Gun Control Poster Child

I make no political comment about the Second Amendment or the right of people to keep loaded firearms in their houses, but this man from Milwaukee certainly has to be a poster child for gun control.  According to the news story, he allegedly got his short barreled shotgun or rifle out and shot his lawn mower because it wouldn’t start.  Really?  Really? His lawn mower?  Apparently, the woman who reported the murder of the mower said that genius boy was intoxicated.  Go figure.  I always thought perfectly sober people went around blowing up Lawn Boy mowers.  Despite the apparent contentions of Mr. Ineedangermanagementclasses that it was his lawn mower and yard, he faces a possible 6+ years in prison and $11,000 fine.  Brilliant.

No word from from Prosecutors yet whether there will be charges of mowerslaughter or criminal stupidity.

I Love Cruising

I love to cruise. It is basically the only vacations we take anymore (except for the obligatory kids to Disney pilgrimage). I know that cruising has gotten a lot more popular in recent years with the general public and that more and more families are cruising. However, I still get a lot of confused looks from people when I tell them that I’m going on a cruise. They look at me like “Hey you’re not 70 why would you go on a cruise?” A lot of people tell me they wouldn’t like cruises because they get seasick or because they would get bored just out in the middle of the water. Some even tell me its too expensive. In response, I just nod and smile knowingly. I figure the less people that really love it, the more space for me on board.

Seriously though, taking a cruise is the best vacation possible. There are theme cruises (lifestyle themes, murder mystery themes, cooking themes, TV show themes, even NASCAR themes). If you feel guilty about having kinds and not taking them to Disney, there is Disney Cruise Line. If you don’t like the idea of “formality” there is NCL or Carnival. One of the best places to go and check out if you are looking at a cruise, or are anxiously awaiting your cruise date to arrive is Cruise Critic. They have ship reviews, cruise news, and, best of all, a huge Forum that has message boards for all the lines, ports of call, questions, etc. Plus you can meet up with others on your cruise and plan activities etc. Its an absolute essential resource.

One of the best things about cruising is that you unpack once but get to see many different places. If you love to hang on the beach for a day, you could have 3 or 4 in one cruise in 4 different countries. If you like to shop, pick a new country every day. If you love to just explore, you have unlimited options. You never have to worry about dinner reservations (or even paying for dinner since its included). Room Service is included and works as a great wake up call in the AM.

My personal preference right now is Royal Caribbean. I can’t give you a specific reason why RCCL is better than others in my mind because I have only cruised one other line. I enjoy RCCL and what they offer so I go back. And boy do they have offerings. Their ships offer rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, rollerblading, giant indoor promenades, multiple restaurants, stage shows, pools, whirlpools, bars, discos, and great ocean views. I really can’t see how anyone could ever get bored on one of their mega ships. As for seasick, there are patches and to be honest, the ships, while they do move, don’t move all that much in normal seas. Get over it

There is nothing better than waking up on a bright sunny morning, opening up your balcony door, and having breakfast delivered to you while you let the warm ocean air blow by and listen to th ecalming sound of the water and waves.

I don’t get Starbucks

Let me start off by saying I don’t get the whole “I need my Starbucks” mentality. My wife loves Starbucks and is perfectly willing to stand in line for one. I have never been a coffee guy and so I’m obviously biased and honestly a little pissed that there is no soda offered so basically I’m shut out when it comes to getting anything there. That aside, I can’t see how any coffee can be good enough to warrant waiting in a huge drive thru line.

One of the seemingly endless (although that is changing with all the store closures) of Starbucks here in Vegas is in a parking lot that also has a McDonald’s, Del Taco, and a grocery store. At times, the drive thru line is so long that it completely stops traffic through parts of the parking lot which is quite annoying to those of us who, God forbid, aren’t actually trying to get a venti double skim double latte frappawhaterino. What happened to Coffee, Black?

On the store closings, people are acting like its some surprise. For God’s sake, here in Vegas there is literally a Starbucks in the parking lot of another Starbucks.

So, given my inability to understand what all the fuss is about, this site seems over the top to me. I can’t think of ANY consumer product, food, or business that I love or am so interested in that would warrant such treatment. I love the concept of the gossip but I wonder at who really goes to the site. I mean

COME ON PEOPLE, ITS COFFEE!

Proof Some People Should Not Be Parents

I’m not sure what the parents of this New Zealand girl were thinking when they named their child Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii but it is certainly proof that they shouldn’t have been parents. I’m all for unique names, I have one myself, but this is just plain stupid. I mean its hard enough finding the personalized keychain or mug with my name on it, imagine this poor girl’s issues.

The article, which has some other screwed up names in it, including a guy who changed his first name to In God and his last to We Trust can be found at CNN here. Its one thing for an adult to change their name to something, like World Be Free did, its quite another for parents to saddle their kid with the thing.

Bartending and Mixing Drinks

I went to law school and lived in Chicago for several years. During some of that time, my wife was traveling a lot for her job (like all work week every week) so I basically had all week to myself. Well, I got bored and decided to take a bartending class. Being the school geek I am, I finished at the top of my class which isn’t bad for a guy who doesn’t drink hard liquor or mixed drinks. In any event, over the years, I have made a few cocktails that people have really liked. I’m sure some of these aren’t brand new or anything but I can honestly say that before I made them for the first time I had never heard of them or seen any before (with the exception of the Rasberry Truffle which I credit to my favorite bartender at the old Polly Esther’s in Chicago). Over time, I hope to add to the list so check back from time to time to see if I have new ones.

COCKTAIL LIST

Having Fish Eat Dead Feet Skin? Ew!

Ok, this idea is just a little too much. A spa in Virginia is offering to let you put your feet in a tub of warm water and have little fish swarm over your feet to start your pedicure. The catch? The fish nibble off and eat dead skin from your feet. No more calluses for me! Where do I sign up?

Customers have reported the procedure feels like your feet are asleep or a little ticklish. State officials forced the spa to stop using a big shallow pool where multiple customers would plunge their feet into the fish and now the spa only uses individual tanks. Officially, this was a health type issue but I think its probably because people with less dead skin on their feet were feeling like the unpopular kid in high school as the fish ignored them and went after the “cool” kids with all the extra dead skin.

They say the fish are toothless so I’m assuming no one has had a foot gnawed off yet. The big question is when are they going to start offering zit sucking leech treatments?

If you’re interested, the Spa can be found here and a story on the procedure here.

Wiccan Good Luck Ceremony Goes Way Wrong

Talk about irony. This poor woman is out in a cemetery in the middle of a full moon (not that there is anything a bit creepy and strange about that) with a sword (again perfectly normal). All she wants to do is perform a simple rite to thank the Wiccan gods for her good luck by thrusting the sword into the ground (again perfectly within the expected). And, as luck would have it, she instead sheaths the sword into her foot and ends up in the hospital for a few days. Although it must have worked because she still had good luck as the police didn’t charge her for trespassing.

The story can be found here on the AP News site.

Lesbos locals lose lesbian appeal

Yet another nice headline right?  Now, let me preface this by saying that, as you all know, I am a lawyer so I’m a bit biased about this stuff.  However, this is the reason people have to wait forever for their “day in court.”  I mean, how exactly can one “ban” the use of a word worldwide?  I mean don’t people have anything better to do with their time then actually go to court on something like this?

here is the link to the BBC Webiste article.

Yummy

Gotta love it when the 7 year old helps with breakfast.

Import Issues

So I imported posts from my blogger blog http://lvatty.blogger.com and for whatever reason the pictures didn’t come with it so you can check those out there… Sorry