Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Funny Snake Story

Found this cute snake story and wanted to share it:

A Texas shopowner who loved to fish went out on a lake one morning but after numerous bites without gaining a fish he ran out of worms.

Then he saw a cottonmouth with a frog in his mouth. Frogs being good bass bait and knowing the snake couldn’t bite him with the frog in his mouth he grabbed him right behind the head, took the frog, and put it in his bait bucket.

Now the dilemma was how to release the snake without getting bitten. So, he grabbed his bottle of "Jack Daniels" and poured a little whiskey in its mouth.

The cottonmouth's eyes rolled back, he went limp.

The shopowner released the snake into the lake without incident and carried on fishing using the frog.

A little later, he felt a nudge on his foot. There was that same snake with two frogs in his mouth.

Snakey want a drinky?

Blessing of the Fleets

Every Spring during the National Cherry Blossom Festival the United States Navy Memorial hosts its annual Blessing of the Fleets ceremony as a tribute to our nation’s rich maritime heritage and the men and women who have contributed to its growth and success. The ceremony's highlight occurs when Sailors from the U.S. Navy's Ceremonial Guard proceed across the Memorial Plaza's "Granite Sea" to pour water from the Seven Seas and the Great Lakes into the surrounding fountains "charging" them to life and ushering in the spring season.

But more important to me the White House Mess' Navy Culinary Specialists serve Navy Bean Soup! Nothing is better than a nice big bowl of "Navy" Navy Bean Soup. A long tradition that isn't continued every often today was the serving of Navy Bean Soup with eggs to order every Saturday morning breakfast. Wish they still did that!

Here's the White House recipe:

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Our Veteran's and their wars

We celebrate Veteran's Day 11 November every year as the United States and I've often wondered what wars all those Vet's came from. Well there are a lot of them since we've been fighting almost every year since 1776. We seem to always be sending our serviceman, and women, "over there" (a lot of those fighting years have really been "over here" warring against the peeps here first - the Native Americans).

So here is a list of all of ours wars, expeditions, campaigns, occupations, operations and what nots where our brave men and women have fought, died, lost and won:

American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
Oconee War (1784)
Northwest Indian War (1785-1795)
Quasi-War (1796-1800)
First Barbary War (1801-1805)
War of 1812 (1812-1815)
Second Barbary War (1815)
First Seminole War (1817-1818)
Arikara War (1823)
Winnebago War (1827)
Black Hawk War (1832)
First Sumartran Expedition (1832)
Second Seminole War (1835-1842)
Texas Revolution (1836)
Second Sumatran Expedition (1838)
Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
Cayuse War (1847-1855)
Pitt River Expedition (1850)
Apache Wars (1851-1900)
Bombardment of San Jual del Norte (1854)
Third Seminole War (1856-1858)
Yakima War (1855-1858)
Rogue River Wars (1855-1856)
Second Opium War (1856-1859)
Paiute War (1860)
Navajo Wars (1861-1864)
American Civil War (1861-1865)
Dakota War (1862)
Colorado War (1863-1865)
Battles of Shimonoeski (1863-1864)
Snake War (1864-1868)
Powder River Expedition (1865)
Red Cloud's War (1866-1868)
Comanche Campaign (1867-1875)
Korean Expedition (1871)
Modoc War (1872-1873)
Red River War (1874-1875)
Black Hills War (1876-1877)
Nez Perce War (1877)
Bannock War (1878)
Cheyenne War (1878-1879)
Sheepeater Indian War (1879)
White River War (1879-1880)
Ghost Dance War (1890-1891)
Spanish-American War (1898)
Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902)
Moro Rebellion (1899-1913)
Boxer Rebellion (1900)
Occupations of Honduras (1903-1925)
Occupation of Cuba (1906-1934)
Occupation of Nicaragua (1910-1933)
Mexican Revolution (1914-1919)
Occupation of Haiti (1915-1934)
Occupation of Dominican Republic (1916-1924)
World War I (1917-1918)
Russian Civil War (1918-1920)
World War II (1941-1945)
Cold War (1947-1991)
Greek Civil War (1947-1949)
First Indochina War (1950-1954)
Korean War (1950-1953)
Second Indochina War (1953-1975)
First Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954-1955)
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis (1958)
1958 Lebanon Crisis (1958)
Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Invasion of the Dominican Republic (1965-1966)
Korean DMZ Conflict (1966-1969)
USS Liberty Incident (1967)
War on Drugs (1972-present)
SS Mayaguez Incident (1975)
Angolan Civil War (1975-1976)
Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-1981)
Soviet War in Afghanistan (1979-1989)
Nicaraguan Civil War (1981-1990)
Invasion of Grenada (1983)
Invasion of Panama (1989-1990)
Lebanese Civil War (1982-1984)
1981 Gulf of Sidra Incident (1981)
Action in the Gulf of Sidra (1986)
Iran-Iraq War (1987-1989)
Gulf War (1990-1991)
Iraqi No-Fly Zones (1991-2003)
Somali Civil War (1992-1994)
Bosnian War (1993-1995)
Operation Uphold Democracy (1994)
Bombings of Afghanistan and Sudan (1998)
Kosovo War (1998-1999)
Global War on Terrorism (2001-present)
War in Afghanistan (2001-present)
Yemen (2002)
Insurgency in the Philippines (2002-present)
War in Somalia (2002-present)
Iraq War (2003-2011)
War in North-West Pakistan (2004-present)
Second Liberian Civil War (2003)
2004 Haitian Rebellion (2004)
Operation Enduring Freedom - Trans Sahara (2006- present)
Somalia (2007)
Third Libyan Civil War (2011)
Operation Inherent Resolve military intervention against ISIL (2014)

So let us raise a cry in praise for all of our Veteran's - those dear dead, forgotten, living and still fighting!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Advising or Nagging?

Parents advise, it’s our job and we do it well, even continuing when our children grow up and move on in their lives. You know how to do it: Turn right at that corner; you should buy this it’s better; say Please; don’t yell at the kid, etc. We’re well practiced at it and we never get tired of it. We call it advising, our kids called in nagging. Well we don’t nag do we?

But, the shoe fit’s the other foot too.

Last February Anna and I went to California to visit my Mom, sister and brother. It was a great trip and I had a blast until Anna saw me get my comeuppance. I love my Mom to bits, she’s 85 and still sharp as a tact and she has years and years of experience taking care of her kids - including how to nag, whoops advise, you to death. On a rainy Saturday morning Anna and I took my Mom shopping out there in the desert (wow, there are a lot of stores out there). I drove, Mom sat shotgun and Anna sat in the back seat where she had a find old time listening to my Mom advise her number one son.

You don’t want to go to that market there’s a better one down the street; your going to fast slow down; turn left no right no left at that corner you just passed; put you coat on it’s cold; on and on she advised me and Anna sat in the back seat roaring. All I could do was simmer and say Yes Mom, over and over. I was being nagged (advised) by the best nagger (adviser) ever! After too many years I was getting again what I had been giving my kids for years!

On the plane trip home to Virginia Anna regaled me with her new insights to my life with my Mom. She just enjoyed it too much, much more than I liked. But it’s true - you never get too old to be “advised” by your parents and you have to take it - that’s the rule.

Do I still advise, you betcha! Will I get advised when I visit my Mom again, you betcha! It’s part of the job of being a parent and a child. So advise on my friends AND don’t let anyone call it nagging!

There Here!

Well my favorite time of the year is finally here - the Holiday Season! Which of course started with Halloween and Anna’s famous Halloween Pot-Luck and Kiddy Trick-or-Treat.

I should have dressed as Igor the Kitchen Minion chained to my roller chair! Four pounds of Lumpia, five pours of Potato Salad, a pound of Cole Slaw and 48 sticks of Monkey Meat (beef on a stick). I had a little help but I glory in the Bravo Zulu’s I get from everybody who eats the food I fix. Anna did well too making the best BBQ burned beef Brisket ever! Who says accidents can’t be victories!

Next comes the BIG one - Thanksgiving. Now, Thanksgiving is THE holiday in our family, the one we start worrying and planning for in August. This year it is going to be a true trial - without an oven! So there will be our first ever BBQ grilled Turkey and our first ever home smoked Turkey. Keep you fingers crossed. Everything else will be from the range burners including Fried Stuffing - not a real problem since we normally have Fried Stuffing for Thanksgiving breakfast anyway. But it promises to be a very unique meal of Thanks.

Christmas follows and I’m almost have all my gifts finished - yeah for me. We always do something for Christmas Eve, but, I’m never sure what until the last minute. Will probably have a ham for Christmas dinner or maybe a nice rack of lamb this year. I’ll be fixing it because Anna and Erica will disappear to their beds for the day right after the massive mess of present openings. They’ll be more than tired out from all the holiday preps!

Finally, New Year’s which this time actually might be more than watching the Big Ball drop in New York City. The Dynamic Duo need to buy formal dresses for a wedding in mid January and they want to get their monies worth out of them so we might go to one of those fancy New Year’s parties in Norfolk. I can’t wait to try and find a Monkey Suit that will fit me. Shoes too.

So the Holidays are here and I am having fun! Hope everyone I know does the same!