Best. Thanksgiving. Ever.

Cruising around my feed reader, I see everybody enumerating what they're thankful for. For me, a list like that just doesn't really do it. The people that need thanked have been, the people that need hugged and kissed have gotten them. For my Thanksgiving rambling, I'm goin a different direction. I'm gonna talk turkey. And everything that goes with it.

I come from a family where food is love, and my beltline will corroborate my story. I've always loved Thanksgiving, because it's always been a holiday where the whole family is together, and there's never less than three people in the kitchen, and everybody else is standing around swapping lies, catching up, and just being... family.

This year, as we were planning the holiday, was shaping up to be very different. It was going to be Bex's first Thanksgiving away from home, and she is her family's designated holiday cook, so she was planning on spending the whole day at her mother's house cooking. Her mother's entire guest list was six adults and a young child. This will be important in a minute.

My family's traditional large guest list withered to nothing this year as well, as my grandmother is in a rehab facility for a couple more weeks, Mama's younger sister and her husband went to spend Thanksgiving with his family, and Mama's older sister and her husband are EMTs who had to work the holiday this year. That meant Mama and Dad had a guest list of five, including myself and Bex.

Thanksgiving dinner for six and five is darn near impossible, without 3 months worth of leftovers. Trust me here.

Bex's mom jokingly said we should combine Thanksgiving, which planted the seed that was to become today's mighty feast. That, and it was going to be the first time that she and I drew virtually sole cooking duty for the holiday. No grandparents, no major parental assistance, just us. Which was a riot. Throughout the day, family and food filtered in, introductions were made all around, and our families, who'd never really met before, meshed like old friends. It was just like Thanksgivings from when I was younger, football and snacks, stories and lies, and lots of laughter and love. Some serious bonding time with my future niece (seriously, 3 year olds find me riotously funny and good company), and a beer run with one of her brothers (drinkin beer with the brother in law... I said it was the Best. Thanksgiving. Ever.) Said brother in law and I are planning on going shooting Saturday while the women are handling dresses for the wedding, and her other brother would have been invited too, but his uber-cool job is taking him away for a couple days. His loss.

All told, I'm amazed at how perfectly everything worked out, and am still grinning ear to ear, over six hours after everybody went home. The more time I spend with her, and with our families, the more I see exactly how good my life is, and is going to be. And those people, those memories, and a life well-lived and full of love, THOSE are the things to be thankful for, because they're the only things that matter.

Go make a turkey sandwich and hug somebody who matters.

Lokidude

Comment policy

Due to some recent kerfluffles in the blogosphere, I feel it necessary to lay down the official House of Dude Comment Policy (for what few comments I currently get).

In brief:

Dissent is cool. Asshattery is not.

Have an opinion. Bring it with you. Bring some facts for backup, and we'll have ourselves a grand debate. You prove me wrong, and I'll even admit it, right here in public.

Ad hominem attacks will be in the least deleted, or, if they're laughable enough, will be held up to the light to expose the stupidity of both the argument and the person making it.

Links to ad hominem attacks, or to anti-American or anti-freedom drivel will be summarily deleted, or rerouted to a site of my choosing, at my sole discretion.

Be adult, and play nice.

Lokidude

Epic Visitors...

While I was out making my appointed rounds today at work, it seems I had a visitor. When I got back to my office, I had a little note on my desk.



That's right, John Linebaugh himself came to see me. I'm excited and nervous to call him back tomorrow. All I know is that he wants to talk to me about a gun.

Watch me twitch impatiently.

Lokidude

Everything gets hotter when the sun goes down

It's Baby Brother's birthday today, so for On Stage Thursday, I'm going with a song that he and I actually got pounded out as a duet, and sing pretty much anytime we're together. I don't know how far he got on the guitar part, but I had the bass work down solid.



Happy Birthday, bro!

Lokidude

National Ammo Day AAR

Back from making my Ammo Day rounds. The damage is presented below.



That's 15 rounds of Remington 00 buck, 500 rounds of .22lr, 100 Hornady XTP .45 bullets, and a set of .45ACP Hornady dies.

Unca Loki's got a box o boom!

Lokidude

100 Rounds

It's November 19, which means, among other things, that it's National Ammo Day! The basic premise and goal of National Ammo Day is to remind retailers, and hopefully our elected representatives, how large and powerful an economic and voting block American gun owners are. This is accomplished via the purchase of at least 100 rounds of ammunition, or the components to reload that amount. Personally, I prefer the local mom and pop shop, but really, the retailer doesn't matter. What matters is the purchase.

So step to it.

Lokidude

"She wanted to know what it felt like..."

I've been withholding comment in the matter of Shaniya Davis, simply because I can't come up with enough apologies to my mama to cover the words I'd use if I started on that topic.

But there's another case that's as disturbing in my mind, that I feel safe offering commentary on, the murder of Elizabeth Olten.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Blessed with a Friday off school, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes, all the while plotting the right time for a murder, they said.

That time arrived the evening of Oct. 21, when Bustamante strangled 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten without provocation, cut the girl's throat and stabbed her, prosecutors said.

Why?

Why, indeed? That's a question for folks a lot smarter than me. I don't know that I want to understand. If I understood, it might start to make sense, and that's a possibility I'm unwilling to contemplate.

"Ultimately, she stated she wanted to know what it felt like," Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified Wednesday during a court hearing over the slaying.

My only analysis remains that, for some reason, this 15 year old girl is fundamentally broken. A girl who should be swooning over her latest crush, and scheming with her friends, instead was planning a brutal murder, to find out "what it felt like."

I have no desire to find out what taking human life feels like, and honestly, if that's something WANT to know, I consider you irreparably broken.

God rest the souls of these little girls, and be with the grieving in their time of need.

Lokidude.

Tuesday! Tuesday! Tuesday!

It's Tuesday, and Tuesday means another edition of GunNuts Radio! Details at the link.

Be there or be quadrilateral!

Lokidude

SCHWEEET!

Larry Correia mentions that gears are moving for an MHI film! How cool is that?

For a little mental exercise, me and some fellow nerds started assembling the cast. What we have will be posted here. Suggestions are, of course, most welcome.

Characters with a * are my personal submissions.

Owen Zastava Pitt - Clive Owen*
Sam Haven - Sam Elliott* (backed by JayG, as I read some of my notes)
Milo Anderson - Alan Tudyk*
Agent Franks - Adam Baldwin*
Earl Harbinger - Terence Stamp
Ray Shackleford - Gary Busey
Susan Shackleford - Catherine Zeta Jones
Julie Shackleford - Rachel Nichols
Dorcas - Judy Dench
Trip - Don Cheadle
Albert Lee - John Leguizamo (Yeah, I know Lee's supposed to be Asian. Make me a better suggestion, then.)

Still plenty of roles to cast, so help me out.

Lokidude

Newsflash!

Attention, everyone who panic-bought any and all guns and ammo they could get their hands on: You overpaid. Dramatically. Prices have gone down, a lot. I don't care how much you paid for your gun. I don't care that you never fired it. It still is classified as "used." Which is how you have to price it now that you have to liquidate to cover for your panic stupidity. No, I also don't care that your wife will kill you if you lose that much money on the deal. If I can buy a brand-new-in-my-local-gunstore complete AR that's at least the equivalent of yours, for $250 less than you're asking, there's no way in hell your gun is selling.

Seriously, pay your stupid tax, shut the hell up, and don't be a dumbass next time around.

Lokidude

Happy Birthday, Devil Dogs!

234 years old today, and still kicking ass like you're not a day over 150. Keep it up, boys, it is noticed and appreciated.

This Bud's for you, as it were.

Lokidude

No charges, but I still find fault

It seems that no charges will be filed in the matter of a shooting death at Colorado's Rampart Range.

So, the gun suffered a mechanical failure which caused it to go off. Okay, I buy that. Happens sometimes, due to failures in maintenance, design, or some other failure. But that does not excuse the shooter from fault. Whether or not he pulled the trigger, he pointed a gun at another person, and that gun went off, striking and killing his friend.

The Four Rules are sacred and inviolate for a reason. This shooting involved at least a violation of Rule 2, and also, I would say, Rule 1.

The Rules save lives. Follow them and live.

Lokidude

RIP, Jim

Jim inked his own death warrant this morning.

Brother, know that you died for a greater good.

*snicker*

Lokidude

Two from the Crue!

It's been a good day, and I'm in a great mood. Good moods require good mood music, and around here, that means Motley Crue. I think that the most flat-out fun I've ever had at a rock show was when I took my friend J to see Cruefest in '08. It was all about girls, booze, rock, and just an all-around good time. Since I'm in such a good mood, I'm pulling another twofer tonight, one old, one new. No explanations required, just pour your favorite brew and rock like tomorrow doesn't matter.

Girls, Girls, Girls

Motley Crue - Girls Girls Girls
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Saints of Los Angeles


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Lokidude