Short Blog of Me Being Lazy Imagine That (12/01/13)...

Well at about ten to five this afternoon I decided to get going and get productive. Basically I have spent the day in my version of PJs (t-shirt and shorts) reading about three weeks worth of newspapers and my latest Randy Wayne White novel while listening to music on various radio stations on the internet and drinking some enhanced coffee. By enhanced I am referring to the new bottle of Kahlua that made into the Schlewingstan household yesterday afternoon.

I can confirm that the weather in Brisbane, QLD, Australia is in the mid 80s with partly cloudy skies per Triple M. In New Glasgow, NS, Canada it was around 32 or 0c with some snow flurries later changing to rain per East Coast FM. In Montreal, QC, Canada it's about -3c with light flurries per CHOM-FM. I can confirm that it was about 10c or 53F here today with clear skies. That's coming from temperature thingee on my back deck as I didn't listen to any Greenville stations today.

I can also confirm that my front lawn no longer exists as it once did. It is covered with thousands of leaves from the Bradford pears that I have out front. My neighbor on my right will not be happy with me as the other day he had some hired help out there on his property removing any leaf of significance whatsoever from his property. Once it dries up a bit more here, my leaves will be sneak attacking his lawn with total disregard of real and/or imagined borders or property lines. LOL. I wonder if that is what was meant by "love thy neighbor". Hmmm. Probably not.

Right now I have some country-style pork ribs in the slow cooker. They had a fire sale on them the other day at the store where Harrison works part-time. I bought a slow cooker recipe mix at the same time to use along with honey and ketchup. I am not crazy about store-bought recipe envelope mixes as I always worry as they seem to be loaded with salt and I am not a salt user. Also not crazy about using ketchup as a key ingredient. Not sure why but it makes me uncomfortable. Now there's some effing logic for you. LOL. Yes ma'am right up there with Einstein's Theory of Relativity is Schlewing's Theory of Ketchup Use.

I need to get back to the kitchen and start cleaning up. Between the curry and the chicken soup I made yesterday and these ribs from today I have used pretty much every pan, pot and cutting board I own. That implies that my weekend slothful ways have to come to an end. Bleh to that.

Peace out rock'n'rollers Monday is almost here. Hahaha. I can here Ode To Joy now in my brain NOT.

Up Early And A Bit Sore (05/11/13)

Well I am a bit sore this morning after spending yesterday on my feet building a sign and wall and bracket supports out at one of the Habitat for Humanity sites in Taylors. I have muscles that are sore that haven't been used in a while. It was impressive to see the 20-25 Michelin employees work on two homes at the same time. The amount of progress made was amazing. I worked with my manager for most of the latter part of the day and you should see her expert touch on a miter saw. LOL. She had us swear not to tell her hubby that she learned how to operate that tool when we have our department pig roast offsite in a couple of weeks.

I stuck to wielding a hammer from time to time and using my brawn to bang in nails from really uncomfortable positions and spaces. I am just too big to be working in construction. LOL.

I am hoping that a couple shots of Kahlua in my morning coffee will help ease the soreness as I have a 4 hr. shift manning a beer booth downtown this afternoon at Artisphere.

It's going to be 80 and humid so I will likely be busy and on my feet for most of that shift. I am used to sitting on my ever-expanding derriere in my office job and here I am volunteering to stand up for inordinate amounts of time. Brilliant!

It looks like we are finally going to have a nice weekend after having two back to back rain weekends where only ducks were happy. It will give me a chance to work some more on my lawn. I bought some lawn topsoil, fertilizer and more seed to start working in the back. I have to remember the sunscreen. I forgot about it yesterday and my neck is red. Yep I am officially a redneck. In appearance only mind you!

I need a coffee. Or maybe I need more Kahlua. Ha. Peace out rock music lovers!

Bad Drivers and Goulash Supreme (01/26/13)

Well now I feel like typing away this morning as I sip away on my 2nd coffee with Kahlua. I can star in their next TV ad that states that things go better with Kahlua. Never mind that Coca-Cola tag line as things really go better with my choice.

So it seems that yesterday was an adventure on the roads of the Upstate what with over 570 wrecks in 8 hours because of a little bit of freezing rain. The actual number is higher but the police stopped counting after 570 it seems. I drove by a couple of them on my way home back from the office after getting out early at noon to work virtually from home (whatever that means).

It's beyond me to see those statistics every time that there is some inclement weather here. One of the wrecks I saw involved at least 8 cars on a newly repaved 3-lane highway. It looked like a scene out of a demolition derby with 8 cars lined up one after another all banged up either front, side or back. You don't have to be a traffic road engineer to know that first they were likely driving too fast, too close and likely too preoccupied on their cellphones for the road and weather conditions.

Perhaps not all of them were but there were definitely a couple of them on their phones as it is epidemic here just like needing a 44 oz. soft drink to go with your chicken fingers at the local Spinx or QT. Don't get me started there. LOL.

Truthfully it is safer at times to stay off the roads than try to share them with these non-Einsteins down here!

So besides that occurring yesterday, I decided to try a new dish out that I received via email from allrecipes.com. The dish was called "Goulash Supreme" and differed from what my Mom used to make when I was child or teenager. Her recipe had beef that was oh so tender in a paprika and chili pepper based sauce usually served on yummy egg noodles.

The recipe I used yesterday called for lean ground beef, the requisite paprika, garlic, onions, tomato paste, chili peppers with stewed tomatoes. I used organic diced as I didn't have stewed ones and it also called for a macaroni-typed pasta.

The original recipe called for all of these ingredients to be blended and cooked together after browning the ground beef. There was no way I was going to do that. In my experience cooking any noodles or rice in a recipe all mixed up guarantees mush. LOL. This is in my limited cooking experience. We aren't talking Iron Chef skills. Yet! Ha.

Before I continue on here I want to make a point about organic diced tomatoes. What the heck does that mean anyways? I find myself buying stuff at Costco often because it says organic on the label as if that is some magic word that means super duper in taste and quality. I don't have a clue what the difference is between organic diced tomatoes and just plain ol' Del Monte diced tomatoes. Talk about being gullible!

It's kind of like seeing a label that says low fat or low calorie and thinking that it means something good. Low fat compared to what exactly. Low calorie compared to a huge bowl of rocky road ice cream made with real cream products or low fat compared to a carrot stick. After I finish writing this thing I will have to check out the definition of an organic diced tomato just so that I don't eff up my Saturday. I would do it now but then I may not finish writing this blog before my massage at 11. LOL.

Anyways back to "Goulash Supreme". It turned out okay. I think it was missing some oomph and the overall taste and aroma of the dish did not harken me back to days when my Mom used to make it just for me special. LOL. She probably told each of us that she was making it just special for us as it was a pretty much a well-liked dish in my family memory bank of things remembered. I will try the recipe one more time before adding it to the things I cook list but this time I will add some additional paprika, chili pepper and perhaps my new favorite jalapenos to add some oomph to the taste. I will let you know the results down the road. I am sure everyone is waiting with bated breathe or is it baited breath. Ha!

That's it for now as breakfast beckons and I need to shower before heading out to Massage Envy and later Barnes & Noble or Mr. K's.

Peace out especially to my blog readers in Russia. Pretty darn cool that someone or some people over there read these things of mine.