The Goat Pen

Sorry about that eCat. Damn, I love dogs but I have no problem with putting a dog down. I guess, like Stu, I come from a family of farmers on my Dad's side (not quite Michael Vick level of disregard for dogs, but certainly not "member of the family" level, either) and an animal is a general menace or a help, never both. I would have gone to the hospital first, but I would have come back to kill it if it wasn't put down (or at least tried to go back and kill it before I rethought my actions and the paper trail I left with a hospital visit from the dog bites).

With an aggressive dog, stand with one leg a bit back. If it comes at you, front snap kick to the sternum (don't try to kick the head).

If it gets through, offer your forearm. Put your free hand on its back and snap the neck back in one quick motion. Yes, you'll get a bad bite on that forearm, but do it right and you snap the dog's neck.

LOS ROQUES, Venezuela (Reuters) - Fears of being kidnapped or not finding toilet paper are not much of an incentive for a holiday in Venezuela.

Yet hardy travelers undeterred by the tales - real and exaggerated - of crime and shortages are finding the South American nation an absurdly cheap destination.

That is thanks to exchange controls skewing the economy in favor of anyone with foreign currency, meaning you can hire a boat to a Caribbean island for $15 a day, or trek through Andean mountains or Amazon jungle for a week, with porters, at $125.

A decent hostel at a popular beach may cost $5 a night, while two people can have a three-course meal with wine for $10.

"It's crazy! This beer is costing me just a few pennies," said British tourist Matthew Napier, 35, clad in sunglasses and clutching a local Polar beer on a stunning white-sand beach with his girlfriend at Los Roques archipelago in the Caribbean.

Even at a bumped-up 90 bolivars due to the exclusive island location, a beer here costs just $0.22 (or 15 pence for Britons like Napier) at the black market rate most foreigners change on.

Many are wise to the situation so they look for not so surreptitious money-changers as soon as they land in Venezuela, or make arrangements ahead.

Venezuela's largest denomination note is 100 bolivars - about 25 U.S. cents. Amazed at the sheer quantity of notes they receive, visitors find where to keep them the biggest problem.

"You simply can't carry enough cash with you, that's the main restriction to spending!" added Napier, saying he "felt like a drug-dealer" after wiring money in advance to Panama in order to be given bolivars by a contact in Venezuela.

Despite the currency bonanza, tourists are hardly flocking to Venezuela. There were just under 1 million arrivals last year, four times fewer than neighboring Colombia which is successfully marketing itself despite decades of drug wars and a Marxist insurgency.

In Venezuela, it's the frightening level of crime that mainly puts people off, plus acute shortages of basic products from milk to diapers.

"You're bombarded with this idea you can't go out on the street," said Argentine Juan Suso, 31, who ignored advice at home and in Venezuela to enjoy a few days walking round Caracas before going to Los Roques with a guitar on his back.

"People should come. It's so cheap, it's ridiculous. Even with our devalued currency in Argentina, it still works out such good value," he added, saying meals out in Caracas were a quarter of the cost in Buenos Aires.

"Venezuela's largest denomination note is 100 bolivars - about 25 U.S. cents. Amazed at the sheer quantity of notes they receive, visitors find where to keep them the biggest problem."

We just got back from Costa Rica, the exchange rate was $1 = 500 colons (pronounced like cologne). Fortunately they had notes up to 50,000, i.e., $100, so we didn't have to walk around with huge wads of paper...

I would so call it colons every chance I got

Costa Rica gets so much US travel that the price of goods are nowhere near as attractive as you get from VEN or even ARG.

Correct. It wasn't what I would call expensive, but nothing was particularly cheap, either. Seems like every place down that way I've been to is all about the same. The scuba diving is the same cost everywhere (or within a few dollars), which is about the same as it is in NC...

I'm still doing that genealogy stuff, occasionally I'll get a question from someone that opens up a whole new branch of the family. My dad's side has been a mystery after my great grandfather but tonight I hit the motherload after some guy pinged me about a marriage certificate he found.

It would seem than I'm kin to the folks that built this place - The Thomas Smythe House in Corsham, England tracing relatives back to 1490



that'd be alright but I'd hate to have to paint it.

If you owned it you just hire cheap Scottish labor. They're like Mexicans over there right?

Don't try to one up me, eCat. I've already traced my fambly line back to the founder of Troy...

all I have to say is I'd like to go back in time and punch whoever thought it was a good idea to leave that and buy a damn boat ticket to Ellis Island right in the face.

From that to sharecroppers in Camden, TN. Somebody got that shit wrong.

But look at you now...

oh yea, I'm high society - we're got cracker barrel money coming into the family now.

this is the kind of shit they just have laying around in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union

abandoned space shuttles

http://ralphmirebs.livejournal.com/219949.html

The thing is, only a handful of the family controlled the money. The rest? Not so much. I have ancestors who owned castles and were Earls and Dukes. Apparently my more direct family members weren't enamored with my line as much.

I'm not really even a direct descendent. That Thomas Smythe guy is a brother to a great x6 grandfather to me.

I suspect we were all manure shovelers and he just married the Counts ugly daughter or something.

Just got my first spam email advertising private jet shares. Woo hoo, I'm not there in cash but I'm there in expectations! That has to mean something...

[youtube]L09qnRfZY-k[/youtube]

I got my first one 8 years ago. Yep. It's spam.

To be fair ecat. What the fuck is a labrachow? What the fuck will they breed next? Hey, meet my beagachawa. Half Beagle half taco bell dog.

I don't know if its called a labrachow or not.

His mother is an AKC Chow and his father is a black lab.

All I know is he bites the fuck out my toes