Post-Thanksgiving Day

The family had a nice quiet holiday at the Parkers' home. We had Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Jelly, homemade stuffing and gravy, Green bean casserole, a relish tray (including carrots, celery, cucumber slices, and radishes) and white and a wheat dinner rolls. Our Desert consisted of Pumpkin and Pecan pie.

It was a small gathering, but we were also graced with unusually warm, sunny weather allowing Jacob and I to take the airsoft guns outside and shoot them behind the barn. I also managed to get a few additional pictures of the airsoft gun from last week and Thanksgiving night. Enjoy.

Airsoft Pics
Right now, I am doing some field work for AirsoftBattlezone. I was given a G&G M14 that I had used at Nostromo II. THis was done to help me create a review, but also to make sure the gun would stand up as a rental gun. Jason indicated if it was not going to stand up iun the field, he would likely get frid of it or find a different gun for use as a rental.


G&G M14 with Marui Hicapa 5.1




Marui Hicapa 5.1, HFC Glock 17, and KSC USPc



Marui MP5SD6 and KSC USPc


Marui Hicapa 5.1 with 2 spare magazines

I know, its a small collection of four guns and a "loaner." They have been alot of fun to play around with. I hope to add some more over the next few months, including a Marui MP5K (for Jacob) and possibly another rifle. I guess it really depends on how long it takes to get them up and running.


Computer Finished!
This Week, I was able to finish up work on my new computer. I bought two sticks of RAM, a new case, a new mouse, and have everything up and running. I added a KVM switch o the line up so that I can switch back and forth between the computers.

I am also working on either networking the computers or setting up some kind of DCC setup. I do plan to get a new Cable Modem with Integrated 4-port router and Wireless Networking, but I have to save up for that one. For now, I just have to figure out something to use for file swapping between the two computers. I'm sure it will all work out eventually.

It just feels good to finally say goodbye to that project. My next step is to get XP on the new machine, replace the old Gateway Mobo/Proc with something faster, likely a 2 gig proc, and then get that computer up and running Windows 2000 or XP. The second computer is more of a long-term project for now. And I do still have a laptop to worry about.

Two Weeks leading to Turkey Day

The last two weeks have just been busy as hell. After I got back from my game, I had some thinking to do about my gear loadout. I also had thought I would have until January to prepare for the next game which would give me time to stretch out purchase of mags, ammo, and batteries. In the mean time, we have been busy at home with kids running around, shopping, and preparations for Thanksgiving.

December Game
I'm not quite sure I will be going to the December game. It is right outside of town and would be an easy drive. Weather is the most concern. When you take guns out into cold weather, they tend to have problems almost immediately. Gas guns don't work at all because the cool temperature causes a drop in gas pressure. Electric guns have problems because the batteries lose some of their capacity in cold weather.

There are also other mechanical problems to consider with my electric gun. Even if I used a rental gun, I'm just not sure I want to go to this game. I really don't want to go if there's snow on the ground. I'm just not a fan of playing in that kind of weather. Taking a break will give me time to prepare for the January game. I didn't really intend to play at the January game, mostly just to assisit in getting it going. I'd also be able to prepare for the Spring game that is supposed to be around March.

Thanksgiving Preparations?
I'm not even sure what we're going ot do for Thanksgiving this year. Noone has told me anything, asked me to prepare anything and I'm generally clueless about what is going on this year. Turkey? Ham? All the family or noone? I just don't know. I do know I will be working on Friday.

Kids' plans
The kids haven't said anything about Thanksgiving plans yet. I believe their dad's side of the family spends that time drinking and "hunting." Jake will prolly stay home. Annie will stay home but prolly still go to her aunt's house.

Family?
I spoke to mom and dad and was told Lauren and Ben will be coming home for Thanksgiving. No word on Vanna or Erin, but I'm sure they'll try to make it if they can. I'll give them a call on Thursday, if I can. This will be my 6th Thanksgiving away from home. It feels like almost forever since I was back there.

Kris Wins Multiple Awards in Pie Contest

Tuesday, Kris entered two pies in a company pie competition. She entered a chocolate cream cheese pie and a Lemon Merigue Pie. Kris' Lemon Merigune Pie is the very best I have ever had - a pretty broad statement considering the powerhouse pastry chefs in my family.

The result were 4 prizes in 2 categories. For Best Pie, Kris's two pies tied for 3rd Place. For Best Presentation, Kris won 1st place for her Lemon Meringue and had a three-way tie for third with her chocolate pie. Kris prizes included a first aid kit, an executive stationary set, a softside cooler, and a leather-bound calculator. She was thrilled and a little embarassed for winning as many as she did.

The remaining pies were sold by slice at $1 to benefit "Feed my People," a local food pantry. Kris was also happy that all of her pie had been sold off with nothing left to bring home except a pieplate. She hinted at making a second Lemon Meringue pie, perhaps for my work place. But it would likely not make it out the door. It is very good pie.

I ROCK!!!

Yesterday was probably one of the best days in months. Not only did I hit the game with my new rifle, but I also did very well in the game chalking up four kills. I even managed to pick off the enemy's snper.

Weekend Tragedy
My weekend participation pretty much hinged on getting paid on Friday, which, I didn't. So my plan to take Justin and Jacob to the game kinda fell through. I couldn't buy the last of my gear and towards the end of Friday night, I thought I might not be able to go at all.

I cannot thank Jason and Judy enough for helping me get to this game. Not only did they give me a ride to the game, but they helped me get in free, they offered to buy breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They let me put some money down from my AK sale and take my new MP5SD6 home and out to the game.

They also let me borrow a case for the gun, they loaned me out a scope mount and a few other goodies. I helped get them packed up and going and also set out many of the weapons and chronoed them for the game. They also let me take one of the rental rifles out onto the field for the game. I really appreciate everything they did to help me get there and am grateful there are such good people running the store.

Gameplay
I started out expecting cold weather. It had been cold all week, Friday was cold, and Saturday morning was cold and wet. SO, I decided to leave my Hicapa and USPc at home. Gas guns tend to function rather poorly in cold weather as the cold effects the pressure of the gas. COld weather = lower pressure = crap performance.

Unfortunately for me, the day was warm and lovely. My heavyweight uniform, and no GBB meant I had my MP5 and Sig226 spring gun to shoot. Neither guns have what I would call excellent range to them and are better suited to close range shooting. Yeah, I quickly found out that my shots would not hit them so had to retreat for something with more range.

Enter the G&G M14: This rifle has wonderful range and tends to reach out and touch someone in the gentlest kindest way - NOT! I had a rifle with superior rate of fire and range and immediately took it back into the field for some additional shooting.

I managed to push up the hill right into their upgraded rifles. And then was pulled back down and up a more wooded approach. This time, I was able to get to a position where I could hit more of them and proceeded to take out one of their "sharpshooters." At around that time, the rifle began showing signs of problems and I had to pull back out.

I couldn't get the rifle to feed properly so I had to retreat back tot he beachhead to try to clear it. THe rest of my team decided to try to free one of the POWs the enemy was holding, leaving the beachhead completely undefended. Well, except for me.

The Enemy decided to take that opportunity to charge the beachhead. I tried to get the M14 back up to return fire, but it was not going to cooperate. So I grabbed my trusty springer to return fire with all of three rounds left. They got closer and I was able to get a few shots out of the crippled M14. It finally died and I had to scramble back to the bunker, firing retreating shots with my spring pistol.

Right about when I was getting to the last obstacle between and the bunker, two of my teammates came back in from the Staging Area. One of them has an M60 and promnptly began putting down suppressing fire as the other took point and immediately shot down one of the enemy players. I managed to get the M14 back up for a few more shots, but at that point, the game had 30 seconds remaining.

RECON?
The second Scenario, the leadership kinda fell apart with half the team trying to accomplish one goal while commanding the other - basically, they would pull my group off a successful approach and try to take it themselves. After twenty minutes, I'd had enough "commands" and went out on my own.

I crawled up one of the hills with my MP5SD6 and began feeding intelligence back to my team. Unfortunately, none of them were on that channel and apparently had switched to another without telling me or the other half of the team. As a result, they missed my warning of a push back down the hill and were taken completely off guard.

After almost an hour of observing them, I decided to find out what was going on. I began broadcasting to find out where everyone was. And ran into some of their stragglers, who promptly called in support. I returned fire, but then ran out of ammo and had to retreat back down the hill. This time I had a rental Glock 17 and was able to return some fire, but once that was out, I just hunkered down and tired to crawl back down the hill.


I finally was hit and called out. I was completely out of ammo at this point, the Glock was out of gas and ammo, and I didn't know where any of my team were. I went back down to the bunkers and met the rest of our team. Many of them were out of ammo, or "dead." I sat there while the enemy approached. Once they hit within 30 yards, I calmy walked back around the side of the bunker, loaded up and began firing back at them.

I got a few hits with the Glock but was hit and out. SHortly after which, the game was called. COme to find out, Jason's team, the SMugglers won the game after covertly and sneakingly recovering all of the artifacts and then making it down off the hill.

I had a blast at the game and can hardly wait until the next game in March.

Old Hallowed Saints' Evening - Halloween...

This weekend was another quiet almost event-less weekend. Jacob stay at his dad's house, Andrea, Kris and I went to the new Outback Steakhouse. We dealt with wave after wave of Trick or Treat-er by stockpiling 16 pounds of Candy. I sold my airsoft rifle to trade up for a newer one and my November 5th game is fast approaching.

Jacob-less Weekend
Jaqcob spent the whole weekend with his dad. The previous weekend, he was told he couldn't stay because it was Carol's weekend off and she didn't want to spend the weekend dealing with him while his dad conveniently had other things to do. Jake prolly spent the whle time playing his Gamecube. But who knows.

Jake was to stay until Nov. 1st because his dad was going to take him Trick or Treating. Rick makes his kids hit every single house in Eau Claire if they can. They end up with huge bags of candy which he then "shares" with them - He gets the lion share and they get to take home the left overs.

Trick or Treat: Greedy little bastards
Kris and I met with trick or Treateres of all ages from 530-730. That was the time set by the city for Trick or Treating. I was glad we did not have any egg-throwing this year. That was a mess in CHippewa and cleaning it up was just gross.

Kris had been handing out one or two treats per trick or treater, not realizing that the 12 gallon bin has 16 pounds of goodies in it. Some of the younger kids were very polite and their eyes would get big when I'd plop the bin out in front of them. Parents would make astonished facers at the huge bin of candy. But the older 11-15 year olds were greedy little assholes who made smart ass comments and would take huge handfuls of candy.

The younger, more sinister me would have sat in the bushes in front of the house and shot the older kids with a paintball gun or squirted them with the hose. But it was Halloween - the one night of the year wherew people spend ungodly amounts of money to look like something else so they can go door-to-door demanding candy and treats. Yes. Halloween is become yet another vast bout of blatant consumerism. And those who donot participate in the "festivities" are openly shunned and mocked.

What is the Halloween Spirit? It is to run around town demanding candy from people you don't know. Or strangers are required to reward children for dressing up and coming to their door.

Outback Steakhouse: YAWN
Kris, Annie, and I went to Outback on Friday night. Far be it for me to be a stick in the mud, but I just wasn't impressed by the food. It was good, there was lots of it, and due to the tremendous line of people, they were very gracious hosts offering free appetizers and drinks while we waited about a 30 minutes for a table. But it just wasn't all that great a time. I would have preferred going to BWW, Famous Daves or almost anywhere else. The whole thing just didn't feel all that great.

Kris loved it, though. And that's really what mattered the most. She got to eat her huge steak and potato. She got to eat her fried mushrooms and Bloomin' Onion. And she got to drink her 2 for 1 Cuervo Gold Margaritas, which she absoltely loves. I wasn't overly impressed. I've eaten at Outback several times before in Midland, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, etc. I'd rather eat at Chili's.

Novermber 5th Game
This next Sunday, I have another airsoft game in Osseo. The weather is quite a bit cooler, so I will have to bundle up a bit. Because of the cooler weather, my GBB will be out of commission for this game. SO I will be relying on my Sig Springer, my new Marui MP5SD6, and a rental G&G M14.

I want to make sure I have enough firepower to return fire and am hoping my co-worker, Justin, will be able to come along. He was kinda bummed with the total cost of the whole thing, so he may decide not to go. I'm gonna take him with me when I go pick up my new AEG ofn Friday, so maybe he'll decide what he wants to do then and there. Otherwise, he may just stick with a rental gun. I would probably say that's best since it would let him decide if he wants to get into the hobby or not without having to spend much money.

My AK47 I had customized sold on Monday. I made quite a decent package deal out of it. Rifle, bipod, 3 mags, 3 batteries, a charger, and a hard rifle case for $250. Pretty decent buy if you ask me. I do regret not getting photos of it, but I do have the honor of it showing up on a commercial along with some footage of me reffing the last game. And I do have the opportunity to put out a few custom piece to sell at the store, so it should work out pretty well.