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That reminds me of an experience I had about five years ago.

A guy with whom I work invited my wife and I to a Thanksgiving-Christmas time of year dinner party. I figured we would take a bottle of wine with us as a gift to our hosts. I also knew that my friend's wife is an ob-gyn who runs in pretty high circles. So I stopped by the liquor store on the way to the dinner party to get the wine. I got help from the store personnel as I don't really know much about wine and was helped to select a wine that cost around $65 for a 750 ml bottle.

At the front of the store there was a super hot chick dressed in a tiny Santa Claus helper outfit giving out samples of Wild Vines blackberry merlot. (Please take a moment and try to visualize...........)

It was selling for $3.99 for a 1 liter bottle. I bought a bottle of it. At the dinner party, I presented the Dr. with the $65 wine and slipped the bottle of blackberry merlot to my friend. With a gleam in his eye, he took it and slipped off to the butler's pantry. He used it to fill an empty bottle of some hoity-toity wine he had and set it out at the wine table. It was all we could do keep a straight face while all of the wine connoisseurs went on and on about how great it was (with all the appropriate swirling and sniffing and such). Well, the Dr. found out about it and I had to take all the blame (even though the substitution thing was entirely his idea) in order to save his marriage. Needless to say, I never got invited to another party at their house.

It is amazing to me how loyal some people are to certain brands. I used to have some framers who worked for me with the attitude, "If it isn't a Duofast, I'd just as soon use a hammer." If you go on a home improvement forum, you'll get some that think any power tool that isn't Dewalt is not good. (Others say Milwaukee.) Personally, I own Dewalt, Rigid, Ryobi, Delta, Milwaukee, Hitachi, Makita, Bistitch, Craftsman and others. It's all in what you're used to. In automobiles, I presently have Nissan, Honda, Chevrolet, GMC and Freightliner. See, no brand loyalty whatsoever. However, I will admit that I will never (again) own a Ford product.

I really just bought it for grins. I looked it over pretty good and, like I said, the parts seems to be machined well and the fit seemed pretty decent. The magazine loaded easily and it chambered a round smoothly when I racked the slide. So I took it out on the patio and let 'er rip. The first trigger pull, it went BANG, just like it is supposed to. I was really watching the gun and just shooting into the ground but it's so fast, it just looks like any other semi-auto. So I wondered if it had chambered another round. I was tempted to pull the slide back and check but figured, what the heck, took aim at a particular bad area of turf and pulled the trigger. Again, it went BANG like it is supposed to. The little red turkey button popped out every time the slide was racked (either manually or upon firing) like it is supposed to. I emptied the 6 round magazine (it's a 6+1), collected the casings and went back inside. At first, I thought I noticed a little nick on the slide where the casing ejects but I believe it was machined that way to provide additional ejection clearance. It still seemed solid though. It is heavy. It would make a formidable throwing object if all else failed. I don't have another .380 so I really didn't worry about burning through the ammo. I might consider it for a bug but I would need two of them. Not because of reliability concerns but if I was going to wear it with an ankle holster, I'd want one on both ankles for balance (and exercise). I guess I could alternate on which ankle I carried it. It wouldn't be like I would have trouble remembering where it was. Is it's flawless operation a fluke? I don't know. There was a time when Datsun and Honda automobiles were a joke, too. Some of you younger guys may not know what a Datsun is. I can remember working at a Gibson's in the 60's and selling crap guns made by Taurus and a few others. The others fell by the wayside (or changed their name to escape a bad reputation). Heck, I can remember when Converse made the cheapest, crappiest sneaker made. Maybe JA has improved. Then again, maybe they got lucky one time. Computer controlled machines are amazing these days.

If the battery on my old Sony Mavica will take a charge, I'll get some pics. That is, if I can find the portable floppy drive I'll need to upload the pics. Then, I gotta remember how to use Flicker (is that what it is?).

Even though I had read all the threads about Jimenez Arms .380's, I couldn't resist thinking "How bad could they really be?" Well, I bought one several weeks ago at a gun show at Big Town in Dallas. I had to really work to come up with 400 rounds of range ammo. I bought 100 rounds from Ray's sporting goods and 300 rounds of reloads from a guy I met while at Ray's. Just looking at the gun, I was actually rather impressed with the workmanship. Anyway, I finally got to the range with 400 rounds of ammo this afternoon. The darn thing was flawless. I shot 50 rounds of "PMC" (Made in Korea) I got at Ray's and all of the reloads without a hint of a problem. It was actually pretty sweet. It does have some weight to it and, as a result, has a really mild recoil even considering that it is only a .380. I was talking to a guy at the range who seemed pretty knowledgeable. He was as surprised at my experience and reasoned that, just as sometimes one will get a high-end gun that has problems, occasionally someone gets a crap gun that functions well.