A Brief Apology

A number of you receive automatic emails from this blog whenever I post a new one. Until last night, I had no idea that the automatic email actually sends the blog-post itself. I honestly thought it sent a simple notice: "Casper the Not-Always-So-Friendly Blog has just been updated with a new post. View it here!" with a link to the actual blog.

I updated my mailing list, however - because I've actually been wondering about this feature - to include myself.

Well, those of you who get the email, are not getting the full effect of the actual blog. Primarily, the email is black-on-white, whereas the blog is off-white-on-black. This isn't an issue for posts like this one which is all text, but when I change the color of some of the text to, say, light-blue (which I do frequently), it is actually kind of difficult to see on a white background.

I'm considering changing my blog template to use a more typical black-on-white (or at the very least dark-on-light) scheme, but in the meantime, I want to apologize and invite you all, when you get the blog notifications, to click the link at the bottom of the email that takes you directly to the blog itself, where you can see all the other fun features on the blog.

TTFN

Ghost Milk

We went to Hogle Zoo on Saturday. There was a definite Halloween theme going on: Monkeys dressed as zebras, elephants sporting rhino horns, you know, Halloween stuff.

Ok, that was all a bunch of lies. But there were lots of kids in costumes, and lots of booths for trick-or-treaters to bag oodles of tooth-rotting goodness.

One booth was giving away entire half-gallons of eggnog.

Egg. Nog.

So we took advantage of that, and purchased a jug at $0.00. What a bargain!

Take a close look at the picture. That’s a witch on the label. Witch or not, it’s a spooky picture, and Cordelia, seeing the jug in the fridge yesterday pointed to it and said: “Dost!”

“Ghost?” said I.

“Yes!” exclaimed she.

“That’s eggnog. Do you want some?”

“No egg! Dost Milk! Pease!”

Ok, so her English isn’t the best. But she makes herself understood, and she’s doing better. And honestly, I think “Ghost Milk” is a way better name than “eggnog.”

Pumpkin Pie, 11 Months Overdue

Last Thanksgiving I promised my pumpkin pie recipe but never got around to providing it. There were a number of reasons for that. One is that the pies I was making that day turned out… well… not overly edible; and I was a little embarrassed and didn’t think it would be prudent to provide a recipe that wasn’t any good.

In all honesty, the recipe is good, it was the cooking that wasn’t so great. So I’ve had to tweak the cooking temperature and time trying to find the best combination. As of last night, I am now confident enough to share.

You can download the recipe here, but watch the pie as it gets close to the end of the cooking time. Different ovens provide very different results. My in-law’s electric oven cooks the pie nearly perfectly at 375º in 55-60 minutes. My gas oven bakes the pies about as well at 350º for just over an hour.

I am working on an ideal pie crust to go with this pie, but so far I’ve only been able to make adequate crusts, nothing fantastic. Certainly nothing worthy of posting online. So if you don’t have your own pie crust recipe, you can find a bunch online, or buy a pre-made shell at the supermarket. Homemade is usually going to be better, however.

Surprising Sound

So today I was on the roof winterizing the house. While I was draining the water from the swamp-cooler I heard a familiar, yet confusing sound coming from behind me. Familiar because it was something I hear pretty constantly any time I’m home… or out shopping… or anywhere except at work.Confusing because it was a sound I very specifically do not expect to hear when I’m on the roof.

“Daddy?” was the sound.

I had left Cordelia in the house with specific instructions to finish her sandwich and then come outside. She’s generally a very obedient child, and I had no concerns. In the mean-time Tammy had her lunch break and had come upstairs to feed herself, and they had both come out giving Tammy a chance to explain to Cor what exactly it was that daddy was doing on the roof.

At this point, however, they had both gone back inside. Or so I thought.

When I turned around to see why it was that Cordelia’s voice had carried so clearly from the ground I saw just exactly what you are all thinking: Cordelia was up the ladder. She was, fortunately, not on the roof, but her head was well above it.

At this point I panicked, briefly, in my head. Sharply I said, “Cordelia!” And then, not wanting to frighten her and possibly cause her to fall, I took a breath and said far more calmly than I felt, “You aren’t supposed to be up here.”

I walked toward the ladder, hoping to be able to see some way to help her get back down safely, but found myself at a loss. Hoping that Tammy was still on her lunch break and within earshot, I started calling for her. Loud, but – again – calmly.

The rest of the story is pretty boring. Tammy came out, scolded the child much the same way I had, climbed up the ladder a few steps and helped Cordy make her way back down. Children, these days.

Might be my own fault. Here’s a picture I took last summer (actually April '08). This was done with my encouragement.

If you look carefully you can see the shadow of a

not-to-excited-about-this-stunt mommy ready

to jump to the rescue, if daddy's daredevil

decides to fall.

The Nobel Prize, Credibility Squandered

I normally save my political opinions for my other blog… but since I don’t ever update my other blogs, I think I’ll just do it here and be done with it.

I try to not be a hater, and I try to like President Obama. He seems like a really nice guy, and when I hear him talk, I like the things he says... as he says them. Unfortunately, after he gets finished talking, I find myself struggling to swallow any of it.

Now, don't think I'm some crazy-right-wing-nut, I've been accused of being too conservative by some of my more liberal friends... but then I've been accused of being too liberal by some of my conservative friends, so I gave up trying to appease everybody and have contented myself with being myself and having my own views, regardless of others.

Here's the meat: Extreme liberal values are harmful to the masses. The idea to "spread the wealth" is damaging to the entire group. It helps the poor, sure, for a while. But it harms the wealthy. This can have a couple of long-term side-effects. I was going to go into a deep-ish philosophical diatribe about why this is bad, but chances are if you don't already know why, you'll just disagree with me and miss the point of this post.

Here's a really brief summary: extreme liberalism = socialism = something for nothing at the expense of others... whether they like it or not.

And here's the point of this post:

President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the other day. When a friend at work told me that, my first thought was: "Shut up." So I told him to shut up.

He insisted it was true. He turned to his computer and pulled up MSNBC.com and showed me. I scowled in thought... What's today? I thought. October something, so not April Fool's Day...

Still doubting I decided to check out the most official sources I could find. Ended up on nobelprize.org It was true. I was (and am) baffled. Why on Earth did the Nobel people choose to discredit this prize by giving it to somebody who did not earn it?? He hasn't done anything!

I read the official press release, I don't know if I need written permission to duplicate it here, so I'll sum up and give a link:

For efforts to strengthen international diplomacy, and his vision of a world without nuclear weapons.

Yes, friends, strangers, et al., President Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States of America was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "trying" and "imagining" good things. Not for succeeding or accomplishing. For trying and pretending.

I decided this was going to be an opportunity for Socialists everywhere to point and say, "See, it works!! We really don't have to do anything, and good things will come our way!"

Obama, of course, was very gracious in his response to learning he would be receiving the award, and I have nothing bad to say about his response. However, I did read Rush Limbaugh's response to Obama's address, and though I do think Rush is a right-wing-nut, he made what I believe to be a good point.

He pointed out that this award was almost nothing more than the Nobel committee putting pressure on Obama (Read: bribing him) to leave Iran alone, refuse a surge in Afghanistan, and otherwise weaken the United States.

Best case scenario: The Nobel Peace Prize committee has undervalued their own prize and encouraged the rest of the world to see it as nothing more than a political award given to those who they think they can manipulate into advancing their own agenda.

Worst case scenario: President Obama feels the pressure, gives into it, and moves to completely eliminate the United States' presence in the world as a super power.

Bottome line: The Peace Prize has lost all significance in this frivolous awarding to President Obama. If I were a previous laureat, I would be saddened that my award no longer meant what it used to mean... of course, I suppose this started earlier, maybe when Al Gore received it.

Links:

Nobel Prize Press Release

Fox News (transcript of Rush Limbaugh)