I saw Guy Fieri do this with a hotel pan, a steam pan, wood chips, and aluminum foil on a stove top. I thought it was quite clever.
OK, lieu wins. We had buttloads of rain in June… still, it would be nice to get a little now that it’s July. It’s typical for Toronto to get brief summer thunderstorms this time of year, and I really miss the semi-daily 10 minute downpour. 
Soapy, those smoking bags look cool. Wish I’d known about them back when I didn’t have a smoker (we use wood chunks now, which are relatively easy to find and quite affordable)… I always hated futzing around with damp wood chips and foil packets and such.
Good luck with the thesis defence, Spaz. I’ll be crossing fingers for you on Thursday.
Is there a polite way to tell someone to be quiet in the office? I’m trying to listen in on a conference call, but I can barely hear overtop of the woman two cubes over… she’s got her radio on (not loud, but enough so to be a distraction) and she keeps taking loud personal calls. Normally I just drown her out with music on my earbuds, but not an option right now. AAAAARGH.
Wonderful if you have hotel pans, but not too many home cooks do. 
For the curious - we’re talking about those rectangular stainless steel pans as seen at practically every buffet on the planet.
Yes, Lieu, we did get an hour long soaking. It was fabulous. But I think that’s all the rain we’ve had since the flood on April 28th. Well, we might have had a drop or two in May.
:: starts rain dance::
We have a 30% chance today.
Good long weekend here. Friday we biked to a lake and met up with a friend, walked around the lake, and then had lunch and biked home. An hour of biking plus an hour-long walk left us pretty tired! Such is one’s physical condition when one sits at work 8 hours a day!
Saturday morning I made waffles and managed to give myself a second-degree burn on my thumb by spilling hot bacon fat onto it. It didn’t look bad to start with, but Sunday it puffed up into a biiiiiiiiig blister, and it’s still really puffed up today. Shoulda gone to Waffle House instead of trying to make breakfast myself!
I cleaned the fridge (i.e. pulled everything out and washed the shelves) and pantry (same method but not so cold). KT installed a new shelf in the pantry 'cause there was lots of vertical space that we weren’t using and we needed more horizontal space to set stuff on. New shelf is gooooooood. He also put on in in our coat closet. We used to throw all our shoes on the floor in there but couldn’t ever find anything 'cause the pair of shoes you wanted was always at the bottom of the pile. Now we can put shoes on the floor and on the shelf. Still two layers of shoes on both, but that’s better than one big pile!
Saturday night KT grilled up a pork tenderloin (I think they were mis-marked at the grocery store… I got 2 for $1.99/lb. That’s a steal!) with a balsamic marinade that was unbelievable. This is the first time we’ve had really good aged balsamic, and everything that we put it on is incredible. I made herbed risotto with fresh oregano and thyme from our container garden. That was delicious too. And strawberry shortcake. With fresh whipped cream. It’s nice to have a really nice dinner like that at home sometimes. Makes us feel really good about our cooking skills and really good about how much money we save by eating a nice dinner at home instead of at a fancy restaurant.
Yesterday I did a couple other chores and a lot of knitting. I just started on a baby blanket for a baby that’s due in 2 months. :smack: Not like I didn’t know… I’m just slow. And I decided that I’d do it on slightly smaller needles so it’ll be nice and tight. Except that’ll take even longer. :smack: :smack: Oh well.
Today they tore up the road outside of work. Which is good in that we’re going to get a new surface on the road, which had gotten really bad. But it’s bad because there are either going to be big delays while they work or a long detour.
Re: crazy relatives - one of my uncles listens to some sort of crazy right-wing talk radio and is now convinced that a planet (?? maybe he meant comet) made of iron is going to zip by the earth and because it’s iron, it’s going to cause the earth to blow up. Um… yeah, I’m not even sure where to begin to try to respond to that. This is why I’m not sorry that we don’t have family reunions.
Hi
Where in Hell have you been? :dubious:
'Bout time you posted, son…
Oh, about one hour South of Armageddon… 
Luuuuuuunch! (Runs and jumps on him). Nice to see you here!
ETA: Wow, some location. You should change your location field to that.
Howdy! I’m in a surprisingly good mood for somebody who worked on a day off. 
What can I say? It was an easy six hours and I goofed off more than I worked and still got paid for it.
Special! I agree. You should change your location to “An hour south of Armageddon.” It would be so jakely cool!
It has rained off and on all day. Early today it was a downpour. Since then intermittent periods where it’ll rain heavy for five minutes then go to a light sprinkle for fifteen minutes and quit. I wish it would just pour.
Puggy hope the vertigo is doin’ better.
I’m being taken out to dine tonight. Ok, it’s the local seafood and bbq place but still, being dined is being dined, right?
mmmmm seafood and bbq - I could go for that.
Neat OP, Rebo! We’ve never had a family reunion - the closest thing for us would be a wedding or funeral. Sadly, the last big gathering was for Dad’s funeral. Yeah, I know my kid was married last year, but it was mostly their friends, very little family.
Still not positive when **FCD **will head to Ocala. He’s trying to find out from the folks who interviewed him last week what is going on with that process - they’d wanted him to come back this week to interview with some of their customers. But if they can’t do it tomorrow, he can’t make it till next week. He’s got to be in FL no later than Weds. We shall see.
No idea what we’re doing for supper. I’m just not that inspired. But I am hungry - maybe the supper fairy will appear… * <snerk>*
Hello everyone. I opted to go ahead and take today off. It’s a training holiday, so it’s not a big deal if I’m not there.
Nice OP, rebo. The house looks lovely and gracious. The petroglyphs were cool too.
I’ve haven’t done much today. I got some laundry going and that’s about it. I’m just sort of feeling “meh” and don’t have much ambition.
Hello Stranger (Special 1)! Nice to see you pop in.
I guess I should go vacuum or…something.
Been a little more wacky than usual around here. I noticed helicopters were hovering in the area. Was it a parade? A protest? Nope.
Some sort of yet-unknown electrical problem - the magic smoke leaked out of the underground electrical equipment and filled the streets.
By noon, there were six PG&E service trucks, four pieces of firefighting apparatus and a whole lot of firefighters doing a whole lot of butt-picking at the intersection. The wild thing was the “CO2 Unit” - this is what the side of the truck said, and it was the hugest fire extinguisher I’ve ever seen. Picture a bright red tank of carbon dioxide the size of a small RV, and that’s about it. Tailor made for snuffing out underground electrical fires, and amusingly, it was donated to the SFFD by PG&E.
Fortunately, this didn’t even cause our lights to flicker as we’re swamped (Not Our Swampy) with work and management is begging us to work overtime for the whole week. Yay!
OK, it’s official - my sweetie is heading south in the morning. He’s at our mechanic getting an oil change right now, and I’ll do a load of laundry later so he can pack what he wants. And his <fingers crossed> future boss called and said they’d get together next week. So yay! On the down side, I’ll be home alone till Saturday night. Me and 5 animals. rah.
Still not sure what we’re going to do for supper - can corn on the cob be a meal? I’m going to pack **FCD **some sammiches for his trip, just so the pastrami doesn’t go bad while he’s gone. I won’t eat it.
It’s only 80 here, but I’m hot. I went to the gym at work just before I left and did 40 minutes on the treadmill - I still haven’t cooled down. I’m going to try to do that 4 times a week - I really need the exercise. Tomorrow’s going to be tough - the only TV in there is set on CNN and tomorrow is All Michael Jackson Memorial All The Time. :rolleyes: Because, you know, nobody wants to hear about the wars on the president’s visit to Russia or what that whacko in North Korea is up to. Nope, it’s all about MJ… :rolleyes:
Gotta make a supper decision…
gotti, is it bad that when I picture your office, there’s a three-ring circus going on outside? 
It always seems like there’s some kind of insanity going on just outside your office window or something.
waves to Lunch
swampus, can you send some of that rain over this way? kthx. I’ll also take any leftover BBQ/seafood while you’re at it.
In other news, the mulberry tree looks like it’s going to produce a bumper crop of berries this year. Any suggestions as to what I can do with those suckers? (besides cramming handfuls of them into my mouth as I’m picking, that is)
Cool pictures, Rebo. Nice digs and cool pictographs.
I was just wondering yesterday where you were, SO.
It’s rather warm here. And I should be out playing with daylilies, but I don’t feel like it.
Guess I’ll go look for din din. Maybe Libyan salad again. Really ought to clean out the fridge, but not feeling inspired, either.
Hugs to all.
Back later…
GT
We fixed the crashed closet shelf/bar and re-hung daughter’s clothes. I’ve got a load of clothes in the washer so **FCD **can pack before he goes to bed. We’ll leave at our usual time in the morning, but he’ll keep heading south on 301. With luck, he’ll get to his folks’ place before 7 tomorrow.
We went to Bert’s for a quick supper - I had the clam chowder and my sweetie got a taco salad. Quick, easy, and cheap - just the way I like my men… 
Is it Firday yet??
I hope things go well when FCD head to Florida, FCM.
It’s cooled down quite a bit here. They say we may even have a few rain showers. I’ve yet to see one today, though. It’s okay, we could use a little rain.
I guess I should start dinner. We’re going to eat leftover pasta salad and ribs.
Oh, gotti, I know. But maybe a steamer/double boiler combo would work. Incidentally, I don’t think that I have a perforated pan either!
Well, it was a nice day all in all. I enjoyed spending the morning with TVMan (and cleaning up part of his kitchen) and then met with an old friend/new client in the afternoon. Now I was just awakened from a nap by a loud schnoodle scraping at my door and am sitting here with another one on my lap.
Welcome to SOMA, San Francisco.