Serenity Now...

After purchasing Steven Raichlen's BBQ Bible, I was excited to try out some of the recipe's. The first attempt was Australian Beer Battered BBQ wings. I sent the wife out for the specific ingredients and was all set to go yesterday. I made up the marinade and threw the wings in for the suggested 4 hours. When the time came to cook, that's when the fun began.

My Mother was over for a visit and the wife was putting our youngest to bed. My older daughter was running between helping me and playing with my Mom. For those of you who do not know me or my family, chaos is the standard when things even go slightly out of whack and yesterday was no exception. I prepared the coals on the BBQ and threw the wings on the fire. Literally five minutes later, my Mother comes out to see how it's going and some of the wings are getting burned. Panic ensues. Since the wife is bathing our youngest, the water on the stove was boiling for Gaby's mac & cheese. I send my Mother in to throw in the pasta and start freaking out about the fire. I'm trying to move the wings around in an attempt to not burn them, but the coals have now heated up to 10,000 degrees. I'm yelling for some water to douse some of the coals - my Mother has caught one of the dish towels on fire from the gas stove because she couldn't find a potholder for the boiling water and Gaby is knocking on the glass window to get my Mom's attention. Serenity now... My Mother then declares, "What's wrong with you people!" Line of the night. I'm telling Gaby to stop tapping on the window and asking my Mom to bring out the BBQ sauce. My Mom is running back and forth and freaking out. I throw on the sauce and there is even more burning. I think the wings are done, but my Mom insists that they need more time. She was right, of course, so we threw them back on for a few more minutes. Overall, the wings were great tasting, but there were some that were still red inside - I hope I don't get sick from that stuff.

Lessons learned: don't use so many freaking coals (an issue I've had before, but still haven't learned), have all my stuff outside BEFORE starting, and don't have my Mother over to help.

Serenity now...

Before popping the question - use these guides...

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/greek-wives.html
http://iws.ccccd.edu/grooms/goodwife.htm
http://www.merrycoz.org/yc/GOODWIFE.HTM

job leeches

One thing that chaps my a$$ is job leeches. A job leech is someone who works for a major corporation that saps their workplace of everything it offers and does any passable work. There was someone who recently retired where I work and this person did next to nothing. I only worked with this person for two years, but I am inclined to believe that there hasn't been much more effort given in the past. What kills me is that this person completely took advantage of the overtly accommodating employer and yet returned very little if anything in service. Yet over the years, either no one called them on their poor performance or just let it slide. What pushed me over the edge was when this person was retiring, they made it sound like their life's work at the company was of value. I guarantee that no one will even blink once this person is gone and that just drives me batty. I don't mind a person sliding by on an issue here or there, but a 20+ year career should give an accurate representation of a person's worth and that just didn't happen in this case. The last thing that gnaws at me is how this person can look in the mirror and think that they deserve anything for their daily slacking.

Things I hate #1

People who have a ton of items, but will not let the person who has 1-2 items go before them. What the hell? What possess these people? Are they so mad that they had to wait they refuse to let anyone in front of them no matter how much sense it would make? I always let someone with just a few items go ahead of me if I have a cart full of stuff. I just don't get it.

ICU for dogs & cats?

Are you kidding me? I was listening to one of my favorite people to hate, Kristine Kraft, and she was going on about her dog who was coming out of ICU? Did I really here that right? There is an ICU for dogs? What the hell? Call me callous, but if my pet gets to the point where they need major surgery that requires they stay in an animal ICU, I'm putting that puppy down. I understand people are close to their pets, but training someone as a surgeon for an animal seems a bit much, when their skills could be better utilized on humans. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I just think that if someone is brilliant enough to perform major surgery on an animal could be better utilized in a hospital working on humans.

If you like the NFL, you need to live on the West Coast

Nothing is better than a Sunday when the NFL is playing. You can start your morning with ESPN's warm up at 8:00 am and bask in the glory of the NFL until around 9:30 pm! You get three games to watch and sandwiched in between is NFL Primetime. I love this time of year.

I remember my first trip back east during the NFL season. I was in Florida for a business trip that lasted two agonizing weeks (maybe I'll post on that one day). Sunday rolls around and I'm up at nine to start watching football. I turn on the TV, but there is NO FOOTBALL? What the hell? Where is my football? It isn't until 11:00 am that ESPN starts their coverage - agh! I was up past midnight for the Monday Night game the following day. I don't know how football fans survive on the East Coast.