Happy Birthday To Me.

Thirty nine years ago today, I was born. Not just me but my twin brother also. This morning Needles and I slept in a little but was up and at em just after 9am. We fixed breakfast and shortly after that was a call from my parents wishing me a happy birthday. In the middle of the mid day heat we decided to do some grocery shopping. Nothing like a good frustrating visit to Wally World on your birthday and it's 105 outside to get you good and pissy. Between the people having a family reunion blocking the aisles, the couple chatting up the cashier while we stand there waiting to get checked out and finally the people I got behind on the road home. Let me just say that turn signals are totally optional around here. When we got home we unloaded our groceries and I finally got to cool down. My SIL called earlier and invited Needles and I out to supper at The Trace Inn. They picked us up around 5pm and of to the park we went. It was almost grilled chicken salads all around. Afterwards a quick trip to the Dairy Dee scored Needles some Choco Dees. This evening has been dedicated to staying cool and a little black berry picking. Tomorrow we are going to L's to have lunch. Hope you have a good weekend.

PS. A neat fact that I discovered today. On June 30th 1973 there was a total solar eclipse. Interesting.

ISS & Moon

ISS

Crab Leg Sunday

Sunday and the crab legs went into the pot. After a quick boil they were on my plate with a side of the Spanish rice I prepared the other day. It was very good and now I am officially out of seafood. That's OK I got a T bone marinating in the fridge for tonight.

Last night I got bored so I decide to make a peach cobbler. My Mom's recipe. It's already a third got and it goes excellent with ice cream.  

Saturday Shrimp

The seafood extravaganza continues while Needles is away on her adventure. I decided on grilled shrimp marinated in olive oil, a bit of brown sugar, soy sauce and lime juice. They turned out awesome. For sides I had Spanish rice and baked beans with a few slightly grilled sweet peppers. I think this was my favorite meals so far. Tomorrow crab legs.

Bachelor Weekend.

Needles is off to a knitting/ girls weekend in Asheville, N.C. so for the last couple of days I have been having to fend for myself. Since Needles doesn't like seafood very much, I thought it would be a prefect time to do a couple of things that I have been wanting to do for awhile. Number one, cook seafood and number two, eat seafood. It's kind of a nice and works out well that number one leads right into number two as it would be hard to do them in reverse. Thursday was my first night and on the menu was crab cakes. A quick fry in a skillet. I had buttered garlic toast, sweet peppers as sides with a cold glass of tea and home made cocktail sauce.

For Friday night I had something special. Lobster tails! I have never cooked lobster so for a first time I think they turned out pretty good. I just wish we had fresh lobster and not the frozen stuff. For sides I had asparagus, golden hominy and lemon butter.

I still have some shrimp and some crab legs in the on deck circle so we will see over the next couple of days which is next. 

Good Mail

Today in the mail I received the two orders I have been waiting for. The first was a couple of pounds of coffee I ordered from Mud House Coffee. I ordered the Gaileys Breakfast Blend and Kenya AA one of their best sellers. Also I ordered a pair of head phones from Skull Candy. They were having all their 2011 and 2012 stock half price so I grabbed a pair of Uprock. So far it has been a nice weekend. Let's hope it keeps it up.

Venus Transit

Venus Transit Across The Sun.

Memorial Day.

There is no words that can convey the profound pride, honor and sadness for the men and women, soldiers, Americans that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Perhaps the only words that fits the occasion in a simplistic, feeble attempt is thank you.

Weekend Visit

This Memorial Day weekend, Needles and I invited my Mom and Dad up for a visit. They haven't been up here since last December just before Xmas. They arrived around noon on Saturday and just after they got here I started the cookout. We had hamburgers, pork burgers, pork chops, macaroni salad, cole slaw, egg plant casserole, baked beans with smoked pork. After everyone got their bellies full, we all settled in the living room and got to visit with each other. On Sunday after breakfast we all went out to my brothers home and again got to visit some more. Just before my parents left to return home we all made a run up to the Dairy Dee. It was fun  to have them visit even though their visit was short. Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Weekend Alone

Needles has been gone since Thursday to New Harmony, Indiana to a knitting and spinning retreat, so this weekend I had to entertain myself. There were three things I wanted to get accomplished while she was gone. Thursday I mowed the lawn and trimmed so there was one thing marked off the list. The next was to shampoo the carpets in the living room and the middle room. And last but not least, change the oil in the pickup. I finally got all three things done and not to mention make a peach cobbler like my Mom used to make. I got the recipe from her and it turned out perfect. Just like I remembered. Mmmmm. Needles will be home tomorrow and I will be happy to see her after a few days apart. Laundry will be on the agenda for tomorrow. Hope you had a good weekend.

Weekend Post

This weekend was a some what relaxing one even though I found out that our neighbors of 15 years are no longer our neighbors. Due to health and financial issues the house will be going into foreclosure and both of them into a nursing home. I am saddened by this news as they were good neighbors and I hate to see what might move in next. Friday after work we met up with Rudy, Brando, Yin and several of their friends at Huddle House in Vincennes for a round of waffles. The waffles were good and filling but Needles and I will have to keep our visits there spars to maintain our diets. After that we headed home and relaxed with our fully bellies the rest of the evening. Saturday morning we slept in and after breakfast, Needles started in on homemade vegetable soup while I mowed the lawn. The temps were supposed to be a little cooler but by the time I finished mowing it was in the low 80's. When I came inside I was about to melt down but mmmmm the soup was still very good. Later that day after looking at next weeks forecast we decided to go to Wally world and pick up a window A/C unit for our bedroom. Since the temps are still swinging wildly we didn't want to turn on our central air yet and usually try to hold off until June 1st. We can tolerate being warm during the day but don't seem to sleep well at night, so we decided to make the purchase as it will probably pay for itself in the long run.Later that night we had a round of Summer pop up storms. Today I haven't done too much. I did breakout the smoker and try to do some cleaning. I steamed the grates and got some of the old grease build up out of it. Will probably knock out another load of laundry this evening before we call it a night. Hope you had a nice weekend.

Easter

This weekend was somewhat uneventful, which is how we like it. We went out to eat and grocery shopping on Saturday and to our surprise it was not very busy at the Chinese place we usually eat at. We finished up there and of course had to do a Wally World run. After that we decided to stop by the IGA as Wally World was lacking in some items. I edited a couple more vacation videos, so if you are interested jump over to the travel blog, and on Sunday we went South to L's house for Easter. We had the usual fixings of ham and dumplings, potatoes and cabbage slaw. For dessert Needles made raspberry pretzel salad. It was all very good and when we got home we relaxed in the living room and watched the new Fright Nite. It was campy but entertaining. Hope you had a good holiday weekend.

Vacation Update.

I finally got a summary of the vacation into words and pictures so if you are interested, head on over to my travel blog. The link is in the gutter to the right. If you just want to look at the a slideshow of the pictures just click on the Ramblin's Picasa Photo Albums in the gutter. Select the Album you want to see and when the pictures load up. Select the slideshow feature in the upper left of the screen. We had a wonderful time but we are glad to be home.

We are back!

Will post detailed account later....Too tired.

Vacation 2012

We will be gone for a few days. A hui hou kakou. (Until we meet again.)

Palaina and Kiliki

Almost here.

In just a few days we will be on vacation. To say I am ready is a understatement. The months of waiting is almost over and I hope that I can at some point dig my toes in the sand and let the stress just wash away in the surf. See ya in a few days.

Snowy Weekend.

This weekend was a good weekend. Needles and I had company Friday night with my Brother, Sis in Law, my Nephew and a friend. We were delivered a anniversary gift from my family. The gift was a very nice magnetic map of the United States with several of the states that Needles and I had visited. I have already found a place for it to be displayed. Our guests stayed long enough to watch Adjustment Bureau again. Needles and I both enjoyed the movie a lot. As my Brother described it, it is The Matrix and Inception blended together. Saturday morning we went grocery shopping and picked up some fruit and other goodies. While at our local IGA we also picked up a couple of 10lb pork butts. Needles and I prepped them with our usual rub blend and I put them on to smoke at 8:30am this morning. Mopping every hour and turning every 2 hours we finally got about 8 hours into the smoke when we wrapped them in foil. I did something a little different with my mop sauce. With our upcoming vacation, I decided to use pineapple juice instead of apple juice. A minor change but I hope it turns out well. We pulled the pork butts off the smoker a couple of hours ago and finished them up in the stove. We let them get to 200 degrees and then let them rest in the hot stove for another half hour. We just pulled the shoulders and the blade bone just slide right out of the meat. Later we will pull the pork for storage. Tonight we got about an inch of snow. We have had an unseasonably warm winter and this year we have only had maybe 3 to 4 inches of snow total. This is a far cry from the 20 or so inches we got last winter. Tomorrow it is back to the grind and just taking it a day at a time until vacation. Hope you had a good weekend.

Snow falling

Snow against the night sky

Snow flake

Two weeks...

Just two more weeks until Needles and I are off on our next adventure. The next couple of weeks are gonna drag.

The Cow Has Landed.

Today Needles and I headed South to Haubstadt, IN. and to Dewig's Meats to pick up a half of cow she ordered. A friend of Needles was having some cows processed so she wanted to know if we were interested. We decided on a half and called to tell them on how we wanted the meat cut and we awaited the phone call when it would be done. Wednesday we got the call so today we made the trip to pick up our order. The Dewig's building is a very nice and clean. Just about anything and everything that pertains to meat is available. The smells inside the building is amazing. I think it has the hint of smoked bacon and spices. We loaded up our haul and made it home to pondered if we would have enough room in our freezer. We hand plenty of room and probably enough room for 2 to 3 good pork butts. We now have a full freezer and plenty of beef to last us at least a year or so. After we get back from our trip I will have to get busy smoking and enjoying some of our beef.