Saturday

I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep Saturday morning. It was overcast, but not raining (for a change) when I headed out for a 9:30 a.m. haircut.

From there I went to Kroger's and it was packed! Next I stopped at Westborn for some lemons, eggplant and grated Parmesan cheese.

Finally, I went to Home Depot. Since I was there anyway and hadn't eaten breakfast, I bought a hot dog on the way out and ate it in the truck.

I got home about 11:30 a.m. and left the truck outside to unload it. As I was doing that, the sun came out!!!

I was pumped! So, I put everything away and changed into work clothes And, instead of freezing the strip steak I'd bought on sale, I stuck it in the fridge.

I went out front with my pruning shears and trimmed up the forsithia. There are two bushes on the south side of the driveway that were here when I first got here. Both are a little out of control and have a lot of dead branches. So I cut them WAY back (from about five feet tall to maybe three feet).

Sidebar: Everything was really, really wet as was I by the time I was done.

Back inside, I changed out of my wet clothes into shorts and a t-shirt. Then I started the weekend wash.

I took a break and watched a couple DIY shows. Then I took a nice nap.

When I woke up, it was a little more cloudy, but there were still peaks of sunshine. I turned the oven on to preheat while I cut one of my neighbor's butternut squash in half. I cleaned out the seeds and put a big pat of butter in the cavity. Then I added some brown sugar (I know, I know). I scored the flesh so the butter/brown sugar mix would (hopefully) premiate the whole squash.

I stuck that in the oven and went out to fire up the charcoal chimney. I took the steak out to come to room temperature. I seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Son of a bitch! Before the charcoal was ready, it started to rain.

Time to regroup. I got out the cast iron frying pan and heated it up. I added a little canola oil and butter and, when it was close to smoking, I added the steak. Using the CORRECT tongs, I turned it after getting a nice sear on the first side.

Sidebar: I forgot to mention this, but on Friday, Miss Victoria informed me I was now allowed to use the stove and oven again. She's funny...

I put the steak on a platter to let it rest while I dealt with the squash.

I cleaned out one squash (the other will go in the fridge when cooled) and plated my dinner.

It was excellent, even without the smoking flavor it should have had.

As I downloaded the pictures from the camera, I found two I hadn't retrieved. One was to show you how nice the mailbox garden looks.

The other was the macaroni salad I made for the family reunion that I then had to eat by myself.

I cleaned the dinner mess up, remade the bed and folded the rest of the laundry.

I watched some more TV and then went to bed early.