MY Transition From Vibrant Youth To Creeping Old Age, Phase Two, Complete!
Congratulations Stevie! I’m sorry this picture is blurry. It was the best I could get with sub-par equipment. I can’t wait for my new phone with super zoom! At any rate, you did it! 8th grade graduation! Done. Your speech was excellent and loud and short and funny and sweet and short! All the things that make for a great speaker! I will put it here for eternity as soon as I can figure out how. “File too big to attach” keeps stopping me from moving it where I want it. But I have to be smarter than the technology. I’ll work and figure it out and come back later. It should be going to facebook, although it seems to be taking forever, and you can get it there for now! I love you so much and am so proud.
But, as the title suggests, these milestones for the kids, just age the mom. Poops! I am getting old. TWO high schoolers. At least that’s it for me. No more babies and no more kids working their way through the school system. College is going to be the next big thing, so I guess I better get a move on and get to work. I sense a lot of money needs to be earned in the next few years. Here’s a pic of these gorgeous kids of mine. Fully vested in this thing called life. Work now and off for the weekend. Have a good day and stay out of the rain. Later.
My Last Few Hours With An 8th Grader!
We are only a few short hours away from 8th grade graduation! After the girl got home from school/graduation rehearsal, we went back to the school, to get the extra ticket we needed, but that didn’t get included in the packet she brought home. Then we drove around in the pouring rain—torrential, tornadic, blinding downfall—that I basically asked for with my previous post—(so far all tree parts have remained on the tree) and got Chinese Food and lottery tickets. I spent all my cash on those stupid things. But look! Look how colorful they are! All that money just waiting to be won under those little silver scratch offs. Then we came home and ate and watched Sex and The City 2 until my son called for a ride home from b-ball practice. Then we dropped off the tickets for the dad and got gas. Then it rained more, the sun came out, and a rainbow appeared. Really.
I have the picture proof. But it will have to wait. I have exactly 16 minutes on the stove timer to get my ass up and dressed and out of this house with the girl and family. Did I mention we have a graduation to go to? Suspense and excitement ahead. The girl is giving a speech and everything! So proud. So happy. So old. Two in high school. Almost. Later.
Breaking News! ANOTHER Tree Branch Falls In My Yard On A Windy Day!
Shocking, right?! Imagine that. Another tree branch cluttering up my yard. Not to insult nature or anything, but this limb was already dangling. It’s been hanging on, by the skin of its splintery teeth, figuratively speaking, for about 2 weeks now. So it’s not like we needed hurricane winds to knock it down. Just a nice, steady, flow of air, blowing every few minutes through the high up branches, with the occasional bursty gust. We’ve been on fall watch every day. You know: Look up when you go out. Check the wind. Check the rip. Don’t stand under it. Blah blah blah. The way you do when branches are a constant and real threat in your daily life. You would think, by now, no more branches could fall. But, same as me, you would be wrong. Apparently there is always one more branch that needs to make a home on my lawn. It was my own fault, anyway, yet again. I dared to move, and remove, some of the previous limbs and branches from the grass on my day off, Tuesday. I had the nerve to try and “clean” the yard so that the neighbors don’t call the debris police and complain. Those trees were probably standing there thinking, “Psshh. Look at this stupid girl. Dum Dum. She likes to move sticks? Watch this little trick.” And here it is. One more for my collection. Nice try universe. I am not impressed. Only one? Really? Please, tree. I am a professional, serious collector. This limb didn’t even make a loud noise when it hit the ground. I mean, I heard it, but it’s not like I ran to go see what happened. It’s not even worth my time to go out there and move it. So there. Now that I have sufficiently pissed off, and smited, the powers-that-be, and probably just jinxed the rest of my day, I guess, maybe, I will go outside, and move my present from the gods. I mean, I have children to think about; I will offer thanks, and wait for the lightning to strike.
Before Shower Dandelion Picture With Daughter
That’s one of those titles that tried to “sum up” for me so I would NOT type a paragraph about a very long dandelion. Fail. Another day another weed. I think all the yellow, then puffed, dandelions are gone now. All that is left are giant beds of spiky, dark green leaves with long stalks sticking up out of them, and dead head buds drooping over in everyone’s front yard. You can try to pull them, but beware, you never get the whole thing. Usually the mess breaks off at the dirt line and in 2 days another fully grown but somehow dead-looking stalk, with leaves, will appear in it’s place, plus three more of its friends. Dandelions know where they can spread safely. They know who’s not really serious about playing the weed killer game. Anyway, we found this one walking around on our block. Can’t get perspective on how long it is from the above pic? I know. I just thought that picture with my pretty girl was kind of nice and she always likes to see herself looking cute. The next picture should give some idea. It was the longest one we saw all season. Don’t worry. We picked it. (Duh) And photographed it. And then my daughter shook it all to hell and scattered a thousand more seeds to spread the fun as far as the wind could blow it. Yay for tall weeds!
And Now, The Baby!
I went with “smiling” baby. It’s been a week, but I finally made it over to the new baby house. And I only took a few pictures. I know. I was having an off day I guess. It’s hard to take pictures though, while you are holding the baby, so there is that. I tried though.
And since this is pretty much all the baby does right now, I didn’t stay long either. I told my brother to call me when his boring kid starts doing stuff and I’ll come back over. I think he is still convinced (hoping) that this is how puppies look before they start growing fur and a tail. I’m going to let one of my sisters break the human news to him. But, he sure is cute isn’t he?! Later.
I’m Just Going To Start Posting All These Pictures Already.
Side of the garage. Number 1. I take a lot of pictures of the side of my garage for some reason. Usually it’s because of some shadow on it. And that’s the case here. I like the way it looks some mornings. So now I will share with you. Every picture I take of the garage coming soon. Every. Picture. I. Take.
Not to be left out, I also have pictures of my neighbor’s garage. That’s right. Shadows cast over there too. Lucky days ahead. I should rename today, “What? WOW! Wednesday’s Wuh-Rock!!” If you say that fast enough, it works. Wuh-really! If I was wuh-really trying to do something groundbreaking with this site, I could make these garage pic, like, an exclusive, for Wednesday only, thing. Hmmm. I don’t know. That’s putting a major time schedule on all this major creativity. You can’t schedule greatness so…I think I will keep it random, because then you will have to check every day to see if I am “WOWing” the internet. Suh-mart! Stay tuned.
Update! The Meat!
This is the smoked meat result from the post a few days ago. I figured I would do this one first. Have the baby follow the meat. Although the meat following Memorial Day seemed wrong too. I think I solved the problem (Did I?) with a picture of a dandelion puff. This is only some of the meat. Much got eaten, apparently, while “pulling” it apart, and then more got eaten as a meal that night. When I got home at about midnight the same night, that entire dish was full. It was delicious! Perfect texture, great seasoning, flavor galore, and tender tender without being fatty or greasy. I ate enough. The BF made cole slaw too. And that was also delicious. And I am not really a fan of the coleslaw or even know how to make it. We are protein packed here for the week now. In case you were wondering poundage of meat—some do—I think the BF said it was 15 or so. Good thing it worked! Later.
Dandelion Puff
Times Two. When I came home from work the other night, this lone dandelion puff was just laying on the patio, in front of the chair, like it rolled there all by itself. Or someone placed it there very specifically. Maybe an animal moved it. Who knows? It didn’t have a stem, or anything else, anywhere near it. So of course I wasted about 20 minutes taking pictures of it, from many angles and zooms, at one in the morning, like a weirdo. I even put all my crap down in the chair to really get down and dirty with this puff. Where else are you going to get cutting edge entertainment like this for free? Devotion to a cause I guess. And…you are welcome. The “artsy” puff is below. You are welcome again.
I Can Never Use This Picture Enough! Happy Memorial Day!
Thank you to all currently serving and all those who have in the past! And any new future soldiers we have waiting to go or going through right now!! You make it possible for me to type any damn thing I want on a daily basis. I must go to work, but if you are lucky enough to be off, enjoy the day, and remember for a quick minute why you got to sleep late today! And in case you were wondering, that’s my dad up top and the BF’s dad below. Later.
Smokin’ In The Boys Room
And by “boys room”, I mean the outside. While I work this weekend, my BF has decided to do many manly things, like, work on his motorcycle, cut large tree limbs with a chainsaw, and smoke much meat. It sounds like so much fun I just wish I could have had these days off to be here for all of it. Ahem. No, really. (Not really). I like to spend my holiday weekends working and taking care of sick people and listening to their families tell me what a crap job I’m doing. It’s what I got into this profession for. That rewarding feeling of spending more hours with other people’s families instead of my own. Without sarcasm, I really do like my job. It’s just some families make it very difficult to keep calm. The patients are fine. It’s just the families sometimes. Still, I think it will be better than the manual labor that needs to be done here. Sweaty, with heavy lifting. Oh wait, that’s my job too. Ha. OK. Enough. That’s my work rant. Back to the meat!
Apparently this is stuff you need. Along with a starter tube thing that gets the coals going, a temp gauge, (actually two temp gauges, one for the cooker and one for the meat), water for steam, spices, herbs, liquids, “rubs”, side dishes, buns, etc…and of course: The Meat. This will all cost you approx. 90 dollars or so. If you had to buy your own smoker, that could be an extra 100-500 dollars, depending on quality and advanced smoking technology. Or something. This smoker in the picture was the gift the BF got for working so hard at his job for this many, past 15 years. It seems like it’s nice smoker machine. I have just been informed that the meat is at 162 degrees. The number we are looking for is 190 I believe. We are doing pulled pork as the maiden smoking. I keep typing “we”, but I literally have done NOTHING except take the pictures and type this. Soon, I will get dressed and leave, so I won’t even be here for the big finish. But, of course I have a preview. Please feast your eyes below on three hunks of pure animal flesh, cooking and smoking, slowly, and at a certain temperature, for maximum tenderness and pullability. It really smells good too:
Two on top, one below. That sounds like a good name for a band or a book title. The key to cooking this right, I am told, is slow and low. Also, coincidentally a good band name or book title. At any rate, what we want is to put it in our mouths and not even have to chew. The meat should literally pull apart and melt like butter on our palates and slide juicily and effortlessly down our throats to our waiting tummies without any pesky chewing involved. But usually it’s on a bun with sauce, so please, family, while I am gone, chew a little, please. Bread mostly needs to be chewed, somewhat, to break it down. Then swallow. No need to ruin a good weekend with “Heimlich’s” or “ambulances” or “hospitals” or “morgues”. Thank you.
Thus ends the meat post for today. I hear and smell lots of manly things going on in the neighborhood today, so I need to get the hell out of here! The outside temp is up to 75 degrees. Sunny and beautiful for the Midwest. The meat temp is at a cool 165. The BF is cutting sticks with the chainsaw. The boy/son is playing XBox in his room enjoying none of the outside weather. The daughter is still at my sissy’s house and will prob go from there to her cousins house to spend the night, after she stops here first to eat meat. She loves meat. Yes, I see what I typed there, but I’m leaving it. It’s too early (for me) to try and fix the innuendo. She’s 14 for cry-yi. Some girls are salads and try a vegetarian phase, not mine. She is steak all the way.
Let them eat meat! And don’t forget it’s Memorial Weekend. Hug a vet! Thank a soldier while you are grilling those hot dogs and drinking that beer! Even if you just send up a big toast and a cheer into the great unknown. It’s all good karma to the universe. Later.
just shy of pretty 