My Harry Potter alter ego

You scored as Sirius Black. You are a gifted wizard and very loyal to your allegiance. Whilst you have a big heart and care very much about those around you, you can be a little arrogant and reckless at times. Severus Snape 100% Albus Dumbledore 100% Sirius Black 100% Harry Potter 90% Ron Weasley 80% Hermione Granger 80% Ginny Weasley 75% Remus Lupin 70% Draco Malfoy 70% Lord Voldemort 40% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

Williamsport Crosscutters' game

Arielle and I are down in State College this weekend helping my brother move into his new apartment. We have the truck and carpet cleaner, so we brought them down. Randy is on third shift this week, so he couldn't go with. We got here last night after I finished sending the handgun article and photo to the paper and we'll go home sometime tomorrow night.


After killing ourselves lugging furniture and boxes all day, Todd and I decided to go to a game in Williamsport. Arielle stayed at his place with my mother and they just watched movies. It's about a 45-minute drive from his place, so it wasn't a big deal to go. We picked up our cousin and off we went.


I got quite a few new autographs in my baseball scrapbook and took a bunch of new photos. Todd won a bobblehead on the wheel of fortune. He always wins things on there.

Tactical Handgun Course

Randy and I spent the day at a tactical handgun course in Kersey. It was taught by world famous marksman Todd Jarrett. I was covering it for the paper and Randy got to actually participate. He's very good with the handgun.

By GRETCHEN ROKOSKY ERA Correspondent

KERSEY – World champion marksman Todd Jarrett was at SinterFire, Inc. on Friday to teach a tactical handgun class to local law enforcement agents in conjunction with the fourth annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Program.

Jarrett gave the law enforcement community hints and tips on loading, shooting and handling their weapons during the eight-hour course to officers from Elk County, Ridgway Borough, DuBois, state police and others. Jarrett provides firearm training all over the world and also competes in marksmen events.

“I have seen, as far as fragmented (ammunition) goes, it’s the future,” Jarrett said. “It’s going to have to be put in every holster. I see it within ten years.” For the Elk County Sheriff’s department, the frangible bullets are their duty rounds. Working mainly indoors, they need the extra safety these rounds afford.

“Absolutely and it is an honor to be taught by Todd Jarrett,” Shawn Geci of the Ridgway Borough police said. He took his vacation for the two-day event.

“It’s just advanced training that police department in this area should encompass in their training programs,” Steve Maholtz of the DuBois Police Department said. “I personally will take the information back to the DuBois police being on the of the fire arms instructors and incorporate it into our program.”

The appreciation day was started four years ago as a way to thank law enforcement and allow them a chance to get together and try out the lead-free bullets that SinterFire, Inc. produces. Since it’s a new product, a lot of time people may hear how it works, but this gives them a chance to experience itself, SinterFire president Joe Benini explained.

The first year, duty weapons were a requirement and they noticed no difference between SinterFire bullets and regular ammunition. “We call that transparent,” Benini said. “You can put our ammo into your weapons and don’t see a difference. Early on, when we first started, we heard our ammo isn’t real. These guys learned through this LEAP that it is real and it can be dropped into the standard weapon and feel confident. We consider it under the marketing heading and made them feel. It’s a fun environment.”

“We brought Todd (Jarrett) on; he’s our voice to the rest of the world, a representative we use. He needed a spokesman and the timing was mutual,” Benini said. “He came to us wanting to shoot new products. He does believe the future is this product, especially in his training world. We brought him here to let people be exposed to his thinking. To bring him back this year for the training class. To bump it up a notch and offer some real training. It was very well received. Federal law enforcement is becoming more like military. He is training military, federal, law enforcement and private people. Here we have an opportunity to have the same training as the Department of Homeland Security. Being exposed to that is a good thing. A lot of our work is DHS is governing how training is done so everyone is being trained the same.”

Currently, SinterFire sells their bullets to military and law enforcement in the United States as well as South Africa, Germany, Australia, Israel, Turkey and Italy.

The LEAP day continues on Saturday at the outdoor range.

We survived another camping trip

What a wild night it was Tuesday. We got out to our site around 4:30 p.m. and set up the tents and had the fire going in no time. My son cooked hotdogs for everyone and the sky started to get black. Not good. Then several trucks stopped to let us know that there was a violent storm on the way, but we weren't leaving after all that work.

We sent the kids and our dog to their tents and ran to ours just as the rain started. It was a bad storm with hard rain, thunder and lightning crashing. We had cards, junk food and "liquid refreshments" to keep us occupied all night, so the rain didn't bother us. The kids had my PSP with them and watched Spiderman 2, so they were content.

About 2 a.m., I heard sniffing outside the tent and Adonis started whining to let him in. I unzipped the tent and he came in wiggling and kissing. I told him to lie down and go to sleep at our feet, but the storm must have spooked him, because he had to be up beside me. Furr and mud everywhere! He's such a big baby.

Wednesday, we got up and ran into town to take a shower and get more ice. We fixed cold cut sandwiches for lunch and let the kids get out their craft kits.

It drizzled on and off, but we managed to get a fire going and cooked burgers for dinner. They were pretty good and the kids got to run around a bit before bed. My son had his bike in the truck, so they took turns riding it.

We broke camp early this morning and headed home. My daughter had to go to band practice or we would have stayed longer. Today is bright and sunny, so of course, we can't be out then.

G

Tomorrow's Trip

We're packing up the truck and going out camping for a few days starting tomorrow afternoon. The kids, dog and I will go out and set up camp and hubby will meet us out there when he gets home from work at 4 p.m.

It's very primitive camping where we go, out in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest. If we're lucky, we'll get a site where there is an outhouse. :-)

The kids have their own tent and hubby and I will sleep in the back of the truck since our tent finally died after 12 years and many, many States worth of camping. We'll pick up another one at the end of the season.

Does anyone have easy campfire recipes to share? I'm always looking for something other than hotdogs and mountain pies. After two days of that diet, I'm ready to eat the rocks.

I'll post before we leave tomorrow and will catch up when we get back. The laptop will be with me, but there's no connection in the forest. :-)

G

A camping we will go

We're heading out camping in the morning, so today is being spent getting everything packed and into the truck. It's hard to imagine exactly how much a family of four needs to go camping for a few days.

Last night was pretty chilly, so that means we have to take extra blankets with us tomorrow just in case it's cold. It's the end of July and there's no reason for it to be cold.

We'll meet our friend and her two children at our camp site and go from there.

So long, Scotty

Another TV legend has passed away. James Doohan, affectionly known as "Scotty" to millions of Star Trek fans around the world died this morning. I'm sure he's at peace now and no longer in pain. My daughter, hubby and I met him at a convention more than a decade ago. I'm sure I have photos of him with my daughter around here somewhere. The original cast is going fast, not many left.

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LOS ANGELES - James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and movies who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died Wednesday. He was 85.

Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.

Attack of the rudest man on earth

Why am I up at this ungodly hour? Because the moron our neighbor hired to mow his yard started at 6:50 AM!!! What kind of brain damaged fool mows a yard at that hour?

I tried to be nice and it's a stretch for me, but I did. Nice time is over. He doesn't want to mow the yard when it's hot. Nobody does, but he's the only one who is waking up the entire neighborhood doing that.

Any good ideas on what next? I'll make a formal complaint to the borough manager, if that doesn't work, I'll be open to more creative suggestions.

Darkwatch video game coming out soon

Just found this new fan site for video games. My son assures me he has to have it or he just won't be right.




Darkwatch Official Site

Happy Birthday, Randy

Today is my love bug's birthday. We've been together my entire adult life and I can't imagine life without him.



Poor guy has to work a 12-hour shift today, so we can't celebrate. We're going to wait until next week to go out to eat at Red Lobster. It's our favorite restaurant in the area.

Camping Out

Just stopped in from a camping trip to take my non-camping dog for a walk and check email. Decided to make a quick post before hubby gets home and we decide if we're heading back out into the woods tonight or waiting until the morning.

My children are staying out there with my best friend and her little boy, so they're safe. This is their first time out there without me, so there were more than a few tears when I pulled away from the site.

We've been camping since they were both babies and they're now 10 and 13, so they're veterans by now. They can pack their bags in a moment's notice and be ready to head out.