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...

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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...

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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...