Recently in Local Stuff Category

Homeowner shoots intruder in Lakewood | APP.com | Asbury Park Press

A man who broke into an East County Line Road house early Friday morning was in critical condition after being shot by the home's owner.

About 5 a.m. the homeowner, whose name was not released by authorities, awoke to find Tucker inside his home. The homeowner, described by authorities as an elderly man who lived alone, then shot Tucker from a distance of about 20 feet and dialed 911 to report the break-in, Mohel said.

Nice, a head shot. However, this isn't Sparta

The New Jersey statute outlining when it is justifiable to use deadly force within a private dwelling is extremely nuanced and built on a long history of case law, said Ronald F. DeLigney, first assistant Ocean County prosecutor.

A homeowner, when under the "reasonable belief" that force is immediately necessary to protect himself or others against the use of unlawful force by an intruder, can shoot, he said.

"The reasonable belief exists when the actor, to protect (himself) within his own dwelling at the time of the offense, the encounter between the actor and intruder was sudden and unexpected, compelling the actor to act instantly, and the actor reasonably believed that the intruder would inflict personal injury upon the actor or others in the dwelling," DeLigney said.

As the investigation continues, the homeowner could be charged in the shooting, authorities said. Ultimately, the decision whether or not to present a case against him to a grand jury will be made by the Prosecutor's Office.

Note who wasn't charged...

Tucker, who was not charged, gained access to the house by stepping on an object outside and entering a kitchen window, Mohel said. It is unknown how much time he spent inside, but he was shot near the front door at a landing to stairs leading to the home's second floor.

Burn Meat, Drink, Parades, Beach, Illegal Fireworks hoarded since stocking up after the 4th last year, and some shooting on Sunday. All the kids will be down with their significant others. Stimulus Check showed up finally so I may do some Browning Hi-Power searching too. A double Cialis and I'm good to go.

Playing Possum.

Just before bed I take the mooch out for his evening wizz in the back yard and he starts barking to beat hell over near the side fence...enough that my wife comes out to see what's up.

I go in for a flashlight and hand it to her.

OMYGOD, it's a dead baby possum.

No it ain't

OMYGOD, get a bag and throw it in the trash

Wait a bit

OMYGOD, if you wait it'll be full of maggots

Take the mooch in and wait a bit

Sure enough...dead baby possum to live streak of fur in the blink of an eye.

Hence the term.

Excellent job tho. Eyes open and glazed, tongue hanging out. Pretty impressive for a first try, I expect. Fooled the dog, fooled the wife. Me, I was just lazy enough to want to throw it in the trash in the morning...so instead I got to look like I was some kind of BeastMaster of the Jersey Shore.

So I take the wife to dinner after work, and she wants to go to a coffee shop/restaurant we frequent for the gourmet pizza...and awesome coffees.

As is the rule in coffee shops, our waiter is a handsome young lad who seats us against the front windows.

...just as some young thing slams against said windows to get his attention...pasting her boobs flat against the panes, wiggling around and making odd noises. Nice show.



"You charge extra for that", says I. "Too Young", says he.

Gay, I figure.

At the McCarter Theater



A nasty windy rainy night, but a fun evening of food and music subsidized by my children. Amanda sprung for the tickets, and Jesse for dinner at the Main Street Bisto...Shepard's Pie, soda bread, and Port.

One of the guys was out with sickness in the family (the piper on the right) and the female singer they usually have was down with the flu. They still had bagpipers, additional musicians, singers, harpists, step dancers, child performers, and an altogether rousing show. There were also performers of tap and a style of chair dancing only seen up in logging country.

Time for a story....

Kim's parent's were on a vacation to Ireland wandering around a village just soaking in the flavor. Kim tells me her Dad has a 'Mr. Magoo' style ability to wander into interesting adventures and this time it was no different.

After getting lost for a bit, Dad finds his way back to Mom and drags her back the way they came...'You've got to see this'.

They come to a house where the most amazing music is being blasted out the windows and open doors by guys sitting in the kitchen. Getting noticed, Kim's parents were invited into the house to listen.

Afterwards they exclaimed how good the guys were and that they had to get an album out there. Yep, it was the Chieftains gigging it up at one of the guy's mother's house decades ago. 43 albums, a half-dozen emmys, and an Oscar in '75 for best song.

Not bad for a kitchen band.

Lars Larson, was on his deathbed in an upstairs bedroom. His doctor had said Lars would last for only a matter of hours. Lars woke from a deep sleep and sniffed. His wife must have just returned from the bakery, and the aroma of freshly baked kringles bought a spark to Lars. He whispered, "If I could just have a taste of kringle before I die, it would make my dying sweeter." He mustered every ounce of strength and got out of bed. Slowly he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. there he spied two kringles on the counter. Just as he was reaching out to take a piece, his wife swatted his hand away. "Stop that," she said. "We're saving these for the funeral."

...from the wife.

ON HALLOWEEN, IF YOU HEAR A CREEPY CONTINUAL SCRATCHING AT THE WINDOW, IT'S PROBABLY JUST A BRANCH.

On a lunch visit with my son and Dr Kim, I remarked about the quantity of black treerats running around Princeton campus.  I was told they were a genetic experiment gone wrong in the '40s and spread.  Sounds good, but some checking shows isolated natural populations in lots of places.



I prefer to believe that these, along with Hillary, are a sign of the coming apocalypse.

Of course my answer to everything is...buy guns, folks.

Amanda responds...

I've noticed the black squirrels over the years too, Dad.  I always called them ninja squirrels (ninja tree rats to you.).  This is what I got off the net about the experiment myth.

Myth: Several years ago, deep in the bowels of one of Princeton's biology buildings, an inhumane and unnatural science experiment produced a breed of black squirrels. Some of the squirrels either escaped or were liberated by a zealous animal-rights group, and now these new uber-squirrels are slowly taking over the campus.

Fact: Black squirrels may be ubiquitous at Princeton, but they are also perfectly natural. Black and gray squirrels are merely different color morphs of the same species, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).  Populations of black squirrels appear naturally in other places in the Northeast, particularly in isolated populations such as those in city parks, and they have been around for a long time; in 1655 David De Vries included squirrels "black as pitch and gray" in his list of the wild mammals of New Amsterdam

Black Squirrels at Princeton University:

Princeton University has both gray and (about 20%) black squirrels. There are some nearby areas with blacks also (Cranbury), but somehow the blacks keep to the Princeton area and have not expanded at large into central New Jersey. I've watched these rare squirrels for many years and have been fascinated by their persistence and lack of territorial expansion. At last, like any sensible person, I visited the web to
see what I could find about them.

Here's a web page with some general information about black squirrels. A page discussing "Princeton Myths" has this to say about black squirrels: "Black squirrels may be ubiquitous at Princeton, but they are also perfectly natural. Black and gray squirrels are merely different color morphs of the same species, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Populations of black squirrels appear naturally in other places in the Northeast, particularly in isolated populations such as those in city parks, and they have been around for a long time; in 1655 David De Vries included squirrels "black as pitch and gray" in his list of the wild mammals of New Amsterdam."

Do genetics determine the persistence of black squirels? Here's a discussion. A quote: "This mutant of the gray squirrel resides primarily in northern climates. Biologists surmise that the black fur more readily absorbs the rays of the sun, thereby keeping its owner warmer during cold winters. Selective genetics has given the black squirrel this survival advantage. One of the reasons they seem to be more abundant in cities is that their black coloration is more readily spotted in rural areas by predators, primarily birds of prey."

I'm guessing that the black coat's advantage/disadvantage may account for the squirrels' survival in Princeton without heir expanding to all adjacent regions. There is still some forest and farmland in central New Jersey, where their black coats would mark them for predators.

Not surprisingly, Princeton University has studied its black squirrels. Here's a page that goes into genetic details. That page includes Professor Henry Horn's calculations to show how, although black is the dominant gene, it does not spread to dominate the entire squirrel population.

New Jersey's population drain starting to hit state hard

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey's accelerating population loss is starting to have significant economic and fiscal consequences for the state, according to a Rutgers University report that found the state may be becoming a less attractive locale.

The report found the state lost 231,565 people between 2002 and 2006, including 72,547 people last year. The latter was the fourth highest loss in the nation behind only California, Louisiana and New York.

Meanwhile, North Carolina grew by 807,000 people over the four-year period, displacing New Jersey last year as the nation's 10th most populous state, the report stated.

"New Jersey residents have been sentenced to a lifetime term of brutal and ever-increasing taxes without any realistic hope of parole as long as the Democrats are in a position to keep spending their money and running up the credit cards," said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, R-Morris.

Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance described the report as "devastating."

"People are voting with their feet," said Lance, R-Hunterdon. "We have to go on a fiscal diet and under no circumstances should we raise taxes yet again."

...I feel like this



But I am getting better, I think. The Doctor called today, he got my most recent bloodtests, and everything was OK.

Maybe I'll get more acupuncture this weekend.

As I heal from this stroke, the most interesting things are happening to this beat up old vessel I wear.  I have been in tune with my body over the past several years due to my diabetes, gaging my sugar-levels by physical clues.  These past 6 weeks have been an education.

As minor muscles come back, they hurt.  Imagine not using a muscle for a month or so and then stressing it.  You can't favor the little sucker though, or else you'll never get back to normal.  My left hand, my face, and my leg are working better, but hurting a bit more.

Pain truly is weakness leaving the body.

Dr. Kim explained to me that the brain is weaving new neural pathways for my fine motor control.  As the Axons form, they are not yet covered by a myelin sheath and are electrically inefficient connectors to the synapses.  I can see this.  My motor control is getting much better but only if I move slowly...the connections are not efficient enough yet for fast and smooth motion.

I am also feeling a strange side-effect of this formation of new pathways...muscles never normally used are getting stimulated.  The outer ear (the pinna) has intrinsic muscles, such as the - helicis major, helicis minor (helix being the rim of pinna) tragicus, antitragicus transverse and obliques auriculae, these small muscles help maintain or alter the shape of the outer ear to some extent.

They are twitching in my left ear.  It is the strangest feeling to have the a muscle on the top rim of your ear start twitching when you never knew it was there.  It doesn't bother me because it tells me something is going on in my brain...something is being rewired.  Eventually it stops, and my motor control is better.

The numbness is nearly gone from my hand, and slowly receding from my jaw.  I can fake a normal walk if I'm not too tired.

I'm looking forward to more twitchy muscles I didn't know I had.

The lovely and crackshot Dr. Kim (late of Bali, Bangkok, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo), house MD from the Ming Qi Natural Healthcare Center on Madison Avenue came by today.  She stuck me full of pins and wired me up to electrodes.  20 mins on my belly with pins in my back and legs, 20 mins on my back with pins in my face, jaw, ear, hands, and legs...throbbing to the death metal beat of the electricity.  That and doctor-chatter..."and then I missed and stuck the needle right through his..."  Yikes!









Amazingly painless, yet a strange experience...I believe I experienced Einsteinian Relativity as time slowed to infinity whilst waiting for the 20 minutes to end, finger tendons jerking in time to the beat.  I actually could feel secondary effects when the needles hit home...like ice water traveling down a vein from the point of needle entry.

I didn't expect much from one treatment, but I believe some of the numbness has left my jaw.  Cool.  This treatment isn't to cure anything (after all a stroke isn't a headache), but hopefully help accelerate the healing process.

Almost 4 weeks since my stroke and recovery seems to be taking forever.  Progress to me is measured in millimeters it seems sometimes.  Most little successes happen as a surprise.

Today I caught myself driving down the Parkway at 200 mph as I usually do, but left handed with my right hand loose on my leg...my normal driving mode.  Seein' my left hand has had a life of it's own for a month, I have not been using it to drive as I normally would do - being left handed and all.  It was jerking around too much to hold a steering wheel.  I guess I'm getting the fine motor control back, but slowly.  When I am sitting and working, I feel almost normal...but moving around is an adventure and it's easy to get tired.

The numbness is gone from my left hand except for a bit of tingling on the end of one finger, but my jaw is still numb.  Walking is doable, sometimes it actually feels normal, but most of the time I feel out of balance and lurchy.  Typing is slow, but has to be good rehab for the hand...altho it does gets tired and stiff.  After I sit at work or home for a while my left leg gets stiff too and I have to get up and walk around a bit.

I can see how awful rehab must be for people with more debilitating strokes...this is a pain in the ass even at the level I got smacked.

I have two canes at home. A big ol' oak sucker you could use to dent an Abrams Tank, and one of those light extending aluminum jobbies. I am using neither because (1) I don't want to depend on a cane to walk whilst I am recovering from this stroke, and (2) neither of them is really cool enough for a staggering stud like me.

So I've been looking for canes...and what do I see today...

We have our bloodthirsty canes, our fighting canes, nasty walking sticks, and slightly less-nasty walking sticks.

I just need to figure out which would all-around work best, and still get taken on a plane.   The City stick is kind of cool...but so is this one.  Get both and charge it to my insurance?

Shooting

Capt. Michael Mohel identified the assailant as Richard Stanek, 27. Dougard said police were negotiating with Stanek by cell phone but then lost contact.

"He has been talking to us on the cell phone," the chief said. "About 10 minutes ago, his cell phone went dead. We will provide him with communication."

"This is going to end peacefully," Dougard said.

The chief said the gunman was alone in the home with multiple weapons, Mohel said. He would not describe the relationship between the victim and assailant.

Dougard said the victim was shot at least three times. Mohel said police were alerted by a neighbor who heard shouting and a gunshot coming from the home.

The Brick Township SWAT team was part of the large contingent of police that descended on the blue-collar neighborhood of single-family homes, Dougard said. He said snipers from Brick and Ocean County were dispatched to the scene.

All the neighbors of Van Ness Drive were evacuated.

This stroke has pointed my thoughts toward the subject of self-defense for people with disabilities.  I can fake it but feel weak and clumsy at the moment.  For all that I'm listening to a never-ending litany from my wife...   "Slow down, take it easy, quit rushing around."  I'm not one to back off for this, after all - Pain is weakness leaving the body.  I plan to do everything I was doing before, just a bit slower...including taking care of my own and my family's security. That's still OK at home, my strong side is still good, and pumping a shotgun is still no problem (I checked).  I'm somewhat ambidextrous so reloading is OK too.  Being out and about is the question.

New Jersey disallows CCW, so it was always a choice between running, using your personal fighting skills, or grabbing something heavy or sharp. 

I'm not feeling that bad and still have strength, but running is no longer an option, and without fine motor control my meager fighting skills are non-existant.  Carrying something heavy or sharp is of course illegal in this most nanny of states.

I've always carried one of those 'assisted opening' knives, at the moment a Ken Onion Rainbow Leek, and it is barely legal by mode of operation and size.  Like all virtue in Jersey, it's negotiable.

2C:39-3; Apparently you need an explainable lawful purpose to get away with carrying anything besides a dagger/dirk/stiletto, auto, gravity, or ballistic knife, which are flat-out illegal. Even then, as in most states, certain less-common knives would probably be "per se" weapons even with an explanation. * NJ state police seem to think all knives are illegal unless the carrier has an explainable lawful purpose. Legally, that probably isn't so, but it may take a court hearing, some lightening of your pockets, and some quality time in jail to sort things out.

I've got an expandable baton in the car and that is certainly illegal.

So I can't run, can't fight, can't carry a decent weapon, but I'm out and about like normal.  A nice heavy cane would be OK, but I"m trying not to cater to this hopefully temporary disability. 

Notice 'calling a cop' is not an option.

Unfortunately neither is this. 



The neurologist said I don't need rehab...just do everything you think you can do and keep at it.  Today I hung curtains under the watchful eye of the memsa'b (the screwdriver was a trick), and while I dropped everything at least twice, I persevered.  I also drove her to several stores and took her to dinner.  The mooch and I took our normal weekend walkies in the woods.  At least the dog doesn't rag on me to slow down.

I think I'll go shooting this week and see what muscle memory has survived.

Hi Everyone,

On Saturday morning, my father, i.e. The Trainer, was admitted to the hospital after having a Stroke. It seems to have been a mild one. He drove himself to the hospital - a little scary, but what can I say, he's old school tough. He's a bit uncoordinated on his left-hand side, but he's able to talk and walk (a bit wobbly). The left side of his face is a saggy, but it's gotten better since Saturday morning. In his words, "if my face continues to sag, I'll just have to perfect my Dick Cheney sneer". My father is left-handed so this is crimp in his eating, shaving and handwriting stylings. Thankfully he shoots with his right, so he'll have a steady aim with an itchy trigger finger for a little while, which isn't always such a bad thing in my book. He should be released from the hospital today if all goes well. I wouldn't be surprised if he posts another entry later today with all the details. He just wanted to let everyone know that he's doing well, he's in good spirits and he'll be back to blogging soon. --Amanda "The Trainee"

Updates - Monday: I'm back....thanx Amanda.

Well now, that was an experience I wouldn't wish on anybody. I was brushing my teeth Saturday morning when my jaw went numb, the toothbrush got heavy, and my hand got tingley. I was dragging a foot, and my speech was slurred (from the numbness). Yikes...It had to be a stroke...so off to the ER.
What a strange feeling. I had a bazillion (expensive) tests and I've been told it was mild...all symptoms should be gone in a week or two. I can talk, I don't have saggy features, I can walk fine....I do not require fancy drugs....I was lucky.

...what I am is clumsy. No longer do I have the finely tuned muscle control of the Olympic athlete that I had Saturday morning, but it's coming back. Only on the left side...my right side is fine...and as my daughter points out...my trigger control hasn't suffered. As for my driving, I always drove like a stroke victim.

I don't want to go thru this again...more lifestyle changes coming up....

Update:- Tuesday Got my signature back Tuesday night. Touch typing is still a chore tho. Got all my pills and discussed them with my doctor...decided not to take one of them because I have no problem with my blood pressure. I'll take the thinners and diabetic stuff for a while, and watch my pressure carefully (It was high in the hospital)...it was tested at 106/65 and 137/75 today...not bad for a broke dick stroked out old fart.

Neither the wife or the dog will let me out of their sight. Two fingers and the thumb still tingly but no longer numb...same with a spot on my jaw. Walking OK, but with a wider stance than usual according to wife...well I still feel clumsy. Cursive writing is very slow as is typing. No headaches or vision problems. My wife keeps handing me a cane, I keep leaving it places. I need to get one lead-filled for plane trips. New Jersey allows you to carry a switch blade if you only have one usable arm...I wonder if I can scam this into getting that permit. Yes, Jersey sucks, but you knew that.

Update - Wenesday: Went to a job site today. I still feel clumsy, and typing is a chore, but I can function satisfactorily on the job site. There were no problems with my energy level or comprehension. Gots to make the monies you know. I was on a conf call this evening and that was OK too. Hopefully the neurologist is right and all of this will pass...it feels exceedingly strange. I've never felt this clumsy...the fine motor skills are still not there, altho getting a bit better every day.

...at a fire at the Deutsche Bank. during deconstruction.

A picture I took in June 2005 one day when I was working downtown. This building should have been taken down long ago.

We are from another galaxy in the process of joining with the Milky Way. The Milky Way is actually not our parent galaxy. The mystery of why the Milky Way has always been sideways in the night sky has never been answered -- until now.

We of the overarching Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy have finally come down next to, and even with the massively powerful spiral armed equatorial plane of the Milky Way Galaxy.

In our movement through space, our Earth has now fully begun to respond to the more powerful galactic energies and electro-gravitational bias of the massive Milky Way. We have reached the higher energy equatorial disc region of the massive spiral arm. We have now been "adopted" by a new system, a stronger and more powerful system, and we can expect changes on almost every level of energy.

I for one welcome our Dwarf Sagittarian Elliptical Overlords...which begs some questions.

I wonder what the immigration rules for the Milky Way are?
Is the earth analogous to bug filled flotsam filled washing up on a distant shore?
Can we catch diseases from the Milkywayians?
To whom (or what) do we protest our galaxy being eaten?
Are we just a tiny piece sucked along in some cosmic art work...does the artist even know we are here?
The Milky Way smells funny.
I'm tellin' you wippersnappers, things were pretty good back in the day...a man could stand tall in the Dwarf Galaxy. 

...and other silly comments.

They are 37, 34, and 32 now.  Worth every dollar, um write off, um, I mean minute.   Yeah, that's it.





Something from Cox & Forkum




It is also our 35th Anniversary.  Guess which takes precedent.

The World's Most Repellent Love Triangle: The New York Post informs us that "lumpy lothario" Joey Buttafuco is moving in with "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher, but Joey’s "comely estranged wife" Evanka is fighting for her man.

Copied and Pasted word for word from Pajama's Media.  More need not be said.

We took one tree down and trimmed several back.  These guys knew what they were doing.  In three hours the tree was down, the one next to it trimmed back, the stump of a tree I took down previously ground down, and some limbs overhanging the house in the front trimmed back.. Everything cleaned up and gone.  Three freakin' hours.

The device for grinding stumps down and below grade is something to see.

I am starting to amass pieces for my .45/.40 AR Carbine...pieces that should have been here last week, but seem to be traveling by mule train - slow mule train.   I am concerned that this project will die aborning due to the lack of available .45 or .40 caliber  magazines modified for the AR.   Modified Uzi mags in this case.

The only manufacturer of a .45 upper is Olympic arms.  The statement on their website is

Shortage of Uzi mags.  Call to order this product without a magazine.

Several manufactures make the 9mm upper conversion, with several types of available magazines.  Most use the modified 32 round Sten mag, but unfortunately that's illegal in the GSCENJ (Great State and Criminal Enterprise of New Jersey).  There are others that use unmodified Glock mags which pop into a modified mag well on the lower.

I may have to break down and go with the 9mm for the ease of acquiring parts.  The individual with the .45 carbine "box O' gun" decided not to sell.  As I said, I am acquiring parts that I can use no matter what the caliber...stock, BUIS, optics, etc.  I've already got the lower receiver.  I should just break down and go with the 9mm, but....

As for busy...

My failure to avoid finding work has me busy busy with a new job and new contracts.  These types of contracts tend to be all encompassing for a few weeks to a couple of months - with periods of relative quiet in between.  I'm still coming to terms with the scheduling.  I expect to be busy for another week, have a week or so of quiet, and then be tied up for another couple of weeks out of state.

Computer worked fine last night
Computer worked like crap this morning.
Lost a bunch of stuff.
Rebuilding
Rats

Update: I've gotten most of my functionality back, but lost about 6 months of email. A strange problem I haven't seen before.

All of the Admin accounts are restricted. I need to "runas" using the same account to get full access. So everything works, but there is always an extra step in there now.

Fixed it:  Somehow my .EXE file extension had lost association with the reality that it is there to run applications.  The EXE category had completely disappeared from my "file types" in folder options.  Strange.  As soon as I added EXE with an association to applications, everything came back.  I've never seen that before.  The whole runas thing with it's levels of disallowed and unrestricted was a red herring...altho the runas did let me use the computer for a couple of days until I had time to figure it out.

Trucked over to Princeton today to meet my daughter, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and other female friends of the above for a trip through the Princeton Art Museum and a hike along the yearly street fair.  Surrounded by women, again.

The museum is relatively small as these thing go, but intense.  A little bit of everything, and paintings and sculpture you will recognize.  It was stunning to see how 600 year old renaissance painting literally glowed with color, especially as my daughter reminded me, these guys mixed their own paints.

While my granddaughter was taken by the pop art exhibit, Andy Warhol and all,  the works of Peale and Sully had me in awe, as did blind Nydia.  Looking at the detail of some of the ancient paintings, I could imaging the artists working with brushes made of one fine hair.

Oh, and get too close to some of the paintings and the alarms go off.  My bad.

The street fair stretched from Washington to Chambers on Nassau Street and spilled down all the side streets and up onto the University grounds.  It took about 4 hours to see it all.  My son Jess is a netadmin at Princeton and tells me the University throws a street bash for the town once a year to make nice.

As this was Princeton after all, I kept an eye out for moonbats, but saw few.  There were some people carrying signs that declared 'If you are not Roman Catholic, you won't go to heaven', a table of 'Students for Palestine', and a really neat Arab Calligraphy table (all of the calligraphy translated to 'Death to America' according to my daughter-in-law), a 'Save Darfur' booth, a lady with a sign declaring 'no racism in our town', and one lonely old dude with an anti-Iraq war sign.  Other than that, it looked like about a hundred thousand people enjoying several hundred food booths, overloud music, food booths, crafts, organizational booths, and food booths.  Patriotic garb outnumbered Che this time, but the wild majority of people were just out to enjoy the day.  Hot chicks in the summer-time.  Did I mention food booths?

The Princeton campus is stunning, large and compact at the same time...two hundred and fifty years of architecture, history, and tradition.  It's worth a day trip to the university and Nassau street any time, street fair or not.

Tomorrow, off to the Shad Fest.

A baby squirrel has adopted our back porch. He spends the entire day either on the porch, under the grill, or by the dryer vent. If we open the door he wants to come in. He crawled up the leg of one of our neighbors while she was klatching on the porch with my wife today. I've never seen anything like that. I wonder if he started out as someone's pet until he got too rowdy.  My wife has named him 'roadkill'.  She would prefer a chipmunk adopted us.



Update:  I am informed that Roadkill has been seen cuddled in the arms of another of our neighbors.  Fickle tree-rat.  I've taken to bribing him with Cashews.  Our 102 year old neighbor Jenny, however, greets him with a broom handled like a Louisville Slugger.

New Jersey School Stages Practice Hostage Drill - Portrays Killers as Fundamentalist Christians

On Thursday, March 22, officials at Burlington Township High School enlisted the help of two local policemen to carry out a mock 'hostage situation' drill at their school. The drill invoked disapproval from Christian students as the student body was told that the alleged gunmen were "members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders' who don't believe in separation of church and state."

The drill organizers explained that the supposedly Christian gunmen "went to the school seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class."

God forfend we practice some reality here...after all, it's always those pesky Presbyterians who are attacking schools around the world.

An immature Eastern Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo Jamaicensis) has taken up residency in my back yard....



When an adult, these guys will have a 50" wingspan.

Woohoo...$2350 back from the Federal and State.

I'll celebrate when I actually see the money.

Tax Time...

I should be able to get some money back this year.

I see I had about $12,000+ in personal business related expenses, and I haven't even gotten to the approximately $20,000 in deductions I can take.

April 15th might just be a good BAG* day this year.

*Buy A Gun

Update: Yea! First run-thru gives me $1800 back. Now for tweaking....

I call this composition First Snow with Frisbee.

I'm sure we'll get more.

Living down at the beach tends to modify the local weather patterns. We'll get at best a dusting (or just rain) when a few miles inland they can have a foot of the stuff. The water acting as a heat sink. We're always a bit warmer in the winter and quite a bit cooler in the summer than the rest of the state.

When I type my first and last name into Google, the first entry that shows up is a link to a popular type of boat. The 2nd is a link to an EPA document I signed 17 years ago.

I appear 7 times in the first 2 pages...mostly comments on the more popular blogs, and eventually my own blog. The rest are nearly all boats....and the highest link is to a document I signed nearly two decades ago. When I type in my full legal name, all I get is digital signatures on .gov type documents. Up until then I was invisible.

When I type in my initials and last name - forget it. Pages of stuff about me.

Anonymity is a thing of the past.

In thinking a bit about it, I know I was never anonymous to the powers that control our lives. My military service for one, a top secret clearance there, so between that and my carry permit for the Great State and Criminal Enterprise of New Joisey, as well as some training work I did for MI types - the FBI has a packet on me an inch thick going back to 1968. Not to mention that little problem in the mid '70s...expunged.

Once a year I need to pull the toilet and snake thru the main drains all the way out to the street. I've got it down to a science. Apparently the septic lines were incorporated into the sewer system about 50 years ago...all the pipes leading from the house are lead. I think there is a root problem where the lead attaches to the more modern pipes about 50' from the house.

I picked up a 75' power snake from Home Disaster at 12:48. It's just hitting 2:00 and I'm done....including removal and reinstallation of the toilet, cleanup, and blogging.

Liquids for roots, organics, and paper don't seem to do the job. It's got to be snaked once a year, in the fall - like clockwork. I don't want to spend $1000 bucks to have the lines dug up so a plumber can tell me that I need to snake the old lines once a year - or spend $5000 to have them replaced.

It's a pain in the ass, but it's done for another year. $51 bucks for snake, wax seal, and tax.

And...

The 5-year plan* tree is up and strung with lights...awaiting festive fixings.

*We have at least 5 artificial trees of various shapes, colors, and sizes up in the attic. These get used every alternate 2-3 years with live trees...depending on what she wants to do. Next to shoes, she is a Christmas tree nut. The only way she now gets me to buy yet another one is to promise to use it 5 times. She wants a big white one, but still needs to use the last tree twice more. I expect she'll get a white one next year by putting up this last one for July 4th...the agreement never actually stipulated she needed to use the trees only at Christmas.

I went shooting today with Jesse and Kim - pictures later. Kim was getting pretty good with the Walther's new laser sight. She also got to try out a comp'd Ruger .22 with an Aimpoint sight. With the 8" bull barrel, it didn't recoil in the slightest and she was putting all her shots into one hole at 30 feet. My work is done.

Jesse also found The 300 in Princeton for me.

The graphic novel is excellent. I cannot wait for the movie.

Mashed Potato Casserole 8 -10 Medium Boiling Potatoes (1) 8ox package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Butter, salt, pepper 2 eggs beaten lightly 2 teaspoons all purpose flour 2 teaspoons fresh parsley (minced) 2 teaspoons minced chives (or one small onion grated) 1 (2 ½ oz) can French fried onions Peel, boil, and drain potatoes. Mix with an electric mixer, beat in salt, pepper, and softened cream cheese. Add eggs, flour, parsley, chives and beat thoroughly. Turn into buttered casserole pan. Lightly brush melted butter on top. Spread crushed onions on top. Bake uncovered at 325⁰ for 30 minutes until puffy and top is golden. This casserole can be made ahead of time. Refrigerate and save crushed onions and brushed butter to be added just before baking. Turkey tricks... Soften butter and blend in your favorite turkey spices - freeze result. When frozen cut into 1/4 x 1/2 in chunks. Carefully slit the skin of the thawed bird and slide the butter chunks under the skin. You can do this all over the bird, including over the legs. I usually do this every 3 - 4 inches of surface over the bird. Using a sharp knife stab the point deep into the breasts a few inches and stuff the slit with butter chunks. Get 3 - 4 limes. Stab them all over with a sharp knife to allow juices to escape, and stuff them into the bird before baking. Yum. Bake the bird upside down to keep the breast juicy. Turn the bird for the last half hour to brown the top. I have cooked the bird using all of the above in greased cooking bags. This cuts down on the cooking time by quite a bit. The bird does not require basting, but you'll still need to brown it at the end. Our Thanksgiving meal also inicludes: Mashed Potatoes Steamed Veggies with Cheddar drizzled on top Bread Stuffing Cranberries Sweet Potatoes glazed in Brown Sugar Hot Sourdough Bread with softened sweet butter on the side Lasagna for the Vegan in lieu of Turkey Nuts, Chocolate Covered Popcorn, Pies, Vanilla Bean ice-cream, Pumpkin and Banana bread, cookies, soda, juices, and wine.

I got my signed copies of Black and White World II and III.

for us. The Woman In Charge went on a quest for her Digital New Jersey Drivers License today. I'd gotten mine already using my passport. New Jersey has over engineered this thing so it will conform to any and all moonbat shit the government comes up with when (not if) we get National ID Cards. The reason we went today was because her hair was done and looked good, and she was satisfied with her makeup. There's a window of time in there where photographs are permissible. We needed a certified copy of her birth certificate (nope, didn't have one) We needed a certified copy of our marriage license for the name change (nope, didn't have one) We needed a social security card, her drivers license, a credit card, and a bill with her mailing address on it (yep, this we had). So first we drove to Bricktown (the safest city in America) and for the cost of $7 and a few minutes filling out a form - we got a certified copy of our marriage license. That brought back some scary memories, I can tell you. The WIC seemed sort of satisfied - like she got a win or something. Then we drove to the Motor Vehicles and plunked down a bad birth certificate, a good marriage certificate, a bill with our address, her old license, her social security card, a credit card with her name on it, and $18 bucks. They accepted the bad birth certificate (not certified) because she had a certified marriage certificate...what the rational behind that was, I'll never know. At our little DMV, they'll take as many pictures as you need until you get the one you want. The WIC went for the first one - amazing - her bangs are reaching Burqa proportions. I was going to post a picture of cousin It, but she won't let me. So we are both bagged and tagged already if the NID thingy goes thru.

Our neighbor, the fabulous Brianna, was our first Candy Monger this evening. The Wife had made up a packet of peppermint goodies just for her. The smart neighborhood kids tell us what their favorites are before the big night.

The EnviroWacker 8000 got a boo-boo over the weekend. There is good news and bad news. The bad news is the driver of the car in front of me decided to back up at a light and ran his trailer hitch ball into my front bumper. Very minor paint scrapes and a dent the size and depth of a quarter. He said he didn't see me... My wife was in the car and you could have hooked her to a nuclear power plant to generate extra energy. Now I'm driving a car the size of the Admiral's Barge off the Kennedy, lit up like the Eiffel Tower at the millennial celebration, and he didn't see me? The good news is that the driver was the general manager of one of the larger local car dealerships. So I drove it up to the shop this AM, turned it over to his 'artists', and a half-hour later you wouldn't have known it was hit. Sometimes it pays to stay calm, especially when you meet someone responsible enough to take care of his own mistakes. The wife's molecular level vibrations have just about reached normal.

My wife and daughter dragged me to a swap meet (fem-code for gigantic garage sale) at Monmouth Park raceway this morning. Up at 6AM to make to to the venue by 8AM. When I mean 5 miles of garage sales, that's exactly what I mean. It took 6 hours to walk from one end to the other. The parking lot was filled to overflowing (capacity 5850 cars). There had to be 20,000 people milling about. This exercise followed a typical male/female pattern. Justin, his brother Len, and I wandered ahead checking out records, electronics, sporting goods, tools, and (?) tiki stuff. My wife, daughter, Justin's Mom, sister, and friend were spread out behind checking every freaking box and table looking for the hidden goodies. "You have to check everything - you don't want to miss something good". Anyway... 5 miles of junk. In 5 miles I found a nice Gould&Goodrich holster that fits my full sized Kimber .45 to a tee, a Halloween bandana for the pooch, and a never used wood stock for the Ruger 1022 with barrel band and all hardware. $15 bucks total. My wife of course loaded up (or loaded me up, I mean). 5 miles of junk...I was reminded of the 'highway of death' north of Kuwait City in the Gulf War (part I). Although the Bataan Death March might be more like it.

We're on the Barnegat Bay at the mouth of the Toms River about a 15 minute walk downriver from..... SailFest 2006 in Island Heights. It would be about a 5 minute walk, but we'd have to swim Dillon creek. Lots of Boats and a couple of hundred yards of food and trinkets along the boardwalk on the river. Fronted by Victorian Homes. Really kind of nice. Other than that, Jersey sucks. I heard an interview with Kane yesterday where he said that NJ has a net loss of better than 50,000 residents a year....wanna bet that they're all red-staters getting out. Jersey is lost.

You are here.... Hopefully this will get done soon.... Update: Still very windy, branches down, heavy rains, internet spotty. All in all - we had worse storms in the spring. Two short power failures and about 6000 in the county without power.

OK, we'll try again. Off to the the Car/Grunge Band Show in decaying Asbury Park today....gearheads and rockabilly bands a block from the ocean. The Jalopy Jump and Jive show was hosted by the Jersey chapter of the Rumblers on blocked-off streets by the old Asbury Lanes at the beach in Asbury Park. If the buildings weren't falling down, they already had. This is my first attempt at embedded video. My code was good, but I couldn't get it to work until I added MIME types to my IIS service....I host all the large files myself on a 2003 Enterprise server, and .flv and .rvlm files are apparently not recognized by Windows unless you add them. The snippit came out OK tho. We were invited by my daughter and her squeeze - the famous deacon of the Brimstones. The bands that played: Turbo A C's The Ribeye Brothers The Brimstones The Von Drats Sasquatch and the Sickabillies (added bonus: a snap of bone white Canadians in the Atlantic for the first time) Lots of pictures of cars, girl tattoos, smoking tires, rockabilly fashion, etc...you know the drill. Rockabilly Fashion Grrl Tats Girl Tats with smoke Grrl Tats with beer Tat Grrls who liked the smoke More *gasp* smoke Even more smoke (It seemed to be a tradition as the cars left the venue) I owned one of these (when it wasn't so old). The surf bands were loud, the grilled burgers greasy, the beer cold, and the chicks hot. The cars were about what you would expect...expensive toys that get used...no garage queens here. I figure there were a couple of thousand people there milling around, getting gassed by cars (and beer). We had a great time. Retro 50s Americana at it's best.

So SHE and the Sucker are on their way to an appointment..... SHE: Ohhh! Watch it, you're speeding. Sucker: I'm going 5 miles under the speed limit. SHE: Watch that Car! Sucker: I see the car, I see the car. SHE: (Tensing up) Slow down, your brakes are making funny noises, you're going to hit someone in the back. Sucker: My brakes are fine. SHE: Don't you hear those annoying noises? Sucker: The only annoying noise I hear is from that squeeky crank on the passenger side. Blessed Silence.....

Oh, if you are wondering why I've been waxing poetic about SKS housekeeping without posting any photos...it's because my camera was recently liberated. You'll have to wait for pictures until I get another.