Christmas just isn’t my thing, and sometimes I get downright grinchy this time of year.

This year, I am making an effort to be, if not jolly, at least tolerant of the holiday.

Heck, I even listened to Christmas music when I drove Girlie Bear to school this morning. 

Granted, after I dropped her off, I listened to Metallica’s Black Album until I started feeling right again.  But I made the effort.

I’ll be working graveyard shift next week, so posting may be at wacky hours.  Nothing says Merry Christmas like sleep deprivation and disturbed rest cycles.

When I think of the ocean around Australia, I think of surf, sun, and golden tans.

Not icebergs.

I’m not going to speculate as to what caused this, or if it’s a sign of something to come.  It’s definitely strange.

But here’s an idea:

How about the Australian Navy tow some chunks of this thing ashore and have a Christmastime ice party on a beach for the Australian kids.  Since it’s summer down there, it’ll be a nice break. There could be sledding, snowball fights, and even ice sculpture competitions. 

Just a thought.  It would definitely be a memory kids down there would cherish forever.

I’m allergic to Kentucky.  I had the allergy skin test this morning, and here are the high points of what I’m sensitive to:

•  Every common species of grass and tree.  

• All the molds and mildews.   
• Ragweed too reared its ugly head in my test.
• Cats, but I’m not getting rid of my furballs.  

For someone who enjoys fishing and hunting, and has had a cat all his life, this is quite a  list.  Now I know why I liked living in the Arizona desert.  No plant life, no pollen, no allergies.

I’ll be starting allergy shots in the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully that will force my immune system to not overreact and let me live in peace here in God’s country.

I’ll let y’all know how it goes.  At the moment, I feel like dirt warmed over, then put between two pieces of stale rye and toasted. Once this Benadryl kicks in, I’m going to hibernate for a few hours.

From Very Demotivational:

Pittsburgh at Cleveland – Pittsburgh
New Orleans at Atlanta – New Orleans
Detroit at Baltimore – Baltimore
Green Bay at Chicago – One of my favorite games to watch every year.  Green Bay
Seattle at Houston – Houston
Denver at Indy – Indy
Miami at Jacksonville – Another good rivalry game.  Jacksonville
Buffalo at Kansas City – Kansas City
Cinci at Minnesota – Minnesota.  But if the Vikings play like they did this week, they’ll lose and it won’t even be close.
Carolina at New England – Carolina
New York Jets at Tampa Bay – New York Jets
Saint Louis at Tennessee – Tennessee
Washington at Oakland – Darn it, two of my favorite teams are playing each other.  I’ll take Oakland on this one.
San Diego at Dallas – San Diego
Philadelphia at New York Giants – New York Giants
Arizona at San Fransisco – Arizona

Well, I forgot to pick the San Diego/Cleveland game, so I’ll take that as an automatic loss.

Even with that, it was a great weekend.  I was 11 and 5 for the week, and I’m 103 and 89 overall.

I have the Sunday and Monday night games on the DVR, and I’ll give them a watch.  Otherwise, I caught snippets of games as I passed through the living room all weekend.  Busy busy busy.

Senator “Dingy” Harry Reid has compared Republicans and others who oppose his healthcare plan to people who wanted to keep slavery and opposed civil rights legislation.

OK, let’s take a moment to reflect on the actual history:

Which party went to war in 1861 rather than see the Union split permanently between free and slave territories?  That’s right, the Republicans.

Which party actively worked against the country during the Civil War and would have negotiated a peace with the Confederacy if they’d been able to win the presidency in 1864?  That’s right, the Democrats.

Who pushed through amendments to the Constitution that not only made slavery illegal, but also guaranteed the rights of the former slaves?  That’s right, the Republicans.

What party was in power in the 1860’s and 1870’s and had to deal with Southern Democrat partisans riding around in sheets and lynching black people?  That’s right, the Republicans.

Which party actively opposed civil rights legislation in the late 1950’s, even going so far as to filibuster the Senate and stand in the door to stop black students from attending white schools?  That’s right, the Democrats.

Senator Reid, before you ratchet up the rhetoric, and go beyond calling Republicans Nazi’s and such, please get your facts straight.  The Democratic party has a lot more to answer to about slavery and civil rights than the Republicans do.

Over the weekend, we were awakened by the sound of Baby Bear dropping from the side of his crib to the floor.  He had been able to get one leg up on the rail of his crib and pull himself over.  Good news is that he landed on his butt and not his head.  Bad news is he thought this was a neat thing and proceeded to do it every time we put him to bed.

Sunday, we dismantled the crib and put in a twin set for him.  The crib doesn’t convert to a toddler bed, so he went straight to a twin.  We got a set of snap-together railings for him and he thinks it’s just the most neat thing he’s ever seen.  No trouble getting him to go to bed.

We also put up a swinging gate on his bedroom door so we could still leave his door open and monitor his activities, but he can’t roam the house while the rest of the family sleeps.

Since he’s not in a crib, talks a bit now, and has been walking for over 6 months, I think it’s time I stopped calling him Baby Bear.

From now on, his name is BooBoo.  Kind of fits, don’t you think?

OK, this morning, between getting the older kids out the door and getting Baby Bear up and ready for day care, I crashed on the couch.

During that time, I had the following dream:

Elmo from Sesame Street was moderating a Jerry Springer/Maury Povich kind of show, and he had Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog on there for one of those “Who’s the Daddy?” kind of episodes.  Turns out Miss Piggy wasn’t sure, and they were doing DNA tests.  Elmo kept saying “Elmo wants to know why you would hurt Kermit’s froggy feelings so bad?”

Then I woke up, thank goodness. 

So, what do y’all think this means?

Took a little time today and went out to the range. 

Today was a pistols only trip, since I didn’t want to drive to the outdoor range.  The indoor range I go to has rifle lanes, but they’re prohibitively expensive on my budget.

The 1911 continues to be a good shoot, even if I don’t burn through a couple hundred rounds.  I put 50 rounds through it and was able to bring my groups to about 4″ for a magazine of 7 at 20 feet.  I put in a few snapcaps and loaded the magazines without looking, so I was able to practice my malfunction drill a bit.  I did get bitten by the slide a couple of times in the space between my thumb and finger, so I need to work on my grip with it.  I need to do something with the front sight on this one.  I can barely see it against a dark background. 

I recently put Hogue rubber grips on my Taurus .38, and I was curious to see if that made a difference with how the gun sits in my hand and felt recoil.  I definitely felt a difference in recoil.  My groups with this one weren’t even close to the .45, though.  I need to start making a habit of doing a lot of dry fire with the .38, and maybe that’ll improve my shots.  The sights on this one were hard to see against a dark background too.  I burned through two cylinders of rounds before the range safety asked me to stop using CCI Blazer ammo.  Appears that it messes up their brass collection and they have to manually sort out the aluminum cases.  I looked at their ammo, but the price was way too much for my budget.  I’ll remember that range rule next time and save the CCI rounds for Knob Creek.

I also tried out the Bianci speed strips that I picked up , and I like them.  They’re faster than hand loading, and a lot less bulky than a speed-loader.  Those are definitely staying with me for carry.

At the pro shop, I picked up a Galco IWB holster for the .38.  I bought it specifically for carry.  My shooting with it is good enough that I’d feel comfortable using it in an emergency, but I’ll of course work to improve.

Now I need to work to improve my ammunition situation.  I’ve burned through almost all of my .45 and I only have a few rounds of .38.   I’m considering purchasing bulk reloads from Precision Cartridge.  That would definitely allow me to go to the range and not hear a cash register ring every time I pulled the trigger.