First one

Well, the first "storm" rolled into the Southland here today, accompanied by the resultant pandemonium on the freeways, as the last 8-9 months worth of oil, grease and other sundry automotive fluids got lifted out of all the cracks and pores in the asphalt, creating the equivalent of a valley-wide skating rink - not to mention landslides/mudslides in the areas recently devastated by the wildfires...
I love the rain, myself; I know how desperately this part of the world needs it, and I'm always hoping for more... besides which, it never rains hard enough here to make me miserable - coming from the northern UK, I have a distinct idea of what hard, driving rain feels like, and it's nothing like the warm gentle showers that make everyone here wet themselves...

I must applaud...

I'm finally in agreement with the loons of the left. I cannot agree more heartily that they should not reproduce. Hey, if that reduces their carbon footprint, great. I'm more concerned with another generation receiving their BS dogma/brainwashing, or heaven help us, if left-wing moonbattiness is genetic.
So I must stand, and applaud you selfless ladies of the left. Bring on the steriliaztion! We may yet be able to save the planet after all. Keep up the good work!

H/T Drudge

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope y'all will enjoy the day as much as I plan to!

DC Gun Ban case will get heard...

Via Instapundit, we learn that the SCOTUS will cowboy up and hear the DC gun ban case. This one's huge, and can set the stage for some serious changes in 2nd Amendment law throughout the country, whichever way the court rules. I have to admit, I'm very apprehensive about this one - this is the same court that gave us the Kelo decision, after all. Yes, there have been some conservatives added to the court in the last few years, but is it conservative enough? Guess we'll find out.

Break 'em, Sarkozy!

Man, I hate the French. Not just because I'm British, either. Those pampered public-sector maggots strike at the drop of a hat - just when it'll do the most damage. Want to host a World Cup? Great - let's strike! That way the whole world can see what a bunch of selfish pricks we are! Host the Olympics? Let's strike! Show the Bourgeois pigs who's boss!
The French Unions are like a huge frigging python wrapped around the French economy, squeezing the life out of it. Bunch of coddled bitches sucking off the public tit, not caring about whether it'll dry up, as long as they get theirs!
How the hell is it OK to expect a lifetime of pay after a few years of mediocre performance on a public sector job? Mediocre because there's no incentive to excel and you have to screw up spectacularly to get reprimanded, let alone fired.
I hate the French. But I admire Sarkozy, and what he's trying to accomplish. Must be because of his Hungarian heritage - he's not really French...
Good luck, Sarkozy! Go Reagan on their asses! With an 8% unemployment rate, it's not like you'd have any difficulty finding replacements.

No, I'm not dead...

...Yet... though several times this week I've driven myself to the point of exhaustion...
We did a LOT to our house to get it ready to show, and I don't have much vacation time saved at the salt mine, so it all had to happen after a full work day... so where does it give? In sleep time of course!
My Little Princess' room has been completely made over - wall patched, new paint, new bed, new blinds, new lighting...
Number One Son's room got decluttered, new furniture (well, mine and my wife's old furniture), cleaned up...
Guest bathroom got touched up, deep-cleaned..
Master bathroom got repainted...
Master bedroom got decluttered...
Garage got reorganized (If you'd ever seen my garage, you'd know how huge this task really was! I'd really like to work toward something like this...'cept my dirtbike's a Honda...)
Side yard got decluttered, trashed out and the humongous brush pile shredded...
Kitchen decluttered, furniture removed or moved...
Dog kennel got moved, dog run sorted out...
Front trim on house touched up...
Front yard "remodeled"...
Add into the mix about 20 trips to Home Depot/Lowes, a half dozen trips to storage and hopefully you can see why I haven't been posting much...
But I have tried to keep up on reading the blogs on my daily list... this blogging addiction is hard to shake - if I can't post, I can still find time to read and maybe comment...
We've still got a pile to do, but the pace is slowing some, hence tonight's post...

This one made me smile...

While reading this Carnaby Fudge post after following a link from The Smallest Minority, I read a comment that quoted a news story referring to a "model 98 bolt-action assault rifle" (aka old surplus Mauser). It probably had one of those scary features like a bayonet lug, too. And yes, it was a news story out of Chicago.

Morning all!

Been a while since I last posted, I know... work on our house continues apace - I'm doing all kinds of crap that I've put off for years just to get this sucker sold. It's keeping me too busy to post much, but I am keeping up on the blogs on my link-list...
So, things that I have learned over the last few days...
- A reciprocating saw is a marvelous tool to have - just make sure you have plenty of blades on hand because they dull out pretty quickly...
- The local landfill now wants us to separate out our trash and put metal in its own area... not a big deal I suppose, but it adds time to my day...
- My kids had way more crap than I ever realized - crap that they never used or played with.
- I had more crap than I ever realized - crap that I never used or played with.
- Cutting out and replacing drywall to repair holes - cake. Adding tape, mud and texture to make it invisible - not so much...
- I still hate yard work.
- Chipper/shredders are loud, scary, dangerous and just won't stay put once you fire them up, but man will they reduce a brush pile...
- A paste of Oxy-Clean and water will get most of the oil off your driveway, in the absence of a pressure washer...
- Smoke detectors may be mounted on a wall, as long as they're within 12 inches of your old-school, popcorn-covered, vaulted ceiling...
- It's amazing how much crap you can stuff into a 10X15 storage unit...

Whew!

Well, a lot has happened in the last few days. I mentioned that we had found a property that we were interested in buying, and we've been moving towards that. We're going to write up an offer on Wednesday and we'll be listing our house either today or tomorrow. We have a LOT of work to do in order to make our place presentable... I foresee light blogging ahead, because if I'm not working, sleeping or coaching, I'll be cleaning , repairing and painting. Our realtor wanted us to put it on the market on Sunday, but we weren't ready. We're still not ready, in our minds. We rented a storage unit and are removing the clutter in our pad as fast as we can, but damn. There's a LOT to do.

This is already turning out to be a gut-churning experience. Everything is contingent on us selling our pad, and to be honest, I'm not that optimistic right now. Well, we'll see...

This is the view from the new place. You can see right down the valley to the west, towards LA and the coast. Perfect place to watch sunsets, which is a favorite pastime of my wife's.

So, this is the goal. We'll work towards it, and if it's meant to be, it'll work out.

Haze

Yes, a crappy cell phone pic, but the layer of smoke hanging over the valley and filtering the sunlight is distinctive nonetheless...

Today's patriotic picture

Poached from a buddy at work... love the backdrop...

Buffoonery

“One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats’ comprehensive energy package.

Wow. 1600 structures up in smoke, 1 MILLION people forced to evacuate and this bastard wants to score political points right now, with a theory that has so many holes in it you could drive a semi through?
Well, I would say the carbon output of these fires has pretty much eclipsed car emissions for the Southland for quite a while, so we should see a dramatic increase in Global Warming now, right? A positive feedback loop?
Every time Reid opens his mouth, he sprays stupid.
I wonder exactly how the "Democrats' comprehensive energy package" would have prevented this...

Found at Drudge...

Brief round-up

Things have been very hectic of late here at the Kingdom, which would explain the lack of posting lately. Looking at that property has made my wife and I re-examine our situation and make some choices about what we need to do to sell our current hovel in today's crappy housing market. We should know more this week - how much we're prequalified for, how much we can sell our place for, that kind of stuff. Not very interesting, but there it is.
Coaching flag football has been a blast for me. I've really taken to it and I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy it. Man, I live and die by these kids. If we win a game, I'm on a high all weekend. Conversely, if we lose, I'm in a funk for just as long. We're 2 and 2 right now, these kids are playing their hearts out and I'm very proud of them.
Work has been interesting. We've got some new stuff coming down the pike; namely UCMR2 that we have to get ready for come the new year, and part of that is my needing to learn a new analysis on new equipment, which I enjoy doing...
Anyway, that's where I'm at and why I haven't been posting much of late. Hopefully I'll be able to post more this week...

Looked at a house today...

...Over on the other side of the valley, nestled up against the "M" mountain. The house itself is no big thing - built in 1984, no bigger than the one we have right now - but its sitting on 2/3 of an acre, with a great view towards the West, and access to the mountain right out of the back yard. It also has plenty of driveway space, so we could have our trailer on the property, and as well as the attached 2 car garage, there is a separate air-conditioned 2+ car garage in the back of the property. I'm really digging that. It's significantly pricier than what we're currently occupying, however...
So. We're giving it some thought. The market's pretty much in the toilet right now, and it looks like this property has been out there for a while (the date stamp on the photos on the realtor's website show June), so I don't think we have to jump right away... besides, we'd have to sell our current domicile, and I'm really not looking forward to all the hassle that goes with that.
We were lucky in that we bought in 1999, right before the housing market went completely insane here in the Southland, so even in these depressed times I think we can set a fairly low price and still walk away with equity, but still... still a hassle.
We'll have to see... see how much we can qualify for, see how desperate the seller is to get out (he wants to get his retirement in Havasu started already), see how much we can sell our place for, see how much BS we have to put up with to make this all work...

**Forgot to mention...
I was talking with the homeowner, who was present when we went to look at the house. He seemed like a real nice older guy, had a lot of toys (two Harleys, a Corvette, an off-road Jeep and a couple of old hot rods) and we got to talking about common interests. I was developing what I thought to be a good rapport with the guy, right up until the moment Number One Son bounced his mini football off the back of the poor dude's head. Yeah. He's gonna be real flexible on the price now... Gotta love kids, man.

Let's play a game...

Ways to defeat microstamping…
- 5 minutes with a file
- Take your new handgun to the range and put enough rounds through it to wear out the microstamp. Shoot, check your brass – repeat as necessary until it’s gone
- Steal someone elses gun
- Pick up someone elses brass at the range to drop at the crime scene
- Use a revolver to commit the crime
- Use a rifle to commit the crime
- Use a shotgun to commit the crime
- Pick up your own brass at the scene
- When performing the drive-by, shoot from inside the car, so the brass is not left at the scene
- Buy a new firing pin from out of state
- Buy your semi auto handgun out of state
- Use the handgun you acquired prior to the passing of this bill

This wee list took me about five minutes... can you think of any more?

Well, he did it...

Arnold "The Manchurian Candidate" Schwarzenegger signed into law HR1471, the microstamping bill.
I am so disgusted, I don't know what to say, except that this "REPUBLICAN" has done more harm to our gun rights than the last DEMOCRAT in office.
Arnold, you are a pandering, sellout FOOL. You will win no loyalty from the left for this, and you've alienated your own party.
I like Sebastian's take - all handgun manufacturers should stop sales of handguns in California to civilians AND police immediately.
I need out of this state.

Had to blog it...

Overheard at the kitchen table this morning...
"I would prefer if you guys wouldn't try to lick everything! It's very bad manners!"

--- Priceless life lessons we learn in childhood...

Well, I guess you had to be there...

Putting glass on my SKS

Right after I bought my SKS, I decided to mount a scope on it.
My first attempt was with the $50 SKS package that comes with a 4X scope, the mount and 10 stripper clips. I didn't like it at all - the mount replaced the stock bolt cover in the back, so every time you have to clean it, the mount cover has to come off and you have to rezero.
Witness my second attempt:




A little research on the web led me to these guys and I ordered the mount for the SKS... $60 plus change w/shipping, and I got it today! So, I got right to work...

First off, I removed the original rear sight, by pushing down on the front and pulling it toward the rear. There's a leaf spring underneath providing tension, and this needs to stay in place.

Installing the new sight base: almost the reverse of the removal above, but there's a pin to push in on the side - flat spot up, so the tightening screw will depress enough to get out of the way of the notch that runs the length of the base. This notch can serve as a rear sight in a pinch... a feature that I like, so I have both options immediately available.
Next step, push in the rail and fasten in place by way of four screws...
Add a red-dot sight, adjust to ensure the ammo can load correctly, and you're done! 10-15 minutes tops, no drilling, no tapping, no gunsmithery... If I can do this, anyone can. Now, I'll have to get it to the range and sight it in. Oh darn; more shooting...

WooHoo!

I made the tribe!

Damn, that picture's grainy. I need a new camera.

Well, there you have it...

Al Gore won the peace prize. Leftist politics trumps all at the institute, I suppose. He joins some august company, most notably Yasser Arafat. He's lagging a little in the body count, though... I'm sure he can make that up if he gets enough of his policies pushed through here and in Europe, however...