Growing up stinks

Early last week we got an Email at work that on Wed of this week, there would be a Chili Cookoff. Two of my friends at work (Tom the Ultimate Fighter and Easy Trevor) and I were talking and I mentioned that everyone tries to win these contests. We should try to lose it. Let's make the worst, crappiest chili possible. So we decided to get together the night before, make the chili, drink beer and watch Old School. A guy's night.

We had some good ideas on how to do it. We decided to make it fairly simple. We would let Hormel provide the chili and we would add some things.

Game time rolled around Tuesday night at my place. They showed up...with Easy Trevor's wife. Normally this is a killer and EasyTrevor really should have had his tail kicked all over my street for bringing her. But Dancin' Amanda isn't just any wife. She's a cool wife. So, the Ultimate Fighter and I let it go. Not that we had a real choice.

We got to work. My job was to get the beer, chili and special ingredients. They brought a bunch of spices and sauces and Old School.

We fried some beef liver in a pan. The Ultimate Fighter boiled pig's feet and gizzards in some water. While it didn't smell good, it wasn't as bad as I expected. Easy Trevor and Dancin' Amanda put the chili in the crockpot and added some of the spices and sauces.

Here we are with the finished product.


Here's Easy Trevor with Dancin' Amanda.


This is the Ultimate Fighter after trying some of the chili, I think.


Here's another pic of Dancin' Amanda. She earned it. She earned the right to be there on guy's night this one time. She worked hard and washed all my dishes. She's a rock.


All told, we added soy sauce, salsa, hot sauce, salad dressing, a multitude of spices only Dancin' Amanda knows about, boiled pig's feet, boiled gizzards, fried beef liver and God knows what else to the Hormel chili. It smelled like rotted horse butt. It didn't taste good but wasn't quite as wretch-inducing as we'd expected.

We then watched Old School, laughed until it hurt and they went home.

On the drive to work this morning, Easy Trevor calls and says he and the Ultimate Fighter talked after leaving and they were having some misgivings about the whole idea. This was based on the idea not going over well with management if they found out. After talking to both of them, we figured the downside (counseling by management, Easy Trevor getting the boot...he's a contractor) far outweighed the upside (a fun story to tell for years). Looks like learning game theory worked out ok for me.

So in the end, we wussed out. I ended up dumping the chil in the snow outside the building (about 100 yards away at the edge of the parking lot). It looked like someone had already eaten the chili.

I guess we still have a story...and jobs.

Media Bias: I told you so.

OK, well, mostly. There were some surprises and the methodology seems sound though I'll rely on others to do a much deeper look at it. It's certainly possible the study is flawed. Though it falls in line with most other studies on the subject. And a college university Poli-Sci dept isn't exactly biased towards the right.

NY Times ranks 3rd as most liberal news source. Surprisingly, first was the WSJ. Surprising because I like the WSJ editorial page.

Anyway, disect as you please.

More required reading

Another of my favorite columnists. And this should dispel any notions that I walk in step with the Republican Talking Points...because I agree with him pretty much completely.

John Stossel

I don't care who you are, you should read his columns.

Read.

Read.

Read.

Read.

Tookie Williams...fertilizer

I'm late on this. Been busy. Just my thoughts.

I'm ok with this. I'm against the death penalty only because I don't like the government having that power. However, if we're going to put down someone, this piece of garbage is an example of who should be taking the eternal death nap.

This is the part of my Christianity I've always had trouble with. Do I hope this man repented and accepted Christ before he died? Yes. Because I don't see much evidence he did before those final moments.

However, if he didn't and is burning in hell right now...well... so be it.

The fact that so many groups fell on his side of the execution debate says a lot about them.

NAACP only cares about the death penalty as applied to blacks. A white person...kill him. They don't care. It's a morally bankrupt association. Jesse Jackson? I'll just let that one go. He was asked on a radio show what the names of the victims Williams was convicted of killing were. He didn't know. No surprise.

This man wasn't redeemed before his last moments. Never showed remorse for the killings. Never turned in any of his gang members. Wouldn't do it.

Rest...hopefully in peace but if not...so be it,

Thanksgiving with the Moyers (and a Sens)

Sorry for the delay folks. But here's our Thanksgiving pictures from Baltimore. A good time was had by all. Here we go...

2:07 Mom, Heather and Amy slaved long and hard on the food and it looked great. No KFC this year.



2:09 This is our routine family picture before the drinking, punching and swearing start. You'll notice I'm not in the picture. I was already mad about the absence of malt liquor.



2:12 Mom and Dad start their drinking, Heather starts her low-carb diet and Amy is doing her "look at me pull an olive out of my nose!" magic trick. She's so cute.



2:19 Mom, after 8 glasses of wine, tries balancing her wine glass on Dad's glass of water while Dad is losing his motor skills and dropped his fork.



2:26 Amy, drunk again, drives Heather back to drinking straight from the bottle with her tired "If we don't neuter our fish, the terrorists win" rant. Admit it, you've heard it if you've been drinking with her.



2:31 The fork in dad's right hand is just for show. That empty plate to his left is mine. He was kind enough to eat everything on it for me while I was trying to document yet another wonderful Thanksgiving for the family photo album.



2:39 We had some extra money this year and set up some cameras around the table. This is the one we put in Heather's mouth...the Heathercam.



2:39 This is the Turkeycam.



2:44 I finally decide to sit down and eat. All that was left was a few olives. Dad wouldn't even let me have one.



And this is a closeup of the exciting scene.



2:51 Losing the olive to my Dad made me depressed so it was back to the bottle for me (this is the Ericcam). Guess it's another few months in rehab now. At least now you all know why all of us drink so heavily.



So that was our Thanksgiving. It was the least violent one, that's for sure since the only person who had to go to the emergency room was Heather for trying to grab some turkey. Dad is a biter.