Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

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

After having spent two fabulous days in the sun at the end of the dock Gina and I are ready for a break from sun worship and are going to be heading out for a little adventure. We are going to find out what Charlevoix has to offer.



Last night we had dinner at Pearl's, a very tasty Cajun joint that happens to be hidden away up here in Elk Rapids. I had the Etouffette with the crawfish and blackened shrimp, it was excellent. We shared the red bean cake appetizer. Gina had the sirloin and a side of cheese grits. Their cornbread was spicy and excellent.

We rented a couple of movies from 'The Corner Store' that is over near (or in) Central Lake. The first movie we watched 'The Fountain' was horrible. I mean seriously, I sort of knew what the movie was supposed to be about given that I had seen the previews before, but I figured the previews were so disconnected because of the fact that they were previews. By which I mean, the storyline in the previews jumps around, I thought they did that to keep you interested in the story.

Nope, the whole movie is that way. In my opinion it was a beautifully shot movie, good cast, but the storyline presented in the movie was horrible and extremely hard to follow. Both Gina and I agreed that the movie was bad.

The second movie was excellent, Miss Potter. Which was about the author who wrote Peter Rabbit and a variety of other children's books.

I popped popcorn on the stove, it turned out OK, but not as good as usual. Not sure if that is because of the popcorn, or if it was because maybe I put too much in. I am sure that I will be doing more popcorn before we leave, so I will figure it out, by putting in 1/4 less the next time. Not to mention that we had plenty of extra popcorn.

It appears that one of the neighbors up here has finally gotten broadband with wifi, there is a network up here called HagoodNet. It is open, but our connection is low. I am sticking with dial-up to complete my blogging for today, but tomorrow I might try out the connection.

I will be grilling pork loin tonight and corn, not sure what else we are going to be having for dinner. Gina's dad bought a brisket for me and while we were at Meijer's in Traverse I found some Mesquite chunks. So sometime before the week is out, I will be smoking a brisket.

We will need to pickup some sausages and I think I would like to smoke some chicken while I am at it. No pork this time. Next year.

Laterz