Churkey's Brood: The Final Tally

Unlike Octo-Mom, Churkey knows when enough is enough! After hatching out 5 healthy chicks, Churkey buried the rest of her eggs and I finally took them away from her. We ended up with what we think is Churkey's own baby (the yellow peep), 2 Buff orpingtons (the orange buggers), 1 Easter Egger (The Perry Cox/Slagathor cross) and 1 Rhode Island Red/Easter Egger cross (Perry/Ginja or Cinnamon).

Churkey celebrated the end of her egg sitting by enjoying a nice meal with her peeps before putting them all to bed. Sleepytime!

There's a Saying...

"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and talks like a duck...it's probably a duck!"

Today's move by former PA "Republican" Arlen Specter to join the Democratic party, was merely a dog and pony show. Let's face it, the guy has been voting like a Democrat for as long as I remember.

Good riddance!

Spring Pilgrimage: Spring 2009

In attendence: Highmark, Greenhammer, Sparrow, Edicus, Meersky, Griffin/Tracer, Jeffy, Francois/Kimee, Bluey, Choder, and of course, Irish, our gracious host.

The Highlights:

Greenhammer spins sauce out of tomato juice as the naysaying mob of philistines browbeat him every step of the way. Good job for our Italian Canadian!

Highmark exclaims "Bluey's tomato water (a few years ago) was so bad, it stole the flavor from the cooked spaghetti noodles".

Edicus Rex almost singlehandedly turned a 2 hour 9 hole Sugar Hill Open into a 4 hour event with his crazy antics. We played as a sixsome and Sparrow was almost arrested on the 8th hole tee box for drinking non sanctioned beer. Bluey took the trophy by 1 stroke over Sparrow, who hit like a little girl on several shots.

The boys played Cash and Guns, Diplomacy and also had a round of Pilgrimage Jeopardy, won by Greenhammer and Bluey on the final question. Diplomacy was marred by overzealous UN inspector, Francois, who did all he could to hose Germany (Bluey). Now that we're all a go with the rules, we've gotta give that one another try.

Pens thumped the Flyers out of the playoffs and Francois took grief. With Filonius Assault missing, the NFL draft did not ruin the pilgrimage.

Most of the crew enjoyed a saturday night beach fire. While windy with spots of rain, the weekend held 70 through all three days.

Griffin cooked some kickass burgers while meersky complained about the hotdogs containing chicken lips.

Greenhammer and Tracer go to the "store" and come back 3 hours later. Unspecified sources imply Greenhammer came back with an inside out shirt with the tag in front and Tracer's hair had that "slept-in" look.

Griffin and Meersky battled to the end in the stones championship, won by Meersky.

Oddly enough, there was no football, softball, or dodgeball. Age is becoming a factor.

Cornhole got some play, but I did not see any Magic played this weekend.

Edicus and Bluey finished Halo 3 from start to finish from 11pm - 7am on Friday night/Sat morning. Bluey may have slept through parts of the campaign...

Choder and Greenhammer took turns fumigating the cottage.

New deathpool names have been drawn and can be found on the pilgrimage site. I've got JimmyP and greenhammer. Not exactly high riskers there. I'm praying for Canadian national healthcare to help a brother out with Greenhammer.

We may have broken a record for laptops at the pilgrimage. No one uttered that laptops are ruining the pilgrimage but we did have a hard drive go belly up (Irish's) while Choder placed a call to Bangladesh to get it repaired.

Kimee documented Francois' white man rage where it concerns his beloved Flyers.

Guys/gals, I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff. Please feel free to add your stories.

The First Peep of Spring!

On Friday (4/24), while I was away at the Spring Pilgrimage, Tay informs me that our mother hen, Churkey, hatched her first peep of the spring. Here are the first pictures. She was sitting on 4 Buff Orp eggs, 3 EE eggs and 8 other assorted eggs from our flock. After collecting 15 eggs like an Octo-mom, I set her up in a brooder in the garage, so she could get down to business.

Update: Late Sunday night 4/26, two more Buff Orpington peeps are hatched! Pictures to follow.

Mets: For The Love of Jesus, Fire Jerry Manuel!

I was never crazy with the idea of firing Willie Randolph without also jettisoning bench coach Jerry Manuel last year. These guys are basically cut from the same cloth, good baseball guys, but lacking any sort of a pulse to inspire a team out of the funk which the Mets have resided since losing Game 7 in the NL Championship a few years back.

With the Mets sitting at a 6-8 record with no threat of going anywhere and no team demeanor change, it's time to cut the cord to the past and get us a fiery manager that is going to kick this team's ass. It's an absolute embarrassment that this team hasn't won a championship yet!

Fire Manuel!!!!!!

Miss California Sparks Furor With Gay Marriage Comments on Miss USA Telecast

I'm really beginning to love how the left is absolutely intolerant of others opinions, while demanding that their opinions be revered as gospel.

Now, it isn't possible to become Miss America unless you believe in gay marriage?

Why the hell in God's name is this even a question asked of the pageant's contestants?

With every passing day, the left is surprising me more with their eroding support of free speech and intolerance towards others.

The left is slowly becoming communist Russia.

Any dissention from their doublespeak marks you as a racist, homophobe, terrorist or retard.

Where is the ACLU on this one? Oh yeah, much like the NAACP, it is only interested in supporting liberals in this country. Neither group would piss on a conservative if they were on fire.

Here is the article at Jammer's request: Big surprise, the judge in question is gay. So, I guess there was only one real right answer to his question.

Maybe she should have said "world peace?" and left it at that!

Bluey Is A Racist Redneck Teabagger!

...and apparently a whole lot of other nasty things according to MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olberman in his interview with Janeane Garafolo.

How the NBC network can air such tripe is a testament to what a joke the network has become.

I have blocked NBC, MSNBC and CNBC from my cable system, even giving up my favorite show Scrubs in the process. It's really a small price to pay. Tay also gave up her favorite show Judge Judy in support. Bravo!

Washington, PA: TEA Party Pictures

Tay and I attended the TEA party festivities tonight and were more than happy to see many other folks also upset about our government's runaway spending. The event was hosted by Rose Somma Tennent. The gathering was exremely orderly and peaceful. Just a few hundred people interested in holding their local and national politicians to fiscal responsibility. Enjoy the pictures!

America's T.E.A. Party Today

Today, many "Taxed Enough Already" TEA party protests will happen around the country, and fittingly on tax day. We already pay 50% plus percent of our earning on taxes and with the spectre of more government spending on the horizon, it is time for us to say enough is enough.

It shouldn't matter if you're Republican or Democrat. Any hardworking individual, who has to work almost half the year to reach tax amnesty, should be up in arms.

This "cradle to grave" demand for government care from the deadbeats in our society has to end. Our own federal and state governments are bankrupting our country with outrageous and borderline criminal spending. Our government is really not running in a different path than GM. It's just got another twenty years more of rope to hang itself. We still have time to reverse this.

Wasn't the Federal government formed to serve the people and not the other way around? It's time to hold all of our politicians accountable for using their influence and our tax dollars to serve their own self interests and to make sure they are elected indefinitely.

The American budget on the horizon has the potential to turn many of our states into welfare states. If you don't think folks will be leaving tax oppressive places like California in droves soon, you're kidding yourself. I don't want that to happen to Pennsylvania.

That's why I'll be at the Washington, PA TEA party at the courthouse tonight that runs from 5-7pm.

If we don't stand up to the federal government soon, we will soon be slaves to it. You can argue that we already are... This is one issue that both parties should support!

Citi-Field: The Beginning of An Era!

I remember going to Shea Stadium when I was a kid. I always thought it was a horrible park to watch a baseball game but I had so many pleasant memories there.

Seeing Tom Seaver pitch, Dave Kingman hit and the 1986 Mets in their championship year.

I'm psyched that New York finally replaced Shea, where the upper deck seating should have come with a bungee cord. It seemed that high and far away from the field.

Citi Field seems to have embraced the cavernous design of Shea but achieved intimacy and some gorgeous sightlines. I always loved that Shea was a pitcher's park and despise short bandbox stadiums that have inflated HRs to epic proportions. Bravo to the architects and Lets Go Mets!!!!

US 3.5, Pirates 0.

I was really starting to worry about this country as the Somali pirate crisis wore on. I was glad to see Obama give the "go order" to snuff these criminals out with US Naval snipers. Had the US given these guys a dime, it would have sent a very bad signal. The pirates can talk all they want but I think they'll think twice about trying to board a ship flying a US flag again. Bravo!

Luna's One Kitten Litter?

Our cat, Luna, is defying logic and gave birth to only one kitten last night. 24 hours later and nary an addition to her litter.

At this rate, we should probably call this kitten Uno or Una.

The kitten is healthy, strong and large and tiger striped like Mom, but has nobody to cuddle with when Mom takes a sabbatical.

I'm not complaining since I can definitely handle a one kitten litter but I surmise we'll probably get an addition later tonight...

Aussie's Sweet 16

Aussie had quite a day. Even though a bomb threat at her school wiped out the birthday lunch she was supposed to share with her boyfriend, R-Dizzle, she still managed to pass her Driver's Permit Test, attend her orientation meeting for her new gym membership, and get some driving time in on the local roads.

We all went to the Union Grille for dinner to celebrate. Happy Sweet 16 Aussie! We love you!

Saving The Lazy River!

Tay and I are superheroes...

We spent the past weekend at Splash Lagoon with our four daughters. While Tay and I enjoy the slide rides sometimes, we're getting to the age where the Lazy River is more our speed. Hell, if they served pina coladas in there, it would be perfect. Ok...maybe not.

If you've ever been to a water park, you probably know the biggest problem with the Lazy River setup.

It isn't even remotely Lazy. Hell, Splash Lagoon renamed it the Lazy, Crazy River!

The Lazy River should be the one place where everyone can relax and float around and enjoy a little serenity.

But what you get is a bunch of brats with tubes around them ramming and splashing people in a mad dash to get around the "track" as fast as possible. I saw a mother with a newborn this weekend almost get upended out of the tube by a group of misfits. The kids never looked back as mommy barely caught her baby from spilling into the drink.

Of course, their idiot parents are nowhere to be found. They unleash their little terrors on the general population with little to no regard to what they are up to. Mostly boys...big surprise there and some surprisingly, just "retarded" adults.

Sure, the lifeguard whistled at them but what exactly does that do...? Absolutely nothing!

Enter Tay and Bluey.

...and we had a plan!

Our plan was to clog up the lazy river, so that the kids had nowhere to go hence frustrating them into leaving the area. Tay and Bluey got a double tube and Kitty and Bebis had singles that helped flank our position. I crouched in my side of the double, so that I could use my feet to position the raft when I wanted. I especially hugged the turns on the inside, forcing the brats to the outside.

I used the turns to turn the Lazy River into a congested freeway, which made the straight aways impossible for the upstarts to navigate. They basically ended up fighting each other to get ahead a few inches. The lifeguards did their part by whistling the kids everytime their tubes rose out of the water into the air.

Most of the time I had my feet up in view of the lifeguards as I "innocently" enjoyed a relaxing ride.

As we rode the turns, Tay would do a "Christmas Story" Santa, going "Ho...Ho...Ho" as she used her feet to gently push the offending kids' tubes at times into the exit ramp as they tried to pass on the outside. They had no idea what was happening. One kid quit in disgust after being forced into the exit pool.

One by one, we'd hear the kids say, "This is really boring, let's go do something else". Tay and I would start chuckling like lunatics as I softly sung songs about "clogging"...

After about an hour of this...something wonderful happened. The Lazy River was "brat-free"! Well, except for me and Tay, that is!

We, then floated for another hour in relative peace. We saved the Lazy River!

Although I think we had much more fun thwarting bratty kids and breaking their spirit! What, does that say about us?

For a few hours, anyway, the Lazy River was actually a lazy river!

When Does It End?

Hey, remember the recent taxpayer's AIG bailout money that had 30+B secretly flow out to Goldman Sachs and foreign banks?

Goldman received about 13B from that AIG payment to be made whole.

Goldman Sachs, now, is theoretically, paying back their TARP bailout now with AIG bailout funds?

Honestly, Is nobody paying attention?

Goldman just robbed the American taxpayer and is getting away with it with blessings from Tim Geithner. Now, Tim Geithner is trying to exercise more power over financial institutions that took bailout money.

I guess the fox (Goldman Sachs) just escaped the coop with a henhouse full of chickens (taxpayer money) with the watchdog's (the Obama administration's) blessing!

Goldman has been made whole on the taxpayer's dime and will probably escape government scrutiny and be exempt from executive pay limitations. How convenient!

If Goldman Returns Aid, Will Others? - General * US * News * Story - CNBC.com
Source: www.cnbc.com
Goldman Sachs is planning to give back its TARP money soon. Very soon, actually — ideally within the next month, according to people involved in the process.

Tay Tay's Brand New Toy: The Honda Big Red!

We've needed a utility vehicle on our 10 acre farm for awhile and Tay Tay's been begging for a John Deere Gator for almost 2 years plus. Everytime we pass a neighbor of ours, she points out the fact that they have TWO freaking John Deere gators!

The first time she did this, I said to her..."What do you need a Gator for?"

"Well, I can drive down and pick up the mail with it."

"Pick up the mail? Are you kidding me? You need an expensive utility vehicle to pick up the mail? Are you nuts? We don't need to spend that much to make sure our mail makes it into the house."

I think that kind of crushed her because she had every opportunity to extol the virtues of having a utility and unfortunately the first thing she blurts out is the 40 yard drive to our mailbox.

At that point, every time she brought it up, I quickly joked about her getting the mail with it. She got to the point where she didn't think that she'd ever get one.

Until today...I surprised her by saying that we should drop by and take a look at a utility vehicle. She suggested the Honda Big Red instead of a Gator. The strange thing about it was that I'd been researching these vehicles for months and came to the same conclusion. Plus, her whole family is a "Honda...til death do us part" type of family.

So, cut to the chase. Tay got the vehicle of her dreams today! She's out with Bebis right now tooling around the farm. God, I think this purchase just turned her into a ten year old kid today. Isn't that awesome? Here are some pics from earlier!

...But In The Process, Tay Busts Her Ass!

Who to better tell this story than Tay herself? Here is Tay's email to her cousin LiLi:

"Read Rich's blog later if you want a good laugh. You'll never believe what he just bought me. I am quite possibly the most spoiled wife. The funny part of the post will be second, I think. I'll give you a heads up...well, you'll know why after reading this

We were at the Honda shop & waiting to fill out paper work, I got tired of walking around so I went to sit on a quad on the showroom floor, I didn't straddle it but just put one foot on the foot pedal & went to sit on it backwards like a bench. I was expecting a big flat seat like our quad so I sat way back, well the seat on those racers are very thin so when I sat down, the seat was like under the bend of my leg & the end of the seat was at like the top of my thigh. It was too late, all my weight was in the sit down mode. I had no balance what so ever & I went rolling ass over tin cup backwards off the quad. It was so fucking funny but I couldn't laugh because the worst part was that on those racer quads, they have big sharp teeth as foot pedals so you dont slip so when I fell down off the other side they cut squarely into my ass. It hurt so fucking bad that I was practically crying but of course also laughing because the showroom was full of people & I knew that everyone saw me. I also cut my middle finger & broke 2 nails. After I got up & got my bearings about me, I went into the bathroom & looked in the mirror & my ass was bleeding, You can see where 3 teeth went in.

How many times did we listen to our parents saying "you're going to fall & bust your ass"? I finally just went & did it myself. Yes, I busted my ass! How's that for a visual??"

Isn't Child Labor Wonderful?

Three of my daughters had CCD this past Sunday. With 10 minutes before we had to be there, I told them that I was going to the car and if they didn't come out in a minute, that I'd leave them home. My youngest daughter, Kitty, was out a minute later. Loni and Bebis were no-shows. Ten minutes later I pulled out of the driveway to drop off Kitty. Loni and Bebis thought they were going to get off scot free.

When I got home about 15 minutes later, I told Loni and Bebis to get their wood carrying clothes on and I proceeded to cut dead logs for the next hour plus. Their job was to pick up everything I cut and stack it in and behind the house, transporting the wood by wagon with the quad. They we're not exactly thrilled.

The job took approximately three hours. What do you think the chances they'll be late the next time are? I'm guessing slim to none.

Government Asleep At The Wheel!

While Barney Frank is obsessing over AIG's 160M bonus payouts to executives, the rest of the Obama team, who promised strict regulation on bailout money, let 90 BILLION walk out the door, with 32 BILLION going to foreign banks!

In essence, the US taxpayer just paid 32 Billion to foreign banks! Add another 13B to Obama's government advisor buddies at Goldman Sachs and instead of an AIG bailout, we got a covert bailout of other institutions, who were probably made whole on our dime.

The biggest recipients of the AIG money were Goldman Sachs at $12.9 billion, and three European banks -- France's Societe Generale at $11.9 billion, Germany's Deutsche Bank at $11.8 billion, and Britain's Barclays PLC at $8.5 billion.

Fucking heads better roll on this one and I hope Barney Frank pulls his head out of his ass long enough to realize which travesty should take immediate priority!

Of course, the media will probably focus on Frank's rattling over the 160M payout to executives instead of the real issue here. No surprise, you have to go to a foreign source to get a decent account.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/2266582/Goldman-milks-AIG-bailout

Update: Finally, a day later! The US media jumps into the fray! It's about time!

The NHL On The Brink Of Losing This Fan

I am about an eyelash away from washing my hands of the NHL. As the ball-less Hockey News pundits have been hammering away at just about any physical contact in the sport, thereby turning the NHL into a glorified ice capades, the NHL GMs are now in favor of eliminating any sort of "staged" hockey fight. This is their first step to eliminating fighting in the sport altogether. Once that happens, the NHL will become dead to me. I will forfeit my season tickets and find something else to spend my money on.

In another "unrelated" story, some "geniuses" released this story about youth hockey injuries. Uh...I hope they didn't waste too much money on that one. Pretty soon they'll determine that leg injuries from baseball are mostly caused by running the bases and eliminate running them altogether or figure out that tackling is the number one reason for concussions in football and start handing out waist flags.

Honestly...in the age of pussy'fication of sports, is it any wonder that folks flock to something I have utter disdain for? Ultimate fighting...

Sports figures make an incredible amount of money these days and are more unwilling to shed an ounce of blood for it as time goes by. Modern day gladiators they are not. Winning becomes less important than achieving individual glory. Less seasoned fans who don't know any better justify that the focus of sports should be on keeping the stars healthy rather than keep the competitiveness of the sport intact. Legislating injuries away now seems to be the norm. Stars in the sports play the game without any fear of contact. Guys in the NHL actually skate through the neutral zone with their heads down or with their backs to the play in front of the boards with no fear of getting lit up...it sickens me.

Who ever said that playing sports was safe?

Our sports are slowly being deteriorated by "bitches" who never scraped a knee on concrete, let alone put on a set of pads. If you are offended by this comment...I was talking about Gary Bettman, but you probably qualify as well.

I once dove face first into a metal chain link fence in centerfield to catch a fly ball in little league. I was ugly for a few weeks and I'm pretty sure I got a concussion. I did it because I wanted to win at all costs. That's what sports should be about...sacrificing the body if need be, to win.

Well, those days seem to be long gone and I really thought I'd be writing this type of crotchety article when I was 60, not 43. I guess with the new brand of player out there, my favorite past-times will have to change.

But, this edict will kill hockey anyway. The pseudo fans will be there, but the heart and soul will be gone.

Women's Field Hockey anyone? Now there's a sport I can get behind!