Snow week

Well, the snow just doesn't want to go away. Today was the fourth day of cold and skating to and from work is becomming a habit. The traffic was so bad on I-5, people abandoned their vehicles in the middle of the freeway. The morning news showed cars slowly winding around the parked vehicles. Wierd.

Snow Minute

Well, winter has arrived in Western Washington. Already the rainest month on record in many places, today we added to snow to help pad the total. Snow in Western Washington is really crummy. First, it has to rain thoroughly, to get the base wet and icy. Then, it snows really big flakes for about 2-4 inches. Then, it rains everything into a big mushy mess. Last, it freezes. So, tomorrow it is skating time.

Sometimes, so many accidents clutter the road, the cars have to wait in line for their turn. Two deep accidents are in really poor taste and Washington drivers are usually polite about their spinouts and fender benders. Makes the hour commute up to three hours. Can't wait.

Check the Munster's House pic on my pic blog.

Other than Thanksgiving

It appears the war in Iraq isn't being disguised very well anymore. The body count seems to hover between 100-200 daily now, with the latest revenge being the act of buring alive random people. My question is obvious? What are we doing there?

Not to knock the world's greatest superpower, but in Iraq, we appear to be the world's greatest superpowerless. All of our efforts seem to contribute to nothing more than adding victims to the body count. If we can't even protect ourselves from Iraq "religious" groups, how can we protect them from each other?

We could divide Iraq and tell the minorities in each section to move. Then we could put up walls between them. But, would it eliminate anything? These people desperately want to kill each other, almost as much as they want to kill us. And so far our contribution is probably more in providing the weapons they use against each other than any other single thing.

Should we leave Iraq? What difference would it make other than removing both weapons and targets?

Thanksgiving

Today I'm cooking my first ever turkey. I have had turkey as long as I can remember, which makes about 57 stright Thanksgivings with someone else making the turkey. So, I'm thankful for all of you turkey makes out there.

So far, making a turkey seems to be going about as well as I would expect of someone clueless about such an effort. I started by thawing the turkey in the back of the fridge. Only problem with that, the back of the fridge more likely freezes stuff than thaws it. So, I had to microwave thaw it enough to get those little barzy things apart and throw away the throwaway. Then, time for a swim.

Stuffing. Never stuffed a turkey either. Well, I've stuffed the stuffing in, but never made the stuffing to stuff.

Ever try to find directions on how to mix stuffing on the stuffing box? They have all sorts of fancy recipies for the stuffing, even stringing a birdie feeder with it. But nothing on how to prepare and stuff a turkey. But, to the rescue. The paper thing attached to one-time pan I picked up to cook the turkey in had stuffing directions. AMAZING! Now, does hot water mean boiling water or just hot tap water?

Basting the turkey. Says use spread. It lied. I melted some spread in the microwave. Put it in a cup and on for 50 seconds to get it melted. Only problem, none of the butter was left in the cup after fifty seconds. Well, the microwave needed a cleaning anyway. Tried a cube, like when making cookies; worked just fine. So, don't microwave the squishy spread stuff.

How often to baste? Easy. Every time I think about it. Baste. Works out to be once every 40 minutes or so. The one-time pan also said to cover the turkey with foil, not the plastic lid. Since I couldn't get the plastic lid to fasten tightly before I slipped the turkey in the oven, that was a gimmie.

How long to cook? Well, it has a pop-up thing that I check every time I baste. So, taking the rule of thumb, also on the paper, a 14 pound turkey should take 3.5 hours. Which means it is over half done. I'm winning.

Election 2008

The day after elections is one of the best, as the smut commercials are gone. What a relief as it seems the candidates should all be in jail for all of the rotten things they are reported to do, or for all the rotten things they lie about against each other.

I'm very concerned about 2008, as Bush finally goes away. Maybe his little brother can run. "Jeb Bush - It's my turn" would make a cute button. With Bush out of favor, way out, the Dems should have a cake walk. Maybe they can trott Kerry the Clown back out and make it interesting. Personally, I'm rooting for Hil. Let Bill sleep in the First Lady's suite.

Actually, with the lack of decent leadership, maybe we should look toward actors for president. After all, it did work for Uncle Ronnie. Who would make a good president?

When Kevin Kline was president in Dave, he balanced the budget and started a jobs program. OK. He was very conservative. Better than a budget blowout and a war in Iraq. Imagine Phoebe Cates as the first lady. (with clothes on) So, one of them played a conservative.

When Michael Douglas was president, he went for fuel emmission reductions and gun control, oh, and flag burning. Imagine Katherine Zeta-Jones as the first lady. Would improve the TV ratings. He could get Martin Sheen as his chief of staff and Michael J Fox as his advisor. Hmmm, too liberal? Maybe a conservative running mate would help.

How about a Michael-Kevin ticket? With Phoebe and Katherine. Cool, but... Not dignified enough?

Dignified actors. OK. Morgan Freeman. He's done a couple of presidents and he was very dignified. Maybe with Denzel Washington, like when he was the football coach. Stong and dignified. Be different.

Too bad James Garner is too old. He acted a good president with Jack Lemon. He could run with Jack Elam, but he is gone, too. Maybe Sally Field. They did well together in a movie. And we could still really like her.

William Shatner. He could get Leonard for the VEEP. Be entertaining. Too theatrical?

Hey, Harrison Ford. Should have thought of him first. With Tom Hanks. Yeah, baby. Maybe box office translates into votes. And they are at the top.

If we could relax the out of country birth thing, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sean Connery. Arnold has the same experience as Uncle Ronnie had. And who wouldn't want James Bond watching over us?

Well, I'm out of ideas. Back to Mrs. Bill and Heintz 57.