Fun Was Had

The day started when I awoke. Duh! Okay, that was stating the obvious, even if technically the day really started when the clock struck midnight. Wait. Do-over!

The day started when I awoke. *sigh*

The day started with me getting out of bed and checking the email as usual. Gotta check it. You know? So I did. Nothing exciting. I got dressed and went out to bring the garbage to the recycling center. I was met on the front porch as our landlord was leving to return to his home in the southern part of the state. He greeted me with a smile and a quick chat and bid Kathy a fond hello and good day for me to pass on. Our landlords are such great people. Really friendly. It's a nice switch for us.

So I went to the recycling center with my barrel of plastic and bags of garbage. The other barrells (aluminum, glass, paper) weren't full yet so I only had the one. If I'm boring you, please bear with me. From there I went shopping.

It's something like 15 miles to the market in Meredith. A branch of our bank is in the same plaza, but that's a long distance to go, especially on 45MPH roads. The market in Bristol is closer at only about 6 miles away, but it's pricey, has crappy selection and they have no nearby branch of our bank. It just wasn't an option. Plymouth's Hannaford is 15 miles away on the 65MPH highway and has a branch of our bank inside, but Ashland is only 6 miles away and has a branch nearby. I decided to go to Ashland. I did the bank thing and headed over to Bob's Shure-Fine. It's a small place but I didn't need anything real fancy. Or so I thought. Apparently my tastes are too extravegant for a small town like Ashland.

I was planning to make Chicken Adobo for Steve and Chenoa at dinnertime. Halfway through my shopping experience I realized I had substituted half the items I needed with similar items and still couldn't find a couple of key ingredients. I decided I wasn't going to go all the way to Plymouth Hannaford just to get a couple things, so I put everything back and decided to go to Plymouth and do it right. So I did. As a result, I got a call on the cell phone as I'm approaching my home exit from Chenoa stating they were on our front door step and wondering where we were. Funny enough, Kathy was home but still sleeping.

Steve knocked once. Kathy awoke but didn't realize she had really heard a knock and figured I'd get it. He knocked again. She didn't realize I wasn't home but figured she'd better get up. The third time Steve pounded. She was just on the other side of the door and really confused. She let Steve in and seconds later I arrived. Much fun was had at Kathy's expense. I love her.

We had fun with guitars and conversation and goofing off. And poking fun at Kathy. Yup. We also watched "The Big Hit," which is a hilarious action comedy that I must highly recommend. It has one of the best and corniest pick-up lines ever: "I want to pour milk all over you and make you part of my complete breakfast." Isn't that freaking great? Is it any wonder I couldn't find very many dates as a younger boy? Chenoa was visiting family but returned with a very tasty lunch option. We had chicken sausage in rather undersized frankfurter rolls and accompanied by steamed broccoli, squash and zucchini. Yum! Special thanks go to Kathy for cooking. It was delish.

I gave Chenoa a bass lesson. She's been entertaining the idea of buying and learning to play a bass. So I taught her a basic scale position and some finger position techniques. I taught her the G Major scale. We discussed what to look for in a bass and amp. She told me what she had looked at. She searched the web and found a nice, inexpensive Washburn XB100 on sale at Amazon Musical Instruments Beta. She ordered it. Cool! She was looking at a Fender Squire bass. I would take either but I generally think Washburns are better. She found a bunch of reviews on the web that were in agreement so she made the choice tonight. Yay!

Then we watched "This is Spinal Tap" because a reference was made and Chenoa didn't get it. I love that movie. If you havn't seen it, do so. It's hilarious, especially if you're a musician or learned in music. I recommend getting the DVD and watching the commentary, also, because it's basically just the three main actors in character MST3King the movie. Pretty funny stuff. I played the Soundgarden cover of "Big Bottom" for Steve. He's obsessed with covers.

The Chicken Adobo was very tasty and very low-carb. The cookies we had for desert were also very tasty but quite definitely not low-carb. Oh well. Monday I will start getting back into Induction phase. Seriously. I've got to.

And Kathy says no more eating her chocolate. Hey. I was jonesing and she had the only readily accessible source. Too bad, so sad. Aren't I such a wonderful mate?

"How do you plead on the charges of depriving a woman of her chocolate? Guilty as charged. But it felt so good! And the chocolate had it coming.

Can you tell I'm tired?

So seriously: can anyone give me a good explanation of why Marshall amps do go all the way up to 11? Their web site doesn't say.

As If I Didn't Write Enough Already...

It suddenly occured to me that I've been quite fortunate to not have slashed tires considering I went to film two troop homecoming ceremonies with my van that has a "Bush's War Is Not Our War" bumper sticker. This in a state where the Army National Guard Adjutant General claimed his pride in NH families for not questioning the war like those fascist Vermonters. Oye!

Those Vermonters!

As mentioned in my last post, Brigadier General Kenneth R. Clark, the Adjutant General of the NH National Guard, made some rather unsavory and ignorant remarks relative to Vermont anti-war citizens at the recent homecoming ceremony for the 2nd Battalion, 197th Field Artillery. Here's a transcript of his remarks on the subject:

"Last night I was watching Nightline and the citizens of Vermont have been doing a lot of talking about how they feel about the war in Iraq and sending our troops to Iraq. Quite frankly I'm proud of the state of New Hampshire that doesn't question the war in Iraq. I think our soldiers understand that when they join the Guard they join to support their state, but also join to support their nation and the nation's politics at the time they go. If anybody doesn't think that these soldiers have been fighting on the leading edge of the battle, facing Al Qaeda on a daily basis then you don't know where they've been. They've been in the Sunni triangle, the most challenging part of Iraq, and seen a lot of war in the last year and faced a lot of adversity and need a lot of support from us now that they're back home. I'm extremely proud of the families who have supported them so so well on their tour in Iraq."

It's so sad that even our local military leaders have been so deeply duped into believing or committed to supporting the Saddam-Al Qaeda link that was purported to exist and later proven to be false. Even now in light of so much evidence that the link did not exist, Mr. Clark believes it does and Al Qaeda is fighting our troops in Iraq on the front lines. And he promotes blind, flag-waving patriotism and not taking a stand against a wrongful war. He promotes shutting of mouths and letting our politicians wave selfish wrath against people who want their country back. What makes us any better than the red coats during the American Revolution? These are sad times.

I ask you, my fellow Americans: how does it feel to be that proverbial frog in the boiling pot? How does it feel to be a red coat?

Cool Site

Check this out.

http://www.vermontrepublic.org

It's the Second Vermont Republic movement. I think it's an interesting idea. Currently there are 6 states with secession movements: Alaska, Vermont, Hawai'i, California, Washington and Oregon. Washington and Oregon are working together along with British Columbia to for The Republic of Cascadia. SVR is hoping to involve Maine, New Hampshire and the 4 Atlantic Canadian provinces (and possibly Quebec) to form a New Atlantic Confederacy and investigating possible UN membership.