Archive for the ‘Bitch & Complain’ Category
As I roll out of bed this morning it’s done with the beginnings of a mediocre and annoying hangover. It all started with the arrival of my nephew from Dallas at midnight last night. Unlike my better-half and me, his air travel from Texas went as well as could be expected and he arrived on time with all of his luggage (miracle of miracles).
We arrived home where he desperately needed food and drink and some time to relax. We finally made it to bed around 2:30 am after being finished off by a large bottle of really excellent Sangria. Boy is my head throbbing this morning.
Our plans for today, if the weather cooperates, include a touristy trip along the coast to Portland Head Light (Lighthouse) at the entrance to Portland Harbor. We cruised through a number of towns on the way including Old Orchard Beach, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, and South Portland. The weather was a huge pain like always but we muddled through.
Later this evening with my better-half in tow we’ll be off once again for a night of excellent food and drink at one of Portland’s best pubs, The Great Lost Bear. Hundreds of beers on tap and the super hot chicken wings that could possible set your hair on fire. A perfect time to kick back, relax, and enjoy the interesting atmosphere and even more interesting people.
‘One Lone Lobsterman’
The rest of the week should be fun if the weather cooperates. Later in the week we have a deep sea fishing trip scheduled and a few hours on the water chasing and catching a few fish will cap off his visit.
The rainy days continue here in Maine. All the better for our gardens but a little annoying as well. The better-half surprised me yesterday with an adlib Father’s Day celebration. We’d leave the house early and look for a small out of the way place to have breakfast. The only requirement was that the restaurant be small and some where we’d never been before.
This was the best scenery shot of the morning because it rained the entire time we were driving.
After driving along the coast to several small restaurants we were becoming frustrated. In one restaurant there was not only a forty-five minute wait for a table but a half-hour wait to get into the stupid parking lot. We quickly decided that wasn’t the place we were looking for.
Twenty minutes later we cruised into the city of South Portland, just across the harbor from Portland. As we turned a corner what did we stumbled onto but a Mexican restaurant called Taco Trio. The entire town was barely awake and moving but this tiny little place was bustling with customers.
After some discussion we both decided on a breakfast burrito with everything. The order arrived twenty minutes later at our tiny little table with two four pound burritos with everything in them. And I do mean everything!! We had sides of freshly made tomato salsa, a pineapple and cilantro salsa, and enough hot sauce to float a boat. It was the best Father’s Day meal I’ve ever had and I suspect my mouth will still be burning in three more hours.
One last thing. The war between me and all of Mother Nature’s critters has come to an end. Rather than kill as many of them as possible I decided on a more peaceful solution. Thanks to a nearby Lowes and three hours of hard work I was able to fence in my garden frames. It’s been two days now and there’ve been no further middle of the night raids. Here’s a couple of photo’s of the new setup.
For the first time in my life I was able to get the upper hand on Mother Nature. I hope my late father is up there watching. He was never able to win using electric fencing, human hair, guns, and any thing else he could think of.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD – We finally won one.
I’m spending this rainy morning in bed for at least another hour because watching old reruns of Sports Night has become part of my morning routine. It was a show I enjoyed watching back in 2000 even though I’m really not a sports guy. The show still holds up pretty well and the inane patter between the characters still makes me smile.
Have any of you noticed just how many of the old shows seem to be resurfacing on such a large number of channels. It started two years ago for me when I stumbled upon reruns of Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. I never missed that show as a kid and thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the episodes once again. Is it a little lame? Absolutely! Is it an easy and relaxing half hour? Absolutely! Then followed Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Dragnet, One Adam 12, and a host of others. I began to wonder why it was happening so frequently.
Can it be that the networks are beginning to see a change in viewing habits? Is it possible that the ratings for these old shows are higher than those of the half hour long commercials that seem to be on every channel? Is it more fun to spend a relaxing half hour watching a show where the good guys always win and the bad guys always lose? Can it be that people are sick to death of watching hour long shows about corrupt politicians, corrupt police officers, heroic serial killers like Dexter or pedophiles who aren’t responsible for their criminal behavior and blame everything on society? It’s a politically correct "No-No" watching those old shows where it’s celebrated to be patriotic, honest, religious, and a responsible citizen.
God forbid anyone should love their country and voice it out loud these days. We wouldn’t want to piss off the media elite who decide what we should be watching and how to think. How can the Mainstream Media possibly maintain control of the masses and continue to dictate our politics, morals, and outlook on life when we’d rather watch Joe Friday or the Lone Ranger doing the right thing no matter what. I think our kids would certainly benefit from a stream of positive role models, don’t you?
I find myself drawn to those simpler and more honest shows even though they aren’t up to speed with all of the politically correct crap we’re being fed these days. Maybe it’s time for the people of this country to once again hear some positive messages instead of the constant in-your-face drumbeat of commercials, reality shows, and just plain crap that’s filling the airways.
Find that cable channel that’s decided to step back and regain some simple and positive programming and support them. When their ratings begin to climb the advertising money will soon follow. More money begets more of the same type of programming and all of us and our kids are the winners.
A week or so ago I posted a list of rather disgusting and disturbing facts about food and the hundreds of possible bacterial issues they provide. Never let it be said that I don’t pass along a continuous stream of useless information to my audience.
With that thought in mind I decided today I’d post a list of somewhat interesting facts about everyone’s favorite subject. . . . Sex! I’m also reasonably sure that none of these facts will initiate any sort of sexual arousal in anyone.. Read on and learn a few things you really don’t want or need to know.
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In an international survey, 14 percent of people admit to having slept with a friend’s lover behind his/her back.
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Some women are allergic to their male partners semen, a condition known as human seminal plasma hypersensitivity.
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One study reports that autoerotic asphyxia, or cutting off oxygen to the brain to achieve greater sexual satisfaction, claims the lives of 500-1000 men each year.
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Keeping a condom in your wallet is a bad idea. The constant friction and temperature changes can cause microscopic tears allowing sperm to get through.
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According to one researcher, women have a higher likelihood than men to settle for a mediocre sex life and unmet emotional needs.
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The average U.S. male’s sperm count has declined thirty percent in the last three decades.
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The average size of an erect penis is five inches, while the average flaccid penis is three and a half inches.
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The sale of sex toys and vibrators is banned in Alabama and Mississippi.
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Wearing too much makeup can mask the scent that attracts men to women during ovulation. An experiment found that a women’s armpit scent was at it’s most attractive to men between the end of her cycle and ovulation, but that this smell is easily obscured by cosmetics.
And here’s my favorite interesting sex fact:
So much for your sex education class. I hope I’ve filled your heads with lots of annoying goodies you can think about while enjoying your next sexual interlude.
I thought I’d take a little time today to give you a general update of the garden. I realize that it’s still early in the season but with the warm weather finally arriving the plants have really begun to grow. As usual there have been a few fatalities in the garden. Two jalapenos dried up and fell over and three of the cucumber plants followed suit. The peppers had their stems cut which confused me for a time. I thought it might have been deer but a nearby nurseryman advised of a rash of cut worm complaints in recent weeks. They love chewing through the stems of healthy plants. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them and squish as many as I possibly can.
The cucumbers were ones I purchased from Lowes and I’ve come to find out that most plants purchased from local nurseries seem to thrive much more than those purchased from these big box stores. I think it all comes down to how the plants are handled. Unfortunately at any big box store, they hire a bunch of high school or college students at minimum wage and set them loose on the plants. Too much watering is just as damaging as too little and those kids are clueless.
With the new plants in hand I replaced the dead ones last night. I spent some time chopping down the seed stalks of my rhubarb plants too. This should help them fill out a little more and give me a better harvest when it comes time to make jam. I was surprised to find a number of rhubarb seedlings in one of the other frames. The seeds must have blown there last year and took root this spring. I replanted them nearer the rhubarb patch will I’m going to be forced to enlarge next season.
‘There always seems to be one on these guys hanging around.’
I finally began caging the tomato plants when I found the first bloom on one plant. I was going to wait until later in the month but the plants are growing so quickly they’ll need the support from the cages to keep the fruit off the ground.
As you can see by the photos the entire garden including the herbs are looking good. If this keeps up for another couple of months we will have a ton of product to deal with this Fall. I have a feeling we’ll be canning a lot more than we did last year with a much larger variety as well.
After our fun day trip to Portsmouth and Kennebunkport we decided we needed some additional cruising time but a little further north in Maine. It was one of those days where we just drive. No GPS, no real destination, just drive until we get lost. The above photograph illustrates why traveling around in Maine is such fun. It seems that you can’t drive for more than a few minutes without seeing these kind of picturesque scenes.
It makes driving a real chore because you want to stop at every location but they’re everywhere. There are hundreds of lakes and ponds and any one of them would result in fantastic photographs.
It was getting to be lunch time and we were starving and craving some good old Maine seafood. This place pictured below was just a shack along the highway and since we had nothing to lose we stopped. It’s places like this that always seem to have really good food and fresh from the ocean seafood. We pulled in, ordered, and weren’t the least bit disappointed.
‘It doesn’t look like much but don’t be fooled.’
‘The prices were reasonable and the food terrific.’
We sat at a picnic table in the parking lot and pigged out. A sunny day, fresh fish, and and a huge container of iced tea. It just doesn’t get much better than that. We ended up driving more than two hundred miles before finally finding our way home.
‘Another great Maine day.’
‘One last scene from the drive.’
As I promised, today’s posting will conclude our day trip to Portsmouth, NH and Kennebunkport, ME. I left off last time as we were leaving the Red Hook Brewery in New Hampshire after a nice lunch and a tour of the brewery. I still was loving that beer buzz I had from tasting the many beer samples on the tour. Unfortunately by the time we reached the Kennebunkport area the glow was gone.
Our last visit to Kennebunkport had been prior to Memorial Day and things have changed dramatically in the last week. The tourists were out in force and the parking difficulties have returned. As much as I hate paying for parking there really isn’t much of a choice in such a small village directly adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. Three bucks an hour is enough to keep our visit to a two hour minimum.
We took a quick walk around town hitting a few shops and generally getting a feel for the place. Many of the shops from last year were gone and replaced by new owners wanting to make their fortune. Good luck with that.
As always we hung around just long enough to make a visit to Federal Jack’s restaurant. We never miss that stop when we’re in town because the food is great and the beer is plentiful. This is the original microbrewery location that eventually spawned the Shipyard Brewing Company. I switched back to white wine for my meal of freshly caught and cooked Fish & Chips.
The town is famous for the Bush family and as you can see the entire population is celebrating the 90th birthday of Barbara Bush this month. As we left town we took a short ride up the coast past Walker Point where the Bush family has their summer residence. The day remained gray and chilly but that’s just life in Maine in early June.
We arrived back home with a camera full of pictures and full bellies. Now it’s time to relax for a while and watch a movie. We’re both hoping for warmer weather soon but I suppose that’s Mother Natures decision as always.
Last Wednesday was a day we don’t often have. My better-half and I were able to combine some semi-decent weather with one of her rare days off. We decided to start our day in Portsmouth, NH where we could shop a little, enjoy people watching, and take a few updated photographs of the waterfront and harbor.
Even though the weather wasn’t perfect (cloudy and chilly) we still enjoyed roaming around Old Town. The shops there are as diverse as they can possibly be making the visits much more interesting. Jewelry, clothing, trinkets, and of course food. We did our best to sample and purchase a little of everything.
The older part of town is filled with many interesting buildings that have been repurposed many times over the years. Lots of college and high school students filling the streets to make things even more interesting. I have to say that the new fad of coloring one’s hair a vibrant blue doesn’t do much for me but I’m acquiring a real appreciation for the women’s new obsession with tights. OMFG!
‘What’s a day without music?
‘Lady Blue’
After walking around town for a few hours I found something interesting. It was a building decoration which captured completely the message my feet were sending to me.
We ended the day with a stop at the Red Hook Brewery for a light lunch and then a tour of the facility. It never hurts to learn a little more about beer making and those free beer samples didn’t hurt either. While I’m not much of a beer drinker it’s nice to have an occasional beer buzz that early in the day. We departed the Portsmouth area for a leisurely ride up the coast to one of out favorite places, Kennebunkport. I’ll save that part of the trip for my next posting.
All in all we had a very nice day.
‘Rear Yard Water Feature’
Today I’m celebrating my release from two days of captivity in "computer hell". All of my network connected items are finally working once again and all is right in my world.
I spent four hours yesterday digging into the software on my main computer in an attempt to find that one little thing that would fix all of my networking problems. It was a mentally exhausting exercise that really didn’t make me much smarter just more frustrated.
As I peeled away the layers of this damn computer onion I discovered a lot of settings that are automatically set by the Windows program when working with local networks. After four hours of searching I discovered a small screen that I’d never seen before. I clicked on a small box on that screen which initiated some sort of BS setting, and miracle of miracles, everything began working properly. I read the small descriptive blurb near that switch but understood none of it …… but it worked.
‘It’s amazing what a little rain can do.’
Today is a day of much needed rain and I’m relaxing with the cat in front of the television. As you can see by the photo’s the rain is quickly turning our property into a jungle. I just finished watching for the umpteenth time, season one of Sherlock. It’s a modernized version of Sherlock Holmes produced by the BBC. It’s my all time favorite recreation of Holmes and believe me I’ve read and seen everything ever made or written about the great detective. It’s just a great way to spend a lazy and rainy day.
Earlier I prepared an appetizer for our dinner tonight which I hope will be spectacular. I hollowed out eight fairly large jalapeños, stuffed them with a mixture of cream cheese and spices, and wrapped them in bacon. I’ll toss them on the grill and crisp them up to start off our meal of roasted chicken. Add a small salad and we’ll should have an excellent meal. I may even throw in a few tortilla chips and a jar of my home made black bean/corn salsa. That’s hot enough to spice up any meal and to keep your mouth burning for quite a while.
I’m also spending some time planning our two day vacation for next week. It may involve a day of shopping and walking through the Old Town section of Portsmouth, NH, and also visits to a few local wineries and breweries. It should be a relaxing couple of days if the weather doesn’t screw it up.
Gardening and other outdoor pursuits have taken a spot much lower on my priorities list today. Yesterday we had a very short thunderstorm (badly needed) but with it came many problems. Some sort of power surge crashed my home network and fried my router. I spent most of yesterday attempting to repair and correct the problems. What a pain in the butt.
My home network is quite comprehensive (when working) and an absolute nightmare when it isn’t. Losing the router shut down our alarm system, the telephone system, the Xbox, the DVD player, the MyCloud, the Internet, and all printing capabilities. It’s times like these that force me to realize just how much our household relies on this damn technology.
After doing a lot of testing I determined the router had truly been destroyed. Since it was rather old replacing it wasn’t that big of a deal. Unfortunately that old router had been attached to the Time Warner modem on the Internet feed which was also badly damaged. It was off to my home-away-from-home, Best Buy, to begin the rebuilding process. I upgraded to a newer model of router and also purchased a network battery backup system. Then I stopped off at Time Warner on the way home and traded in the old modem for a new data modem.
I returned home and installed the new equipment which turned out to be much easier than I anticipated. Good news, right? No effing way. As I began the process of making sure all of our devices were reprogrammed to the new system I found a new problem caused by the upgrade. My “Old Faithful” of a desktop computer refused to connect to the new and improved network. Unfortunately this desktop is four years old and is my main storage device for over five thousand music files and an additional twenty-five thousand photographs. Please, just shoot me now.
The desktop also has my only working copy of Windows Live Writer which is one of the best programs ever created for posting blogs. Microsoft in it’s infinite wisdom has discontinued the product and that puts me in a serious bind. If I can’t resolve the network issues with this computer I’ll be totally and truly screwed. The repair work will continue today and this posting will probably be handled through the WordPress system.
I love computers but OMFG can they be frustrating. Between virus protection, firewalls, hackers, and network requirements, it can make a person crazy. Hopefully I’ll figure things out quickly but as always with computers I expect the worst. I’ll keep you posted ( no pun intended).
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