Back yard cook out, year 2

Last year, when Regina's brother Sam and his wife Frankie came to visit, we grilled sausages and onions. We all had a grand time!

This year, Sam and Frankie got here on Thursday, Little Jim's birthday. Sam, Pride and I took down the gates and got the trailer situated in the backyard. It seemed that it was harder to park this year than last year, that gate opening must have shrunk or the trailer got wider.

Remember how hard of a time it was getting the trailer out of the yard last February? I do.

So Saturday night, we had another installment on our yearly "Sam and Frankie came to visit, lets grill some meat, drink some beer and have a grand time!" cookout.

Neighbor Jack Pettijohn didn't make the event this year, he was down at the farm deer hunting with his nephew Steve. No word whether or not they got a deer. But I am sure they are having fun and staying warm. Jack built a new farmhouse a couple years ago after a disastrous flue fire burned down the old farm house.Jack and son Jim unloading supplies at the old farm house.

We fired up the grill, put some hamburgers on and everyone had a grand time.

Neighbor and good friend Sharon Pettijohn, DIL and neighbor Kristin Lee, daughter Sara Lee, niece Peggy Crable, SIL Frankie Crable and her husband and Regina's brother Sam Crable cutting up jackpots in our kitchen.

Frankie Crable (partially obscured), Kristin Lee, Regina Lee and Sharon Pettijohn sitting at the kitchen table.

The cute little girls! Mattie (Pride and Peggy's daughter), Sophie (Jim and Kristin's daughter), Skyler (Brooke's daughter), Maya (Travis' daughter) and Sadie, who looks up to them all (Jim and Kristin's daughter). (See how they've grown!)

I asked Ganey to look at the camera so I could take her picture. Since I was using her camera and wasn't quite familiar with the controls, it took several tries before I was able to snap this shoot. Patiently, Ganey humored me. Notice the smoke beginning to billow out of the grill?

When Ganey opened up the lid of the grill, the fat from the burgers caught fire and flared up. You can't hear it but she is hollering, "Somebody bring me some water, quick, the burgers are burning!"

Quick thinking son Jim, who is carrying Sadie (You can barely see her through all the smoke) arrived in the nick of time and, while he didn't have any water, he did have a can of Coor's Light. That's why the burgers are savored with the essence of smoke and beer! They were good!

Frankie and Ganey taking the burgers off the grill by the light of a flashlight. Yesterday, I put in some more outdoor lights so we can see through the smoke when we grill.

Good, grilled burgers!

Ganey's brother Sam Crable and our son Jim chit-chatting on the back porch.

Daughter Sara and 12 year-old grandson Trey enjoying an after dinner cigarette and a slouch.

Grandson Austin (and Kristin's red-headed step child!) balances a plate of food on his lap while his dad drinks some "no, Sadie, you can't have any of that, that's Daddy's 'juice'."

While Mattie and Sophie enjoyed their chocolate cupcakes,

Sadie was quite content with her cheese sandwich.

Sadie passed a milestone during this cookout. Her older brother Trey taught her how to step down from the stoop to the porch floor. She hasn't quite mastered going up the stoop standing, but she did good going down. Which she did for quite some time, each time looking at us watching, expectantly awaiting our cheers and applause!:Sadie climbing up.

Sadie stepping down.

Sadie climbing up.

Sadie getting some practical advice on navigating the stoop step from her older brother Trey.

Later that evening, Sadie gave me a rock.

Ain't life grand!

Scooter Zen

Billy Long, he wore the hat, he wore his black cowboy boots

no American flag label pin....yet.Representative-elect Billy Long, D-Mo., and his staffers kill time as they wait for the roll call for the House of Representatives office lottery in the Rayburn House office building Friday. Long drew sixth from last and decided to not even look at offices, opting to look at what was available after the other 78 incoming representatives have chosen. SHFWire photo by Adam Liebendorfer

Read more here.

He wore the hat.

He wore the hat.

Incoming members, and hat aficionados, Frederica Wilson (R-Fla.) and Billy Long (R-Mo.) The SN-L's Cory De vera reports that the Representative from Florida is a democrat. Christina Wilkie, reporter for the "The Hill -- The Washington Scene", identified her as a republican.

For more photos of Billy Long and the Freshman class click here

I'm FED UP too, Billy Long! The Whole World Is Watching!

It's not just me and Bungalow Bill who are concerned about the actions of our congressman-elect "Call me Billy" Long. There are others out there who are watching Billy and Roy and Vicki.

And they are Americans who cut a broad swath across the political spectrum: Democrats, Republicans, Independents, conservatives, liberals, moderates, progressives.

The whole world is watching!

Read this post from An Even Keel:

In his recent campaign for Congress Billy Long picked up the tea party chant "I'm fed up" and made it his tag line. Well, Billy, I'm fed up too.

I'm fed up with politicians who go to Washington pledging not to take earmarks and upon arrival declare that they will bring home all the money they can get their hands on ala Rand Paul. (Who got a knot jerked in his tail!)

I'm fed up with politicians who pledge to work for their constituency but link up with outfits like Halliburton and big oil companies bent on continuing their rape of the planet. Gee, Billy, what newly elected politician do suppose has done that?

I'm fed up with politicians who will spread any lie they think will get them traction. Lies like "Obamacare" is a government takeover of health care that will establish death panels and cut Medicare coverage. I'm completely fed up with politicians who say they will repeal "Obamacare" when they know darn well they can't and wouldn't if they could because it suits their private insurance industry friends from whom we must all now buy health coverage. While they say they're against this law because it forces purchase of a product, they will be working behind the scenes to modify it so that the forced purchase won't also force the insurance companies to provide the coverage required by the new law.

I'm also totally fed up with politicians who claim they will work for the needs of the people but argue that those who make significantly more than the average person should be exempt from taxation that could help those out of work get through tough times. It seems to me that if those on top were true patriots they would be not just willing but eager to contribute what they could to the well-being of the nation. Instead of patriotism they display only hunger for more wealth and power. I'm fed up with them, Billy, and the politicians who betray their constituencies to toady up to them.

And I'm fed up, too, with politicians who say they want to restore the Constitution, but support a Supreme Court that grants corporations human rights as unidentified, unbridled campaign spenders. I'm also fed up with an Executive Branch that usurps the powers of Congress and spies on the people.

Politicians who say they want to restore ethics but do nothing to stop the runaway system of false attack ads and huge advertising budgets that take the influence of the common voter completely out of the equation ought never to be reelected.

Yes, I'm as fed up as you are, Billy, so I want you to know that I, along with a great many Ozarkers, will be watching very closely to see how Congress goes about its business, and the next election will be even harder on those who said they were going to clean things up but don't than it was on those they just replaced. Keep watching.

Congressman-Elect "Call me Billy" Long was walking down the

street in front of the Capital, talking on his government issued cell phone when three attractive women approached him.
Long quickly ended his conversation struck up a conversation with the women, two of whom were identified as Americans and the third was a foreigner.

They asked Long if he would take their photo in front of the, as Billy tweets it, "the Capital".

Long agrees and sets down his government issued cell phone, you know, the one with all the codes in it, and he takes their picture.

If this were the opening scene of a movie, what would follow would be ninety minutes of spies, car chases, murders and congressional inquiries.

Luckily for Long, this time it was nothing more than an apparently innocent encounter in front of the capitol. This time.

I really don't want to believe that our newly elected congressman is so naive that he lays down his government issued iphone with all these secret government access codes in it, lays it down on the street while he takes a picture of three women whom he doesn't know! Doesn't he have any pockets in his pants? I know they are not like a cheap hotel.

"Call me Billy" is lucky he wasn't the latest viction of a variation on the oldest scam in the book: pretty ladies distract gentlemen while other pretty lady picks his pocket. "Call me Billy" is so lucky this didn't happen to him.

Wasn't he told to never let that phone get out of his possession? Did they teach him that's how those things get stolen?

Or maybe Long was so busy tweeting that he missed that part of the lecture.
Ah jeez, it's going to be a long two years.

btw--- if you can, and I know it will be hard for you to do, but try to not play any cards up there in D.C.

Can Billy Long be trusted with state secrets?

Do we WANT to trust "Call me Billy" with state secrets?
Congressman-elect "Call me Billy" Long has been in Washington D.C. attending freshman orientation and, as the Kansas City Star puts it, it was a bit like walking into high school on the first day.

"Call me Billy" has been busy, his tweets and cellphone photos flowing at a rapid pace to his followers in Twitterland and to his SWMO comrades at the SN-L (not me, it's is now day 9 since "call me Billy" blocked me from following him on twitter).

"Call me Billy" is tweeting about his activities and taking photos of people and places. All of this seems pretty much what one would expect from someone who has never visited the Capitol before, much less been elected to office. He is tweeting the places he's been and the people he's met and his impressions of D.C.

Based on the photos "Call me Billy" sent to his comrades at the SN-L, including one with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, I thought "Call me Billy" was laying the groundwork to be a leading consensus building in Washington.

He told us all election season how "Fed Up" he was, maybe this would be his niche in D.C., consensus builder. Read the previous post Is Billy Long the new consensus builder?

I Think I may have been wrong.

Sandwiched between his tweets about taking photographs of a French lady and speaking on an unsecure phone, his accounts of eating John Boehner's birthday cake and of the spread Nancy Pelosi put on, are tweets and photographs of a more disturbing note.

Is this the photo of a guy who we want to entrust with state secrets? (Alex Brandon photo)
He can't even keep the existence of a double secret members only meeting room a secret.

In an e-mail Long sent to his SWMO comrades at the SN-L, he included a photo of the "Siena Marble Fireplace from Double Secret Members Only Reading Room @ Library of Congress"

Not only that, He's tweeting that he's got the secret code to the chapel, fer cryin' out loud!

He's telling us when they vote in secret!
And what color secret ballots they use!
He's telling us he's got the secret access codes for his Government issued Cellphone!
He's telling us about the secret meeting places in the Capitol!
And just like those spies in a John Grisham novel, he's telling us he's gonna hide the secret messages in flowers or candy!