h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm not much of a party animal anyway so unless it's really important I'm happy enough to stay home and snuggle up under a blankie..

We aren't the social butterflies we once were. We are both members of the national Air Force association, and our local branch puts on 5 or 6 major "do's" a year. That plus the two company Christmas parties is sometimes more than we want as well...

Besides, with two left feet, the dancing bit is always a nuisance for me.

PC doesn't dance either... unless you count wiggling in his chair..

Hey! I gotta meet this PC. I got some really chair-wiggle moves to offer. At a low-discount-this-week-only-rate too !!!

I'll let him know.

So have you any tha-rilling plans for the week-end?

One of PC's friends was here from Ohio for a visit. We're planning on retiling the bathrooms and replacing all the downstairs carpeting with hardwoods and he's helping us. We spent most of the weekend touring building supplies.. oh joy..

The week-end life of a home-owner, eh?

I've spent the day replenishing the soil levels in 9 flower beds. And that is only because we ran out of rooms and stuff to paint !!! I cut through and made 2 bedrooms in to a bed-suite last year, after I built a new office/library/PC room in the basement. And only after having replaced the plumbing for the kitchen sink and the tub/shower. Including a new tub-surround of course.

Ya know, being handy IS a bloody curse some days.

Actually neither of us is handy so we're having all of it done.. we were picking out things... including an undermount sink and new fixtures as we're having granite counters put in the kitchen.. then we need to schedule a painter to paint all of the rooms not covered by a custom finish in the house.. then finally the friend (who is a professional contractor doing flooring for very very nice houses) comes back some time in June and we get the tiling and wood floors done.. what a summer!

My parents were both raised in the 30's, farm kids. So the "fix it or build it yourself" idea has always been there. He was also a self-employed general contractor, licensed in plumbing, heating, electrical, air and water conditioning, ... etc and yadda-yadda. So besides working the relatives farms as a lad, I also worked for him. The upshot of it all is that I am pretty conversant with any hand or power tool that you could run across. The only things I've paid to have done was new roof shingles ('cause I couldn't round up enough time for that much labour) and ceramic tile for the kitchen floor. I figured I'd waste too many slabs, getting familiar with the wet saw.

And what's really , ... Milady was raised the only daughter, pampered and not made to do anything. And yet, she's game to tackle any carpentry, painting, what-ever. So long as the tools are less than perhaps 1 horsepower.

*giggles* PC's dad is a contractor and he grew up helping out... but he's decided if it's not a computer he has no urge to deal with it.

My Dad once saw one of my tool-boxes, ... the one I tote for PC and general electronics repair. He nearly split a belly laughing at the scale of the tools. Then he saw the home maintenance stuff, and was satisfied.

I know that I grew in an environment where "self-sufficiency" was the way of life. So to me that is normal. Through my travels and years in a uniform though, I've also met, lived and worked with folks from larger towns and cities. Whose first instinct is to hunt for someone to do stuff. Both worlds are perfectly valid and fine, so please don't think that I'm 'putting down' folks who don't swing a hammer.

Besides, you KNOW that all of us Canucks are 6' 9", french-speaking lumber jacks that live in igloos. Including the women !!! We's a tough and hearty lot.

*giggles* I didn't think you were putting it down..

Once in a while, my bit of pride in accomplishments HAS put some folks off.

And the height, h'accent and igloos don't worry you either? We DO some good BBQ's too, along with all of that. Steak, mushrooms and onions, baked spuds tonight. With a quick caesar salad ...

We grilled some nice thick ribeye steaks last night.. along with grilling some asparagus that I had marinated in olive oil, garlic and spices and of course some also done on the grill in their husks..

We haven't any here for atleast another couple of months. A smidge of salt, a pat of real butter to roll it in ... Yummmmm.

So then you're making good use of the new grill/pit, eh? Ours is a simple propane fired BBQ, and hurting for a new burner. But so long as it holds out a bit, I'm watching for a reasonable sale price to simply replace the whole beastie.

That's what we ended up doing.. our old grill died last summer so we're making up for lost time with this one.

The was yummy! When they roast on the grill in their own husks they are so sweet and delicious.. and of course I had some good creamery butter to roll them in.

We had bought a grilling basket yesterday so we could grill fish and veggies easily. It worked out very well too.

When the weather allows, we grill almost nonstop. We're now talking about custom building our next house and one of the things we want is an outdoor kitchen for entertaining in nice weather. We bought this grill with the plan of it becoming part of this as it's one of those you can add all sorts of items to.

On the telly, and elsewhere, I've seen some of these "outdoor kitchens". If you live in a climate that can enjoy them for many months of the year, they'd be fabulous.

Some of my co-workers do BBQ year-round, but we haven't an area that's even partially sheltered consistently through the winter. So it's perhaps April through October for us. And then, days like today, ... The tank apparently has an insidious leak. It ran dry 20 minutes after the spuds went on. It's been used maybe 9 or 10 times. And our spare hasn't yet been filled. Fortunately, we've some good neighbors. We borrowed their tank.

Supper is in about 5 minutes, ...

Fortunately North Carolina is reputed as having the nicest climate in all of the US. Very short winter and summer... excessively long spring and autumn... this makes outdoor cooking possible for the largest part of the year.

Enjoy your dinner. I had leftovers from last night.

Despite the 5 or 10 minutes without flame, it proved a very yummy meal indeed. And of course, having spent so much time in the yard, all that clean'ish air ... It makes everything taste better.


Anyhoodle, ... I have another week in a classroom, with a sometimes interesting but mostly boring and antiquated device. What wahoo and yoddle-lay-hee-hoo stuff have you going on this week?