1st Ski of the Season

We are getting a late start to the waterski season this year. Last night we had our first outing, enjoying every second of it. I am really rusty! The weather was warm though there was more clouds than sunbreaks. Regardless it was a long overdue escape from our daily grind. July we will be taking our adventure to the Sacremento Delta for a 3 day weekend that I am really looking forward to.

One thing I need to work on before then is my belly size, unfortunately neoprene vests don't adjust for winter fat. Ither I need to drop a few inches around the gut or buy a bigger vest. That is just plain sad and I am not afraid to admit it! 

Left-Over Chicken

A followup to my baked chicken recipe, here is a tip to save you some bacon.

So you baked that chicken & rice and now have a carcus to contend with. Take a fork and salvage any good meat you can, dice up bigger bits, and put the good stuff in a zip-lock for later.

Now stick the whole batch of bird bits in a pot, add some onion, carrots, and celery, then boil that bad boy, take it down to a simmer, and let it sit stewing for 1/2 a day, adding water as it boils down.

Before bed, strain the water into a pot, SAVING the water/broth, but throwing all the other stuff in the trash. All the flavor is now in the broth, and the bland vegi's and bones can go bye bye.

Throw the broth in the fridge, and the next day, peel of the grease cap that will float to the surface like a frozen lake of cholestorol and pitch it in the trash or save it for emergency energy bars.

Use the broth to make a quick soup, by throwing in a bag of frozen mixed vegis, that zip-lock bag of chicken scraps, and some seasoning. In chicken soup, I like some curry powder, some celery salt, and some garlic and pepper, but you can season to your taste. Make it a chicken noodle, by adding some egg noodles and boil till they noodles are done. The great thing about the leftover chicken soup, is you can freeze it for later, or just graze on it from the fridge for a couple days of lunches.

New Post Idea... Ben's Recipes

In my past life, I worked in food service. Working with various cooks and menus gave me the short order experience to whip up some half-baked versions of various dishes at home. Now that my brother is getting all domesticated, with a wife and twins on the way, it is time to share some tips on quick and cheap meal preparation when feeding the fam.

Most of my recipe's don't use any real measuring, just a dash of this and that. Always measure if using a packaged sauce or when cooking rice so you have the right liquid content, but seasonings, I wing it! Another tip, keep the salt away until the table.

Here is one of my favorite fixin's:

Baked Chicken over Rice

Shop around for a good deal on whole chickens. Our local market often has weekend thawed whole young chickens on sale monday for as little as .49/pound, but usually .99/pound getting you a little clucker for under $6 bones.

Step up now since you saved on the chicken, and buy some Jasmine Rice, well worth paying twice the price for some good rice in my opinion.

1st get a roasting pan, or large cassrole dish big enough for the bird, then using the ratio of water/rice and based on how many your feeding, put the rice & water in the bottom of the dish.

Wash and season the whole bird, throwing away the extra bits. I use a sprinkle of savory, some minced garlic, and some fresh ground pepper. You can use a mix of spice of your choice, just please don't use season salt!

Place the bird on the rice & water, cover and bake @ 325 until the bird is done
(160 or hotter in the middle of the breast, should take about 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours depending on the birds weight), remove the cover, and brown the top of the bird, by setting the oven to broil and WATCH it until it is golden brown... DON'T leave, this is how you burn it.

You know it is perfect if the leg just pulls right off with little effort, and the rice should be done and full of chicken flavor.

Serve with a vegi of your choice, corn is my favorite with chicken.

Mind of a Terrorist

The mind of a former terrorist.Download Now (Be Patient)

Watch the video linked above, this is a chilling and awakening interview with Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist who frankly explains the true threat of the radical islamic movement. Listening to a radio interveiw during my lunch break, I was fascinated by his story of the indoctrination that has been force fed to the youth of both Palistine, and the more radical islamic states around the world.

Media Bias of the Day

Have you heard about media bias? Air America, the left wing talk radio station would like you to believe it is biased to the right, but most American's know better.

A screaming example I found this evening when I wanted to read the facts on the recently declassifed report that indicated over 500 chemical munitions had been discovered in Iraq since 2003. Did you get that? Yes those would be those pesky WMD's apparently the news only remembers when they provide free publicity to the "Bush lied, people died" crowd.

This might be the first you have heard of this report because I couldn't find it on any of the major news portal websites, not on the AP webiste, not Reuters, not ABC, CBS, MSNBC, and of course not on CNN. If I was fair (Don't claim to be) I would link to the sites for you, but I would prefer you visit Fox News, because they are the only news source with enough integrity to tell the whole story. See in todays world there are severl kinds of truths: (a) partial truth (b) convienient truth and (c) the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Unfortunatley you won't find (c) from the typical media sources, that would be self defeating.

Enjoy these screenshots as my token of the whole truth, click to enlarge and see for yourself how the alphabet news stations would rather report on troops being charged with crimes and poor Sadam's hunger strike, than the tons of chemical weapons we found. Thankfully he didn't have a chance to dump more of them on the Kirdish people before we blew his ass off the throne. (Another quick note, notice how CBS puts the blame for the recent Iraqi violence on the US for killing the Zarqawi, we should have just left him alone on his beheadding spree I guess)

Beach Bums

We spend Father's Day at the Oregon Coast and the weather was just right. The place was Otter Rock, just inside the cove near Devil's Punchbowl. This is a well kept secret where you can go to escape much of the coastal winds while still enjoying the surf. Many surfers were also out, and we had staked our claim to much of the little cove. The kids played in the surf, and I flew my trick kite until the string broke. Even Daisy the dog got into the fun, chasing seagulls and fetching the frisbee. 

Left Lies on Illegals

"If you tell a lie often enough from a position of power it becomes accepted truth." Joseph Goebbels, was Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister, and the liberally biased media today is mastering his techniques of influencing the population, although this time, not against the Jewish People, but all people of conservative judeo-christian values, nationalistic views, and patriotism.

No better example is the current immigration debate. The media and our political leaders will continuously spout the untruths about our situation in an effort to convince you otherwise from your true intuitions. The following letter, posted on several blogs illustrates this better than I can.

by David J. Stoddard
U.S. Border Patrol
(RET) Hereford, Arizona
A very interesting letter sent to Senator Frist from a retired border patrol agent.

Dear Senator Frist: There is a huge amount of propaganda and myths circulating about "Illegal Aliens", particularly "Illegal Mexican, Salvadorian, Guatemalan and Honduran Aliens".

1. "Illegal Aliens" generally do NOT want U.S. citizenship. Americans are very vain thinking that everybody in the world wants to be a U.S. citizen. Mexicans, and other nationalities want to remain citizens of their home countries while obtaining the benefits offered by the United States such as employment, medical care, in-state tuition, government subsidized housing and free education for their offspring. Their main attraction is employment and their loyalty usually remains at home. They want benefits earned and subsidized by middle class Americans. What "Illegal Aliens" want are benefits of American residence without paying the price.

2. There are no jobs that Americans won't do. "Illegal Aliens" are doing jobs that Americans can't take and still support their families. "Illegal Aliens" take low wage jobs, live dozens in a single residence home, share expenses and send money to their home country. There are no jobs that Americans won't do for a decent wage.

3. Every person who illegally entered this nation left a home. They are NOT homeless and they are NOT Americans. Some left jobs in their home countries. They come to send money to their real home as evidenced by the more than 20 billion dollars sent out of the country each year by "Illegal Aliens". These "Illegal aliens" knowingly and willfully entered this nation in violation of the law and therefore assumed the risk of detection and deportation. Those who brought their alien children assumed the responsibility and risk on behalf of their children.

4. "Illegal Aliens" are NOT critical to the economy. "Illegal Aliens" constitute less than 5% of the workforce. However, they reduce wages and benefits for lawful U.S. residents.

5. This is NOT an immigrant nation. There are 280 million native born Americans. While it is true that this nation was settled and founded by immigrants (Legal Immigrants who were proud to be Americans and did not want to destroy it), it is also true that there is not a nation on this planet that was not settled by immigrants at one time or another.

6. The United States is welcoming to "Legal Immigrants. "Illegal Aliens" are NOT immigrants by definition. The U.S. accepts more lawful immigrants every year than the rest of the world combined.

7. There is no such thing as the "Hispanic Vote". Hispanics are white, brown, black and every shade in between. Hispanics are Republicans, Democrats, Anarchists, Communists, Marxists and Independents. The so-called "Hispanic Vote" is a myth. Pandering to "Illegal Aliens" to get the Hispanic Vote is a dead end.

8. Mexico is NOT a friend of the United States. Since 1848 Mexicans have resented the United States. a) During World War I Mexico allowed German Spies to operate freely in Mexico to spy on the U.S. b) During World War II Mexico allowed the Axis powers to spy on the U.S. from Mexico. c) During the Cold War Mexico allowed spies hostile to the U.S. to operate freely. d) The attack on the Twin Towers in 2001 was cheered and applauded all across Mexico. e) Today Mexican school children are taught that the U.S. stole California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. If you don't believe it, check out some Mexican textbooks written for their schoolchildren.

9. Although some "Illegal Aliens" enter this country for a better life, there are 6 billion people on this planet. At least 1 billion of those live on less than one dollar a day. If wanting a better life is a valid excuse to break the law and sneak into America, then let's allow those one billion to come to America and we'll turn the USA into a Third World nation overnight. Besides, there are 280 million native born Americans who want a better life. I'll bet Bill Gates and Donald Trump want a better life. When will the USA lifeboat be full? Since when is wanting a better life a good reason to trash another nation?

10. There is a labor shortage in this country: This is a lie. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American housewives, senior citizens, students, unemployed and underemployed who would gladly take jobs at a decent wage.

11. It is racist to want secure borders: a) What is racist about wanting secure borders and a secure America? b) What is racist about not wanting people to sneak into America and steal benefits we have set aside for legal aliens, senior citizens, children and other legal residents? c) What is it about race that entitles people to violate our laws, steal identities, and take the American Dream without paying the price?

For about four decades American politicians have refused to secure our borders and look after the welfare of middle class Americans. These politicians have been of both parties. A huge debt to American society has resulted. This debt will be satisfied and the interest will be high. There have already been riots in the streets by "Illegal Aliens" and their supporters.

There will be more. You, as a politician, have a choice to offend the "Illegal Aliens" who have stolen into this country and demanded the rights afforded to U.S. citizens or to offend those of us who are stakeholders in this country. The interest will be steep either way. There will be civil unrest. There will be a reckoning. Do you have the courage to do what is right for America? Or, will you bow to the wants and needs of those who don't even have the right to remain here? There will be a reckoning. It will come in November of this year, again in2008 and yet again in 2010. We will not allow America to be stolen by third world agitators and thieves.

This Ol Trailer

On a more educational note, enjoy this 4 minute episode of This Ol'Trailer, and get some great tips on how you can renovate your domicile.




See more at ThisOlTrailer.com, or jump directly to the next episode right here.

Iraqi Freedom

I post in frustration with the CNN's and the MSNBC's who continue to destroy the morality of our armed forces who have taken the fight to our enemy. Let's not forget, we took our own freedom by force to found this nation, we then have protected it and many thousands of lives have been lost to bring this freedom to all. We had our own civil war and lives lost to deliver freedom to the slaves and preserve our own union. Threatend by tyrany again we rose up and defeted the enemy in both world wars. Now a new threat has risen, more fanatical than ever, an enemy willing to sacrifice all for a belief. Be afraid, be very afraid. Walk tall and cary a big stick.



Thanks Ray for posting this on Google Video, one of many found on Grouchy Media.

Arbor Day

No it's not Arbor Day, I missed it. Not that I have ever observed it before, it just came to mind when I took this photo of a tree. Trees are good, I like trees. One of the things I like the best about trees is all the cool stuff you can build with wood. There are not too many things around as usefull as wood, well except for plastic, but plastic doesn't make for good photography. 

Gadget Thingy

My photos on this site are typically taken with my Canon PowerShot SD300 digital camera. The SD300, like many digital gadgets today uses a memory card to store the photos, and the type for my camera is a SD chip. SD chips seem to be the most common and affordable, one of the reasons I chose this camera, yet a common issue with digital cameras is getting the photos onto the computer. You can use the cable, but since there are a 1/2 dozen types a friends cord won't work on your camera if you leave yours behind and wanted to share your shots. To solve this I have a couple of card readers, one pocket size that only reads my SD chip so I can just slip the chip in the reader and plug it into my computer, if I keep the reader with me that is. Now SanDisk has a neato solution, a chip with a built-on USB tab that will plug into a USB port without the need for cable or adaptor! Though not world changing, this little chip can save my wife time checking my pockets before she washes my jeans. (BTW, I have washed & dried my USB/SD chip reader 3 times and it still works!)

Crapper Napper

PRODUCT IDEA:

Ever over eat during your lunch hour and need a power nap to get back into the groove? Find yourself dosing off at your desk and wish you could just sneak a quick nap? Well I have the solution for you! The Crapper Napper is a pocket size device that unpacks to create an elbow and chin rest you can place on you knees while sitting in the bathroom stall. Just rest your head on your hands and let the Crapper Napper hold you comfortably and stable to host a quick private slumber party right in your workplace restroom.

Culture of Corruption

The buzz word this year being used by the Democratic party has been the Republican Culture of Corruption. Unfortunatly, as usual, the talking points lack any fact or historical support when you look at the history of political corruption, even ignoring current headlines regarding political scandal in the Dem's own ranks.

What drove me to blog about this was a item of trivia shared by a radio talk show that speaks truth of where the bulk of corruption stems from when speaking of our congress.

Since 1978, 12 congressional delegates have been convicted and served time for various corupt practices, severe enough and with enough evidence to send them to prison. You can look them all up if you have the time, but the numbers speak louder than words. Of the 12 convictions, 11, YES 11 of them were Democrats and only one a Republican!

Now with current events speaking of the Lousiana congressman William Jefferson facing alegations of bribary, and Harry Ried being accused of taking free boxing tickets, when senator McCain paid for his out of pocket, I have to say: When you point, Mr. Howard Dean, 3 fingers point back at you, and with 11 Convictions under your own party belt your gonna need more than two hands.

Just read the talking points of the party to learn what hipocrites they are, and again, this is not in support of the GOP, but to point out why I would vote for the lesser of two evils.

Oregon Weather

Oregon has some strange weather. Known for being mild, and also for the rain, this part of the country is always a roll-of-the-dice weather wise. For years Memorial Day weekend was our first camping trip of the season, and 2005 was the last year for that tradition. We got rained out the first two days, only to have a marginally acceptable Sunday afternoon, and retuned to have enough time Monday to clean all the mud off the gear. This year I bagged the idea, and was actually thinking I would regret it, as usually the weather threatens but is never as bad as forcasted. This year, it was worse than forcasted! We got poured on all Friday and Saturday, with some hail to add to the mix (LEFT) Fortuntatly we were not at the campsite but in the comfort of our home. I guess this is just another example of me showing my age.

Charlie Daniels on Illegals

Charlie Daniels on mexicans - not only can he play a wicked country song on his guitar or fiddle, but he can "tell it like it is":

By Charlie Daniels www.charliedaniels.com

Mexican Standoff

I don’t know how everybody else feels about it, but to me I think Hispanic people in this country, legally or illegally, made a huge public relations mistake with their recent demonstrations.
I don’t blame anybody in the world for wanting to come to the United States of America, as it is a truly wonderful place. But when the first thing you do when you set foot on American soil is illegal it is flat out wrong and I don’t care how many lala land left heads come out of the woodwork and start trying to give me sensitivity lessons.
I don’t need sensitivity lessons, in fact I don’t have anything against Mexicans! I just have something against criminals and anybody who comes into this country illegally is a criminal and if you don’t believe it, try coming into America from a foreign country without a passport and see how far you get.
What disturbs me about the demonstrations is that it’s tantamount to saying, “I am going to come into your country even if it means breaking your laws and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
It’s an “in your face” action and speaking just for me I don’t like it one little bit and if there were a half dozen pairs of gonads in Washington bigger than English peas it wouldn’t be happening.
Where are you, you bunch of lilly livered, pantywaist, forked tongued, sorry excuses for defenders of The Constitution? Have you been drinking the water out of the Potomac again?
And even if you pass a bill on immigration it will probably be so pork laden and watered down that it won’t mean anything anyway. Besides, what good is an other law going to do when you won’t enforce the ones on the books now?
And what ever happened to the polls guys? I thought you folks were the quintessential finger wetters. Well you sure ain’t paying any attention to the polls this time because somewhere around eighty percent of Americans want something done about this mess, and mess it is and getting bigger everyday.
This is no longer a problem, it is a dilemma and headed for being a tragedy. Do you honestly think that what happened in France with the Muslims can’t happen here when the businesses who hire these people finally run out of jobs and a few million disillusioned Hispanics take to the streets?
If you, Mr. President, Congressmen and Senators, knuckle under on this and refuse to do something meaningful it means that you care nothing for the kind of country your children and grandchildren will inherit.
But I guess that doesn’t matter as long as you get re-elected. Shame on you.
One of the big problems in America today is that if you have the nerve to say anything derogatory about any group of people (except Christians) you are going to be screamed at by the media and called a racist, a bigot and anything else they can think of to call you.
Well I’ve been pounded by the media before and I’m still rockin’ and rollin’ and when it comes to speaking the truth I fear not. And the truth is that the gutless, gonadless, milksop politicians are just about to sell out the United States of America because they don’t have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the face reality.
And reality is that we would never allow any other group of people to have 12 million illegals in this country and turn a round and say, ”Oh it’s ok, ya'll can stay here if you’ll just allow us to slap your wrist.”
And I know that some of you who read this column are saying “Well what’s wrong with that?”
I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it. These people could be from Mars as far as we know. We don’t know who they are, where they are or what they’re up to and the way the Congress is going we’re not going to.
Does this make sense? Labor force you say? We already subsidize corporate agriculture as it is, must we subsidize their labor as well?
If these people were from Haiti would we be so fast to turn a blind eye to them or if they were from Somalia or Afghanistan? I think not.
All the media shows us are pictures of hard working Hispanics who have crossed the border just to try to better their life. They don’t show you pictures of the Feds rounding up members of MS 13, the violent gang who came across the same way the decent folks did. They don’t tell you about the living conditions of the Mexican illegals some fat cat hired to pick his crop.
I want to make two predictions

No. 1: This situation is going to grow and fester until it erupts in violence on our streets while the wimps in Washington drag their toes in the dirt and try to figure how many tons of political hay they can make to the acre.
No 2: Somebody is going to cross that border with some kind of weapon of mass destruction and set it off in a major American city after which there will be a backlash such as this country has never experienced and the Capitol building in Washington will probably tilt as Congressmen and Senators rush to the other side of the issue.
I don’t know about you but I would love to see just one major politician stand up and say, “I don’t care who I make mad and I don’t care how many votes I lose, this is a desperate situation and I’m going to lead the fight to get it straightened out.”
I don’t blame anybody for wanting to come to America, but if you don’t respect our immigration laws why should you respect any others.
And by the way, this is America, and our flag has stars and stripes. Please get that other one out of my face.
Pray for our troops
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
April 10, 2006

Low-Bid vs No Bid Contractors

Cyber Parenting

Although my family thinks I'm nuts, I have a vision, and I wan't your opinion. Here's the issue: Our kids are often out of control. In the rat race of both parents working, after-school activities, and a busy prime time TV season has left our discipline lacking. The kids don't do there chores, and talk back when reminded. Groundings and revoked privilages have become so commonplace they are no more effective than a UN resolution. What is a parent to do? We started threatening to cancel Christmas gifts when it occured to me.... A discipline blog!

YESSSS! I create a blog, email all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, or whomever can review and keep up on our family dicipline blog to see how things are going. I will start each kid off with 100 points. For each negative post I will assign a certain number of deductions, for each positive point we will add some bonus points. At the end of the year, the resulting number will be the percentage of christmas budget remaining for gifts!

Say child #1 nets a loss of 25 demerits, and he was hoping for a IPod, well shucks I guess the %75 of the IPod buget means they will be getting a real nice AM/FM walkman instead.

Not only can the grandparents and other family members get a real picture of our family life, they can see if the kids really have been bad or good for goodness sake, and as a bonus I get to vent my frustrations so I don't snap and end up on the evening news.

IT Phone Home

If you are like me, you are fed up with paying for your land-line phone, your TV programming, your internet connection, and your cell-phone service. Mike posted a neat gadget on his blog that could help wean you off your land line phone. This device will connect your existing land-line phone to your broadband internet connection thus using the free Skype service to make calls to any landline phone. You can then make calls to anywhere in the US and Canada free through the end of this year, or buy credits to make low cost international calls. I have tried Skype using my headset through my computer, and the sound quality is good if you can handle a slight audio delay, what do you expect for FREE! I am tempted to order this little device.

Tree Fall

Our HR guy awoke to a tree in his house this morning, not only was he late for work, half of our office left to go take a look. My boss returned with the pictures he took with his PDA and I decided to share. 

Sunset Shadow

On my way back home we had a short burst of thundershowers followed by the sunset sneaking below the cloud cover. A few miles back behind this shot the rain was comming down so hard the traffic came to a standstill and visibility was near zero. Once the rain let up the low sun was casting long evening shadows on the cars below a dark sky, I noticed a perfect silhouette of the cars on the dividing freeway hedge. You can see the blurry vision of the Brooks powerplant in the background.