One of my all time favorites

Kicking and screaming award

Mcewen at http://alien-in-a-foreign-field.blogspot.com/ was kind enough to bestow the:

Upon this blog.

I appreciate the kind thought and gesture of being chosen to receive this honor.

With my recent donkey posts I find it totally appropriate.

In return I would like to nominate

GuyK

Erica

El Capitan

Go check em out.

Easy crustless cheesecake

Actual cheesecake

Ingredients:


(4) 8oz packs of philadelphia cream cheese


1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice.


4 cups granulated sugar or you can use 4 cups Splenda substitute for making it sugar free.


16 oz bag of pecan pieces


Put the pecans in the food processor and chop until they are the consistency of coarse sand.


Fold the softened cream cheese and lemon juice together in a mixing bowl and slowly add sugar or sugar substitute using a mixer.


The cheese will become the consistency of thick whipped cream as air gets whipped into it.


Take a large pie plate and spread the ground pecans evenly over the bottom.


Spoon in the cheese filling and using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, spread it around evenly.

It should fill a standard 9 inch pie plate.

You can top it with cut strawberries, blackberries or whatever and you can use any leftover ground pecans to decorate the top.

Catching up

My oldest has his birthday this weekend. We had a pre-packaged party at the bowling alley where he invited some of his friends from school. They had a good time. I bought him a Wii and a couple of DVDs as well. We all played the Wii all weekend and my arms are sore as hell.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to make video games that force fat lazy gamers to get up off their ass and move more than their thumbs? It's a travesty.

My son also had one of the kids from his class to the house for a sleepover. I tried to keep an open mind, but the kid is a little putz. Willy's mom didn't send pajamas, clean clothes, a toothbrush or anything. The kid smelled bad, looked like he hadn't washed his hair for a week and I had to put his shoes outside because they smelled like baby shit. Since it was my son't first sleepover guest, I tried to make the best of the situation and not embarass anyone.

I ordered them Pizza, Willy complained that it was cold. This kid has never heard or used the word's please, thank you or excuse me. Willy likes to jump on the furniture and incessantly yell: "What the freak!!! and 'WTF" . Willy's table manners are so bad that it makes me physically ill to watch him eat. I've seen rabid coyotes tear into carrion with less grunting and lip smacking.

My wife and I were at the computer Sunday morning, Willy came in and got on the other computer. I handed him a donut and a glass of milk for breakfast.

I was cringing as he sat at the desk behind me "SLUUUURRRP MMMMMM UHHHHHH, SMACK SLURRRRP HMMMMM NNNAYN NAYNANN."

It took every bit of self control I had to keep from telling the kid to stop having relations with his breakfast.

I'll tell you what, I was counting the seconds until it was time for me to take the nasty rude lil bastard home. The one good thing that came out of this whole situation is that now I appreciate my son's manners and behavior so much more .

This is one I made a couple months ago and it seems to be the right time to post it.

Doomed

I've been a science buff for as long as I can remember. Even as a little kid I read technical manuals, science magazines and anything else I could get hold of.

Back then science stuff was fun, interesting and always looked forward to a bright future filled with sky cities, flying cars and day trips to Mars.

Lately however, it seems that the people who write and produce all of the programs on the discovery channel, science channel and national geographic are obsessed with predicting the end of the human race.

According to the big brains on TV, Homo sapiens are very close to their ultimate demise. The experts appear to be overjoyed at the prospect of a fiery doom It's the equivalent of them walking down the street with placards that read

"Repent! the end is near"

For example: this is what has been on so far this week:

Super Volcanoes: Yellowstone is ripe to blow up, wipe out half the US and plunge us into darkness for 18 years, we all starve and die.

Global warming: the polar ice caps melt, our cities go under water, and unless we live in the Himalayas we all drown and die.

Asteroid: A big Chunk of rock the size of Texas plows into the ocean, sending a wave of hot plasma over the earth incinerating everything and boiling the oceans into the atmosphere. All of us without asbestos underwear are going to be crispy critters.

The loss of the earth's magnetic field: Our protective ionosphere goes away and solar radiation slowly destroys all life that isn't covered in SPF 6000 sunblock.

Comet: About the same as the asteroid but we are killed by tidal waves, earthquakes and falling debris.

Killer Virus: A mutant Virus spreads from Africa infects our air and we all die festering in our own juices while brave scientists in their bio suits rush around vainly in search of a cure.

Careless use of antibiotics breeds an ultra resistant incurable plague that rots us from inside out, bodies pile up and decay in the streets...

Ice age: If the global warming doesn't kill us, then the resulting ice age will and the world will be covered 1000 feet thick with ice for a million years.

After listening to the experts tell us we are going to succumb to an unstoppable and inevitable fate, I've decided that there are some things we don't need anymore.

Taxes: what does it matter? Who needs money when faced with certain doom:

Politicians: They are here to protect us right? Well unless they are going to form a human comet shield or volcano plug, I don't see any use for them.

Supermodels and celebrities: We are all going to be rotten, burned or drowned and bloated soon anyway so why should we delude ourselves?

Vitamins and health food: Fuck it...eat as much butter and fried bread as you want. It will take the flesh eating virus longer to consume you.

Environmentalists: If the entire surface of the earth is to be burned off to a depth of 30 feet I just don't see strip mining and aerosol cans as an issue anymore.

Actually I'm quite relieved that I won't need to bother painting my house next summer.

Getting back on track

It's tough getting back into blogging after losing momentum.
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I've been away from the computer because the mildew smell is bad in the office. It's getting better now the walls are drying and a fan in the window helps.
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The contractor came out and it looks like he wants to sand, seal and texture all the ceilings and replace some drywall We'll also get a new shower out of the deal.
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Dealing with contractors is like herding drunk monkeys. I hate them lying sombitches with a passion. I figure over the next few months I'm going to have to put on my asshole hat just so they get my house fixed quickly and properly.
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I've been messing with some pictures, lolcats mixed with 300. I'm not sure what I was drinking at the time.

Click for a larger image

Not everything goes as planned

Sorry I've been gone so long. The wife got called in to work in the middle of her vacation due to a surprise audit of the facilites she's in charge of. So that sucked.

Our shower drain broke and flooded the inside of our walls and ceiling, the house smells like dirty wet mildew. I've been working with contractors and insurance adjusters to get the shit fixed.

Hopefully they'll get to work on it by Monday.

The wife kicked ass on her audit and got a lot of recognition so she gets to take her vacation next week uninterrupted...I think.

I should be back to posting and visiting like normal tomorrow.

Thanks for all the nice comments this past week.

Short break

Taking a short break, wife's on vacation so I'll be spending some time with her this week.

I'll be back soon.

Hammer's Videos 30,31,32

I know some of you hate lolcats. If so it won't hurt my feelings any, It took a while for them to grow on me.

I had some friends over last weekend and we were challenging each other to come up with good captions. Ended up with three videos worth. I think some of them came out pretty funny.

Enjoy.

"Because it's your problem not theirs...."

Boycott China part two.

After doing a little research I was very surprised to see what a small minority is actually trying to avoid Chinese goods.

I was however able to find these links to non-Chinese products for those that are interested.

Here are some websites that link many US made products of all types

http://www.usstuff.com/prodlac.htm This is a comprehensive A-Z reference with tons of items of all types.

http://www.buyamericanmart.com/

http://www.justiceclothing.com/

http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/shoppingindex.html (this one includes baby gear and supplies)

http://www.usmadetoys.com/ Nothing but US made toys.

Update:

E. has kindly added some additional information:

Fair Trade Federation: local and international fair trade products.

Buy Local

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If you have any additional info let me know and I'll add it.

Chinese products

With all of the recent recalls regarding Chinese products, I'm finding myself reluctant use any of the stuff I already have.

I used to go to the dollar store and stock up cheaper named brand items of unknown origin to save money, never once thinking they may be unsafe. Those days are over.

When I finally woke up and started paying attention, it seems that everything comes from China. All plastic goods, toys, furniture, clothing, electronics etc...

My wife brought home some trail mix from Target. Out of curiosity, I looked at the label and saw that most of it was of Chinese manufacture. Now I can't help thinking that I'm eating little pieces of soilent green. Besides, how is it cheaper to make dried peas and little pretzels 10,000 miles away and ship it to the US? It just doesn't make sense.

Lead paint in toys, poisoned dog food, fake Chinese medicine killing kids, antifreeze in the mouthwash and toothpaste... formaldehyde in the clothing at 900 times safe levels....the list goes on and on.

It seems our expectations regarding Chinese imports were so low, that the manufacturers felt they could send us poison and we would lap it up with barely a whimper.

It's about time that the consumer spoke up.

I'm going to to quit buying Chinese products for my household. I'll recycle what I can and do without if I have to. I can't in good conscience keep feeding that evil machine.

Now that Chinese military has hacked into Pentagon computers? My resolve is doubled.

With friends like these who needs enemies?

This and that.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I haven't had much time to blog the last few days so I'll give a quick rundown.

Jenny the world famous septic tank diving donkey is doing fine and smells much better.
She is camera shy, but I'll try to get a pic of her this week.

Dad is dealing with extreme bullshit from his spouse. I'ts been this way since he retired, she is certifiably nuts and he knows it, but since he's been crippled for the last two years he feels trapped. I told him I would help all I can but I think he's reluctant to put me in that situation.

Now Samantha is refusing to take him to his doctors appointments and since he has another knee surgery scheduled it looks like I'll be the go to guy, unless she backs off again and settles down. Luckily he has a few other friends and fellow veterans who live close by that check in on him from time to time.

Dad keeps saying he's going to get a divorce, but since he has always had poor relationships with women and that combined with PTSD somehow prevents him from following through.

Oh well we'll see what happens.

Here's a funny video made from a video game I play:

Labor day weekend

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes in regards to my dad's recovery.

Went out to dad's house again with some food to throw on the grill. He hasn't been eating well due to his obvious limitations. I brought the kids with me this time.

As soon as I pulled in the driveway, he was waiting for me. He said his wife Samantha was on a terror and throwing a shit fit about me coming over. She's obviously insane. I told dad to get in the car because I wasn't leaving him there to deal with her bullshit.

We went back to my house where I barbecued shishkababs and sat out on the deck and enjoyed some nice cool weather.

We spent the rest of the evening drinking Johnny Walker Black on the rocks and watching 300, Wild hogs and Blades of Glory. I could tell he was enjoying himself although he was embarrassed and worried about his wife's behavior. Of course this is nothing new, just worse than before.

I got up this morning and took him to breakfast and drove him back home. We always have great intellectual type conversations during these times, which I cherish. I didn't stick around for the inevitable fireworks when I dropped him off. I've had my fill of that nonsense.

Today, I made guacamole, home made salsa and grilled some burgers. My friend Gary came over and we've been catching up, watching youtube and swilling cheap Mexican beer. It takes about 15 cans of that fermented donkey piss to get me half way where I need to be. It's no wonder salt and lime are required for drinking the stuff ...

Anyways, that's my weekend so far. Hope everyone has a great Labor day and my condolences for those who don't have a holiday tomorrow.

Cheers.

This is frigging awesome

A definite must see.

Hat tip to: http://www.barking-moonbat.com/