(Old) Firin' up the grill in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Morning, all! At just before 11am it’s cloudy, damp, and 69°F, with scattered showers expected all day and a high of only 71. It doesn’t feel like late May, but I know it could be worse.

I’m not a griller. I don’t even cook for myself inside; grilling for 1 is definitely not worth the effort. One of my BFFs enjoys grilling, though, and I like burgers and steaks (as long as they aren’t chargrilled; I’ve never liked Burger King’s burgers).

Yesterday’s brunch jazz jam was alright. The place had a thing where you use a QR code to both see the menu and place your order (then the food gets brought to you), but the “place your order” part wasn’t working so my friends and I ordered at the bar. Happily, the food was good. The house band for the jam session was also good, and a handful of other musicians actually showed up. I sang one tune; I could have done another, but just wasn’t feeling it. The jam session will return in a few weeks, but I’m not sure if I’ll go. I’m still struggling with my musical focus. A few weeks ago I was all “I know, I need to start going to jam sessions!” but then yesterday I realized I couldn’t answer the “to what end?” question. I still love listening to jazz and singing the Great American Songbook, but now I think maybe it’s some things about the jazz scene/the way jazz performances work that are what’s not right for me. I’ll keep mulling.

I started my laundry this morning (I’ll put it in the dryer at lunchtime), but otherwise I don’t plan to accomplish much today other than finishing my Van Gogh (N.O.V.G.) LEGO set. Although sometime this evening I’ll probably start organizing all of the stuff I need for Saturday’s event: my NAACP branch will have a table at a local pride festival, and – as the Membership Chair – I’ll be there from 10am (for setup; the festival starts at noon) until 6pm (or whenever takedown finishes). The big “getting ready” push will happen Friday evening, but I know I’ll feel better this week if I at least start gathering things today. (Luckily, so far the weather forecast for Saturday looks good… :crossed_fingers:)

Turns out there’s a bunch of stuff from the end of the previous thread that I want to comment on… :smiley:

Oh man, that brings back a memory: in the summer of 1990 – between my freshman and sophomore years of college – I got my first car, a white 1981 VW Rabbit, and I decided to drive some friends to the movies the next night. The parking lot’s light posts were set in big round concrete slabs painted bright yellow, and when pulling out of my spot (which was next to one) I thought I had enough clearance on the passenger side…*sigh* Suddenly I had a white car not only all scraped up on the passenger side, but with streaks of yellow. I figured my mom would kill me for messing up my “new” car so quickly, so my friend Patrick and I went to his place and sat in his driveway with a bucket of soapy water, a hose, a couple of flashlights, a Dobie pad, and some Soft Scrub with bleach. :grin: It helped a tiny bit, but didn’t really work. Luckily, Mom didn’t get as mad as I expected. I no longer remember whether the Rabbit spent the rest of its life with yellow paint on the passenger side, but it might have. By 1994 it was costing more in repairs than it was worth, and I got my first new car/my first 2-door (a Mitsubishi Mirage).

Everything, all the time…

Hit it!!

I always thought bonnet = hood?

That was kind of awesome!

Nah, I prefer not to bore folks with “in progress” pics. :slight_smile: I expect to finish the set today, though, so I’ll be sharing a photo tomorrow!

My first guess was either Microsoft or Apple… :smiley:

Duh!! :slight_smile:

Hopefully they offer a discount for a multi-child household…? :crossed_fingers:

Oh man, I’m the same way! I don’t always believe that the worst case is true/will happen, but I always have to think through it. I think it’s a coping mechanism; I need to feel prepared (or at least as prepared as I can be).

I agree! And that’s a great color for you.

HA! Nice “small word” story. :slight_smile:

Holy b.s., Batman! :people_hugging:

How did you know?!?

(Oh, you don’t mean me… :grin:)

22

DOH! Boy, did I pull a boner! The HOOD is stowed in the boot. The bonnet is where it’s supposed to be. I was tired-posting.

23

What does that cover?

Diablo didn’t excite me, but I loved Diablo II. We had three computers on the boat connected in a LAN so people could play against/with each other, and D2 was a very popular game. I only played it online once – one of the other guys asked me to log in and stay logged in so he could repeatedly try putting gems into a set of armour to see if he could get something really good. He just dropped the rejects on the ground, and when he was finally satisfied and logged off I was able to pick through them to see what I wanted. (They were all rather more powerful than anything I’d been able to obtain by that point.) There was a D2 module for D&D; I wish I’d bought it.

I envy musicians, but if I could force myself to practice more than five minutes at a time I could eventually get to the point where I’d be willing to play a tune or two for friends. I envy singers even more, because it wouldn’t matter how long/much I practiced – I’d never get to the point where I was willing to sing in public.

[quote=“Misnomer, post:21, topic:984734”]

We had a power outage some years back during the winter. The neighbour broke out his grill, set it up in the snow, and fixed his supper.

Kissing in school was frowned upon in my day.

I save my love for steam power – diesel and electric locomotives just don’t interest me. Every couple/few years we go for a ride on the Essex steam train.


We have a Weber kettle grill, but only used it a few times last year. I hope to do so more often this summer.

24

Roxy will be going to kindergarten, so even if such a discount exists, it wouldn’t apply. alas…

I cleaned the leather recliner the best I could - there’s a stain where FIL laid his head - I’m sure over the years, oils from his scalp stained it. But the dirt and residue from spills has been cleaned away.

I also got the load of laundry folded and stowed. Now, it’s off to Food Lion for 'nanners!

25

Yeah, thanks. I thought it looked like fun so I saved it to my google keep to make for my Moxie come colder weather. Of course that will require me finding 2 wire hangers and a smaller t shirt, but all in good time. She likes sleeping in nooks and crannies and ignoring my frantic calls to find her.

Agree. Burgers, corn on the cob and popsicle juice running down your arm.

Pockets are a big selling point for me, has been since I sewed most of my own clothes and added pockets if the design didn’t have them. Girls deserve pockets just as much as boys, if not more! That’s my battle cry and I’m sticking to it.

I haven’t grilled outside at home since my youngest flew the nest 11 years ago. I have a little Weber kettle but it just sits outside the back door, quietly rusting away. Heck, somebody could have stole it years ago and I just haven’t noticed.

My beloved son-in law, with whom I spend most Sundays, is a skilled griller and smoker, so 3 seasons of the year I get great grilled meals there. Yesterday it was cheeseburgers, grilled asparagus and grilled fresh pineapple. He has a huge gas grill the size of a small pickup. My daughter married well.

I haz a sad for you too. My only sister is 275 miles away (but at least it is an easy Interstate 80 5 hour drive) and I haven’t seen her in person for more than a year, I know the feeling.

26

We have a small propane grill on the deck. We like to grill and always have, winter and summer. We don’t have a fan in the kitchen, which is important, and besides, it just tastes better. We had a big Char-Broil grill on the patio in the valley but when we moved over here we gave it to the kids and now we content ourselves with the little one we bought when this was our ‘vacation house’.
(Wifey likes to think this was our ‘vacation house’. I always figured we would move over here 'cause it made sense financially. But I had to wait until it was ‘her idea’.)

Fishie, something you said last week made me think I should dig out my recipe for killer cheesecake and give it to you. I’m not gonna go back and look it up, but here’s the recipe. Do with it what you will.

This recipe is out of a little booklet that came with a Waring blender I bought at least 50 years ago. I made it many times, but not recently.
Sour Cream Cheesecake
From: Your Waring Blender Cookbook

Graham cracker crust for 9” round by 2” cake pan. Spring form is best
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups sour cream
1 wide strip orange rind, cut up
1 narrow strip lemon rind, cut up
1 pound (2 8-ounce packages) soft cream cheese, cut up
2 Tablespoons melted butter
Put the eggs, sugar, vanilla, sour cream and orange and lemon rinds into a blender and cover. Blend on high for 15 seconds. With blender still running, remover center section of cover and gradually add pieces of cream cheese and butter. Blend until smooth. Stop blender and push down with spatula if necessary.
Pour mixture into crust and bake in preheated oven at 325f for 35 minutes, or until set in the center. Turn off heat and leave in oven for another 15 minutes.
Remove and let cool on rack.
When cool, refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
A pan of water in the oven under the cheesecake will help keep cake from cracking.

As I remember, this actually makes two cheesecakes. (It’s been a long time. I’m allergic now.) And I don’t care if you use a graham cracker crust. Actually my preferred crust would be made with crushed hazelnuts. Do whatever you like.

Also, I like your dress. And your hair.

Happy Memorial Day.
I’m a veteran, but I don’t care about ceremonies. Words are cheap. Give me some decent health care, etc.

27

Had a second “small world” story the very next day.

My copilot is brand new to our airline, but had Captained small jets for one of our regionals for the last 10-ish years. But not based here; he was always in another city. We’re walking down the hallway to US Immigration amidst a throng of passengers who’d just gotten off our jet from an island tourist destination. Just ahead are a 20-something couple dressed like vacationers. But her luggage has all the indicia of a crew person, not a tourist.

So being the forward sort that I am, I catch up and ask them if they they had fun on the island. “Boy, we sure did!” Then she notices my FO and lets out a squeal. Turns out she’s an FA now here in Miami for the same outfit he just quit to come here. They used to fly together from that other city all the time. At small companies everybody gets to know everybody; that’s much harder at the MegaCorp where we now work.

Much old home week ensued.

It’s hardly surprising when you encounter an immediate co-worker while at work. That’s kinda where you’d expect to find them; it’s more weird to find them at a grocery store. But your extended circle of semi-co-workers is a lot bigger than you might think it is. Wherever you go around the system, there’s always one nearby even if you never notice each other.

28

The sky has opened! It’s pouring and booming and I’m glad to be indoors. I have a hunk of pork in the sous vide pan. Sides will be peas-n-carrots and maybe instant smashed spuds. Or twice-baked? Not sure.

I predict coastal flooding advisories will pop up soon. But the farmers should be happy.

29

I’ve just returned from the supermarket. And another supermarket. I got some country-style bonless poke ribs, coleslaw dressing, a bag o’ coleslaw, and some corn-onna-cob. That’s for dinner tonight. Right now, I’ve got a burger cooking for lunch.

30

Like swampy, we have a pellet smoker/grill in a little covered area off the patio. It gets used year round, if it’s snowing we can watch it from my stitching room window or one of the back doors and then scamper out when needed.

Of course not today, it is a holiday. Stores will be packed with people wanting deals and workers who want to be home enjoying the holiday with their families. It would be a most unpleasant activity.

COC likes tents and condos and such, VBC doesn’t and GG sleeps with VBC so he would never consider going in by himself. T-shirt tents are just such a clever idea, though.

BBB thrift stores often have stacks of wire hangers they are happy to give away. They usually have inexpensive t-shirts too.

Oh yes, you do need to change the scenery every so often or you will get bored or burnt out!

I can’t play with hubs anymore. His avatars are all supermen and anywhere he is becomes one-hit killing zones for low level me. If I ask, he will start a new char and spend a day or so getting to my level, but he won’t play it without me because he’s got better ones.

I’ll play for a while, then get bored and do other things for a while. He plays Diablo games a at least a couple of hours a day so it makes sense that despite not paying for stuff…his avatars will always be stronger and better armored than mine.

When one is a professional cook, one works hard to develop good habits lest large amounts of food/milk be wasted. Once good habits are developed, its easier to do things the “right” way than to throw things in the pot and see what happens.

I will continue measuring the first round of spices and ingredients I use as carefully as the amounts of reagents I use making when making cheese. Now get outa my kitchen!!!

Yep. There is nothing wrong with him, I must be mistaken. I do smoke a lot of weed, maybe that is the problem.

It is very possible that he scuffed the car in a parking lot and told himself to remember to tell me about it, but forgot by the time he got home. He’s been doing that sort of thing more often as well. Where the whole part about it coming like that from the dealer came from, I have no clue.

This really is pretty upsetting. As a pothead, I do space things…but I have coping skillz that I’ve developed over the years. I’m always stoned when I stitch and a nice glass of mead is sometimes helpful when I’m battling a complicated twisty stitch. You’ve seen the quality of my work, this is because my habits are well developed and I deliberately do things a certain way now so that me in 5 minutes will remember to go back and finish something after forgetting to do it the first time.

Hehehe!

A couple of years back, I bought a cart to haul a trunk load of food up the ramp in one trip. Hubs thought it was a waste of money and complained about storage.

He uses it more than I do now. It always entertains me to see him loading the cart with his beer making stuff instead of making 10 trips from the hobby room to the kitchen.

Did you get called a “meany poopy head?”

:rofl:

31

Had a good get-together with kids and grandkids. Some were unexpected, as they live some distance from there.

A couple of women who live here were mugged the other day while out for a walk in the neighborhood. Two guys jumped out of a car and grabbed their bags. Real heroes, these guys. One of the women had the presence of mind to get the license plate number. I think I need to teach a class on personal security, as these two women were doing pretty much everything wrong from a safety perspective.

32

I had to abandon the porch…this time of year there is no shade from 4-6 PM and it’s 89 ferret height out there. Even the umbrella doesn’t help once the sun gets down to shine under it.

Butt (snerk) got some pork on the webber going low and slow, so that’s good.

33

Ack, I didn’t realize it was just a preschool Montessori. Ah, well.

That is definitely true of defense contracting work (which is what I do) in the DC area (which is where I live). Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, etc. are giant companies but this is often a small world, and it’s big on networking. Whenever I meet someone who says LinkedIn isn’t useful for them, there’s a 95% chance they aren’t in this industry.

34

I mowed the back lawn and weeds. Wifey, RN came home briefly. She’s off to see her last patient, who lives close by. She said she’d be home by three. That’s when I planned to start cooking ‘dinner’. I told her what we’re having, and she gave me a thumb up.

35

Not able to really read and respond because I’m in the ER. I was having very bad chest and upper abdominal pain, the second time in three days. It was bad enough to worry me and send Hubby and I here. So far, I’ve had two EKGs, an X-ray, blood drawn and been given some gastro medicine and some baby aspirin. From everything that is showing up in MyHealth, the tests are all coming back normal, and most of the pain and numbness has subsided. So I’m just waiting to be called back again to find out if they know what it is. Gall bladder, really bad gas (though burping didn’t seem to help) or heat problems are the leading contenders. I’m expecting it to be nothing, now that the pain isn’t severe, and I’ll probably feel like a right fool for being here, but everyone tells me it’s a good thing I came in. I just hate to be a bother and right now, I’m a bother.

36

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Memorial Day! No grilling here, as I’m living at Doggio Northwest, but I have to walk to the store today, so maybe I’ll get a little watermelon. Of course, then I have to lug it home… Swampy, you must be day-drinkin with your friends and OYKW as I type this.

I read all of last week’s MMP, but all my brain latched onto was a sidewinder at a post office (undoubtedly using snail mail) and sari’s too-adorable-for-words puppies. Did I miss the names, though? I hope to see lots of picks in the future, as they give me the Grins. Oh, and flyboy’s beautiful table!

Thank you for all the support, reassurances, and suggestions re: my identity crisis. And I wanted to explain why I thought my kids were OK. There’s no such thing as a good marriage to someone diagnosed with NPD, etc., but it got especially bad the last 9 years when he refused to touch me even casually. The criticism and mental manipulation were mind-boggling. I agonized over what was best for the kids, talked to counselors, read books, and staying seemed clearly better for them. My son went off to college, but my daughter, 9.5 years younger, was there during the Dark Ages…

The reason I thought they were OK was because I was sincerely cheerful and tried so hard to give them a happy childhood, and they DO have lots of good memories. Still, for years after I finally left my ex, I had terrible nightmares involving me grabbing my daughter (always a small child) and escaping from him. I couldn’t figure it out. I was his lightning rod, not the kids. It finally dawned on me: my brain was trying to tell me that by NOT leaving sooner, I’d exposed her to a damaging level of crazy. And the same for my son, even though it wasn’t quite as bad when he was growing up. Anyway, finding out that of COURSE they were damaged by living with their dad is what slammed me.

OK, that’s enough of that.

I was supposed to spend last weekend with my son, but he and his wife (both vaxxed), got Covid. Ironically, my son was at greater risk due to severe asthma, but for that reason, his pulmonologist put him on an antiviral, and my DIL is the sicker of the two. She has to work anyway (from home). I wanted to go up to help out, but my doc nixed that notion, so I sent them an e-gift card for Door Dash.

The weather is gorgeous, sunny but not hot. I spend many soothing hours on my balcony, gazing at the forest and listening to the birds.

I love old recipes! My mother’s spaghetti sauce recipe isn’t a recipe at all: you have to do it by eye. And it involves a cooking practice most people find odd, so I don’t even try to share it. Until it fell apart, I had my late, great MIL’s church cookbook, and it was full of recipes calling for “one No. 2 can of”.

Am I the only one who likes to read old cookbooks for fun?

37

Everyone is right. You absolutely should be doing just what you are doing and you are wrong about being a bother.

Ignoring your symptoms and ending up collapsing would be a bother.

38

Howdy Y’all! We ate, we drank, we made merry. A good time was had by all out at the cee-mint pond. The water is waaaaaay cold, however! We got in but nobody stayed in the water for long. Anywho, they are gone, we have showered, and now we chillax inside. I love company both comin’ and goin’. Oh, the biiiiiig trash can has been hauled all the way down to the road for pickup tomorro

RealFish you definitely did the right thing to go get checked out. Hope it’s nothin’ serious.

Yanker a change of scenery can do a body good.

Nellie we have a bunch of old cookbooks that I like to read. I especially love all the old church lady cookbooks in my possession. I have one from the 80s that was put together by employees of a bank celebratin’ its one-hundreth birthday and it is an especially good cookbook. It’s like a church lady cookbook except by bank employees.

39

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Same. I have a number of recipes saved in Word that are titled with ‘as adapted by KittenMitten’ or ‘KittenMitten style’

oh {WetOne}, I’m so sorry that your Sis is moving so far away. I totally understand.

that’s what happens with beaters. daughter had similar situation as far as getting an older car between freshman & sophomore years and about a year or so after she graduated with Bachelors, it was also costing more in repairs than worth. But she was in grad school then and couldn’t afford another car. But her Grams was deemed not well enough to drive anymore so Grams car, which was nicer than any car either Hubs or I had ever owned, was given to our daughter.

{RealFish} you did the right thing going to the ER; you are not a bother; it’s their job

I’m sure that Ivana, Marla and Melania would agree with you.

My grandparents had a cottage on a lake and we went out almost every weekend from May through September. Almost every time there would be a cookout with hotdogs that we roasted ourselves on long handled cooking forks over wood fires, sometimes hamburgers on a charcoal grill, corn on the cob, potato salad and sometimes coleslaw. For dessert we would make s’mores. We NEVER cooked out at home. Parents didn’t own a grill.

Hubs and I have done a lot of cooking out. When we lived in San Antonio, our next door neighbor in the apartment had a small hibachi grille. She was a military nurse (not sure which service) and when she was reassigned to go overseas, she gave it to us. So we used that for a time but unfortunately some jerk stole it. We were gifted a Weber by Hubs’ Sis when we got married. We used that thing for 30+ years but it was finally unusable for grilling so Hubs bought a smaller Weber since only 2 of us now. Hubs is the primary griller of burgers, steaks, chicken, veggie kabobs, etc. Since he’s not in the best shape, we’re just having boiled beef hotdogs, Kroger coleslaw (I’ll never buy that again) and potato salad that I made (redskin potato, hard boiled eggs, celery, carrots, onions, parsley, red bell pepper, chives, cucumber). I really want to make a fire and roast some marshmallows but we’ll see.

40

Ever the iconoclast, I refuse to add more smoke to the neighborhood today. The people on both sides are grilling - that’s enough air pollution. besides, the Summer is just starting! I’ll be doing my share before long. Plenty of burgers, steaks and brats to be immolated before Labor Day.