The day after

The wife, happy with her performance at the range yesterday, decides to take a couple of targets in with her to work today. A few of her coworkers are gun owners so she wants to show off.

One of the other nurses is a far left clueless lib. Real far left. Anyway my wife texts me with her reaction:

"she was repulsed"

I guess the sight of paper with .22 holes in it is just too much for some people!

A Great Day

My wife and I both took the day off to spend together. She had been talking about going shooting with me and, since weekends at the local indoor range is a zoo, we went today. She hadn't really shot a gun since the late 80's. Bought me several in that time but never pulled the trigger herself.

Got to the range just after they opened, signed in, got ready. She decided to shoot my Ruger Mark II. Showed her how to load, safety, etc. Explained that the Clark trigger on the pistol is really light and let her go. Within a couple of magazines she was shooting decent groups. 250 rounds later she was grinning and planning on taking a couple of her targets to work on Tuesday to show off. Me - I just put 250 rounds through my CZ-75 and Glock 17. Spent a lot of time on different shooting grips and pistol positions. I find that I shoot a lot better if I bring the pistol a little closer to my eyes.

Did some Christmas shopping after shooting. Found some deals on gifts for Thing2. Stopped at Claim Jumpers for lunch. They had a prime rib open face sandwich on special. Yumm. The potatoes were mashed and then deep fried like pancakes. So awesome.

And then it was time for conferences at school. Thing2 is doing pretty good. Some issues in Algebra but otherwise the teachers were happy.

What a nice day!

This is just the Marines

From the comments posted here:

I don't get it. I mean where's the news here? Marines are outnumbered and attacked. Marines attack in response. Enemy die in large numbers. Enemy abandon weapons and run away bravely. Marines hand out candy. That's it? This is not news people. This is just the Marines.

National Ammo Day

It snuck up on me again - which is strange given it's only 4 days after my wife's birthday.

I did my part.



500 rounds of Remington and 100 rounds of Winchester. The wife and I are going shooting on Monday so most of this will probably be gone soon...

Who cares!

It's not too late to do your part. National Ammo Day.

Veterans Day

My first job out of college was at a hospital. My group was attached to the facilities maintenance department which was heavily populated with Vietnam veterans as well as a few Korean War vets. We had every thing from regular soldiers to a Green Beret to a SeeBee to a much decorated Air Force fighter pilot. An interesting group. There were a few of us (about 20%) that had not served so on Veterans Day, when the Veterans had the day off with pay, we had to carry the load. No bitching - just do the work. Similar to (but in no way equal to) what we ask those who wear the uniform to do.

Veterans Day is a day to honor those who have served. Like Memorial Day it is not one for protest.

To all those who have served I offer up two simple words:

Thank You

Quote of the day

From a post on hotair.com

“Americans grew tired of being thought to be dumb by the rest of the world, so they went to the polls and removed all doubt.”

Watching the Election returns

Thing1 is clinging to his guns and his Bible



The real guns were secure so he used what was available...

Voting

1980 was my first year to vote as I turned 18 in 79. This year Thing1 voted in his first presidential election.

My wife and I went to vote together this morning at 6:00am. There was a line when we got there at 6:01 for all three precincts. I haven’t seen that since 2000. Traffic was light on the way to work. I guess everyone is voting!

So get out there and Vote! I'd prefer it if you selected McCain/Palin. Consider it a belated birthday gift to me. :-)

So Sad

Not really

US troops kill No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq

It's actually the kind of thing that can make you smile.

How the Pace Car got to Kansas

Courtesy of the U.S. Army

Not a Fan

But a blower motor resistor.

Thing1 was complaining about only have 2 of the 4 fan speeds on his A/C in his car. A quick Google and it appeared it was the blower motor resistor. No problem. The online instructions looked pretty simple and 5 minutes at rockauto.com had a new resisitor on the way.

Took things apart this morning. What a pain. First you need a 5.5mm socket - Had that. A 1/4 inch swivel would have been nice but no such luck. The motor came out quickly and I could see the resistor.



It's down in the footwell above the motor. And one of the screws is against the firewall with no room to get the socket wrench in there. Grrr. Just moving the resistor 90 degrees to the right or left would have made this a 5 minute (rather than 2 hour) job.



But now it's done. 4 fan speeds. A happy Thing1.

New Toys

I went to the Chicago Custom Knife Show last weekend looking for something to use in the kitchen. Didn't have much luck but I did pick up a couple of inexpensive fixed blades.

This one is just over 4.5 inches long including a 1.25 inch blade. Very light and handy. The maker, James Krause, and his wife were very nice people to talk with - which made spending money with them quite easy. I even got a thank you card in the mail yesterday. Impressive.



This is just as a simple hunter from Mark Nevling. I have a number of these (even though I don't hunt). The finish isn't quite up there but the price was right - especially compared to other sub $150.00 knives at the show. The blade is not stainless, which means it can rust. When inspecting it I noticed a small speck of rust on the back side. The maker took 20% off the price since I didn't want to wait for him to clean it up. Sold! Perfect for me.



This is probably my last Chicago Custom Knife Show as it's moving to downtown Chicago next year. I do my best to not spend any money in Chicago proper. A number of vendors weren't happy about the change either. We'll see what 2010 brings.

Free loader

Walking out to the car after work I noticed something on my antenna topper.



Looking a bit more closely it appears to be a spider. And he's been riding along for awhile.



Cool

Afraid of the rain

Like a lot of areas we got a bit of rain over the weekend - ~8.5 inches of it. At one time the main road through our subdivision was had over 8 inches of standing water. Some cars went slow. Big trucks went fast. This truck tried to keep it's tires dry.

I Vote

I cling to my Bible as well.

No surprise here

Nothing about 9/11 at Google.

Do you remember?

I still do. 9/11/2001 still seems like it was yesterday.

Planes crashing, people jumping, towers falling, me crying.

I remember prayer, hope, and sacrifice. I remember the quiet of the days afterward when no planes were in the air.

I remember the sonic boom when two Illinois Air National Guard planes went supersonic because some idiot ignored the no fly rule. I remember Thing1 being scared as he thought another attack was underway.

I remember people being proud to be Americans and flying their flags.

I will always remember Kathy Bantis.

Please don't forget the 2996.

I hope I never forget.


2004,2006,2007

Why I like Sarah Palin

Just the other day, our opponent brought up earmarks, and frankly I was surprised that he did, considering his record on earmarks. I didn’t think he’d want to go there. In just three years, our opponent has requested nearly a billion dollars in earmarks, and that’s about a million dollars every working day.

We reformed the abuses of earmarks in our state, and it was while our opponent was requesting a billion dollars in earmarks as a Senatorial privilege. What I was doing was vetoing half a billion dollars as an executive responsibility.

More at Hot Air

Sarah Palin Fact of the Day

via email

Selection of Sarah Palin retroactively makes the theme of the 2008
Democratic National Convention: "Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead".

Ted has an opinion

On the future Vice President of the United States