Mise en Place

Big day tomorrow, happy birthday U.S.A.!

I haven't put much time into planning tomorrow's party. Whatever, I have some meat, my friends are coming over, it's going to be hot, everything will work out. It helps that I have my own errand boy who will go get whatever we need tomorrow.

So far today I've:
-Made jello shots. I wa planning on making red, white, and blue layered ones but the jello selection at Target is poor.
-Biked to Kurowski for sausage and Chicago Meat for pork butts. At Chicago Meat they butcher whole hog and you can get a butt with the skin on and spine still atttached. They're a bargain at $1.49/lb.
-Cleaned off the back porch with WSE, and moved the grills and furniture to the back yard.
-Made a pineapple/vodka infusion*
-Wrote(?) a blog post

More later ...

OK it's later and I actually have more. Gyros for dinner and I watered the garden. Happy Independence Day!




*Pineapple Vodka Infusion
-1 overipe pineapple cut into 1/4 dice
-750ml vodka
-juice of 1 lime

Hmmm it's good after 5 hours. A couple weeks would probably be ideal, but I doubt it will last that long.

No Training Wheels

It’s been 2 months, still a neophyte. Driving addiction, cold turkey.

At first, stumbled through missed connections, figuring out routes and times. Why try and act like I know what I’m doing? Biking, though, has been the big pleasure, a surprise.

I learned to ride a bike in the long, dusty driveway at my grandparents. Hot corn field one side, Mom’s huge garden on the other. We almost never went in the garden. Mom spent hours there each day. It wasn’t the kitchen garden, that was out back. In the front garden was a bewildering array of trees, bushes, odd plants, light spots and dark corners.

There were no training wheels for us. I pestered my dad to let me try the blue, rusted white wheeled bike. I don’t remember him running behind me, but he must have. In my memory I rode upright the first time.

Have you done that, run behind the bike while a kid learns to balance Just hold firmly, then lightly, then watch them soar, crash, get up and go again. Watch and wonder.

Glad to bike again.