June 30, 2007 by Hawk.

It’s 5 AM I just took the trash out and made a run to the convenience store for some soda (last day it’s on sale, dont’cha know) and it’s EIGHTY TWO degrees out with like 90% humidity. Gross! It’s like walking into a sauna…

Hawk (damp)

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June 29, 2007 by Hawk.

Did someone mention rain?

For close to a week now the local weather forecasters have been hyping this tropical wave that has moved through the area here at the end of June. We’ve heard phrases like “torrential rain”, “possible flooding”, “Too much rain?” over and over. Last night’s forecast called for INCHES of rain here in Southern Brevard. Even the NOAA web site has called for heavy rain, 70 and 80 percent chances of ’significant’ rainfall accumulation. All told I think it’s rained for a grand total of twenty minutes here with maybe a quarter to a half inch of rain. How can these people be so spectacularly wrong over and over? We’re supposed to be able to trust these people. We do, after all, live in an area known for extreme weather. But they’ve shown us, repeatedly, that their predictions are little more than guesses, wrong, totally inaccurate, sensationalist guesses. All this modern technology. Big radar sites around the state. Years of college education and they’re no more accurate than grandma’s weather knee. I for one feel less than happy about trusting my safety to these wildly inaccurate forecasts.

Hawk (my knee says no rain)

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June 27, 2007 by Hawk.

Oh, sorry… what am I so excited about you ask? Why, the grill part, integral to actually assembling the grill, which was supposed to be here sometime between MAY 14th and the 16th, just arrived! Hooray! More crap for the landfill! Cardboard galore! At least we’ll keep and use the bubblewrap for Christmas shipping….

Anyone need a left hand burner shelf for a Kenmore model #464820907 gas grill? I sure don’t!

Hawk (still not loving Sears)

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June 27, 2007 by Hawk.

Click here for larger view.
Full size version available upon request.

Enjoy!

Hawk

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June 26, 2007 by Hawk.

How did people this stupid survive to adulthood and manage to spawn a child?

On Saturday the 23rd of June Juan and Danette Rodriguez, while visiting Disney World in Orlando Florida LEFT their three year old child alone, in the sun, in 90+ degree heat while they went on the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ ride.

Full story here.

These people should be sterilized to ensure they never do anything this freaking stupid again. How the hell do you ‘forget’ you had a three year old with you?!

Hawk (outraged)

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June 25, 2007 by Hawk.

Similiar to the scam pointed out in the GoldKit post ’Things We Buy’ runs an infomercial/commercial in which they want you to send them your watches, your very expensive watches. When you do their highly trained and paid ‘experts’ will evaluate and appraise your watch(es) and send you a check for them. Are we really this stupid? (Don’t answer that!) Does anyone believe a company is going to give them the full value of an item they intend to turn around and sell to someone else?! Please, people, stop falling for these scams. They continue because WE continue to be stupid!

Hawk (holding onto his Timex)

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June 23, 2007 by Hawk.

Ok, look, for the love of the gods, please do everyone a favor and READ the manual that came with your camera. Notice that little bit about distance by the information on your flash? That’s FEET, not yards, not acres, FEET. The best flash won’t do crap beyond twenty or so feet. So if you’re at an event, concert, ultimate fighting, monster truck rally, etc. Turn the damned flash OFF! You’re just giving the people on the other side of the stadium/arena/gym some twinkling lights in their photographs. You’re not lighting your subject when it’s dozens or hundreds of feet away from you and it’s eating your batteries to leave the worthless flash on.

Hawk

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June 21, 2007 by Hawk.

We got our replacement order from Omaha Steaks today and the cooler it came in had a large chunk of dry ice left in it. Pretty impressive, 4 days on a Omaha Steaks truck and more than 12 hours sitting in a sweltering hot UPS truck, everything arrives frozen solid. Had to have a little fun with the dry ice. The results can be seen below:

Click here for larger version.

Click here for larger version.

Click here for larger version.

Videos! Whee! Hosted at YouTube:
Fun With CO2 Video #1

Fun With CO2 Video #2

Enjoy!

Hawk

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June 21, 2007 by Hawk.

‘Bout a month ago or so we got a mailing from Omaha Steaks with a pretty good offer for one of their ’sample’ packages. It worked out to around $7.50 per meal for the entree which wasn’t bad so we gave it a shot. Below are my/our feelings on the products:

Burgers, 4Oz. - Not bad. A bit chewy. I think the majority of the problem here is we normally buy fresh beef, make our own burgers and cook them the day we buy the meat while the Omaha Steak burgers were, of course, frozen which does reduce the flavor some. Still, quite edible but not worth buying over the ‘net.

Boneless pork chops, 4Oz. - Again, chewy, I think this is a theme with frozen meat products. You’ll see it again I’m sure. These were good though. We grilled them with a bit of this and that spice rubbed onto them. Good excuse to buy applesauce!

“Gourmet” franks, 3Oz. - Yep, again, kinda chewy. In the last minutes of cooking the skin seemed to crinkle up and pull away from the meat. The skin itself was kinda tough and they were grilled low and slow on the ‘evil gas grill of doom’. Good, not bad flavor but for the price we’re going back to Ball Park. I’m not sure what makes these ‘gourmet’, they’re just larger than normal hot dogs.

Chicken breasts, 4Oz. - Good and actually pretty tender. A little smaller than those we buy from Winn-Dixie. Once again, price is the factor. We’ll be going back to the store brand.

Top sirloin, 5Oz. - These are good. From a company called Omaha STEAKS they pretty much had better be. Cooked to medium/medium rare with just salt and pepper. Good flavor, tender, quite tasty.

Stuffed baked potato, 5.75Oz. - These were great! Soft, silky, flavorful. Super easy to cook (stick in over, wait, remove from oven, eat). Even the skins which I feared would be tough were fine.

Stuffed sole, 4.5Oz. - Not our cup of tea. We’ll be giving these to friends who are sea food fans the next time I see them.

Along with our order came a ‘premium’ cutlery set and cutting board. These, sadly, were pure junk. A child of two could bend the chef’s knife double with little to no effort. Poorly ground with cheap plastic handles we threw them away without using them. The cutting board was also garbage, no thicker than two or three credit cards stacked up. We used it once to cut the chicken on and also tossed it in the trash. I expected better from a company that sells ‘premium’ meat products. Very disappointed.

I can’t close this without mentioning their customer service people. They’re top notch. One of the two-packs of pork chops had a chop that was improperly sealed and while it was probably perfectly safe to eat I’ve suffered from food poisoning in the past and wasn’t about to take the chance. Less than 12 hours after emailing them I had an order confirmation for a free replacement of all four chops. These arrived in four days.

Hawk

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June 21, 2007 by Hawk.

We for the most part take our military for granted. During peace times we under fund and disparage them. In war we often revile them for their actions. We listen to celebrities who pretend they know what they’re talking about when it comes to military action. We rarely pay attention to the acts of individual soldiers who, above and beyond the call of duty, risk their lives not for us, not for the government but because it’s their job.

I invite you now to spend a little time reading about what it means to be a hero…

Medal of Honor Citations

Since it’s creation during the Civil War only 3.440 Medals of Honor have been awarded. There have been NINETEEN double recipients of the Medal of Honor.

An excerpt as an example. An already wounded soldier:
ATKINS, THOMAS E.
…for 4 hours, Pfc. Atkins determinedly remained in his fox hole, bearing the brunt of each assault and maintaining steady and accurate fire until each charge was repulsed. At 7 a.m., 13 enemy dead lay in front of his position; he had fired 400 rounds, all he and his 2 dead companions possessed, and had used 3 rifles until each had jammed too badly for further operation. He withdrew during a lull to secure a rifle and more ammunition, and was persuaded to remain for medical treatment. While waiting, he saw a Japanese within the perimeter and, seizing a nearby rifle, killed him. A few minutes later, while lying on a litter, he discovered an enemy group moving up behind the platoon’s lines. Despite his severe wound, he sat up, delivered heavy rifle fire against the group and forced them to withdraw.

Hawk

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