July 2008

Remember the Snake Lady?

rmiles7721July 13, 20081Site News
Handling serpents at the Pentecostal Church of...

Image via Wikipedia

I haven’t posted about the snake lady in quite some time. Remember her? She’s the hippie lady that worked for me. The one that missed work because her chicken died. Boy I ranted about that one. I don’t guess I have posted much about work here in quite some time. That’s more because there are folks that know me at work and also know about my blog. They don’t bother me much but what would bother me would be to have one of my superiors come by and read me ranting and cussing about something the company is/was doing. That could get ugly, particularly since I am trying to stay on a somewhat upwardly mobile track.
Anyway, I came across this story a couple of minutes ago and it got me to thinking about the snake lady…



The snake lady got that name for good reason. She and her husband, known to her and everyone else as “Snake Man” bought and sold illegal highly poisonous reptiles. They dealt with collectors, snake handlers, who the heck knows what else. Just freaky. If you called her and told her you had a snake in your yard or under the house she would drop what she was doing then and there and bolt out the door to go hang with the snakes.
I don’t like snakes. Dead ones are OK but that’s about it. Snakes sit just slightly higher on the dislike scale than spiders and other bugs do and only because they are bigger and I can see them better.
CNN also has this story up, I just came across it in the related entries. Basically they did a two year investigation and have arrested ten people including the pastor of a snake handling church in Kentucky as well as confiscating over a hundred snakes. Yuck!
Nothing like a little snake handling convention I guess. Heck, next year I might just have to go down to the Claxton Rattlesnake Roundup with Velociman hisself. Hey, and if the damned snakes don’t freak you out, go read the post at the top of his page. Made my nuts shrink up in my tummy just thinking about it.

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Silly Sunday

rmiles7721July 13, 20081Site News
African elephant

Image via Wikipedia

I absolutely dislike my grandma Trish. Occasionally she is really crazy, then last week she just disturbed me… I begged her guidance thinking about literature on the African subcontinent, but then she was all:

“Get out! I am so sick of hearing about the African subcontinent all the time!“

At first I interrupted “WHOA!” then the next day I just ran away all of a sudden. After all, she *is* my grandma and I need to make this work…

Link of the day: Business Proposal | Randomly generated by Flooble Instant Blog Post Generator

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Silly Sunday

rmiles7721July 13, 2008Site News

I very much dislike my nephew Junior. At times he is really difficult to handle, but then last week he just disturbed me… I could really use his help talking to someone about luck on the African subcontinent, but then he began yelling:

“No kidding?! I love the African subcontinent so much!“

At first I started bitching “NO WAY!” and then this morning I just ran away all of a sudden. After all, he *is* my nephew and he wants what is best for me…

Link of the day: Business Proposal | Randomly generated by Flooble Instant Blog Post Generator

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Poop Cookies…

rmiles7721July 12, 20083Site News

The wife has been experimenting the last couple of days with some recipes from Food Network or something along those lines. Check this out…

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Looks like someone took a crap on my kitchen counter. I don’t know what all is in them but cocoa is involved for sure. I was quite hesitant to eat it but being the coward loving husband I am I tried one. I always try things the wife makes unless it involves squash.

Here’s a close-up…

photo by: bytehead

Damn, how the hell did that get in with the bunch? Here’s the actual photo…

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They are actually pretty good. They are light and crunchy. I don’t usually like my cookies quite so crunchy but they are quite tasty.

…even if it does look like somebody took a squat in my kitchen…

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Yet Another Cookout…

rmiles7721July 11, 20081Travel

OK folks. I was going to spend my days off this next week (the only week in July that I actually have two days off) either in Hilton Head or Destin but I think we are going to stay in town. I would love to go to the beach but I want to conserve a bit of cash. After spending well over $6k for ten days in Florida last month I need the break anyway. Thursday I think I will take my oldest daughter to Six Flags instead. The Marine and I used to do that every couple of years and we always had a pretty good time.

We are going to host a cookout either Thursday or Friday, whatever is better for folks. I’ll send some emails out but if you don’t get one that doesn’t mean you aren’t invited it just means I don’t have your fucking email address. Shoot me an email or call me if you want to come. The number is 770-313-3231. If’n you think it’s a bad thing to post my number on the Internet, hell it’s already there anyway. Leave me a voice mail because if I don’t have you in my contact list I WON’T answer the fucking thing anyway but I will call you back. Maybe. Let me know if you want to come and I will email directions. Also tell me which day it should be. I know that Friday is probably the best day for folks since it’s a work day, but since it’s summer time I figured Thursday might be acceptable as well. I can drink Thursday since I am off Friday but I have to behave myself Friday. Not that I get drunk and act stupid or anything, I just get drunk and act stupid. Oh yeah, kids are welcome too. Gotta have small moving targets.

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Dead Bird in the Road…

rmiles7721July 11, 2008Site News

Something happened this afternoon that brought back a humorous memory. This is one of those ‘had to be there’ things that just sort of happen. My friend Madame Foo will remember it as did my wife.

A few years back we attended a funeral for a friend of mine during our teenage years. If I recall, he hung himself. Probably faced with future prospects of having to vote between Obama-McCain no doubt.

Anyhow I drove to the funeral. I don’t remember who was in the car with us besides Madame Foo and the wife, it might have been Michelle. We are driving down the road and all of a sudden Madame Foo starts hollering “bird in the road, bird in the road, DEAD BIRD IN THE ROAD” as I ran over the fucking thing. We all rolled down the road cackling at the top of our lungs, because that’s what death does for you. Humor is always a good way to deal with it. Told you you had to be there.

Anyhow, The wife and girls came up to one of my restaurants and met Bou and the boys for lunch today as she was passing through our area. Actually it was out of her way but it was nice to see her since I will most likely not be able to get off of work until 2PM Sunday and will therefore miss the little get-together Elisson is planning.

Focus…focus….don’t derail the train of thought.

So the wife leaves the girls with me and goes grocery shopping. I was almost finished with work and had just planned on heading home. Once we arrived the girls set themselves up on the computer while I decided to take a much needed nap (I will explain why it was so needed shortly). When she got home she called and asked us to come outside and help bring the groceries in, and oh by the way, I needed to bring my camera with me and see what was stuck in the grill of my car…

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Brown Smasher…er, Thrasher. The poor fuck never had a chance. It had it’s little head tucked beneath it’s wing as if it ducked at the last moment while saying “oh FUCK!”. Luckily there was no dead bird goo for me to clean off of the car. A nice clean kill. What better for roadkill stew? It never even touched the ground. Alas, I chucked the body into one of my gardens for the scavengers to fight over amongst themselves. As soon as I saw it I thought “Dead bird in the road” and repeated it to my wife while the girls, who weren’t even born around the original incident, looked at us stupidly. I didn’t show them my latest victim of course. There’s only so much a five-year-old can take.

Just call me Bird Killer. Gotta get a T-Shirt…

Work Sucks…

rmiles7721July 10, 20081Site News

This sucks. I had one day off last week. This week I had only yesterday and I had to go in for a couple of hours. I did not want to get out of bed today and damn sure don’t want to drive to work. It’s certainly going to be a busy day…

We had a power outage on Tuesday night at the store I will be at today. There is apparently no surge protector in the store so when the power came back on it fried the PSU for the computer. Wednesday is our weekly close-out day for payroll and everything else so our corporate office overnighted a computer. Just as soon as it comes in this morning I have to restore a backup from the old one and close out all of my numbers. They have to have the payroll information by 11AM so it cuts it kind of close on time.

Depending on how long my meetings last me today, I may try to get back online and post for a while.

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Charter High-Speed

rmiles7721July 10, 2008Technology

I’ve been using Charter internet access ever since it became available out here in the boondocks a few years back. Prior to that I had DSL through Bellsouth. While I liked having a static IP address (which I had to pay extra for) Charter High Speed is certainly much faster than DSL ever was, at least for me.

One of the other things I liked about it is that in order to get Charter High-Speed I don’t have to have any of their other services. I do have cable of course, but they don’t force you. With DSL, the phone company said I would have to pay for a phone line in order to get DSL. What the heck is up with that? We have two cell phones here, why would I want or even need a land line?

Anyhow, they have this limited-time offer thing going on right now that I wish I were eligible for. You can get Charter High-Speed for $14.99 a month, try the first 30 days risk-free and when you sign up online you get a $25 Shell gas gift card. The 30 day risk-free thing is a 30 day window for cancellation just in case you aren’t happy with their service.

Some other benefits to being a Charter High Speed customer include:

  • Get the fastest and most reliable Internet speeds available- Get speeds up to 5Mbps to surf up to 90X faster than 56kbps dial- up and 3X as fast as 1.5Mbps DSL!

  • Automatic protection from viruses, hackers and spam – Charter High-Speed Security SuiteÆ has the fastest response to new virus threats and best virus detection.

  • 10 e-mail accounts – enough for the whole family plus 20MB of Web space.

  • Download in seconds, not minutes plus a reliable always-on, always-fast connection.

  • Exclusive content on charter.net- get your news, weather, local movie listings and more!

Go check out the web page if you get some time and see what I am talking about.

Sponsored by Charter

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Wednesday Hero

rmiles7721July 9, 20081Site News

Sgt. Kenneth J. Schall

Sgt. Kenneth J. Schall
22 years old from Peoria, Arizona
2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division
May 22, 2005
U.S. Army
“It was very tough not to be touched by him in some way,” said Terri Schall, Sgt. Kenneth Schall’s mother.
Kenneth Schall was enrolled at Glendale Community College and was studying to become a history teacher when the country was attacked on September 11, 2001. The event spurred him to join the Army. He served a four and a half month tour in Iraq in 2004 and returned in February of 2005.
Terri Schall last spoke to her son on Mother’s Day in 2005. “He sounded great — tired — but he said he was doing OK”, she said. Sgt. Kenneth Schall died when the Humvee he was riding in was involved in an accident in Yusafiyah, Iraq.
Along with his mother, Sgt. Schall is survived by his father and two younger siblings.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
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Wordless Wednesday: Toofless

rmiles7721July 9, 20087Site News

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Look Ma, No tooth!