Coop Sign and Broody Hen sitting on 4 Eggs!

My sister Siouxsie helped put the finishing touches on our chicken coop by designing and creating the sign. I hung it up last night and after proclaiming myself finally done with the coop after adding hardware cloth to the bottom, I have decided to build an addition on the back half equal in size....

The reason?

Our first chicken Churkey, who keeps going broody, wants to hatch eggs.

So, we got four fertilized Easter egger eggs (chickens that lay blue/green eggs) for her to sit on. We should have some baby chicks in 21 days...

I'm figuring that up to four more chickens pretty much demands an upgrade in living quarters, so I'm going to build the coop's mirror image to be attached to the back half.

Here's little Miss Broody McBrooderson sitting on her nest, all fluffed up and not wanting to be bothered...
Here's her clutch of Easter Egger eggs. Notice the blue-green color to the egg. If we get a few blue-green egg laying hens out of the hatch, I can finally make green eggs and ham!

Farmer Bluey!

I can just imagine my Mom's reaction when she sees this picture.

"Don't drive that tractor Bluey!, you'll get hurt...let somebody else do it"

and I'd post a follow up picture called "Look Ma!...no hands!!!!"

Anyway, I got to drive a tractor for the first time today. Tay's Dad was pretty patient with me and I got to ride this old girl around the house. Pretty soon, I'll be bush-hogging fields and then on to hay mowing, raking and baling...woo-hoo!!!!

Who'd a thought that this former New York City boy would be driving a tractor...ever! Damned, maybe I'll be giving Poppinfresh my resignation soon if the corn and soy bean prices hold up!

Then I'm sure to be the first person to take a biochemist/equities analyst/farmer career path!

I'm a trailblazer....wooooooo-hooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Trapped: The Premiere!

(excerpt from the Pittsburgh Film Office website)

Trapped - Exclusive Premiere: Sunday, August 17th

"Trapped," filmed in the fall of 2007 in and around Pittsburgh by Winter Morning Pictures, LLC., is scheduled to Premiere August 17. It stars Corbin Bernsen, Tom Atkins, and a list of exceptional local talent - Tony Bingham, Dana Hardy, Jeff Carpenter, Alexandra Cherney, Joshua Reese and more. This new noir crime drama will have you locked in your seat until the final shot.

For more details please visit http://www.wintermorningpictures.com

Finally, we get to see Gav, Hamdog and Ron's finished product. I can't contain my excitement. Where else are you going to see Bluey murdered on the big screen?

Seen Dangling Yesterday...

There was a car parked out in front of Tay's place of business with the following item dangling on the rearview mirror.

I pointed it out to Tay and she was mortified.

"Why would anyone hang such a thing where everyone could see it"

"I guess the guy just loves his penis".

Sure enough, a quick internet search yielded the item. I'm still trying to figure out the message one is trying to give to others by hanging this.

I suggested Tay get a "I ♥ My Bojingo" air freshener. She wasn't amused.

I Don't Know Why, But...

...I just can't seem to get enough of these tasty snacks!!!

Props to Poppinfresh for finding this hilarious nugget today. God knows where he finds this stuff.

I know better than to ask any questions...

2 Point Banana!!!

Tay started Weight Watchers a few weeks back. Since I am a fatty, she decided to recruit me to join her on her diet. She may live to regret the decision.

You see, Weight Watchers operates on a points system. Based on some simple information such as weight, age, sex, etc..., the diet determines the optimal amount of food points you are allowed to eat each day. Every type of food is assigned a point rating based on number of calories, fat and fiber content. Sounds simple enough, right? I am allowed 43 daily points to use as I wish.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I am a mizer. My goal was to load up as much as possible on zero point foods (such as watermelon, turnips, and a good many fruits and veggies) and be more selective on costlier foods. That was working like a charm for me. Until Day 3, when Tay gave me a banana to take to work for breakfast.

When I got home from work, Tay grilled me on what I ate for the day. I told her that I ate the banana she gave me, drank a cup of black coffee and documented my lunch. She says that the banana cost 2 points.

"What!"

"2 points, a banana is two points"

"Are you friggin kidding me?"

"No"

"Why didn't you just give me watermelon? That's 0 points"

"Bananas are healthy for you"

"Who gives a crap. I could have had unlimited watermelon for 0 points! I wouldn't have eaten the banana if I knew it was two points. You sabotaged me."

"You are being ridiculous"

"You pawned that banana off on me because you didn't want to have the extra 2 points, so you saddled me with it"

"What??! Bananas are a very healthy breakfast. Lots of people eat bananas for breakfast"

"Yeah, they're called stupid people! You sabotaged me."

"Don't be ridiculous, some people think that bananas are the perfect breakfast food"

"Yeah, they're called "monkeys"!!!"

"You're being outrageous!"

"What I'm saying is that if I have a choice between eating 3 pounds of watermelon at 0 points, NEVER give me a stupid 2 point banana. There's nothing about a banana that is so special to make it worth 2 points. I don't ever want to eat a banana again."

"You can't eat that way!"

Then I pick up the Weight Watchers book and start reading aloud all the foods I could have eaten instead of the banana.

"Christ, i could have had a lite beer instead of that banana! You sabotaged me."

"I eat bananas all the time with my breakfast cereal. They fill you up and are high in fiber!"

"Listen, if you want to pork up on bananas that's your choice. Don't try to fatten me up on bananas, okay. Christ, I should have eaten the skin too! Then maybe it would have filled me up. Then again, then you would have told me that the skin was 4 points...right?"

"No. The skin would have been zero. I can't even talk to you about this anymore!"

"You sabotaged me, admit it"

So far, I've lost almost 20 pounds on the diet, Tay about 10. But with her 10 pounds, I think she's lost a certain amount of sanity as well as I pepper her daily with my newest ideas.

"You're jealous of my points (I have 43, she has 28). How about I sell you a coupla points at $5 each?"

"Pistachio nuts (or fill in the blank) are zero points if I only eat three of them."

"What do you mean that pasta is 4 points a cup? I tell you what, I'll eat 2 cups of pasta if you give it to me for 3 points a cup."

"It doesn't work that way!!!"

"Well, then I don't want to even eat any pasta!"

"I just made this meal. You're eating it!!!"

"You're not the boss of me!!!"

...I think you get the picture. And it all started over a simple banana...

Bluey The Deadeye!

Another chicken predator bites the dust along with her pouchful of babies!

Guess what tay tay is making for dinner?

Possum Pie!!!

Yummy!

Bagged this possum last night and gave her a proper burial early this morning.

I was tempted to hang her body on the "Churkey Loft" with a sign around her neck, "This is what happens to assassins around here", as a deterrent to other chicken eating preds.

Holiday Weekend Visitors!

This past weekend, Tay was able to capture a picture of the mother turkey and her 12 babies that have been frequenting our "Churkey Loft" coop over the past week or so.

She has been making a daily stop for some chicken feed before moving on with her peeps in tow.

It is truly amazing to see one hen care for so many baby birds, who fly up in the trees at the slightest strange sound. I think "Mother of the Year" honors may be in the cards if she raises them all to adulthood given the multitude of predators.

Come November, we might just have a hotspot for Thanksgiving dinner!

Milkshakes, Anyone?

Damn. The Detroit Red Wing fans are really piling on the Penguin fans after the Hossa signing on the ESPN message boards. My favorite one came from a poster called "Clementd":

DRAINAGE PITTSBURGH, DRAAAAAINAGE!

IF PITTSBURGH HAS A MILKSHAKE. AND DETROIT HAS A MILSHAKE. AND DETROIT HAS A STRAW. AND IF DETROIT'S STRAW REACHES ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL THE WAY OVER AND STARTS TO DRINK PITTSBURGHS MILSHAKE.

WE DRINK YOUR MILSHAKE!

WE DRINK IT UP!

Damn, that's cold.

Help, My Local Sportswriter Is An Asshole!

I know Pittsburgh fans can empathize with me. You guys have one Mr. Bob (the clown) Smizik.

If you are a New York Ranger fan, your nemesis is Larry Brooks, the know nothing, smug, know-it-all extraordinaire.

His recipe for fixing the Rangers for 2008? Sign Mats Sundin, sign Sean Avery for more than 4M a year, same with Brooks Orpik, who is a defensive defenseman who can't even clear his own net and Jaromir Jagr.

After calling for Sather's firing for years, Sather finally gets it. Shore up the defense and let the kids play. With yesterday's Columbus trade (which was pure genius given that fellow Russian rookies are on the way), Sather dumped a horrible Backman contract (which was worth it just by itself) and also included the Rangers most pricey young defenseman (Tyutin, 23 points I think last year) and acquired a 23 year old dynamic scorer in Zherdev and a 4th line center. Of course he overpaid by 2M on Redden, but the money he save on Backman's extra years makes it hurt a lot less. Now the defense will be top notch in the league (I think it will rival Detroit) and the youngin's will be allowed to fly on offense.

So far a solid plan by Sather to make the Rangers younger and more difficult to defend/score on.

Is Larry Brooks happy? No, he's all sour grapes and posts an article today entitled "Blueshirts Keep Failing To Score" in which he laments sather's ability to sign Sundin, Jagr, Avery, and Orpik as if those guys are some sort of magic tonic for the team.

Larry Brooks is a shriv. Didn't he watch the Rangers miss the playoffs all those years as they chased aging superstars each year in attempt to brew a cup champ? Ten long years proved that it just doesn't work that way.

Get the homegrown talent in place, build through the draft, make a few trades and when the team gels, then sprinkle in a few free agents. Does it really take a rocket scientist to figure that out? Even the retards at the Hockey News know that (and Larry is a contributor to that rag).

Anyway, I hope to God Larry retires and gives us a sportsbeat writer with a lot more knowledge and insight on hockey. You can tell that Larry is just mailing it in and collecting his paychecks. He writes controversial opinions when it suits his grand purpose (of getting people to listen to an aging sportswriter who's best years are long gone).

Please retire, you jackass. Or at least have the NY Post replace your online Ranger tripe with another one of New York's finest sportswriters. Hell, at this point, I'd be happier with an AP wire story.

Hossa Pisses On The Penguins!

1 Year contract, 7.45M deal with the Stanley Cup winning rival Detroit Red Wings.

Damn, that's cold...

Marian Hossa has pretty much told the Pens that they are not an organization that he would like to play for and that they have virtually no chance of winning the Stanley Cup in the near future.

He has foregone any long term security and similar money.

That is extremely rare in the sport. That not only says that I want desperately to win the Cup but it also speaks to an unexpressed opinion that there is something about the Pens franchise that Hossa thinks will keep the Pens from winning the cup over the next 5 years (the duration, I think the Pens offered).

Is it the coach, the management...Crosby the diver??? Did Malkin screw Hossa's wife? Who knows? One thing I do know is that we won't hear anything from Hossa's mouth about it. But, it has to be something big.

If I'm a Penguins fan, I am pissed off and feel pissed on.

What Hossa did speaks volumes for where he thinks the Pittsburgh franchise is going...ouch! I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Hossa will receive 10 times worse treatment than Jagr ever received in his post-Pens career.

Why They'll Be Eating Sand Sometime In The Future!

What a bunch of dumbasses. First a diamond encrusted car, now something so incredibly stupid, it is almost impossible to believe. For years I've been saying that it would probably make sense for the Middle East nations to use it's vast oil riches to buy topsoil, so that when their oil runs out, they'll at least be able to raise crops to feed the masses. Stories like this make me believe that they're going to all starve in the future. From today's Wall Street Journal:

Read My License Plate: It Cost Me a Fortune
Oil-Rich Persian Gulf Drivers Take Vanity Tags to a Whole New Level
By MARGARET COKER July 1, 2008; Page A1

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- With oil near record highs, the Persian Gulf is awash in cash, stimulating a return to some very conspicuous consumption. Ferrari S.p.A. says sales in the Middle East leapt 32% last year. BMW Group's Rolls-Royce Motor Cars says the UAE, a country with a population of just 4.6 million, is now one of its top five global markets. All those expensive cars clogging the roads have given rise to another must-have status symbol: a prestigious license-plate number. Managing Director Abdullah Al-Mannaei displays license plate number '1,' which sold for $14 million. "Everyone has a nice watch, a nice car," says Abdullah Al-Mannaei, organizer of the city government's monthly auction of desirable numbers. "It's not enough to just have a Ferrari anymore." Hundreds of men in starched robes descend on an opulent hotel here to vie for the most distinguished digits. Earlier this year, Abu Dhabi businessman Saeed Khouri made headlines and the Guinness Book of World Records when he paid $14 million for the tag simply sporting a "1." (The auction can be viewed on YouTube.) His cousin, stockbroker Talal Khouri, paid $9 million for "5" -- the second-largest sum ever paid for a license plate. Abu Dhabi is hardly the first boomtown to be swept up in luxury license plates. Hong Kong has had a thriving auction for years, while high-rolling Russian executives have gone to great lengths to secure custom tags. While Emiratis have informally traded license plates for years, auctions are a new phenomenon for the UAE, which last year boasted 79,000 people with net assets above $1 million, excluding their primary residence, according to the Capgemini/Merrill Lynch world wealth report. That's up 14% from the year prior. Like Abu Dhabi, the neighboring state of Dubai started its own auction a year ago. Bahrain is planning to start one later this summer. Mr. Al-Mannaei, organizer of the Abu Dhabi auction, is negotiating for another with officials in Egypt -- which may not have much oil itself, but is riding a regionwide investment boom. Abu Dhabi is the undisputed capital of the craze. Although the place is sleepier and more conservative than glitzy Dubai, 75 miles away, Abu Dhabi's small business community is far wealthier, thanks to the city's status as one of the world's largest oil producers. Plus, as the nation's capital, Abu Dhabi has first dibs on the choicest license-plate digits.

The title link will give you the rest of the story. I couldn't possibly read another word of this nonsense.