So

Senator  Secretary of State Mr. Heinze Ketchup Kerry has signed the UN Small Arms Treaty.

Under what authority did you sign that and intend to enforce it?

來，並把它

приди и возьми ее

As Forest said, " that's all I have to say about that."

Error, laptop inaccesible

Because prime napping human unavailable.

You going to be done soon Mom?

BAR Corp. HQ Cat 4.0

So, after we put ailing cat 2.0* down, Belle and I talked about perhaps getting a Siamese or a Russian Blue around Christmas time. I was rather enjoying the discussions about the merits of one breed over the other and the anticipation of getting a new cat.

A few days ago, our oldest daughter texted a pic from work. An abandoned kitten had been found in the parking lot.  She asked Belle if we wanted it. Belle showed me the pic, and after long deliberation that lasted about 2 miliseconds I said, "OK".

He's only 4 to 5 weeks old, 12 oz. of skin and bone under that frowsy fur, but at the rate he's eating that won't be for too long.  He made his first visit to the Vet today for a checkup. Vet says he's healthy

Belle and I are working on a name for him.  She keeps coming up with names from Harry Potter. bleh.
I like "Lord Tennyson", LT for short. (I've no idea where that came from)

* In order of acquisition:

Cat 1.0, Jasper - came as part of the package deal when I married Belle and her two daughters. Shredded my fake leather couch. We eventually came to terms.  Deceased.

Cat 2.0 Miss Kitty - Socially retarded. I blame our children. Recently deceased.

Cat 3.0 Ballou - Neighbor's cat that adopted us. Passed from complications associated with feline aids.  I really liked that cat.

Two is one, one is none

Sometimes two is none.
Warning: computer geekery.

I got a call last night from one of my partners. The electrical power to our entire building went down for about 9 hours yesterday. This resulted in a less than graceful shutdown of a dozen servers.

We office in a very upscale part of town.  The electrical infrastructure is almost third world. :(

When access to the server backup image requires access permission authentication to the server that is toasted you have what is known as a conundrum.

I have a backup image of the server.
I cannot get to the image of the server.
This is because the device storing the server image wants to check my access credentials with the server that is missing*...the server for which it holds the backup image.  Therefore, backup storage device is inaccessible.

Fortunately my redundancies have redundancies.  Were it not for the secondary domain controller, we would not have been able to work today. This would have been very bad. North of $10k per hour billable lost.

We have expensive high fallutin' backup software.  I have seen this software fail to make backups frequently. So, I have a backup backup, aka as an MS Dos batch file that launches via the task scheduler and has yet to fail.**

I see now that I need to add the domain controller backup image files to that MS DOS Batch file routine for events like this, so it is somewhere that I can get to under almost any circumstances.

 If you can't get to your backup, it might as well not be there.



* for those that know of such weirding ways, it is was a virtual machine that is now listed as "inaccessible guest" or some such helpful information on the host server.
** The MS DOS xcopy command is your friend.  Believe it or not, MS DOS still exists in Windows 7. I'm not sure about Windows 8. If not, I'm never down upgrading to Windows 8.

Such a Deal..Oy!

Clearing the Yahoo email.
Ammo for Sale emails to notify me that 1000 rounds of 9mm 115gr FMJ are available for $355!

Now I'm not dissing Ammo for Sale*, but I really miss the good 'ole days,before the great ammo shortage of '13, when those emails advertised 1000 round bricks for $199.

I haz a boohoo.





* I've bought a lot of 9mm from those guys, as in thousands with nary a problem.

About time!

Rain.
We've had an inch or two today. Well we'll see what the total is tomorrow. It's still raining. :)
This kind of rain totally freaks people in Phoenix out.  I've been delayed on flights out of Phoenix because of what we refer to as "Seattle rain" where it just pisses on you slowly. I mean really. If you notice, the rain is actually falling straight down, as in 90 degrees, also known as normal to a plane, to the ground.
OMG! it's a MONSOON!*
Srsly dude?
Down here, the reaction is, "Finally!"
We are way behind on August ball busting thunderstorms.**

Let's see.
The traffic map shows a bunch of construction zones and..
Oh! Look! anywhere from two to four morons managed to have an accident at 10:08 pm long after the "rush" hour traffic is gone.
-little red diamonds on the map.










I think I'm going to grab another brew from the fridge and go out on the front porch
and just watch it rain.



* I personally witnessed this conversation on a connection out of Phoenix.
** Yes, I"m aware it's September. I'm getting older, but I'm not that far gone.

and, In Category of Artistic Culinary Presentation, F-

Tasted just fine though.
There wasn't enough ice cream to put the carton back in the freezer, so...


My own creation - the banana "break". Similar to a banana "split" but less work.*




















* oh yeah, go ahead and be critical. Do  you have three flavors of ice cream,  marachino cherries, crushed pineapple, crushed nuts and readi-whip just layin round the house? I mean, who do you think I am?  Brigid?

You have got to be shitting me

I don't know how this has evaded my attention up to now.

"As promised, TBAE can now provide some preliminary information regarding the new requirement for Active-status registrants to submit fingerprints for the purpose of a criminal history check. Please see the link below for all the latest information on the new requirement, and check back often for more news and updates as the program nears full implementation. "

Fingerprints?!?! *

Apparently, the profession of Architecture in Texas has become so over-run with convicted felons going to architecture school, spending 3 or 4 years in indentured servitude as an intern just to qualify to take the licensing exam, that finger prints are now necessary to ferret out all the drug dealing, murderous, father-raping licensed architects.

What jackass came up with this brilliant idea?**
This is Texas for crikey's sake!



* Of course being a government program, similar to obummercare, things aren't quite up and running yet. So while you might be mandated to submit said prints, there is no means by which the TBAE can receive them ...just yet. But.  As promised, they are working diligently night and day to strip your civil liberties as I type.

**Probably some California transplant loiya in Austin.
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
iamnotgoingtowritebadwords
not helping. 
damnbusybodylibtardmotherfuckers

Not Ashamed

Relieved is more like it.
Coop posts up words of wisdom.

Words to Live By

Stronger? Luckier is more like it.

Note the scar juuuust to the left of the big fat vein on the back of my right hand.  That could have been a real bleeder.  There was plumbing, a very long machine screw and a pair of pliers involved in acquiring this scar.  I don't recall exactly how I managed to lay open the back of my hand, but I missed the vein by that much.
Instead of a trip to the doc in the box for sutures, triage was nothing more than a wad of paper towels.

There's a story behind every scar.
I showed you mine, show me yours. ;)

I know, I'm a little slow at times.

Our most recent member, Joe Schmo from The Daily Smug has been added to the blog roll.
Joe posts actual content unlike the drivel and snark I post here.

Figures, the Naval Yard Gunman was from TEXAS!

Buncha crazy bible and gun clinging flat land hillbillies!
SSSSssss, oooh yeah, uhm that's not going to quite fit the appropriate white psycho domestic terrorist gun nut narrative.*
Don't we have something we can run about Snooky or Kim Kardashian?

Shall we start a pool to see which political party this nutcase belongs to? Or, which presidential candidate he voted for in the last two elections?  Making the bold assumption he voted...


I suggest a golf score pool.  The best guess on the lowest number of news stories, or shortest number of days this gets traction in the laimstream media wins.






* Hey spook computer nerds!  Just a shout out to my closest NSA "friends".

the final nail in the Global Worming Hoax coffin?

Bill Nye, the sciencey guy, so voraciously vocal about global worming, lo these many years is on Dancing with the Stars.
I remember watching his short spots on TV with my brood when they were young.  Somewhere along the line, Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes got cut.
 I suspect Bill never got over those fleeting moments in the limelight. Not finding actual sciencey stuff  actually interesting, or lucrative, or providing the rush of stardom, Bill hitched his wagon to the global worming hoax.
Now that it appears we are headed into another small ice age, Nye has jumped ship.
Nye is a competitor on Dancing with the Stars.*
I have to give him credit, his dance routine to "Weird Science" was not bad, if not apropos.

On the other side of the "Life as Reality" approach, Bill Engvall just absolutely tore up the Fox Trot.


Yes, I'm watching Dancing with the Stars.  I'm watching for no other reason than the Lovely Belle wants to.





*Star is perhaps not the correct label for Nye.  Opportunist, yes.

I haz a sad

The cat's condition worsened over the weekend.  Belle took her to the Vet again today.
Miss Kitty went from 15 pounds to 6 over the past year or so.  Her liver and kidneys were failing.
She spent most of this past weekend mouth open, panting and drooling.
We had her put down this morning.
Of all the cats I've had over the years, she was the least affectionate of all of them, but after 14 years of living with her, I'll miss her nonetheless.

Barak rides bitch

Laughing my ever loving ass off

via Larwyn's Linx

.

Range Date

Belle and I resurrected a BAR tradition that used to occur weekly before the great ammo shortage of '13.  A nice Tex-mex lunch at Elisia's and a jaunt to the shooting range.
We looked like we were going to war when we left the house.
Plan "A" was the rifle range to break in the "new to us" Mosin Nagants.
In the event that the rifle range was over-run by deer hunters sighting in for the upcoming deer season, plan B was to head to our indoor pistol range.  So we both had rifles, multiple pistols and  heavily ladened range bags.

Plan A worked out.  Yay! both the Mosins go Bang!  The iron sights are off quite a bit.  The bolts got a little sticky from time to time, but not bad.  I had shortened the springs on both of them. I did a little polishing on the bolt cam surfaces on one of them. The polished bolt did in fact work a bit better.
So I'll be polishing the unpolished bolt, and polishing the other some more.

The recoil pads, while not exactly cushy were worth the 15 bucks. The curved shape provided to the butt by the pads did help to mitigate the mule kick.
On each side of us at the range was a Dad with an 8 to 12 year old daughter. One with a .22LR, the other with a .223.  Heart warming. :-)



Happiness is a warm Mosin.

Belle GitSum.
Note the stylish pink earmuffs.
What you can't see is the devilish grin on her face.

Best News I've heard all day

John McCain hints at retirement after 

his current term.

Good Riddance.


"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hinted that he may be serving his last term in office, admitting that he does not want to become “one of these old guys that should’ve shoved off.”

Too late John, too late.  You would have done the country a service by shoving off long ago.

The four letter words are about the bust a hole in my cranium trying to get out, but I'll just leave it at that.

-not a McCain fan.

.

Poor Penny

Penny is Belle's toy poodle. She's a rescue dog.  No worries, she's fine.
It's the current cat that is starting to have issues.  Belle informed me today that the cat has started to drool.

Miss Kitty has had better health care than I have over the past 15 years because Belle cannot pick me up by the scruff of the neck and put me in a cat carrier and take me to the Vet whether I want to or not.

However, a while back the Vet said the cat had some health issues and for umpteen thousands dollars we could get some tests done, pharmaceuticals,  etc., etc. etc.

My reaction to that was, "Phbbblt, she's hardly worth half a cat frankly."
She's a cat with two cats worth of tail that came from a line of Manx cats and I've sworn all this time we've had her that she's abnormal.

I've never had a cat that I can feed a can of cat food that will eat half, then forget she was fed,, and forget that there is still food on her plate, forget to even go look and stand in the kitchen and meow at me to be fed.
At which point I have to pick her up and put her in front of her plate.

So, Miss Kitty is going to the Vet again soon.  If the prognosis is bad, we will put her down.

The conversation about the replacement cat has already begun.
Personally, I'm rather fond of Female Siamese. My experience with Male cats is that even after neutering they still pee where they shouldn't.

Penny the Poodle will be very busy raising a Siamese kitten.

Dogs, Science and the Infernal Gubmint

Shaming your dog.
Sometimes, they deserve it, and don't tell me dogs have no self awareness or sense of right or wrong.
No impulse control?
Sure.
I've arrived home to be greeted by the dog whereupon he immediately put his tail between his legs and put his sad puppy face on then skulked upstairs. Seconds later I'd find the trash can tipped over and the contents spread across the kitchen floor.
MMm, I bet that aluminum foil with a hint pork fat on it was just yummy.
If you watched him when you let him out to do his business in the back yard, he'd turn his back to you while he was taking a dump.

But to put silly hats on wild life, 

simply because they are "slow", and you can....in the name of science, is unconscionable.

You say potato, I say O' Top Hat*

* Tracking device glued to a Sloth's head.  Boy, that must have been some really, really boring electronic tracking. No, wait. Scratch that.  You could sit around, drink beer and check the tracking device, I don't know, like every 5 hours or so while getting paid from a huge Federal Gubmint Grant.
"Nope, he hasn't moved.  Who's making the next beer run?"
Sign me up!

.

Unfortunate

So the problem with AC wasn't the breaker after all.
I did learn how to replace a breaker without frying myself like Wyle E. Coyote for 6 bucks and change, but it turned out to be strictly academic.
The reason the old breaker would not stay closed is because it was doing it's job.  The compressor on the other hand, was not.  Sometime last Friday afternoon, it overheated and fused all the electrical connections into one molten mass.
The good news was the condenser unit was only three years old and the compressor was still under warranty.  (Yay!)
The bad news was the labor to replace the compressor was not. (Boo!)
Overtime service charge for the tech to tell me, on Saturday, my compressor is hosed and a replacement cannot be had till Monday:  $144
Frigidaire window unit purchased at the local big box hardware store to reduce the melt of "still summer": $299.*
Labor charge to replace the compressor:  $800
Working Central A/C: priceless.

My debit card is weeping quietly in the corner right now.


* Might come in handy after the next hurricane.  The BAR Corp. HQ. emergency generator will run that little gem jest fine.

Actual Gun Pron

   Hit the link. NSFW

shooty goodness?

.

random epiphany about beer

If you need a coozy to keep your beer "cold", in your heart of hearts, you really don't like beer.*
My beer bottles, naked, never get warm.


*Pro tip: When eating out skip the monkey bread and butter placed on the table. Politely request another beer from your waitstaff.  Make your carbohydrate calories count!

News alert!  

This Just In!

Overheard on the BAR Corporate HQ couch:......Belle in constant comm with friends in Ireland has issued the warning to NEVER kiss the Blarney Stone. Unconfirmed sources have  confirmed a death toll of 16 24  1000  the Irish locals pee on the Blarney Stone!

Joys

Of home ownership.
The dual 60 amp breaker feeding the outside unit on the air conditioning system gave up the ghost sometime this afternoon.*  Thank the gods it isn't the AC unit. I coughed up $6k to get that replaced 18 months ago.
If I can find a matching replacement in the morning, this should be a fairly easy fix.
The big IF is the only thing that concerns me.

 I bet I go to Lowe's and Home Depot and find hundreds upon hundreds of replacement breakers, none of which are, or ever have been installed in any house in the lower 48.  They will be dust covered and have manufacture dates of 1984 on them because no one has every bought one.**  They will also be randomly sorted into incorrect boxes by small children having picked them up and asked, "Daddy, what's this?"
"Put  That BACK!"
"K,  jeeze"




It's going to be a warmish night tonight.




*How do I know it's the breaker you ask? While trouble shooting I found the breaker in the off position. When I went to close it, it sort of made a half-hearted attempt to snap into the "on" position, threw up its little breaker hands, looked at me and said, "meh".

** A pessimist is just an optimist with all the facts.

On the way home from Austin

Over yonder is a Semi that rolled it on I-10 east bound,  west of Houston.
One minute I was booking it at 80, next minute zero.
I did not see an ambulance on the scene, which is good news for the truck driver.  The bad news is that the cab is on the service road, the back end of the trailer is half in the left hand lane, on its right side.  Given the orientation of the truck, I suspect Mr. big rig truck driver was west bound and traversed about 100 feet of grass median before the unplanned garage sale.

The Future is Here

Frrom bthe saulnier's comment on the video below "Acutally, it's about a future where cars have pretty much all been made illegal by "The Motor Law".

The EU plans to put training wheels on your super car.

No more Autoban for you!

Labor Day

I do hope that my brethren and like minded friends out there in the blogosphere are having a good holiday.
I, for once in a long while, am not laboring on labor day.
Scooter has gone back home now.  Belle asked her what her favorite part of the weekend was as she said her goodbyes.
"Working with Paw Paw on the gun."
Pretty high marks there imho, considering that competed with a Looney Tunes ACME ARSENAL video game on the xbox.
By last night, Scooter was completely owning me in the game.

Some glamour shots of Scooter's handiwork (Paw Paw helped too!)

-did a bit of polishing on the bolt cam surfaces and shortened the springs just a bit.