Cheeeesecake...

No, not this kind.

This kind.

Believe it or not it isn't that hard to make a good cheesecake. Yes it takes a bit longer than the no-bake kind but the results are well worth the wait. The basic recipe is as follows:

2 pkgs Cream Cheese (8 oz), softened
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (get the good stuff, it's worth it)
2 eggs

Mix all this up with an electric mixer until smooth and pour into a ready-made graham cracker crust, bake at  350 degrees for 40 minutes or until the center is almost set, let it cool, refrigerate for 3-4 hours and it's done.

To the basic recipe you can add several different flavors and if you really want to get fancy you can get a set of springform pans and make your own crust. A basic graham cracker crust is as follows:

1 c Graham Cracker crumbs
3 Tablespoons Sugar
3  Tablespoons butter, melted

Combine the crumbs and sugar, stir in the butter and continue to stir until the graham crackers have absorbed the butter and they are more or less evenly coated. Assemble your springform pan and press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom with the back of a spoon to make a smooth even layer. Make a double batch of batter or use a small pan, the above recipe is good for a 6" pan but no bigger. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top, bake as before.

I made a pumpkin cheesecake this week for Middle Daughter's birthday. To the basic batter add 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (plain pumpkin, NOT the mix), 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and one dash each  ground cloves and nutmeg. Mix until smooth, bake as before.

Other variations are chocolate (4 squares semi-sweet bakers chocolate, melted), peanut butter (1/2 cup) or Key Lime juice (2 Tablespoons). Another variation is to make two complimentary flavors of batter, layer them in the pan and run a knife through the layers to swirl them together. (This works extremely well with chocolate and peanut butter, it would work just as well with chocolate and 1/3 cup caramel ice cream topping.)

The possibilities are endless, but beware that once you start making real cheesecakes you won't go back to the no-bake kind.

Enjoy!

How Cool Is This

When Middle Daughter showed an interest in learning to shoot the first thing I did was buy her a copy of this book.

When we went to the range I called Range Partner and he brought his collection so that we would have a variety for her to try out, starting with the .22 High Standard. I want her to enjoy just shooting as much as I do regardless of whether she ever carries for personal protection, and going by the range day I think that mission was pretty well accomplished.

The author of the referenced book now has a website. If you have a lady in your life that you would like to introduce to shooting I highly recommend both book and website.

Also fellas, read it (book, website or both) yourself. It could prevent you from making some pretty basic and stupid mistakes when it comes to teaching your ladies how to shoot.  Including maybe making the decision to let someone else do it.

NOTE: Check out her link for TTAG. It's not what you think. Or at least it wasn't what I thought. Well done!

Chocolate!

AAR

The 6.5 grain load felt to be the best. I had a bit of an issue with FTL/FTE but that was easily traced to the brass, the ones that failed to load properly also failed to eject properly. Hopefully another round through the resizing dies will correct the issue, if not I will bring a marker to the range next time and dispose of those pieces of brass.

The Arisaka is 4" high at 25 yards and 8" high at 100 yards. Azimuth is mostly OK, but I found the sights move too easily so I have to find a way to stake them back down. I was shooting factory loads so now I have more brass to reload. I have to check my inventory, I think I have some bullets. I also scored a couple of 50 rd cartridge boxes so I don't have to worry about the Styrofoam breaking down in the PCI boxes.

The new holster was poking a bit, but I found the issue and corrected it. This corner was digging in so I took a pair of clippers and rounded it off. After that no more digging, and it is as comfortable to wear as I hoped it would be.

150 rounds through the Glock, another 20 through the Arisaka and a chance to put some top-down miles on the Mustang before Sandy came to town, topped off by hamburgers on the grille.

I don't know if your day was as good as mine, but I hope it was a good one for you anyway.

Range Time

Off to try my .45 reloads, I will reload the rest of my empty brass to whichever one does the best.

I'm also going to borrow Range Partner's lead sled and see if I can finally nail down the Arisaka's POI.

Before I go to the range I'm going to drop by my favorite MOD to see if they have cartridge cases suitable for 6.5x50.

Afterwards it looks like I'm going to log some more grille time.

A top-down ride capped by smoke and noise and then meat cooked over a fire, what could be better?

Okay...

Good News: The Family Research Council shooter is a terrorist.

Bad News: The Fort Hood shooter is not.
.
.
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maybe someone can explain that one to me some day...

HT: Bob Owens

The Fugly Has Landed

A few months ago I ordered one of these from Dragon Leatherworks, and without warning or fanfare it arrived today. Of course I could not wait to tear into the box and see what was there.

First impressions: it is a handsomely made all-leather holster that fits the gun like a glove...as expected.  I ordered mine without fancy adornments since it is, after all, a concealed carry holster.

You can, however, order it in several different colors and you can order the body panel (the part that is plain leather) in a different color than the holster

body (the part that is black).

The holster is designed to go in the five o'clock position but I don't really like to carry there - I find it uncomfortable and burdensome to draw from that far around my overly ample belt-line. Fortunately I was able to reverse the belt in the loops and put it at my three o'clock where I normally wear it without any problems.

This holster carries a bit higher than my Galco Stow n' Go, which in turn carried a bit higher than the Galco Tuck n' Go, so once again there will be a bit

of a learning curve as I get used to it. 

I am also going to have to get used to the body panel, it is the first holster I have had that has one. I like it because it keeps the gun from digging into my side, but it makes it a bit difficult to get my thumb to the inside of the grip.

I will be using the Galco whenever I need to be able to take the holster off (for example, if I am driving somewhere that I can't have the gun such as a restaurant that serves alcohol) since I don't like handling the gun with the trigger guard uncovered but I am planning on using the Fugly as my everyday carry holster.

It will get its first test this afternoon at the range. I'll let you know how it goes.

On The Schedule

A day off and Monster Hunter Legion.

Temps in the high 70's and a car with a top that goes down.

What to do...what to do...

Musings Of The Day

From the WTF Files: Tim Tebow is an arrogant jackass. No wonder he plays for the Jets.

There are some people you wish would just go away.

Paper shields are extremely flimsy.

Unrelated to any of the above: people were put on this earth to annoy me, and the reason that so many of them still live is because it's illegal to kill them.

It's time for me to go catch some Z's. I hope everyone has a good day.

St Judes

I was up early today heading for Fayetteville for the No More Chemo Cruise to benefit St Judes Children's Hospital.

I took some pics and some videos and even took my little Firefly down the strip where she clocked in a pretty respectable 13.1998 with the top down. It was my very first time on a strip with any vehicle so I wasn't too disappointed.

More videos and photos can be found here.

Fair Use

You keep using these words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

I like to put pictures up on my posts, in my headers, and generally sprinkled throughout the blog. I like pictures, probably because I'm a knuckle dragging mouth breathing moron and need the visual stimulation, but for whatever reason there it is.

Oftentimes I will take these pictures myself but just as oftentimes I will pull them from the 'net. Whenever I do pull them from the 'net I try to leave a link and credit the creator whenever possible. Sometimes the pics I find don't have attribution so I can't always do this, I do still leave a link to where I found it if possible (meaning if I remember where I stole it from).

With that being said if I use a picture of yours and you want credit, or if you just want me to take it down, please do shoot me an email (address at my profile link) or leave me a comment on the offending post (I moderate comments so I will see it as long as you're not a spambot, in which case you must die by fire) and I will take appropriate actions.  No muss, no fuss, no bullshit.

What I will not do is use someone elses work for profit without their permission (one of the many reasons I don't do ads on this here blog). Using someone elses stuff without their say so is just plain rude and could be illegal depending on the circumstances (ask Major Caudill if you don't believe it).

This PSA has been brought to you by the Association of Annoyed Gunbloggers. We now return you to your regular programming.

CSM Plumley

Departing.

Fair winds and following seas Command Sergeant Major.

Goodby Alex

We are all just pawns in game of life.

blugh

I'm usually unreasonably healthy. I can count the number of times I've gone home early on one hand. Four, and that includes the time I got sent to my rack with my eyes crossed after bashing my nugget against the sharp underside of an F/A-18 flap by way of the sickbay where I got seven souvenir staples.

On the way in today I had a bit of a headache so I popped a couple of Excedrin and went on my way. By first break someone had left the water running in my nose so I had a Zicam to go along with my soda. Another at lunch, and by last break someone had a tie-down strap around my skull and they were ratcheting it down one click at a time, there was a balloon in one nostril and an icepick in the other, and every once in a while they swapped places. To add to the misery Mister Balloon turned the water on in the side he was in and left it running until he left.

I called it quits and turned it over to my Sith apprentice at a half past five, by six AM it was readily apparent that it was the smart thing to do going by my decreasing depth perception and attention span. I'm off to self-medicate a bit and take a little nap now, good thing this was the last day of the week so I have time to recover.

And while I'm on the subject, you folks really need to get jobs where you can go to work at a decent hour when it's light outside, and does it really take three hours these days to get the kids to school? Oh, and Mister Garbageman, a bit of light or at least some reflectors on that dark jacket you're wearing wouldn't be a bad idea. Just sayin'.

If you are looking for actual content you will have to seek it out in the sidebar, there's nothing to see here. (move along)

Barriers - Broken

One of the more interesting technologies to be developed in the past decade or so is Rapid Prototyping on 3D printers. The technology has evolved to the point where there are companies such as Shapeways that can mass produce objects using your CAD designs.

I've purchased railroad cars from them and so far they are pretty good, it seems to be the perfect way to economically produce items that would be prohibitively expensive using standard manufacturing techniques such as injection molding. If I only knew how to run a CAD program, or could find someone to create an Nn3 design for the East Broad Top M-1 that can be powered by a powered truck, I'd be in heaven. But I digress.

As the technology matures it will become less and less expensive and eventually will reach a point where 3D printers are cheap enough to be affordable by regular folks. When that happens all you will need is some proficiency with a CAD program and the items that can be created are virtually limitless.

Enter Texas law student Cody Wilson and his Wiki Weapon Project. Using a 3D printer he created an AR-15 lower and then built first a .22 pistol and then a .223 rifle out of it. And yes, it works; the AR-15 receiver carries a very little bit of stress, functioning mostly as a framework to hold all of the various parts in close proximity. The upper is the part that gets all the stress, but here's a bit of trivia...the lower is the part that has the serial number, and thus according to the BATFEIEIO it IS the firearm.

The owner of the leased printer has canceled its contract with him and repossessed the printer, saying that it was used for illegal purposes, but actually according to the law it is not illegal for someone to manufacture a firearm (as long as it is not fully automatic) for their own use as long as they are otherwise allowed to have them (we can discuss the whole "allowed" thing later) and they don't sell it. Regardless, this genie is now out of the bottle; it has been done once and can be done again.

The truth is the manufacture of firearms is not difficult, cave dwellers in Afghanistan are fashioning fully functional versions of the AK-47 even as we speak; it's receiver is bent sheet metal that can be built using common metal working tools (in fact you can purchase kits for this purpose). Those who wish for a gun-free world are whistling in the wind, if a cavewight in Trashcanistan can make them they can be made anywhere.

This technology will (eventually) put self-defense capabilities into everyone's reach, and as far as I'm concerned that is a good thing.

Yep

Have a great day.

Morons Unite!

Please welcome moron(ette)blogger Anna Puma!

thatisall.

(actual content this weekend after the car show...with pics...maybe)