Weekend plans comin' together.

First, OK, happy St. Patrick's day to everyone. In celebration of the day, I'll warn you. Just don't click on this. Mmmmm, I figured as much. Happy Holidays!

OK, now that that's over with. I filled out my census form last night. What a letdown. I opened it up and it looked like the friggin' SAT. I was expecting all sorts of tedious questions about the different aspects of my life and work. I was expecting to be angered by the invasion of my privacy. But then I started fillin' out the form and quickly realized that 90% of it was superfluous. It took about two minutes.

All they want to know is how old I am, do I own the house, my "race", which really means what color I am, and are there any other folks livin' in the house with me. Jebus, there was room for about 20 folks there. Who'd have that many people livin' in their house with them? Mormons? Mexicans? One of those fundamentalist couples that can't stop poppin' out kids, like they don't know how it happens?

Lets face it folks, there's only one race. the HUMAN race. Otherwise it's about ethnicity. When it comes to that, they only want details if you're not White. I mean, I could lay out my ethnic heritage... French Creole, German, Scots-Irish. And, being Southern, maybe there'd be some African and Cherokee in there too, but there's no space for that on the form. They only really want the dirty details of your ethnicity if you are a "minority". There's a box for Samoan, but not Scots-Irish. Hmmmm, I wonder why?

Like I said, there's space there to fill out the particulars for like 20 people who may be livin' in my house. But it's just Denise and I here, so the rest of the thing stayed blank. Yep, I filled in the info for Denise. She's been livin' here for close to three years. Then she'll have to fill out her own form when she get's around to goin' to her place and checkin' her mail. Does that mean she'll be counted twice?

Anyway, as I said, the plan for the weekend has finally come together. I've had the week off, but Denise only got half the week. She'll get off tonight, and we'll spend the night here. Then, Thursday morning, we'll drive down to Fredericksburg. We'll enjoy ourselves down there, eat some good food and drink some beer, and then we'll drive on down to San Antonio.

We've got reservations for two nights at the nice Holiday Inn on the river, with a balcony overlooking the water. Other than eating good food and having a great time, my one plan is to drive down to the Goliad mission and check it out. I've never seen it before, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Many of you may not know, not being from here, but the Goliad mission played a large part in the rebellion against Mexico in 1836. They never talk about it in the movies. They go from the heroic last stand at the Alamo to the victory at San Jacinto. But in the middle there, untold by Hollywood, there were several other battles, including the battle of Coleto Creek, and then the massacre that took place there at the Goliad. 342 some-odd men, walked out into the scrub and shot by firing squad. It's gonna be very interesting to finally see the place. It's been alive in my imagination for years.

Anyway, we plan to spend Thursday and Friday nights at the hotel, and then drive back home Saturday morning. That'll give us plenty of time to relax before we both have to go back to work on Monday. I'm sure I'll have cool pictures to show you after all that, so I'll see you again after all the merriment. Y'all be good,, and if ya can't be good, take pictures. Cheers!

Update: OK a shit storm has blown in to Denise's office, so we won't be goin' down to SA till Friday afternoon. Muh! WTF? Maybe Goliad on Saturday and Fredericksburg on Sunday, on the way home. We'll see.

Hump day again.

I'll give my first final exam of the semester today at 11:30. The rest will be Thursday and Monday. It's a busy time, with me having to grade all the papers and exams and get everything done so that the students can see their averages. I try to get it done pretty quick, so that I get it over with and post the grades on the computer. I've got an online class starting in late October, and I need to get the class web site updated by next week. Never much of a chore, but a tedious amount of time spent on the computer when I'd rather be reading blogs. Never seem to have the time to do that much these days. I've had to let a few of you slide, and I apologise for that. But hell, as soon as I get caught up, some of you have posted a dozen more things, and I'm back where I started.

Denise is flying to Kentucky to visit her kids and grand kids, and go to a friends graduation. I'll take her out to eat Chinese food at The Great Wall, and then I'll take her to the local airport so she can meet her flight. I'll be batchin' it then till she returns late Sunday night. Maybe I'll be able to get a few things done around the house. There'll be a gun show in Belton this weekend, and I'm thinkin' about a trip to Dallas on Saturday to visit a buddy and maybe see a movie. Damn, there went the idea of getting shit done. Never fails.

I'll play pool again tonight, and this time I'll see about getting a little practice in before my match. Need to end this loosing streak. My buddies tell me it's no big deal, and that they think as soon as I get used to playing again' the angles will come back to me. Need to practice, but when the hell do I have time for that? I'll have a two week break between this semester and the next, so I'll have to spend some time in a pool hall and sharpen my eye. Hell, everyone gets beat. I'm just out of practice. Makes me wish I had a pool table in the house, but every one of those I've ever seen was covered with crap, and not used for playin' pool. I've already got an expensive stair machine I never use. That's enough.

So, didn't we all love to hear ol' Amabigajackoff get his ass reamed at Columbia this week? What a silly tool! Question is, where's that sort of passion on the left when it comes to getting congress to back the fuck off and letting the soldiers do what they need to do to get the job done defeating just that same sort of asshole in Iraq?

Been surfin' the Sturmgewehr site this week between classes (and some times while I lecture - slows me down), and found an exciting little toy for sale.

That's a semi-auto Finnish Valmet assault rifle. These things were the ultimate version of the Kalashnikov, till the Israelis copied it and came out with the Galil in the late 1970s. This one shoots 7.62x39, but they also come in .223. He wants $2400 for it. Good luck dude. I'd love to have it, but not now. My M-1 Garand is on the way, and my gunsmith is putting the finishing touches on my AKS-74. And anyway, that's WAY to friggin' much money to spend on something that doesn't swallow.

If any of you are in the mood to get a really nice AK, this one is about the best one on the market today.

It's a Bulgarian SLR-106FR, which is a copy of the current Russian and Bulgarian service rifle (AK-74M), only it shoots .223. It has all the features of a current service rifle, like the current side folding stock, only it's semi-auto and shoots the NATO round. They usually want around $800 for it at gun shows. This one is up on the Sturmgewehr site for $850. Thing is, I had a dude build me one of these from parts a few years back, thinkin' that I'd never get to see a factory made model on the market. Cost me an arm and a leg, but it shoots nice. Has a heavier barrel than this one. Anyway, go for it if the mood hits ya. They're pretty cool to have. Shit, they'll probably be illegal some day, so get it while you can.

Well, I'm off. Cheers.