Cold remedies

    Ever watch those stupid cough an cold remedies on TV? You have someone sick as a dog an they take oh what a relief it is or something similar and then they are running around an giving everyone else their germs. For God sake if your really bad sick get well and don't run around an see how many other folks you can get sick. No matter how well you feel. That is how flu seasons an pandemics get started.   just my 2 cents

Our Granddaughter

So much change in just a year the top picture is a Ultasonic from a year ago an the bottom from today, she likes to sit under her mothers desk. She is our one an only Grandchild so far an love her to pieces.

Sherlock

                 Finally got to watch the "Empty Hearse" season 3 ep1 of Sherlock the 21st Century BBC version of Sherlock Holmes. ? Not sure I enjoyed it or not, I will not go into a sycophant short of the show. That has been done on Amazon an just Google the reviews and get your fill. The characters of Sir Author Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes stories are the stuff of legends. They need no introduction. My favorite up till a couple of years ago were the Universal/Fox versions done with Basil Rathbone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_%281939_film_series%29  These shows were my favorites for many decades until the new BBC Sherlock series started a few years back. Now we have the start of season 3 and has the BBC http://www.examiner.com/review/bbc-home-entertainment-solves-sherlock-s-death-sherlock-season-3 started off with a bang or a whimper. I'm not sure yet an will have to watch it again. The display of making the "way" Sherlock survived his death a major portion of  "The Empty Hearse" was to me a disappointment . I didn't care for all the flash and glitter used for what? I guess it was really a case of poor or maybe mediocre Direction of the show that I did not find amusing. Yes I want my Sherlock to be human  but not at the expense of entertainment. I enjoyed Rathbone's Sherlock because he was not superman an yet his deductive reasoning was vastly superior to normal men. Cumberbatch's Sherlock was a breath of fresh air he arrived intact to the 21st Century an yet seemed on top of his game by being aloof an smart. Now he seems too smart an sometimes the aloof comes off as being too distant. Maybe I'm being to harsh and I will purchase the series from Amazon soon as Season 3 is available an watch again the childhood hero I have enjoyed for most of my life. Lets hope that a return of the magic in seasons 1&2 is present because I really loved those characters an do not need so much a wink an a smile from them. I know they are not real an don't feel a need for them to display it.   My 2 cents

Ariel Sharon RIP

Ariel Sharon passed away a few days ago. Former Israeli Statesman,General an 11th PM of Israel. RIP

French Toast w/Maple Bourbon Butter of course Bacon

French Toast with Maple Bourbon Butter

Bacon - buy a lot. Fry it. Set aside covered on counter or rock to keep warm You're set.

For the french toast

Whisk two extra large eggs in a shallow dish or pan with 1/4 cup milk. Add in one capful of Penzey's vanilla, 3 dashes of good quality Cinnamon, and a couple of pinches of sugar (perhaps 1/2 teaspoon). Slice day bread in 8 thick pieces and place in egg mixture, turning to let a little soak into it on both sides (but only for a few seconds, so it doesn't get soggy). Cook in a lightly greased fry pan over medium heat until lightly browned on both sides.

Serve with maple bourbon butter and bacon

Maple bourbon butter

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup good quality bourbon (avoid anything called "Monster Mash" and costing $7.99 for a gallon)
Pinch of salt

Melt butter in a sauce pan over campfire or medium heat on the stove until just bubbling, stir in bourbon, maple syrup and salt and bring to a full simmer, whisking constantly until golden colored and thick. About 5-6 minutes.

Serve over french toast, biscuits or pancakes. Excellent drizzled over any breakfast meat that goes with those.   With thanks to: http://mausersandmuffins.blogspot.com/

The day Apache Junction burned down

           Many years ago I drove my truck an camper to Roosevelt Lake for the annual AiResearch fishing derby. Long story short we had a good time drank a lot of beer an did very little fishing. Our children were very young at the time but I know they had a pretty good time. The problem was that I had a defective muffler on the truck a rusted out hole while not very large it was on the top of the muffler. Normally this would not be a big problem but the old chevy truck had a wooden bed. To compound the problem an actually cause the fire I had a qt of motor oil stored in the cubby hole between the camper an the bed and it had broke open an leaked onto the wood bed of the truck right over where the hot gases hit the wood bed from the defective muffler.Perfect Storm is what you call this series of gremlin activity. I was driving back an had my buddy "Rich" from work an my 3 year old daughter in the cab of the truck. I thank God that I didn't have any one in the camper driving back. We were driving back through Apache Junction when I noticed I could not see behind me in the rear view mirror as I was driving,normally the rear window of the truck lined up with the camper front window and rear door of the camper so you could see behind you while driving. This was due to the camper filling up with smoke since the bed an the bottom side of the camper had caught on fire. Just about the time my brain was putting this all together a motorist pulled up along side the truck beeping his horn an yelling fire. I couldn't here him but lip reading FIRE is not hard. I pulled over an Rich my work friend grabbed my daughter Samantha an I yelled at him to keep Samantha away from the truck because the fire was on the driver side of the truck an a propane bottle for the camper was on that side an I feared it would blow. I had a fire extinguisher which I grabbed an quickly open an touched the propane tank which was still cool to the touch not hot an ran back to open the rear door.Bad idea since the door knob on the camper was hot enough to give me second degree burns on my hand. someone handed me some rags or their shirt which ignoring the pain in my hand I used to open the door standing off to the side since I had some training from the military fighting fires an knew it could blow out when I opened the door. Soon as I could, I used my fire extinguisher to get about half the fire in the camper out,luckily someone had 2 five gallon bottles of water which we used to put the rest of the camper an truck bed fire out. The only problem left was at least half a dozen of field fires behind us which sparks an pieces of the bed on fire had dropped off as we drove down the road and caught quite a bit of Apache Junction fields on fire with at least a dozen fire trucks an emergency vehicles were in the process of getting put out. It looked like Armageddon an all consuming war with all the fields on fire an by the time I saw this the second degree burns on my right hand were really starting to hurt since the adrenaline rush was wearing off from fighting the fire. So off to emergency for me to get treatment for my burns an the Arizona DPS took my truck to find out what caused the fire.  few days later it came back as an accident an as luck would have it I was the only person who had injuries an property damage. They ruled it an accident and that ends the tale of the day I "accidentally" tried to burn down the town of Apache Junction which in the 1970's was not a very big town. Luckily all the fields needed the excess brush burned off although that really was not something I wanted any part of.   

Apple Cinnamon Bread

Recipe of the Day!! Apple Cinnamon Bread!

Don't forget to share on your timeline so you always have this yummy one.

1/3 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 apple, peeled and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside. Beat white sugar and butter together in a bowl using an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until incorporated; add vanilla extract.

Combine flour and baking powder together in another bowl; stir into creamed butter mixture. Mix milk into batter until smooth. Pour half the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Next add half the apples and half the brown sugar cinnamon mixture. Lightly pat apple mixture into batter.

Pour the remaining batter over apple layer; top with remaining apples and add more brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Lightly pat apples into batter; swirl brown sugar mixture through apples using a finger or spoon.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes.

Pet Theory

         One of the most prevalent yet most misunderstood plagues saddled on mankind has been the blindness toward psychopaths. This willingness to embrace all mankind as incapable of Evil they are just misunderstood people is ludicrous in the extreme. They make up a large percentage of the population. My belief that 6% is probably close to the truth ,throw in 30 or 40% of blind followers an you get the forever wars an major crimes that have been the bane of mankind since our existence on planet Earth. The following Link:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/01/05/the-top-10-jobs-that-attract-psychopaths/     from Forbes last year gives a outline of the types of jobs such people tend to gravitate too.    Since quite a few of these jobs block any real resistance to ending the strangle hold they have on society it should be impossible to end there reign any time soon.  The only thing that I see as a means of combating this is knowledge on how they operate an trying to checkmate their agendas as much as possible. Unless a cure is found which is unlikely since it is pretty much hardwired into their brains. They will be around like it or not, genetic manipulation before birth probably at conception  is the only sure fire way of control that I can see and an all out warfare against this type of person is unlikely.  So know who you are dealing with and brush up on there ways for they tend to be charming until they gotcha. Your only hope is knowing how they work,what they do,and how/why they do what they do. Cheers an Happy New Year.                                                                                                                                         

Hunting an the good old days

Just saw a story about a man out hunting an he got hurt an spent 19 days out in the wilderness until he was found. Well I knew a little about this I got back the same day,only because I wasn’t hurt real bad,an lucky but bad things happen and my accident was two fold. The first part was that I went out hunting alone,never a good idea. The second was I slipped an fell with my leg behind me an I thought I broke something because the pain was a 10+ hurt like hell pain. I had been hand gun hunting for javelina a few miles behind Lake Pleasant at the foothills of the Bradshaw mountains beautiful high desert about 2,000 + feet elevation so it was mild weather I think Feb,1981. I had bagged an suit-cased my javelina “suitcase is all 4 legs tied together an carry like a suit case” and was heading back to my truck about 2 miles away from where I fell.When I fell backwards my leg was behind my back an I haven’t been that limber since I was a babe. So it hurt like hell an I really thought my leg was broken ,I could not put any weight on it.I had laid there where I fell for about 30 minutes due to the pain. After a while it let up enough that I could crawl about 20 yards over where I saw a stick sturdy enough to use as a crutch to hobble back to the truck with. I grabbed the javelina ~35# on my strong side and spent the next 2 hours getting back to my truck. No fun but it beat crawling back. Once back I had to shift with my right leg since the left was in poor shape but I made it home an being the frugal an dumb hunter type I hobbled around my javelina skinned an quartered it an got it in the freezer about which time my wife got home an took me to emergency room for diagnostics. Lucky again only a real bad sprain an no broken bones. I did lose about a week off work an about 6 weeks till I could walk normal with little pain but I never went hunting alone again. Which after all is said and done is never a good idea.

Algae to Oil ?

           The last blog entry I posted a Link to a story about the discovery of a inexpensive way to convert wet algae to a crude oil substitute which really should be a great big deal. In reality the story is treated as a page 23 story an had little exposure to the public. You would think a method of cheap energy production would be treated as a big deal. I guess we will see where this goes.I see it as a means to cut off our need for foreign oil and energy independence until someone invents something better. So will huge algae farms be in our future or is peak oil our true future? Guess we will have to see where it goes, I'm just disappointed that I didn't see any major news stories about this discovery.