The Summer Cook-out

Posted on 2007-07-02 by frank

What to do on a sunny yet temperate Sunday halfway up the eastern seaboard? Cook out of course! Andrea, Kirsten and Christopher planned up an afternoon cook out to celebrate their parents’ birthdays. I didn’t do any of the planning or much of the preparation, but I usually end up either smoking or grilling something, and this wasn’t going to be the exception.

The main course was to be four pork tenderloins, rubbed, marinated, and smoked. Andrea made it easy on me by doing all the preparation, including the rub and the marinade, so all I did was set up and operate the smoker. I was concerned such a lean cut as a pork tenderloin would dry out, so I smoked it much faster than I would have done with meat with more connective tissue and fat, for example ribs. I also liberally basted the tenderloins about every half hour throughout. It turned out pretty well, with a spicy rub and a sweet sauce to spread on top.

Christopher grilled some bratwursts which were also popular. Andrea made what’s becoming our signature sweet potato salad and two cakes, a mississippi mud cake and Fat Cyclist’s Best Cake Ever. Kirsten made a yummy cole slaw that went really well with the pork tenderloin, and her roomate brought salad. It was quite a spread and of course we had leftovers, so I’m off to eat some of them for lunch!

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Travel picture not looking great

Posted on 2007-06-29 by frank

I’m flying to Baltimore this evening via Charlotte, and I’m a bit cynical about the trip — I’m still 7 hours from take-off and the flight is already listed as 8 minutes late.

Update: My flight left Charlotte about forty minutes late, and we arrived in Baltimore less than half an hour late. Flying isn’t much fun anymore, but at least the airports weren’t too bad, with a new departure area in Augusta and free wi-fi in both Augusta and Charlotte.

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Mulch mostly migrated

Posted on 2007-06-26 by frank

Well, nearly. What’s left of the monster mulch pile is almost small enough amount to fit in my car. Not the hatch-back portion, mind you, but the entire car. Considering it started out as wide as our driveway, as well as longer and taller than our minivan, I hesitate even to call this small remnant a pile. I should be able to knock it out in about half an hour’s worth of wheel-barrow trips.

It goes a lot faster now that I’m no longer spreading it around – I ran out of mulchable area some time ago, so I’ve just been making some of the mulched areas ridiculously deep. I don’t want to exagerate, because I haven’t measured the actual yardage involved, but I estimate Andrea bought enough mulch to cover the entire back yard with 1-2 inches of mulch. I thought about doing that – it’s mostly crab grass anyway – but upon consideration decided I’d rather leave Finley a nice stretch of grass where he can “do his business.” I also considered burrying Elizabeth’s picnic table under a pile of mulch, but decided not to do that, either, because I’d just end up having to move it again.

I think a dump truck full of mulch was a pretty good idea, but next year we probably ought to consider splitting it with someone. Renting a bobcat to move it around more quickly might also not be out of the question.

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meta-blogging

Posted on 2007-06-23 by frank

Succinct, easy-to-follow directions on using diff and patch to upgrade WordPress.

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Not so worried about the AC now, let’s talk about mulch

Posted on 2007-06-20 by frank

Three days after installing the vent down-stream from the trap in the drain pipe for our upstairs air handler, the whole thing appears to be working exactly like it’s supposed to! There’s a slow, steady drip at the outside end of the drain pipe, and the secondary drain pan is actually bone dry for the first time since installation!

Before packing the girls and Finley in the minivan and heading up to visit her parents, Andrea had a dump truck unload a gigantic pile of pine bark mulch in our driveway. Apparently if I ever want to see or use our driveway again, I need to spread all that mulch around in our play area, flower, shrub, and herb beds. I don’t want to exaggerate the size of the pile, so I’ll just say it’s longer than my car, as wide as the driveway, and taller than me. At least, it was before I started hauling wheelbarrows full of mulch all over the yard. It’s work, but the last time we had a pile of anything nearly that big in our driveway, it was soil, and let me tell you, mulch weighs practically nothing compared to soil!

I was keeping count of how many trips it would take to get rid of the mulch pile, but I lost count today as I did some weeding and edging in between mulching trips. Looking at the pile, I’m a bit nervous I won’t get the job done before the 4th of July holiday unless I spend every non-sleeping, non-working hour on the mulch pile.

Hopefully I’m just really bad at spacial estimation because I wanted to do a lot of bike riding while everyone’s up north!

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