The Buckeyes' Summer of Schadenfreude.

Click to animate.



Starring ~ Terrell Pryor as Hogan "Tats" Hero

               OSU Prez  E. Gordon Gee as Klink, the Bell Captain Colonel

               

Disgraced former OSU coach, Jim Tressell as Sgt. I. C. Nutting-Schultz.

"LSUfreek" appears regularly in the college football blog, Every Day Should Be Saturday .  Follow him on Twitter.

Buy lots of popcorn.. it's going to be a long, fun Summer!

Darwin Day Is Upon Us..

One of the saddest things to have happened in the last couple of months was the decision by Pat Burns to 95% walk away from his Terrierman's Daily Dose blog. It's been a must read for me since being pointed there several years ago from Steve Bodio's Querencia blog.

Fortunately, Patrick's 5% is generally more useful than my 100% here, so I look forward to his too few and far between posts. Yesterday he posted this very valuable reminder that this coming Saturday, February 12 is Darwin Day! He also included this wonderfully subversive little video:


Evolution Made Us All from Ben Hillman on Vimeo.

This helps to raise my spirits some, which had been soundly dampened yesterday, by this deeply disturbing bit of news from NPR.

Chin up fellow secular humanists! All is not lost. Celebrate Darwin Day!
And hurry back, Mr. Burns.

You People Are Great!

When asked to step up, you respond with vigor.

While we're not exactly swamped with DUTCH T-Shirt orders, we've gotten more, in a short time, than I would have expected. Some people have even donated the $28 and decided to fore go the shirt so the whole amount goes to Dutch, which is cool. Other people are sending cash, with no strings (or T-Shirt orders) attached.

Thanks to bloggers Steve Bodio and Todd Birchfield our original post went nearly viral. On the first day we broke all visit records, logging 247 visitors!
We received donations from Great Britain, as someone had cross posted Steve's post- which linked our post- to the British website, The Hunting Life. We're still getting several visitors a day from that site.. and a lot of them are off to the bookstore, as many of the comments were about Dutch's landmark book, Gazehounds & Coursing. I think he may be moving a few copies this month.

I've heard from the quilt raffle organizers, and they've raised over.. well, a lot of money, and that was before you all read about it here, so a lot of money may turn into a shitlo boatload of money.

And if you follow the live traffic feed over there on the sidebar, you'll see that a goodly number of blog visitors have left via Dutch's bookstore . Dutch has confirmed one book sale... a very expensive book, in fact.. as a direct result of our post.

So.. why not keep up with the good news:

Buddy came home from the hospital on Saturday, and in Dutch's own words, "is on the mend". The snowball effect of which is that Dutch was able to bring out his hounds yesterday.. hounds who hadn't run in nearly a month.. to put the fear of god your deity of choice into a few jackrabbits. We took this opportunity to give Dutch his own shirt. He likes it, and thinks everybody should get one! ;o)

Other than the fact we had to walk 2 hours before jumping the first one, a good time was had by all. We'll be doing it again tomorrow.

Best Little Wh.. Bath House in Texas.

One of the reasons we like to park at our friend, Sherita's place is this awesome shower. It's not a stall... nosireebob! This... room.. replaced a common stall. Walk in, sit... or stand... and let the two shower heads drench you.

OK, maybe it's not the coolest shower in Texas, but I'll bet it's the coolest in Coleman County, because Sherita did all of the construction herself. And not just the shower, but the whole damn bathroom!

See, not only does Sherita breed Borzois that kick ass in just about any kind of running competition you can enter a hound in, but she's also an independent contractor, who can be found up on somebody's roof one day, and under a house in a, uh "world of shit" as it were, the next.

She writes about her home repair and construction adventures in her blog, which I've had on my blog list for quite some time. It's mostly to write up her dogs, but I get the most entertainment from the stories like the one linked above, and her observations on the human carnival.

Sherita's hospitality has been appreciated by us gypsies for a couple of years now. I mean, how do you thanks someone who's generosity extends so far as to install a 30 amp outlet on her house for us to plug in to?

I guess this is a start. :o)

My Last Post on BarkObamaBlog.

Assuming there is not another election theft in the offing, Bark Obama Blog will go off the air on Wednesday, having outlived its usefulness, and served its purpose. I gotta say, it was fun being a small part of it. I didn't post much, but I hope I did my share.

Since not everyone who reads this blog reads Bark Obama, (and shame on you!), I thought I'd reprise my final pre-election post there. It's entitled:


Last Minute Advice for All My Republican Friends.

Both of you. You're uncomfortable with the McPain/Calin ticket. I know... I can read your body language. But you just can't bring yourself to vote for Obama/Biden. I understand. I once voted for John Anderson. If you're truly conflicted, I have just the ticket for you: Bob Barr. Saw him on PBS NewsHour a couple of weeks ago.. he's just the guy for you. In fact, if you've got friends with the same hesitations about the 'Cainster let 'em know that a vote for Bob Barr will make them feel oh-so-good. The more the better. Really. Do it. Do it tomorrow. Lots and lots of Republican votes for Bob Barr. Ignore for a moment he's a friend of Al Franken's. So is Gordon Liddy, and we don't hold that against Al. (Although, we might should...).

Better than not voting.

I was listening to Radio Times last week, and the discussion was with a panel of three non-voters. These guys not only don't vote for President; they don't vote for anything. One guy's wife was an elected school board official and he didn't even vote for her! Their reasoning was the usual nonsense: Not happy with the choices. It doesn't make any difference, I don't live in a battleground state, yada yada yada.

I've only heard one person give a compelling reason for not voting: (Warning- Not work-safe, and definitely not for the little ones...)

And he's dead.

So get out there and do it tomorrow.. (if you weren't smart-as-whips like some of us were and already voted!)

I Read Blog for Bark Obama.

Well whaddya know.... news that will impress about 85% of our friends:

My partisan leanings have caught the attention of those lovable curmudgeons over at Bark Obama , and they have had the audacity to invite me in to their circle. You may have noticed that the widget in the sidebar has changed slightly.

Who are the Bark Obama writers? Well, just just check out this roster!. That's an all star cast of the folks who, when they're not proselytising on the merits of our next President, are writing the stuff you read the most.. on blogs, in books, and in magazines... about your pets.

And my non-dog aquaintances are always telling me to get a life. Hell... see? We got life!

Check it out, for sure.

Bone Appetít

We having Chow for dinner?

Interesting thread floating around the portion of the blogosphere that I hang around in... dog for dinner. Read Patrick's interesting piece here, and Steve Bodio's here. Further links to related posts and articles at the respective blogs.

Save me the tenderloin!

Jambalaya and the Crawfish Pie and the Filé Gumbo...

...And lure coursing at DebMar Farms near Bush, Lousiana. Nice field, huh? When we were here pre-Katrina, you couldn't see across this field. 14 double-trailer logging trucks, and innumerable bonfires later.. you have a pretty good lure coursing field.

We arrived on Thursday, and Friday morning drove to New Orleans for brunch at the Court of the Two Sisters. We stuffed ourselves at the buffet and the egg station (tip: creole seafood omelet.. excellent) to the extent that we didn't get back to the car in time and collected a pretty, orange parking ticket. $20. Expensive parking. Cheaper than a seat belt violation in New Mexico, however.

Saturday broke warm, windy, and humid. A tad uncomfortable, but a far cry from the snows of a week before in Edgewood.

We were visited by Matt Mullenix and family. Matt is a contributor at the Querencia blog, is an avid falconer, and owns a whippet, Rina, from our hosts this weekend, the Bahms. You can see Matt's take on the blogger "meet-up" here. And here they are:

Unfortunately, Matt and family had plans for the evening, so missed the crawfish boil, and the live band- which had its act cut short by a visit from the local authorities who said they could hear them "five miles away". All in all, a fun evening. A fun weekend. And here's a wildlife pic from the weekend:

Not the rare, Ivory Billed Woodpecker, but its relative, the Pileated Woodpecker. Caught it flying overhead on Saturday morning; undoubtedly looking for all those pines that used to be here.

Today, we went to Louisiana Veterinary Referral Clinic to have Rally checked out. She didn't check out well. The fixator was loose, and she had a lot of swelling around the tibia. She's sporting a new $500 look. Pics as soon as I take 'em.

"You Puttin' Me On?"

Here you go. The best thing to do when you're blocking (as opposed to blogging), is to just put it aside for a couple of days, let it ferment, and suddenly it's all clear and ready to go. If my home page is any indication, there's a whole lot of blocking goin' on.... as I see nothing new for several days from Patrick at Terriermandotcom, nor Steve at Querencia, nor Christie at Dogged, nor even Brian at MGoBlog. In fact, the only new post is from Andrew at Regal Vizsla , and that's because he and his wife just returned from a most extraordinary "vacation". They're back in the Bronx, but their luggage is still somewhere in Mongolia. It'd be well worth your while to check it out.

But this post is supposed to be about my trip up to Magdalena to meet the above mentioned Steve Bodio... and the reason I was blocking, was that for two days I was trying to compose a post to impress the famous (in his fairly large circle) writer. Finally, last evening, it hit me: He's not going to try and impress me with his photography! ;-) So this post will include mostly what I do best: pictures. That first image up there isn't mine, but I'll get into that later.

I arrived in Magdalena about 9 am, and after a little searching, found Steve and Libby's house. First I met the dogs... the famous Tazis, from Kazakhstan, and Plummer, the English lurcher, (and Steve, correct me if I don't have it spelled correctly), and the little wired dachshund, whose name I forget... did I mention I'm terrible with names?... but remember that she's 13, and has her own set of steps up to the overstuffed easy chair.

UPDATE: Lily! Her name is Lily. Thanks Steve.

I've seen so many images on the Querencia blog of the interior of Steve and Libby's that it was hard to appreciate that this was my first visit. What I wasn't prepared for was the amount of art on display... pretty much on every exposed wall surface - nature and wildlife and other works. And sculpture on most horizontal surfaces. Other rooms contained books... oh so many books; but that was to be anticipated, and finally, the gun room. Steve has written extensively about vintage firearms, shotguns mostly. I was allowed to examine a late 1800's British shotgun, and it was interesting to see the fine detail work up close and not through the glass of a museum case.

But I came up here to run some jackrabbits with Sandia and the Tazis, so after a breakfast at the Magdalena Cafe & Steakhouse, Steve and Libby piled their pack into their vintage Ford pickup truck, and I followed back down Highway 60, to the Lee Ranch, where they have exclusive and unlimited access to a couple thousand acres of pretty good jackrabbit habitat.

That's what they said, anyway. The ranch is on a huge, flat plain between the mountains that overlook Socorro to the East, and the Magdalenas to the West.

It certainly looked like good rabbitat. (I made that up.) So off we hiked, paralleling the fence. My first hint that this might not go as well as expected was when Steve said, "we've usually jumped a couple by the time we've gotten to this point". I should mention that it was now close to noon on the warmest day in this neck of the woods since October... if it wasn't 70, it was very close.

We changed direction, and headed north for a few hundred yards, then veered back toward the vehicles. Finally, I spotted a jack, but it had jumped over a hundred yards away, and was headed north. Sandia saw it, but I had him on a slip, and didn't release him. Steve's dogs didn't see it until it was almost out of sight. That's all they needed; away they went. I held Sandia. They came back fairly quickly, and we walked back to the cars, and the big stock tank which is a regular ritual for the Tazis, and especially Plummer, who's getting on in years and heats up pretty easily.

I finally let Sandia go so I could shoot some pictures. He wasn't much interested in the stock tank.

Back in the vehicles again, we returned to Magdalena to plan the rest of the day. I had to get back to Socorro and the rest of the herd who, as it turned out, Steve and Libby wanted to meet, so the plan was hatched. After Steve fed the pigeons, we'd go to the RV park, walk the dogs, (it's always good to have dog walk helpers!), and then we'd go to lunch at El Sombrero. That's when the day got interesting.

Steve offered to drive so we wouldn't need two vehicles. I got "shotgun", and Libby got the middle, and we headed for the restaurant at the north end of Socorro. I had noticed, when we were still in Magdalena, that Steve didn't bother with his seat belt, which is probably normal for the denizens of that little, out of the way village. He also wasn't using it as he drove to the restaurant. I didn't bother with mine either, so when the Socorro cop passed us, I wondered: do they enforce the seat belt law in Socorro? Maybe I should slip it over my shoulder anyway.

"WHOooop -WHOooop!!"

Guess enforcement's high on their list in Socorro. Be it safety or Revenue Enhancement, Steve's donating fifty bucks to the town coffers.

That little detour out of the way, and it was on to El Sombrero, or more correctly, Frank and Lupe's El Sombrero . We'd been told by a local friend that this place wasn't any good. Steve and Libby say it's the best place in Socorro for Mexican food. (The reviews at the link are, uh... equally mixed). Personally, my lunch was excellent, but if I'd read the menu description of the stuffed sopapilla completely, I'd have noticed the potatoes stuffed in there along with the excellent carne adovada. Add the rice and the refried beans, and we were a little heavy on the starch.

Lunch conversation, covered a range of topics from politics (we agreed to disagree), and food, and complaints about the Socorro police. It was probably the most fulfilling day of the entire 6+ weeks I've spent in New Mexico. I truly wish Margaret had been here, too.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here's Steve, Libby, and the hounds in front of their casa. (That doxie's around there somewhere, too). Like I said, I'm lousy with names, but will fill them in if Steve sends them. Looking forward to his thoughts on the day.

I'll probably put up a new slideshow next door with highlights from this trip, and maybe the whole New Mexico trip.


;-)

Wow! A Record-Setting Day.

(click to enlarge)

You guys are awesome. You must really like Sandia. Or was it the old Deerhound? Whatever the motivation, yesterday set an all time record for visits to this site. 126 visits! Only a few weeks ago, the daily average was around 18-22. Do the math. The traffic increase seems to be connected to our westward movement into New Mexico. Hmmm.

And based on the new country counter we've put on the sidebar, we're actually getting readers from other coutries.. I mean other countries besides the Netherlands. ;-) South Africa? Bahrain? Austria? Yemen? Sweden? Argentina? Vietnam?...... Vietnam? (No, I don't have any children there trying to hunt me down... that I know of.) A quick check on SiteMeter shows that many of the visitors from these other countries... 30 different countries!, actually spend time here, and read stuff. Others, for whatever deviant reasons, get here from Google searches that take them to the screwing deer photo I used in a previous post. Many others come here from Patrick's blog, or Steve Bodio's Querencia, which is odd, since he doesn't have a link to us there.

Anyway... thanks for visiting. I'll try to make it worth your while to keep coming back. For instance, I'm taking Sandia out again today, so we can beat the possible "wintry mix" that's coming tomorrow.

Christmas Fark.

I just love Fark. Follow the link to see holiday stories about:

• Slow news day: Woman discovers she is allergic to Christmas trees


• Humbug, the law that banned Christmas


• It wouldn't be Christmas on Fark without at least one story of a drunk naked guy plowing his car into a garage. Happy Holidays, everybody


• 6.2 magnitude quake hits Japan. No word on possible tsunami. Large Caucasian man in red suit seen near epicenter wanted for questioning


• LAPD arrests 280-pound man dressed in Santa hat, red lace camisole, purple G-string, and black leg warmers for DUI. Thankfully, this article has no pics


• 
  
  Man missing in the wilderness near Humptulips found safe just in time for Christmas. In related news, submitter now can't stop saying 'Humptulips' (I've actually been in Humptulips! - DG)

...and some non-Christmas stories:

• Man demonstrating how he would kill companion with a nail gun shoots himself

Check it out. Lots more where that came from.

Football.

John Runyan.
Steve Hutchinson.
Charles Woodson.
Ian Gold.
Steve Breaston.
Amani Toomer.
Braylon Edwards.
Anthony Thomas.
Brian Griese.
Jim Backus.
Drew Henson

These are just off the top of my head... Oh yeah, and this guy...


...and there are dozens more. All stars, or at least valuable role players in the National Football League. What's their connection? Obvious to most sports fans: they all played at Michigan. And were coached by Lloyd Carr. Hmmm. Maybe he was better than the "experts" thought. His 13 year record would certainly lead you to believe it.

Lloyd retired this past Monday after 13 years as head coach. He's been getting a lot of praise this week, much of it from the same fan sites, and bloggers who screamed for his head for the last 4 or 5 years. I'm not going to add to the craziness.. You can find all the good stuff at just about any sports site you wish to Google.. ESPN.com, Sporting News, Freep.com, etc. But I did want to point out a new blog I've added to the blogroll column at the right. MGoBlog is maybe one of the best written blogs- of any genre- that I've read. I've listed it below Bodio's and TerrierMan's blog because, well, because it's just that good. Even if you're not a Michigan fan, you will enjoy Brian Cook's posts. In fact mgoblog scooped the mainstream media on news of Lloyd Carr's impending retirement- almost a week before it happened.

Meanwhile, in the real world of Division II football, where national champions are determined the old fashioned way, with a tournament, my Grand Valley Lakers will be hosting North Dakota this weekend in a second round game. It's difficult to remember back that far, but North Dakota was the last school to hand the Lakers a loss. That was back in 2004! If you haven't been paying attention that's 38 straight without a loss, and includes the past two DII championships. I'm hoping for 39, 40, and 41... and 3... over the next couple of weeks.

Go Lakers!

You! Yeah You! You Know Who You Are!

Patrick's got you nailed with this recent post. Should be seeing some of you in Oklahoma this weekend, but...

Another Good Blog

I noticed Christie Keith's "Dogged" blog on Patrick Burns' blog list this morning. I've known who Christie is for many, many years from postings on the Scottish Deerhound discussion list, but I've not looked at any of her writings prior to this.

I figured, if Patrick likes it... it must be good! And the post I read today was damned good. All about a more than slightly disengenuous marketing campaign by a well known pharmaceutical company. Good enough to add "Dogged" to the blogroll on the right. There many more good dog-related, (and some entertaining non-dog-related, as well), posts. Check it out.