Happy Fourth of July!! 
Up and caffeinating here as well; no real plans today though we’ll probably grill hot dogs and hamburgers, YUM!
I just organized a few garden pictures. Been meaning to do that for.just.ever. I’ll start uploading them while continuing the clean-up.
Forgot to say that I hope the solids help Nat sleep and feel better.
They are making Spam sushi on NPR right now. Yes - it’s a Hawaiian thing. Can’t picture it, although I make stuff with canned corned beef due to extended exposure to Puerto Rican cuisine…
GT
To our 'Murican bredren:
Happy Independence Day!
Please feel free to send some of that yummy 4th of July BBQ goodness over this way. kthxbye.
LiLi, how about a vegetarian pasta? Those tend to be our standbys when veggie friends stop in. We did a pasta dish recently with ricotta cheese, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, steamed asparagus and lots of pepper that was quite tasty and took less than 15 minutes to make (including the time needed to boil water and cook the pasta).
gt, my friend who lives in Hawaii swears that SPAM sushi is actually quite tasty. I’m not sure if I believe him, but I try to keep an open mind about these things.
Good morning!
We’ve been invited over to the neighbors today for a pool party and either lunch or dinner, TVMan never did find out what time. :rolleyes: 
Speaking of :rolleyes: he told them that we decided to make boneless buffalo chicken strips as a contribution. Um, no, that’s what he** told ** me to make. So, I will, but I’m also making teriyaki meatballs just because I want to! 
Oh, forgot to mention, I’m going to try dipping the chicken strips in buffalo sauce and them breading them in Panko. Any thoughts on whether this will work or not? It sounded good to me, but I’m not sure if the sauce will burn if I do it this way.
ETA: TVMan wanted to know if I brought chafing dishes and stuff for the food. Um, no dear, we’re just walking next door with it. It’s not a formal event.
Morning, all. Happy 4th to all the Murkins, and happy Firday to everybody else!
The fireworks have been going off occasionally here for several days, alas. Last night they started getting a bit more enthused, and tonight it will probably be even louder. At least things are damp enough there shouldn’t be any fires started in our yard from badly aimed bottle rockets. :rolleyes: Papa Tigs and I debated going to the Mall in downtown D.C. for the big fireworks spectacular, which is always a great show and this year is starting off with Olympic music and fireworks in the shape of the Olympic rings which should be really neat, but 1) it’s supposed to rain and 2) we just didn’t feel up to facing the several hundred thousand people who’d be going along with us. We did it our first year in D.C. and it was great fun, and we did it again a few years later on an insanely hot 4th (it was well over 100, and the Park Service was not only not prohibiting people from wading in the fountains, but actually encouraging it – hey, it’s cheaper than treating heatstroke!), but the older we get the less we enjoy dealing with those numbers of people. Papa Tigs suggested we do like he did back in 1976 for the big Bicentennial show when he was in the Air Force working at the Pentagon and living in Virginia – he and his buddies went up to the top of Arlington Cemetery and watched the show from the Iwo Jima Memorial, and then they watched over a million people trying to leave the Mall before the subway had been built. :eek: Watching from up there would be a great idea except that we live on the other side of the District in Merrylande. Oh well, we’ll do it again at least once, we’ve promised ourselves, but not this year. And with the forecast rain, we probably won’t even go to the Annapolis show. We’ve both been permanently spoiled for fireworks by the insanely amazing extravaganzas they do in Japan, anyway!
So it’s going to be a quiet day here, which is just fine by me. I slept badly and I’m feeling cranky. So I shall go be cranky and not bother you nice people. Don’t everybody have too much fun, now – and be careful mixing beer and fireworks!
Ok, so I’m up.
What do you think this means? I had a dream about a paper pig that looked like Kipper’s friend, Pig. But the pig was special and needed care–it was almost a religious fetish for the people I was with. And then I was in my scrubs, in this huge house (which we called an apartment); you had to ride your bike over fields and dales to get there. We (whoever “we” were) had just moved in; the rooms were empty. Pig had gotten sunburned (not scorched, sunburned) and we had to deliver medical treatment right away. Everyone was quite upset about Pig’s difficulties. And then I had a morbidly obese human pt who I needed to chart on, so I wrote all the stuff on a T shirt and gave it her to wear, after I made a Xerox of the shirt and put that in the chart. I woke up thinking of a design pattern for fabric for a lab coat.
WTF? And this was w/o meds or drugs, folks. :eek:
I’m off to the Apple store with Daughter soon. Yeah, yeah, Happy 4th–can you keep it down out there? Thanks.
It means you’re having pulled pork for dinner?
Hmm. I was going to do a spinach omelette and sweet potato wedges, but the pasta sounds intriguing…
Pie, I think it won’t work. I think the sauce will burn. Could be wrong, though.
Mahna, I’ve heard it’s tasy, too, but you’re trusting the taste of someone who once ate pickles dipped in chocolate sauce.
We’re off to meet the New Dog (and stop at the Loblaws for dinner things and possible baby food in a few minutes.
rigs, just before I fell asleep last night I was picturing a breastmilk AA meeting, with a lot of babies sitting on chairs talking about their addictions. And then wondering if you could breed dachshund-type long haired platypi. And I was still awake!
:eek:
Have you thought that perhaps Gnat has your mind and fusses because he’d rather not? 
(and I had forgotten he was 6 months old–FEED dat chile! I’d try banana, since rice cereal went over like a lead balloon–try it again in a few days. The rice, I mean)
TGIF and Happy 4th to the Muricans! No time to do a nice graphic today. Work is madness right now.
So my morning started off with a bang… or a thud, anyway. Seems that on my way down the stars this morning I miscalculated the approach of my foot to the top step such that my heel caught the edge, but didn’t find enough purchase to stabilize the rest of my gait. So, it slipped out from under me and I landed on my ass, sliding down a few steps as I did. Not the most dignified misstep, but fortunately no one was around to see it.
Unfortunately now I have a bruised elbow (from where it came down on the top of a step to halt my descent) and, for some reason, the muscles around the front of my shin hurt now, even though they didn’t hit anything. Nothing major, just … eesh.
Rigs - No idea what it means, but I’ve had dreams that made me think I must have been tripping balls or something. I once dreamed about being over at one of my ex-girlfriend’s house, and without warning, she turned into a barking, slavering pit bull. A barking, slavering, cartoon pit bull. And I was scared of it.
Gah! Duty calls. Back soon.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY FOLKS!
I’m up and the coffee is brewing.
We received an email from Dell late last night stating that our daughter’s laptop (graduation present) has shipped. Estimated delivery is sometime between 8-10 July. When we ordered it, they stated it wouldn’t ship until the 9th, so iti’s nice that it’ll be a little earlier.
People have been letting off fireworks for days around here. We didn’t buy any this year. Our son won’t even be here and my daughter isn’t in to them, and frankly, it just seems like a waste of money. So, we’ll BBQ and hang out around the house. We may go visit with the neighbors, but that’ll be the extent of things.
Later folks…
Just posting to say hi and happy 4th of July!
I’ve made two new friends, both fellow trainees - one is working at the same branch as I am. This helps to balance out the fact that I am now working six days a week. Eeek.
Happy happy holiday! NC just lost one of its political irritants and I just got 24 points on the DeathPool!
I celebrate with snark.
skips around democratically
I thought it might burn, too, Li-Li. I found a recipe, though, that calls for marinating the chicken in hot sauce before breading it. This is what I decided to try. I figure it’s got a better chance if it’s 5lbs of chicken marinating in about 3/4 cup of sauce vs. 1 chicken strip given the full dunk in 3/4c of sauce. But, just in case I’m wrong, I only did that to half the chicken. The other half is going to be garlic parmesan strips. Also, I really do have something like 9lbs of chicken (and probably 5lbs meatballs). I guess I’m just better at cooking for larger groups than smaller ones.
Why is it that I’m always jonesing for a Diet Coke when I get here? Anywhere else and I’d be happy with water, but here, without DC… ::shudder::
Hi Haze!
and so beautifully, too.
Happy 4th of July! (Every country has a 4th of July - think about it)
::flings red, white, and blue confetti with tame and sensible abandon::
Yay for new friends, Haze!
Both the pasta and omelet sound yummy. I’ve seen recipes for fritatta-like things that include pasta; you’d wind up with something that is a hybrid of both. And sweet-potato wedges? Yummmmmm. The neighborhood Japanese restaurant serves them lightly caramelized…very yummy.
Sorry for the boo boos, Mork.
Where’s FCM? ETA: somehow missed the early-morning post. Booo BSOD!!!
Mattress and box spring have been successfully dragged out of the bedroom. Up next: disassemble bed frame. My dining room is going to look like a warehouse for a bit.
Back later with further updates. (I know you can’t wait!)
GT
We have ghosts! :eek:
I’m not kidding. Our house is built on the site where a hotel used to be, and at least one guest never checked out.
From time to time, DH smells cigar smoke, and small things get moved - the classic “Where are my keys?” harmless poltergeist activity.
Now, it’s escalated. Yesterday, DH noticed that our thermostat’s display was blank. We thought the thermostat Invisible Tenant installed a couple months ago had died, so when he got home, we told him, and he pokes around in the garage. Not even a minute later, he returns and says that the switch was off.
<blink>Switch?
The master switch for the furnace was off. Said switch is in the garage, next to the furnace, and tucked away in a skinny spot where nobody could ever possibly bump into it. Nothing had fallen against it. Someone had to deliberately squeeze in there to flip it.
EEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!
NO GUINNESS? Hmph! I’ll just stay home!
I’m back from the dog park. The idiots had a blast! Two of them are clean now. Blaze doesn’t really get dirty, he just kinda hangs out by the park bench waiting for someone to pet him. I rinsed Lucy off in the back yard. No soap this time. Then I rinsed out and refilled the birdbath, watered all the plants and flowers, sprayed insecticide on my hibiscus to kill the thrips, ran water all over my head cause I was burning up, then came in the house and took a shower with Ernie. He escaped the shower (after being washed and rinsed) and got water all over the floor.
I’m resting now.
Later today I need to run my daughter to the store so she can pick up the ingredients for apple pie.
Two of her friends leave for Marine Basic Camp on Monday and they love pie. One of those friends is one of her best friends that she’s hung out with for years. I know she’s sad to see him go. She wanted to do one last nice thing for them, so baking a pie on her own just for them is what she chose to do. They’re supposed to come over tomorrow to visit and eat the pie.
Frankly, I’m sad to see them go too. Alex (the best friend), is truly a good kid. I’ll miss seeing him around.
yawn Good morning–I slept like a rock for a very long time, and it felt goooooood!
Spaz, snerk@snark, well done!
We have a big old chunk o’lamb in the fridge defrosting and I wanna carve gobbets off it, marinate them and barbecue but Himself wants to heat up the house and roast it. I think I’m gonna win because I’m just gonna cut some off and grill it, and to heck with what he thinks, so there! And a baked potato, mebbe… or sallit, or perhaps both… mmmm, lamb…
So today will be the tenth or so year in a row that I can’t go anywhere for the Fourth because my neighborhood turns into a war zone of illegal bottle rockets and mortars. I’m afraid to go anywhere for fear I’ll return to a smoking hole in the ground. I really hate this holiday a LOT. Fuck fireworks, anyway… At least it’s been rainy this week a bit so there isn’t a whole lot of dry grass around but still…
Grump grump…