so much for the old addage that "seafood is at market prices"; and that "special seafood" is eons beyond that in both availability and cost. Not any more. It is whatever you can afford and whenever you want it. Within just the past 5 years, high-quality seafood is available all year 'round here in the midstate. If it's not available from New England, it's available from Florida. Turkey, beef, pork, chicken and squab are now boring. I always like to go with something unique, when possible. If it's not available from Northern California, it's available from Peru, or the UK, or Nova Scotia or from somewhere. Even the local York and Lancaster County Farmer's Markets are getting into the act with huge seafood displays. I'm not talking "Mrs Paul's Fishsticks" here. After getting an insatiable craving for seared bay scallops on Friday, I checked the Net for availability and then dropped by two local fish mongers in York (PA) to see what they had from the Chesapeake Bay or Atlantic Ocean. I was most pleased and well-rewarded: a veritable cornucopia of Neptunian offerings. And if that wasn't enough, my friendly Chinese Christian owners-operators of the local Dim-Sum Palace said they'd get whatever I wanted, "Just say what and when; we get for you". How many times did I previously use the term, "available"?
Around The Garden Center.
The so-called big snowstorm missed us by 15-20 miles; it scooted north of Harrisburg and dropped several inches of the white stuff to make last Friday's morning commute a mess. I still need another 1-2 weeks of no snow to get the last of the calendar year 2000 landscape jobs completed. Then, everyone's off for a few months and resting up until Spring 2001 arrives.
I made about 14lbs of Roasted assernut Squash Bisque, on Friday evening. Hey, I had 8 nice-sized assernuts just sitting around in the garage, and so, what the heck? Caramelized onions, baby carrots, baby potatoes, premium chicken stock, fresh ground pepper, half & half cream and copious amounts of gas heat at the most propitious time, clearly contributed to the culinary success. I love it when it all works, despite the mess. Well, at least my cleaning service is there on Saturday to rectify the mess. I also did an awesome Roasted assernut Squash & Apple Soup for Thanksgiving Dinner at Mom&Dad's.
You think we've got power problems in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States? California is truly f*cked. The environmental wackos have blocked the building of all new powerplants for the past 20 years, and the old on-line current facilities can't handle the power requests from 32 million people.
Here's another example of the ubiquitous and onerous federal government again meddling in our lives: cook your eggs until the yolks are firm; no sunnyside-up or over easy eggs anymore. What a load of shit. Why don't they figure out how to get producers to deliver eggs without salmonella or other bacteria problems, instead of interfering in our daily lives? Sorry, do I sound like a whining Libertarian?
Last week, I noted that gas prices were again creeping up; this week they've dropped precipitously from $1.59.9 to $1.46.9 for the very same 89oct fuel at the Getty, in Red Lion (PA). Other than the refineries are getting caught up, or demand is dropping, there's nothing I can think of to explain such wild swings in prices. Filling up the Jeep Grand Cherokee V8 LTD cost $29.35 for 19.997gal (89oct). Unleaded regular is comparatively dirt-cheap at $1.37.9 (87oct). When we get to Natural Gas and LPG, that's a whole different story.
Here's some "wonderful" Christmas Gifts for that special someone in your life. I especially like the "Cleopatra Nose Lifter", "Nori The Original Nasal Passage Cleaner", "Remote Control Flatulence Machine", "Fake Head-Bobbing Woodpecker" and the "NipGuard Nipple Protectors". What a Christmas it would be to get them all! Get out that VISA, AMEX, MasterCard etc and send them today to someone you hate despise loathe like.
We had a nice dusting of snow when I arrived at the Garden Center Complex on Monday morning at 6am; by 10 it had melted and I was carefully watching the conditions in Chicago deteriorate as a blizzard moved through, eastward. The Net weather forecasters were calling for rain on Monday and Tuesday, with the snow and sleet staying further north. Thankfully, it missed us again, except for a few sprinkles, but the 60mph winds wreaked havoc with powerlines and weak trees. (I just need another 7-10 days to finish up pending landscape jobs. Gimme a break with all that snow.)
Wednesday, I awoke to the US Supreme Court's ruling for GWBush, effectively cutting GoreBoreScumbag off at the knees, and another huge Winter storm headed for the Mid Atlantic and Northeastern states from the South and Southeast.
Speaking of snow, here's a nice story on snowflakes, and a great sidebar link to a plethora of sites about crystals and flakes and such Winter stuff.
On Wednesday evening, I finally had a chance to sit and sip and evaluate the 2000 Beaujolais Noveau Vino I'd acquired last week, albeit a tad too late from its "peak". The Massive Ice-Sleet Storm was bearing down on those folks 35miles north; we were really spared the worst, but got nailed pretty good. We did get some much-needed moisture in the ice form, but it all melted by midday. No gripes. I was tired from getting the 20ac Complex ready for a Ice Storm Event: 1500w portable generator and JD Tractor 70B PTO Drives had to be readied, Pickles had to be firmly ensconced in the Retail Bldg-Main GH, alerts & warnings programmed into the 24x7 Commonwealth Protection Security System which has guarded my place since 1990.
On the way into work Thursday morning, most of northern and central York County (PA) was blacked-out from ice-laden limbs falling on power lines, but the roads were in passable shape; a breeze for my Jeep. A few of the landscape crew showed up later in the morning and I sent them home; too much ice to deal with for now. I fed Pickles, checked all of the greenhouses for ice damage, did some paperwork, returned some calls and left at 2pm. Tomorrow's another day.
America Held Hostage: Day 37 1/2.
Who's on first? I must be getting old. I can only keep track of The Election From Hell That Never Ends, day by day. Week by week is out of the question; too much going on. To be able to do a running commentary of all the twists and turns would be impossible, at this point.
Yesterday, two Florida judges threw out GoreBoreFilth lawsuits seeking to throw out thousands of absentee ballots cast in Martin and Seminole counties. Also yesterday, the renegade activist lib-democ shithead Florida Supreme Court overstepped its bounds and jurisdiction by making Law, not interpreting it, and allowing a selective recount in all or Florida's 67 counties. Just today, Sat Dec 9th, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied GWBs request for a halt to the vote recounts. But the US Supreme Court said "yes, we'll stay that action and hear it's merits, on Monday, 11am sharp." I'll be tuned-in, attentively listening, you betcha. That's two bitch slaps against the idiots on the Florida Supreme Kangaroo Court.
The Florida Supreme Court broke Constitutional Law and erred grievously in trying to make law, when they're only supposed to interpret law. Making law is the province of the Florida Legislature, and they're ready to send in the GWBush Electors if necessary.
While America is losing bigtime, the stinking filthy ambulance chasing lawyers are making out like bandits, which they in fact are.
What the US Supreme Court did was completely and requisitely necessary to protect the sanctity of the Three Branches of Government, truly a federal property. When the GoreBoreFilth "prompted" the renegade Florida Supreme Court (the Florida Supreme Court breezily overruled its own extended certification deadline and added 215 votes from Palm Beach County to Al Gore's total, thus violating the separation-of-powers doctrine that makes the U.S. political system work by issuing fiats directed at the Florida secretary of state, who is a member of the executive branch and does not work for the judiciary) to begin "making law" instead of "interpreting law", the High Court had to step in to preserve the Separation of Powers (Balance of Power) in our fragile Republic. Listen to the whining, bed wetting liberal morons. GoreBore's concession speech can be pared down to 4 words: "America, this loser quits."
Out from under his slimy rock comes Irrev Jesse "Hymietown" Jack-scum-bag, the racist idiot bigot lowlife, now threatening a "civil rights explosion" if GWBush wins the election. Aw gee whiz, Jack-scum, please come visit my neighborhood, scumbag. Mmmmmmm, think I'm being too hard on the race-baiting, idiot bigot Jack-scum? Read this. Don't think so; actually, not hard enough on the old, has-been idiot slimeball. Here's a more civilized take on the lowlife idiot shithead Jack-scum from the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Page.
Finally, GoreBoreLiar conceded the race and GWBush accepted the 43rd Presidency of the USA. I'll drink to that. But I didn't like what I heard in W's speech; sounds to me like he's gonna give the farm away to the lib-democRAT slime scum.
Gore is "gracious"? Perhaps according to the filthy liberal lowlife media. But I don't f*cking think so. He's a criminal for perpetrating the largest case of vote fraud in this Nation's history, in Florida, and holding the country hostage for 5 weeks.
Read what the stinking, liberal democRAT bed wetters have to say about the "illegitimate presidency" of GWBush. f*ck them all.
Mercifully, it all ended Wednesday evening at 9pm.
Keeping Warm This Winter.
American households will pay an average of 54 percent more this winter over last year to heat their homes as fuel shortages have combined with an Arctic cold snap to drive natural gas prices to record highs.
The Energy Information Administration raised its estimate yesterday of the average heating bill for the 70 percent of Americans who heat their homes with natural gas to a record $834. That's up from an October forecast of $780 and 54 percent higher than the average $540 spent during the last heating season from October to March. Cold weather and chronic oil shortages will drive the cost of heating a home with oil this winter to a record $1,044, up 38 percent from last year, despite efforts by the Clinton administration to dampen heating oil prices with a release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the agency said.
"Extraordinarily low heating oil inventories continue to put East Coast markets at risk of sharp price spikes if
more cold weather moves in," the agency said, "despite high production rates and an infusion of SPR oil." The energy crunch won't end when winter is over, the agency added. Gasoline prices at the pump are poised to rise again in the spring and summer from current levels of around $1.50 a gallon because supplies from refineries remain tight, it said. "Gasoline prices will decline only slightly, if at all, this winter, then rise modestly when next year's driving season begins in the spring," the agency said in its updated energy outlook. Tight gasoline supplies will keep pressure on prices this spring, and create "the probability of price runups next summer," it said. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Tuesday cited this year's persistently high energy prices as one of the "untoward events" that poses a threat of derailing the long-running economic expansion. "The sharp rise in energy prices, if sustained, is worrisome," he said.
"As we learned from previous episodes, rising energy prices could engender risks to both inflation and economic activity." Greenspan said the jump in the cost of imported oil has acted like a tax on consumers and businesses, deducting about 1 percent of their income. Energy costs for businesses are soaring like they are for consumers, and are up by 40 percent since the spring of 1999, Greenspan said. But for the most part, he said, the high energy costs have been borne by businesses rather than passed along to consumers, resulting in lower earnings and the declines in the stock market.
The unexpected surge in market prices for oil and gas this year have forced the Energy Information Agency to
repeatedly raise its estimates of consumer energy costs. Forecasts of a bitter Arctic cold snap descending on
most of the nation sent prices for natural gas soaring by more than 40 percent this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of home heating oil has risen in tandem. Besides cold weather, the high prices are the result of a combination of burgeoning demand, dwindling supplies, stricter environmental regulations and other factors.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has kept a tight rein on oil supplies all year.
The energy agency said it does not expect the international oil cartel to honor its promise to increase production and reduce prices from levels around $30 a barrel today. "A significant probability exists that prices will average close to $30 per barrel during the first half of 2001,"keeping pressure on prices at the pump for American motorists during the next driving season, it said.
Most natural gas is produced in the United States and Canada. The unexpected surge in natural gas prices this year has been the result of short supplies and increased demand for natural gas from utilities, which are substituting the clean-burning fuel for coal and oil to comply with stringent environmental regulations. Natural gas traditionally has been used mostly by consumers to heat their homes and cook. But increased competition from power plants for scarce gas supplies should keep prices high, even with new production of gas scheduled to come on line next year, the agency said.
What no one has said yet, is that once again, the consumer takes a hit in the wallet and up the ass.
Lowlife Lib-Dem Scum Filth.
The GoreBoreGarbage continues to rely upon crooked judges in the Florida Supreme Court to help hijack Election 2000, and they're helping every which illegal way they can. The US Supreme Court kicked their sorry lib-dem asses two weeks ago and told them to shove a flawed, partisan ruling up their stinking asses. Last week, the Fla Supremes f*cked up again and ruled illegally in GoreBoreFilth's favor to recount partial votes. This shit's never gonna end. All 7 corrupt slimeballs are hoping for federal judgeships from GoreBoreScum if they can just help him win; forget the Rule of Law. But the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature won't allow this illegal shit to happen.
If anyone can read this expose and not be convinced that the stinking filthy Clintoonites are traitors, they're brain dead.
Speaking of brain dead morons, "Meathead's" baaaaaaaack. Rob Reiner, the lib-dem slimeball, talentless so-called director of two bit shit films, is stumping for GoreBoreFilth and infecting children with his socialist and communist viewpoints. Maybe we could get His Socialist Stupidness to Jello wrestle Her Fat Liberalness Rosie O'Connell?
The Clintoon-GoreBoreFilth Sleaze continues. We all knew he'd pardon his fellow criminals, to buy their silence. So what is the surprise? None to me. You?
Speaking of sleaze, the communists and socialists in the UN have snuck a treaty through the brain dead US Congress which gives the UN control of 70% of the Earth's land. The Desertification Treaty claims jurisdiction over 70% of the earth's land area — virtually all of the land that is not covered by the Convention on Biological Diversity. Moreover, this new treaty creates a structure through which all other environmental treaties are supposed to be integrated under a common United Nations implementation regime. A companion treaty is now being developed by the U.N. Commission on Water for the 21st Century. The United Nations is, in fact, creating the structure in international law and, through its extensive bureaucracies, to control the use of all natural resources on earth. Did you know that the World's heading toward a one government rule that overrides the US Constitution?
It boggles my mind that anyone would pay 8 f*cking million dollars for the "memoir" of the stinking filthy lib-dem socialist nazi communist criminal bitch, Hitlery Rotten Clintoon. She's a lowlife slimeball — as her lying criminal husband (recklessness, abuse of power, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, perjury, and subornation of perjury) and dog-faced daughter both are — and should be serving prison time, instead of 6 years in the US Senate, f*cking New York State nine ways to Sunday. Well, those New York morons got what they wished for in the sleazoid Hitlery whore.
Oh my my my, the shit for brains liberal media's pathetic liberal bias is really showing them to be morons. So what's new?
morons On Parade.
The waddling pig-f*cking whore, Madonna finally married something almost human. Makes me puke. Why a beautiful country like Scotland would even let the two dollar slut in puzzles me.
Who the f*ck cares? Cutting phone links with the filthy commie lowlife illegal aliens in Cuba? Not any American I want to know.
Cats cause schizophrenia in humans through a virus? What a load of shit. Of all species roaming this Earth, humans are the most screwed up to start and end with, anyway; we don't seem to need much outside help.
Some lowlife shit for brains lib-democRAT town in Mary-land now prohibits smoking in public, outdoors. Can you f*cking believe that? If the stinking shithole-burg of "Friendshit Heights" wants to abridge my Constitutional Rights, we'll get the lowlife subhuman lib-dem ACLU filth to represent us in our suit against a local lib-democRATic jurisdiction. Love it, baby.
They Deserve Death.
Once again proving that he's a coward and a lying moron, Bubba Jeffy Clintoon postponed the federal execution of a condemned, murderous drug dealing illegal alien, Juan Raul Garza, for 6 months. Perfect timing. President-Elect GWBush has no problem dealing with the death penalty. He'll fry that subhuman piece of shit for sure.
Here's 3 subhumans who tortured and murdered 8 men and 2 women for their social security benefits, in Australia. Can anyone read this news story and tell me that the 3 don't deserve death for such crimes?
Here's a lowlife federal execution prisoner, Tim McVeigh — remember the OKC "Alfred P. Murrah" Federal Bldg Terrorist Attack in April '95 — who wants the expensive and useless federal appeals process stopped and to be duly executed, as proscribed by US Law. Oh be still, my beating heart! Burn him ASAP. Problem is: he wasn't alone in the mass murder conspiracy, as there were "other forces involved and at work", during the event. X-Files stuff in play here.
It's pretty sad when a victim can't hate her attacker, but I sure can. This crack dealer idiot should be executed and not waste taxpayer's money in a 25-to-life sentence.
Good Riddance, Scumbags.
I'm always elated when a piece of lowlife liberal democ filth dies; the air smells so much fresher and the Earth is once again cleansed. He was a left wing socialist, communist scumbag — everyone in the wacko liberal Congressional Black Caucus is — and will not be missed by anyone with a functioning brain. But there are so many left to contribute to the overall stench. Perhaps an Ebola Virus Kool-Aid® drink?
Huge, fat slovenly people like this should be put into the baggage compartment and fed bread and water for the flight. Taking up 2 seats is ridiculous, even though they pay for it, who wants the smell of some lardass next to you. 'Course, I don't fly anymore, so that's not a problem I'm gonna lose any sleep over.
Flight 404.
I can practically guarantee you've never experienced anything like Robert Hodgin's Flight 404, a Flash-happy site that takes that animation tool and stretches and pulls and bends its capabilities to perform weird, blobby, swimming, dancing, skating feats of animagic. The interface may be a little confusing at first, but just push everything that looks round and drag anything you can't push. It's a mouse playland of the first order: optimized for high bandwidth, fast processors, large monitors, Flash 5 and Netscape. Enjoy the trip. Please buckle up!
