Christmas at Bruceless

We don't decorate a lot at Bruceless. No children in the household...well I guess there is one...that would be me.

We only have one tree and we displayed it in the garage this year in front of the Mr Bruce spyder. It's lights are miniature Beefeater bottles. That says it all since I am a carnivore and enjoy a good gin martini.

Other displays of Christmas include the pink Santa hat on the Jaguar and other subtle hints of the season.

My neighbor evidently dosen't like snow as he erected a sign in his yard for all to see. I really don't think we can do anything about it. If its going to snow its going to snow.

We did make it down to the Tannebaum forest and I got to sit on Santa's knee....I don't think he was amused.

Merry Christmas to all of you that follow Billy's Blog....whoever you are.

New from the nice people at Google

This is just too good not to share with Billy's Buddies. Billy spends a lot of time on U Tube and found the TV transition lady and now he wants to share this new feature from Google. Billy already has it on his cell phone and I suspect we will have pizza delvered a lot more often now.

By the way, give Billy a call over the holidays.....its hell living in a lung. His number 319 GOT LUNG.

Digital TV Conversion

A lot has been discussed about the upcoming conversion in the wonderful world of TV. Billy watches a lot of TV and he has some concerns that his set in his room will not be able to receive the new Digital Signal.I did some research and this clip is so valuable, I decided to share with all you all.

Sixteen to Life

Consider this a shameless plug. Watch for this movie coming out next year to a screen near you.

Yes, I am an investor and my friend Terry Trimpe is the Executive Producer.


See all you all at Cannes.

Schatzi's

I still get queries regarding when Schatzi's will be rebuilt. We are all missing Schatzi's, especially Billy. Billy loved to order the grilled tenderloin with sautéed mushrooms smothered by swiss cheese. I was partial to the Chicken Club. Whatever, your favorite, it was the best food in its class that Amana had to offer. It filled a niche that was and is sorely needed.

Recently the wrecking crew arrived and in very short order dismantled our Schatzi. R.I.P.

Funnies

Billy spends a lot of time reading the comics. A few weeks ago he got involved with a girlfriend and I barely heard from him. I must report that the "relationship" ended as quickly as it started, so now my phone is inundated with text messages from the little guy.

He wanted to share this funny or not so funny he recently gleaned from the newspaper.

You may have to click on the cartoon to read the text.On another matter:

I recently sold my Hummer H2 which was Billy's primary transportation when we went out on outings. Do any of you blogees have a large SUV? Please contact me and we could set up a rotation schedule. Billy needs to get out occasionally. You know he is living in what is known as Billy Hell.

Batty

It all started very innocently with an early morning conversation with Samantha. We were on holiday at our resort in Florida. It seems she had recently gone out with the boys to a place called Hot Rods. She says its a smoker place and I envisioned a lounge where you could smoke a $5.00 stogie and enjoy a sip of single malt scotch. She explained it was a good old boys place that had smoked barbeque and we might want to try the smoked bat they have on the menu.

Well this inspired the mystery lady and she suggested that we go there for lunch. We plugged the address into her new Verizon GPS equipped phone and let the lady inside guide us to the joint. When the lady told us we had arrived at our destination, we looked around and discovered that"joint" was fitting.

We walked past the dilapidated Ford pickup truck in the front yard which had some vegetation growing out of the cab and also worked our way past the "road kill" donation box to the front entrance. We were seated and the waitress brought us our menus and sure enough at the top left corner under appetizers was the swamp bat. Being it was Halloween, the mystery lady quickly ordered one up on a bed of cornbread mush. About 15 minutes later the delicacy arrived. We looked it over and decided to taste the little devil. Samantha said it tastes a lot like Manatee, but we both thought it was closer to Bald eagle.

We washed it down with our supersized waters, since they don't allow booze in the place and took a tour of the "back forty". On the way to the back courtyard we saw a spoof of the Grant Wood painting, American Gothic and we felt right at home.


We would highly recommend this place for the bat and their super burgers. Their smallest burger is one and a half pounds and their largest weighs in at fifteen pounds.

To learn more about Hot Rods Barbeque, I have included a link. Click here.

Next time you are in Lutz, I think you will want to treat yourself.

Thanks Samantha and maybe sometime, we will share a "cookie"

Its Time

Obama on his own

Obama is on the mind of lots of people who are going to pull the lever for him. You might have watched his infomercial. Maybe one should think twice. As president of the US you don't always have a teleprompter.

SIXTY

Today is my 60th birthday.....look back about a year ago and you will see a post about my 59th.

This year, there will be no big cellebration even though I have now lived 5 years longer than I have anticipated....based on my family history......we are now working on 70 or higher.


Actually, a lot of my friends and relatives are that old.


Remember 60 is the new 59.

Smoke and Mirrors

The scrapper is a self proclaimed liberal. However a driveby past his residence might have revealed his real persuasion.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. You do the math yourself.

When we get in the voting booth, we are alone to do the right thing.




God Bless America...God Bless John McCain and Sarah Palin


( PS Will this end up in the scrapbook?)

Uncle Rudy

We haven't heard a lot about Billy lately. Not because he died or anything like that.

Billy has a lady friend and because of that I have not been invited into the Von Crippe home lately. More info on the girlfriend when I am allowed to meet her. Actually Billy is kind of shy and is not one to be premature in showing off his new love.

My uncle Rudy worked with Billy's dad at the Amana Meat market and actually got Otto hooked on the infamous Raleigh fags. Well Doug worked at the Amana Meat Market at about the same time....in fact he rented an apartment from Uncle Rudy. Actually he lived in Uncle Rudy's house in the apartment above. He would sneak down to burn a Raleigh with his landlord and on more than one occasion would be invited down to the cellar where Uncle Rudy would have his home made Rhubarb wine, locally know as Peistengal or as Doug would refer to it simply as Pie.

This week Doug was passing through on his way back to his ranch in Wyoming and he decided to make a pit stop in Amana. Doug moved away in 1976 and has only been spotted back in Amana one or two times since. (Doug has an uncanny resemblance to the late Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes fame. He is often approached in airports being mistaken for Ed.) He now is retired and tells us he is a self proclaimed deer whisperer. He hangs out at his mountain cabin communicating with the deer. Probably still smoking an occasional Raleigh and sipping on some whiskey. His stash of Uncle Rudy's PIE has long been depleted. Perhaps , it was this yearning for some Pie that caused him to stop for a visit.

Since he had sold his house to Billy's landlord, we called them over for a spontaneous visit. We were all sitting around the bar giving our political opinions when I spotted a bottle of Uncle Rudy's Pie. We estimated it could be 60 plus years old and since we had been primed by other elixirs, it was decided to break open the slightly rusty screw cap and partake of the well aged potion.

Well, as they say, the rest is history. All present felt it was the best and smoothest Pie they had had ever.....so much that we had to try a second sample just to make sure our taste buds were not playing tricks on us.

I have posted the only picture I have of Uncle Rudy. It is from an old Amana Postcard. He is the one on the left. The others are Uncle Chuck and Gawkovich. All are now dearly departed.

As my friend Barbara says, "record your history"

Better Late than Never

About 3 weeks ago the Ex Club threw a birthday party for one of their former past presidents, The Hopper. The destination was Myers Grill in Williamsburg, but the guest of honor failed to show for no particular reason.

We retried the dinner party and this time he actually showed. He arrived in stretch limo piloted by an old friend who shall only be disclosed as JJ. Also in tow were his newest best friends, Joe and Trixie.

We started out at Bruceless with a little lubrication and then all crammed in the limo for the birthday party.

The limo driver zig zagged us to our detination and somehow got the stretch into a parking space that was designed for "compacts only".

We again had the Sarah Palin lookalike as our personal server. After being trained by our sommelier, Cheryl on the ins and out of operating a Rabbit, we were again able to quench our thirst while awaiting the skillful preparation of our entrees.

Dr. Joe got bored with the wait and built a wall in the center of the table, maybe to protect from overspray.

The food was served just in the nick of time and then the celebrant ordered us back into the limo for the ride home.

What goes on in the back of a limo...stays in a limo.

We think next time we throw him a birthday party, he'll be there.