Christmas Festivities and Such...

Thursday I was invited to my best friend "Jul's" house for their family Christmas dinner get-together. It was very nice of them to include me in with their family. They had an unusual Christmas Eve afternoon dinner and present opening. Since both her and her husband's children (from previous marriages) are pretty much grown up, with some moved out, they had many family dinners to contend with, which prompted the afternoon dinner. I've known "Jul" since we were 15, and to tell you the truth, cooking has never been one of her strong points (she'll admit that). Still she put on a pretty good spread with a nice holiday ham, though I did have to give her a hard time, telling her "I half expected fish sticks". I love her dearly.

I went and had Christmas dinner today at my first ex-wife's house with my son, and it was very nice. It's really a good thing that her and I can manage to get along so well, even after the divorce.

I think she liked the gift I bought her because she laughed when she opened it. I always bought her traditional gifts every year, along with the other stuff I bought for her, and every year she would get a large sampler pack of a particular brand of candy. I ran across it when I was out shopping and wondered if she would remember. I told her before she opened it "she would probably recognize it". I think she liked it.

My son did insist on picking me up off of the ground again, though I was a little worried that he would hurt his back, he did manage get me up in the air a little bit. This is no easy task as I am around... ahem... 220 pounds or so (it's been awhile since I weighed myself, ok)... He has his learners permit now and I got to ride with him to the store for the first time. We went in his mother's standard, and though it got a little "wonky" going around one corner shifting into second, he still did a very fine job. It amazes me how fast he's grown up and turned into a fine young man.

Yes, all in all, a very nice Christmas indeed...

***********************************************************

And yet another stolen meme, this time from Kimber's Blog...I'm feeling more and more like "the Grinch" all the time...hehehe...

1. Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog? Egg Nog, Egg Nog, and more Egg Nog.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Always Wrapped.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored Lights.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually Thanksgiving weekend.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? The Green bean Mushroom Soup Casserole with the onion thingy's (that's what they call it right?)

7. Favorite Holiday memory? One year (as a teenager) I opened the door to my bedroom in the morning and my mother had "saran wrapped" me into my room. The next year she used wrapping paper that had a brick pattern on it to "brick" me into my room. Of course at that age I didn't really care much about Christmas, preferring to sleep in until noon instead, but she got a kick out of it.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? To tell you the truth, I can't really remember, but then again that was some time ago.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Most years' one gift was allowed.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I always liked the hodge-podge look with all different kinds of decorations.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I wouldn't say I love it, but some for Christmas would be nice.

12. Can you ice skate? Oh yes, I used to love playing hockey on the local ponds, but I couldn't play defenseman because I could never manage to learn to skate backwards.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Probably the Bowie Knife my father got for me.

14. What's the most important thing? Family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin Pie with lots of cool whip.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Our non-traditional, traditional Christmas dinner...Steak and Shrimp.

17. What tops your tree? A star that belonged to my father.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Ok, I'll admit it, I love opening presents.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? "We Three Kings", I always enjoyed hitting the bass notes on that one.

20. Candy canes, Yuck or Yum? Yuck, I've never been much of a candy person.

Christmas Wish List...

On this Christmas morning I have a few Christmas wishes for my Blogger Friends. These are wishes that I could not possible make come true, But I will wish for them just the same...

Spider Girl - For her I wish a Magic Carpet that will take her off to all the exotic lands she desires to see.

Tai - That she may sprout wings so she can fly and never come down.

Wolfgirl - The only thing any mother really wants, health and happiness for little Zoe.

Tenacious T - Finally finds her perfect place in this world.

Liz - Hawaii elects her empress of the islands where she may spend the rest of her days on her thrown being served avocados on silver trays by buff Hawaiian men.

Claire - Finds that which she seeks.

Hope - She finds her muse again.

Pobble - smiles, smiles and more smiles.

Enid - The cure for Sarah.

Gnightgirl - The military, in its infinite wisdom, decides her son's platoon should go protect Greenland instead.

Lynda - The cure she seeks.

Spider Walk - Finds the path through her troubling times.

Andyt - Always finds the next day easier than the last.

And for everyone else I hope this Christmas brings you your fondest desire...

A Christmas Meme...

In the spirit of Christmas I stole this Christmas meme from Lynda's site, I hope you enjoy it...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I'm definitely a bag person, so to speak.

2. Real tree or artificial? I have an artificial tree that I bought about twenty years ago. It was a really nice one and very expensive at the time. All the limbs are hand wrapped so it doesn't look like a bottlebrush type tree. It turned out to be a very good investment, I don't think I'll ever have to buy another tree.

3. When do you put up the tree? I didn't get it down out of the attic this year, but normally it goes up Thanksgiving weekend.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually the weekend after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? My son and I are both egg-nog-aholics. A long time ago I used to have a really good recipe for making it from scratch and would make it all year long.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A hardbound copy of "My side of the Mountain".

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No, not really.

8. Hardest person to buy for? I never have any problems coming up with gifts for anyone.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Me.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? E-Mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Sweaters, people buy me sweaters though they have never seen me wear one, I don't know why.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? "The Grinch who stole Christmas" (the old animated version).

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I always thought the 23rd wasn't too early to start.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Never.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Busted...I made a whole tray of deviled eggs today just for myself...hehehe.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" which my friend "N" and I would always sing at Karaoke around this time. During the entire song we would keep trying to crack each other up.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. To me Christmas is all about being home.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Yea, all I have to do is sing the song.

20. Angel on the treetop or a star? A star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Lines in stores.

23. What would you like for Christmas? Would the Penguins making the playoffs be too much to ask?

A Little Christmas...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!...

Yes this is my Christmas tree...Sort of a Bonsai Christmas Tree with a little bit of Charlie Brown thrown in for a good measure... Certainly not ostentatious by any means, instead delicate and understated just the way I like it...Ok, Ok, so I didn't go to town on decorating, so shoot me...No, I didn't get up to the attic to get my tree out, and it's not like you can really overload a little Bonsai tree like this with ornaments anyways, but at least it got the ornament on it that was most important...

I did want to wish all my friends a Very Merry Christmas and I truly hope you receive all that you could ever ask for this Christmas...

Peace
Dagoth

Man vs. Wild

Have I mentioned before that I am somewhat of a survivalist? Being such, I enjoy watching all things having to do with the subject. Lately I have been watching a show on the Discovery Channel called "Man vs. Wild" that I really felt had to be mentioned. I know this kind of show isn't for everyone but if you are going anywhere near the wilderness there are some things about basic survival you should learn first.

A young British fellow, by the name of "Bear Grylls" (yes that's Bear), hosts this show, and puts himself out in different locals, where people may get stranded, and then tries to survive and escape the area.

He's definitely not the first person to do a show like this but I've found his show to be much more interesting than some others I have seen. At first I thought he was nothing more than a thrill seeker (he may still be that) but after watching half a dozen shows or so, I've come to the conclusion that he's really willing to "take it to the edge", and his survival techniques are sound, though at times quite extreme. Surviving in the wild often requires that you do some extreme things.

In last nights show he parachuted (he usually parachutes into the area he is going to survive in) into the African Savannah and worked at surviving the native wildlife while trying to find his way out. During the show he came across a zebra carcass that had been killed by lions and fed on by vultures. I was quite impressed when he proceeded to cut and eat raw meat off of the carcass with his knife and sometimes tearing at it with his teeth. In another part of the show he passes up drinking water from a stagnant pool where he finds a dead turtle, deeming that the water was unfit to drink, but later finds some elephant dung that he then squeezes the "fluid" out of, into his mouth, and drinks that. From my point of view the stagnant water seemed much more appealing. Yes this show can get quite gross at times, but I'm still very impressed at the lengths he's willing to go to, not only to survive, but also to make a television documentary.

Many people get lost in the wilderness each year with very little to survive on, and almost no knowledge of what they need to do to survive. This show, though at times gross, gives a lot of good information on just what you should do if you find yourself in just such a situation. So far I have seen "Bear" survive in the Moab Dessert,Sierra Nevada Mt. Range, Costa Rican Rain Forest, Mt. Kilauea Lava Fields, European Alps and African Savannah all of which are places where people get lost in every year and don't survive. The outcome, for these people, could have been different had they just a little bit of training on survival in the area they were venturing into. Most of these techniques have been handed down through the generations from our distant ancestors who used them in every day life in order to survive and allow our society to rise to the level it has. The vast majority of people in our society could not survive without their grocery stores and taxi cabs, yet they still go on vacations, and get lost, in these areas wholly unprepared for what can await them.

"Man vs. Wild" airs on the Discovery Channel on Friday nights at 9:00 pm EST (and also some other times). They also have a very good Website that has survival techniques, videos and lots of other information about surviving in the wilderness. The website also includes many video highlights from the show and information and videos from other survival experts such as "Les Stroud" ("Survivorman", one of my other favorite shows) and "Ross Mcfaden". You can find out more about "Bear Grylls" at his Website, which includes information about some of the other adventures he's filled his life with. He has lived a very interesting life for such a young man, which includes climbing Mt. Everest at 23, being in the British Special Forces, going through the French Foreign Legion Basic Training ("Escape to the Legion" documentary on the Military Channel which is how I discovered him) and being a Black Belt.

Next weeks show he is in an Alaskan Mountain Range and being confronted with having to cross a glacier, he chooses to go "under" it! I think I may just be able to tune in to see that...

Spreading some Christmas Cheer...

I was always disapointed at Christmas, every year I only asked Santa for one thing and he never came through. All I wanted was his "Naughty Girls List", but you think he would give it to me... nooooo... what did he need it for after Christmas anyways...

I always figured he was the guy to go to since he was always walking around saying, "Hoe. Hoe. Hoe!"...

Which brings me to a naughty Christmas joke for you...

Santa was visiting Jessica Simpson's house one Christmas eve when Jessica came into the living room in her nighty. Removing it she said in a very sexy voice, "Santa won't you please stay the night".

To which Santa replied, "Ho, Ho, Ho, gotta go".

So Jessica removed her bra and said again, "Santa won't you please stay the night."

Santa once again said, "Ho, Ho, Ho, gotta go!"

Finally Jessica removed her panties and desperately said, "Santa won't you please stay the night!"

Santa seeing her stark naked replied, "Hey, Hey, Hey, gotta stay, can't get up the chimney with my pecker this way"....

Here's hoping Christmas brings you lots of smiles...

Don't read this post before operating machinery...

Since this post is about everything you never wanted to know about heating your home with a pellet stove, I suggest you read this just before going to bed, as it may help you to get to sleep.

Well today is going to be pellet stove cleaning day. In some of my previous posts I've mentioned that I heat my home with a pellet stove and though this does save me money, it also comes with a price to be paid. Regular cleaning of the stove is necessary in order to keep it running well,and depending on how well it's running, determines how often you have to clean it, kind of a "pellet stove paradox" (making a mundane thing sound important).

Pellet stoves run on pellets made of compressed sawdust. This sawdust is a byproduct of the wood industry, and there was a time before pellet stoves, when they would have to dispose of the sawdust, but now it can be used to heat your home. Being that I am a tree hugger, and not a big fan of the wood industry, you might think this odd that I would heat my home in such a manor, but I figure if you are going to cut down the tree anyways, you might as well use all of it.

These pellets look like nothing more than rabbit food. They come on a skid of fifty, forty-pound bags (one ton) and do require a little work moving the bags around depending on the set-up you have. The skids of pellets come with a giant black "garbage bag" over them and are then wrapped in plastic wrap to keep them dry. As long as the bag and plastic wrap are intact, they can sit outside in the elements and not get wet. After I remove the wrapping on a skid, I move the bags up onto my covered porch to keep them dry. If the pellets get wet they will expand and be ruined. It's not as bad as it sounds, moving a ton of pellets, I can do it in about twenty minutes, which is the other job I have to do today.

The place where I buy them delivers them with a large flatbed truck that has a forklift hooked on the back. This forklift is lowered to the ground and the driver will put the skids of pellets anywhere you want them. It's an unusual forklift in that it is three wheeled and the wheels are more like big "mudder" tires with tractor tire treads, this allows the forklift to drive through just about anything, so they can even be delivered in the winter and not tear up your lawn too much.

My pellet stove has a large hopper in the back that will hold about three bags of pellets. It feeds the pellets down into a burn-pot where the pellets are ignited and burned. The burnt ash is then blown out of the burn-pot by the air coming in through the air intake pipe that comes in through the back of the stove and hooks into the burn-pot holder. The burn-pot has little holes in it that allow the air to blow through, expelling the burned ash, which then falls down into a removable ash pan. This ash pan has a gap around it where the soot and smoke are sucked through and the exhaust then flows through a damper, past an exhaust fan, and vents out through a pipe that goes out through my exterior wall (yawning yet?)

The stove is about seven years old and doesn't run as well as it used to. I had to replace the seals around the door and the exhaust fan this year. These stoves are much more finicky than wood burning stoves in that there cannot be any air leaks around any of the openings in the stove. If there is, the stove will suck in air through the leaks and not through the intake pipe, which will stop the ash from blowing out of the burn-pot, and the pellets will start backing up out of the pot and the whole thing just stops burning correctly. Also if there is an air leak around the exhaust blower, the soot will "stay" in the stove, turning everything black and clogging up the exhaust.

I have to clean out the ash anywhere from three days, if it's not burning right, to a month, if it is burning well, but I haven't had it last a month since it was new. Right now it has been burning for about two weeks, the ash pan is full and the ash is filling up the bottom of the burn chamber and creeping up the side of the burn-pot holder. I have had it fill up with ash to the point where it's right up to the edge of the burn-pot, but I don't like to let it go that long (eyes getting heavy yet?)

I found out last year that the stove I was sold is defective. While talking to the owner of the store where I bought it (he has the same stove in his home) that there were supposed to be "tracks" in the bottom of the stove that the ash pan slides into, but my stove was apparently built without them. These tracks hold the ash pan up off of the bottom plate allowing the soot to vent out around the pan. The only reason my stove ran at all, was there is a weld seam near the ash pan and there is some weld slag (drops of weld) on the bottom plate that the pan sits on, holding it up just enough to let the soot out. Over time these weld droplets have worn off so the ash pan is sitting directly on the plate and there is no gap for the soot to get out. The company I bought the stove from wouldn't do anything about it since the stove is so old and out of warranty, so I fixed it by jamming two washers under the pan to hold it up and allow the exhaust to vent out.

Cleaning involves shutting the stove down and sucking all the ash and soot out of the stove with a shop-vac and also cleaning out the exhaust pipe with a brush on a long pole (just like a chimney sweep, but it's only 4 feet long). There is also some hard carbon build up on the burn-pot that I have to bust off with a hammer and chisel because this build up starts to close off the holes in the burn pot that allows the air in. This can be a very messy job but it isn't as bad as cleaning a wood burning stove, or so I'm told. It takes about two hours to clean everything after you let the stove cool down for an hour.

With the extra work involved and the mess, pellet stoves aren't for everyone. I don't mind the work involved with one of these, and they certainly aren't as convenient as heating with gas. I burn about 5 tons during the worst winters and less if it's not as cold. I had 1 ton left over from last year and bought 4 more tons for this year at $230 a ton (you can get them cheaper if you buy in the spring), with delivery it cost me $1018 (you can also save money if you have a truck and go get them yourself). I know heating this house with gas would cost a lot more, as I have had months like January when the gas bill ran upwards of $400 by itself. The price of pellets has gone up a lot since I bought the stove. When the price of natural gas went up, a lot of people put in pellet stoves, creating a shortage of pellets and driving the price up. I like knowing that my heating bills for the winter are already paid in advance and there are no big surprise gas bills to deal with.

One of the big drawbacks with heating this way is that the heat is not even throughout the house, with it being very hot in the room with the stove, and cooler in the rooms that are farther away from the stove. I do love being able to sit in front of the fire on those cold winter mornings, drinking my coffee, and it's great to stand in front of the stove and warm up after you come in out of the cold. I have a rocking chair in front of the stove, and the heat, and the "hum" that the stove makes, can put you to sleep very quickly, just like this post has done for you....

Return of the Zombies...

I've spent most of the day just playing with my blog (they said I'd go blind if I did that, but I'm ok, I did it just until I needed glasses). I updated my template to the new blogger layout. Even though it looks like the old template, it has all the new blogger features, which I have been messing around with.

I found some new ones for changing fonts and colors in different parts of the template, so you might notice this looks a little different than it did before, even if it looks the same.

It didn't seem to like the old code for my Flickr Badge or my Frappr Map so I went to their sites and got new code and they seem to be working fine.

It also has a gui for putting your links into your side bar, but it puts the first one you put in at the bottom of the list, which is kinda backwards from how I think it should work. It will allow you to order them in alphabetical order or in reverse alphabetical order with the flick of a switch, which is nice for people who like to order their links.

I really wish they would add some more fonts even though a font only works if the person viewing the page has the font stored in their computer. You would think we could manage more than eight...

***********************************************

I stole this meme from Tai's Blog a while back and said I would do it, but it sort of got lost in time. So there, now I've done it, even if it is a little late...

1. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up? Gary Bettman the NHL commissioner. I never forgave him for changing the division and conference names. "Because us hockey fans are just too ignorant to remember those old complicated names"...

2. You can flip a switch that will wipe any band or musical artist out of existence. Which one will it be? Michael Jackson..."nuff said!"...

3. Who would you really like to just punch in the face? Ok, so I'm not much about hitting girls, but that girl on the timeshares commercial with the facial expressions, just to stop her face from doing that...

4. What is your favorite cheese? Muenster.

5. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your immediate disposal. What kind will you make? Any sandwich as long as the bread is absolutely fresh and soft.

6. You have the opportunity to sleep with the movie celebrity of your choice. We are talking no-strings-attached sex and it can only happen once. Who is the lucky celebrity of your choice? Celebrities have never really done much for me, they just seem like people doing a job. I suppose if I have to pick one it would probably be Jeri Ryan...

7. You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who do you pick? Lorrie Morgan...

8. Now that you've slept with two different people in a row, you seem to be having an excellent day because you just came across a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk. Holy shit, a hundred bucks! How are you gonna spend it? I'd probably add it to what I'm spending on my son for Christmas...

9. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go? With winter setting in Fiji sounds good right about now...

10. Upon arrival to the aforementioned location, you get off the plane and discover another hundred-dollar bill. Shit! Now that you are in the new location, what are you gonna do? In Fiji I'd spend it on an outrigger canoe and fishing nets so I wouldn't have to come back...

11. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. It is...? This would probably be better if I actually drank...

12. Rufus appears out of nowhere with a time-traveling phone booth. You can go anytime in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you get there? April 19, 2004 and take a little car ride.

13. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place? Everyone goes nekkid!...

14. You have been given the opportunity to create the half-hour TV show of your own design. What is it called and what's the premise? Can't think of a thing.

15. What is your favorite curse word? Pecker head...

16. One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren't really doing anything, they're just standing around your bed. What do you do? As if this hasn't happened before, I invite them back to bed. What does it matter if they had children before anyways?...

17. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don't worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely.So what's the item? My little calendar thingy with the feet that my son gave me...

18. The Angel of Death has descended upon you. Fortunately, the Angel of Death is pretty cool and in a good mood, and it offers you a half-hour to do whatever you want before you bite it. Whatcha gonna do in that half-hour? Go buy a gun and shoot the angel of death...

19. You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What's it gonna be? I'm able to communicate with all the wild animals and I lead them in a revolt to destroy the humans that are wrecking the planet...

20. You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again? Snuggling in bed with "J"...

21. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? (the answer "nothing" doesn't count) If I have to answer this then you haven't been reading my blog...

22. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit... you can move to anywhere else in the world! Bitchin'! What country are you going to live in now? Fiji would be nice, but I already mentioned that...

23. This question still counts, even for those of you who are under age. Check it out. You have been eternally banned from every single bar in the world except for ONE. Which one is it gonna be? Since I don't go to bars this one is easy. I pick my ex-bar since I wouldn't go there anyways...

24. Hopefully you didn't mention this in the super-powers question.... If you did, then we'll just expand on that. Check it out... Suddenly, you have gained the ability to FLOAT!!! Whose house are you going to float to first, and be like "Dude, check it out... I can FLOAT!"?. The Dalai Lamas house just to show him I could...

25. The constant absorption of magical moonbeams mixed with the radioactive vegetables you consumed earlier has given you the ability to resurrect the dead famous-person of your choice. So which celebrity will you bring back to life? Carl Sagan...

26. The Celestial Gates of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn't think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person, etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back? See answer #21...

27. What's your theme song? "Whipping Post" The Allman Brothers Band...

Leftovers

Well Turkey Day has come and gone and now the only thing left to do is eat the leftovers.

As it turns out, I didn't have my T-day feast all to myself, as I stated in my last post. All last week a fellow that I work with kept claiming that "he and his wife would be over Thanksgiving day to share in my feast", I thought he was just joking. So wasn't I surprised when there was a knock at my back door, Thursday, just as I sat down with my first plate. I had jokingly told him "the turkey would be done around 1:00 and the could show up any time around there." I really never thought they would actually show up though.

He and I have worked together a long time and are always joking around, so I really never took him seriously. Fortunately I made enough food to feed an army so there wasn't any problem there, and all the food turned out good, in my opinion, so all went well. He said that "since I had ran a restaurant before, I had better be able to cook" and though this is a little different than cooking bar food, it's well within my capabilities. I grew up on a farm, with a mother who worked full time, so I learned early on the art of cooking, which has always been something I have really enjoyed. I can remember my brother and I going out and collecting blackberries and creating blackberry pies with them, or going fishing in the morning and returning to cook them up for our lunch. Often making breakfast meant going out and collecting the eggs from the chickens first, so I learned my way around a kitchen at a very young age. Unfortunately many men never learn how to cook, and my friend is no exception, claiming that "he would starve if not for his wife feeding him", of which I have no doubt.

It was very nice to have some company for dinner for a change, and of course not wanting to come empty handed they brought me a Pomegranate. Now this may seem like a strange thing to bring, but during our many conversations I believe that I mentioned that I had never tried one before, so now I guess I am going to have to try this thing before I go back to work because I'm sure he will ask how I liked it.

So if you ask me what I'm thankful for on this holiday weekend, it would have to be "friends that don't let you eat alone." Though had I really believed that they were coming I would have made more biscuits and started the pumpkin pie sooner...

Celebrations of Life...

Hey You...

I want to thank everyone for their heartfelt sentiments and support for my last post, and to let everyone know that I'm doing ok. I really dreaded that day coming again this year, as last year was so very, very bad. This year I did handle it better, having learned to distract myself and "stay out of my own head", which seems to be the best way for me to "keep my balance" these days. I did take flowers (carnations, her favorite) and place them at the cross, out at the crash site on Sunday, but I didn't stay long, as that place is still very hard for me to cope with. I know she understands. Time seems to be "doing its thing" for me, even though I still think this has been going on for far too long. I don't know if I'll ever be totally over it...

I want to wish everyone a very happy "Turkey Day." Even though Halloween is my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving comes in a close second. You have to admit if there were a holiday made just for guys, Thanksgiving would be it. First you stuff yourself with massive quantities of food, then you snooze on the couch, drinking beers (not me though) and watching football games (of which they've added a third one this year). What could be more in tune with any mans expectations of a perfect day. I believe they added "Black Friday" just to make it up to the womenfolk for all the work they do on Thanksgiving while the men are absorbed with their debaucheries. I went to the store on Saturday and picked out my bird and all the trimmings to go along with it. I only got a small 13.5-pound turkey as I am cooking this massive feast just for me. I was looking for garlic oil to baste the bird in, but the only thing I found was garlic and basil oil, and since I'm not a huge fan of basil, I blew it off. This idea of using garlic oil was something my best friend "Jul" suggested and it sounded pretty good, but since I live in a small town and our grocery store has somewhat limited selections, it was not to be. I guess I'll go back to my tried and true methods for my turkey and look elsewhere for the garlic oil for next year. I also picked up Sweet potatoes, green beans (for the casserole) and a pumpkin pie. The only thing I forgot was the bread for left over turkey sandwiches, which is the real reason for cooking all this food in the first place...

I'm going out to see my son tomorrow, as it is his 17th birthday. My ex, "T1", has invited me over for dinner like she did last year. She has a funny way of inviting you for dinner. When I talked to her on the phone she said, "are you coming over for dinner", to which I said, "Yes, cook for me woman!" It wasn't like I was going to just invite myself over for dinner. It appears that my son is all grown up now, this year for his birthday all he wants is "cash". I think the first time they ask for that you know they have changed...

Miss You...

J.A.S. 1/30/69 - 11/19/04

"I Never would have opened up but you seem so real to me"...
"I don't have to pretend"...
"I believe this is heaven to me, to no one else but me and I'll defend it long as I can"...
"But I love the way you smile at me. I love the way your hands reach out and hold me near"...

I Love You and miss you always.

Blogger Beta Revealed

Up until now there has been one very large issue with switching over to Blogger Beta. We were not able to post a comment on an old blogger site with our new Blogger Beta ID and password. I've discovered that we can though; there is just a little trick to it.

If you go to an old blogger site and try to post a comment by putting your new Blogger Beta ID and password directly into the comment section, it won't work, giving you an error saying your ID is not recognized. The old blogger comment section won't take your new Beta ID and password, but if you go and log into your Blogger Beta dashboard with your new ID and then go to someone's old blogger site, when you go to leave a comment, it will post it without even asking for your ID and password. The idea is to be logged into the server first, then go to people's sites and comment.

I am very close to the point where I am going to blow off the Old Blogger site and just start using my Blogger Beta site. This last week with all the problems the Old Blogger servers had, has pretty much convinced me. While the Old Blogger was down quite often, the new Blogger Beta, on it's new servers, was chugging right along with no problems (in fact right now the Blogger Beta let me post this while the Old Blogger won't even let me log in). I'm not saying that there are no problems left with Blogger Beta, there are still is some issues with mobile blogging, team blogging, and if you need a dashboard in any language other than English, French, Italian, German or Spanish, but most the other bugs seem to have been worked out.

The new Blogger Beta does have some nice new features like being able to categorize your posts by adding "Labels". The new templates (though there are only about 8 of them that look like the old ones) have a nice GUI feature for adding sections to your sidebar easily. My Blogger Beta site, Dagoth's Domain, is an old template and does not have this feature but my Blogger Beta Site, Dagoth's Board Room, is one of the new templates and does have this feature.


There may still be some problems with posting a comment on a Blogger Beta site that has its security features turned on. If you have an anti-spyware filter running, the secure site wants to put a tracking cookie on your computer before it will allow you to comment and your anti-spyware software won't allow this. The ant-spyware could be shut off temporarily, allowing you to comment, and then turned back on removing the cookie afterwards. I presently have an email out to the Blogger Support Team asking them about this issue and a few others, hopefully they will get back to me soon.

Since I have been running dual sites I haven't heard of anyone having problems posting comments (other than the issues the blogger server had the other week) on either of my sites and have had some people posting on both. Having two identical sites has caused a little confusion which is why I am thinking about ending this practice. I would really be interested in hearing what you think, is it time to switch?

Games! Did someone say games?!?

In my previous post, Household Pictorial Challenge, I showed the chessboard that I acquired down in Mexico, as one of my favorite objects. After seeing it, Blogger AndyT, who found my site through Gnightgirl (the post was her challenge), challenged me to a game of online chess. Never being one to turn down a game, and since it has been sooooo very long since I've had the opportunity to play, I accepted his challenge. So to facilitate said game, I have started a new blog, Dagoth's Board Room, where I will be posting pictures of our game and play-by-play.

Mind you, neither of us claims to be Grand Masters or anything like that. It just seems like it might be a lot of fun. I've always loved the game, though many people find it boring. I remember many games in my life, many wins and many losses, all of which were a great deal of fun. I especially remember one weekend when my father, my brother and his wife, and myself were snowed in, inside my small apartment. They came to visit just before a raging blizzard set in, and were trapped there. We entertained ourselves for three days, by having non-stop chess tournaments from morning till night. It was one of the worst blizzards that I can remember, with nothing moving outside except for snowmobiles. How better to entertain ourselves than to get two chessboards going, with winners playing winners. I couldn't begin to tell you how many games we played that weekend, but by the time the snow let up we had played so many games there was no way to tell who the overall winner was, and for that matter, it didn't seem to make much difference to any of us, anyways.

I hope you all will stop in to the new site and check out how the game is going, and don't be shy to comment. Though AndyT and I both agree that no kibitzing is allowed. I don't know how long this game will last, though we have agreed to try to make at least one move per day. As I have never played an online game before this should be quite interesting. I will be posting one picture for every two moves in order to try and save bandwidth. So I would just like to say good luck to AndyT, though I expect that any chess player would say lucks got nothing to do with it...Let the games begin!

Household Pictorial Challenge

This post was inspired by Gnightgirl's Household Pictorial Challenge wherein she asked that we would find a few items around our house that have special meaning to us and post pictures and talk about them...ya know, kinda like "show-n-tell" in school, the only subject I got straight A's in...yea yea, right...so here goes...

First of all we have the "Dragon Banner" I have had this banner for quite a few years now and I always say "Wherever this banner flies, that is my home". It has flown in more places in the last few years than I expected and whenever I move into a new place one of the first things I do is hang this banner...


This small pouch that I acquired down in Mexico contains some items that are very special to me, it has; 2 small stones, one from the ruins at Chichen Itza and one from the walled city of Talum (stones NOT from the ruins themselves), it has my two wedding rings from both my marriages (ok kinda strange), and most important the Lothlorian Broach from the Lord of the Rings that is pinned on the outside of the pouch that my girlfriend "J" gave me for my Halloween costume when I went as Legolas...


These are just a few of the dragons that I collect. I haven't quite found homes for them yet, but I will as soon as I build some of the shelves I have planned for my house...


This is my favorite chess set that we got at the flea market in Cancun. It features the Spanish Conquistadors versus the Aztecs and is really a lovely piece. It only has one problem; it's never been played on. There is something a little sad about a chess set that has never been played before but I hope to change that soon...behind it you can see my Samurai Swords which are also one of my favorite things...


This Oriental Lantern is a strange object that I have had since I was about 7 years old. I found it at an old junkyard where my friends and I would go to scavenge "good junk" when we were kids. It's an item that seems bound and determined to travel with me on my entire journey through life...


And finally this Oriental Fan that doesn't really fit into the rules of the Household Pictorial Challenge, because I just received it today. At work we have an Engineer visiting from one of our sister companies in China and he gave out presents to people in our department who have been helping train him. It's just very lovely so I thought I would include it. Now I just have to find a good place to hang it...

Halloweenage

Happy Halloween boys and girls! As you can see by the picture I finally got my Halloween decorations out. Yes, this is the extent of my Halloween decorating, two little porcelain figurines. Don't let this give you the idea that I don't like Halloween, in fact it's by far my favorite holiday and as far as I'm concerned you could get rid of all the other holidays and just make Halloween last a month. I'm just not much of a decorator, unlike some other bloggers that I could mention. So I've decided to decorate my blog with these two figurines as well and also put on my Halloween costume in my profile pic. This costume that Spidey and I call "The Dargon" has seen many Halloweens and many variations (this one is Voodoo Dargon) and will always be my favorite of all the costumes I have worn because I love and collect dragons.

It has not always been the case that I have not decorated extravagantly for Halloween. I remember a few years ago when we nailed a Blair Witch effigy to the front of the house, hit it with an inverted pentagram laser, used our karaoke equipment to blast loud scary music out the windows, used our fog machine to lay down a good ground fog, and had a fire barrel burning in the front yard. We buried my friend "N" in a pile of leaves and he would jump out every time some little goblins would come by. My stepson would come running out from behind the house revving a gas powered weed whacker (we didn't have a chainsaw), the rest of us hid behind the bushes lying in wait to give the little munchkins a good scare. The children that were brave enough to come to the door received their well-earned rewards, but you know you've done well when you see kids running past your house in terror, too afraid to stop even with the temptation of getting candy.

The only sad comment I have on Halloween is the number of children that I get here seems to be way down from what it once was. This small town that I live in has never produced the high numbers of kids that some other places that I have lived has. Last year I only got 23 children (yes, I keep track), which is a lot less than I remember coming on previous years. It's possible that the low numbers were caused by the fact that my house had been empty for nearly a year and I had moved in a mere two weeks before Halloween. I tend to think that the more likely reason for the low turn out is because my neighborhood seems to be "growing older", with most of the children I see being teenagers, too old to be as "uncool" as to dress up and go out trick-or-treating. I miss my first house that I owned that was at the other end of the county and was in a prime trick-or-treating neighborhood where the children would be bused in by the vanload and I would receive upwards of 300 children. At that place, even with the worst weather, like we had one year, with sleet, snow and rain, we received 160 kids. I will still be hopeful that this year there will be a better turnout than last year, but that's not likely to happen if the poor weather we've been having doesn't change soon.

On a different note, I want to apologize for being a.w.o.l. from bloggerland again. The last two weeks have truly been the weeks from hell. I seem to have developed a new trick, "panic attacks", that I have never experienced before, and don't think they are related to my seasonal depression, though I don't know what is causing them. One of these attacks happened while I was at work, which caused my coworkers to send me off to the hospital where I was diagnosed as having "stress induced anxiety attacks". I can't point at any one thing in my life that is more stressful than my life normally is and my best friend seems to think it's all the crap I've gone through in the last couple years finally catching up with me. These have been especially hard on me since I have always said that "I eat stress for lunch" and I have been described as "cool as a mountain lake". I haven't had one in 4 days and I hope I have seen the last of them because they really are quite annoying.

Another unfortunate incident I had the other day was I hit a deer with my van on the way to work in the morning. I was driving across the one dark, lonely road I take every morning when a vehicle coming at me blinded me from the fact that there was a small doe standing in the road. By the time I got hard on the break it was too late and I thumped the deer in the rump, breaking my passenger side headlight and bending the corner of my hood down slightly. I am the kind of person who will swerve to miss animals in the road (I warn people of this when they ride with me) because I believe that critters may not have the intelligence that we have but that they do cherish their life every bit as much as we do, maybe more. This time though with the car in the other lane, her in the road, and another deer on the side of the road, I had nowhere to swerve to. Though I gave her a pretty good smack in the ass, I hope she survived it, as I haven't seen a body along side the road where I hit her. This has been a bad year for hitting animals as denoted by the very first blog I wrote back in April.

I hope you all have a marvelous Halloween filled with goblins and I will try to make it around to everyone's blog to let them know I'm still alive. I'm sorry that this is such a long post but I am making up for two weeks absence and hope to post on a more regular basis now providing everything in my life manages to stay in control.

Declaration of War

I know the last few weeks I have been fairly absent from bloggerland, and for that I am sorry. I have no excuses for this, it's not like I have been busy doing many important things, and in fact just the opposite has been true. I have spent a lot of time surrounded by the darkness that sets in on me this time of year.

Today I have decided to fight back against the feelings that overwhelm me when the sun goes away. I am very familiar with this battle that I wage every year, and I know what needs done to combat it. Thanks goes out to Liz who reminded me of the light therapy that many people use around here to fight their seasonal depression.

Right now it's the middle of the day and I have every light in the house on, every candle lit and all the blinds open. I'm sure that I'm making the electric company happy with the extreme candlepower that my house is putting out right now. My home is putting out enough radiation to light up a small city and my electric meter is probably spinning fast enough for 5 houses, but if people say "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness" then I say "it's better to curse the darkness until it goes away and light every candle you have".

My neighbors may think I'm whacked, having all my lights on in the middle of the day, but I've never put much weight behind "worrying about what others may think of me". Right now I'm doing what is best for me, and if that means drawing more than my fair share out of the electrical grid, than "so be it". I have no more time to hide in the darkness.

Since this depression has set in, I have still been writing posts, I just haven't liked anything that I wrote. I actually have a new folder on my PC called "not posted", that after working many hours on these posts have dumped them into it. I would write for hours, and then edit and re-edit them, but in the end, decided I didn't like them and dumped them in this folder planning to try and fix them later. The problem is right now, in the frame of mind I am in, I don't like anything that I write. A couple weeks ago I would never have done this. No matter what I wrote I would post it and not much worry about whether I liked it or not. Why am I being so critical about my writing now? My friend Boston Pobble put it best when she said, "Post whatever the hell you want. We'll still read". All of my blogger friends are exceptional writers, but I have never once "judged any post that they write as critically as I judge my own", and I know they don't judge me either. I enjoy reading everything they write whether it's a story or just telling me about how their day went. So I have decided to follow my dear friend's advice and post this whether I like it or not. I'm in no mental condition right now to be judging my own writing, so if this, or anything I write is boring, please just bare with me and accept me for what I am.

I'm not making any promises. I won't say that I am going to post more often, or that my posts will be more interesting, or written better (I'm not ready to perform miracles yet). I can only say that I am trying, and I am going to try every day to "fight the good fight" and be a better blogger friend. There are so many things I still want to do with my life and none of them are getting done while I sit, swallowed up in this depression. I will take it one day at a time; do the best I can and continue to "light my candles, and curse the darkness until it goes away"...

If you are wondering about the pictures I'm including in this post, they really have little to do with what I am talking about, they are just pictures of our first snowfall this morning. Maybe that's what got me going....

Cartoons

I have been digging around in the old archives of my PC and came across some cartoons that have been in there gathering dust for years, so I thought I would share a couple of them with you. I hope you enjoy them and have a great weekend.

That time of year again

I know I've been absent from bloggerland lately but I've had some extremely important stuff that I really had to take care of (sitting in the lazy-boy watching tv). The fact of the matter is it's the time of year when my "seasonal depression" kicks in, and it seemed to knock me down this week with a vengeance. I am not complaining, my depression isn't as bad as it is for some people, but the fall and winter aren't real good times for me. This is just the time of year when everything doesn't "seem" to work out right for me. I know that everything is ok in my life (or at least no worse than normal) it just seems like it is.

I did try the drugs before but found that I didn't like them very much. I actually didn't like being happy all the time (sounds odd) because I couldn't really trust whether I was happy about something or it was the drug making me feel that way. The other thing I didn't like was the fact that there are some "side effects" that the doctor didn't warn me about, like you have to be really careful about coming off them (even for a day or two) because it can slam you into a worse depression than you had to start with. The other thing they really didn't impress upon me enough is just how bad drinking can be while you are on them (I found they made me want to drink all the time, dangerous if you work in a bar). I have found that just by stopping drinking (stopped putting "a depressant" into my body) that I have been doing much better this year than I have in previous years (maybe that's all I needed).

I spent a lot of time this morning working on a post that I almost lost when my computer had issues (my fault, I made a mistake when I was changing some settings a while back that I forgot to change back when I was done). I did manage to save the post but after working on it for many hours, I decided that I didn't like it, and deleted it. Normally, I don't think I would have been that critical about it or I would have found a way to fix it, but as I said before it's hard for me to be happy about anything right now.

I went grocery shopping and it just seemed like there was nothing I wanted to eat so instead I spent a lot of money and got very little for it. I did manage to get some good comfort foods which included a lovely cherry cheesecake (you can never go wrong with that) and also something that I discovered a few weeks ago, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, which seem to have become my latest addiction. I also bought some 'Pulos' Greek Sauce, which I've had before and is not too bad (did I mention before that I love good Greek sauce). I used to have a very good recipe for making homemade Greek sauce, but I forgot to "snag it" before I left the bar that I used to own. I did however manage to get in the line at the store behind the lady that has all the issues (good for me), who’s check won’t be approved by the machine, who has a coupon for everything if she can just find it, and has to have the manager come over so she can tell him how she’s been shopping here for years and has only had the machine refuse her check when she has tried to cash 3 checks at the store before (like she did today) and doesn’t understand why it seems to only do it when she cashes 3 checks on the same day (no I didn’t smack her in the back of the head). The nice smile and the apology of the cashier for it taking so long made everything all right.

On the way back from the grocery store I was following a large truck that had a pair of "blue balls" hanging under it. I've seen more of these lately and I would like to know how guys think that this makes their truck look cool. Are they trying to tell us that their truck has a problem or that they do? I can say that this is a "joke" that I really hope doesn't catch on any more than it already has. It rates right up there in intelligence with the "baby on board" signs (I'll try harder not to hit your vehicle) that by the way I saw one last week (don't tell me they are coming back either).

So now that I have a handle on what's going on I will try to keep up with my blogging more, and hopefully all my posts will not be depressing and just go back to the normal boring type of posts that you are all used to from me...:)

PS: Screw dinner I'm having cheesecake...

The Weed

Earlier this year when I was doing major battle with the weeds in my flowerbeds, I found this little "weed" that sort of looked different than all the others.

Now I don't have very many flowers in the flowerbeds surrounding my house, and so the weeds had pretty much taken over. I did have some baby trees that had started to grow, many of which I transplanted out into the yard this year, but not very many flowers in the beds. No one lived in my house last year so the weeds had seriously overwhelmed the entire flowerbed, and I've spent most of the summer trying to reclaim this area around my house from the weeds that had taken it over.

I do have a couple rose bushes, some daffodils and one very sad rhododendron that refuses to give up, though it's been right on the edge for several years, but finally seems to be doing a little better this year.

While I was weeding early in the spring I came across a little "weed" that didn't quite look like the rest, it certainly wasn't a grass or one of the many dandelions that predominately made up my flowerbeds. This little guy, who was about 6 inches tall, was different than anything I had found there. Thinking it may be some sort of tree I decided to spare it, just to see what it would grow into.

Every time I weeded I would see this little "weed" and would think to myself that "I really should pull it and toss it, after all it's just another weed". Something kept me from pulling it though, I don't know what it was, maybe just curiosity to see what it was. It grew straight and tall, to the point now where it's about 5 feet tall, but I still had no idea what it was (and I still don't). It wasn't ugly or anything and I still had hopes that it may be some sort of tree that I could transplant into my yard, but it's leaves didn't belong to any tree I recognized, and I'm pretty good with knowing trees.

About a week ago my little "weed", which is now a fully-grown bush, flowered for the first time and it made me glad that I chose to let it live. It blossomed with some very beautiful flowers, and looks very nice growing right where it is in the corner of my flowerbed. Now maybe one of our resident blogger gardeners might recognize what this "weed" is, but I still have no clue as to it's identity or where it came from. Though I do know that it really doesn't deserve to be called "a weed" anymore, since It's definitely shrub sized now. Weeds are defined as some plant that grows where it isn't supposed to, and this one may have started it's life as a weed, but now it's turned into a welcome addition.

It's just funny how if you give something in your life a chance to flower, to show you it's true worth. You might just find that you really had something quite spectacular all along, and you thought it was nothing more than a "weed".

Early Sunday Morning Blogging

Well it's 5 am Sunday morning and I'm sitting here blogging. When I think about it, it's kind of strange knowing that of all the Bloggers (or people) that I know, I'm probably the only one awake at this time on a Sunday morning, except for maybe some of my west coast blogger friends who may still be up partying, as it is still Saturday night for them. I've always been an early riser, and I absolutely love the early morning when it's so very quiet out, so to answer your question, no I haven't been up all night, I'm just enjoying the silence of the morning.

I haven't done much blogging this week because I've had my 9/11 sickness. What is a "9/11 sickness" you may ask? Well let me tell you. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on that fateful day. I was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, shivering. I had come down with an illness, be it flu or very bad cold, I don't know, but I had called into work, as I was definitely in no shape to go in that day. My wife, at the time, called me and told me to turn on the TV, to watch what was going on after the first plane had hit the first tower. I watched the second plane hit the second tower live. She called me back a little later and asked me to try to get a hold of her daughter who lived in Pittsburgh as there had been reports of a plane going down "in" Pittsburgh, and she was worried. I spent the next four days sitting on the couch watching the drama unfold. I probably could have gone back to work after two days, maybe three, but this was one of those times when you just couldn't pull yourself away from it. As for my 9/11 sickness, I have been sick every 9/11 since that day. It always seems to come back to remind me, and it's gotten to the point where I've given it a name. It's strange that it should come back at the same time every year. I didn't miss any work this year, so I guess I've made up for taking those extra days off 5 years ago. It has become a tradition that I will be sick on that day, a tradition that I wouldn't mind seeing come to an end.

I made my first pot of chili of the season this week. Chili is a traditional fall and winter food, meant to warm you up when the weather turns colder, and as the leaves have started to change, I felt that it wasn't to early for the first batch. Chili goes along very well with football and the end of baseball and all those other autumn traditions that we hold dear. It is one of my favorite things, to be out raking leaves, and then to come in to a large bowl of steaming hot chili, though not enough leaves have fallen for that yet, it won't be long now. I don't really have a recipe for mine as it comes out different every time, which is just the way I like it. I always felt that chili is more art form than actual cooking, and over the years mine has had many changes to it. My chili has gone "from the ridiculous to the sublime", and everything in between. I have made some that verged on inedible, where one spoonful would instantly break you out in a sweat and have you downing vast amounts of water, to others that where quite cool and mellow. I do however have one ex wife that no longer trusts my chili and will under no circumstances touch it, no matter how much I proclaim it's mildness. This batch came out quite on the mild side though it appeared to me that it wasn't. I added about a dozen whole jalapeno peppers (diced) that gave it a look like it was going to be very nasty. I was surprised that it wasn't very hot at all. I have some friends that wouldn't have liked this batch at all, since they feel that it isn't chili unless it makes your tongue run for cover. I have found that chili doesn't necessarily have to be toxic in order to be good. There is one part of my "recipe" that never changes; my bowl of chili has to be dressed up with copious amounts of cheddar cheese and sour cream. The sour cream especially helps to cool it off if that particular batch comes out too much on the toxic fire burner side.

A tragic death has occurred. My coffee maker has given up the ghost. I'm afraid it died from being overworked, and has left me drinking instant coffee all week. I have to get to the store to buy a new one today. I used to have a backup coffee maker, but I think my ex snagged it when she moved out. My backup coffee maker was a twenty-year-old Norelco, though not very pretty, never failed to function. It had been passed from family member to family member and was one of those machines that never seems to give up. Hopefully I can get to the store to get a new one today.

I finally ordered my pellets for my pellets stove yesterday. Pellets are made of compressed sawdust, a byproduct of the wood industry, which are burned in a stove specially designed for them. This is how I heat my home in the winter. This year it will cost me roughly 230$ a month to heat my house with the pellets. If I heated my house with the gas furnace, because of the size and age of my house, some months the bill would be about 400$ and maybe higher depending on the whims of the gas company. I have been a little worried this year because I would normally have had my pellets in long before this, with a few unexpected bills, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to afford them. I had one ton leftover from last year, so I ordered four more tons that should be delivered this week. I like to have five tons on hand, as this was the amount I used during a very bad winter a few years back, and consider that to be the "worst case scenario" as far as winters go around here. I pretty much burn a consistent one ton a month during the winter, and will burn gas in the very beginning and end of the winter when it costs less than 230$ a month to do so, which was the price per ton this year. When I started burning pellets about eight years ago they were 130$ a ton, but since then, with many people changing over to wood pellets, and the price of gas skyrocketing, it has driven up the price substantially. Still there is great peace of mind that comes with having your heat for the winter already paid for and knowing there won't be any big surprises from the gas company.

This Site Has "Moved"

If you are using "Blogger" go Here to use this site!

While this switch between "Blogger" and "Blogger Beta" is going on I will be posting at two sites, one with the old "Blogger" template and one with the new "Blogger Beta" template. Right now you are at my "Blogger Beta" site and should use this if you have switched over to "Blogger Beta". This seems like it may be a pain, but it is really the only way I can see of doing it. At some point you will have half the people on "Blogger" and half the people on "Blogger Beta" and it's going to cause a real mess. Eventually when everyone is switched to "Blogger Beta" (and it's going to happen) I will stop keeping the other site up to date, but for now I will be putting up identical posts on both sites (which really isn't that bad), so that my friends can "comment" on my posts, which they haven't been able to do. If you switch to "Blogger Beta" you should keep using this site. So saying "my site has moved" isn't really true, it's just acquired a "split personality"...

What Planet are you?

You Are From Mercury

You are talkative, clever, and knowledgeable - and it shows. You probably never leave home without your cell phone! You're witty, expressive, and aware of everything going on around you. You love learning, playing, and taking in all of what life has to offer. Be careful not to talk your friends' ears off, and temper your need to know everything.

What Planet Are You From?

Thanks to Wolfgrrrl! for posting this one, the only problem is I don't even own a cellphone...