Drinking Right - Lakefront Edition

Those who read on a regular basis have seen me mention Drinking Right. It's a group of conservative bloggers, blog readers, commenters, etc. who get together on the second Tuesday of every month at Papa's Social Club. Since we enjoy each other's company, we also occasionally get together for "off site drinking right." This past Saturday I had the pleasure of hosting the second "Lakefront Drinking Right" at my house.

I must say, in my opinion this year's party was even more fun that last year. Of course, the 64 degree weather last year kinda sucked, but we did still manage to have a good time. And I'll let ya in on a little secret - I was still a little nervous - you know - what if no one comes? How embarrassing!! And WTH will I do with all this food?! But those fears were entirely unfounded. Here are a few pics* from the party...

Dean, Patrick, Chad & Frank

Glenn, Dean, Patrick, Phel, Frank & Chad

Hubby and Sara

Kate and the infamous Silent E

Kate, Phel. and James T.

Nick, Sara, the Boy & Kate

The Friend, Nick, Sara and The Boy

And to think - I didn't know ANY of these wonderful people 2 years ago. I'm very fortunate indeed.

*If you want to see all of the pics, click here.

P.S. - Dammit! I forgot to post this originally. If you want a detailed list with links of those who attended, Patrick has a good roundup. And for more pics, Kate stepped up to the plate.

I'm Quite Impressed

One of my pet peeves is people who don't own up to being wrong or having a change of opinion. If you make a mistake or change your mind, own it. We're all human, we all make mistakes and/or change our minds. There's nothing wrong with that.

Which is why this so impressed me...

If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.

Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.

We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster. President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it. ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.

Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush. We shudder to think that Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11. He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone. More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us.

Honestly, we don’t think President Gore would have been much better that day. The world needed George W. Bush, his bullhorn, and his indominable spirit that day…and we will forever be grateful to this man for that.

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

FOR HOURS.

The Bushes went and met privately with these families for HOURS, hugging them, holding them, comforting them.

If there are any of you out there with any connection at all to the Bushes, we implore you to give them our thanks…you tell them that a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes…and are deeply, deeply sorry for any jokes we told about them in the past, any bad thoughts we had about these good, good people.

You may be as surprised by this as we are ourselves, but from this day forward George W. and Laura Bush are now on the same list for us as the Clintons, Geraldine Ferraro, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and the other political figures we keep in our hearts and never allow anyone to badmouth.

Criticize their policies academically and intelligently and discuss the Bush presidency in historical and political terms…but you mess with the Bushes personally and, from this day forward, you’ll answer to us.
Read the rest here.

Now, some of you may know that I lean a wee bit to the right of center. I also have a lot of friends who lean (or tip or fall) to the left of center. But...BUT...I revel in good FRIENDLY debate. I'm more than willing to listen to their views as long as they are talking and not preaching. My friends are more than willing to listen to my point of view as long as I am talking and not preaching. Sometimes my mind can be changed on some points. Sometimes theirs can. And I'm okay with that. The point is that we all need to be open to new ideas, opinions, what have you.

Now, the point of this post is NOT that I think that these bloggers are correct in their opinion. My point is I'm quite impressed that these left leaning, former Bush bashing bloggers had the balls to publish the fact they changed thier minds about the former President and First Lady. That took a lot of guts. Regardless of my opinion on the content, I appreciate honesty.

To y'all at HillBuzz I have only one thing to say. Oscar. Foxtrot. Sierra.

H/T James T.

Cheddarsphere Christmas Party!!!

Our Cheddarsphere Christmas this year party will be on Sunday, January the 3rd, from 2pm until whenever at Papa's Social Club, 7718 W. Burleigh Milwaukee .

Just like last year we'll be collecting predictions from the attendees for the coming year. (Hopefully we'll do better than last year!)

The Packers will be facing the Cardinals on the big screens. (Hopefully the game will matter in some way)

Since it was so popular last year, we'll be doing a white elephant gift exchange this again. Participation is optional, buy a gift valued at no more than $5, wrap it and bring it with you to the party. Everyone who brings a gift will throw their name in a hat and then you draw and pick a gift at random. (Gift exchange to commence at halftime of the Packer game)

Just like every year this is a NON PARTISAN CHRISTMAS PARTY, all are welcome, blog authors and blog readers, those who comment and those who hide in the weeds.

Bloggers, please do what you do best, spread the word.

If you will be attending PLEASE leave a comment so we can give the bar an idea of how many people will be coming along.

(Completely copied and pasted from Fred!)

Blog Roll

Hey y'all - as I said in my first post, I'm a little slow to redecorate around here. Shoot - I've lived in my current home for 8 years and still don't have living room furniture!! Anyway, I am slowly but surely working on my blogroll, so please don't get offended if your name isn't up yet. It will be!! If you think I'm forgetting about you, shoot me the name of your blog - either I really have forgotten, or I just don't like you! ;-) I jest. It's just that this old brain can sometimes be quite forgetful. Thanks for your patience, and I hope you're enjoying this little foray into the blogosphere!

My Anniversary - Of Sorts

Wow!! November 4. Remember last November 4? Election Day? That is a day that, if I could, I would forget. However, I get a daily reminder...yes, that's the day the American public elected a man who had no experience running anything to run our country. How's that workin' out for ya, folks?



But...BUT...there is one saving grace from that day. The bloggers. You see, up to that point I had been reading blogs for a couple of years. Some fun stuff, but mostly conservative blogs. Eventually I started commenting on some of them. I had, in the past, read about this gathering these bloggers have called Drinking Right. It takes place on the second Tuesday of each month, except in November, 2008, the bloggers were having a special Election Night Drinking Right.



Now - disclaimer. I'm a very shy person (no comments from the peanut gallery please). Behind a keyboard, it's all good. In person, I'm horribly shy. HOWEVER, that was a very important election and I wanted to be with people of like mind, even if I hadn't met them. VERY out of the box for me. But I went.



That night I met Chad, Jimi, Egg, AB, Nick, Fred, Patrick, Peter, and many more. It's all been downhill since!! I kid. I'm proud to call these folks friends. Through them I met others, and next thing you know, I have a whole new network of friends! Soon after that date I started squatting on other blogs, and eventually - voila!! This place was born.



November 4, 2008 was, in my opinion, the day this country started going to hell in a handbasket. November 4, 2008 also, in my opinion, opened up a whole new world for me. Thanks for welcoming me into the fold guys!!!