Tuesday/Final Prep Day

The work day was slow.  No deliveries – one was slated for today, but we’ve been getting a lot of rain lately.  The site was flooded/mudded so it was cancelled.  I ended up loading the truck up with scrap metal and taking it over to a place in Phoenix to sell it.

That was a story in itself.  I kicked myself for not taking my camera today, that would have been a real photo op, especially those funny looking cranes they use to unload trucks and pile it up in a heap. 

5 thousand pounds of scrap metal only worth $315. 

Well, whatever.  I got back and asked the boss if I could leave early.  He thought about it – 10 minutes later said go ahead and leave.  I’m off until Monday : )

This is the vacation I didn’t get this year, who cares if I ain’t going anywhere, I certainly don’t.  I NEED some time off – some serious time off, I figure 5 days in a row is pretty good, not considering there’s still 8 hours left in today. 

Well, I stopped and filled the propane tank for my new grill up – half way.  Didn’t want to spend that much filling it all the way up and anyway, half a tank will last me a long time.

I then stopped and cashed the check my dad sent my son for Christmas – $150.  That’s a lot of dough for a Christmas present!

Then to Home Depot – I needed a fluorescent light bulb for one of the lights in my kitchen.

To Fry’s to buy whatever needed for tomorrow.  Because dinner is going to be so meat heavy, I opted to not buy too much for finger foods.  Mary made all of that salsa up, I just bought a big bag of chips and then some ranch dip for sausage and crackers.  I’m thinking of not putting that out, either, just because of the huge dinner. 

I got a standing rib roast – the cheapest one they had – they’re on sale, big enough plus the ham tomorrow is going to have a lot of leftovers.  I will be eating very nice for the rest of this week : )  Okay, so it’s customary to send some food home with people, still, there should be lots of leftovers anyway. 

I wasn’t going to get the roast – but it ‘s tradiitonal Christmas fare.  My mother’s bringing coleslaw, green bean casserole (darn good stuff) and a dessert.  My oldest brother and his wife are bringing her legendary potatoes and a dessert, I have no clue what my middle brother is bringing.  As I said, I need only supply the meat, drinks and limited finger foods. 

My boss informed me how a standing rib roast should be prepared, and I carefully took down his instructions.  He’s something akin to a chef – he’s big into cooking meats in a smoker, he’s a pro at cooking rib roasts cause’ he used to work at a place that sold a lot of that stuff – and he was a cook. 

He said to take salt; pepper; and garlic salt, sprinkle it all ove r the roast and then rub it in.  Really rub it in.  Let it stand for an hour, and then create a cover for the roast by mixing salt; pepper; more garlic and kosher salt.  Put it in a bowl, put some water in it and mix it up.  Add water until you have a pasty substance. 

Take that paste and cover that roast – the sides and the top, not the bottom.  Cook at 300 until around 150 internal.  That’s rare.  I like rare meat like that, everyone in my family does too.  Somebody wants it cooked more, they can just have ham instead : ) 

Got home, got to work outside.  Just cleaning up and making everything neat and tidy.  I left a bit for my son and Michael for tomorrow morning.  Dinner isn’t served until about 3:00 pm because my sister-in-law isn’t getting off work until noon.  Came in here and started listing in my  head what I have left to do.  Finish painting for the umpteenth time – I always think it’s done, and then I find it’s not – a surfactual cleaning of the kitchen/utility room vinyl flooring and finishing touches on the bedrooom. Bathroom is pretty much done, though there will be a light cleaning.  The other bathroom is also spotless thanks to Mary’s efforts. 

It isn’t a LOT to go – but it’s enough to consume today and tomorrow.  This is a lot of work – but I am glad because it has forced me to do things I would have taken my sweet time in getting around to.  Cavco coming last week was the coup-de-gras in getting everything fixed/working properly.  I think I might head to the bedroom and take a short nap, get a good second wind and then get cranking on the rest of what needs to be done. 

Mom said she would be coming earlier – I didn’t know exactly what that meant, I only could tell her that I would be gone in the morning up intil around 10:00 pm.  I don’t know how long that roast is going to take to cook – gonna have to look up a chart on line and see what that size roast takes to cook at 300 degrees.  I can’t imagine it taking more than 5 hours, though. 

Yes, there is a lot left to do.  But – it’s gonna get done, I’m gonna be happy with the end result and that will be that. 

Right now – sleep is entering my eyes.  I can’t tell you why – I slept okay last night, not great but okay.  I would rather get a nap and get refreshed than try to crank on this stuff and have that tired feeling. 

So, with that, I bid you a good afternoon and c’yall later!

ben