Weekend Wrapup

[Mark Wein]

TThe cars finally showed up at about 9:30 so we were split into groups and assigned to cars. We had a bunch of sedans. Altimas, Impalas, Accords, etc. We also had two HHRs which I was waiting for someone to tip over. My group... we had a Charger. It was a V-6 but it still had some decent kick and satellite radio which we blared as load as it would go. .

I'd be surprised if they gave you a Hemi Charger for class. I've never driven one but I've watched my father-in-law race those things around his shop...they are really fast and the police package version of the car was having brake issues for a while. I'm sure your instructors would not have done the "drive at them at 35mph" portion of the class with the Hemi

 

[Mrs.P]

Me and Mrs D..

A fellow hiker. Note - not shot with a telephoto. He was just that close...

And this pic is for Lino.....me at 14,260 feet. With a good set telescope you can see WV over my right shoulder....(just kidding).

Awesome pics Dave. Aren't you two cute. I would have loved to have been that close to that little guy.

 

[Mrs.P]

The first one scared the crap out of me and I never want to do something like that again. You have to barrel towards AN INSTRUCTOR at 35 mph. At the last possible second they drop and arm and that's the direction you have to turn without braking. Once you turn you can start breaking and then you have to turn back to the center where ANOTHER INSTRUCTOR was standing and if you didn't stop in time you would hit him. Driving a car at a person is a incredibly frightening experience. My heart raced for a good hour after I had finished.

That sounds like our test on the motorcycle. 'Course I got so nervous, I wrecked the first time. 2nd time, it was all good. Glad you had a good time.

 

[Dew Knot Hump]

Friday night I watched the Blackhawks game. Grilled some burgers after the first period. I think I have hit on the ultimate burger recipe. Every three months or so I make a big pot of tomato sauce for pasta from scratch and always have meat leftover. Usually I use ground sirloin and really thin veal cuts but the last time I made sauce they didn't have the veal so I got ground sausage. So, I combined about 75% sirloin and 25% pork in a bowl with diced roasted red pepper, diced onions and garlic. They were really good.

Saturday got up and spent almost four hours working in the yard, it's coming along. Here is what it looked like 15 months ago:

Here's what it looked like Saturday:

After that I vacumed and mopped the house, did some laundry and other chores and stuff.

Saturday night Mrs. Hump made a Vietnamese style cold noodle dish with rice noodle, grilled shrimp, cilantro, red pepper, shaved carrots, garlic, peanuts etc. I think she marinated the shrimp in lime juice, sirracha and fish oil. It was good.

Then I worked on some music for a while. I've been working up a cover of Glen Campbells "Wichita Lineman" on baritone guitar got the chords so I sat down and figured out the solo. I also tweaked a song I wrote on mandolin last week.

Sunday got up early and went to Home Depot and got more stuff for the garden and then worked in the yard for a few hours. About 1:30 my breaux pulled up in his Cadillac and we went up to Winnetka for a round of golf. I haven't swung a club in a year so it went as expected. I was pretty erratic but I did make a few nice par putts, made a half dozen or so nice iron shots and I was driving pretty well. I blasted out a 260 yard drive on the 12th hole (of course my next shot was shit.)

After the round I went home and grilled some NY Strip steaks and watched the Hawks game. Much better outcome than Friday.

P.S.: With all due respect to the fine folks at MWGL the Dew Man has the most handsome dog on the forums:

 

[Denverdave]

So, I combined about 75% sirloin and 25% pork in a bowl with diced roasted red pepper, diced onions and garlic. They were really good.

I will try this - maybe this week. I like to combine 50% ground beef (80% lean) and 50% ground buffalo in burgers. The buffalo is really, really lean meat so you need a fattier meat to mix with it. Usually I use 85% beef in my burgers otherwise.