Obiglatory EDC post; Whats in your pockets?

So, its cold, I'm tired of shoveling/driving in snow, and as I'm a little cabin feverish I thought I would keep my mind busy by showing random people whats in my pockets every day.
So, I'm pretty basic; as you can see I carry a slim bi-fold wallet by Wenger, my Zebra F-301 Bold which is an awesome roller ball pen, a cheap AA LED 3-mode high-lumen flashlight, my iPhone 4s in an OtterBox and my CRKT M16-10KZ folding knife. These are with me anytime I step out the house and I'm wearing pants. This has been my EDC for going on 5 years now, except that I switched from a Surefire to the cheap CREE b/c the el-cheap-o light has way higher lumen count and a strobe mode.
I own another cell phone, which is my 'personal' number (the iPhone was issued by work), but the fact that I didnt have it with me for this picture just goes to show its not an EDC. I have the voicemail for that phone tied into my Google account and I have a tendency to leave that cell at home more than I carry it.
I have a laptop bag that is usually within easy reach that has a duplicate flashlight and a little bitty Buck knife, an extra pen and micro first-aid kit with some bandaids and alcohol wipes, but since I dont walk around with that bag on my shoulder all the time, I don't consider it part of my EDC. Don't get me started on the "get home bag" in the trunk of my car b/c again, I dont consider that to be EDC and the contents of that bag changes based on the seasons of the year.

Notice no keys? Thats right, as soon as I get where I'm going the car fob comes out of my pocket and gets thrown on my desk at work, or dresser at home (I also hate walking around with coins in my pocket). During the winter the key fob stays in my outer coat pocket. We have an electronic lock at home, so I type a code to get in the house or garage.

What do carry every day?

Recipes for the restive

I got nothing except a recipe from a friend of mine, Gus. I inspired him with my talk of good ol' Southern food on Friday and he went home this weekend and whipped up some tasty goodness. I got his in my email this morning. Enjoy.

Gus’ Super-Duper Crab Cakes with Crawfish Tails Instead of Crab

Degredients

1 lb crab meat, but instead of crab meat use crawfish tails

1 rib of celery (Wait, is a rib the whole thing or just one piece you pull off the clump? Just use

 one piece.), cut into itty-bitty pieces about this big

1 carrot, peeled and cut into itty-bitty pieces about this big

½ of a small onion, peeled and cut into itty-bitty pieces about this big

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 cup of toasted breadcrumbs (optional)

3 large eggs

½ tsp or so of lime zest (optional) (Ha! Yeah, no, this isn’t optional.)

To taste:  Salt, pepper, Old Bay seasoning, Worcestercestershire sauce

Destructions

Roughly chop the crab crawfish tails and set aside in a small bowl. Sauté celery, carrots, onion and garlic in some olive oil for a minute or two until soft.  Add to the shrimp crawfish. (Unless your cat ate it all out of the bowl when you weren’t paying attention; if so, go back to Wally World, buy some more, and start over again. Not that this happened to me or anything.)

Separate the eggs (by removing the yolks from the whites, not by placing the eggs in different locations around your house).  Stir the yolks in with the salmon crawfish mixture.  Beat the egg whites to soft peaks and then fold into the moose crawfish. [Editor’s note:  I’m not sure what the point of this step was.  As soon as you start folding, the egg whites begin to deflate.  When I make this recipe again I may omit this step and just stir the whole eggs into the crawfish mixture.  Use your best judgment.]  Season with salt, pepper, Worcestercestershire, lime zest and Old Bay. 

Decide whether you want to add breadcrumbs.  Without the breadcrumbs, the cakes taste great but they don’t hold together well during frying.  With the breadcrumbs, the cakes hold together better but they taste like, you know, they have breadcrumbs in them.  You have the power – you decide.

Form the whale crawfish cakes into patties and refrigerate for about half an hour to firm them up.  Heat some more olive oil in a pan and fry the patties until golden brown on both sides.  Sprinkle with lime juice, if desired.  These would probably also taste good with Hollandaise sauce except 1) I don’t know what Hollandaise sauce is, and 2) I didn’t have any.

Anybody want to Polka?

I found a fun place in downtown Columbus, that serves good German Bier and Brats and has a dance floor and music for my German wife to get out and dance.
If you're ever in Columbus, check out www.germaniacolumbus.org and see if they have an event when you're in town. The Bier Garten is great, especially being a little green oasis downtown in the midst of all those tall buildings.
Prost!

Funny of the week: Act of Valor movie review

A little leap day smile from me to you by way of Tam, I wish more movie reviews were like this.  :)

Went to see Act of Valor at a matinee...from View From The Porch by Tam


Some thoughts:

•So none of the SEALs is Sir Anthony Hopkins. So what? I'll bet the Screen Actors Guild doesn't mail dues checks from Stallone and Schwarzenegger back un-cashed.

•The plot is not Hitchcockian: Some bad guys are going to try and do bad things to America. A bunch of SEALs are attempting to stop them, mostly by shooting them in the face. They don't sit around and anguish over the deep meaning of shooting terrorists in the face, either; they make like a Nike commercial and Just Do It.

•Wow.

•By the time the lights came up, you could hear a pin drop. It was a full five-Mississippi before anybody in the theater so much as moved to grab their coat.

•I am so used to watching gun handling in movies and thinking "You're Doing It Wrong!" that it was refreshing to see one that made me think "Huh. I'm Doing It Wrong."

•I will be going to see it again on the big screen. This is a big screen movie.

Happiness is decommissioning old servers

While using a 10lb sledge.

Carry a pocket knife because

It can be useful for:
1. Opening a box.
2. Cutting rope, tags, and string.
3. Cutting an apple. I love eating an apple that I’ve cut with my pocket knife, slice by slice. You feel like a bad ass doing it. You hold the apple in your non-dominant hand and then make a slice with the knife using your dominant hand. After you make the slice, pinch it between your thumb and knife blade. Bring the blade to your mouth and deposit the apple slice. Do this in front of people you are trying to intimidate.
4. Opening a letter. Sure, you could use your finger, but using a knife is just more manly.
5. Weapon. Not the most effective, but it’s better than nothing.
6. Camping. How else will you sharpen the point of a stick in preparation for stabbing your prey? And by prey I mean hot dog. And by hot dog I mean marshmallow.
7. You never know when you’re going to have to MacGyver your way out of a crisis. Be prepared.
8. You need something to clench in your teeth when swinging from a rope.

Well, every PERSON should, not just men, but you get the point

Everyone should carry a pocket knife

You never know when it will come in handy.

Monster Hunter Alpha has shipped!

Amazon says it will be here on Monday, so I may have to call in sick to work on Tuesday....feel a cough coming on.....ooohh, my throat.....yeah that's the ticket.
See more info here 

Proud member of the

Monday Humor

Ever see a warning sign that make you go "wtf?"

 Check out the rest of the Feral Irishman's pics for other laughs

Buy Monster Hunter Alpha

Larry Correia writes some of the best fiction out there these days, and he needs support to keep his full time job as 'writer'. I already own the previous two Monster Hunter titles and have pre-ordered the 3rd at Amazon. The books are cheap and you can read them again and again and enjoy details you missed the first time.
As Linoge says "Buy the book today"

I will personally send you mental hugs and warm wishes if you buy a copy.

Commercial message ends here.

Thought of the week - Show someone you care about them

If you meet a woman who enjoys your hobbies and enjoys spending time with you, perhaps you should drop what you're doing and show her you care. Just a thought.

Included below is a picture of a beautiful over under shotgun with some gorgeous inlay on the receiver. The wood of the stock and grip are fantastic as well.

Why does the MSM use such odd analogies for measurements?

Why, in stories such as this, do we equate liquids (concrete) to olympic swimming pools and solids such as steel, to the number of Eiffel towers?
These aren't units of measure that help explain anything better than the cubic feet and tons that were used in the article. If people don't get cubic feet, so be it, but I don't think telling them it would fill up a football field to a depth of 10 feet really gets the point across any better.
Chalk it up to my scientific background, but that sort of thing in articles annoys me.

Best way to sum up the article? This bridge is really long and makes getting to an island 20 minutes faster.
There, no crazy analogies needed.

Bees by mail

My best friend and his wife are beekeepers, and this video shows them "hiving" their latest delivery of bees (by mail no less).
Pretty interesting if you've never seen it done.

Oh my, that is pretty

Well, I found what I want for Christmas. Ruger just released a new 22 pistol in a "gun fighter" frame with polished wooden grips, fiber optic sights and a ten shot cylinder (compared to 6 for most Ruger 22 revolvers and 8 on a few other manufacturers). Titled the "Single-Ten", referring to its single action and ten round capacity, its just plain "purdy"; the satin finish just looks nice. And the fiber optic sights on a cowboy frame give it just a touch of steampunk...has a very Firefly vibe to it. I have no purpose for owning it, but I'll happily use it to dispatch groundhogs in the backyard if the need arises.

And now for something completely different....

This video rocks, check it out at the Feral Irishman

Bikes are free to ride where they want. Bike lanes are nice, but not necessary. In my neighborhood they start and then peter out so randomly I tend to ignore them. They tend to be in the straightaways, and then at intersections or busy throughways where they would be the most useful, they don't exist.

My wife's cousins in Germany, however, have bike and pedestrian only "roads" between villages that are completely separate and sometimes faster than the paved roads and highways. I've been over there twice and each time I was able to ride my bicycle I had rented between the two villages and the small city where her cousins lived without ever using the car roads. Now thats what I call bike lanes.

Spring, baseball and hot dogs

For those of you in North America, spring is finally coming in and its time for hot dogs. My favorite way to eat them is slathered in chili sauce, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, onions on a steamed bun.

Sauce Recipe (suspected to be Tony Packo's)
2 lb lean ground beef
1/2 T thyme
2 cloves garlic (finely minced)
1/2 T cumin
Dash cayenne pepper
2 T chili powder
3 c water
1 T black pepper
1 T Hungarian paprika (no substitutes)
1 t salt

Brown ground beef, breaking into very small pieces as it cooks; drain off fat. Add remaining ingredients; simmer 1 hour or until desired consistency.

Serve with chopped sweet onions, relish, shredded cheese and maybe even a pickle. Mustard, no ketchup on a chili dog. Steam your buns people.

Note: Serve over a Nathan's dog, Hebrew national, Bahama mama or any other high quality beef frank, not just any hotdog.

I'm too lazy for an April Fool's joke

So I will just link to someone else s.

Enjoy!

Time to plant your garden (in Ohio anyway)

You really should have started your sprouts by now (I have mine in an indoor greenhouse thingy). As soon as the snow stops falling (we got some yesterday) I'll plant everything outdoors.

Types

• Cool-season and warm-season vegetables can be grown in Ohio. Cool-season crops withstand light frost and include many leaf and root vegetables. Warm-season crops, such as cucumbers, squash, melons and tomatoes must be planted after the threat of frost passes.

Time Frame

• Experienced Ohio gardeners begin planting cool-season vegetables in Mid-March, according to the Ohio State University Extension web site. Ohio is located in USDA plant hardiness zones 5 and 6, with an average last frost date occurring in April-May. Warm-season vegetables can be planted after the last killing frost.

Considerations

• Starting vegetable seeds indoors during late winter can result in transplants by the early spring planting season. Using transplants instead of direct seeding can add a few weeks to your harvest season. Successive planting can also make the most of a season. Plant new crops as soon as the previous ones are harvested.

Winter Recipe

Yes, I agree this is the tail end of winter, but this recipe sounded so good I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share. I am prepping my grocery list right now and cant wait to have the house smell so wonderful.
Hat tip to Tango Juliet.


"This is about the best cold weather drink ever invented IMHO.

And to think, I put the spotlight on it at the tale end of a fairly moderate winter!

What timing!

The basic recipe:

Into your favorite crock pot, dump 4 parts apple cider to 1 part cranberry juice.

Add two sticks of cinnamon.

Poke 6 whole cloves into a nice sweet orange. Toss it into the mix.

Let it brew for 6 to 8 hours.

This mix is guaranteed to flood your house with the best aromas since fresh baked bread.

Cautions and suggestions: Be sure you get good sweet oranges. Some navel oranges have very bitter rinds. Bad juju! I recommend buying two. Eat one for testing purposes.

Naturally the cider/apple juice to cranberry juice ratio can be varied.

Use caution with the cloves. They are potent little critters. Six is the most I'll use these days. The use of more than six ventures into +P territory very quickly.

This brew is very receptive to alcohol. I prefer cinnamon schnapps but I have seen others use rum with success as well"

Like New Again

So, my CRKT Carson Design M16-10KZ (which is a really long name for a knife btw CRKT, more on that later) came apart, mostly, in my pocket today at work. Nothing was damaged, just the main screw had worked itself loose and the blade had popped free from its pivot point. So, I took this as a sign that it would be a good time to take the knife completely apart* and clean it.

Now, its always important to maintain your gear and while I do sharpen the high carbon blade from time to time, I do admit that my everyday carry knife (EDC) does get a little less loving than some of my other backpacking, outdoors, fishing, camping, etc equipment. I just don't normally think about it, honestly. It goes in my pocket every morning with my wallet and cell phone and gets dumped in my wallet box every evening when I come home from work. I use it almost daily at work, giving it un-dignified work such as opening packages and mail.

Well, I was once again amazed at the quality of craftsmanship that convinced me to buy the knife originally. After cleaning all the parts and re-assembling it (I did have a little trouble getting the brass and the teflon bearings back in place) the knife works as good as new and I have a big smile on my face. 

I've had it over 3 years and have been very pleased with the blade and the feel of the handle; many folders feel loose or slippery in your hands and can lead to you cutting yourself, this model just "fits". This good grip allows me to be confident when I am using it for something other than packing tape and I have yet to nick myself with it. As far as EDC's go, this one gets 4.5 stars (I would give it a full five if it had an easier name).

As for the name (CRKT Carson Design M16-10KZ), CRKT has a number of (Kit) Carson Design blades and they have a number of variations named M16-##XX, so many so that I have long since forgotten what my designation actually means, although I assume it refers to the tanto style blade. A simpler name might have been the CRKT M16 Tanto. For a company that does a really good job with their own acronym (CRKT stands for Columbia River Knife and Tool and I pronounce it "cricket") you think they would find a way to make saying the names of their knives a little less hard. Spyderco's habit of giving their knives one word names comes to mind. Its kind of like Ford vs Lexus. While a Mustang may be lacking in certain specs when compared to the IS F11, I would much rather tell people I owned a Mustang versus admitting to owning the Lexus alphanumeric mouthful. Just MHO.

*I didn't take the zytel scales off the steel frame as I saw nothing to be gained doing that, it would likely just loosen the factory screws forever and I also didn't take apart the nifty CRKT Auto-LAWKS safety as I figured that was just asking for re-assembly hell.

For anyone shopping for an EDC, I would highly recommend you at least glance at the knife in question, its about $25 on Amazon and no I don't get any money from Amazon for sending you there, I turned off all the commerce settings on my blog months ago.

Dimensions
Open Overall Length	7.125 inches
Closed Length	4 inches
Weight	2.3 ounces

Blade
Length	3 inches
Thickness	0.08 inches
Material	8Cr15MoV
Blade-HRC	58-59
Finish	EDP
Grind	Hollow
Style	Tanto
Edge	Triple-Point Serrations

Handle
Material	Zytel
Liners	2CR13

Lock
Type	Locking Liner
Safety System	AutoLAWKS

Carry
Carry System	1 Position Clip

Here is Kit Carson's M16^® Every Day Carry (EDC) with our Zytel^® InterFrame build. Our knife users told us, "We want an affordable work knife that we can give hard use without feeling guilty, and one that won't break us up if we leave it on a job site or drop it in the river."

We heard you. So we set about to make the Zytel EDC the best value in the work and sport knife world.

That starts with textured Zytel^® scales and a dual 2CR13 stainless steel liner InterFrame. Assembled with Zytel back spacers and Torx^® fasteners, the result is amazingly rigid. Zytel is a fiberglass-filled nylon that offers excellent toughness and resistance to solvents. Teflon^® bearings at the blade pivot and an adjustable pivot screw allow for perfect blade action.

The blade is 8CR15MoV high-carbon stainless steel which gives an ideal combination of toughness and edge-holding ability in a work knife, and also allows easy field-sharpening.

The M16^®-10KZ features a dual hollow grind Tanto-style blade with Combined Razor-Sharp and Triple-Point^™ Serrated edges similar to our "Big Dog" M16 models. The result is maximum blade strength and ability to saw through cord, webbing, nets or vegetation quickly. It has a black EDP blade, black frame and hardware for a non-flective tactical look.

Of course, it features the Carson Flipper, which speeds opening of the blade and acts as a blade guard when the blade is open.

The real breakthrough was our ability to engineer our patented* AutoLAWKS^™ knife safety into all models, which automatically actuates when the blades are open, making these folders into virtual fixed blades when locked.

Add to these features the standard removable Teflon^®-plated stainless steel clothing/gear clip plus the CRKT limited lifetime warranty, and you have one of the truly great knife values of our time.