We had a nice time on our cruise. Below is a picture from the wedding (it was on a beach on a Disney Island, not on the ship like I said earlier):
Barb and I were somewhat surprised at the nice time we had. Disney, as usual, paid a lot of attention to detail on the cruise and their island (99 year lease I was told). More pictures and stories later. Barb says we can check our bags in now at the Alaska Airlines ticket counter (we are still in Orlando).
I just found out while I will have Internet access while on our cruise there is a price involved: $0.75/minute.
Roaming charges on my cell phone are $2.26/minutes.
Unless I can find something cheaper I’ll be offline until sometime on Sunday.
Barb and I made it through A Security Theater and are now waiting at the gate ready to board our flight to Orlando.
I’m wearing this shirt:
It seemed to get a smile from one of the TSA agents. I wonder if it was because he agreed with it or because he knew I wasn’t carrying at the time–he and his co-workers had defeated me for the moment.
Barb and I are going to a wedding this week. We leave Wednesday and get back on Sunday. The wedding takes place on a cruise ship in the Bahamas. This wedding is part of the reason we didn’t really have budget for attending any big gun events this year like the NRA Convention or the Gun Blogger Rendezvous.
I mention this because we might have time for lunch in the Orlando area on Sunday after we get back from the cruise if anyone wanted to say hi.
Daughter Kim made an excellent dinner for me with Baked Alaska as dessert!
Daughter Xenia made this awesome video for (and of) me:
Hmm…I haven’t done the reading for the past month…I have over 200 pages to read and the test is tomorrow. Whoops.
Xenia
October 21, 2009
[Classic Xenia (our daughter). I also expect her to read the material, go to class dead tired, get an ‘A’, and have the professor use her answers as examples for others to aspire too.
Xenia’s scholastic career has been a combination of Barb’s excellent grades and an exaggeration of my tendency to procrastinate. It shouldn’t work but somehow she manages to pull it off.–Joe]
I recently had a birthday and although I haven’t collected all my loot yet (the family party will be this weekend) I do have some of it.
From son James I received this awesome card and coin:
Front. Click to see the inside.
From wife Barbara I received (in part) this card and a scrapbook:
Front. Click to see the inside.
Here are a couple pages from the scrapbook:
First page.
Next to the last page.
Daughters Kim and Xenia called me up on my birthday and sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone and asked what I wanted for my birthday dinner this weekend. They asked what James gave me then they complained that James needs to give me his presents after them from now on because they can’t match him. I’m not so sure on that. I think my kids could give me lumps of coal and I’d still be just as proud and pleased.
Update: Due to popular request via email: The coin (and others) can be purchased here. The scrapbook and wife are not for sale.
Barb and I had dinner with son James and his girlfriend Kelsey tonight. We managed to get a picture of her and James (neither like pictures taken of themselves). We think they are a pretty cute couple:
On my latest trip to Idaho and back I listened to a bunch of the Vicious Circle podcasts. I’m in the middle of Vicious Circle 18 (Sucky Science Fiction Movies) right now but I thought I would mention that I was particular struck by what Breda had to say in Vicious Circle 16 (Estrogen Overload!) as she was explaining the controversy in the lesbian community between shag carpets and hardwood floors. At least I think that what she was talking about. Someone else asked about landing strips in the same context so maybe I got confused along the way somehow.
Speaking of SF… just tonight son James and I just finished watching the Stargate: Atlantis series. We liked it. I’m kind of sad that it is over. It was so much better than the three seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine we waded through before it.
This Christmas I’m going shopping for the girls at GlamGuns.com where I can pick up stuff like this:
It’s never to early to learn demolition. Hard targets are no longer a challenge with the Glambo Signature Series EZ-Boom Oven. Locked out of the clubhouse? Fight back! Includes enough of her patented, quick-setting mix to make one pound of plastique and will provide your child with hours of fun. (Safety armor not included.)
My girls just loved “My little Pony” but now that they are all grown up it’s time for grown up toys fully loaded with nostalgia:
The Glambo Signature Series “My Little Pony” M4A1 carbine with forward handgrip and AN-PVS4 night vision sight. This fully functional weapon fires standard 5.56mm ammunition — great for those AR-15 fans with extra ammo lying around the house or even extra parts! (Note: the full-auto selection has been disabled in this model in favor of three-round-burst. This product cannot be shipped to California.) The perfect way to introduce your little princess to the wonders of nocturnal wet-work!
There are also Hilton Handcuffs and Martha’s Mines–just the thing for stocking stuffers at the Huffman-Scott compound and bunker complex.
H/T to Kris who sent me the link in an email.
I get this type of email so you don’t have to:
I’m writing looking to connect with those that took any classes with me this past Sunday.
ThreeSomes and Group Sex Play – discussion
Butt Sex – informal discussion
G-Spot and Female Ejaculation – interactive, couples only
In this context one has wonder what the meaning of “connect” is.
Regardless, the answer is “No”. I did not take any of those classes last Sunday. Barb and I were doing other things near Mount Hood (don’t let your dirty mind go there) that weekend.
Making the Brady Campaign people cry just a little bit longer tonight niece Lisa picked up her concealed carry permit yesterday.
Yesterday Barb and I went on a hike on Mount Hood. Some of the details are on my Twitter feed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. A few of the pictures:
Impressive mountain but not as pretty as Mount Rainer where we spent our anniversary a few years ago.
Yes, I was open carrying the entire way. No one said anything but Barb said some people were looking.
We got as high as 7000 feet. I could have gone further but Barb had some tight muscles and was tired.
Some people were carrying skis and snow boards. We didn’t actually see anyone come down the mountain on them though.
Mount Jefferson in the background is almost 50 miles away.
Even without Barb in the picture it was a nice view.
Lots of interesting plant life at the higher altitudes.
It appeared there had been larger trees here at one time.
I found out a few minute ago that daughter Kim has Swine flu. She was at PAX last weekend and they are reporting others got sick there too.
Son James was also there and got sick as well but hasn’t been tested. He is feeling better but Kim is very sick with low blood pressure and the doctor wanting to give her an IV.
Barb spent quite a bit of time around Kim while she was sick before coming over to Seattle to see me yesterday. Tomorrow we leave to celebrate our anniversay (33 years last month) near Mount Hood and planned to do a lot of hiking. If we get sick those plans will change.
Gun bloggers are probably now very happy we are not going to be attending the Rendezvous.
Update: Kim is feeling much better this (Thursday September 10th) morning.
Via email from daughter Xenia I found out the University of Idaho where our entire family (and Senator Larry [Wide Stance] Craig and Sarah Palin) went to school won the dubious honor of Speech code of the month:
In the University of Idaho’s residence halls, “Actions and/or communication that are discriminatory, harassing or insensitive are not permitted.” (Emphasis added.) This policy prohibits a staggering amount of constitutionally protected speech. In fact, this policy prohibits precisely the speech that the First Amendment exists to protect, since people typically do not seek to censor sensitive, respectful expression. Moving beyond the legal issues, speech codes like this one infantilize college students by assuming they cannot cope with any sort of offense. Do we really want to teach our students that they are entitled to seek punishment for others’ insensitivity? Perhaps in a small city like Moscow, Idaho, students don’t have to deal with much insensitivity on a daily basis, but should they choose to expand their horizons (say, to Philadelphia, for example), they would encounter plenty. And I think it’s safe to say a Philly cop would have a good, long laugh if you asked him or her to arrest a fellow Philadelphian for hurting your feelings.
They also ban carry of firearms on campus which is a big concern of mine because my daughters (and niece) frequently walk to and from class from home. This means they can’t have the best means of personal protection with them should they need it even though they may legally do so off campus.
Barb’s brother says sister Susan’s kids are ‘nice’. Barb’s kids are ‘interesting’.
This video of Xenia’s speech for her communications class is further evidence of ‘interesting’. I think the topic was something like “An event that changed my life”:
I’m a carbs based life form.
Kelsey
August 29, 2009
[Barb and I had lunch with son James and his girlfriend Kelsey today. Kelsey continues to please us with her sparkle and affection toward James. We all had fun and lots of laughs today. The following banter is just one example:
Barb: James was so sweet when he was little.
Kelsey: [to James] So when did you stop being sweet?
Joe: I think sweetness is a constant in your lifetime. If you use it up when you are little you don’t have any left when you get older.
Barb: [to Joe] So when did you use up your sweetness?
Joe: [after the laughter subsided] I’ve just been saving it for someone else.
Also discussed were lentil cookies, how James made QOTD in his comment about them, daughters Kim and Xenia‘s burping contests, and Xenia’s college speech and video about farts.
Barb’s brother says sister Susan has nice children but Barb has interesting children.–Joe]
A couple weeks ago I wrote about evidence that niece Lisa shared genes with me.
Today she applied for a concealed weapons permit.
Which reminds me. I never mentioned that at the last Boomershoot daughter Kim was stopped by the police while driving to Orofino. I think it was a headlight that was out…
Anyway, the police officer said nice things to Kim about having a concealed weapons permit.
I’m so proud of both of them.
As a strong supporter of the country’s National Parks System, I just don’t see a logical reason why anyone would want to carry a concealed weapon into such naturally beautiful places like Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Redwoods, Crater Lake, Grand Teton or any of the national parks.
Is someone seriously afraid of being accosted or robbed by Old Faithful or El Capitan? Are there criminals hiding out in the Petrified Forest?
These places should be off limits to such practices because of the presence of children. Just because you have the right to pack heat on a vacation doesn’t mean you should.
Chuck Bloom
Plano, Texas
… but what about the children?
August 21, 2009
[A extraordinary clear example of scrambled thinking on the gun issue. Perhaps the reason he doesn’t see a logical reason for carrying a gun in the national parks is because he is severely logic impaired.
What does being “a strong supporter of the country’s National Parks System” or their natural beauty have to do with concluding there is no “logical reason” to carry a concealed weapon?
Even his straw-men of “being accosted or robbed by Old Faithful or El Capitan” is extraordinarily weak.
Criminal do their thing where they have the opportunity, means, and high probability of accomplishing their goal. If their thing involves robbing or hurting people the remote location and disarmed status of their victims in the remote parks can be good hunting grounds. One does not have life insurance for only when their risk is high, such as when traveling by car. They have life insurance for all occasions. And so it is with carrying defensive tools. If you knew you were going to be attacked you wouldn’t go there. But you don’t know so you carry defensive tools wherever and whenever you can. And not all of the threats are human:
Sign in Glacier National Park
Bear in Glacier National Park.
And finally, “because of the presence of children”? Come on, can any anti-gun person offer a plausible defense for that statement? Do children not need to be defended against violent attacks? Is it better to let them be injured or killed than for them to see a bear get shot? Is it better for them to see their mother raped and/or killed than to see the attacker stopped in his tracks by a gun in the hands of his or her parents?
I actually did use my gun while hiking through a state park with my kids several years ago. There was a rattlesnake near the edge of the trail. It was a threat both to us and other hikers that perhaps would not have seen and avoided it. From a safe distance I put a 9mm FMJ bullet through it’s head. The kids did not seem to have suffered any short or long term adverse effects from the use of the gun in their presence. They even seemed relieved after the threat was neutralized.–Joe]
