This last Monday, October 19th, 2009, our family lost it’s best friend.

For 14 years, you were our child, our companion, protector, and friend. Always happy to do whatever it is that we wanted, or go where ever we were going, enthusiasm wasn’t in short supply with you.

I can’t put into words what those years meant to us, or what they meant to me.

We will never forget you.

Good Boy Fantus!

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The purpose of Command of the Grill week is to promote the book “Command of the Grill”, whose proceeds benefit charities that support Marines. I’m not making any money off of this. You can read more here, or follow this link to purchase your own copy. This is a really easy way to support our troops. Semper Fi!

One of my new favorite cooking ingredients is Balsamic Vinegar, and I have these steaks to thank for it. Sure, I’ve used it before, but what a terrific flavor it has!

This recipe is Bum Phillip’s. These steaks are marinated in the previously mentioned Balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, minced rosemary, and some other ingredients.

The steaks smell absolutely heavenly when you’re cooking them, and the flavors stick with the steak after it comes off of the grill.

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Happy Fourth of July Everyone! I want to send out a big thanks to all of the men and women who served in our armed forces, both past and present.

Today being Friday, which is my designated link post day, I decided that I would round up some good links from the U.S. Government. I know, sounds pretty boring, but it’s good stuff, trust me.

The Declaration of Independence – Dear England, You’re not the boss of me!” Here’s the document that started it all. Stating that all men are created equal, and that we should all be guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This was our declaration that we’ll be governing ourselves from now on thank you very much.

The U.S. Constitution – This sets the standard for what the government can do, and what is right and wrong. Sure, we get laws passed that have really cool names, but seem to take away from our freedom, but eventually they come to the supreme court, and then it’s decided if they are really legal.

Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government – Aimed at Kids, this is a friendly guide to the branches of the government.

The GPO Access Website – This is a service provided by the Government Printing Office, which gives free electronic access to a huge amount of Government information. Want to look up a Congressional Bill? This is the place to do it, and much more.

The Library of Congress – This is one of those sites that you could look around forever, and never see it all. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. They even have a photo stream on flickr.

Today in American History – One of the many services of the Library of Congress, it goes back in time, pointing out important things that happened on this day.

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It looks like Steam has some new community features, which were actually made live on August 6th, but these were new to me.

Each steam account gets their own web page, just like any other social networking site, and it shows your rating for the entire world to see.

The picture that you see at the beginning of the was my rating before I started played much last night. From what I have been reading, the rating is based on how many hours you have played steam games, not how many frags you have, or anything like that.

Back when I was playing Team Fortress for Quake, there was a server in Utah that kept stats, you gained more points by fragging higher ranked players than you did for lower ranked players. You also lost more points for being fragged by lower ranked players than you did for higher ranked players.

You can see my stats, and all that good stuff, on the Port 16 Steam ID Page.

I love Fortress Forever. Great job guys!

More later.

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