Chewie is my co-pilot

So, i think i need to begin a regular friday exercise of adding my thoughts to the things that drift in and out of my head all week long, if only to exorcise them from the empty cask that is my skull.

So, in that theme, i give you the most awesome thing i've seen today:

Marvel Comic Postal Stamps! Of course, it seems only fair that after DC got their own stamps that Marvel should be able to play in the game, too. If you received a thank-you from the wedding this fall (And if you didn't it was either because it got sent back to us, we don't have your address, or you didn't give us a good enough gift. I'll let you figure that one out..) you would have seen the crazy DC Comics stamps, and seen just how plain awesome they were. And they were.

In other news, america is slowly doing it's best to round all sharp corners and remove any dangerous content everywhere in the country as the game of tag has been banned in some Massachusets schools. Joining Dodgeball and recess, tag is the newest perp in the scheme to hurt kids. I'm at a loss for words, really. I don't want to tell you what my childhood had been like if we had completely lost all of our recess - i'm sure that our teachers would have gone absolutely nuts.

Currently the tigers are doing their best, along with the Spartans, to crush my sport's fan heart. I did my best sometime around the 7th inning last night to try and not be so apprehensive about the game that was falling apart in front of me, mostly because i have to continually tell myself that i cannot control it and shouldn't get so involved. So, of course, when Rodney couldn't throw a ground ball to 1st base, and when Monroe missed Eckstein's fly out to left, and when the dust settled we had lost the game -- i was completely fine. I got off the couch, went upstairs and went quietly to bed.

And if you believe any of that, i don't think you really know me. Gah. Anyways, game 5 is tonight, the cards are starting Weaver, who lost Game 2 to the Gambler back in Comerica.

But, i don't know how much of the game that we'll be able to catch, because i'm trying my hand in something new this evening: my first ever Bouldering Competition. I'm entering myself in one of the lowest skill categories, but i think i'm mostly doing it because i think there's a t-shirt with a skeleton on the line. Or maybe some money if i win. I'm not sure. There should be some pictures come next week, for sure though.

Also, this Saturday is the annual Battle for the 'ol Brass Spitoon! Breakfast in bed is on the line for the winning team of Liz and I's alma matters, as MSU looks to do their best to lose against a vastly inferior Indiana team. Ok, it actually should be a good game, even though MSU tried their hardest to lose last week and somehow won, and IU managed to knock off Iowa two weeks ago in a squeaker. Either way, someone is getting cooked for in our house on Sunday morning, and i hope that it's me.

Also, Internet Explorer 7 has been released, and if you run IE you should upgrade. The better headline, though, is that Firefox 2.0 has also been released, and in my opinion everyone should be running it. It has more options, better security and allows you to be an elitist prick if you should ever fall into an argument debating the proliferation of malware and phishing sites. (what? you people don't do that? oh.) Go. Shoo. Install Firefox and become a better person.

Yet more to adjust to

I realize this now, as i sit and watch Kenny Rogers do his best to ensure a split in the first Tigers world series that I've ever seen in my natural life (it was in 84 - but i was a little more than 2 years old, so i don't remember most of it.) that there is plenty to talk about. Namely, and the thing that has been taking most of my attention the last three weeks is the Detroit Tigers.

Oh, other things have happened, sure. I have seven weeks remaining in my current job up at the Air Force base, and no permanent plans for future employment locked down as of yet. But it seems that i should hopefully have more news on this front in the coming weeks (hopefully) as i continue to hemorage my resume at the drop of a hat and continue to shake hands and smile at strangers in suits. In fact, i should be attending two career fairs this week that deal specifically with folks that are ex-military.

But, because of this glorious break in employment, it allows us to head home for nearly two weeks or so from the 24th - 6 or 7 Jan. So, if you're family and friends who read this, get ready.

Oh, right, the reason i was even entering this was to mention that i added something in the sidebar tonight, to allow folks to drop random comments that aren't contigent upon me saying anything worth commenting upon in these posts. (thankfully.) It also requires no sign in, no blogger account - just a name and a comment. So, if there is anyone who reads this but never takes the time to say hi, your number is up. Please say hello on the right!

You may notice something different...

And what that is was my annoyance at having to constantly change text color to be seen, jockeying with goofey text columns and all in all having quite the depressing looking blog.

I'm not depressed, and we don't really get any rain here at all, so i'm axing the condensation covered window for something of my favorite hue: green.

Also, please be patient as i move stuff around with this, too.. eventually there will be a picture up above all of this. i hope. Even though i pride myself on being a geek, i won't make any lies about how much of code that i really barely get.

This made me happy

A father of a little girl just walked into the coffeshop to meet mom, with his darling daughter on his shoulders. Walking up to his wife, he smiles and says: "I think she's completely asleep."

and she was. sound asleep, slack jawed face resting on the top of her dads head. For some reason, this gives me faith in humanity.

My new vocation

Because life is never bland, dull, or normal around these parts, i participated in something fairly brand new yeserday: Fish Spawning.

That is, Lake Trout. Because i am lucky enough to be employed within the environmental flight of our squadron, we have a particular interest in the origin of the fish that we stock our base lakes with. And the form that this interest takes is volunteering with the hatchery during spawn season.

So, it was yesterday morning that i piled into a truck and we cruised over to Saratoga, WY. I have actually been there once before, on a surprise visit trek for miss liz and myself before we were engaged even. They have some really cool natural hot springs in town, and combine that with the hunting that is happening right now you have the entire towns economy. 2 hours of high plains driving later, we roll into the hatchery, and i am immediately asked if i would like to assist in the 'spawning'.



Not a man to back down from anything, i was led to the changinig room and given the nicest pair of waiters i have ever worn, neoprene gloves and a raincoat. I then clown-footed it down to the channels of trout that were awaiting to be used to propel their species. (the fertilized eggs we were making today, actually, were headed to Lake Michigan.) Hopping in the cool water i met Pat, Greg, Dan, and Dave who were already up to their elbows in reproductive trout bits.

The process goes as such: There are two pools of trout, segregated by gender. The girls were netted and put into a smaller trough of water that was dilluted with an anesthetic (read: fishie GHB) where they eventually pass out. Pat the showed me the correct way to grip the lovely ladies by the tail and run my hands down the bottom of their bellies to empty their egg sac into a bucket. And holy cow do these things make eggs. Little orange pellets go screaming out, and when they're empty you've collected 3300-7000 eggs. Empty and dying for water, the ladies are tossed (literally) over the fence to the other pen where they wake up lost, confused, inverted and used.

The egg bucket gets passed over to the boy pen, where the boys are getting the same treatment but give a different result. Their swimmers (ha!) are mixed with the bucket of eggs, and are then walked up to the cleaning station. There the mixture is rinsed, collected, and set to gestate in bins.

Needless to say, by the end of the day i smelled absolutely great and all my wife wanted to do was snuggle with me once i finally arrived home. True story.

It was a really cool experience, even if it felt slightly awkward to be coaxing eggs out of lady fish that i had never even met before, let alone was friends with. (So, how've you been? Seen any good movies lately? Here, enjoy this tub of wonderful water. No no, you're probably just tired from all of the swimming around in endless circles you do...) I would have been more comfortable killing them, i think, than drugging them for their multiplactive properties, but, i was still glad to help.

Go here for a few more pictures of the fun that was had.

Pasta Rustica, a do it yourself dinner

Figuring that it was my turn to make dinner this monday, i swung by the supermercado and procured the remaining items needed to make one of my favorite meals, Pasta Rustica, as lifted from the man, the myth, the legend: Bob Russell. (Or, pastor Bob, for those into the brevity thing, man.)

But, also right in the beginings of the prep required, i decided to document and share, because it's straight up too good not to. SO, read on if you like wonderful pasta dishes.

Ingredients:
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 Garlic Cloves
crushed salt/pepper, to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
handful chopped basil
Chicken (if you prefer)
1/2 pound pasta






Preheat the oven to 400. You start by halving cherry (or sweet) tomatoes, and placing them freshly cut face down in an 8x8 baking pan. You should use a single pint's worth, and you'll be happier the fresher they are.

Then, mix together the bread crumbs, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and mix together in a small bowl. Once this is complete, coat the tomatoes with your dry mix concoction evenly.



Theeeen, drizzle the olive oil over all of this and toss into the oven to cook for 35-40 minutes. What this basically does is liquefy the tomaters into this wonderfully sweet and addictive bubbly mass. Once you give it relief from it's furnace I would even suggest adding cheese and possibly oil to taste, depending on how sadistic you are feeling for your arteries that night.





Serves 2-3 hungry adults over warm pasta. (we've become addicted to a specialty pasta from the farmers market we head to every Sunday. Tonight was the remainder of a Sweet Basil Trennette...) It pairs perfectly with a nice salad and a warm loaf of bread. mmmm....

Two parts funny, one part sad

One of these days i'll have to list my must-read-on-a-weekly-basis comics. Til then, this gem made me chuckle, and then wonder what kind of christian it is that Tatsuya Ishida knows.

Deal..... Oooor No Deal.

Sitting in my office on Friday morning, doing my best impression of a proffesional of some sort and attempting to answer the obligatory emails of the day, i received a phone call on my cell phone.

It wasn't a number that i knew, so i answered it in hopes of the caller being Best Buy, telling me my computer that i had handed them almost two weeks ago was back from being repaired for a severe motherboard failure, and i had only to visit them to regain it.

Well, it wasn't them. (Though they did call yesterday, and i currently have my noble steed of a laptop back, helping me gallop through the torrent that is the internets) It was a woman named Shannon who i had had lunch with on Wednesday, along with another associate whom i had known as a USAF captain; who had gotten out and begun working in the private sector along with the aforementioned shannon. (whew! that was a long one)

Being an engineer, with a sharp intent and no time to waste, she pressed straight to the point: There was a need for someone with project programming skills (of which i own a few) to assist in straightening out a supremely jangled project database. It would take about six months, and needed to begin asap. Also, the job in question is at Lakenheath Royal Air Base, England.

I began stammering. One of the most basic reasons that i was in the air force (though this is a civilian position, and i would be taking it as a Mr. and not a Lt. ) was to travel. Specifically, to be able to live overseas. But the most base reason of why i am getting OUT of the air force, is to not leave my wife for 6 months. Course, taking this job wouldn't mean i would be sleeping on a cot in the desert, but, it seems to blend the same to me.

I told her how much i would love to be able to say yes, but, i didn't really know if it would be something i could do, and i certainly couldn't decide in five minutes on a random October Friday morning. She told me that she would contact the VP of the company, who is in Germany at the moment, and he would get me more details soon if was interested.

I spent the rest of Friday slightly off-kilter, wondering how something like this would affect me, my marriage, the direction i am attempting to head. It would certainly be a pay bump, and she also informed me that i could basically choose an office to work in (of which there is one in Fort Collins) if i did take the job.

I'm so incredibly torn, that it really defies words. Liz also feels the same, and when she gets incredibly frustrated with her school district has been secretly playing with scenarios involving her quitting her internship and just moving to the limey island with me for a few months. But, at the moment, the gentleman that is doing the hiring has not called, and i slowly grow in doubt that he will. So, maybe the decision won't be mine to make anyways, and i should simply continue in my campaign to find employment with the Forest Service come January.

In the meantime, we had a great gathering of folks last night to the ol' green condo, originally in celebration of Columbus's (too late) discovery, but the theme was eventually eclipsed by the Tigers soundly defeating the Yankees 8-3 to win the first ALDS in more than 19 years. That, regardless of anything else, feels really, really good.

in 1492.....

Mornings.
I'm sure that they have been invented, but my brain was racking itself this morning in the shower (where do you people contemplate life? In an easy-chair? Ha!) about how to either create or track down something that would let me only turn on about 1/4th of the lights in my bathroom when i arise before the sun every weekday.

It seems such a small part of a day, of a life, but really; how disturbing is the naked burning of the invasive 60W sun(s) that you have to turn on in the morning, straight from the warm and soft darkness where there are pillows, blankets and if you're having a good dream -- the gift of flight. It hurts me to think of it.

To be honest, the best solution is really to refuse to rise until the sun itself crests the horizon and provides nature's reverse dimmer switch. Sadly, though, that would make me more than an hour late to almost everything that i am supposed to do. There should be a law.

THIS WEEK'S FESTIVITY ALERT COLOR: RED!

For those within the mountain time zone (and if you are really motivated, any of the other ones too) feel free to come to the Blocksma's house this weekend, Saturday Oct 7 around 7 pm to participate in our Columbus Day Party! There should be snacks and drinks (not completely composed of, but not limited to, supplies left over from the wedding) such as Banina Floats, Pinta Bean Nacho's and Santa Margarita's. If you need the address or directions drop me a comment and i will get them to you.