• Going out for German food and finding that the restaurant stocks one of my favorite beers, which I haven’t had since 1994, was a real treat.
• Irish Woman spent 20 minutes eating her dessert last night.  She was analyzing “Mutti’s Apfeltorte” so that she could make it at home.
  • She also liked her rahmschnitzel, and seemed intrigued by the make-up of my rouladen.  I foresee more German food in my future.
  • Yep, she’s a keeper.
• Girlie Bear has spent the week getting ready for her JROTC formal ball.
  • With the dress, the make-up, and the hair, she certainly didn’t look 15 tonight.
  • I will give the young man who is attending the ball with her some credit.  After weeks of Girlie Bear convincing him that I am a psychotic killer of a father and that I will do evil things to him if he touches my daughter, he had the guts to look me in the eye, however briefly, when we shook hands and did not wet himself in my presence.
• It’s kind of scary to watch Irish Woman toy with someone she knows is lying to her.
  • Here’s a hint:  If we put out a bunch of yard waste cans and bags on Saturday,  the trash isn’t picked up until Wednesday, and Irish Woman works from home and has a view of the pile of yard waste from her work area, don’t tell her that you were by to pick it up and nothing was out there.
  • I just stayed out of her way when she went out to chew on the gentlemen who came by after she called the waste company to complain.  I don’t want to catch the edge of the ass-chewing and I don’t want to be a witness.
• When you go to give yourself a haircut, always make sure you put in the correct size guard before applying the clippers.
  • When you make that initial cut that’s not right, you pretty much have to finish out the entire job at that length.
  • My hair hasn’t been this short in decades.
  • On the plus side, I only needed about half a teaspoon of shampoo when I took a shower.
• Man hath no love like a labrador retriever watching a human being make a pulled pork sandwich.

• Boo has his first two loose teeth.  Irish Woman says that makes her feel old.
• The yard work is pretty much done for the year.
  • Most of the leaves are up, and the ones that aren’t up are a small amount that have fallen since we raked and mulched.
  • Our compost heap is about 10 feet long, four feet wide, and three feet high.
    • It includes three 30 gallon barrels of mulched leaves, a further six 55 gallon bags of mulched leaves and grass clippings, three large bags of composted cow manure, and a 30 gallon barrel of kitchen waste, all mixed up.
    • Hopefully, with additional stirring over the winter and lots and lots of rain/snow water, it will be good, rich fertilizer for the garden and fruit trees.
  • The guy who is going to pick up our yard waste on Thursday is going to hate me.  There’s almost as much stuff that I rejected for use in the compost pile as I accepted, and all of the bad stuff got put out to be hauled away.
  • I owe Girlie Bear quite a bit.  She’s been working like a field hand all weekend.
• I had a strange dream last night.
  • I was in a David Drake “Hammer’s Slammers” story, which was really cool.
  • However, it was rendered as animation in the same style as the B-17 vignet in “Heavy Metal“.
  • I remember most of it.  I may file this away and write a fanfic piece.
  • OK, I’m a geek.  I admit it.

In Flanders Fields

By Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

• At the Veteran’s Day ceremony at Girlie Bear’s school yesterday, I noticed something:
  • The World War II combat veteran had four ribbons.
  • The Vietnam War veteran colonel of artillery who went on to serve over 20 years on active duty had four rows of ribbons.
  • A couple of the more recent veterans had a tower of ribbons on their chest that went almost to their shoulder boards.
  • Not saying they don’t deserve everything they get, because they truly do, but I just thought it was odd.
• An afternoon at the range is a wonderful thing.
• When the RSO stops talking during the safety brief and glares at you and your girlfriend, maybe it’s time to stop talking loudly about your friend and how drunk she got last night.
• That steel target I put together from scrap steel  will occasionally stop a 5.56 round, and .22 bounces off it very well.  Knob Creek has changed their policy so that I can bring it close enough to reliably hit it with a .22 rifle, so I think it will be going to the range more often.
• Our yearly family ritual of gathering up the leaves in the yard is almost done.  They’ve been mulched and bagged.  Tomorrow, they go into a compost pile with kitchen waste and grass clippings, and by the spring should be good dirt for the garden boxes.
• Irish Woman had a nice long talk with a ‘mixologist‘ last night about how to make infused bourbon.  I guess I’ll be picking up a couple extra bottles of Woodford Reserve this week.
  • The cocktail he made last night included Jack Daniels, honey, and other yummy things, so he knows of which he speaks.
  • Leave it to the Irish Woman to come away from an event , which had me offering to marry my youngest son into the chef’s bloodline in exchange for their recipes, with a method to improve booze.
• Halloween is officially over when you put the last of the decorations in the attic and throw out what remains of the candy.