Monkeyfister

Damn you, John Cole-- you've up and got me addicted to the new Bioware video game. Dragon Age: Orgins. I thank you more than I damn you, of course, my friend.

It is not up to the scale of Baldur's Gate, or Shadow of Awmn, but for story line, plot, and character development, it is a fantastic Fantasy game that has already paid for itself in entertainment dollars per hour.

I also downloaded all of the new Downloadable Content for Fallout 3, and am replaying the entire game with the new stuff. Dollar for dollar, I'd go with Fallout 3, for gameplay value, as with Fallout 3, it really IS a new gaming experience with every play. The new DLC changes EVERYTHING! With Dragon Age, you're just stuck playing through the same scripts with a new character, with nothing really "new" to confront.

Both games, however, are exceptional entertainment values, and I highly recco both for the dollar, with bias toward Fallout 3.


To Top Of Main Page

Labels: Video Games

In between chores, I am enjoying my favorite Bloody Mary recipe. It's my own concoction, arrived at after years of experimentation.

While Active Duty Navy, I was stationed at Ft. Belvoir at Mt. Vernon, VA. Across from the Main Gate was a joint called the Polo Grill, it was sorta upscale without being snooty about it. On Sundays, they had this marvelous Bloody Mary and breakfast buffet. You'd buy the vodka of your choice by the shot, and then they had EVERYTHING you'd every imagine putting into a Bloody Mary. There was always much spirited discussion and recipe swapping at that looooong table.

Here's my ultimate favorite final, personal recipe.

In a 16 ounce glass, combine:

-- 4 shots vodka ( I use Sobieski vodka. New on the market, it is very good, priced at a surprisingly cheap $20.00 per half gallon. I remember when Ketel One was new, too.)
-- Juice of 1/4 lemon
-- A hearty dash of Worcestershire Sauce
-- Two not-so-vigorous dashes of the Tabasco-style Hot Sauce of your choice. Might want to add to taste at the last before garnish.
-- 4 solid shakes of ground celery seed
-- 6 rotations on your fresh Black Pepper grinder

Leaving room for ice, fill remainder of glass 2/3 with Clamato juice, and 1/3 (~ a little can's worth) with V8 Spicy.

Stir.

Top with ice.

Garnish with Kosher dill pickle spear, or celery heart stalk... I do both, and also alternate, and keep them with every refill, and munch them all in the end. I prefer the dill pickle, though. The two here in my glass right now, with the celery, I grew and pickled myself-- makes it all the better! The Clamato only adds a bit of sensuality to ther flavor-- this drink doesn't taste of clams first... You don't even really note the Clam flavour.

YUM!

I hope you also find this recipe as good as I do.

Now, I know there are those who insist that if a Bloody Mary uses Clam juice, it is a "Bloody Caesar," but phhhhhht to all that. This here is a Bloody Monkey... It could have been called The Bloody Fister, or The Bloody Fister Augustus, so, perhaps Bloody Monkey is the best choice for polite company.

Tonight's dinner:

-- Garden-harvested Rosemary Roasted Cornish Game Hen with Basmati Rice, Herbs, Giblets, and Homegrown Oyster Mushrooms Dressing.
-- Fresh-Harvested Roasted Potatoes, Turnips, Onions and Carrots.
-- Garden-Harvested Endive salad, rescue-ripened "Monkeyfister's Marvel" Tomatoes, Garden Onions, Carrots and Herbs.
-- Spiced Apples and Pears with Pomegranate over Vanilla Ice Cream.

This time of year, my garden set-up fucking ROCKS! Everything is thriving under the hooped "mini-greenhouses" of my Wintergarden beds. It makes the cooking of serious comfort food a really easy deal. Just go out and pull up and snip what is needed.

Next year is going to suck more than this year has... I STRONGLY recommend that you book in your community garden space, negotiate some garden space and crop-sharing deals with your neighbors, or start planning your backyard or container gardens NOW.

2009 was a bad year for food crop seed producers, and stocks are, again, limited.

This weekend, I got my seed-starting closet all cleaned out, and ready to roll. Lights are ready, Flats are full of soil, ready for seeds and water come New Year.

Cut back the Asparagus, which has finally relented to the deep frosts. Just counting the dozens of new stalks produced this year, those beautiful Asparagi are going to force me to freeze dozens and dozens of young spears next Spring. I am SO DAMNED EXCITED! I mean that of the 30 crowns that I have planted, every crown produced on average 34 stalks, once I left off Spring harvest. The fall after planting, there were ~12 stalks per crown. I am going to drown in Asparagus come the Spring, and I cannot WAIT!

I ripped up this weekend, and need to replant the Strawberries this Spring... Three years on, and it is time to start over. Good thing that I am re-doing, and doubling the depth of the Strawberry/Asparagus bed this Winter! Perfect timing-- and it is all in the timing.

Back on the Bloody Mary track-- My jag has ultimately encouraged me to eat an entire stalk of celery between drinks, snacks and meals, today.

OK. Laundry and more cooking is calling.



To Top Of Main Page

Labels: Alcohol Drinks, Community Gardening, Food, Gardening Like Your Life Depended On It, Recipes

Work-related activities, namely the Army-Navy Game, are taking me to Philadelphia this weekend. I get in Thursday afternoon, leave Sunday morning, and would love to meet-up with any Philly folks/bloggers for after work fun. I'll be staying at the Windsor Suites, and really want to find some good, locally-owned restaurants in the area-- particularly Polish, Italian and Vietnamese-- as well as a good place to get a proper Philly Cheesesteak. Seven years surrounded by nothing but barbecue and fried catfish has me hungry for REAL food. Is there a proper pub in the City Center area?

Lemme know in comments!


To Top Of Main Page

Labels: My Life As It Is

It must be hiding in Ben Bernanke's pants, because its not in the charts.

via The Big Picture



More at the link.

And we are now entering the peak of the Option ARM recasts, and the collapse of Commercial Real Estate values, with no help from Obama's economic henchmen, or his Congress in sight.

Green shoots? Where?


To Top Of Main Page

Labels: Banksters, Job Losses, Obama's Shitty Economic Team, Real Estate Crash, The Bush Depression

Weekend after weekend of either not seeing deer, or not having the opportunity for a safe shot, or having deer driven off by farming activities, I finally had a perfect shot on a nice doe this morning. She came out of the woods at 200 yards, walking slowly, not aware of us in the least. I was calm, took my time, lined up the shot, and squeezed the trigger. She went down quickly, but then got back up, and slowly, limping, went back toward the woods. I took another shot, but because she was moving, I missed. However, I know my first shot was a solid hit. Once into the tree line, she could have gone in any direction, but she went toward the neighboring field-- owned by notoriously prickish people.

The way she went down, and the way she was moving indicated that she would not go too far. I put on my hunter orange, and made to follow her.

And that is when two shots rang out from the neighboring field. By the time I got through the woods, and over by the field, all I saw was the neighbor guy dragging my doe away across the field. He heard me crunching through the frosted leaves, looked back once, but never stopped. My thought is that he didn't even need to shoot the deer, she probably just dropped dead at the edge. The drag trail from the tree line supports my hypothesis, but who knows? I am pretty disgusted this morning, though.

Considering how, on opening day, we allowed the other neighbors to come claim their deer, even letting one field dress a deer while we waited for him to leave, it seemed just wrong, somehow, for this hunter to take my doe... but there was nothing to be done about it. In the weeks to come, that dude is going to realize that turnaround is fair play.



To Top Of Main Page

Labels: Deer Hunting, Shitty Southerners

Life here in the Armpit of America.

via The Tennesean

According to The Commercial Appeal, Arlington Mayor Russell Wiseman posted the statements on his Facebook page and said the president is Muslim. Obama is Christian.

“We sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose,” he wrote, according to the paper.

His Facebook page can only be accessed by people he has approved as friends. Arlington is a city of about 7,600 residents about 25 miles northeast of Memphis.

In the extensive posting, he also attacked the president’s supporters, saying “...you obama people need to move to a muslim country…oh wait, that’s America….pitiful.”

---

At another point, he wrote, "you know, our forefathers had it written in the original Constitution that ONLY property owners could vote, if that has stayed in there, things would be different........"

That last bit is ever so reminiscent of Trent Lott. Charming.

Arlington is about ten miles to the east of me. When I moved down here, almost seven years ago, Arlington was just a sleepy rural town. When Memphis began annexing its neighboring communities, Arlington seized on the opportunity to lure conservative Republican "White Flighters" by developing tracts of McMansions as an escape haven for them. Now, it's just another crowded stupid strip development town chock full of mooks like Mayor Moron, here.

I am thankful that my little town is still quiet, and a wonderfully friendly mixed community.

And WTF? It's not like "The Charlie Brown Christmas Special" is only aired once anywhere in a year. The DVD is available for chump change in every store everywhere right now. Ol' boy could buy it, and watch it 24/7 until the disk melts for fuck's sake.

Thirteen years, and I can retire, and get the fuck out of this shithole excuse of a state.



To Top Of Main Page

Labels: Another Racist Republican, Asshole Republicans, Clown Shoes, Shitty Southerners