Tuesday Game Nite

Tuesdays are Board Game Nite at AAG. Since I'm not currently working overtime at job1 or teaching at job2 on Tuesdays I get to go and play. This weekend OT and his Kender wife were there also. We were hoping for another co-worker but he couldn't make it due to an emergency. The plan was to play Pandemic and Small World

OT had picked up a copy of Red November. Red November proved to be an interesting game. It plays fairly quick and has a unique way of determining who goes first. One of the mechanics that you can use to get bonuses for actions is to "drink grog". While playing we decided on a way to turn it into a "drinking game". Of course this won't be a viable option down at AAG but for home games it could be fun.

Red November Drinking Game Rules
Take 1 drink whenever:
Your Gnome drinks
You fail a task

Chug your drink whenever:
Your Gnome dies
The Sub is destroyed

BTW if your interested in joining us at Tuesday game night. Come on down. We try to start at 6pm but it usually starts between 6 and 7.

It Lives!

I've been a funk for the last month. This led to me avoiding the blog. Hopefully, things will be looking up soon and I can get back to regular posting.

Just to prove that I'm really alive and this isn't KnitTech and Perky faking a post to throw off the police investigation here is a picture of me surrounded by the cats. Generally, KnitTech is the "Crazy Cat Lady". Seems I'm becoming the "Crazy Cat Man".

That is Peaches on the back of the Chair and Uggy on the arm. Sabrina and Fran are at my feet. Seems that Havoc is bringing detente amongst the cats.

Late September was birthday number 44 for me. KnitTech helped add to the collection of blades in the house. One of my favorite movies is "Serenity". BudK released some replicas from the movie. And I had to have them.


Now I can get KnitTech to recreate this scene for me.

While ordering those I picked up the knives that were in "The Chronicles of Riddick".

So I can do this scene for KnitTech

Since it was the 44th birthday and I'll soon be needing a cane I picked one up.

But since I order everything from BudK you can rest assured its not a normal cane.

And finally since it was on sale I opted to get a "DemonSlayer Blade".

I'm not as happy with this one as it has a truly horrible balances. But then since I watch "Supernatural" or as its called at here at Chez Tech "The yummy yummy hot guy show", you only have to hit a demon once with a demon slaying blade. Handy, since this is to heavy to do a lot of swinging with.

Halloween was the celebration of 19 years of marriage. We took the Friday prior to Halloween off of work. Look what happened.

Look closely along the eves of the house. Yes folks that is snow. Thankfully it wasn't really cold enough for it to stick. I hope this isn't a sign of the season to come.

Perky decided that the cats needed to have a costume. So they became angels. Needless to say Uggy wasn't enthused with this option. Sabrina on the other hand really didn't seem to care.



We also got to see BabyBird as she came over to Trick or Treat (our first of the day and 50% of all the trick or treaters we had). Isn't this a cute little Tinkerbell?


And here we are after eating as much candy as Grandpa and Grandma could give her.


Well that's it for today. I'm hoping to keep up a semi-regular schedule of posting this month. Keep your fingers crossed.

Eagle Rib Fest - Part 2

It was a LONG hot weekend. I seem to have overdosed on Vitamin D during the event (Vitamin D comes from the Sun and I didn't have sunscreen if you get my drift). We had a great time and did very well.

Here is the camp after we got it setup.


The grills ready to start rocking.


Chicken ready to be entered.


Ribs ready to be entered.


Pork Shoulder ready to be entered.


Brisket ready to be entered (Check out that smoke ring).


The awards ceremony was a ton of fun. It was great having KnitTech sitting with me for the first time. Alas it turns out the brisket didn't quite make out as well as we hoped. On the other hand We took First in Chicken and 2nd in Pork. My Brisket was a distant 20th and the ribs took 23rd. Even with those 2 drops Team Swine Stewards took 7th place overall. Here we are getting the Pork Award.


The Grand Champion trophy along with a possibility of going to the Jack Daniels contest went to Team Home on the Range. Depending on what happens at the Big Chill next spring they may be the team representing Idaho.


Looking at the scores I hit on brisket it wasn't a bad brisket, it just wasn't an outstanding brisket. Definitely did a couple of things wrong and will working on these issues. The current plan is to try and do brisket a month. I've got a couple of workmates that want to sponsor the first 2. Basically if you sponsor one, you buy it and I'll cook it up for practice. Then I'll break it down and bring you the meat. Let me know if your interested.

Eagle Rib Fest - Part 1

It's time for the Eagle Rib fest. Team Swine Steward will be onsite for 2 days instead of our original plan of 1 day. It seems that we are having a "Peoples Choice" category. So here is the planned schedule.

Saturday

8:00AM - Leave house to go to the site.
11:00AM - Venue opens to Public and Alcohol
3:00PM - Pork for People's Choice starts cooking
8:30pm - Alcohol sales end
9:00 - Venue Closed to public

Sunday
7:00AM Run home for shower and to pickup up food
10:00AM Be back at Venue
11:00AM - Venue opens to Public and Alcohol
11:00AM - Meat Inspection
11:30AM - People's Choice Cooks meeting
12:00PM - Judging for People's Choice Container contest
12:30PM - People's Choice registration begins
2:00PM - People's Choice begins
3:00PM - KCBS Cooks Meeting
5:00PM - People's Choice ends
6:00PM - Sid dish Turn-in
8:30PM - Alcohol sales end
9:00PM - Venue Closed to public
11:00PM - Quiet Time until 7am

Monday
11:00AM - Venue opens to Public and Alcohol
12:00PM - Chicken Turn in
12:30PM - Ribs Turn in
1:00PM - Pork Turn in
1:30PM - Brisket Turn in
5:00PM - Awards at Main Stage

Okay so what does this mean to you my friends.

A - If you want to be in on the Peoples Choice tasting and judging. Be there by 12:30PM on Sunday to get registered. There are only 200 slots and I imagine they will fill fast.

B - If you are there between 11:30PM - 1:30PM on Sunday don't bother the contestants. We'll all be cranky and prepping our entries. However, offering to run a camera and get pictures of our entries would be greatly appreciated.

C - If you want some free food to sample, it generally happens after the Brisket turn in. Most of the contestants WAY overcook and are generally giving out their leftovers after they are done entering everything. Our team will not be giving out food. I've sold both my briskets and my partner has sold all his Pork Shoulders. Sorry about that.. Other competitors may be giving out theirs but don't consider it a promise.

D - Gaming - I'm bring Pandemic and OT said he may bring SpaceHulk down. Since there will be some downtime over the course of both nights I think we can get some gaming in. Shoot me a text or give me a call and we'll set something up.

E - Food, there are going to be 3 grills in our team area. At least one of them will be empty untill Sunday morning. Bring some stuff to Grill and we'll be happy to cook it up.

F - Team Swine Stewards would love to have you there at the Awards ceremony on Sunday to cheer us on.

NOTE - The entry fee for the event is a donation to the Food Bank. Entry for the People's Choice is $5.00.

Is August really almost over?

WoW this month has just SCREAMED by. And I've been super busy. Lets see.

News at work1 - Yea I'm currently operating under a microscope at work so there is no more surfing (including on the MessiahIphone at work. Needless to say this has put a crimp on posting and reading blogs.

News at work2 - Last Monday was the final for school. Gave it and had the majority pass. Had 1 student that I thought was going to totally bomb. Thankfully he showed up (late) and took his test. I was nice and gave him another day to get the rest of his homework in. He scraped by with a low C. September 8th is the first day of the next semester. Back to teaching Linux. WOOT!

Fandemonium - The first weekend of August, immediately after my last post was Fandemonium. What a great time we had. Gaming, movies, More gaming and costumes. I didn't dress up but my friend Matt did.

Matt was participating in the costume dance. hard to believe that this is one of the smartest brewers I know.

Vancouver - The weekend after Fandemonium, KnitTech and I took a road trip back to my hometown of Vancouver Wa. Had a great weekend and got to visit my mom, some old friends and family. I took the camera with us and then promptly forgot to use it. On the way out of town we stopped by Voodoo Doughnuts and tried:

The Voodoo Doughnut (The Voodoo Doll)


The Bacon Maple Bar


One would think that bacon and maple bar would not go together. One would be wrong in that thinking. Its wondrous..

We also stopped by the greatest book store in the world Powell's Books. Sorry Bruce, but Rediscovered Books just isn't up to Powell's Books. Imagine a city block, 3 levels and all new and used books. I was in heaven.

Last weekend was a practice run for the BBQ competition that is coming up. I did a brisket and it turned out fantastic. Super tender, Juicy and great tasting. I'm thinking of doing another one this weekend. If not Brisket then I'll do a couple of pork shoulders.

200th Post!

Here it is.. The Big event. My 200th post. Its been a slow ride since I don't post as much at KnitTech and I'm not nearly as entertaining but we've seen a lot.

Lets see

21 posts in 2006
48 posts in 2007
75 posts in 2008
and
54 posts so far in 2009.

All I can say is that I'm getting better at posting. So what is the big event. Well KnitTech always does a contest pertaining to her hobby. So I'll just steal borrow her idea.

I will be giving away either something grilled or something brewed (If the winner is under 21 it will be grilled, if over 21 then its their choice) to a randomly selected commenter on this post. The comment must be put on the blog (if you post anonymously make sure to include your name or handle in the comment). Comments made on facebook will not count on this. Winner will be announced on my first post after 31 August.

Still Kicking

The trips back to the gym are still going. I've been a good boy and kept going so thats working out well. Teaching is going great. The students and I seem to have clicked finally. Although I've had a few drop for various reasons. Thankfully none of those reasons have been 'because I can't stand the instructor'. This semester has been an interesting challenge in that I haven't taught the course in a long time and the majority of these students are electronics students and they definately think differently than IT students. I'm really enjoying the challenge (finally).

Work has proven to be interesting. I've been kinda down on how I feel about my job and it must have shown more than I thought. Needless to say I was called to task and now I'm working a lot harder. I gotta admit it was an eye opener for me. I think 2 years doing basically the same thing in RDM has finally gotten to me. Time to start looking for a new direction to try.

Saturday was OT's birthday (I think he's finally old enough to legally drink :>). His wife the Kender had everyone over and it was a really fun time. Must admit there was a lot of alcohol flowing and a partook of some. It was pointed out that I'm "a quiet" drunk. I didn't tell them that I learned the skill back in the Air Force. When one doesn't speak much they can't make a fool of themselves. A lesson that can be hard to learn. I did manage to get some blackmail pictures of OT and passed them on to K-hat at work. KnitTech was the designated driver and didn't do much more than some tasting. OT had me try one of his Cigars. That was an interesting new experience. I think I could live with having a Cigar from time to time. Doubt I'll want to go overboard and get the whole humidor route.

Dusty and Kat were also at the party. Yes, we sacrificed game night for a birthday, what is the world coming to? Kat was the designated driver in that group. Dusty partook of a lot of drinking and he is not a quiet drinker. Needless to say he fit right in. One of his early comments was "This is the first time in a long time, that I've been in a group this large and they weren't dice slingers. A few hours later another dice slinger showed up. I'm not sure if he even noticed.

August is going to be a pretty busy month. This weekend is Fandemonium. I'm going to be running a few games. "Granddaughter that isn't" did yard work to earn her trip. I'm trying to get ahold of her to verify. Called and left a message. While Fandemonium isn't a large convention its Boise only convention.

The weekend of the 15th we are going to make a trip to Vancouver. We didn't think we would make it but we decided to go for it. Current plans are to leave 4am Saturday morning. That will put us in town about noon on Saturday. Time to shoot some emails out to make some plans.

That end of the month (Okay so Labor day is actually in September) is The Eagle Rib Fest. Our team The Swine Stewards will be competing. 2nd competition of the year for me. 3rd competition for my partner. He was up in Declo last weekend for a spur of the moment competition. He said that he placed 13 out of 14 in Brisket. According to him he thinks he got that good because some was disqualified. After his great showing in the pork categories at our last competition I was afraid I might not be needed anymore. I guess I don't need to worry. I would really like to do another practice run prior to the competition but I don't know if funds and time will allow. Anyone want to sponsor a brisket?

The Big Event is the next post. I'm hoping to do it Thursday or Friday so be sure to tune in.