Semper Fi Or Semper Me?

I've been watching the saga of the James Webb aid caught with what seems to be Webb's gun. I find it very interesting that Webb, who has made a career out of being a Marine veteran and graduate of Canoe U, has forgotten "loyalty down". Of course that was one of my pet peeves when I wore Uncle's suit, half of all officers and senior NCOs expected my loyalty but had none for us peons.

Sooner or later the history of that gun will come out, it was either bought by Webb or by this Thompson fellow, then we will know. Either Thompson is a liar or Webb is a miserable scumbag who has lived a lie since swearing the oath. Given that Thompson would know he'd get caught if he had known he was carrying a gun I'm leaning toward Webb being wrong, knowing he's wrong and throwing a loyal aid to the wolves. Why? To save himself some trouble.

What's that about macaca?

Why Aren't There Loud Noises?

I do not understand why Iran has anything left that will float or fly. I do not understand why there is a single Army barracks left standing over there, nor tank left unexploded. Why are there any Mullah's homes standing?

Iran has been at war with the West since the Carter Administration. I know our ground troops are somewhat extended these days but we've lots of bombers, fighter bombers, cruise missiles and attack helicopters that seem to not be doing too much. For that matter, if Iran were full of smoking holes our ground troops would probably have a little time to take a nice nap.

I realise that this Ahmadingbat character specialises in talking ferociously but does he have anything that can stop our Air and Naval Air? How about a volley of missiles into the air and radar sites, followed by the B2s and F117s. With all of the trouble Iran has had over the last few years I doubt it would take long before we had a clear sky for our conventional aircraft.

The War Powers Act gives us some 90 days before the idiot Democrats can do anything but whine. Somehow I don't think Iran would be a problem after 70 days of air hyperwar, a three day halt and then ten days to clean up any leftovers. Then we have a week to get everyone away.

We are halfway to that old button from the hippie days. Trouble is, it's not "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?". It's we have a war where they are fighting and we are not.

Rough Week.

It's been a rough week for people with Cancer. Cathy Seipp died at age 47 from Lung Cancer, even though she was a lifelong nonsmoker. I never really went out of my way to find her writing. I don't know why. Every time I followed a link to something she'd written I got something important from it. If she had died at age 105 she still would have died too young. My prayers go for her daughter, Maia.

It seems, too, that the Edwards family is going through a very tough patch. I simply do not understand a lot about this, the mother of two young children has a fatal disease and yet they're going to be jet setting all over, campaigning? Eh, I don't even understand how any Doctor would dare see anyone in that family. Oh well, prayers out for those children, anyway.

All that bad news calls for puppy pictures. Here is another picture of Princess looking unbearably cute and one of Eddie just beginning his hole to China. I guess being a Chinese Pug he wants to dig down to raid their refrigerators.

The Battle Of Daddy's Lap

Except for the ongoing Battle Of Daddy's Lap the dogs have pretty well adjusted to the new puppy. I would wager that they will soon solve the burning question of who gets to sit in the chair with me. If for no other reason that Princess will be too big to fit in the chair. Until then, though, I need an armored codpiece.

We were worried about how Ming would adjust to the puppy as she doesn't much like anyone but us. As it is, she seems quite happy. Eddie loves to play with Princess so he is leaving Ming alone. So she lays in her bed making little Pug grunts of contentment while they fight all over the floor, or my lap. I'm glad Ming is happy.

The fence is working well, there is a little bit too much gap in the gate, the pup can get through. The Pug's heads are too big and since the pup will be growing I should be able to take those cinderblocks down, perhaps by next Tuesday.

Speaking of growing puppies, I learned something from my Vet. Seems that the expensive "large breed puppy" food has something in it to slow the growth of the puppies. They still grow, and just as big, only more slowly. This is alleged to help prevent hip dysplasia. I don't know why he didn't tell me about it when we had George, maybe he was too big by the time we got him. The kind the Doc touts is Science Diet.

While I really missed going to DC for the Gathering of Eagles I can report that there were no moonbats protesting out here. I reckon the dogs scared 'em off. Good dogs.

Cohise's Apache Princess

We've decided on the name for the puppy, Cochise's Apache Princess, her callin' name will be princess.

She is eight weeks old, born January 15, 2007. I hope we are astrologically compatible. I believe she was born under a Speed Limit 20 sign. I was born under a neon sign. It said "HOSPITAL". Any astrology gurus are invited to comment.

I took her to the Vet yesterday for her checkup, she weighs 17.8 pounds. She got a clean bill of health. The only problem is some kind of "newborn" hernia, she has a tiny hernia around her belly button. The Doc says that he will fix that when he spays her, unless we decide to breed her, if we don't spay her it will be about fifty bucks to fix the hernia.

George was about four months old when we got him, this girl is half that, that might explain why she cries so much. It is driving Linda Lou crazy. She hated it when the kids whined, she doesn't much like Princess doing it now.

I hope Linda Lou doesn't real mad at me for a while. She was trying to push Princess down the back stairs* to go outside last night, lost her balance and fell down the stairs. Naturally, as deaf as I am, I did not hear her calling me. Boy, am I in trouble! Anyhow she has two skinned knees and a big scrape over her left eye, along with a somewhat black eye. If Linda Lou even hints that I beat her I'm off to jail. I've never raised a hand against her, though. I have never understood the mentality of someone who would hit his, or hers for that matter, spouse and then go to sleep. I REALLY do not understand the mentality of the beaten person allowing the beater to wake up.

I'm not exactly the biggest, meanest feller around. I can be beaten up but if you do, leave town. I'm coming back and I'll have something in my hand. Linda Lou believes that same thing. My proof that I don't hit her? I'm breathing.

*Princess is still trying to learn stairs.

Ever Seen A Prettier Girl?

Let's have a look at her...Ears stickin' up like Bat Dog? Check.
Feet the size of Cleveland? Check.Perfect? Close enough.

As for her name, we're thinking of Cochise' Apache Princess for formal with the callin' name of Princess.

I am, though, going to Google Cochise and see if he actually had a daughter.

Fence IsUp, Need Name For The New Puppy.

My Pard Steve came out and we put up the fence, five feet tall, 80 feed wide by about eighty feet long. We saved money by using the house as one side of the fence instead of going out to the property line.

I am scheduled to ache for the next week, maybe the next month but all the posts are in, the wire strung and fastened. Woot!

My Pard Steve didn't quite understand the hurry, some folks living a couple of miles away had a large litter of AKC German Shepherd puppies and after the bad luck we've had our large dogs being killed I wasn't allowed one until the fence was up. These folks had a price range far lower than "professional" breeders although this pup has had her first shots, wormed, etc. Plus they use the same Vet we do so we are starting out with a known quality. When we take her into the Vet for the next worming, scheduled real soon, we can have her general health looked at too and have the chance to cancel the deal. I doubt we'll need to, I met both the sire and the Dam. Both nice large, seem smart and well socialized.

We have to figure out an AKC name for her. Sire is Cochise Apache War Chief, Dam is Little Eagle. I reckon those folks like the cowboy and Indian movies. I can't think of any Apache girl names, offhand. I'll figure something out, wasn't Cochise Geronimo's father or was that Mangus Colorado? Hmm, I'd better Google up some Apache history. The Tribes I'm familiar with were somewhat east of the Apache.

Oh well, pictures will follow in the next few days.

I Forgot To Mention...

I have been meaning to mention that son and daughter in law #2 are pregnant again. This will make grandchild #nine for Linda Lou and me. Seems like Mark Steyn oughta give us a medal.

In other news I shall miss the Gathering of Eagles up in DC. Finances will keep me home where I will attend the Gathering of Turkey Vultures.

The Gate Is Up, The Stupid Dogs Still Won't Stay In

Saturday my son in law came out to help with the fence, he brought a friend, too. Good thing, as we would have been just barely getting started with the concrete when we were actually finished. So, Dean dug the postholes while his friend, Cliff, and I mixed the concrete and set the poles.

Cliff is a city feller and did not know to bring a hat, fortunatly one of my staw hats fit well enough so the Sun didn't fry his brain. City folks tend to forget that it does not have to be hot to get sunburnt. Anyhow we had all the posts up and concreted in in only a couple of hours. Now comes the fun part, ramming some twenty-five to thirty of the other posts into the ground and then stringing the wire "net". My Pard, Steve was going come out and we'd get it done tomorrow, unfortunately it rained yesterday like a brown cow peein' on a flat rock, with more scattered showers today.

The amusing thing about the day was Cliff, while wearing a western hat, said "I don't know what's wrong but I feel like I just gotta shoot something." Heh. So when the work was done I got out the .22 and let him empty it at a water bottle. Not bad, he hit it seven out of ten shots. Then he tried a shot out of one of my .45 Colt clones, with a black powder round. To keep the bullet from richocheting around he pegged that shot at a concrete block, hit it dead center but he didn't want another shot with that. The last shot was out of my mule ear double twelve gauge, again a hit. I'm not sure I'm gonna let him shoot my irons anymore.

I had a Cowboy Action Shoot scheduled on Sunday so I set my clock forward like I was supposed to and went to bed earlier than normal, about midnight thirty or so, all those years on the night shift still make early to bed difficult. As always happens when I set my alarm I woke up every hour worrying about not getting any sleep. Then It started raining, I woke up again and turned off the alarm. Ever since forever just the fact of setting the alarm makes it hard to sleep. Dunno why.



Anyhow we put the gate up Sunday, after the concrete had set. I then put the dogs inside and told them that this was their new playground. Idiot dogs just ran around the gate. Stupid dogs. Meanwhile some folks that live a couple of miles away have a new litter of AKC German Shepherd puppies, only $250 per, I'm hoping that the fence is up before that one little female that fell in love with me is gone.

Stupid dogs, I shut the gate and told them to stay inside.

Busy

I've been really busy the last week or so. I have everything I need to build my fence, my son in law is coming out Saturday to help with the postholes and concrete for the big main poles and gate. Since the only gates they had that were tall enough to keep a German Shepherd in were too narrow for my lawn tractor I bought a big old panel of chain link six foot tall dog kennel. We looked kind o' funny driving around with that on the roof of the van. I'm not real sure we shouldn't have just bought a mess of these panels, bolted them together into a small kennel and then added a couple of panels per payday.

The van was kind of leaning, too, what with 400 pounds of quickcrete sacks along with the rest of everything.

I've been busy trying to cast my bullets out of my new mold, it is taking a lot of ugly words. My little ten pound electric furnace doesn't hold enough lead alloy to keep the mold hot enough to run good bullets so I'm using my six cavity mold as a two cavity until I get my twenty pound furnace. Running both furnaces I should be able to run the mold as designed.

At any rate I have a shoot this Sunday so I am busy trying to load enough black powder ammo so I can shoot my class, instead of having to fool around with that heathen fad smokeless stuff. I have the bullets cast and lubed and the cartridge cases cleaned, resized and primed. Now it's just dumping the powder, adding a half cc of dry grits and seating the bullets.

Things sure seem odd these days, Scooter Libby is headed to prison while Sandy Burglar got plea bargained down to a misdemeanor. That is just sick. Note: when dealing with the Feds, always have a lawyer and if brought before a Grand Jury, say nothing. A determined prosecutor can, with enough time, get Mother Theresa on a process crime. Have enough Feebs interview you and then haul you, a co-operative witness who durned well knew that he did not commit the "crime" of "outing" an analyst and you too can be guilty of four felonies. Give me an unlimited budget and a squad of Feebs and a grand jury and I could put Fitzfong (or is it Nifgerald?) in prison. If he was silly enough to try to cooperate.

In other news we sure are eager to throw our own people over the side. Seems that Ann Coulter has become persona non grata at all the cool parties. Let's see, the left can bring up Dick Cheney's daughter at the debates and they can, while ex(?) Klansman Byrd is the conscience of the Senate demand that because Jeff Gannon posed for pictures his livelihood is ruined. So now we throw Ann out of the boat? Sorry. I'm not going to. I don't care that all the cool people have the vapors. What the heck, I'm not good enough to be allowed to comment on Hot Air anyway. I don't remember Ann throwing Malkin overboard when the left was attacking her over her book on the Japanese internment.

Would I have phrased that comment exactly like Ann did? No. Still, I have stuck my foot in my mouth enough times in my life that I'll not hit Ann. Even if she does need a sandwhich and a milk shake.

Why I Hate The Left

I do not pretend to hide my dislike of Leftists. I do not like to hear or see them preening about how my side is the Party of Hate while they lament the fact that Dick Cheney wasn't killed in a bombing and wish the Taliban better luck next time.

I do not like the way the Democrats refused to state a position on the war leading up to the election and then, when they won a razor thin majority, claiming the American People support "their plan" on that war.

I am not particularly happy about Leftists telling me how I am ruining "Mother Earth" while their leaders flit about in private jets and build 28,000 square foot mansions, al la The Breck Girl or use twice as much electricity in a month as the average American home uses in a year, as does Algore.

I am not real happy about Leftists claiming that I hate women while they support those who would kill women for the crime of going to school or driving. I do not like Leftists telling me that my side hates gays while they support those who would kill them. I do not like being called racist while the Left sides with those killing black people in Darfur by the thousands.

Most of all I hate the Left for siding with those who wish to kill my grandchildren.

Heading Into Spring

It got warm enough this afternoon to have to run the air conditioning for a couple of hours. It's nice to know that it still blows cold.

It's been an interesting few days, that tooth that was killing me fell out with nothing left inside. This after I paid a ton of money to the dentist in advance, only to have him not return my phone calls. Grump.

Saturday was a Cowboy Action Shoot, it almost didn't happen as it was raining a little. Our range is built on that black gumbo soil, a cloud in Oklahoma sinks trucks. But it looked like the rain was just about over so we set up three sets of targets and shot six stages on those with just different courses of fire on the same targets.

There were only eight of us so we were mostly just bangin' and clangin'. As soon as the rain stopped the wind came up, blowing harder and harder. By the sixth stage the wind was gusting well over forty MPH, I know it hit fifty a few times. Driving home the wind had blown the overhang from over the pumps at a gas station on the way.

In other news I bought the posts and wire for a five foot tall fence to go around my backyard, Wednesday is my "payday" so I will buy the gate, main posts and concrete for the job. Then it is just waiting for my bud to find the time between jobs to help me put it up. Once I get the fence up I'll start looking for another German Shepherd.

Today was Delivery Day. Linda Lou had a Doctor's appointment and then wanted to visit her sister over in Fort Worth so I went and filled her car with gas, coming home I stopped at the mail box and there was my new six cavity bullet mold for the 250 grain Pigeon Roost Slim .45 Boolit. This is a Big Lube Boolit (tm) design, it carries some five times the amount of lube that conventional bullets do, very important for black powder shooting. The extra lube keeps the powder fouling soft so we don't lose accuracy shooting a lot of rounds. I am told that modern black powder is not near the quality of the stuff of the late 19th Century so the old time bullets don't carry near the lube they need. The skinny grease grooves of ordinary bullets carry plenty of lube for a few gunfulls in handguns. The same bullet runs out in a rifle barrel or all day handgun shooting.

This new mold is from Blogdaddy Harvey's neck of the woods, Hartford Wisconsin. I think they only have five more months of winter. The I think they have three days of summer and then comes winter again. The people at Lee Precision make these molds for Dick Dastardly, a riverboat gambler and midnight rambler from Sun Prarie, WI. Dick spent his pension fund building this little home based business. Anyone insterested in BP should click on Big Lube for molds and lubes.

I also got my year's supply of Black Powder off the FedEx truck today. I'm trying a new kind of BP, Graf and Son's house brand. This is supposed to be made by the Schutzen people in Germany. They use a different kind of wood for the charcoal, Alder, I believe.

The finest BP known today is Swiss, the folks shooting the long range buffalo gun matches swear by it. At the close ranges and big targets we use in CAS it is not worth the extra money, it is near twice as expensive as GOEX or Graf's. I'm told that Graf's and Schuetzen are just under Swiss. I am trying Graf's because of the free shipping. So I have ten pounds of BP for $135.00, tax, title license, dealer and destination charges. That will make a lot of .45 Colt and 12 gauge loads. Mo Smoke!

Now I have to buy a twenty pound lead furnace, the little ten pounder I have is fine for a two cavity mold. Trouble is a six cavity takes a lot of lead every time and the ten pounder can't keep the melt hot enough. Still, buying the Big Lube Boolits(tm) is such that I will save money casting after spending a hundred and fifty+ bucks for the mold, furnace and sizer die. They are over thirty bucks+ for 250 bullets.

So, that is what I'm up to, digging postholes, buying fencing materiel and getting ready to cast bullets.

I just hope I don't have have a fire in the house until I shoot off most of this BP.

He Did Not Know He Was Broken

Eddie is home now, back from the Vet. He spent the night there getting fixed. Poor little guy didn't know he was broke.

We expected him to be kind of slow and unbouncy. He is running and jumping just like before, running around like Rocket Dog.

Eddie Turns Nine Months Old.

Happy New Year, in Chinese, if you please. Eddie turned nine months old yesterday. He enters the Year Of The Boar as a teenager in people years. I don't have the energy to figure out when the Year of the Dog is, around here that is every year.

Running In Circles

I haven't done much online this week, I've been running in circles trying to get a bad tooth pulled, plus some other medical problems.

Since my stroke in August of '05 I have been on blood thinner, Warfarin to be precise. This is actually tiny doses of an old rat poison. The Germans used larger doses to kill people back in the Nazi Era. At any rate, dentists hate the stuff, it complicates things. So I am off the rat poison for now, letting my blood thicken up in hopes that the dentist will be able to pull this tooth before I drop dead.

Meanwhile my primary care Doc is all of a sudden worried about my hearing, which is still bad. They did a hearing test, my hearing loss is still "profound" and my insurance still does not cover the $2300.00 worth of hearing aids I need. These are the same hearing aids I needed back in the early '90s when they were hundreds of dollars cheaper. I wonder how come everything electronic has gotten cheaper except for medical electronics. They have risen.

Friday I have to go to an ophthalmologist and I hope I'm at least close on the spelling. The spell checker doesn't do too well on medical terms. Anyhow he is worried that my medical problems can lead to eye problems.

I have noticed that The Puppy Blender has followed my idea of blowing stuff up in Iran and killing certain Iranians. So the various big bloggers on the Left are all mad at him. They'd be all mad at me if'n they knew who I am. They can be as mad as they want, just as long as they stay out of carbine range.

I noticed that the big wheel at Virgin Airlines is offering 25 million Pounds for someone who can stop Global Warming. I do not know how to tell him about my idea to drop enough nukes to cause Global Springtime. Anybody got his address? I could buy those hearing aids.

Hate Speech

I have been reading, with only mild interest, of the adventures of someone named Amanda Marcotte. She is, apparently, some famous blogger that I've never heard of. Please note that just because I have never heard of someone does not mean that they can't, or shouldn't be, famous. I have narrow interests and do not pay much attention to most media. I have never seen an episode of American Idol, nor Survivor nor even Seinfeld. I do not watch 24. I do not watch any television series at all, my hearing is such that I cannot understand what they are saying. Oddly I can watch old movies and even old TV shows but something in modern sound, maybe the style, maybe the technology, makes me unable to hear it. I noticed this about the last year of so of NYPD Blue, that is how long I have been out of the loop.

Ooops! I need one of Drudge's Siren and Light graphics to warn everyone of a digression alert.

Anyhow this Marcotte person seems to not like men or Catholics much or women who enjoy being mothers. Her business, not mine. In looking at the things posted by others I wondered a little about what gave er such a dislike for folks who have never done her any harm, then I got interested in finding a little more information about Mysterious Dave Mather, the old west Lawman, gunfighter and outlaw. Once he got on the side of the Law he stayed a very practical sort. In the towns he worked if a notorious bad guy was in town he and his deputies would just go house to house, room to room and kill him. Whoops, I digress again. Did you know that after Mysterious Dave's career as a Lawman, gambler, and rustler in Arkansas, Kansas and Colorado he went to Canada and was a Mountie and didn't retire until 1920s? I do not know if he kept up with that same style of police work up there.

What I have noticed the most about the controversy over this Marcotte person is that everyone immediately starts talking about the equivalent "hate speech" on the Right. Rush Limbaugh is always mentioned there. Now I do listen to Rush, almost every day. I do not hear the hate. Ridicule, yes. Apparently the Left believes that playing a tape of a Kennedy or a Clinton's exact words and then commenting is hate. Insulting millions of Catholics is political commentary.

I wasn't going to vote for the Breck Girl anyway.

Update: The more I read about politics in 2007, the more I stay in the latter third of the 19th Century. Except with modern medicine.

Rudy

I am nowhere near committing to a candidate for the GOP nomination for President in '08. I am looking at everybody but that crook McCain.

I am getting a lot of information about Rudy "America's Mayor" Giuliani and his anti Second Amendment stance. Trouble is, as mayor Rudy was enforcing New York's Sullisan Law, a law having noting to do with the US Government. The Second Amendment restricts Congress. I do not know, nor do I care much, how the State Constitution deals with the right to keep and bear arms. The Sullivan Law has been in effect for generations, if there were constitutional issues, either State of Federal, they would have been found.

I may well decide to support someone else. I see no reason to lean away from Rudy because he enforced the law of his state. That is what Federalism is all about. New York may have the gun laws it wishes. I stay out of New York. Seems the both of us are happy.

A Big Disappointment

A few days ago I was online at the SASS Wire, a bulletin board for Cowboy Action Shooters and the question of gunbelts and holsters came up. I wanted to reccommend my holstermaker, Brazos Jack of Etowah River Leather but because I am still unsure of putting in urls and such I went to his website so I could write the addy down.

This is when I saw the news, Brazos Jack has retired because of poor health. This happened at the end of November. Nobody ever tells me anything. The good news is that Brazos Jack is still creating gunleather designs for Hide Crafter. So the handy can still have a Brazos Jack gunrig. Klutzes like me, though, have to find another way.

I shall drop an extra prayer or two for the health and well being of a genuine artist in leather and all around good guy.

Iran

It looks as if the Administration is finally getting serious about Iran, now that the Democrats have made sure that we can't really DO anything about them. Sigh. Anyone want to guess how peaceful the world would be now if that idiot Carter had given Khomeini a good hard whack on the peepee in 1979? For that matter, what would that area be like now had Carter sent a few B-52s loaded up with canisters of itching powder and stink bombs over the cities and then casually mentioned that next week it's nukes?

Still, talking about what we should have done then is like talking about what we should have done about Iraq during that two year plus "rush to war". We did nothing then, now we must deal with this clown Imadinnerjacket or however he spells his name.

So, what can we do about Iran? How about what they are doing to us? How about sending some of the Sneaky Pete troops, the SEALs, those Army guys in the Girl Scout Hats, a few Force Recon Marines in to blow up some of those oil pipelines that run Iran's economy, such as it is. Seems that Iran has a whole lot of valuable targets that would be very difficult to guard. Most of these targets would involve Iran's petroleum industry. Speaking of things that are vulnerable to explosives.

Back in 2003 I thought the whole purpose of going into Iraq was to get bases from which we could take the next two steps, Iran and Saudi Arabia, take your choice as to which would have been first. Little did I know that instead we would still be sitting around being targets, coming up on four years later.

Memo to the US Government. We already know that wars are uncomfortable to our guys. Fine. We can take that. The thing is, though, we are supposed to be making things MORE uncomfortable for the other guys. Someone please explain to me why we are allowing Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia to send clowns into Iraq to kill our guys when not one of these country's whole damned armys would fold to just the forces we have over there, without much in the way of reinforcements.

Our troops, their families and my grandchildren deserve a government that doesn't lose it's nerve after the fight starts.

The Mystery Of The Dissolving Noodles

Payday came along and I bought everything I thought I needed to a huge pot of chicken noodle soup. I now know that I made a couple of mistakes but it was a learning experience.

I started with two pounds of skinless, boneless chicken breasts. I sprayed the bottom of my big pot with Pam and dropped them in and cooked them until they were done enough to cut up. I cut them up with Pugs at my feet, Eddie kept trying to climb Mount Peter to get to the chicken.

Back into the pot and then a "box" of chicken broth, it comes in quart boxes now. Who knew? That didn't look like enough so I added two cans of chicken broth. The Pugs were still tormenting me so I gave them each some "chicken ice cream". The last time I needed some chicken broth I didn't need all I had so I filled an ice cube tray with the leftovers. Then I put the yellow ice cubes in a freezer bad. One will keep a pug occupied for long enough to do much in the kitchen. Or other rooms for that matter. These broth cubes don't last but a couple of minutes for a German Shepherd, though. I miss George.

Since I like lots of vegetables in my soup I then added two pounds of frozen soup vegetables, Pictsweet if the brand matters. This turned out to be a mistake on my part as Linda Lou won't eat this soup because of the tomatoes. Even after I pulled all the tomatoes out and ate them in the first bowl. I think I'm going to be sick of chicken soup by the time this is done.

That was too many ingredients for the broth in the pot so I poured in enough water and turned the fire up. Then I added a half pound of egg noodles and a half pound of wacky mac, those egg noodles that look like coil springs and are odd colored because of the various vegetables in them. That looked like plenty of noodles so I turned the fire up until the stuff started boiling, turned it down to simmer and went and listened to Rush. The spices were simple, garlic powder, black pepper, white pepper some sage to remind me that I live in the Southwest and a couple of shakes of Oregano.
An hour or so later I ate the first bowl. Now I don't think those tomatoes hurt anything but Linda Lou is firm in her prejudices so refuses to try even a spoonful. It was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. I put the pot in the refrigerator and then reheated it for supper. Linda Lou had Hamburger Helper. What I noticed was that the second bowl had almost no noodles, though. They seem to have dissolved. I wonder what kind of secret ingredients they put in the noodles of canned soup, they last forever. A bit of concrete, maybe?

Oh well, the stuff still tastes noodley even if they are all part of the broth. Lessons learned? Use stew vegetables instead of soup vegetables. Half as much chicken, vegetables and other ingredients. Add the noodles at the last possible minute. Perhaps leave the noodles out and put them in as I reheat the soup.

I am going to be sick of chicken soup before this is gone.