Pink, it's for Pepto People.

We are in the middle of a hail storm at the moment, and my beagle is curled up right next to me trying to stay safe from the loud booming thunderclaps. I figure on the laptop is the safest place to be and now is a good time to blog. We just finished up a weekend with some of the most beautiful weather we’ve had yet, so I guess this was to be expected. And I had my best run yet to date this weekend. Even cut 7 minutes off my overall time for the same 5 mile trail run that I did last week. I am sure the weather had something to do with it and I am so looking forward to running during the Fall. I am now even considering doing an off road half marathon in October, but I haven’t yet committed to that one yet. It’ s just a seed in my head, but it’s planted and that’s a start.


Friday night, our local park had this free Movie in the park thing. Some local businesses sponsor the program and they rent out a 14x14 foot outdoor inflatable movie screen and show a family movie while we bring our own chairs and blankets. Usually lots of Frisbee happens before the show, but this time they had some extra special guests. They brought in a few of the local pet adoption rescues and of course some of the dogs that desperately need homes. Chris had to pull me away from a few that easily could have made their way back to the car with me. “Oh how did HE get here? Oh well, guess he is a stray who followed me. Maybe we could take him home and see if we can find his owners?” Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge. Many of the attendees even brought their own dogs to enjoy the show too which was interesting. I was in my glory and was constantly stooping to pat the head of any dog that happened to fall in my line of sight. I am a sucker for just about any canine I see and can’t help but want to pet them all. Usually, they are all too happy to partake in my indulgence. Anyway, they showed the movie “Hotel for Dogs” and I got to ooh and ahhh over yet even more dogs on the big screen. The barking and growling dogs in the audience who would respond to the on screen howlers gave us all a nice surround sound ambience during the film. You couldn't even improvise such good timing on that experience if you tried.

Over the weekend among other things, I got to attend my very first gun show. I had been looking forward to this for a while because, A) I’d never been and B) I was hoping to get some ammo for a low price.
I have to say I was a bit disappointed though. The prices were all over the place and either the same as the local gun shops or even higher on most everything being sold. Ammo was way overpriced even for the cheapest brands and one vendor even told me in a hushed tone, "if you want ammo, let me know, I have it for 25.00 per box, it's a great deal." Ummm, right dude, you can keep it at those prices, but thanks for the "great" deal. Do I also get the Brooklyn bridge for that price?" Really, I kept thinking, I paid admission for this? They were also selling all kinds of stuff that I didn’t expect to find at a gun show. Like jewelry and bathing suits and candles. Huh? Then I saw the sign which said “Wife Insurance” and it all made sense. I can see it now:


He: Honey I bought this new AR15 . I know I have 4 of them already but....
She: WHAT!!? You bought ANOTHER one...Blah, Blah, Whine... !!!
He: But, look I got you this nice bracelet and a candle that smells like a cupcake. Oh and you are a size small in a bikini right?
She: Oh, you are the best husband ever! Now let’s see that shiny new firearm you've acquired.
He: Works every time. ;-)

Anyway, there was not much there that was even worth spending our money on, but I did get my husband a new bikini : -). Seriously though, a few things really got my goat while I walked around.

First off, this frieking ammo “shortage” that has been driving up the prices and is still going on. I don’t know the real reason behind it, but if this is somehow being caused by the anti gunners to attempt to limit production in an effort to decrease the amount of guns on the streets, my feeling is it is going to backfire and in a bad way. I have heard all kinds of of theories that “they” can’t ban our guns, but if they drive up ammo prices high enough, that will limit their use and ultimately cause a drop. Not quite. Here is my theory. The ammo that seems to be most scarce is the target or cheapest FMJ ammo. The ammo that most new gun owners use to take to the range to get proficient in their gun handling skills, accuracy, aim, etc. Hmmm...so if you take away the practice ammo, you take away the ability and or likelihood for practice. So now, you have your new carrier who gets his new gun, but can’t afford to practice. So now we have a user who has put only 50 rounds through his chamber, but still plans to use that same gun in an emergency. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to extrapolate from there that such a scenario is more likely to result in the wrong person being hit, the aim and accuracy so poor that the intended target is completely missed and a nice innocent individual takes one for the team. Now, I have no idea whether it is the manufacturers who are driving the shortage so they can continue to make lots of money or if there really is some outside source of conspiracy driving the problem in an effort to meet their ulterior agenda, but either way it sucks. I just hope it is the former and not the latter. And I hope that if I am ever near someone who finds themselves in need of defending themselves from a bad guy, they had enough money to practice.


The other thing that really irritated me at the show was the horrific pink colored guns that not only look ridiculous to me, but are priced even higher than the black ones. What the hell? As I am thinking what woman in her right mind would want such a hideous display of self defense, I see that there is a woman with her boyfriend fondling one and it is like $120 more because it has now been painted to look like a toy. Then I walked past a pink Spyderco knife being sold by a vendor for at least twice the price of the black one. Come on people, do you think women are that shallow and if you paint it pink, then money is no object. It really annoyed me. These are weapons of self defense, weapons that could possibly maim or kill someone if used in a deadly force incident. And by making it look like a toy, the whole situation is undermined right from the word go. Note to gun manufacturers...women don’t need Pink guns. The black ones work just fine, but thanks for the stupid marketing gesture anyway. And you women who think that they are doing you a favor by catering to you and offering such a girly option that you "have to have", think about it...it’s demeaning, and really says a lot about how they perceive you and your choice to defend yourself. And when you cave in and buy it in pink, you confirm that stereotype. There is a time and a place for pink ladies, and this is not either. Save it for your lingerie. Okay, there, I am going to get off my soap box now.



On a good front, we ended up getting some new phones this weekend and I am really glad we waited. Sony Ericsson just came out with a new phone which is basically a phone and a camera combined. An 8MP camera to boot. That's amazing that camera phones have come so far. It's exactly what we wanted and was not much more expensive than the other crappy one they tried to sell us a week or so ago. So we are back into a contract, but this time, we are satisfied with what we have locked into and don't feel like we got jacked.


Anyway, the storm seems to have passed and I have to take el doggo for a walk and feed him. He’s starting to look at me with that expression that says, ummm.... I don’t have a watch, but I can just “feel” what time it is. FEED ME! :-)