kmkat and her kneedles

The never-ending meme, now with pictures.

I was tagged on Facebook for this meme by Beth, but I prefer to do it here on the blog.

1. What time did you get up this morning? Which time? I got up several times. The one that stuck was 11:30 am. But I couldn't get to sleep last night until nearly 3am because of knee pain. [/whine]

2. How do you like your steak? Rare!

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The latest Star Trek movie. The last one before that was the last Star Wars movie (I fell asleep), before that was a Harry Potter. We don't go to many movies.

4. What is/are your favorite TV show(s)? TV? What is TV? Oh, I remember... Law & Order (any of them). Twin Peaks. Northern Exposure. Mystery! The Office. Lost and Grey's Anatomy, although I never watched them on TV, only on DVD.
  

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? It might be right here. It's too much work to think of somewhere else.

6. What did you have for breakfast? A quad latte.

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Food, especially Mexican.

8. What foods do you dislike? Beans because of the texture. Liver because of the taste.

9. Favorite Place to Eat? Anywhere I don't have to cook or clean up. Beyond that, Hog Wild (local barbecue joint with really good barbecue), Paradise Landing (upscale place on local lake), and the Thirsty Otter (beer & burger kind of place with an outdoor deck overlooking a lake; it always amazes me that we can go there and just sit down -- no reservation, no waiting. Such is life in a rural area.).

10. Favorite dressing? In restaurants I always order ranch. My real fave is a home-made vinaigrette with fresh rosemary.

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Depends on the day. Generally a bright yellow 2008 Aveo, sometimes a blue 2000 Dodge conversion van, occasionally a 19xx Jeep Wrangler (Da Yeep).
  

12. What are your favorite clothes? Clean ones. No pantyhose, never heels. Winter, jeans, mock turtleneck, hand-knit sweater (sure wish I had one), hand-knit wool socks (check), and my Merrill clogs. . Summer, loose skirt, t-shirt, and Crocs,

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? The Louvre in Paris; Florence and Rome, maybe Greece and Switzerland.

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? ::waggles cup to see:: half full.

15. Where would you want to retire? Right here. That's a view from my deck earlier this summer.


16. Favorite time of day? When I can sit in my favorite chair, cue up an audiobook on my [currently MIA] iPod, and knit.


17. Where were you born? Moorhead, MN

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Watch sports? Why on earth would I do that? Oh, wait, figure skating and gymnastics.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?

22. Bird watcher? Yep. That's why I have a couple birdfeeders right outside my window.
 

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Hmmm. Could be either. Right now a morning person, but not early morning.

24. Pets? 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 husband.


25. Any new and exciting news that you'd like to share? Nope. I already told you all there was to know about my knee.

26. What did you want to be when you were little? Teacher (duh), nurse (duh x2), ballerina (duh x3). Once I got past those, a computer programmer.

27. What is your first childhood memory? Standing in the kitchen in our house on the farm. I was 4 or so.

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Cats all the way, but really, any animal with fur is good. Younger son sent me this video he took in Petco yesterday just because he knew I would like it.
Download VID 00045 

29. Are you married? Yup, coming up on 35 years.

30. Always wear your seat belt? Yup.

31. Been in a car accident? Several, but never seriously injured. (See #30.)

32. Any pet peeves? Yeah, but let's not concentrate on the negative. They are mostly auditory.

33. Favorite pizza topping? Sausage and mushrooms.

34. Favorite flower? Any that smell good -- lilacs, lily of the valley, old roses, Stargazer lily. Also daffodils, bachelor's buttons, pansies, monarda, annual poppies.

35. Favorite ice cream? Wells Blue Bunny Homemade Vanilla. Actually, anything by Blue Bunny. If it has chocolate in it or on it, I'm in heaven.

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco John's or Subway. Hardee's if neither of those is available.

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? None. Passed first time. I am a really good test taker.

38. From whom did you get your last email? Jeff.

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? I would hate to max out my credit card. Put a gun to my head, though, and it might be a fancy grocery store like Lund's or Byerly's in the Twin Cities.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Gave Smokey a hug.

41. Like your job? Yup, both of them.

42. Broccoli? Yum!

43. What was your favorite vacation? The one we took to the Florida Keys right after I finished my accounting internship. It was the first time I had worked really, really hard and then had a tropical relaxation immediately after.


44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Smokey, last night.

45. What are you listening to right now? The cat giving himself a bath.

46. What is your favorite color? Red. No, blue. No, green. No, pale rosy peach. Actually, I just like color.

47. How many tattoos do you have? Zero.

48.How many are you tagging for this quiz? Three: Jocelyn, Cookie, and Diane. Go forth and spill your guts, ladies!

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 12:52 pm CDT

50. Coffee Drinker? (see #6)

The knee update. And stuff.

Thanks for all the sympathy and good wishes for my leg and knee. Today I saw the ortho doc who fixed my ankle. It has healed well, and we scheduled surgery at the end of August to remove the hardware. I have had a patch of itchy scaly skin on that ankle bone ever since the cast came off; we suspect I may be slightly allergic to something in the hardware.

That doctor is a foot and ankle specialist, so someone else looked at my knee. She had it and the tibia X-rayed. The good news is that she saw no cracks or obvious breaks. The possible bad news is that she saw something floating around inside my knee. Thursday I go back for an MRI. Wait and see...

* * * * *

I won knitnzu's Snow Pile Melt contest! The massive pile melted between June 22 and 24; my guess of the 24th (Smokey's birthday) was the closest.

Look what I won -- a Nantucket bag!

Lisa wrote about these last winter, and I ordered a natural canvas one, which I have been loving. Now I have a black one for winter -- yay! The cool thing about the bag is its clever and versatile design. See how it zips open?

Look at all those pockets. It can be zipped back together inside out if I want the pockets on the outside. It has handles to carry it as a tote or a shoulder bag, plus it has straps so I can carry it as a back pack. That last one is especially handy, since I tend to fill my bag to the brim.

Was there yarn involved in the prize? Why, yes, there was! How did you guess?

She threw in some stash-busters that I will probably knit into hats:

  

but the real yarny prize was some lovely Mountain Colors sock yarn.

 

Thanks, Lisa!

Injured reserve.

(I hope I am using that term correctly. Smokey told me all he knew about what injured reserve meant, but as he pointed out, he is not a sports fan.)

If you are a refined sort of person who avoids anything hinting of blood or injury or that sort of gross-osity, you  should probably go read Alice in Wonderland or a some chick lit or something like that.

Move along, folks, nothing you want to see on this here blog post.

If, on the other hand, you are the sort of person who slows down and gawks at every traffic accident you pass, hoping to see blood smears on the pavement and possibly body parts strewn across the road, this post is for you.

There, now that I have cleared the room, let's tell the story, m'kay?

Week before last Bear had the surgery on her paw. She is doing fine now, thanks for asking, the sutures come out tomorrow. But this is not a post about a doggie paw that got sliced and diced.

Oh, no.

This is a post about a Kat™ who had a similar unfortunate experience. And some others, as well.

I picked the dog up at the vet late that Monday and brought her home with instructions to keep her away from stairs for a few days. Since our house is inaccessible without climbing stairs, I decided to send her up on the elevator. But she gets scared on the elevator so I had to ride up with her. With the control in one hand and using the other hand to soothe her, I found it a bit tricky to maintain my balance. So I grabbed hold of the short upright plate at the back of the platform. Halfway up there is brace that is, um, rather close to that plate. As the platform moved past it, the meat at the outside edge of my hand got... pinched. Ouch! (However, it could have been a lot worse; had my hand been placed a couple of inches to the right, I might very well have lost a finger, and then how would I knit?)

Here's how it looked five days after the incident. You can see the spots where the meat got pinched (shut up!) and the remains of the bruising on my fingers and wrist. Apparently I bruise very easily now that I am old. Crap.

That happened on Monday.

The following Saturday I attended the annual meeting of a lake association to which I am the county representative. As such I was sitting at the head table so I could get to the microphone to give my little county spiel. The meeting went on rather a long time -- several semi-contentious issues had to be discussed and voted upon -- so I was up and down several times to stretch my legs or grab a can of soda.

The last time I got up, to throw away my soda can, I managed to get my feet tangled in the PA cords and did a total face plant. In front of the entire meeting of about a hundred people. Onto the concrete. I severely bruised one knee and smacked the side of my face into a cooler.

  

People there were quick with the cold packs and ice (representatives from the local fire department were in attendance, so I got excellent first aid), thus I got only that little cut on my cheekbone instead of a black eye. But the knee was the worst.

Here it is 24 hours later.

 

Yup. I bruise easily, all right.

Fast forward to the following Tuesday when Smokey and I were packing to go on a short camping trip to the North Shore (more on that in another post).

There was a 2'-square rubber mat on the floor of the garage. It had rained the night before and there was water underneath the mat. I stepped on it as I was walking from the van into the garage and it slid out from under me.

Down I went onto that same knee.

Picture The Kat™ lying on the concrete of the garage, pounding the floor with one fist and swearing up a storm. 

Here's how it looked a few days later:

 

Yeah, that is ugly. I have had to take Vicodin a couple times to be able to sleep. Tomorrow I have a follow-up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon who repaired my ankle last fall; I plan to have him take a peek at my knee to be sure it is intact.

I have been walking very, very, very carefully since that last incident. Smokey and I have discussed the need to eliminate the clutter that has accumulated around the house, in order to make it safer for a certain klutzy person to move about, and the possible need for said person to exercise to improve her balance and stability.

As many others have said before me: it's hell to get old.

What happens.

Ever wonder what happens if that ball of yarn attached to your current project falls out of the car and you don't notice and drive away and the yarn unwinds until it gets under the rear wheels?

It breaks.

But the WIP that was in the knitting bag in the car was undamaged. Yay! And there was less than 5 yards left in that ball of yarn, so I didn't lose much.

I have picked up the Summer Chevron again (that is its brown bamboo yarn above) in hopes of being able to wear it this year. It was about 80% done last summer when I realized that my pattern mods were not going to work. At all. So I set it aside until this year.

I think I have figured out how to make it work, although the fit is still anybody's guess. Had to frog about half of what I had knit, all the way back to the armholes (it is knit from the top down).

Stay tuned to find out whether this turns into an FO or if I end up with 17 balls of bamboo yarn in search of a pattern. Again.

Coupla other things.

Matthew has some snazzy headlights to wear when he is biking.

The little side ones -- called "fleas" -- are made to clip onto the handlebars, but they also fit onto the bows of his glasses. The center one is on an elastic headband.

I have one similar to the center one that I use when I am knitting in the car after dark.

* * * * *

When he and Smokey were working on Da Yeep, he came running into the house to get a bug jar to trap this critter.

Meet Charlotte!

Note the pregnant waddle.

All you entomologists will be glad to know that when we were done tormenting photographing her, Matthew set her loose in the woods to go hatch her babies in peace.

Fun in the north woods.

Matthew came to visit this weekend to help out with some tasks that required a Young And Nimble Helper. On Saturday he and Smokey put a new exhaust system on Da Yeep.

Observe the shiny new tailpipe.

First thing Sunday, Matthew opened my Christmas present from 2007.

Why, yes, it IS an electric chain saw. Just what every gardener wants for Christmas.

I feel kind of badly that I haven't used it, but between bad back, broken leg, other commitments, and general laziness, I haven't done much outdoor work in the past couple years.

We made up for that today.

Smokey had A Plan.

First, assemble the chain saw and get it ready to go.

Note: we do not comb our hair around here until need to leave the property. No need to get all spiffed up just to go work outside.

Read the directions. This a big break with tradition. I don't really understand it.

All I know is, I turned around and there they were, reading the directions. I think I felt the earth wobble a little in its orbit.

This is an electric chainsaw -- lighter and easier to handle than the gasoline-powered one that I have used in the past. But instead of running an eleventy-thousand-foot extension cord from the house to the trees that needed pruning, Smokey did Something Clever.

He had Matthew strap the little generator to the hood of Da Jeep, which vehicle would become Matthew's work stand so he could reach the branches that needed to come down. That noise in the background? Our neighbor using HIS chain saw. It's a typical Sunday morning at the lake.

I crocheted the excess length of strap neatly.

Matthew thought it would be nice to be able to hear the directions that Smokey would be shouting to him from the driver's seat. Off came the doors!

But Da Jeep wouldn't start!

 

A quick jump start and it was ready to go.

Voila! A mobile power station and tree-trimming stand.

Safety first, though; note Matthew's face protection.

 Okay, here we go. Position Da Jeep so Matthew can reach the dead limbs.

Are you sure this is safe?

Well, okay, if you are sure.

Watch those dead branches fall!

Not every branch that came down was dead. Some were just hanging too low over the driveway.

They pruned all the way up the driveway, 150 feet or so. Eventually I got bored and went to get my weed wrench.

 

This handy tool uproots unwanted saplings. As the web site says, it's FUN to use.

First, position it so the jaws are ready to clamp onto the base of the sapling.

 

Lower the long handle until the jaws close and grip the sapling.

 

Keep lowering that handle, rocking the jaw section upward on its back edge.

Oops! I didn't take a picture of any uprooted saplings, but believe me, there were a few. I was cleaning away the underbrush from the grove of Norway pines. Not much can grow under pine trees because the ground never gets any sun, so it doesn't need to be cleared very often. It hadn't been done in a few years.

Meanwhile, the generator ran out of gas. Gotta mix some more.

 

While Smokey handled the gas situation, Matthew continued to eliminate dead branches.

   

 

Sometimes he had to rest.

And so did the animals.

This just in: don't believe everything you read on the 'net.

Screen shot from Google, 8:33 CDT, June 17, 2009:

So I checked out the second arrowed link (note the date):

Oops...

Edited to add: Sharp-eyed Carrie pointed out to me that the Sun-Times article was from June 18, not July 18. My own oops...

Can you say"crochet"?

This 'n' that.

To those of you who commented on how much I knitted while we were on vacation: when one is camping in a place where the only thing to do is hike, and one is not a hiker, knitting -- and napping and reading and occasionally going into town -- is pretty much all there is to do. So that is what I did, most happily.

* * * * *

I have had to drive Da Yeep (shown above in a photo from last December) for the last week (minus the plow) because Smokey is using my car to get to work while his van in the shop awaiting a brake job.

Da Yeep has a little electrical problem that drains the battery if it sits for more than 12 hours or so. More than once in the past week one of us has had to hook it up to the battery charger to get it going.  As a temporary fix until he has time to do a full trouble-shooting exploration, Smokey put in a battery disconnector. Whenever I park the car I have to raise the hood and turn a knob; when I want to use the car I must raise the hood and tighten that knob. It is inconvenient, but better than having a dead battery.

Why, yes, I have gotten some odd looks in parking lots...

Because it has been sitting outside all the time, Da Yeep has also become a bit of a spider mecca. I counted three spiders of various sizes on the inside of the windshield when I drove it today.

Luckily I am not particularly bothered by spiders as long as they keep their distance...

* * * * *

Bear, our senior dog, had surgery again this week. She had something in one paw that was making it increasingly difficult for her to walk. That something turned out to be a tumor that the vet thinks was cancerous. But she is an old dog, and we hope that any recurrence grows as slowly as she walks. The vet found a couple other tumors, too -- one on her tongue and one at her other end -- but those did not look problematic under the microscope.

I emailed Elder Son, who is very, very attached to Bear and he replied:

Hey, this may be a little weird, but could you ask him if he could email me the images?  If they're digital that is, not so easy to send if their microscope isn't hooked up to a computer.  I'm just curious to look at the cellular pathology and see if canine neoplasia looks like the human neoplasia I learned about in pathology... anatomy's so dull that a pathology slide will be absolutely fascinating by comparison.  I really liked pathology, and I'll probably TA for it next year.

* * * * *

I was just reading a 70-page pdf document that summarized the Wisconsin state budget bill that was signed into law a couple weeks ago. (Yes, it was fascinating, thanks for asking.) But besides all the normal budget stuff about money, I also read this:

The budget creates a process for declaring and registering domestic partnerships between two individuals who meet the following criteria: 1) they are at least 18 years old and capable of consenting to the domestic partnership; 2) neither individual is married to, or in a domestic partnership with, another individual; 3) the two individuals share a common residence; 4) the two individuals are not nearer of kin to each other than second cousins; and 5) the individuals are member of the same sex...

...[d]omestic partners will be considered a “member of the family” for purposes of victim notification; receive the same privilege from testifying against one another as husband and wives; be entitled to damages under wrongful death actions; receive Crime Victim Compensation Program funds; be able to title assets in joint tenancy; domestic partners will be subject to the same inheritance law provisions as spouses; have the same rights of access to individuals in care facilities as spouses; have the same rights of consent to medical treatment and access to medical records as spouses; have access to insurance provided by fraternal organizations; be exempt from the real estate transfer and manufactured home title transfer fees for transfers between partners; be entitled to worker’s compensation death benefits; receive the same coverage for Family and Medical Leave as spouses; be subject to the same procedures for transferring a motor vehicle title at the time of a partner’s death as for spouses.
 
The budget also allows domestic partners who are public employees to qualify for
Wisconsin Retirement System benefits, including health insurance and survivor benefits.

A couple years ago Wisconsin voters passed a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriages and civil unions:

Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.

There will certainly be court challenges to this budget provision, but for now I am happy, even though it is kinda sneaky to put something like this in a budget bill.

* * * * *

On Smokey's cousin's porch in Laramie, on our way home from vacation:

 

What did you knit on vacation, Kat™?

Did I knit much on vacation? Did I knit much on vacation? I knit so much that by the end I sometimes found myself riding in the car and not knitting! Apparently I had gotten my fill, not that that condition lasted very long. I resumed knitting as soon as I got home.

Let's recap, shall we? As planned, I took along:

1. The kimono sweater, which I planned to finish. Status: not finished, but not for lack of knitting. When we left I had knitted the first 6" of the two fronts. While we were gone I finished both fronts, attached them to the back with a 3-needle bind-off, picked up 270 st -- from the bottom right front up around the neck and down the left front -- and knitted 3" of garter stitch for the neckband. And I have woven in all the ends so far. That is where the sweater stands now. I didn't accomplish my entire goal, but I am much further than I was; it is still realistic to expect to wear it this winter.

This back:                                                added a couple fronts and a neckband:
                  

2. The corn socks, in hopes of having a completed pair sometime during the trip. Status: done, worn, washed, worn, washed, and ready for another wearing.

These:                                                       became these:
              

I need to seek out another shirt or two in golden tones so I have something beside one t-shirt to wear these with.

3. The Cascade 220 stash-breaker Faroese shawl, to be able to change up my knitting when I finished the kimono sweater. Status: the shawl looks remarkably similar to the picture taken before we left. I knit only another couple stripes because I was so intent on the kimono sweater.

This:                                                           grew very slightly, into this:
                

4. Sock yarn to start another pair of socks. I returned to my original plan and brought this blue Pagewood Farms Denali sock yarn instead of the brand-new BFL I won from Tammy right before we left. I really need some more blue socks; I have plenty of red ones because I love red, not that I won't love to knit this into socks and wear them.

This:                                                            instead of this:
                    

Blue sock #1 is now nearly done, just another inch or so on the leg to go.

4. In addition, I brought two balls of Karabella Margrite (80% extra-fine merino, 20% cashmere) to make a chemo cap for Smokey's co-worker.

107 yards of this:                                          was transformed into this:
                    

The color in the first photo is accurate. The cap is lovely soft and was delivered to her this week.

As you can see, I totally pwned that 4-row lace pattern this time. Yay, me!

5. I finished the narrow Clapotis.

Three balls of this:                                   had grown into this before we left.
                            

It subsequently grew into this:            which shall be worn sort of like this:
                    

The jacket is actually a dull olive, a bit darker than the green in the scarf, not the gray it appears to be in the photo. The colors work quite well together.

6. I threw 2 balls of Cascade Fixation in a mottled denim colorway into my knitting bags, too, just in case I felt like knitting another pair of warm weather socks when I finished the corn ones. Didn't happen. The yarn still looks like this:

6.  I did not bring along the half-done child's sweater for A4A. Reality smacked me upside the head. Given the projects above, I knew there was no way I was going to get to this one.

All in all, I am pleased with my progress. Wish it could have been more, but don't we always wish that?

Oh, the wonders you can find.

So there I was, drinking coffee and reading blogs and playing computer Solitaire and listening to iTunes when I decided to hit the iTunes Genius button* while a Ladysmith Black Mambazo song was playing. Fine, that song finished and the next one came on. I continued drinking and reading and clicking and eventually realized that I really, really, really liked the song that was now playing.

But I had never heard it before.

There it was, living in my iTunes library and I had never heard it.

Clicked over to iTunes to see what it was: "Ai Du" by Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Touré, which I had apparently copied over from Elder Son's iTunes at some point. According to the iTunes info, he had gotten it from his former girlfriend Rachel, who was a linguist anthropology major and who had broken up with him in 2006.

Now, I had heard of Ry Cooder, of course, but Ali Farka Touré? Who is he? A little googling and YouTube-ing, and I found that he had been a well-known and -respected Malian musician who died in 2006. The iTunes store even had 6 or 8 of his albums. Most of his music is more North African-sounding, but this song -- the one that had caught my interest -- is a treat for any blues fan. The vocals, not so much for me at least, but the guitar riffs! The beat! Sensual blues heaven.** This is the only version of the song I could find online. Enjoy.

* http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatsnew/and scroll down to "Genius Playlists."

** Yes, I am a fan of the blues, although not the canonical stuff, much to Elder Son's dismay. How can I like the music of Eric Clapton and the Stones without also loving Muddy Waters and every other pre-1960 black blues musician?  Yeah, I'm just a fraud and an ingrate and probably listen to disco music when no one else is around. (Not.) So sue me. Such is life of the mother of The Smartest Son On The Planet.

The lazy cat misses the bird.

En Esch was sound asleep on my desk...

...whilst this handsome fellow was gorging himself mere inches away.

A minute later there were two:

But even though Hannibal -- usually the most observant of kittehs, especially when birdies are involved -- had joined En on the desk blanket, both kittehs were oblivious, being engaged in one of their favorite activities: mutual bathing, aka A Licking Contest.

Yes, was is a very exciting day here at Chez Kat™...

Camping food.

Now that I have completely trashed Nebraska, let me tell you about how well we ate on our vacation.

I considered bringing my espresso machine along (shut up, I am SO a rugged camper) but decided that without a microwave to warm the milk, my latte would be [whining] too haaarrrd. So instead I opted for tea in the mornings.

The first morning:

That's an immersion heater plugged into the cigarette lighter of the van. Fine and good, but one cup of tea is not enough.

Day two:

 

That's better. I'm a four-shot-latte-in-the-morning girl; I need my caffeine.

Breakfast and lunch, if eaten at the campground, were often whatever either of us felt like scrounging up from the grub box -- my choice was usually cheese and crackers, Smokey's was canned corned beef (yuck!) on crackers with pickles. S ometimes we drove into Buffalo and ate at Tom's Diner on Main Street. Mmmmm. One day Tom's was closed and we went to Pistol Pete's out by the freeway; okay, more spacious and western, complete with stuffed heads on the walls, but the food was not as good as Tom's.

From what we could tell, Tom is the owner and fry cook and his wife is the waitress. There was also a guy in the dish room, didn't get his CV. The fun part -- beside the food -- was that every time I looked at Tom I saw Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski. Well, okay, Tom resembled Walter only in the vaguest way imaginable -- and as far as I could tell he wasn't armed -- but still. Going to Tom's Diner and watching Tom/Walter cook my breakfast was definitely a high point of my trip.

Something I have found only at a supermarket in Buffalo, WY are these:

Basque sausage (scroll down). Spicy and very tasty. We cooked them on the grill a couple times and brought these home to recreate the vacation experience. Mmmm redux.

Buffalo has a walk-up scoop shop on Main Street with about a gazillion flavors. Smokey had the black licorice; I had mint chocolate chip. It had the biggest hunks of chocolate I had even had in that flavor. Mmmm (x3).

Even if we didn't go to the scoop shop, we still managed to have our ice cream.

 

That's Ben & Jerry's Everything but the...™. Mmmm.

One night we grilled New York strip steaks purchased at a store in Buffalo, and I want to tell you: they were the best steaks either of us had had in a looonnng time.  They were tender and tasty and juicy but not greasy. Maybe that's because they were local, grass-fed beef? I don't know, but I'd sure like to have a few of those in the freezer.

Okay, now I am gonna make you laugh. Ever seen one of these?

 

That little toaster oven could run off our baby generator (set up at the end of a 125' extension cord so the noise didn't bother anyone) and allowed us to have these for breakfast a couple times:

 

Those are Pillsbury cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting. Pretty danged tasty in the morning, especially once I figured out how to use the toaster oven (duh).

And there you have it: how to go camping without really roughing it :-)

Fourth of July in the heartland.

Anyone who fears America has lost its spirit of blowing things up needs to hang out in Nebraska on the 4th of July as we did. 

Well, hang out might be overstating the case. Flying low perhaps.

Um.

To be perfectly frank, driving I-80 from Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, close by the Nebraska state line, to Lincoln, capital of the Big Red state. That's the leg I drove last Saturday night on our way home.

And "fireworks from one end of the state to the other" might be a bit of an exaggeration, too. How about, "from Ogallala to North Platte to Kearney"?

This may not be the entire length of the state, and it may not look very long on the map, but that bit from Ogallala to North Platte to Kearney? That's about 150 miles, folks, and I was never out of sight of a fireworks display the whole time. At one point as I was approaching North Platte I could see six (6!) separate and distinct pyrotechnic displays as I turned my head from left to right. From 8:45 pm until almost 11 there were fireworks somewhere on my horizon.

If you have to drive across Nebraska on the interstate -- a ribbon of concrete 420 miles long with six trees, no curves, and hills noticeable only if you are pulling a trailer -- do it on the evening of the 4th of July. It will be fun, I promise.

Oops, sorry, that's another exaggeration. Driving across Nebraska is NEVER fun; it's just something you have to do to get from anywhere in the eastern two-thirds of the country to the mountains. It's like death and taxes: unavoidable.

Tomorrow: what we ate on vacation. Hold onto your hats.

Evian = youth (or so they would have you believe).

Courtesy of Younger Son, who says, "...if you only watch one commercial this month, make it this masterpiece:"

Interim.

I am still working on the last post(s) about our vacation. In the meantime, watch this...