As I was waiting for the Winter Wonderland, I snapped some pics of my ultra-cluttered computer / booze'n room...

The small box to the right has various hooks and nails from a Revolutionary War period farm house...

The box on the left has WWII pins medals and rings...

The frame on the wall contains a bible leaf from the 1200's originating from France...

My WW1 case.

French Artillery helmet, French cigarettes, French Artillery shell engraved with some cool designs and logos, French Bayonet.

WW1 American AEF Helmet, Trench Watch, Ring, German Helmet.

Ok... now back to the Wonderland!

You have some fun stuff!

I forgot.

The booze'n stuff...

Thanks Stroller, but it's too much junk!

George Carlin would be proud...

That an autographed copy of Bettys book?

Hey, I got me one of those rooms o' crap.

Favorite room in the house, that.
(And I have an autographed copy of the Betty book to boot!)

A cheese slicer does not count as a "French" Bayonet.

What a wonderful den of antiquity.

Ha! Cheese Slicer...

And yes, that's Butty's (non signed) book.

Me likes your room digits.

That is some cool stuff though Digits.

Digits is cool
that's why.

Well, it's not ALL junk, anyway.

I love the room.

tru dat

Not sure why I posted all that... must'a been the trip to Wonderland!

I really do have a problem though... I just like 'stuff'.

I have more stuff too. Like Cigar stuff and Coin stuff... and stuff.

All I have are rooms full of booze and stuff.

So this is caused by drinking Absinthe. I thought I was the only one.

Nope.
There's a bunch of us.

We're called loungers.

And proud of it.

You're all DARKSIDED.

... yup, I guess so.

Oh yes I know I am. I have a star on my wall and everything. We even celebrate the solstice.

Nice collection. And, a very nice presentation as well.

My home is full of "gorgyles".

Hey 18, very nice
that frame you have with the 19th century iron nails and hooks
is called a Riker Mount
a museum storage standard.
I just bought 5 cases of those in different sizes
for my art work
I mean, I'm not putting my art work in it
but my art right now is similar to butterfly collecting.
I have collected all these small things for mounting
and I thought it might be art.
My first work is a gamblers pistol,
below it an antique hand of aces and eights
surrounded by a tavern pipe, a pocket watch
and a gentleman's ivory day planner.
For the background I salvaged a worn out
pool table felt
the chalky faded green turns me on.
I have some artifacts to mount too
but after they are mounted
I want them to be in fact art.

I have a small Riker mount I have been saving for the day when I finally capture the elusive red velvet ant. I carry a spare Altoid tin and keep a kill jar and foam under the kitchen sink throughout velvet ant season for the purpose.

... that's funny Peeps and Kirk, I'd love to see that!!!

That's pretty bad ass. What's a red velvet ant?

I'm going to use my Riker mount for that prostitute's head. If she's gonna charge me $2000 I'm at least going to get my money's worth!

Gats, that's just an expression, a term. You don't actually get to keep the head...
It's like, they don't actually blow on it, either.

I was traveling somewhere in the south and I stopped at a very old farmhouse for a yard sale
the place was overgrown and it had an ancient tree
at the base of the tree I saw a large red velvet ant
I yelled to my wife "look at this honey, oh my god, I've never seen anything like it"
The owner rushed over before my wife and said "yup"
and stomped on it,
there was nothing left.
I think they must be destructive
or something.

They're not distructive but you don't want one on you. Those hairs are like tarantula hairs.

A misnomer for a species of large, solitary, nomadic wasp. Velvet ants are dangerous, vicious and beautiful. The males fly, but don't sting. The females sting, but don't fly. They squat in the burrows of other insects and their larvae survive by eating the larvae of whatever built the burrow. The sting is notoriously agonizing. Their common name is "cow killer."

Dangerous, vicious and beautiful. That description applies to more than velvet ants.

I never saw one of those.
The thing I saw was a bizarrely large ant,
the largest ant I've ever seen, it was about the size of a mole cricket and it was covered with bright reddish orange fur.

I take it back,
it was a red velvet ant but it was a different type than the one your picture peeps.

That sounds like a velvet ant. Not all are red. Some are orange or cottony white and fuzzy to the point of cuteness.