The Borg

To all of you sci-fi nuts and trekies......here's my analogy. Fanatic Islamist are the BORG of today. Their moto: Be absorbed into Islam, or be destroyed. Plain and simple.....they're one in the same.
Yes, yes, yes, in the midevil ages, the Crusaders went out into the vast world and proclaimed the same, except for Christianity. True, and sad though it is. But way back then, most of the humans that they encountered were living at a tribal, or below tribal level, yet and they thought nothing of sacrificing beautiful, young, sweet virgins to whatever God they happend to be worshiping at that time. Females were expendable, and held in contemp. (My theory on that is that women have always known that WE have what THEY want, and therefore WE are evil because, when with US, they feel so weak and helpless...therefore WE must be controlled, hidden, and feared) PLEASSSSSSEEEEE! Give me a break!
Back to the Islamo-nuts, Do they even realize that IF they manage to kill off all of the Infadils, that their world will still be crap?!? Crap? Because they've never realized how to go beyond the Zero. They want every woman to hide her eyes, hair, hands, face, and feet from every man, because the men of Islam haven't enough cooth to act like a civilized man. THEY say it's for a woman's own good, for her safety. BULL SHIT! Aw yes, blame it all on the Infadels and the women!!
Sorry to blank out on this thought...Dancing with the Stars is on. See ya

Update: Morels

FYI
If any of y'all don't know what a morel mushroom is, go to www.morel.com
It has alot of info, and great recipies too.
I'm trying to get a group of my friends all together to go camping, and morel hunting at the end of April. We can all hunt during the day, and feast on the bounty every night. Close by is a GREAT little store with a wonderful butchershop where we can buy GREAT meat to add to the meal!! Meat, roomies, and cole slaw: how much better can it get?!?
I've tracked MY mushroom hunting every year since I moved here (1990), and I figure that the end of April/the start of May will be a good time. Our winter has been really weak this year, and alot of moisture had gotten into the ground. Therefore........a bumper crop. HOPE HOPE
Mariah, if you are reading......come on over. Cabins rent for 45/65 a night (based on party size), and they have fridges to boot. You may need some electric blankets cuz there isn't any heat/cool for the cabins. Linen must be provided by the renter too. I also have a big tent with cots and sleeping bags.....Just a thought.
Spring is on it's way.........I feel it!!
...... I also feel the need to pee. Gotta go.
Dancing with the Stars is also on tonight. Damn, can it get any better?

Mushroon time is coming..

It's mid-January, and my dreams are wafting off to mushroom hunting.
To those of you who haven't lived in the mid-west, and never went mushroom hunting, my heart goes out to you!
When I say mushrooms...I mean MORELS (google it up). They are, by and away the tastiest wild mushrooms going. And the hunt...let me say........ THE HUNT, is the best!!
As a child, my folks would gather up us 5 girls, arm us with an empty bread sack, and a jacket (in case we found so many, that we'd have to tie our sleeves up and zip up the backet to hold the bounty) and head off into the woods to find some "roons". I smile as I'm writing this, because it brings such fond memories.
I can hear you now, "What's so damn great about heading off into some woods, with mud, bugs, and assorted yuck?" Well, dear friends, you have to be there to appreciate the true ECSTASY of shouting, "Found one!!" Believe me, it's a better rush than shouting BINGO.
Many moons ago, when I was still a young adult, and my X and I were living in the same area as my folks, Daddy asked me if I'd like to join him on a hunt. I said "hell yes" and off we went.
We went up and out of town, down a gravel road to an area I remembered from my youth. "We're here." he proclaimed, and off we went. In the 1st 1/2 hour we found a few (actually, HE found a few, and I was not feeling well into this venture because of that). We kept on through the leafless woods. Then, we were face to face with a plowed field (probably in the fall), knee deep with mud, and I had on a new pair of Chuck Taylors on. He turned to me, smiled, and took of running in that high-stepping run that you need to have when the mud is soft, wet, and warm.......
Damn it Daddy! Me and my Chuck Taylor followed him blindly. Half out of trust, the other half out of the fact that I had no clue as to where we were, I jumped into that black Iowa field after my Dad.
Daddy's been gone since "01, but if he was here to tell you, he'd say that..........we fell into the Mother-load. Let me just say that it was a shit load of roonies!! It was a glorious find! !!!! Everywhere we looked, they were there, standing 4-8 inches tall and screaming, "Take me! Take me!" Beautiful yellow morels. (sigh) Here they call them Yallers, I just called them Great! :-)
I can't remember much more detail after we got back to the car with 2 bags and 2 jackets full of roonies. When we got home, Mom was working, so we split the roonies, put them in salted water (to get the bugs out), and we feasted the next night. It was grand! Can't remember if a meat was included in the meal, but it didn't matter; we had ROONIES!
Mister and I lived in the Tidewater area before we moved here (13 years for me, 23 years for him) and when we relocated to the midwest, our thoughts gravitated to MORELS once spring sprung and the air was warmer.
It's an addiction. Pure and simple. The first year here, since I didn't know anywhere to "hunt", I bought a pound of roonies for $16...and unbelieveable amount for 1990.
I fixed those puppies up right, and we ate roonies with cold BUD, and life was wonderful!
As I post this, my mind wanders back to the good times, the good food, to good memories.
May 2006 be a great mushroom year!! Hoo Hah!
Life is too short to eat crap.....Can I get an Amen? YUM!

Crap at work

I work for a foremost Military provider........we do war stuff. There is another round of lay-offs starting tomorrow, and a few of my long time friends are affected.
For some reason......$$$$$$$$ probably, there is nothing in the local news about any of this. Tomorrow and Friday, a total of 80-100 folks (blue collar and white collar) will be give the heave ho without nary a notice in the local news.
Let me give some background here. We make stuff for the Dept. of Defense. Have had since 1954, I think. Anyway, this company that took us over when we were privatized about 8-9 years ago, is systematically tossing out the older, higher paid individuals, in lue of profits. The COMPANY constantly farms jobs out to small job shops that pay significantly less per employee than we do. We carry the burden of "overhead" (which includes the engineering dept. that is farming our work out) which is why our bidding price is higher.
Does anyone else see the absurd irony of all of this?!? These, (and may I be blunt here..?) pocket protecting, self-grandizing, self absorbed, anal retentive, docker wearing, barely out of high school, "Hooters" loving fellas are screwing their very livelyhood out of existence????
They're not sending stuff to China, but it may as well be sent there.
We have a seasoned, knowledgeable work force at their beckon call, but they opt to send stuff out.
I'm in a serious venting mode here, and who gives a shit about us? No one.
My Mister is laid off until 4/3/2006. He works for GM, he's 57, and this crap is getting deep.
I suggested, that since I speak, and understand Spanish well, that we out to just pack up the cats and dog, and head to Mexico, or Belize. Our $$ will go twice as far there, and we won't have to deal with this crap.
Don't say that is George W's fault..I fault all of them. This crap started many years ago, and
we all stood by with our blinders on. Most of the folks I know have said, and keep saying, "If it doesn't affect me and my family, why should I care?"
Maybe we should start caring, and VOTE to protect Americans, and our traditional way of life.
Gotta go, it was making me dizzy up there on that pedistal!! :-)

Stuff, and what it means

STUFF

What does stuff mean to you? Stuff, to me is things that I value: Photos, memorabilia, family momentoes........stuff. Stuff to Mister is THINGS. Things that he feels have value. Not emotional value, but $$$$ value. We have had this discussion (alas arguement) on a quarterly, if not, monthly basis for almost 18 years. He says, that since I grew up "poor" I don't value STUFF. I say, that since I did grow up "Poor", I know what has real value and what doesn't. Hence, the arguement.
As I drove into work this morning at 4:30 AM, I was listening to 870 AM, New Orleans, to folks that were getting back into their homes, and they were talking about their........"stuff" that they had lost in the hurricane. Many of the folks lamented the loss of their cars, their boats, their........stuff.
Then one women called in and talked about losing all of her family photos (from her grandma and beyond) and a pet cat; Ryley. My heart went out to that woman and her losses. A person can replace cars, stereos, boats, campers, and ........stuff, but the memories that were lost and the love that Ryley gave her, can never be replaced. If understanding that connection, and feeling the same way makes me a stupid person......then so be it.
Everynight before I hit the hay, I pray that Mister gets home safely (it's a 46 mile ride for him each night), I touch the photos of my family, fluff my kitties, and kiss Prince, and say my prayers.

If something ever happened here, and I lost all of my photos, my memories, and....GOD forbid, Bear, Sissy, or Prince, I think that I would want to die! Yes, I love my Mister, as woman can only love a man, but to lose (loose, loss, losing whatever. Where's a dictionary when you need one?) my "babies, my lovies" I would truly be devistated.
I guess the quarterly arguement/discussion about the value of STUFF will continue in my house. All I can say, is that Mister has never FELT strongly about anything but...STUFF. (if he has, he's never let on....)
Maybe one day......should he live so long, Mister will realize that it's what's in the heart that matters most........not what's in the wallet. :-)
I'll keep trying to show him the way. He's 57 on the 8th (Elvis"s Birthday too), and you'd think that he'd have a clue. One can only hope. TTFN Chrissykins

Home again in Indiana

We're home!! Prince had his 1st trip past the Wabash River. He wasn't sure he liked this traveling thing.....for the most part, neither were we. We are used to getting back"home" in 5 -5 1/2 hrs. With Prince and the potty time outs......it was more like 6-6 1/2 hrs. The ride back was better because he quit thinking that he was going to Petsmart. (The only place he's ever been more than 20 minutes away)
Mom was all over him......she hadn't seen him since 11/2001, 3 months after Daddy died, but Prince still remembered her. :-) It was cool. A Grandma and her Grand-dog. She's missed having a dog in the house, and Prince took center stage! He laid by her chair when we went out to Farm-King, and sat by herwhen we ate meals. (how did he know that she often drops things on the floor?)
He ate WELL at Grandma's, but he refused to drink on the way, and all he ate was a slice of bologna that I offered him when I made us sandwiches in LeRoy. He did #1 quite often but no #2 on the road. He saved that for our run in the park on New Year's day.
He loves to chase squirrels at home where we have the big fox squirrels, but in Ia, the squirrels were grey, fast, and everywhere! He thought he died and went to dog heaven (except for the fact that he never caught one).
He's a character....a true gem. If I never told the story: I went to the animal shelter in '98 or '99 to get a companion for a Katie, a previous dog that we had. Katie was an anxious sort, and clung to us way too much. So we (I) decided that she needed a playmate. I went to the shelter to find her a friend, and I found Prince. He was 3 yrs. old, fixed, could sit and stay, and had great manners. A lab/chow mix, he should have weighed 65-80lbs. he weighed 46lbs. We met, I opened the door to his pen, he licked my face, and we were off .
As I was loading him in the car, which means I opened the car door and said, " get in" (which he did, and sat down) a young girl came out, hugged and kissed him, all the while crying.
I said, "...is he yours? Are you OK?" She said, (and I'll never forget this) "no, he's not mine, but he was supposed to be euthanized tonight. I'm so glad you wanted him." I hugged her and replied, "..no honey, you have that wrong. He wanted ME." And so..that's how I became the Mom of the best damn dog in the whole world.
That best damn dog is snoozing on the rug by my feet. He's sniffed and licked Bear and Sissy when he got back, and he made an old lady in Iowa smile.
It's after 9PM, and 4:00AM comes way too soon.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!