Just finished de-crudding the smoker. It’s cleaner than it’s been in eons. And, naturally, after finishing, I googled smoker cleaning tips. Apparently apple cider vinegar is the preferred degreaser. I’ll buy some next time out. Meanwhile, what should I dirty the smoker with next?? Wish I had a turkey, Maybe I’ll look for one.
I think we’re going to venture to the wilds of Ocala about mid-October. By then, FCD should be done with his knee therapy and we’ll be far enough away from new babby and second surgery that even if we contract Florida Plague, we’ll have plenty of time to recover. So, much as I hate the idea, we’re heading south on I-95 in a couple of months. rah.
Guess I should head to the basement and clean that disaster area.
Dropped overlyboy for his first cross country meet at 7:30. The downside was it was hard to convince myself to put on clothes at 6:30 on a weekend and get out the door. The upside is that I’ve done 2 loads of laundry, visited the grocery and run the dishwasher and am sitting in the lot waiting to get overlyboy earlier than expected.
Mom’s coming by tonight for fajitas and cake, overlyboy has a viola lesson via zoom. Tomorrow is a soccer game but not until after 1, and I’ll take overlyboy out for practice driving later. Plans between now and fajita time = takeout Chinese food for lunch and a nap.
Morning, all. Just fetched and consumed breakfast - machaca and eggs, beans & rice from the place down the street with the 24 hour drive-thru. Yum! Now that I’m adequately stuffed, it’s off to Bevmo, Vons and Trader Joe’s for supplies for the next week or three. Then there are floors to be mopped.
Hope everybody’s weekend is as packed with excitement as mine is!
I’m heading over to my grandchildren’s (such a lovely thing to be blessed to say…) for the day. My assignment is to distract Hattie the 4 yo from disturbing her parents from watching the seasonal opener Cornhuskers Go Big Red !! football game. They’ll have one huge tv for the game, we’ll have the other TV in a different level of the house for a Disney movie. I’ll bring some kettle corn for her ‘cause she loves it. If I’m lucky I’ll get a cuddle with baby boy Sorenson at some point. I’ll stay through her bedtime bath and going to bed routine, then drive home for 11 minutes and collapse for the nest 24 hours. My idea of sheer heaven.
The basement has been put back in order and vacuumed. I’m having some black cherry greek yogurt and a pretzel log - breakfast was kinda bigger than usual so I’m not all that hungry. I think when I’m done with this, I’ll take up my afghaning and watch something on TV. I’ll make the chickie salad a little later. I think I’ve earned a little sit-down time.
And it’s sooooooo muggy outside! UGH! I’m sooooooooo ready for autumn!
Done heaving for the day. Now time to sing the Laundromat Song!
Recipe:
muddle 3/4 of a lime in a shaker
Add 1/2oz Agave syrup and 3oz of aged rum(I used Plantation 5yr)
Add 6oz crushed ice, shake, and pour into an Old Fashioed glass unstirred.
Garnish with: more rum. Be a Pirate!
Very lime forward, you can barely taste the rum. Which is bad, because you could sink 5 of these, and wake up 2 weeks later in a dumpster in Havana holding a chicken you stole from a Santeria priestess, and not know how it happened.
I’m at loose ends today. I’ll head to the gym, but other than that…dunno.
My neighbor across the hall is moving out today. She’s the one who’s moving into an ambulance. I don’t know what she’s doing with her furniture but am guessing it’s going in the pod parked next to the band-aid wagon. I hope whoever moves in there is nice…and quiet.
Moooom, I thought of Roxy and her “noodle cake” this morning when I saw someone refer to grated parmesan as “pasta sugar.”
23 miles away, in Folsom, AQI is off the color scale, at 532. We’re crowding 200 (purple) in Sacramento itself. Not going out, not ordering any deliveries that are not urgent (seems unkind to delivery people).
It is so far. We’re watching “Luca” on Disney upstairs and according to the internetz my Cornhuskers aren’t losing (9-), 2nd Q). The baby is sleeping in the basement viewing den with his parents. I supplied all parties with big bags of popcorn and kettle corn made fresh this morning. I presume Sorenson is suitably attired in Husker gear but I haven’t seen it yet. Harriet has on an adorable red gingham sundress embroidered with a big red ‘N’, bare feet and a bandaid rakishly at the corner of one eye, a wound incurred in preschool yesterday, bumping the corner of a table. Betcha that was a scary few minutes for the teachers. She is nonplussed about it.
ETA: halftime, we’re down by a TD and extra point. We often do better in the second half. So I’ll hang in with the tackleball laddies.
BBBoo - the paternal side of Roxy’s bloodline are 'Bama fans so she has various garments reflecting their team spirit. She even had a onesie with the big “A” on it. We don’t pay attention to any college team in particular - I didn’t care about Purdue’s teams when I was there, and I care even less 40+ years later.
FCD is a Cowboys fan of a sort, but that doesn’t translate to paraphernalia.
I’m heating up ribs and making some roasted cauliflower for an early supper since he didn’t have lunch and I just had some yogurt. We’s hongree!
Both of Hattie’s parents are Huskers-with 5 degrees between them and dad teaches there now so Go Big Red looms large. And as I understand it, there ain’t no fan like a ‘Bama fan!
We are behind bigly now (16-30, start of the 4th) so Hattie and I will finish Lilo and Stitch, then do arts and craft. I will still love the tackleball laddies in the morning.
This afternoon I moved the living room fan from next to the couch to next to the TV (facing the couch), and moved the c-table it was on to the other side of the loveseat. Not exactly like having a whole new room, but both the fan and the table are better-positioned now. The change has made me disproportionately happy.
My college was too small to have a football team, so I never got into college sports. And while I love baseball and hockey, I could never seem to get into either basketball or football. But a long time ago I lived with an Ohio State fan, and I started to actually enjoy watching college football. I learned all of the Ohio State chants/songs, and still remember most of them (“we don’t give a damn for the whole state of Michigan”). I think of myself as being pre-loaded in case I ever date another Ohio State fan…but dating a Michigan fan could take some adjusting.
I am stressing way more about my upcoming bloodwork than I expected. The A1C is a three-month average: there’s nothing I can do about it between now and Wednesday morning (when I go to the lab). I’m usually pretty good about letting go of things that are out of my control, but I just keep worrying that I haven’t done enough in the past three months to get the number where it needs to be — and worrying about the surgery then likely pushing to early 2022. And did I mention that I usually turn to carbs and sugar in times of stress? But that I can’t bring myself to indulge at all right now, even though intellectually I know that I could eat an entire cake today and it wouldn’t affect Wednesday’s A1C? And that making this extra effort to avoid my usual sources of comfort is adding to the stress? {sigh} I keep telling myself that this is just practice for after the surgery, because I definitely need to learn methods of dealing with stress that don’t involve food.
That said, I will let myself go to Burger King for lunch on Wednesday (original chicken sandwich and onion rings! yay!).
Today’s lunch was pretty late: I had my usual protein shake for breakfast, but then didn’t eat anything until around 3pm (almost three hours ago). I didn’t realize how late it had gotten until I noticed that I was feeling shaky! I had a small protein bar, a low-sugar yogurt, and some Cheerios, and when I was still hungry I had some tomato soup — one of those Campbell’s microwaveable thingies. Kind of a weird combo for me, but it worked.
I sort of ran out of healthy/dinner foods. I placed an order of groceries to be delivered tomorrow morning, but in the meantime I think dinner will be my last package of frozen Chinese food. Sadly, there will be no sugar-free pudding tonight: I used the last of the milk on the Cheerios, and won’t have more until tomorrow. The various sugar-free instant pudding flavors have become my guilt-free evening treat, and have been helping with the aforementioned stress. Of course, I could go get more milk — I live within 2 miles of four different grocery stores — but in my current state of mind I don’t trust myself to get just milk. I don’t need the temptation, and would rather just wait for tomorrow’s delivery. I can live without pudding for one night…but just one!
Well, I made it back home. Ended up 3-0 for the day, boys 8U won 3-2, 8U girls won 5-1 and 12U Boys won 4-0. Also refereed a ‘round-robin’ for 3 teams (about 75 minutes of soccer) and my legs are telling me this was not a good idea. Do not plan on moving much for the rest of the day. (Did I mention it was 90F and very few clouds in the sky?). But the kids had fun.
One of the 8U parents was objecting to how I was deploying the girls, started off saying “I’ve coached before…” and I stopped him by saying “I’ve coached for 30 years…” We’ll see if he cools down.
Oopsie, I was born and raised in Ohio, so I’m still a modest fan of the Buckeyes, but after 20+ years in Ali-bama, still don’t know if I’m and Auburn or Alabama rooter.
BBBoo, back when Nebraska-Oklahoma was a must-see, I rooted for Nebraska, these days not so much.
talky, hope overlyboy did well with the cross country.
OK, need to get some more liquid in me (food has no major appeal) and maybe nappage.
The birthday / pool party that was postponed from last weekend to this one was canceled for rain. I’ll go to brunch in the park tomorrow to catch up with the heathens. Nelson will be able to come with me there.
Howdy Y’all! Today was a day of sloth and steak. I did manage to be a little bit unslothful for a time, however. I decided we would have fried chikin strips, collard greens, mac ‘n cheese, squish casserole, and cornbread for a late N.O.L./early sup tomorrow. Both of us have a gnawin’ and a cravin’ for some down home cookin’. Thus, I took some greens outta da freezer along with some ham hock and cooked 'em today. I also made up the mac 'n cheese and squish casserole so they are all ready to be baked tomorrow. So I had about an hour and a half of unslothfulness. Oh and we shall make homemade strawberry ice cream tomorrow. YUM!
I am somewhat of a DAWG as I got my master’s degree from UGA.
Did wind up venturing out, when a Staples sale email (yes, I signed up for these) reminded me that DH needed a new desk chair, and select chairs were 40% off. In DH’s opinion, it’s best to try out chairs and such in person, so off we went.
So of course, the one he deemed best suited to him was NOT one of the “select” ones. Oh well, the checking account could handle it and he really did need it.
At least AQI was a bit better when we were out, judging by lack of smoke smell/taste, but I think it started getting worse again after we got home.
Yeah there ain’t no game like an Oklahoma/Nebraska game for nonstop rough and tough at the top of 90,000 peoples’ lungs. Too bad we changed to the Big10 and don’t have that matchup anymore. Thanks for rooting for us back when. Keep a good thought.
Cornhuskers 
I’ll go to brunch in the park tomorrow to catch up with the heathens. Nelson will be able to come with me there.