• There may be a reason why 14-year-old girls aren’t in charge of planning much.
  • I need to be downtown at 7:30 tomorrow morning
  • No wait, I think that’s wrong
  • Now I need to be at the school at 6:30, and we’ll be back around 4.
  • And I forgot to tell them I had a prior commitment on Friday.
• Not sure what’s going on with Moonshine lately, but no stick of butter or shoe left unattended is safe.
• Not sure how we’re going to do 25 hours worth of work in 18 hours in a couple of weekends, but I’m sure we’ll muddle on through.
  • I am DaddyBear, Master of Project Planning!
• We’ve already put up more pickles than we did last year, and the cucumber patch is just now starting to become plentiful.
• Irish Woman picked about a bushel of peaches tonight, and the tree is still laden with fruit that’s almost ready.
  • mmmmm, peach jam.
• The applesauce we made a few weeks ago is quite tasty a couple of weeks after canning.  I hope it’s as good in a few months.

• Dear Neighbor – Do not use 1 AM on the evening of the Zimmerman verdict, when everyone is on edge waiting for riots to break out, to take the opportunity to shoot something with your shotgun unless it’s really important.  It makes the rest of us jumpy.
• Put in 12 hours yesterday trimming out the porch I built for Irish Woman last fall.  Yeah, I’m a bit of a procrastinator in making things pretty.
  • All that’s left now is to build and install the railings, a task which Irish Woman has claimed as her own, put a covering on the cement side of the porch, and paint the darned thing.
• ZOMG, have you looked at the price of pressure treated lumber and paint lately?
• No matter how good I feel, how much weight I lose, or how much of my waistline I no longer have, someone takes a photo of me, and I realize just how much further I have to go.
• Today was a beautiful day to take Irish Woman and the kids to a baseball game.
  • Boo got a souvenir baseball on the way in.  Now he wants a Louisville Slugger.
  • Baseball stadium popcorn is apparently dusted with an addictive euphoric.  I’ve never seen Boo happier to eat something.
• There was some kind of hippie / hipster jamfest happening down in Louisville today.
  • Bud and Bud Light at the stadium, Pabst Blue Ribbon out on the street.
  • Maybe I’m wrong, but it seemed weird to see people wearing clothes that would probably have fit in at Woodstock walking into a festival that seemed to only play rap music.
• It’s nights like this that I remember why I walked away from being in charge of people long, long ago.
• Not that it was a probable candidate, but I have announced that I will not support my children in a decision to go to the University of California.  Anything run by Janet Napolitano is verboten in Casa de Oso.

• Boss, after I suggest something for the budget – Good idea, let’s draw that up there with the rest of the stuff.
  • Boss, 20 minutes later when we’re talking about money – OK, let’s cross off the things we know are probably going to get nixed.  First thing:  this (as he draws a big black X over my idea).
  • Not his fault, he’s just being honest.  Sometimes being right doesn’t mean much.
• Someone I like and respect announced his resignation today.  I’m going to miss working with him and swapping kid stories.
• I must be the only person I know who’s never watched the modern Dr. Who, Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Spartacus, or a whole bunch of other non-kid TV shows.
  • I only watched Firefly after some very good friends threatened to shun me if I didn’t.
• I tried to explain the plot of Kelly’s Heroes and the humor in it to someone who has never had anything to do with the American military and who comes from another country today.  I was less than successful.
• I’m glad I re-read the project plan I was working on this afternoon.  My first line amounted to “Hurt the feelings of X and Y and draw strength from their pain.”.
  • Before you think I want to hurt someone’s feelings, let me just say that I’ve spent more than a year trying to get them to do what the project plan requires.
• If all the blooms on the cucumber vines come to fruition at the same time, I may set a personal best in quarts of pickles made in a 24 hour period.
• Our tomatoes, green beans, bell peppers, serrano, banana, Thai, and jalapeno peppers all have fruit growing on them.
  • My cilantro is growing straight up and flowering.  Not sure what I need to do about that.
• We need to tack up the new grape vines and blackberry plants.  They’re starting to snake their way into places we don’t want.
• One of these days I’m going to have one of those weekends where there are no plans, no obligations, no chores, and no projects to work on.

• For those who talk about caseless ammunition made with packed propellant or have a cellulose/gelatin coating on the outside to keep its form, please go open a large package of pre-formed and measured dishwasher soap, especially one that’s gotten a tad damp due to humidity, and you will know why I think that will probably never work under field conditions.
• We took Boo to get evaluated for possible learning and behavioral problems today, mostly out of an abundance of caution.
  • We both have family histories of learning disabilities and Boo hasn’t been without his troubles.  We just want to go into kindergarten with a good idea of what challenges wait for us.
  • No, we didn’t wait until now to start working on this.  He’s been getting professional help in an excellent pre-school for kids with issues for two years, and he’s come a long way.  We’re more at the ‘fine tuning’ stage, but need professional advice on what should be addressed.
  • While we were waiting and talking, we both came to the realization that when it comes to the amount of drama and insanity in our families and lives, we’re about as normal as it comes.
• The trial of George Zimmerman is winding down in Florida and there are already threats of violence if the jury acquits him.  I’m not going to make any predictions either way, but watch your six and make sure you have a go-to-hell plan for getting home if the worst happens.
• I’ve had two nights of what I call ‘memory dreams’ and last night was bad enough that Irish Woman decided the couch was a better solution for her.
  • I know when I’ve had a bad night when I wake up more tired than I was before I went to sleep.
• Nutella and green apple quesadillas make a dandy dessert.
• In his latest Common Sense podcast, Dan Carlin discusses whether or not the military in Egypt was right in negating the democratic process by deposing the Muslim Brotherhood government.   I’ll leave you to hear his points, and he makes some good ones, but my opinion is that it usually takes a long time to figure out how to integrate democracy into any culture, and it takes more than a wave of the hand and a plebiscite to take a country from generations of colonial rule and dictatorship to liberal western-style democracy.   Egypt and other countries are going to have fits and starts on that road.  If the military follows through on holding open and free elections soon, then a coup is better than “one man, one vote, one time”.
• Conventional wisdom is that dogs don’t eat cucumbers.  Today, Moonshine proved that wrong.

• Never make your solutions so brilliant that it takes someone smarter than you to unwind them.
• Good – Changing out the filter on your air conditioning unit the first Saturday of the month as regularly as clockwork.
• Bad – Noticing a whining sound coming from the blower motor while you are changing out said filter.
• Worse – The noise gets worse as the day goes on.
• Worst – Your mind dances with the cost of a new blower motor when the repairman inevitably finds that the bearings are shot.
• Outstanding – Honest repairman reaching into the access panel on the air conditioner, removing the electrical schematic that has come unglued from the panel and lodged itself in your motor, thereby removing the loud whining.
  • I tipped heavily and paid him to clean out the outside unit while he was here.  It was still a lot less expensive than replacing that motor.
• First pickles of the season are in the jars.
  • I started out with Thai chili garlic dills.  My jalapenos won’t be ready for a couple more weeks.
• I’m not sure what the heck was going on in the dinosaur show I watched with Boo tonight, but a young plant eater ate some red mushrooms, tripped his butt off, and ended up fighting off  a couple of meat eaters while freaking out.
  • I guess just saying “no” wasn’t cool 80 million years ago.

• The rain slacked off just long enough this afternoon and this evening for us to take a nice long walk through the zoo and shoot off some fireworks.
• Note to adults at a venue like a zoo – most of the patrons of such places are children.  Cussing like a sailor at the elephant because she won’t turn around and let you see her trunk is rude and suboptimal behavior.
  • On the other hand, the wife/girlfriend who slugged one of the worst transgressors upside the head and chewed his butt in hushed tones gets a gold star next to her name today.
• We took a ride on the new train at the zoo today.  It’s good to see this attraction back, although the staff is being extremely methodical about operations and the train went much slower than I remember.  Of course, who can blame them?
• Made a trip to the gun store today.  They actually had .22 in stock, so I got a box.  They’re up to their eyeballs in AK and AR magazines, but not a lot of pistol magazines were in stock.  They also had 5.56, .45, .38, .22, 9mm, and 12 gauge 00 buck, but in limited amounts and they’re limiting each customer to a few boxes.
• I have done my patriotic duty and burned off my requisite amount of gunpowder and metal oxides.  The demons of tyranny should be held at bay for another year.

• A steady, dripping, cold rain does not make for a very memorable Independence Day.
  • I may not have been able to grill out, but you are never without good cooked meat when you have a large cast iron griddle and a gas range.
  • I’m quite proud that Boo won’t touch a fast food cheeseburger, but asked for seconds when I made them at home.
• Waking up with the smell of fresh bread in the bread maker is wonderful.
  • The only thing better was having a couple of slices of it slathered in homemade apple preserves.
• It must have been chilly in the house Thursday night.  We woke up with both cats not only on our bed, but also burrowed down into the covers.
• Irish Woman put up about 10 pints of strawberry-lime jam this afternoon.  The entire house smelled delicious.
  • Between the blueberries, strawberries, peaches, and apples she’s preserving in one way or another, I don’t think we need to worry about scurvy this winter.
• How do I know I have a good dog?  Bluegrass is 12 years old, arthritic, and spends as much time as she can just lying around and relaxing.  But when someone, who she didn’t know, came to the door this morning, she was a full-on burglar alarm and intruder eradication system on four spry legs.
• I don’t care whether it rains tomorrow or not, we are taking Boo to the zoo to get some of this energy worked off.
  • He’s been pretty much cooped up in the house for two days due to the weather, and he needs to get out and run.
• We’re going to experiment with Boo’s food over the next month.  We already know that artificial sweeteners, some non-organic dairy, and red food dyes seem to contribute to him losing his self-control, but we’re going to try cutting out a lot of the non-organic fruit out of his diet.
  • We’ve noticed a difference between his behavior after eating produce out of our garden or from an organic local farm versus after eating something from the grocery store.
  • We’re not going fully hippie drum circle organic with him, just trying to see if a diet without some of the chemicals they spray on fruit to keep it fresher longer will help.
  • Notice that I never said that no-one should use those products.  Y’all keep me honest on this, but I never want to tell someone else what they should eat or how they should raise their kids.
• One of my shooting buddies reported that one of the local gun stores has PMC brass cased FMJ .45 ACP for less than 50 cents a round, and Federal FMJ for a little over 50 cents a round.
  • The drought is starting to ease.
• And now, if you all don’t mind, I’m going to kick back, enjoy a cold beverage, and talk about Star Wars with my youngest son.

• To the douchebag who was wearing the tee-shirt with a photo-realistic picture of a curvy woman in lingerie on it at the airport, stay classy.
  • I’m sure the woman in line with you, who was so old that the TSA told her she didn’t have to remove her shoes, enjoyed seeing that, as did the mother of two small children and her kids.
  • Of course, we all got a laugh when you had to take your belt off to go through the body scanner, and as you raised your hands above your head, they fell down to your knees.
  • Nice Mickey Mouse boxers, bro.
• I enjoyed having a king sized bed to myself in the hotel, but it’s always better to sleep in your own bed.
• If you were on the design team for the airport in Baltimore, I owe you a beer.
  • Seriously, thinking to have about 100 publicly available, cost-free electrical outlets in each of the terminal areas was a stroke of genius.
• Irish Woman and I made apple pie preserves tonight.  They smell like a whiff of heaven, and taste just like they smell.
  • Once I’ve had a couple of years to play with the recipe and make it my own, I’ll share.
• Boo went to zoo camp today with two of his friends from school.
  • We call them “The Three Amigos”.
  • I warned the teenager who was in charge of his group, but I don’t think she took me seriously at the time.
  • When Irish Woman picked Boo up this afternoon, it sounded like she was taking my warning seriously.
• When I was growing up, my dream was to be a history teacher at a high school or a university.
  • Now that I’ve gotten to know quite a few teenagers and college kids, I’m sort of glad I went down another path.
• We started buying school clothes for Boo tonight.
  • Of course, after we’d picked up three pairs of khaki pants for him to wear, we got the email that his class is only supposed to wear navy blue.
  • I know I have that receipt around here somewhere.

• I now understand why so many of the early colonies in Virginia died out within a year.
  • Do y’all set out water evaporators just to add to the experience of swimming through the air or something?
  • My hat is off to you if you lived here before the advent of affordable air conditioning.
  • Also, please don’t get me wrong.  Virginia is a beautiful place, I just hate humidity.
• I’d like to say that my work today went smoothly and was 100% successful.
  • However, I was taught to never tell a lie.
• I’m not staying at the fanciest or most expensive hotel in town, but I wouldn’t trade the service here for anything.
  • When I asked about a shuttle to the airport at 6:30 tomorrow morning, the clerk said that they’d call me a taxi and the hotel would pay for it.
  • I’ve never had that happen before.
• If I were 20 years younger, I would already be out enjoying Saturday evening.  I am now, however, just going to clean up, find something to eat that I don’t have to chew too much, and crash.

I actually made it through Uncle BadTouch with my dignity intact this morning.
I shared a row on my first flight today with Justin Bieber’s favorite stalker. I now know which hospital he was born in and his blood type. I probably could have lived without that.
A kid in the seat next to you, chugging soda and eating Skittles, does not bode well for the flight.
Airports are great places to people watch.  You see a little of everything.
When I got to Norfolk, I waited for the hotel shuttle with a family of 7, with all the children apparently 5 and younger, who had their flight canceled. They will be continuing their journey to Hawaii tomorrow. There but for the grace of God go I.
I’m getting old. I walked past a breastaurant to get dinner somewhere else. I finally reached the age where I feel creepy around scantily clad 23 year old women.
Tonight I hydrate, for tomorrow I shall sweat like a hog. Although it doesn’t seem as sticky here as I thought it would be.