Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

I think that is how the saying goes.

Regardless, Jeremy and I got the last of the tree limb out of the tree.

I took up the pole saw this time and trimmed off the remaining leaf bearing branches on the dead limb. I also attempted to trim off some parts that we thought were keeping us from being able to remove it easily from the tree. A couple of pieces I cut off might have proved useful. However, given what the solution we ended up using to remove the limb, I doubt it.

Jeremy at one point was on top of the ladder pushing the tree limb up, as to dislodge it from the other limb it was sort of stuck in. However, even with me helping out we couldn't lift it high enough.

The way in which we were attempting to dislodge it, ie lifting it up, made me remember that I had some 8' (maybe 10') 2x4 beams in the garage from one of the renovation projects. We went and retrieved two of these and set about finding a good spot to plant the beams as to be able to push the limb up and out of the tree.

And with a resounding... CRASH-THUD, the limb hit the ground.

Luckily it didn't hit either one of us. Just before my thought about the beams, while Jeremy and I were messing with the limb whilst Jeremy was on the ladder, Gina had let Curly out into the front yard. Thankfully, when the limb had come crashing down finally, Gina had taken Curly for a walk around the block, we think the limb weighs a good 80-90 pounds, so it most definitely would end the life a little dog (or a knucklehead who is trying to jostle it out of the tree).

No one was hurt in the end, which is good. However, now there is a front yard full of tree limb to take care of.

I can honestly say that I am avoiding the task, as it is very HOT and HUMID out.

Jeremy and I are currently hanging out at the DraughtHouse in downtown Austin. We ate a late lunch @ Delware subs just south of here and are now currently enjoying a pint. We are going to work on John's weasel site. We will likely move from here over to Mozart's coffee house, as there doesn't seem to be any power outlets, which always seems to be the case for me.

Time to get cracking.

Laterz

Well, the weatherman says it is supposed to keep raining until the cows come home, course the cows have long since been washed away by all the rain.

Just kidding, sort of.

The weather forecast says that the rain is supposed to keep up until about next Friday.

Work has kept me busy most of this week and with Jeremy here I haven't really bothered to boot up my home PC much.

So we had a little bit of a surprise waiting for us when we got home. Gina and I didn't notice the surprise when we first got home, of course it was sort of dark by then. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the gigantic tree limb that had broken off before Jeremy started cutting it into more manageable pieces.

The neighbors tree that shades a good part of the front yard has had problems before where limbs have snapped off during storms. This one didn't fall to the ground or hit any houses, rather it hit another limb and was just teetering there. However, the limb it was teetering (and part of it still is) on is near the porch.

And I am sure that if Jeremy hadn't cut part of it off when he did, a good gust of wind would have probably dislodged it and allowed it to slide down the limb it is resting on and into the side of porch, causing some damage.

So after work on Wednesday we hit the Home Depot and bought one of those chainsaws on a pole. They really, really should check ID or give you a 10 minute training course with a pass-fail test before letting you guy such a thing.

I bought the electric one, because for those that don't know me, I don't like keeping gasoline around. I mean we did this up north kept the gas can for the lawnmower underneath this little crawl space in the back of the house. But it was Michigan, a 90 degree day is newsworthy up there.

Down here in TX during the summer you can easily have 100+ degree days for several days straight during the summer (not so far this summer mind you), so the idea of keeping a highly flammable substance in my garage or my shed, where the temperatures can get outrageously hot makes me not want to tempt fate.

So I opt for electric stuff, electric lawnmower, electric chainsaws, etc.

Anyway, so this thing is an 8" electric chainsaw on a pole that telescopes out to around 12 feet or so. Yeah this thing is dangerous, but cool.

Jeremy cut two LARGE pieces off of the limb and I dragged them towards the front of the lawn.

After we get the last piece out of the tree we will have to cut up the LARGE pieces into smaller pieces and bundle them for removal. That should be fun as I have had to cut up and bundle smaller amounts of tree branch than that and those times I spent at least a good 1/2 day.

Oh well, I will get some pics of everything when we get home.

Hopefully, it hasn't started raining again by then.

The weather here this summer has been CRAZY.

We get rain in the morning, then for a few hours it stops and if we are lucky the sun comes out, then it starts raining again in the evening and usually rains some more at night.

Don't get me wrong, I love that we aren't in a drought. But WTF, is Texas turning into a tropical climate?

Time to hit the road and head home.

Laterz

Summer Vacation is over.

The flight from Detroit was ok, but the landing in Dallas was horrible.

The drive from Dallas to Austin wasn't too bad. Gina and I stopped in Waco and had dinner at the Cracker Barrel.

Gina got home about 5 minutes or so before me.

I was greeted by several happy pups when I opened the door.

I popped the first Harry Potter movie into the DVD player as Gina finished reading the last Harry Potter book.

She won't tell me the ending. She wants me to read the book. I think I can handle reading the last 150 pages, I had been reading over her shoulder on the plane and got to about the last 150.

Well, it is time for bed, gotta go to work in the morning.

Laterz

Another morning has come and thus is bringing our vacation another day closer to the end.

It has been great being able to sleep in and not worry about alarm clocks or deadlines to get some place. However, for most of the last week my body has been waking me up between 8 and 9 AM. I have never really been able to sleep much past 9 or 10 AM, unless recovering from a night that were tequila was readily available.

Gina got the latest Harry Potter book and is now sitting in the living room reading it, throwing out the occasional 'Oh man' and 'No way'.

She looked at my itchy torso and told me that it is probably just my 'tan', therefore I think I might have ever the slightest touch of sunburn. Which makes a bit more sense than my white shirt being the culprit, given that she did use the same detergent as I did on the darks. I have the usual forearm and leg below the knee 'farmer's tan', but this year I tried to get some sun of my chest and back, so I am definitely glad I used the SPF 45 and not a 15 or 30 on Friday.

Regardless, the BBQ is tomorrow. I will need to find out what time so that I can try to figure out when to start smoking the brisket. I normally smoke a brisket for at least 8 hours and no more than 14. It depends on the size of the brisket. The first 3 to 4 hours are spent in the smoker with plenty of mesquite loaded on the coals, ensuring that mesquite flavor has a chance to get that good smoke ring you want on a brisket.

The rest of the time is spent wrapped in tinfoil, this helps to keep the brisket from getting dried out while it cooks the rest of the way through. If you have a good broiler pan (think that is what it is called) you can even finish off your brisket (still wrapped in tinfoil) in the oven. I have done that a couple of times and it works out well, because with your oven you can keep a very even temperature and with the broiler pan you can catch the juices that might slip out of the tinfoil while it cooks.

Because, once your brisket (or other meats) are all wrapped in tinfoil and in the smoker, there is no need to keep adding mesquite (or other hardwoods like oak, hickory, etc) you just add charcoal to keep the temperature up. Meaning that the smoker is basically just an outdoor oven at that point.

Sometime today Gina and I will need to run to Meijer, pick up some Chicken breasts, Pabst Blue Ribbon and maybe see if there is any good looking sausage.

I am going to read some more of my book now. And bug Gina to see if she knows if Snape is friend or foe.

Laterz

Uggg.... my torso is all itchy.

I got to my in-laws in what honestly could be in the nick-of-time. I was scratching at myself here and there on the way back from the cottage, but on the short drive from Kelly's house to my in-laws I had started to scratch at my torso something fierce. I am not sure what the heck it is from, my best guess is my shirt. Since nothing else on me itches, which means that I didn't get into any poison ivy and it isn't some allergic reaction to all the sun-tan lotion that I slathered on today.

I will have to ask Gina what she used when she washed and dried the whites the other day. I am pretty sure I saw her use the same detergent that I used on the rest of my clothes (All Free Clear, hypoallergenic). When I took off my shirt to get ready for bed after dragging in all the luggage (while simultaneously scratching my back) I noticed that my torso was a wonderful tint of red and that I had more or less tiny hive like bumps all-over sans a few patches.

Like I said, since my torso is the only part of me that is itchy I can't imagine that it is anything I ate or what not.

I took a few chloropheniramine pills (allergy pills) in the hopes of stopping the itching. Obviously I won't be putting the shirt back on.

I am not sure exactly what all I will be doing for the next couple of days. But I know that I will be smoking a brisket, watering my Mom's plants and trying to see the Sara & Patty.

I threw together a dry rub (spice mix) earlier this afternoon and put it on the brisket, then wrapped the brisket in what could be argued as an excessive amount of plastic wrap. I am not sure if the BBQ is planned for tomorrow or Sunday.

Gina hopped out of the car at Kelly's house as they are off to go and buy copies of the 7th installment of the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hollows.

I told Gina that she will have to give me the skinny on all the details when she is done reading it. If the book isn't too long (and she is hoping for 1000+ pages) she thinks that she will have it finished before we hop the plane back to Texas.

Ugg... still itchy.

I am going to catch up on some web comics then pass out (I hope).

Laterz