Sniper School

James turned out to be a pretty good spotter. We went down to Lockhart, TX today. He helped me get the EOTech dialed in at Lone Star Gun Range, and even bought me lunch at Kreuz Market.



And nobody committed suicide next to me. Now that's what I call a good day.

Keeping It Real

From News 8 Austin:

Police are looking for two men after eight people were shot overnight at a nightclub in Downtown Austin.

Police said warrants have been issued for 25-year-old Brandon Bruce Hutchison, also known as “Big Hutch” and 21-year-old LaBaaron Demon Hutchison, also known as “Lil Hutch,” charging them with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

If you read the story you'll see these knuckleheads are part of a rap group that was the opening act last night at this nightclub, but failed to show up.  When they showed up at closing time they were denied entrance and went back to their cars and came back armed.

Uh...doesn't seem to make sense.  Why would they open up fire on the crowd which probably included some of their own fans?

Is this how they run Waffle Houses in the Carolinas?

Eggs, Hashbrowns and a Gun?

Clarendon County (WLTX) - A Clarendon County waitress is accused of shooting a customer at the restaurant after the two had a dispute.

Yakeisha Ward, 29, is charged with assault and battery with intent to kill.

An early morning run for breakfast at the Waffle House on Paxville Highway in Manning turned terribly wrong for Crystal Samuel.

"I thought I was gonna get me an All-Star," says Samuel. A popular meal on the menu. "Grits, sausage, toast, eggs and a waffle," says Samuel.

Pizza in NYC?

I'm staying in NYC near Rockefeller Center.  Any good recommendations on where to get my slice tonight?  I'm on W. 51 St. near 6th Ave. if you are trying to pinpoint.

I've seen some dumpy looking cafe's, a couple of Pronto Pizza places and I know there are a couple variations of Famous Original Ray's Pizza withing a few blocks.  I'm open to other suggestions.

Missed Jackpot Opportunity in Austin

From KVUE.com in Austin:

Assorted parts from assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition Tuesday were found stashed in a North Austin dumpster.

I wonder if we'll ever get the rest of the story of who put it there and why they dumped it?

Next vacation idea....

Do you like cruises? Do you like traveling to exotic ports? Do you like to shoot guns and pretend that you are Fatbeard. Well here is your answer: Somali Cruises.

I think this trip may appeal to almost all that read BackTOMS.

Also, my attempt to get the dirty picture off the front page.

Most Disturbing Picture: Ugly Woman Edition

You'll remember last month Luke posted about my sensei and put a disturbing picture of him up. And as I mentioned, I found an old picture of our little Leprechaun that has some similarities. I've finally got it digitized for your viewing pleasure.

With permission from Sean (plus some edits so you won't vomit in your mouth), I present....The Naked Leprechaun:

If this isn't enough for you I have a slightly-less edited version here (WARNING: This may not be safe for viewing at your place of employment). No frank and beans are involved as this is more of a hunting-accident type of picture, but I still want to give you fair warning.

Back at school I remember we would zoom-in on this photo and tell people to look at the nastiness of 'her' crotch area. This would be followed by a quick zoom-out so people could see it was Sean. I'm laughing now just thinking about it.

#1 Motorboater

Looks like Lukey and Vanessa decided on the team name.  It's too early to claim victory, but I will claim to be the #1 Motorboater while I can.  Peep da scoreboard:

You can donate here.

And boy do I have a treat for you this evening.  Look for a new post on Backtoms at around 7 PM CST tonight.  You're advised to look from the confines of your home without anyone looking over your shoulder. 

Let Me Post That For You: It's a Boy!

Posting this one on behalf of Mark.

Mark is now a dad as of about a week and a half ago.  Here is a picture of the little guy (it's really what I'm guessing he looks like since Mark didn't provide a picture).

He has his father's eyes don't you think?

Congrats, Mark!

Chicken Fried Steak Review

All this CFS talk made me hungry. I tested the offering at Monument Cafe in Georgetown, TX. It was good, but I was a little disappointed that the 8 oz. was the large. I expect it to be bigger than the plate it's served on.

Preakness

Good news: James and I hit our Trifecta wheel
Bad news: We're not rich ($75 bet, $108.10 payout)

Better than losing money though.

Nunnrey is a Bia - Reason #24

Remember back in March when John mentioned the beginning of chicken wing madness?  No...here's a refresher:

• Feb 2008 - JT, John, Nunnrey, me embark on the 2008 challenge to visit 25 of the restaurants so we can have the wing parties.  Can read the details in my original post from June.
• Nov 2008 - I receive completed passports in mail from JT as documented here.
• Nov 2008 continued - I fill out the required forms and go submit the completed passports via certified mail for John, Nunnrey and myself.
• Dec 2008 - Everyone receives certificates for their wing parties which must be completed by March 31, 2009 (this is key)
• Mar 2009 - JT kicks off chicken wing madness with the first party in Minnesota (although he didn't report it to any of us).  John has his party the following week.  I have mine two weeks after that.

Which brings us to now.  

Backtoms: But James...looks like you missed listing when Nunnrey had his party.  

James: Oh, I didn't miss anything...Nunnrey conveniently waited until the last day of the promotion and was unable to have a party.

Backtoms: But why would anyone give up a party for free chicken wings.

James: That is a good question.

So if you needed another reason about why Nunnrey is a bia...here you go.

Job responsibilities....

Since James has decided to spread what I really do to people around the world, I figured it was time to come clean. Check the profile.

FYI...James told a young lady what I did and she actually believed him for a moment.

Comment Notifications Update

Maybe you care...maybe you don't.  Back in March I wrote about the problem with Comment Notifications not being sent out for all new comments.  It's still a problem and I've seen it complained about on the forums for this product.  But being that it's free I guess there is no rush to fix it.

We do now know what the problem is and why you'll see comment email notifications from me, John, Michael (maybe others), but not see them for JT, DP, LCA, etc.  The difference is that if your email address is shared in your Backtoms profile then any comments you post will send the appropriate email notification out to everyone.  If your email address is not shared, your comments will post, but they will not send out the email notification.

If your comments are always great and you want to make sure everyone knows about them, here is how you can make them work for you:

1. Go to the Backtoms site
2. Sign in (if you're not already) in the upper-right
3. Click your name/alias under the list of Contributors on the right-side
4. Click Edit Profile
5. Check the option to Show my email address
6. Save your profile at the bottom

If you want to remain as anonymous as possible of course you may not want to do this...or you can do what John did by creating an email alias specifically for Backtoms.  I don't care what you do, but posting the update since I said I would.

Ever Heard of Chicken Fried Steak?

Yesterday on my way home from work I was listening to some talk radio on Sirius XM.  One of the hosts was talking about his recent trip down to Texas (I believe the show is located in the New York area).  I didn't catch it all, but sounded like he must have stayed with a friend somewhere near New Braunfels (which is located just north of San Antonio).

I'll spare you most of the boring details I remember, but there were two things that he said I wanted to point out:

1. He had never had (or heard of) chicken fried steak.  He started making an issue about is it supposed to be chicken or beef...this is some crazy dish from Texas, etc.  The other guys on the show pointed out that he can get this "crazy" dish at several restaurants in their area.
2. Much like John, he had never heard of Twang.  He couldn't actually remember what it was called, but he saw lots of people putting the salt-like substance in their beer while tubing down the Guadalupe River.

Okay, I'll give him not knowing about Twang.  But not knowing about chicken fried steak?  If that is the hidden gem of the South that he made it out to be then people are missing out.  Maybe I should open a place in New York specializing in chicken fried steak, steak sandwiches (The Project style), and putting Twang in the beer.

iPhone Time Waster

I've been playing Lemonade Tycoon. It has some occasional annoying ads (I haven't bothered to check if there's a pay version), but at least it has a button to let you skip them.

Cruise = Good; Crooks = Bad

The cruise pretty much went without a hitch. Never missed a plane, didn't get left on shore in any strange places, and I was completely appalled by centuries old buildings and landmarks tagged with foreign graffiti.

I was also impressed with how smart all the little Italian kids were. I mean, only a couple of years old and they were already speaking Italian.

However, when we got home, we started checking our expenditures and having a weak dollar right now really puts a hurtin' on the ol' bank account. Anyway, as Lisa was checking her account she noticed a pretty hefty discrepancy on a check she wrote right before we left. The check was made out to the local paper for $26.65. When we got home the same check had cleared for $489. Apparently, when Lisa mailed it through her work, some one took the check out of the envelope, washed the ink off the check and rewrote it for $489. The dumb thing is that it was written out to a specific person with the memo line filled out with "rent payment."

Needless to say, the day after we got back, Lisa and I spent a good portion of it closing the checking account, opening a new one and filing a police report. So much fun, but at least the trip went well. Good thing we had enough money in the account so it didn't screw us while we were gone and good thing the crook didn't get too greedy with the forgery.

Of course...don't let James forget about his new soldier boy....

James performing shameful acts during the cruise scavenger hunt.

JT's New Man Friend

JT insisted I get a picture with his new man friend in Katakolon.  Not sure if you can read his shirt, but it says "Just Men".

The cafe this dude worked at was good to us.  We sat there and drank Mythos beer while the wives shopped.  We had 2-3 big beers a piece and the wives shared a carafe of wine for under €20.  Not too shabby since some of the places we went were more like €7 per beer.

When in Greece...

I think some of you guys would have loved Greece.  Here are some of the places we saw that reminded me of you:

The ol' Ramrod Club (Mykonos) looks like something Mark would enjoy.  Coincidentally, it's on the beach just like Joey's in Biloxi.

I'm not exactly sure what goes on in the B.A.Q (Be A Queen) building (Mykonos), but it sounds like something up John's alley.  Maybe he could share his beauty tips there.

Here is a knife and gun store in Athens.  I believe all of the guns are actually BB guns though so don't get too excited.

Nunnrey, they even have slices for you in Split Croatia.

Just not so sure what the neighborhood is like after dark.  This was right around the corner from the slice shop in Croatia.

Need a Team Name

So, Vanessa is doing some charity walk for breast cancer research and needs to come up with a team name. The best I can come up with so far is either The Motorboaters or Breast In Show. I told her I would probably get a few good ideas from you tards so bring it.

You never know what's coming

I've debated whether--or to what extent--I was going to write about this. While I've decided to mention it, a lot of the who, what, and where are being left out.

Last week Stefanie and I went to our weekly night at the shooting range. We tried out my new XD, and she put some rounds through her Glocks (she's getting pretty good). It was approaching cease fire time, and we were wrapping up. While I was getting my stuff ready to put in my bag I heard a shot which, in and of itself, isn't all that special considering our location. But something was different this time.

I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw someone fall down. My initial reaction was the guy tripped. A quick survey puts that theory to rest, we're looking at someone that was severely injured. An accident, that's what it had to be. Things got a little crazy at this point. I yelled for someone to call 911. Stefanie and I tried to do what we could for the guy, and quickly one of the range employees had joined in to help. It didn't take too long to realize that we were probably not witnessing the aftermath of an accident (viz., it was intentionally self-inflicted).

Police and EMS were on the scene soon afterward, but in the end, the man didn't make it. Well, there's my downer of a story for the night.

I think I'll be picking up some MyClyns soon. I'd rather have it, and not need it, than...

Pirate Sighting

I did see one pirate on our vacation.  Rather than trying to take down our cruise ship he was actually on the plane with us from Newark to Rome.

My words cannot do justice to how dumb this guy looked, but I'll do my best to describe him:

• He was with two other dudes (that were not dressed like pirates) and it sounded like they were speaking Italian.
• He had shiny, black, leather boots on that came up to just over his calves.  The toes of the boots were pointed.
• He had white tights on.
• He had a black, ankle length skirt.
• He had a tight, white shirt on with a black shirt over it.
• He wore a black do-rag (more like Zorro rather than a rapper) on his head.
• He wore long-dangling, mis-matched earrings.
• He had a necklace on.
• And for the best part:  His facial hair included a trimmed beard with the sides zig-zagging.  On the right-side of the beard he sported a line of hair that protruded up his jaw line almost to his side burn.  That side burn also had a line of hair that shot down towards his mustache.  His mustache extended to his left side burn.  

He sat across the aisle from me and I could not stop staring in amazement.  I'm still wondering if it is possible for him to live his life that way or if this was part of an elaborate joke or bet that he lost.

Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of him.  I was a little afraid to try and get a better one since he could have easily tried to rape and pillage me.

Beauty Tip of the Week

To look your best, you gotta start with the basics. It doesn't get any more basic than being clean. I present Simply Clean.

Learned Something New

Through all of the years I've known JT, I don't ever recall knowing that he is afraid of heights.   Check out this pic of JT and Lisa.

It's a little hard to tell, but the pic is from a balcony at a cafe in Greece that is sitting on the edge of a cliff (and yes...it was pretty high up).  In the pic notice that JT only has 1 foot out the door and is actually holding on to the door frame behind his back.  At first he wouldn't even step near the balcony, but after being coaxed with some gelato he agreed to a quick picture.

James went to Europe, and all I got was this

bag of Fish & Chips flavored potato chips. To be fair, he did bring back some other stuff, but the chips were the funniest thing. I'd like to try the Cajun Squirrel.

Food review at James's house

I hadn't taken advantage of James's vacation up until today. Until now, it's been a one-sided affair. I mowed his yard and checked his mail. Tonight it was time to even the score. Stefanie and I went over and took advantage of his HBO on-demand, and snacks. I was a little disappointed in his food reserves, but I here's the best I could do.

These are ok, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy them.



Not as good as I had hoped. They'd do in a bind. Maybe the added protein makes them taste healthy.



These are probably pretty good under normal circumstances. This particular can tastes like it's been open for a while.

Meat Cards

Now this is a good idea.

I joined the XD club

I ended up copying you Daniel. Got the subcompact XD .40 today. My choices were between it and the Glock 27. The Glock is lighter, but I like the accessories that come with the XD. Maybe the grip safety is beneficial too. I cashed in some Discover card points for Cabela's gift cards ($40 in points for $50 gift card), and Cabela's price matched Academy so I ended up paying like $70 out of pocket. Here she is next to Stefanie's Ruger LCP.

Kentucky Derby

Since James is on a boat, he may not know that our 7-8-14 wheel didn't win anything in the Derby. It was a good race though with Mine That Bird winning (50-1!!). If any of y'all did hit a trifecta or superfecta, all I can say is congratulations--you hit a nice payday.

We're On A Boat

Today we begin our cruise and I thought you may enjoy this video so you can see what we are up to.