mortgages. I really can't think of one liberal friend who is incapable of living their own lives, free from government interference.

They all know what is best for them and don't need anyone else telling them differently. The difference is that in D.C. they look at all of us as incapable of making the right choices for us.

Pay attention today, it is an important vote.

It Was A Mad Sunday

First of all my surprise was carried out flawlessly. She was amazed and very happy when she found out via my blog what was going on for the day:)

PF Chang's was very tasty! I'd recommend it:) I had turned in my week 5 lineup the day before. I believe I won third place in my first league and I'm bringing up the rear in my keeper league. The bye weeks are here and every fantasy owner hates it when they are upon us. It's the scourge on fantasy sports.

Then after we got back home I decided to grab my chair, a blanket, some Irish coffee, and a Padilla Signature 1932 and head outside:) The Irish coffee turned into three Irish coffees and the cigar eventually turned into a Bolivar Cuban. Again I was disappointed by a Cuban cigar.

My pallet has been refined since I started enjoying premium cigars and it seems that every time I grab a Cuban I don't enjoy it as much as a Non Cuban. It was a very enjoyable time outside in the cool air:) I need to get a snuggie though for the upcoming Winter.

Then it was time to start Mad Men. I watched the first three episodes. First of all it is a very atmospheric show based in 1960 at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue. I felt like I probably reeked of smoke and I'm not positive but I might have caught a buzz from all of the alcohol they drank.

This is a show where men treat women as objects and women are content to stay at home and cook. A divorced woman is a social albatross and the other women henpeck her with how are you going to live without a man? Now I readily admit that I laugh at the WNBA as a sport. It is frequently a punchline but by no means would I treat a woman as they are treated on Mad Men.

Overall I'm really pretty engrossed with the show though. Don Draper, the main character, appears to have had a previous life. He is married and so far has been increasingly disenchanted with his home life. He has a lover in the city and nearly started another affair....and this is three episodes in!

I'm looking forward to seeing where this show goes. It has started its fourth season now on AMC and I'll be able to catch up quickly as the third season will be on DVD soon.

Big Day

IT took some planning but I pulled it off. I finally asked T to find out what place in the city The Date would enjoy eating at since I knew T was going to see her on Friday to pick up part of a science project for her son. Turns out it is PF Changs so today we will be driving to PF Changs for her bday lunch:)

Funny thing is that the way T did it, she said she was going and would she like Changs or another place. T texted me back and then forwarded her message to her, she was very excited, LOL!

Then I nagged her to death on Friday to get new tires on her car so it would be safe to drive today. I know she was just thinking I was nagging but today's trip is the reason for it.

All in all it was successful since she didn't have a clue. I laid it on really thick last night as we went to Hastings. I picked up the first season of Mad Men and told the man at check out I was stocking up for the weekend so I wouldn't have to get out, picked up a few candy bars too.

At this point I believe she thinks I may have forgotten:)

I Could Talk About

The Nobel Peace Prize joke that was played on the world yesterday but I won't. It'll be talked to death by other bloggers. Both pros and cons and they'll cover way more angles than I could possibly think of.

Instead I'd rather talk about Rocky Horror last night at the local college. They had a showing. A group of the friends I know and love went out there to witness the show. It was enjoyable even though it really wasn't what we were expecting.

First we got there and they started Young Frankenstein. We all loved that movie as well so we watched it and laughed with the sparse audience. A few more people came in for Rocky. Between the movies they drew for door prizes and it's really funny! There were five of us there. Four of us won out of six prizes! I was the only one to go home without a door prize. The Date did win a Halloween themed drink shaker with two shot glasses though!

We left a couple of songs after Time Warp as the chairs were uncomfortable and we had been there a good while. We had fun, I wish the audience had been bigger though. I was really wanting the whole Rocky Horror audience experience and Witchy (who won a Halloween snow globe) was the only one in the whole show who knew all of the audience participation lines.

We had fun, it was a good evening:)

Woohooo!!!!

This is one of the rare occurrences during the year where I have a payday and a three day weekend! Amazing! I love it when things line up like that, means there is a good weekend in store:)

Yesterday it seemed like it rained a foot, all day long and usually only a brief shower separated long periods of hard driving rain. Everything was soaked. Even though I wasn't I felt like I was soaked to the bone.

I've always wanted to experience a hurricane. I figure that the rain we had yesterday would be what it's like after the hurricane has left and you just have some storms to deal with. Speaking of hurricanes, it appears that this hurricane season is really pretty quiet. Chalk one up for nature over the socialist green freaks who want you in a horse drawn carriage while they lay out a different set of rules for themselves.

I know a lot of liberals, not one of them is attempting to leave the cushy lives they have in favor of moving to a socialist country though. In fact I can't think of one of them who would want to live under the marxist government restraints that seem to be on the horizon either.

Oh well that's a blog post for another time;) And yes it'll happen, I've got time.

Storming Up A Storm!

It is very storming right now! A big, loud, noisy storm too. A quick glance at the radar shows me that it'll be gone in about an hour though.

It's Thursday. Watched Nostradamus Effect last night while flipping to Ghost Hunters, then a very interesting Destination Truth. Usually Josh finds nothing but sounds. Last night the crew found a tiny decaying corpse (about the size of a chicken but had feet that looked like hooves) that baffled scientists, saw lights in a dead end tunnel, and found a mysterious light outside in the sky that was brighter than anything else around in the Chilean desert. It was some compelling TV watching!

They were searching for UFOs and they definitely found some unexplained stuff. It was a good change from the usual blurry pictures and shaky video footage they take. Ghost Hunters was decent. Nostradamus Effect though was a real eye opener. I had no idea that Sir Issac Newton dealt in eschatology as well as being one of the greatest minds in science ever.

Now of course I am a partial preterist and believe that Revelation mostly dealt with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It was the classical Christian belief as well until the early nineteenth century when dispensationalism became what we commonly know today as the end times. It is the destructive end of the world stuff and sells tons of books, makes lots of money for churches willing to exploit that belief, and makes evangelists some major bank.

Newton had calculated the end of the world as 2060 but Solomon's Temple will have to be rebuilt, which I don't believe it ever will, well not without a massive war with Muslims when the Al Aqsa mosque is torn down. It simply will not happen in the next fifty years and change.

It was an interesting show though on History, one of my favorite channels:)

Ghost Lab

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and the narrator of The Deadliest Catch (one of my favorite shows) does triple duty narrating this ghost hunting extravaganza. Two brothers from San Antonio with lots of high tech equipment travel around the country and explore ghost stories and try to capture them on a variety of instruments.

Yeah you might think it is a Ghost Hunters clone. It really isn't. Ghost Hunters was first and to me by far the most interesting ghost hunting show on TV. You just love Jason and Grant and always pull for them.

The Klinge brothers are a little bit more gruffer, a little bit more heavy handed with the ghosts and up front. They seem like guys you would like to grab a drink with after work or guys you want in your fantasy football league because they are going to put on a big feed for you with grilled everything.

The show itself, well I'd say for a ghost hunting show its ok. It was only the premiere last night and they were in Louisiana at a music hall where many rock legends got their start and then a plantation where GH have already been.

I like the show but I like Ghost Hunters better. I'm just more familiar with that cast of characters like Steve, Tango, Kris, and of course Jason and Grant.

I Lost

Both games but I did have fun for an hour hanging out with Beersnob at a local wings place. Not BDubs either.

I found a flyer on a bulletin board about The Rocky Horror Picture Show this Friday night at the local college. I believe a delegation of my friends will be attending the costumed show. Unfortunately two of the ones who would enjoy it the most, Skate and Jassie will be out of town to celebrate their one year.

This should be quite an event as Beersnob is a veteran of the Greenwich Village showing of TRHPS. I'm looking forward to attending, it'll be interesting to see how it goes!

Week 4 Results

It appears that both my teams will be middle of the pack this season. I can't break out and contend through the first quarter of the season. Yeah it is a marathon but if you aren't a front runner yet then it'll be unlikely that you'll be in the lead later on.

For the most part it is my RBs who aren't clicking as I suspected. In my main league I'm losing 46-22 with Percy Harvin left. In my keeper league I've got Green Bay and Percy Harvin left and I'm losing 31-24. I've got a chance to win that game for sure but it'll take some defensive scoring and Harvin is going to have to have a good game.

Such is fantasy football. You run the numbers, read the inside reports, and maybe you wind up out thinking the room at times. I didn't out think the room so much as just rolled the dice on my RBs. It's ok though, the keeper league will have a good foundation to build on.

The main league is a tough league anyway. It'll always be better next season!

Week 4!!!!

In the keeper league I'm going to roll with Tom Brady, Darren McFadden, LenDale White, Calvin Johnson, Percy Harvin, and Justin Gage. Elam is on a bye so I'm rolling Matt Prater and the Packers D.

In my main league I'm going Matt Schaub, Pierre Thomas, Fred Jackson, Fitz is on a bye so it'll be AJ, Housh, and Percy Harvin. Prater, and the Giants D.

Pierre Thomas is off of his injury and announced last week his return with over one hundred yards rushing and two TDs. I'm looking forward to him being back today and in my lineup! Schaub and AJ should rip apart the Oakland D.

It should be a good day for my teams:)

SG:U Is Great

I was very happy with the premiere of SG:U. It did appear that O'Neil had packed on the pounds. We briefly saw Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson. No mention of Teal'c though. That was a shame as everyone loves Teal'c.

All in all the story breaks down like this: at project base Icarus they find the ninth chevron but can't encode or lock it. One of the doctors decided to put the problem into a video game (ala The Last Starfighter) for a kid to solve. He solves it and they beam him aboard the ship orbiting Earth.

Then they hyperspace over to Icarus base. When the base comes under attack by the Gou'ald they find a way to solve the problem to lock the ninth chevron. The stargate engages and they evacuate the base to an Ancient starship. The Ancients built the stargate system.

The ship is very old and heavily damaged. They have immediate problems of air leaks and the atmosphere scrubbers are barely working leaving air, food, and water as immediate goals of the evacuees.

Where the show will go from here is up in the air. They can explore planets when they near one with a stargate. I'm sure they will encounter different alien life forms, good ones and bad ones. They have limited everything now as they are billions of light years away from Earth and no way to dial home for some reason I don't quite understand unless it is just too far away.

I'm looking forward to next week and seeing how this show progresses through the season:)

Stargate: Universe

I'm really looking forward to the premiere of SG:U tonight. It appears that RDA at least makes a small appearance in the premiere. Maybe Teal'c will be on there too. I'd love to see all of SG:1 but I doubt if that'll happen for some reason.

Lou Diamond Phillips stars in this next Stargate franchise after the very successful Stargate: Atlantis, which was surprisingly canceled. It was consistently one of the highest rated shows on Syfy. LDP really isn't what I'd call scifi material but we'll see. It's good to see him working again.

The new franchise takes place in a far far away galaxy on board an abandoned ship of the Ancients I believe. The Ancients built the Stargate system. It appears to be a series without the fun of the previous two shows but I'll hold out until seeing a few episodes before making that call.

It looks promising and has been promoted nonstop so far. The Stargate franchise is really an anomaly. The first show ran for over two hundred episodes and might have had one or two more seasons in the tank since it added Ben Browder and Claudia Black to the cast. Instead they opted to quit and do direct to DVD movies. They wrapped up the storylines quite nicely too, still it is like revisiting friends at this point when you see a character again.

The Stargate ideal was to make faster than light travel possible and accessible to everyone. You can essentially go to work, travel to another planet, explore all day, come back, and go home for the evening in your own car. It was like being in Starfleet but more accessible.

Yeah, great series! Here's hoping the next series is just as good!

Down To Six

The good news is that over the past couple of weeks there have been no layoff rumors. It's October first and traditionally layoffs always happen today each year. So far there are none.

The bad news is that we are down to six people in my department now. One is out for a long while as he had a liver transplant. One went down Tuesday night with an appendix attack. He'll be back likely by Monday though.

By contrast when I went to work there we had seventeen in my department. They have cut and cut and cut out of my department over the years. I'm pretty sure they can't cut anymore as we don't have enough now to do the job as it needs to be done. I don't trust them far enough to say it will never happen again though.

It's a new day and a new month. 2009 is starting to wind down now. We are a year and a month away from the mid-term elections and a real turning point for the country. Hopefully all of the damage that can be done has already been done and it'll just take years to untangle the problems instead of decades.

For you Obama supporters out there I can't wait until you get your first electric bill because of his Cap and Trade tax on you. Actually that's not true. I don't want you to ever get that bill. I want it to be overturned by a new elected congress before that happens.

The weather seems mild outside. It feels good. I just put Zip outside for a few minutes. When I go and get him he'll run like a madman to the bedroom door and jump onto the bed to wake up The Date. It's pretty funny!