Anyway.
This week has been a bit of a blur, actually, so for all I know it's actually Tuesday and I'm actually on schedule.
I'm dog-sitting for Colorado Alternadad while he's on an Alaskan cruise (SO JEALOUS), which means shuttling between my house and his. This is fine, but causes mild chaos with all the extra stuff to schlep back and forth.
The super-duper upside to dogsitting for them is not the hot tub, which granted is lovely, but the KITCHEN!
I've spoken before of the joyful weeping that occurred when I cooked a steak in a proper broiler for the first time in years, but now I've branched out to the counter space and convenient grill... right there on the deck through the sliding doors! No wrestling with back doors, no battling possible wasps nests, no roasting in the unfiltered sunlight that floods the space so standing over a hot grill becomes an excercise in endurance... it's fantastic!
They have a lovely Weber gas grill, and unlike the crappy metal grates on my beat-up monstrosity, it has these thick black stainless steel ones that leave perfect grill marks. Instead of flame on each of two sides, it has two long, deep-set flames - one in front, one in back - so that you can actually cook food on the WHOLE SURFACE and not just the bottom left, like mine.
I do have to give my grill credit, though. It got upended by a heavy wind a couple of years ago, I mean it ended up on it's lid in the corner of the yard... and it still works!
Even if it ruins bratwurst when I'm not careful.
But I digress.
Wednesday night was our first full evening there, and though dinner was a little later than normal (stops at home and the grocery story were required), it was worth it!
I made these:
Not my photo, but you get the idea
They were a little time intensive, since I hand-chopped the garlic instead of using pre-minced stuff, but were they GOOD!
We had those with some grilled steak and a salad. Bliss on a plate, and I can't wait to make them again!
Thursday evening I brought The Kid with me to Trivia for the first time. She's 14 1/2, she can handle the salty language, and she had a blast! She helped with questions (because she's got the smarts), had some pasta for dinner, and went with Mary (she of the cute purse - which she was using, I was thrilled!) next door to the new candy/ice cream shop that opened there, Scrumptious.
We came in 4th, but only by 1 point, which is quite respectable I think.
Oh that reminds me, I didn't tell you about Monday night's Ales for Females!
To sum up, I discovered that I actually *do* like Guinness... it just had to be cold and right out of the nitrous-powered can. It was creamy and delicious, and paired with a mini chocolate eclair it was like having dessert first! I'm really enjoying this once-a-month treat for the beer of course, but also for the social aspect - we're positively regulars!
Oh AND how could I forget... Tuesday I applied for my first ever passport! It was a Christmas present from TR (but I had to get a proper birth certificate first, which took a long time), and amazingly I even took a good picture! The passport agent must be an amateur photographer, because aren't passport photos supposed to be awful? TR got his passport renewal going at the same time, and all in all it was surprisingly painless. I credit some of that to the amount of phone calls I made to verify all the paperwork I needed to provide (I have a weird birth certificate vs. legal name issue), but if the agent hadn't been so nice I sure it would have been much more involved!
I can't wait to get it... I know it's a little hokey but it makes me feel like a citizen of Earth. Even if I never use it do more than go to Vancouver (we got the Mexico/Canada cards too) I'll know I *have* it if I want it.
So tonight I'm counting on doing not much of anything unless TR's schedule frees itself up a bit**, in which case I'll be making a pants pattern. Otherwise it'll be the hot tub and some knitting, though not at the same time since that would *really* screw up my tension.
KNITTER HUMOR FTW.
**Poor guy - you know how life is generally feast or famine when it comes to how hectic it is? Well he's got a 7-course dinner going about now... never fun, and especially less-fun when it's GO GO GO NOW NOW NOW and in surprise-attack mode to boot, with a heaping helping of "impending change" piled on top. Blech.
Tomorrow The Kid is having 3 of her buddies for a sleepover, as one of them only has about another month in Colorado before she and her family move to LA. It's just for fun, nothing so morose as a final good-bye, but I figured since we had the giant house to play with, might as well!
I'll be grilling some burgers & haddawgs (Vienna yet, thanks to TR's find at Costco!) and probably corn and such, and they can watch movies and play Wii and squeal or whatever it is 14 year olds enjoy while I read in the hot tub with a vodka & cranberry or 3.
OH YEAH.
Happy Friday!
We had those with some grilled steak and a salad. Bliss on a plate, and I can't wait to make them again!
Thursday evening I brought The Kid with me to Trivia for the first time. She's 14 1/2, she can handle the salty language, and she had a blast! She helped with questions (because she's got the smarts), had some pasta for dinner, and went with Mary (she of the cute purse - which she was using, I was thrilled!) next door to the new candy/ice cream shop that opened there, Scrumptious.
We came in 4th, but only by 1 point, which is quite respectable I think.
Oh that reminds me, I didn't tell you about Monday night's Ales for Females!
To sum up, I discovered that I actually *do* like Guinness... it just had to be cold and right out of the nitrous-powered can. It was creamy and delicious, and paired with a mini chocolate eclair it was like having dessert first! I'm really enjoying this once-a-month treat for the beer of course, but also for the social aspect - we're positively regulars!
Oh AND how could I forget... Tuesday I applied for my first ever passport! It was a Christmas present from TR (but I had to get a proper birth certificate first, which took a long time), and amazingly I even took a good picture! The passport agent must be an amateur photographer, because aren't passport photos supposed to be awful? TR got his passport renewal going at the same time, and all in all it was surprisingly painless. I credit some of that to the amount of phone calls I made to verify all the paperwork I needed to provide (I have a weird birth certificate vs. legal name issue), but if the agent hadn't been so nice I sure it would have been much more involved!
I can't wait to get it... I know it's a little hokey but it makes me feel like a citizen of Earth. Even if I never use it do more than go to Vancouver (we got the Mexico/Canada cards too) I'll know I *have* it if I want it.
So tonight I'm counting on doing not much of anything unless TR's schedule frees itself up a bit**, in which case I'll be making a pants pattern. Otherwise it'll be the hot tub and some knitting, though not at the same time since that would *really* screw up my tension.
KNITTER HUMOR FTW.
**Poor guy - you know how life is generally feast or famine when it comes to how hectic it is? Well he's got a 7-course dinner going about now... never fun, and especially less-fun when it's GO GO GO NOW NOW NOW and in surprise-attack mode to boot, with a heaping helping of "impending change" piled on top. Blech.
Tomorrow The Kid is having 3 of her buddies for a sleepover, as one of them only has about another month in Colorado before she and her family move to LA. It's just for fun, nothing so morose as a final good-bye, but I figured since we had the giant house to play with, might as well!
I'll be grilling some burgers & haddawgs (Vienna yet, thanks to TR's find at Costco!) and probably corn and such, and they can watch movies and play Wii and squeal or whatever it is 14 year olds enjoy while I read in the hot tub with a vodka & cranberry or 3.
OH YEAH.
Happy Friday!
1 comment:
Knitter humor rocks! FTW!
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