Month: July 2002

I just suprised myself…

Last night I was fishing through the freezer – I saw an unmarked slab of meat wrapped in butcher paper. I left it out overnight to thaw, thinking it was going to be another one of those awesome chuck roasts that my parents gave me – it was pork. This isn’t your ordinary swine either – this is wild hog caught on my parent’s property.

Anyway, I was little disappointed. I’m not the biggest fan of wild hog meat – it’s pretty gamey – and I prefer wild game. But this stuff, well – it has that different kind of gamey taste.

So, I had to think fast. I cut a bunch of slits in the meat and stuffed it with probably 7 whole cloves of garlic. Then I sauted some tomatos and paper thin garlic slices in some evoo, seasoned the meat w/ some kosher salt (almost curing it) and some fancy 3-corn fresh pepper. The I dropped it in the pan with some purple onions and covered it.

I cooked it on med-low for… I don’t know, a couple hours. After I couldn’t resist the smell any longer, I opened the pot, tried to lift it up by the exposed bone and the meat literally fell off.

So I started pulling it apart. At this point, Riley is at my feet begging. So I let him have the first bite. He seemed to like it. Then I tried it. Hmmmm – tasted too gamey. So I added some dried oregano. That helped, but not much. Basil – a little better. Then I remembered my lesson in East Coast barbecue. I added a few splashes of red wine vinegar. Awesome.

I’m thinking some long grain pecan rice and an apricot coulis… too bad all I have is tortilla chips and Hershey’s syrup. Oh well, the pork is great by itself.

After I watched motorcycle racing on Tuesday night, I got into motorcycle mode and watched Easy Rider. While doing that, I honed two of my favorite knives. I think I spent about 20 minutes on each one. Whew… talk about hair splitting.

I just went ape nuts with the message rules for Outlook Express 6. If El or I get any spam, I’ll be pretty damn suprised.

I’m thinking that the most effective will be the “If body message contains text: ‘to unsubscribe'” move to: “SPAM”.

We don’t subscribe to anything, so we won’t be missing much. At first I set the filter to immediately delete the message from the server, but then I thought I might get an email from a friend or family member who might need to say ‘to unsubscribe’. So I created a seperate Spam folder that can still be checked.

The crap you have to deal with.

I got up relatively early this morning. I hopped up, fumbled around for some quarters, grabbed my laundry basket along with some detergent and walked to the laundry room.

I was impressed that our apartment complex had installed new washers and dryers. I was not impressed when I couldn’t find a coin slot to save my life. All of the washers and dryers are equipped with some sort of card slot.

So, I look around for some sort of laundry card distribution contraption. Nothing.

And, of course, the leasing office is closed. I was pretty pissed. So, I guess it goes without saying that I’m going to have to go ‘commando’ for the rest of the day. I really hope the leasing office is open tomorrow.

“But Josh, why don’t you just go to a laundromat?” Yeah, try lugging your laundry on a motorcycle.

So I come home, already having started my day off on a bad note – I check my email… SPAM. Damnit – for as long as I’ve owned Janicek.com, I haven’t received any spam.

I try to nip this in the bud from the get-go. I set up an account with SpamCop… what a joke. So now I’ve been setting up spam filters on El’s and my email clients.

Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do tonight. I might just take my underwearless self and hop on the bike and head to Austin.

Elise left for Dallas today around 6. Tomorrow, her and Jenni are leaving for Iowa.

Everybody keeps asking if I’ll be okay…. YES!!! I will be fine. Geez – I guess I’m made out to be co-dependant. I love my wife and all, but I know how to work the toaster and change the toilet paper. Plus, I’m grinning right now thinking of all the leg room I’ll have in bed.

Anyway – El went to the grocery store and picked up some goods for yours truly (heh). She picked up some beer for me as well. So, after she left, I went to the fridge to make myself dinner and saw the beer. I smiled and thought: bachelor pad!

So, a grabbed a beer, nuked a pizza and cranked up Speedvision on the surround sound. I watched an AMA 600 Super Bike race. Kawasaki almost won – Honda pulled up in the last lap to win the race. I’m always torn between Honda and Kawasaki. I’ve actually never owned a Kawasaki, but the ZX7R has always been my dream bike.

When I was a wee lad, I had 2 little Honda 50cc dirt bikes (actually, I think they were originally Terri and Lisa’s). Then, when I was 17, my Dad bought my brother’s old 1976 Honda CB750 for $100. Dad and I piddled around with it in the garage for a while. It ran, but it backfired like crazy. I rode it around the pasture, but I knew my parents weren’t going to let me ride it to school. I don’t know what we did with that bike.

Motorcycles are just in my blood (from my Mom’s side I guess). I don’t think Dad likes bikes much. I don’t think Mom does either – she was the only girl. Get me around my Uncle Bill… {grunt}

We actually once had a cat named Panhead (another motorcyle reference). That cat was great. He was a solid white, long haired, gorgeous cat. He was extremely loyal as well. After I moved to Austin, I remember Mom telling me stories about how Panhead would stand between my Mom and a mother cow if they got ‘too close’ and the cow became angered and wanted to charge.

Panhead was always getting into something – but he always managed to stay as white as could be – even being a cow herder in the middle of the country. He died a while back either by being attacked by something he thought he could handle, or he got hit by a car. He couldn’t see that well either as we had to have his right eye removed after another fight he had.

Anyway – we inherited Panhead before we moved to Cat Spring. I think Bill’s ex named him before we got him. The Panhead is actually an early Harley Davidson model motorcyle.

I’m going to go to bed now… and hogging the WHOLE bed (sorry Riley – looks like you get the couch tonight!)

Josh wrote an entry yesterday about the plethora of H2O we now have stacked in our dining room. He also mentioned that I ran around town trying to use up the coupons. Alas, it is true. It’s not as though we were in desperate need of bottled water, but the idea of passing up “free” stuff is hard for me to contemplate. You see, I come from a long line of thrifty shoppers. It originates from my maternal grandmother’s side of the family. I’m told that it started during the Great Depression. There are even tales about my great-aunt driving across town just to save a few pennies on an item. (I guess somebody forgot to tell her about gas usage.) My parents and I even joke that if we need some off-the-wall item we can call Grandma T. and she’ll know the store that has that item on sale, or at least the best price. So you see, using coupons and bargain shopping are in my blood. I refer to it as being thrifty, not cheap.

I’m leaving tomorrow for Dallas. I’m going to spend the night with Jenni and then Wednesday morning she, her dad and I will leave for Des Moines, Iowa. I’m excited! I haven’t been home since Josh and I were there in September. I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my parents and friends. I also get to see Heather’s baby, Juliet for the first time. Yea! I’m going to miss Josh though. I wish he could come along, but it isn’t to be. I’ll miss watching fireworks with you baby.

I found out the other day that I start a job through the temp agency on July 15th. I’ll be working for Sallie Mae (financial lender) in Killeen. I’ll be doing data entry work…yuck. The worse part about it is I had to buy some work clothes because the attire is business-casual. I didn’t mind getting new clothes, just spending the money. Josh and I think it’s ridiculous that I have to dress up to sit in a pod behind a computer all day. Oh well…

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!

– Elise

Sometimes I just crack myself up. My Mom sent me a couple scans from the Hendee newsletter…

We lived in Houston until 1987 (I think). So I spent my childhood there. As do many kids, I played little league soccer. I think I played for 5 years. Our coach was Edd Hendee. His son, Edd K. was the same age as your humble narrator. Edd K. and I were friends. I think we even did the sleep over/slumber party thing.

Anyway, around this time, Edd and Nina (Edd K.’s parents) were working hard at their restaurant, The Taste of Texas. If memory serves me correctly, they started out making hamburgers, mexican food, chicken fried steaks, etc., etc. You know, Texas fare.

So anyway, the Hendees send my parents a newsletter every so often, letting folks know what’s going on in Hendee World. My Mom just emailed me a copy of said newsletter that was written by Lisa (the middle child). Last time I saw Lisa, I don’t think she was even speaking yet.

Well, now Lisa is about to go to grad school at UT. Edd K. is in San Diego with his wife while being a Lt. in the Navy. The youngest daughter, Kristen is about to go to college in Virginia. All the while they are taking trips in private planes to Cabo. Edd (dad) has dropped down to part-time on his radio talk show so he can work on his water skiing. His restaurant employs 200+ people. Nina is on all kinds of boards and committees. I was really waiting to hear the update on getting tires rotated on the Hummer H2 and the matching Viper.

I’m not complaining… I’m just envious. I know the Hendee’s are hard working people and deserve what they have received. Hell, if I were to be executed tomorrow, I would probably want my last meal to come from The Taste of Texas.

So anyway… Mom was having a hard time resizing this newsletter in Photoshop so I could read it. We finally finally got it figured out for her. I wrote her to tell her that I received the newsletter. Then I wrote:

“Okay – I could read them that time. Hmmm… must be nice to be able to fly
into Cabo whenever you please. I wonder what my boss would say if I said I
needed a little more water skiing time… Ha!

Oh well – on that note, I’m going to take my poor ass out into the rain and
go change the oil in my unemployed wife’s beat up late 80’s model truck.”