All Quiet

A burning candle, good Scotch, HBO Boxing, followed by reading until 3:00 a.m. What better way to spend a 'dead' Saturday night?

We Had Turkey

I cooked it as part of a deal with sis-in-law Julie. She hosted. Everyone came except Danielle (in Arizona). A routine affair all the way around. The three tots in attendance came well-rested and held up pretty good. A Barbie video for the twins and a truck for 1-year-old Tyler kept them occupied. Plenty of leftover turkey. I overbuy and serve only the breast meat. I took home the dark meat for a weekend break from the Chunk O' Pork.

As Ice Cube once said.
Today I didn't even have to use my A.K.
I got to say it was a good day.

Commercial Rage

Scalpacin
Is that all they could come up with? Humm? Dry scalp medicine? - I got it! SCALPacin. Thank goodness, we didn't have the same marketing team name Viagra. Bonercil? Cockmax? ...

Coeds
Girls Gone Wild always notes that the drunken skanks on their videos are college girls. How does level of education figure into boob flashing, and faux lesbo action? ..and isn't it time to put the term coed to rest? Women have been going to college in equal numbers since my long memory can recall.

Alpacas
I've been here before. They are disgusting animals and I wouldn't raise them even if I thought doing so would move me to a higher tax bracket. I once pissed off a member on a forum by saying that the production value of a certain product was as bad as that of an Ecuadorian snuff film. He took issue because he adopted (purchased?) a child from that country. He went on to say that Quito is a beautiful city and the people of Ecuador are very friendly. Be that as it may, I said that Ecuadorian snuff film had a better ring to it than Bolivian, Venezuelan, or Peruvian. The choice was arbitrary... and further more, Ecuador is known for its lucrative cocaine trade, and those nasty alpacas. I wouldn't say that despite the nice people, that the place is beyond producing low quality and disgusting porn. That pretty much shut him up, but a third person jumped in defending the alpaca. I won't relent. Alpacas, llamas, and any other camelish creatures are repulsive to me.

Chunk O' Pork - The Saga Continues

I'm hell bent on getting the most out of my ninety-eight cents per pound pork score. The package was divided and frozen before I left for a long week in Las Vegas and finally was opened for consumption.

The first to be rolled out was a strange roast that looked as if it was accidentally hacked off of the hog rather than removed by a skilled butcher. It has rib bones in it, a familiar pork chop bone, and a knuckle-looking thing embedded in a casing of fatty material. It did roast up well and rendered a few prime slices of tender meat.

Today I took to carving bits and pieces off the bony portion and came up with about a pound of meat. I was thinking of making a stir fry or perhaps a stew. The hour was late and I didn't have time to buy the other ingredients. I spotted a big can of Bush's baked beans. I seasoned the meat, put a dash of hot sauce in the beans and slow cooked it for about 30 minutes. It didn't turn out that bad. There's enough for tomorrow too. It begs for cornbread or biscuits.

I'm not sure what "Living high on the hog" means exactly, but this must be living on the lower side. Regardless, I see 4 - 6 more meals coming from this purchase.

Las Vegas XXI (2008)

I'm more familiar with The Mirage than I am with many Indianapolis attractions. Most of my week during this trip was spent in the poker room, sports book, California Pizza Kitchen, and Carnegie Deli - all within a few steps of each other.

Highlights:

Hot Pastrami Sandwich
75 degrees and sunny every day.
Return to Gambler's General Store
Good luck at the poker tables.
Metro Pizza
Fake Hofbrauhaus (but real beer and food)

Not so good:

I miss The Stardust and other old classic casinos
No Nova lox in the buffet.
Old Las Vegas museum at the Tropicana is closed.

Chunk O' Pork

How could I pass up 13 pounds of assorted pork cuts at $.98 / pound?

It will be like a kill on the Serengeti around here. We'll be feasting on the carcass for days.

Now What?

It's like the day after Christmas. I'm coming down from last night's high.*

I'm glad I live in a blue state. The electoral vote map looks like a civil war map and I don't want to be in the Confederacy or in the western territories.

What's MSNBC and Fox News going to do to fill the time?

Barack Obama has to be bad news for Bush impersonators, and comedians in general. He doesn't offer much material for jokes.

Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin. Now only good as answers to Trivial Pursuit questions for the nostalgic 2000s edition. Their 15 minutes are up.

McCain needs to become an independent and tell the RNC to kiss his ass. They ruined any chance of an honorable man running an honorable campaign.

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I did have a celebratory glass of my Lagavulin 16-year Scotch. One of the commentators on MSNBC was a Republican official who said that he was going back to the staff room because he had an appointment with a Doctor Smirnoff.

Confirmation

Christiane Amanpour is a woman I admire. Her short blog entry on CNN pretty much sums up why I am so giddy about today's election.

http://inthefield.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/04/this-election-will-change-the-world/

It's On!

There was a very short line at my precinct's polling place today at 12:30. I was voter 384 on the scanner. I'm in.

It's time for the rest of you to put up or shut up. Vote for whoever, and if you don't care for anyone, toss a protest vote toward the Libertarian.

We had company last night and were talking of past presidential elections. Here's my memories:

1948 - I cannot recall. A one year old generally doesn't get into politics that much
1952 - I only remember that my teacher said a new man named I-zen-how-ur was the president. It took the class three or four tries to get the pronunciation right. What was the big deal anyway?
1956 - I was flabbergasted. How could anyone not vote for The President of The United States? I also thought the electoral votes were electrical votes, reasoning that if you had money you could upgrade to one of these special high energy votes.
1960 - Too young to vote, but I was extremely interested in this election. Kennedy-Nixon became a civics lesson. Until this year, that race was the most inspiring.
1964 - Goldwater - Johnson. The tone was set for the political unrest for the late 60s. No one could pick up the pieces after JFK was gone.
1968 - I'll say it to this day that Hubert Humphrey was the greatest statesman of that generation. He received my first vote for president. Nixon was able to sneak in due to a shattered Democratic party. (RFK killing, Chicago Convention, Dixiecrats' last stand.) I saw many of the candidates speak in person during that year's primaries. Shook hands with Robert Kennedy and John Glenn.
1972 - Four more years? McGovern wasn't the answer. You know how that one turned out.
1976 - Two nice men that you knew were doomed to mediocrity. I don't remember who I voted for.

Although I voted in each of the subsequent elections, none of them featured candidates that I could really get behind. It was more of an anti-Reagan, anti-Bush vote, although I did step out and vote for the elder George Bush.

I went to Bob's for an election day haircut, but the place was packed. There was no place to sit down. Ol' Bob had Fox News on the tube (Literally a tube - No LCD at Bob's. That would be just plain wrong.) and the boys in the shop weren't talkin'. They were looking at each other like gunfighters in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The crowd and the potential for a brawl if the wrong thing was said was daunting. I'll come back tomorrow.

I can hardly wait.

Tomorrow I vote.

If I don't - I'm full of shit.

If I don't - I'm a piss-poor citizen of a free country.

I'm truly moved by seeing the long lines of people waiting for hours to cast their ballot. Although I have voted in every presidential election, I would be particularly ashamed if I failed to act tomorrow.

I'll take my iPod and a good book with me and wait for however long it takes to get the job done.

It's not over until it's over

There must be an axiom that says that the skits on SNL get weaker as the show goes on. This seemed to be the case last night, but I hung around until the very end hoping to get a scrap of amusement.

I got much more. I was literally LOL over this gem:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/coat-store/805602/