Viva Mardi Gras!

...viva Fat Tuesday and viva New Orleans! I wish I could be there to help y’all celebrate (especially after Katrina). You really have cause turn it up a notch-er-two. Aaaaaah, the food, the beads, the dabloons, the music, the hospitality and the endless supply of booze. I had never been in the company of such hospitable people in all my life.

Everyone should experience it at least once.

On Cheney and Hunting

Everyone seems to have an opinion about it so I might as well add my $0.02. Here's my take on Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident...

Hunting is a sport but it's not a sport in which you play. That is, you don't "play" hunting because when you play hunting, someone dies. As an avid hunter and sportsman, I know accidents happen. I take every single precaution I can - up to and including getting to know the hunting styles\practices\etc. of those around me well before I go into to the field with them. Hunter and shooter safety is first and foremost in my mind at all times when guns are involved. Even still, in my 25 years of hunting I've experienced at least three very close calls afield.

The first time it happened, I was very young. I was sitting on hay bales with a friend whilst hunting geese. My friend was bored and started playing with his shotgun. His 12ga. went off and sent a pattern of projectiles less than a foot in front of my leg.

The second time something happened, I was stalking pheasants with Big E (who I think reads this blog). It was late in the day and we hadn't seen a pheasant for at least a couple of hours. One finally busted and it scared him. His safety was not on but his finger was on the trigger...which he squeezed as a reaction. Again, it sent a pattern not more than a foot in front of me.

The third close call (and probably the closest scenario that relates to Vice President Cheney's situation) took place in South Dakota. A line of 30+ men walked a CRP field where the brush was over our heads and was so thick that you couldn't see the man next to you. Pheasants began busting and people started shooting. After two or three near misses, I pulled back and so did my pup Arrow. We stood at the top of a hill and watched as divine intervention was the only thing saving each of these men.

All three of the above mentioned scenarios could have been avoided. All three of the above mentioned scenarios frustrate me. However, all three of the scenarios listed above were accidental. When you are afield the number of elements you can control are far outweighed by the number of elements you cannot.

Among many, there exists a very basic hunter's safety rule - almost common sense, really: Always know your backdrop before, during and after you turn the safety off and pull the trigger. Sounds simple but it is not. That means, for every shot you have a mental checklist of items you have to go though before, during and after you take a single shot. If your vision is impaired for any reason, you should not shoot. If your vision gets blocked during a follow through (shotgunning), you should not shoot. If you do not know beyond all doubt that your shot will be safe, you do not shoot. Vice President Dick Cheney should not have pulled the trigger. His backdrop was not clear.

That said, it angers me that it happened to a man of his stature...he is after all in the public eye. It gives hunters (like me) a "black-eye" because the general public probably does not know that hunting related accidents are down over 33 percent (nationwide) over the past decade. They don't take into account that accidents can and certainly will occur and that hunters are being more safe, more responsible and are operating safer hunting and camping equipment today than ever before.

The bottom line is that a man - a fellow outdoorsman - almost lost his life because of a split second lapse in judgment...an accident. I find no humor in that...I don't care how left-wing you are.

Valentine's Day

Happy Lover's Day!

What a fantastic day!

• no cold noses on any extremity this morning
• no loud barking from the back yard when I was getting ready
• I noticed that the graffiti on my fence was removed yesterday...free of charge - Alina, you rock!
• the gas station attendant-chica was actually nice this morning
• the drive into work took less than 45 minutes
• had a series of V-day E-greeting cards waiting for me
• just received a dozen roses from Larah
• the chicas in the office doted on said roses for more than a half hour
• my boss-apple-sauce said I've been kicking ass and told me to leave early today

I'm going home to cook it up!

Jimmy's menu for tonight...

• Shrimp and cocktail sauce
• Stuffed jalapeños
• Salad
• Crab stuffed Salmon
• Mini crab-cakes
• Asparagus in hollandaise sauce
• Wine
  
  
  

LAX

I had never really been a big fan of Lacrosse going into the Colorado Mammoth game on Saturday night - football and hockey are more my style - but as I left the Pepsi Center I realized that they had turned me into one in just a matter of hours. I won't bore you with details of the game because it won't do it justice but I will tell you that they don't just claim that it's "the fastest sport on two feet"...it really is. These cats were checking like hockey players and running more than soccer players.

We all had a blast!!! I'm sure that won't be the last game I'll attend this year.

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A brief history lesson on Lacrosse

Friday-aba Five-aba

Friday Five

1. Can you dance?
Yeah, I can rip-it-up in just about any situation. I love to shake what my momma gave me.

2. Who is your current crush?
Ummmm...I'll give you a hint...she's blond. ;o)

3. Tell us about a dream you remember.
I had a dream last night that I was working. The office turned into a stock-car race track. I won so I got to go to the lake and chill on a boat. The lake turned into the ocean and I was wakeboarding over like six foot rollers. I flipped, landed it but my arm got really cold for some reason. I woke up to find Arrow, my pup, sticking his cold nose on my left arm. Pretty random, I know. I attribute it to the spaghetti with meat sauce I ate last night. (X-rated parts were excluded)

4. Do you live with anyone, or do you live by yourself?
Me and my boys: Bo and Arrow.

5. When is the last time you bled from an injury?
Who knows. I get banged-up all the time.

Gridlock

...is the only word that comes to mind when I think of the drive into work this morning. Wall-to-wall traffic...yes, six whole lanes of Hwy 36 traffic that did not move for over an hour. People were actually stopping and getting out of their vehicles to view the cause of the mayhem.

In all my years of driving in this great state, I have never been stuck in traffic for more than 3 hours (not to mention the wasted quarter of a tank of gas). Today was my day, I guess. Luckily, I was a good boy-scout...I was prepared. Four cups of coffee, a Pepsi and both Jimmy(s): a Jimmy Dean sausage biscuit and Jimmy Buffett were along for the ride.

Working from home should be mandatory on days like today.

Oh...and to that som-n-a-bad-word in that Lincoln who cut me off and caused a wreck on 72nd: in case you didn't see me the first few times...

Throwback Tuesday

...yet another throw-back.

B and Dan, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of this one. Graduation Day (1993) at Mullen. I couldn't wait to get my diploma! Now I remember it fondly and wish I savored it a bit more.

Mom and me.

Swoosh sighting

I hadn't seen one of these in awhile...in fact, I didn't think they still existed...so I thought I'd break out the trusty Motorola camera phone and get my click-a-click-a on - bad, bad. I have captured the rarest of all window tint stickers...the Nike Swoosh! This one is even a little lop-sided! Feast your eyes!

OMG, is it Friday already?

How did that happen?

Da Friday Five

1. Any plans to watch the Super Bowl?
Yeah, XL will be spent overindulging with good friends and family.
2. Friday or Saturday: Which is a better date night?
Saturday - you seem to have a little more time to "work-it".
3. Do you do anything special on the weekends that you don't do during the week?
Busy work-type stuff: Clean, laundry, etc. Real work-type stuff: house projects, etc.
4. Where do you get your news from?
Fox evening news or the internet.
5. Kevin, Norm, Colin, Jimmy, Tina or Amy?
Tina Fey - she's hilarious, a hotrod and I saw her act(s) at The Second City in Chi-town. Two enthusiastic thumbs up from this critic.

HNT #4

Sun...sand...beach...water...exposed bald head? What else is there? Happy HNT!!!

Vandals

...but not the band. I'm talking about the punk northsiders in my effin' barrio who decided to tag my fence last night. They could have at least put some effort and creativity in it. I know four year olds with better penmanship.

When I rounded the corner to go to work this morning I saw it out of the corner of my eye and I immediately stopped in the middle of the street. I could feel the blood rush to my head as this red spray paint mocked me. To make matters worse I had made the conscious decision to bring the pups inside last night but for some reason I knew it was a bad idea.

After living there for more than 6 years I have noticed that gang graffiti has steadily gotten worse in the past five months or so and I've always kept an eye out for such antics. Now it happened to me. Now I'm pissed. Now I'm on Safari. My friend pointed me to a pimp website that sells tricks, trinkets and what-not which will make 'stalking' even easier...and, well...more fun. I'm thinking a nice little bound and gagged trip out to the deserts of Ft. Morgan and Brush would suffice - à la Casino - bat to hands kinda shit. Of course I'm talking out my azz right now because it's almost impossible catch these future tax dollar sucking - three hots and a cot in a six by six - degenerates but I'm so angry I can't even see straight.

And, rightly so....I worked really hard on that fence. I dug all the post holes myself, set the posts perfectly level, measured and cut the rails and added all the cedar pickets. What I gotz, isn’t much...but I work really hard to make it nice. Is it so much to ask that my shit be respected?

Offender: Worthless f*ckin' statistic...think you're tough? You're all hard and bad because you're in a gang? NSM(s) like you taught ME back in the day. I'd go knuckles with you on my worst day. You aren't shit. You're a bottom-feeder...a second thought. Be tough...do it on your own...the hard way. Get a job...work hard for the food YOU have in YOUR refrigerator...pay a mortgage. That's what makes you hard. That's what bad really means. Until then, keep tagging my shit and I'll keep cleaning up your spew...but one day...one day I'll catch you. My phone doesn't dial 911 so you better hope that nice little old lady across the street didn't take her sleeping pills - because I'll get ya and when I do - you'll never be able to hold a spray can again.

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I know it sounded all militant yesterday but I felt so much better after I wrote that.