Swedish trains powered by dead cows
BBC
"You have to tell yourself the cows are going to die anyway." ... "Inside the abattoir at Swedish Meats in Linkoping, the cows stood patiently, occasionally nuzzling the lens of our camera. From there, it was a short walk past the white-walled butchery, down the steps to the basement where the raw material for biogas, slid greasily down a chute. Still bubbling and burping, and carpeting you with an acrid stench, came the organs and the fat and the guts. Enough, from one cow, to get you about 4km (2.5 miles) on the train."
Read the full article here ...
Dead baby actually just chicken
London Telegraph
"So when a passer-by found what looked like a human foetus in an alleyway they assumed the worst. Within hours one kindly soul had laid a bunch of flowers at the scene, expressing her sorrow. Another did likewise, imploring the mother she suspected of aborting her child to come forward. After five days the alley behind Oakfield Road, Anfield, had become a sprawling shrine filled with flowers, teddy bears and cards. Yesterday Merseyside police took the unusual step of announcing that their investigation was over and that the foetus in question had been that of. . . a chicken." ...
Read all about it here, if you dare...
Study Reveals Pittsburgh Unprepared For Full-Scale Zombie Attack
"A zombie-preparedness study, commissioned by Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy and released Monday, indicates that the city could easily succumb to a devastating zombie attack. Insufficient emergency-management-personnel training and poorly conceived undead-defense measures have left the city at great risk for all-out destruction at the hands of the living dead, according to the Zombie Preparedness Institute." ... Quote: "In one 1985 incident in Louisville, a band of zombies was able to lure four paramedics and countless law-enforcement officials to their deaths by commandeering an ambulance radio and calling for backup."
Read article...
Wednesday night, Carole and I went to the Alice Cooper concert at the Orpheum. It was one of the best concerts I've been to in a long time - probably since the last Alice concert! That guy never ceases to amaze me... he'll be 59 in 3 months, and he's still got more energy than most guys half his age. And the crazy thing is, he looks and sounds exactly like he did 20 years ago too... he's absolutely ageless.
This show was really cool in that he concentrated almost entirely on his classic songs and, with the exception of Feed my Frankenstein and Poison, stayed far away from the 80's and 90's stuff - which was a relief... but even Frankenstein came off super heavy, and sounded surprisingly modern. For over 90 minutes, Alice belted out everything from Department of Youth, to Steven, to Black Widdow, to Dwight Fry, to Under My Wheels - and of course all the staples like School's Out, Welcome to my Nightmare, Only Women Bleed, and no More Mr. Nice Guy were all there too. I was so pumped up after the show, I can't even explain - I just love seeing legends like Alice so much - who knows how long he'll be doing this, but I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if 10 years from now (nearing age 70) he's still not slowing down.
Last night Carole and I hosted a poker tourney at our place - it was really last minute, and we were only able to muster up 8 people, but it was still a load of fun, and I ended up winning the main event. The games lasted from 8PM until midnight, and as people got knocked out of the main tourney, they started up a 2nd table and a quick 'turbo' tourney side game with mutliple rebuys was going strong in no time. I ended up with an extra $140 in my pocket at the end of the night, and the guy that came in 2nd was up $20. Carole was down $35. (I think the average that people were down was about $30) and the guy that won the side game took $80, but after the $50 he had invested to get that far, he was only up $30 - still better than a kick in the pants! At the end of the night, lots of beer had been consumed and spirits were high, even amongst the unlucky players. I'm hoping we can get another one of these things going really soon - I think I'm starting to catch the poker bug again!
My blog entries are getting farther and farther apart, aren't they. We did so much neat stuff the weekend before last that I knew I'd need a good amount of time to write about it all, but the time to do that never materialized.
Then, after another weekend passed, and even more fun stuff to write about piled up, I started to shudder at the amount of writing I'd have to do to catch up.
Well, here I am, and I don't have much time, but I figured I'd better blog about what we've been up to, lest I never get to it. Unfortunately, this entry is going to be the cliff-notes version - I wish I could expound a bit, but hey, time is of the essense here ... better the cliff notes than nothing at all... am I right?
So, two weekends ago, Carole and I went to the Vancouver Zoo, in Aldergrove... or was it Langley... all I know is, it used to be called the Vancouver Game Farm, and the last/only time I was there must have been 25 years ago at least. It was actually a lot of fun, and a nice relaxing way to spend a nice clear fall afternoon - especially since all the rains started the very next day! We saw lots of rare and 'technically extinct' animals, some nifty exotic animals like lions and tigers and panthers and giraffes and even a rhino. Monkeys, birds, lizards, crocs, snakes, even humpty back camels! Anybody feel like singing Irish Rovers yet?
I took lots of picture with the digital camera, but just nver found the time to upload them here... sorry.
For Thanksgiving, we didn't have any family dinners planned, and didn't really feel like making anything, so Carole and I headed up to Hazzards at the golf accademy for their traditional thanksgiving turkey sandwich brunch. Okay, not exactly the traditional Thanksgiving, but the comapny was nice, and that's all that counts, right?.
Fast forward through a week of work (and one Wednesday night rehearsal, which ended at 12:30AM) and we're up to last weekend. Friday night we had a couple of friends that just moved to our neibourhood over to play poker and have a few drinks, which was a really nice time. Then Sunday, the two of us spent the day in North Van, checking out the old stomping grounds, going back to where Carole grew up, stuff like that... the ol' drive through remeniscent country ;-)
We then had lunch at the Huricaine Grill, which seems to be called something new every single year (but this incarnation is the best yet - by light years), then we headed to the new Park Royal Village to checkout all the neat new shops. After that it was a walk on the West Van Seawall, and a quite night at home watching movies.
I actually had Monday OFF (can you believe it????) and so I was up early, and doing chores - cleaning the basement, painting some trim, putting a new medicine cabinet into the master bathroom, grocery shopping, and stuff like that. Actually, I ran out of things to do in the early afternoon, so I worked on soone new liqueur recipes - I'm hoping to be hosting a party soon, and thought I'd get some nifty new drinks ready for da shindig.
Tonight we're going to the Alice Cooper concert downtown. On Sunday we're seeing Judas Priest, so I'll definately have something to write about in a week. Hopefully I can find the time to do it!
Summer officially ended about two weeks ago, and as if on queue, the leaves began to turn colour and fall from the trees within a few days. The rains started, the days got shorter and the temperatures dropped.
This morning, as I left for work at 5:30AM, I took a second to peer upwards into clear stary blackness, and to take a deep breath of the crisp five-degrees-above-freezing air. The half hour drive to work was serene in it's solitude. As my tires crunched over frostly fallen leaves in the dry, sometimes foggy, sometimes crystal clear darkness, temperatures ranged from two to six degrees. Yes, today is one of the days I mark on my calendar... just as I make special note of the first day of the year that the sunrise is cresting over the eastern mountains when I drive to work, today was the first day that my car's Frost Warning sounded as I made my way to the office. Wow, we're less than three degrees away from frozen puddles... fall is certainly here!
Daytime temperature have still been quite moderate though. Even on rainy days, I'm only wearing a wind breaker shell or a pullover, it's not really 'jacket' time yet.
Friday night Carole and I had dinner and a couple of drinks at the Nelson Cafe before hearding to G.M. Place to watch the Canucks whoop the Calgary Flames 4 to 2 in one of their last pre-season games. This is the first hockey games we've been to in a LONG time, and it was an absolute blast! Four beers for $30 was a bit painful, but since I had won the hockey tickets at work, it seemed worth it. When leaving the stadium, it was a beautiful night. No jackets required!
On Saturday,Carole's mom and step dad came to stay with us for the weekend, and we spent part of the afternoon on a lovely walk along the Coquitlam River, where we introduced them to geocaching. We found two new caches that day, which brings my grande total to 50 finds! Saturday evening, we had a casual family dinner at St. James Well - our local Irish Pub.
Sunday morning I went golfing at Meadow Gardens with Carole's step-father Brian and her step-brother Chris. I have only been to the driving range once on 3 years, and have not actually played a round of golf in OVER 3 years, but I still managed to impress myself with a 104 (I was lucky to break 100 in my best golfing days), and the only birdie of the day. I'm pretty sore now, from using muscles that have been dormant for years, but it was a lot of fun to be out in absolutely perfect autumn conditions (well, it started raining as we teed off the 18th hole...which was fine!) - and now I'm really eager to get out golfing again soon!
Sunday evening we had planned to host a family dinner for 9 people at our house. I had started a pasta sauce simmering in the slow cooker before I left for golf, and when I got home, I through together a 6-cheese lasagna big enough to feed a dozen people. I also made crab stuffed mushroom caps with bernaise sauce as an appy, and Carole whiped up a nice salad. After all the hard work I was a little dissapointed that the lasagna came out a tad bland (and perhaps a bit salty for my taste), but, while not up to my perfectionist expectations, it was still delicious and went over well, with most everyone taking seconds.
Carole and I took Monday off to putter around the house, and mostly relax. I think I've now fixed her scooter up to the point where it might be rideable soon (didn't look like the vendor was willing to issue a refund anyway) so I was pretty happy with the job I did on that. We watched a nice light movie (Hitch) and headed off to bed - ready to take on a fresh new autumn day Tuesday morning.... and here I am!