Sorry for not getting anything up here for a few days.

I was already behind on Tuesday morning when I thought I needed to get on the stick. However, Irish Woman came down very ill, and low and behold it wasn’t the stomach virus that’s going around.

Her gall bladder apparently filled up like a sack of marbles. She went into the hospital on Tuesday, and came out on Thursday evening.

She’s doing well, and is resting comfortably.

My work has been very understanding, and luckily right now is kinda slow for us. It’s the calm before the storm of work getting ready for the Christmas season.

I’ll try to catch up.

A good woman is in the final stage of her life. The wife of John Wesley Rawles, author of SurvivalBlog.com, will soon be moving on to her reward with her Lord.

Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED

RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY

RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET

RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET

A Marine corporal broke Rules 1 through 3, and in doing so killed one of his troops.

When I was in, trust building didn’t come from pointing firearms at each other. It came from working and training together every day.

Because this young NCO forgot to treat each and every one of his subordinates as a precious gift, that young Marine is dead and his own life is ruined.

I know he is devestated and will never get over what has happened, but it was wholly avoidable.

Prayers and thoughts go out to both families who have lost sons because of a stupid macho stunt.

OpFor has posted a couple of reasons why September 11 shouldn’t be entirely a day of mourning. It’s historically been a date of triumph over barbarians, as opposed to a day to mourn a tragic loss to them.

I actually celebrate September 11. It’s Little Bear’s birthday. In 2001, we forgot that until the next day, and I’ve never stopped regretting that.

13 years ago today, a very small, very fragile precious being came into my life, and no matter what some khat chewing, cave dwelling, son of a syphillitic camel trader does or threatens to do will not ruin that.

That is how we will defeat them. We will refuse to compromise on what is important to us, no matter what or where.

Here are my picks for the weekend of 12 and 13 September:

Miami and Atlanta – Atlanta

Kansas City and Baltimore – Baltimore

Philadelphia and Carolina – Carolina

Denver and Cinci – Cinci

Minnesota and Cleveland – Minnesota (Go Vikings!)

New York Jets and Houston – New York

Jacksonville and Indianapolis – Indianapolis

Detroit and New Orleans – New Orleans. I’m expecting to see another “stellar” year out of the Lions.

Dallas and Tampa Bay – Tampa Bay

San Fransisco and Arizona – Arizona.

Washington and New York Giants – Washington (Go Skins!)

Saint Louis and Seattle – Saint Louis

Chicago and Green Bay – Tough one. I like both teams on this one. Just a gut feeling, but I think Chicago will take this one. Sorry Pats.

Buffalo and New England – Owens and Brady playing against each other. I hope there are a few “minor” injuries handed out to either of these two knuckleheads. Patriots.

San Diego and Oakland – Oakland (Raiders! Raiders!)

I got my pick last night with the Pittsburg victory in overtime. I didn’t make it to the 4th quarter before heading to bed, so I missed the finish. I really dislike being in the Eastern time zone for these night games.

1-0 so far. Good start.

Two employees of ACORN in Baltimore have been fired because they allegedly assisted two people who wanted to open a brothel and import children from Central America to staff it.

The two people were just posing as pond scum and taped the whole thing. Kinda hard to deny it when the prosecution can go to the tape.

So ACORN employees were involved in assisting people set up a child sex slavery ring? Qel Surpris!

ACORN, for those of you just catching up, is one of our president’s favorite “community action” organizations. It has been accused of fraud in registering imaginary people to vote. It’s also gotten a a$$load of money from the stimulus program to continue it’s “good” work.

Now it’s apparently involved in tax evasion and international child slavery.

Your tax dollars at work.

That’s funny, right there:

Hat Tip to OpFor for a much needed early morning chuckle.

OK, here’s the guidelines for my picks:

I will pick each and every game played in the regular and post season. I will go for straight wins, not against the spread. I will always pick against Philadelphia and Dallas. I will almost always pick for Green Bay, Oakland, Washington, and Minnesota. I will post a running tally of my results on Tuesday evenings. I will explain my pick when I can, but not always. Some picks will be well thought out, a lot of them will be a coin toss. Picks for Thursday night games will be done on Wednesday evening. All others will be done either on Friday evening or Saturday morning

You guys keep me honest, now.

And without further adieu:

Thursday night is the opener. Pittsburg and Tennessee.

I’m picking the Steelers. Both teams looked really good in the preseason, but Pittsburg is coming off of the Super Bowl. I think they will take this one.

Are you ready for some football? I sure am.

The Tolkien Trustees have settled with the New Line Studios, and work is moving forward on movies based on “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien.

OK, I’m a fanboy. I read “The Hobbit” when I was about 8, and I even enjoyed the made for TV animated version of it, although it did scare the pants off me. Hey, I was only like 5 or 6.

I loved the LOTR movies, even if some of my co-workers grumbled about the story not being over when they got to the end of “The Fellowship of the Ring”.

So, I’m waiting with baited breath for the release of “The Hobbit”. One of the cool parts about having kids is that you get to enjoy movies and books all over again.

Those of you who’ve read here for the past month know about my adventures in trying to replace a lost key to my minivan.

It wasn’t cheap and it wasn’t easy to do it.

This evening, while cleaning up a spilled cup of water, my lost key turned up under my chair.

Now, I moved that chair and even dis-assembled it when I was looking for my key. It was not in there when I was actively searching for it.

Which leads me to the likely suspect for the missing key: Baby Bear.

Why he had it is a mystery, for who can tell what goes through the mind of a toddler?

Where he put in the last month is also a mystery. I swear I turned the house upside down and shook it looking for my lost key.

Oh well, at least now I have a spare. I’ll just have to keep an eye on that boy so I can find his hidey holes.