NOT Racist

But most definitely sport-ist:

If you saw this pic standing alone (and you ARE, Gentle Reader), you'd be forgiven for thinkin' it came from the pages o' NatGeo in some sorta article about South African ritual dances.  But no, it's from a CBS News slideshow titled "The NFL's Most Rabid Fans."  Or sumthin' like that.  My first thought was rabid is rabid and there isn't such a thang as "most rabid."  You just shoot 'em... those poor animals so afflicted... period, end o' report.

My second thought?  You RARELY see these sorts o' thangs at hockey games.  Yeah, there IS some occasional weirdness, but it's weirdness I can really get behind.  Or in front of, as the case might be.  Example:

I rest my case.

More From the In-Box

Lotsa stuff in there this "morning," most of it delete-key fodder.  Like this:

I've never had a subscription to the NYT, unless you count the four month Sunday-edition Christmas gift subscription I got from a buddy back in '96 or '97.  The NYT must really be hurtin' if they're sendin' stuff like this out.

And then there's this:

I've never bought anything from Amazon's herbs, spices, and seasonings department but I DID click on a link to 25 Tahitian Vanilla Beans in an old post by Blog-Bud Andy.  Amazon NEVER forgets... that's pretty scary, sometimes.

From my daily Townhall newsletter... there are new political cartoons at the Usual Source, this among them:

You might wanna watch Monday's video again.

The Usual USAF Source reminds me where I should be at 1430 hrs today:

Go Falcons!: The Air Force Academy Falcons host the University of Toledo Rockets Wednesday in the Military Bowl at RFK Stadium in the nation's capital. ESPN will air the football game nationally at 4:30 p.m. East Coast time. "The game is all about the men and women of our military and raising support and awareness for the USO, so having a military academy represented in the Air Force Academy versus an exciting, high-scoring Toledo Rockets team is great for our game," said Steve Beck, Military Bowl president and executive director, in a release. The Falcons, members of the Mountain West Conference, finished their regular season with a winning 7-5 record. They are making a bowl appearance for the fifth consecutive year, a school record. The Rockets, from the Mid-American Conference, finished their season with eight wins and four losses. This marks the two teams' first meeting. (See also the academy's game notes; caution, large-sized file.)

OK, it ain't a BCS bowl.  So?  

The Air Force game is only an hour from now; I just poured my second cup and haven't even begun to make the blog-rounds.  I'm upside down again, sleep-wise, and to further complicate things it's a nice day outside (55 degrees!) and there are errands to be run.  I don't see how I'm gonna get everythang I wanna do done... sumthin's gonna have to give and it might be the football game.

Update, 1430 hrs:  This:

I deleted that, too.

Right Now

I'm watching the Army-Navy Groundpounders-Squids game, which is to say the also-rans playin' for second place, seein' as how the Air Force Academy has already won the CinC's Trophy.  That said (and you know I just HAD to say it),  it's a pretty entertaining game, all things considered.  Army tied it up with seconds left in the first half, despite the two Army turnovers that gave Navy their touchdowns.  So we're at the half and the game is tied, 14-14.

President Obama is milkin' the game for all it's worth, and then some... what with performing the coin-toss and then spending about five minutes with the CBS broadcast team.  That's all well and good and I'll cut him some slack today, mainly coz he's giving the Cadets and the Midshipmen their due and is sayin' all the right thangs.  Good on him for that.

I love this game, not so much for the football but for the tradition, the rivalry, the Spirit Messages, and all the shining faces of those ossifers-to-be.  This really is "America's Game."

So.  Halftime.  Time to pour another beer and consider putting a match to a ceegar.  We're still into that Sammy Adams "Winter Classics" 12-pack and there's some damned fine beer in that thang.  We might buy another one of those.

The Weekend Continues

I almost always title my blog posts before I write them... it's the very first thing I do.  And then I write, keeping the post title in mind and trying not to venture too far afield from the thought contained in the title.  That usually works for me except for those times when I'm more scattered than normal, and be kind, Gentle Reader, as you read that last bit.  When I'm scattered I'll choose some sort of post title like "Potpourri" or "Miscellaneous Ramblings" or "A Few Things" or something of that ilk.  Today is such a day, so forgive me my trespasses and I'll forgive you yours. 

I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday listing hard to port and taking on water.  It all began Thanksgiving night when I settled down in the early evening to watch the end of a one-hundred-plus game college ball rivalry, which is to say Texas-Texas A&M.  The game was magnificent and I'll say that as a disinterested party with no affiliation whatsoever with either school.  But I loves me some rivalry games, they're always intense and usually result in hard-played football, which is the finest kind.  It saddens me to see the end of a tradition and I watched one end Thursday evening.  But we digress.

I fell asleep on the couch almost immediately after the game was over and slept for well over six hours, awakening just after 0300 hrs.  Six hours of sleep falls within the Usual, Customary, and Reasonable range for me of late and I was faced with a dilemma: do I go back to bed, in my real bed, with every expectation of tossing and turning fitfully for a couple o' hours until it gets light or do I make the coffee and stay up?  I opted for "make the coffee."  That was my first mistake and the rest of the day was pretty much downhill from there.  I managed to stay awake for a lil over six hours and then took a two hour nap.

I said my day was downhill but it wasn't all downhill.  The Beloved Wings played an afternoon game in Bawston yesterday, the broadcast start time being 1100 hrs MST, which was right around the time I awoke from my nap.  The game was a good one, except for the fact the Bruins' only two goals both came as a result of Dee-troit turnovers.  They have to stop that stuff, to be kind.  The Wings also scored two goals and we went into OT as a result and then to a shootout where Dee-troit won, snapping Bawston's ten-game win streak.  Both the game and the final result were VERY satisfying.

We then switched over to yet another rivalry game... already in progress... and watched what was left of the first half of LSU-Arkansas, followed by the remainder of the game.  I had hopes for Moogie's Hawgs when I switched over and saw the score was 14-0 in their favor, but Andy's Tiggers regained their composure and blew the Hawgs out in the second half, which was never close.  So:  Andy glad, Moogie sad.  Me?  Asleep on the couch, again.  Blowouts just aren't that entertaining, unless it's YOUR blowout.

I woke up sometime after dark and hied my old ass off to Mickey Dee's, where I suffered a major disappointment (see below).  I should have known better and that's all I'll say about that.

I then retired to the study where I dragged the Emergency Desktop out of the closet and set to getting it running.  Eighty-five Microsnot updates (85!  Eighty-freakin'-five!), numerous anti-virus updates, and one Firefox upgrade later (from 3.0.19 to 8.0.1) we were done, sorta.  I still have to restore my financial software to its current state before end-of-month close out, but that's no biggie.  The laptop is current in that space, as is the outboard hard drive.

I find it interesting that this is the second time my spiffy desktop has failed in its sweet short life and it's the second time I've had to fall back on the obsolescent box I replaced three years ago.  Both 'puters are Gateways, but the old one is so much more reliable than the newer one... even if it's slower than molasses on a January day.  The old box runs XP, which takes forever to boot up, but at least the thing runs once it's finished gnashing and thrashing its way through the boot sequence.  It has a much slower processor, too, but once again: it's adequate for the tasks at hand.  I'm simply glad I have a fall-back position other than the laptop.

And the weekend continues...

Sparkles and the Lack Thereof

Yesterday was a sorta blah day for me, which is unusual for a Saturday in the Fall.  Saturdays in the Fall used to mean wall-to-wall, door-to-door football... or at least it's been that way for as long as I can remember.  This year?  I might have watched three games, total.  If that.  I dunno why but I can't seem to get enthused about the game this season... and it doesn't have much to do with the success (or lack thereof) of my favorite teams: ND has done about what I expected, Michigan was on a tear before yesterday, and Air Force managed to beat Navy, which is pretty much all that counts in that space.  Oh, yeah... there's Army... and the CinC's trophy, which should might be ours again this year.  That pretty much sums up my lack o' interest in the game.

That said, I did watch Michigan lose... and badly... in East Lansing yesterday.  Some elements o' my past cannot be denied and the rivalry game is one such.  Then I promptly fell asleep on the couch as OSU beat Texas, in Austin, and slept through that entire game.  So much for yesterday's football.

Speaking of elements of my past... it's been quite another story where the Beloved Wings are concerned.  I haven't missed a single game so far and the Wings have rewarded my dedication and loyalty by remaining unbeaten in this young season, going to a 4-0 start for the first time since '97-'98.  Those of us who are prone to staring into the dregs of our tea cup think the signs are good and there's hope that the 2011-2012 season will end up the same way as '97-'98... which is to say yet another parade down Woodward Avenue.  But last night was a near-run thang, what with the Wings having to engineer a come-from-behind victory (they were down 2-0 as late as the middle of the second period) and win it in the last few seconds of OT.  A "W" is a "W," innit?

―:☺:―

Yet another weird thing about my Return to Normal:  I always feel like I'm in a dish-washing detergent commercial when I empty the dishwasher, coz I'll stop and hold up a glass or three to the light and marvel at how they sparkle.  I mean that quite literally, the glasses simply gleam now.  My glasses were clean when I lived in ECMdP, but they didn't shine like they do now.  I've been wondering about that for days and weeks now but haven't arrived at a plausible answer, other than the wonders of a rinsing agent.  I suppose I'll just have to chalk that up to modern science; it's yet another example of "better living through chemistry."  That particular phrase used to have an entirely different meaning to me but we won't go there.

Tonight's ADWH Soundtrack... and Other Stuff

Crosby, Stills, and Nash:

Holding you close undisturbed before a fire
The pressure in my chest when you breathe in my ear
We both knew this would happen when you first appeared
My lady of the island

The tune is a long-time favorite and carries many, many memories... happy and otherwise... from Former Happy Days, but those memories are mostly happy. Mostly.

―:☺:―

Today was a typical Fall Saturday which is to say it's been mostly all football, all the time.  We watched ND pull one out on the road and go to 2-2 on the season.  That game was a near-run thang and it's gonna be a rare win for the Irish this season, methinks.  We then watched Moogie's Hogs lose to Alabama... and they were never really in that game.  I had flashes of hope but Bama was just too, too strong.  And now we're watching a contest featuring another team from the Supremely Egotistical Conference, which is to say LSU-West Virginia.  There were times during this game when I thought about turning it off, simply coz it looked like the Mountaineers were outclassed.  But those West Virginian guys refuse to give up and the game is still in doubt as I type (with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter).  So I'll stay tuned to the game as I construct this post...

We took care of other bid'niz before we settled in to an afternoon of football indolence, which is to say we went out to Cannon Airplane Patch earlier in the day to re-stock the likker-locker and do a commissary run.  About the commissary: shopping takes on a whole nuther meaning when you know you (a) have a big-ass fridge and freezer and (b) have about six times the cabinet space you used to have when you were mobile.  So... we now have three different varieties of Häagen-Dazs in the freezer and about as many different cuts of meat.  And we won't go into what's in the crisper nor on the shelves of the fridge. Suffice to say we are well-stocked and we are MOST happy about that.

―:☺:―

We mentioned in passing that we would begin to actually cook again, once thangs got back to normal.  Well, we're not near normal as yet but we HAVE begun cooking.  We broke the seal on the oven this afternoon, constructing one of our favorite dishes... Viva La Chicken, about which there are several recipes extant on these here inter-tubes, this bein' just one.  I vary considerably from that recipe, using about two dozen tortillas, one whole HELLUVA lot o' green chiles, two cans o' mushroom soup, and about two pounds of shredded jack cheese in my variation.  Let's illustrate:

Note the big-ass pile of boned and shredded chicken at left and the big tub of Bueno brand green chiles.

The casserole just before goin' to the oven.  I ran out of Bueno chiles and had to substitute Ortega brand chiles to top off the casserole.  Note the left over tortillas on the cutting board. 

You can't imagine how GOOD the premises smelled after I (a) boiled the chicken (with lotsa spices... primarily bay leaf, oregano, thyme, and basil, along with half an onion and three cloves of crushed garlic) and (b) took the casserole out of the oven. 

And so dinner was served.

The next culinary project will be a London Broil, assuming I can find a good flank steak.  In the meantime this casserole will feed me for about the next three days.  Anything worth doin' is worth OVER-doin', no?

The Weekend Continues...

We continue to bask in the glow of a truly móvil El Casa Móvil de Pennington this morning.  You can't possibly believe just how much of a relief this is, Gentle Reader.

Other than that?  It's a low and slow weekend, occupied primarily by enjoying the company of SN1 and family.  Buck, DIL Erma, and I went out to dinner last evening, had a few beers, and just generally enjoyed ourselves.  

The First Mrs. Pennington is in town as well, having flown into Lubbock yesterday evening for to visit with her grandbabies and such.  So... we were sitting in my place last evening havin' an after-dinner beer when Buck and Erma had to go on account o' duty and obligation: TFMP had just arrived (literally) and wasn't pleased that B&E weren't home to greet her, she taking the trouble to announce her regret via text message.  Erma then suggested I accompany Buck and her back to Granddaughter Felicity's house where we could continue as we'd begun, i.e., visit and drink beer, adding, in passing "...and you might hook up.  You know, for Old Time's sake."  Which statement resulted in a combination eye-roll and patented over-the-top-of-my-reading-glasses Get Off My Lawn look.  Buck almost choked on his beer (but managed to maintain his cool) and then we all had a good laugh.

They left; I turned on the second half of LSU-Oregon, which was the ONLY football I saw all day, other than highlights on College Football Final.  Blog-Bud Andy is prolly pretty happy today; I thought the game was less than satisfying.  I was also displeased to see ND dropped their opener, at home.  Turnovers killed both losing teams.  This looks like another long year for long-suffering Irish fans.  (sigh)

We've had a major turn in the weather, what with a massive cold front descending on The High Plains o' New Mexico.  It's only 62 degrees out as we speak and feels a LOT like Fall.  No complaints here, Gentle Reader, as our recent run of temps in the high 90s was beginning to get a bit bothersome.  Bring it ON.

And now it's off to make the rounds and finish what's left o' the coffee.