Month: May 2008

OMGWTFBBQ!

Ah, sitting in the dark in the three season room with my fellow geeks as the Raccoon Family Chorus sings in the background. It doesn’t get much better than this! Oh wait, the geese are adding to the warbling chorus – I guess it does get better. 🙂

Today’s biggest priority was elsaf making her barbecue country spare ribs. We had few other plans for the day, so most of it was spent here at the cottage enjoying the beautiful weather and the wonderful wildlife.

I slept in the 3-season room again last night, this time in dad’s chair. And it was quite a good sleep except for the Raccoon Family Massacre that took place at 3am (well, there wasn’t a massacre, but the sheer amount of screaming that the little suckers did made it sound that way) and the Goose & Gander sing-along around 6 in the morning. Apart from those times, I slept until around 8am.

Although Elsa and I got up at decent times (and even judiang woke up & got up at a reasonable time!) breakfast was a little late due to Elsa being distracted by a nice entry she was writing for DailyKos. But once she was done, she made us French toast and sausage. Mmmmm!

We rested and geeked until around 1pm when it was time for lunch (despite not being all that hungry for it). We picked up a grilling basket at the hardware store in Minster (Elsa needed two for the ribs and the folks only had one) and then went to Casadores in New Bremen. Elsa and I ordered lunch and gave a little to Judi so that she wouldn’t get hungry before suppertime. (She said she wasn’t hungry, but we fed her anyway – we’re cruel that way.) We picked up ice cream for the ala mode to our dessert for supper before we returned to the cottage.

While Judi and I read and rested, Elsa worked on her BBQ ribs and potato salad. The parental units showed up after a bit and brought the Market Day apple pie which I’d received as a free gift for my last order. (I thought it would be perfect for this weekend.) I started baking it right away.

More resting, reading, and chatting and even Elsa had some time to relax after a bit. But suppertime was looming, so I got to work on the fire for the grilling. Then I finished the lunch prep and set the table for supper while Elsa basted and then grilled the ribs.

Supper was wonderful. We all love that Elsa loves to cook. 🙂 She used the broth from the ribs to make a Japanese-inspired soup, which we started with. Then we had the ribs and potato salad. There was leftover foccacia bread and sour dough bread as sides as well. And I cut up the peaches we still had left and served them with a little sugar (and some fruit fresh) with a few blueberries for garnish. It was a lovely supper and photos from it are below the bird photos.

I shooed Elsa and the folks off to sit by the fire while Judi washed dishes and I dried & put them away. She’s a fast dish washer, but it still took us awhile to get everything cleaned up. Then we joined everyone at the fire for chatting and photo-taking. It was quite pleasant.

After a bit, Judi started muttering “pie! PIE!” so it was time to serve the pie. I was very pleased with the pie – when I cut it, it flaked just like an apple pie should. I served it with the ice cream and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Judi gave it a 9 out of 10. I said since it was free, it deserved a 10 out of 10. 🙂

More musing by the fire, and then some singing. We’re not as well-versed in camp songs as my sister or Rachel, so that petered out eventually. But then the baby raccoons started coming out of their tree and came over to see us. Elsa and dad took photos and Elsa’s posted some of the photos to her journal.

The folks headed off home and Judi and I tended the fire a bit longer. But then it was time to come inside and geek, so that’s what we’re doing.


Duckling Formation
Duckling Formation

The little ducklings swim toward the shore in a deceptively random “duckling formation.”
My Two Dads
My Two Dads

2 guys and a gal and their six ducklings. “Uncle Steve” is just like another father to these little ones.
Duck, Duck, Goose
Duck, Duck, Goose

Or in this case, “Goose, Goose, Duck.” It’s shame that, despite hanging out “together,” the geese all sit in the sun together and the ducks all sit in the shade together. So much for integration!
Mmmm, ribs!
Mmmm, ribs!

Elsa’s barbecued country spare ribs and potato salad. Yummy!
Pie!
Pie!

Pie are square. No, pie are round, cake are square!


Super Saturday!

Today was a busy day. And a great day too. After a night of little sleep (turns out the airbed for the cottage now leaks, so I wound up sleeping on the uncomfortable lounge chair in the 3-season room last night), I snoozed a bit on the sofa and got up around 8:15am. elsaf got up then too and started preparing her new electric griddle for making us pancakes for breakfast. After my shower, I nipped off to Wagner’s to get ice for the pop cooler and a shower poof for judiang. I returned around 9 to find our breakfast chef had disappeared mid-prep. (The plates were lovingly decorated with sliced strawberry garnish, but no pancakes were made yet.) Elsa was off in the shower. Heh.

Once she was showered, we woke up Judi with promise of blueberry pancakes and she, too, got all cleaned up for the day. My goal was to be on the road by 10:30am, and we managed it, even with me cleaning up the breakfast dishes. The goal was to head south to the Bookery so Judi could get her Doctor Who magazines, we could have Indian Fud, and watch Indiana Jones (at $7.25 for a matinée – gah! Gimme my $4 matinées from Piqua & Troy.) We accomplished the goal and included a stop at a used bookstore where I bought more Terry Brooks’ Landover novels and a stop at BestBuy where I bought dad the wireless mouse he wanted and decided to get one for myself. I’ll be interested to see if I use it much – I’ve become pretty used to my trackpad on my laptop.

We enjoyed the movie – it’s silly fun with some edge-of-your-seat action and really crappy science. But it played up to its silly science and was an enjoyable 2 hours. (I’ll still prefer the third movie because I loved the interplay between Ford and Connery.) Several of the trailers were entertaining too. I think we all agreed that Hancock will be our 4th of July movie when we’re in Chicago (where I’ll be wishing I was paying that $7.25 matinée price of today).

When we got back to the Lake, our guests for the evening were already here and enjoying nachos with salsa and guacamole. Aunt Becky and Deanna had come up for supper and to play cards. Mom and dad were also here for supper and cards (dad to avoid them, mom to play them). Even my Uncle Dean showed up for supper. I got to work on making the burger patties. Dad had already started a fire, so once the burgers were made, I could start grilling them and the hot dogs. I also grilled the leftover shrimp so that Elsa could have some – indeed, anyone that wanted to try the shrimp was able to. And it was just as delicious today as yesterday. Go shrimp!

My hostess skills are constantly improving thanks to these Memorial Day weekend gatherings. However, I didn’t remember tomato and, to my uncle Dean’s dismay, deviled eggs. However, I doubt that deviled eggs will ever be part of my hostessing repertoire. Never liked the suckers, even though they’re pretty to look at. Thanks to the brownies that Becky brought and the sugar cookies and no bake cookies that I’d bought, we had plenty of sweet stuff. Everyone got their fill and then some.

After supper it was time for some Shanghai Rum. Elsa isn’t much for card playing, but she condescended to join us for the game. She picked up the rudiments to the game quickly, but Judi had smelled victory early on and fought hard for the final win of the game. Becky decided that we’d have to have a rematch later this summer when Judi deigns to visit again. Heh.

Folks headed out once the game was done and Judi cleaned the dishes with me drying them. She’s now slowly downing an amaretto sour while playing World of Warcrack on her laptop. Elsa’s also working on her laptop (and most likely NOT playing World of Warcrack). I’m writing this.

Tomorrow is Relax Day. Our only real task is to make supper – with Elsa making barbecued country ribs and sour cream potato salad. I’ll be baking an apple pie (from frozen) for dessert. Should be another fun & food filled day tomorrow!

The First Lazing at the Lake for 2008

Ah, the sun is getting lower in the sky, the song birds are saying “night night!’ to each other, the geese are going “honk honk” as they pass each other on the Lake. Yup, it’s Memorial Day weekend at the Lake, 2008.

judiang‘s sleeping in the 3-season room. I’m sitting out by the fire (a very nice one I must say) typing on this. And poor elsaf is driving here from Detroit. She just can’t seem to buy a break today. Her intent was to arrive around 4pm. But we’ve received 2 e-mails and a text message, each stating yet another delay. Poor dear. She last figured 9:30pm. Hopefully that time will stand.

Judi arrived at the airport around 10:30 this morning and my folks picked her up. Since we’re into the last 10 days of school, by contract I wasn’t able to take a personal day even though, with the seniors gone, I don’t have students in the afternoon. Not a problem, since the folks were willing to help out, things went just fine.

They dropped Judi off at the school around 11 and I immediately showed off my Airliner tablet and the SmartBoard software. She was truly impressed and got a few lessons on optics. (She now knows the difference between diffraction and refraction.) I also showed her the current design plans for the new school building and my own plans for my chemistry classroom/lab. Then I drug her around the school so she could see some of the folks she went to Italy with. We couldn’t find Marcia, but she saw Jacki, John, Tammy, and Marcia’s hubby Gary (who gave her a big hug). We had a turkey sub from Indian’s Pizza (Jeff’s wife delivers to us every other Friday), some Munchies, apple slices and Pepsi. Tasty tasty. Then I drove Judi to my home, fixed her dessert (Betty Crocker’s new 150 calorie microwave brownies – very very yummy! Especially with whipped cream.)

I returned to work after I got Judi all nicely tucked up on the sofa. My brain was pretty much fried by then, so I helped out in the office moving boxes and stuff so they wouldn’t be in the hallway during graduation. It wasn’t until 2:30 that MJ remembered there was a calligraphy job she needed doing for the valedictorians. No matter, I grabbed my calligraphy kit and was done with the certificates in time to leave around 3. (We have 6 valedictorians this year. Out of a class of around 45-50. Before people shout “grade inflation” I’ll tell you this: 19 of the students are receiving various scholarships from universities – the total amount offered to those 19 kids is nearly $840,000. Eight hundred and friggin’ forty bucks! Sheesh, I wanted to get $160,000 to give ’em just to round it up to an even million.)

When I got home, I read the two e-mails from Elsa describing her late start and late arrival. So I didn’t rush us out the door as I had originally intended. Still, we got to the lake by 5pm, where upon I got the fresh fruit cleaned up (strawberries, peaches, blueberries) and made us amaretto sours.

Around 6pm, I started prepping for supper. I was going to surprise the girls with marinated shrimp on the grill. Well, Judi was surprised. Elsa will have to wait til she gets here to be surprised. And there’s shrimp left over which I can grill tomorrow for Elsa. I also had veggies to grill and some focaccia bread for the side. The veggies I bought were yellow squash, vidalia onion, red pepper, turnips (well, why not?), button ‘shrooms and shitake ‘shrooms (another new grillee for me), and marinated artichoke hearts. I skewered the shrimp & artichoke hearts and grilled the veggies in our vegging grilling bowl. The turnips and shitake mushrooms were a good idea. I’ll be grilling them again! I had also bought pineapple for grilling, but forgot to prep it, so we’ll have it later this weekend.

The shrimp and veggies were very tasty and I’ll have to make that shrimp marinade again. (It was garlic, rosemary, salt, and olive oil.) Indeed, I think I’ll probably use that marinade on other things.

So after I cleaned up the kitchen, I decided to get the fire going again and go sit outside. And that’s what I’m doing. Yay for my folks’ cottage at the Lake!

“Aaaaaaaaaa!” quoth the Fonz

Well, summer semester starts Monday, and we’ve finally gotten our grades for the spring semester. And as you might guess from my title, I got As! Yay! 4 courses down, 3 As and a B+. (Curses Logic Class!) Still waiting for my statistics final project to be returned, but our prof e-mailed us that he would be sending them back. Good, I wanna see if I’m on the right track. 🙂

May has been… well, considering that I’ve written only one other post this month, I guess you can figure it’s either been dead boring or horribly busy. I’ll give you a hint – if it ever got dead boring, I’d start posting memes. 😉