Weekend plans

Well, for some, it’s Contrived, Hallmark-driven, Cheesy Holiday weekend also known as Valentine’s Day.  For Rob and me, it’s CPAC/RLC weekend (and push hot fluids into Rob to make the cold viruses in his body leave post haste weekend).  That means, we’re running around all weekend, meeting fellow bloggers, politicians (the most intolerable part of the weekend, although, I do like Gary Johnson).

Last night we went out with an old friend of mine.  Steve Gordon and I met in 2004 when he was working with the late Aaron Russo on his campaign to become the Libertarian Party presidential nominee.  I enjoyed Aaron’s company.  The first time I met him, it was at a Gun Rights Policy Conference.  I was carrying. It was in Virginia, I have a concealed carry permit, and I figured it was appropriate.  Someone had introduced me to Aaron, and he grabbed me in a bear hug that nearly crushed my… uh… lungs as a “hello.”  I laughed, and said something to the effect of “You know I’m packing, right?”  I remember Aaron busted out laughing and said something about loving a girl with a gun!

I subsequently endorsed Aaron as the LP candidate for president, but the nomination wound up going to Michael Badnarik.  Steve worked with him too as Communications Director.

I hadn’t seen Steve since then. Between my deployments and his job and last year’s Snowpocalypse, we’d kept in touch on Facebook and emails, but never got together until last night.  And what a reunion THAT was!!!

I hadn’t actually gone to any CPAC events, but was gratified to see that many of the social conservative assholes chose not to attend this year’s conference, because *ZOMG!* there are going to be GHEYS there!!!!  Oh NOES!!1!!!1!!1.  I was also gratified to hear Steve say that CPAC should really be called LPAC this year, because a lot of the Republican folks present were more libertarian in nature.

I also got to meet some aspiring writers, college students who respect the principles of fiscal responsibility for the government and personal responsibility for the individual.  I met Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain – not the one whom I repeatedly want to hit with the blunt object for is obsequious moderacy, but the writer.

I met new folks and made new friends, and I had a blast!  I haven’t laughed so hard in years, and I wound up with a sore throat from all the laughing.

Today we’re off to the RLC convention.  I plan on meeting up with some friends, attending some events, and generally having a wonderful time!  Photos to follow!

Why Rachel is Awesome

I rarely devote entire posts to my friends, but in this case, I must make an exception.  My buddy Rachel knows me well enough to know that:

a) I like quirky
b) I hate Sarah Palin’s voice
c) I love the chicken man, but am somewhat apathetic about chicken
d) I will sing that song at the top of my voice until my vocal chords bleed

All of the above may seem like random ruminations of a raving loon, but I promise you there’s a point to this.  And the point is this:

Rachel knows that (as I pointed out on her blog today), I’d rather listen to the dulcet sound of Fran Drescher being gangbanged by Kermit the Frog, Justin Bieber and Jar Jar Binks than another platitude about limited government out of Palin’s maw. She also knows that while I’m pretty much lukewarm when it comes to chicken, I find the song to be an endless source of entertainment.  Rachel and I also agree that Sarah Palin’s voice and accent are the auditory equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.  So when she made this video for me, she ensured that Palin sounded like a 7-11 clerk mated with a BBC newscaster!

YEAH RACHEL!

I’m back!

Well, the exam is done. I don’t know how I did. I don’t want to really think about it until I get my scores. I don’t even want to postulate. After a month of nothing but studying, I don’t want to think about this exam. I want to relax, sleep and get back into blogging.

On Friday night, I pretty much gave up on the whole studying thing.  It was probably smart. Superman and I drove to work together, and after we were finished, we drove to my house. Robodog was fed and walked, and I made the most amazing spaghetti on the planet!!! I usually use commercial sauce as a base, but I add extras. This time, I added slices of garlic, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, basil and dried tomato ground up fine, and Mrs. Dash spice mix to the meat before adding just a touch of sauce to make the meat “saucy.” Superman loved it!  He had two gigantic, heaping servings, and even tried to duplicate the recipe the next morning for… uh… breakfast.

After dinner, we drove to his house and fed Lagniappe, who squeaked with delight when he saw us pull up. Then, Superman took me to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The book was complex, both from a storyline and from a psychological aspect, and while the movie left a lot out, they did a pretty good job capturing the essence of the book. I was not disappointed. We wound up catching the 9 pm show, and we had drinks prior to the movie. It was nice! I needed a night out, and Superman didn’t disappoint.

I learned several things these past few weeks as I studied. 

• Yes, there is such a thing as overstudying. My brain felt a little swollen and full.  I knew I knew this stuff, but for some reason, the last few days before the exam, I couldn’t put a coherent sentence together.
• Taking breaks during studying is a good thing.
• Having friends give you the occasional shot in the arm and a dose of reality a la “You know this stuff. Stop stressing about it. You’re making yourself crazy.” is a positive thing. (Thanks to Ed, in particular, who really knows how to hit me over the head with a dose of directness like no one else)

In any case, I’m done, and I don’t want to think about it until I either get my scores, or my diploma.

Now… on to bigger and better things.

Let the blogging resume!

Dropping off Teeny

My kids spend most of their summers with grandparents.  When they go to Pennsylvania to spend time with my parents, they go to a fun day camp.  When they go to Illinois to spend time with their paternal grandparents, they hang around, go to the pool and relax.  Since the Redhead’s baseball season isn’t over yet, and he’s playing on the All-Stars team this summer, Superman and I took Teeny to my parents’ house in Pennsylvania yesterday all by herself.  Little one actually admitted she’d miss her little brother.  That’s quite an admission for a teenage girl, but my kids have never been typical.  They’re close – especially for a brother and sister.  They talk, they hang out together, and despite the usual squabbles that brothers and sisters have, they’d go to the mat for one another.  The Redhead constantly demands hugs from his sister, and she even helps him out with his chores when she’s in the mood.  I’m lucky.  Very lucky.

So we took Teeny to Pennsylvania, and we hung out with my parents for a bit, where Superman got a chance to experience more Russian food.  Then we took off, leaving Teeny with my parents, having decided to play at Valley Forge for a while before meeting Massad Ayoob for dinner.

So we walked around the area for a bit.

How would you like to use these in war?

I prefer the M-16, thanks.

It’s nice to see what kind of tools our military used in the Revolutionary War.

This is how the Soldiers lived during the Revolutionary War.  I’ll never complain about our barracks again.  Yeah, that’s a bunk.

Look at these fabulous barracks!  They kept out most moisture… well… meh… not really.  But there was a fireplace!

And here are the officers’ quarters.  Note the difference.

More at Valley Forge! 

We couldn’t spend a whole lot of time there, as Mas Ayoob was teaching a class in Harrisburg, and we wanted to get there so we could have dinner together.  So we left and drove to Harrisburg, where we met up with him and his girlfriend and another friend, and we decided pizza and beer were to be the fare of the night.  This is where it was also confirmed by the expert firearms instructor that I’m not a complete asshat for keeping my non-dominant finger on the trigger guard when I shoot, which is something Superman had always needled me about.  Mas confirmed that doing that was fine, as long as I’m comfortable with it.  Superman was good enough to stand corrected.

We had fun.  Loads of great (and not so great) jokes were told, and we didn’t leave until 2200.  Since I have issues driving at night, Superman graciously agreed to do the driving.  We got to my place from Harrisburg in just under two hours!  Boy, I love having a cop drive my car! 

Me and Mas at the hotel during pizza and beer time!

Mas and his Princess, who is much like me in the sarcasm department.  We got along just fine.

Thanks for the pizza, the valuable advice, the jokes and great conversation to you guys!  You definitely need to come out to the DC area soon and hang out with us!

Weekend Fun

Superman and I had another one of those fun weekends, where it rushes by so quickly, you turn around and it’s gone.  We originally planned to drive to Maryland for a shooting competition, but decided to stick around the area instead.  There was lots to do.

I dragged him to a movie – something he hadn’t done in a while.  Unfortunately that move was Angels & Demons – a book by Dan Brown I absolutely loved, and a book that Ron Howard and his commercialist idiot studio mutilated beyond recognition.  It was crap.  I was pissed.  Superman hadn’t read the book, so he didn’t hate this movie as much as I did.  I hated every minute of it.  I hated the fact that the studio went all PC and made the assassin into some kind of Slavic nerd, instead of the Middle Eastern terrorist he really was.  I hated the fact that they altered the plot so much that the meaning of the novel was lost.  I won’t give you any spoilers here, lest you haven’t read the book, but if you have read it, I urge you NOT to go see the movie, because it sucked.  It sucked on so many different levels, that I ranted and raved about it for hours afterwards.  It sucked not just in the realm of character development (there wasn’t any), but because it completely missed the point of the novel.  It was crap. 

Nonetheless… despite the horrid movie, we still had a great weekend.  The first thing we did is buy Lagniappe a doggie bed.  I got an email this morning about just how much Lagniappe loves his new doggie bed.  He’s happy on it.  He snoozes on it.  He’s content, and doesn’t get all neurotic about not being able to sleep on the bed with Superman.  Happy dog.

  

  

We cooked.  It was phenomenal.  Hot, flavorful, yummy chili.  Homemade guacamole that was so good, we devoured two large bowls of it!  Corn on the grill. Fantastic.

He also took me skeet shooting for the first time in my life.  As many pistols and rifles as I’ve fired, I’ve never used a shotgun.  Ever.  So it was my first time for that too.  I got about 50 percent of my targets.  Not too bad for a newbie, I think. 

And then we went flying.

Yeah, he’s a pilot too.

We flew over Harpers Ferry, where we hiked a month or so ago with Lagniappe.

It was a bit hazy, but my zoom lens did the trick.  I still got some incredible photos of the rivers and mountains of West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia (yes, you can see three states from the air)

  

  

We flew over his neighborhood, over his church, over the river and a fish farm (I had no idea anyone could farm fish like they do cows, but apparently that is the case.)

     
And we did it all while Superman sang the theme from Firefly into the headset. “You can’t take the sky from me!“

Weird, but fun!  Only problem was that I had consumed an enormous amount of juice and water before the flight, so after about an hour, my bladder was screaming that it hated my guts, and I wasn’t going to pee inside the plane.  So we had to come back down.  Bathroom awaited!

Once we landed, and I made a beeline for the ladies’, SOMEONE decided it would be funny to tell me that the bathrooms in that particular building were inop, and that I was better off using the bathroom in the main airport building.  He then proceeded to tickle me on the way in, just to make it worse.  He’s certainly lucky I like him.  I did get a few choice bitch slaps in, however.

We spent the rest of the day yesterday just relaxing.  We watched Torchwood and had some quality chill-out time with Lagniappe.  The rest was much needed and appreciated, and I’m all ready to get back to work tomorrow,.