Cocktail of ( the rest of the ) Summer!

THE MOSCOW MULE

Yes, yes, I know, I am so very late to this drinks party. I'm sure that I am so late that the cool kids have already moved on from this seasons hottest cocktail. But things arrive late in Canadian Mayberry. I like ANY drink that has to have a special cup!

Could not be any easier to make

TBL Fresh Lime Juice

2oz Vodka

4oz Ginger Beer

( I use diet )

Sprig of mint if you have one

serve over  lots of ice in your cool copper mug.

Dinner

 HAPPY SUMMER !

 Toasting my buttered brioche!

Ranch Burgers 

South Western Chopped Salad

Chips

OUT AND ABOUT

Errand day for us 

 Dropped off some knives to be sharpened at this great little locally owned kitchen shop.

 Hit the bird seed store 

 ( I still think its funny that we even have a bird seed store )

Then on to Wegmans

BRIDGE TO NOWHERE

The Cobb County Commission voted last week to go ahead with the bridge to span 285 connection one big ass mall to another , one of them has a baseball field, not sure which. Not really a clue as to how much it will cost or when it will be finished, they have already said it won't be in time for the move from Atlanta - and AND my favorite favorite part coming from bright red GOP led Cobbco 

"Cobb is seeking state and federal funding to help pay for the bridge."

Full story from Atlanta's WXIA

A PRIZE NO ONE WANTED

Boy, the 2022 Winter Games could not get arrested . With only two bids, the other being Almaty, Kazakhstan ( yeah, like that's a real place ) the games are going back to BEIJING - you know a place with NO SNOW...

From the NYT : It’s a sad day when the International Olympic Committee cannot even clear one of the lowest bars for choosing the host city for the Winter Games: snow.Yes, snow — the element that most would say is crucial for holding events that are contested on it.
But the I.O.C. on Friday still went ahead and chose Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Games, even though the mountains in those Olympic plans have “minimal annual snowfall” and the Games would “rely completely on artificial snow,” according to an I.O.C. evaluation report published in June.
The vote over the only other bid, from Almaty, Kazakhstan, was closer than expected, 44-40. But those tough-minded I.O.C. delegates weren’t wooed by Almaty and its picture-perfect setting or its longstanding tradition of winter sports. Or, of course, by its mountains, which Almaty organizers pointedly — and repeatedly — noted were covered by snow that actually fell from the sky.
While the Almaty bid’s slogan was “Keeping It Real,” Beijing’s could have been, “Keeping It Impractical.”  ( THE REST  )

BEIJING GETS THE GAMES

BANANA PUDDING ICE BOX CAKE

( I like everything about that title )

I have not made this yet, but it sounds great.

RECIPE

COUNTDOWN

Tomorrow is AUGUST, meaning that NYE is right around the corner. 

Life begins anew.

The first pre-season poll came out :

1. OHIO STATE
2. TCU
3. ALABAMA
4. BAYLOR
5. OREGON
6. MICHIGAN STATE
7. AUBURN
8. FLORIDA STATE
9. GEORGIA
10. USC ( So. Cal )
11. NOTRE DAME
12. CLEM(p)SON
13. LSU
14. UCLA
15. MISSISSIPPI
16. ARIZONA STATE
17. GEORGIA TECH
18. WISCONSIN 
19. OKLAHOMA
20. ARKANSAS
21. STANFORD
22. ARIZONA
23. MISSSOURI 
24. BOISE STATE
25. TENNESSEE

Plenty of SEC representation naturally. I dug into OHIO STATE and TCU 's schedules, and they play no one, well , Ohio does play Michigan State, I dont think TCU plays anyone on this list - so jumping the two top teams will be a feat this season.

UGA opens their season Saturday September 5th against the ULM Warhawks - yeah, I dont have a clue either. The game is on the SEC Network. Both the Vandy games and the South Carolina games already have KO times. Vandy in Nashville is the SEC on CBS game, so 3:30 and SC is at 6pm onESPN - from Athens.

Gift Day!

 The current Bishop sent Neil a lovely " hope you are feeling better " bouquet of flowers , with all sorts of things stuck in it , cones and seed pods, this big poppy looking thing. Very interesting arrangement . Very kind of him and his staff to send..

AND

My pal Michael gave us a cake from Chattanooga, where he has been for most of the Summer so far.

Out and About

 I picked up a friend at the airport yesterday and for the first time in forever there were no police/sheriff cars stationed at the Rochester airport... interesting.

He had been away for a long time, so I helped him out by getting some essentials 

This giant fish was at the Geneva Wegmans...

But what about my needs ?

The whole world had a moment of righteous indignation this past week over the senseless killing of an tracked African lion by some full on douche bag of a dentist from the Minneapolis area. The biggest internet wildfire that folks had seen in a long long time as the vile man has all but been chased from public life - good riddance to bad garbage.

But day two brought out something new , at least new to me - and Im not even really sure what to call it. People, right left and center were doubly outraged that time was being spent on the poor lion when their cause was much much more important.

How dare you talk about this lion when __________ is happening. African American women can't leave their house and Planned Parenthood is snatching toddlers out of mothers arms to chop up and put in pies. On and on and on.

I dont really know about all these very outraged people, but I have now and always have had the ability to be outraged over several things - hell dozens of things - all at once. Not at all good enough for the new full on victim class - it's their current horror or non at all.

IT'S A GIANT JESUS

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

Summer with a vengeance...

The hottest day of the year so far. I was watching Buffalo news this afternoon and it was the very first time that they had hit 90º since 2011 . Only the second official time for us this year. A busy one for me , errands and such , wouldn't be a day around here with out a trip to a garden store,  local market, farm stand then took Drew back to town.. so all over on this hot sticky day.

Dinner

LISTS !

From London's Telegraph we get a little hot weather click bait, but is one is most enjoyable

100 greatest songs of all time

( retched REM choices, but at least they are there, TWICE! ) 

TEACH!

Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail

It was Atom Bomb night on PBS tonight , a long winded history of the bomb followed by this just delightful documentary on Uranium. It is in three parts, with part two tomorrow night, catch up if you missed #1.

The host is Derek Muller, sort of Canadian sort of Australian all around darn cute little otter of a physicist who has a new happy thing of a You Tube channel called VERITASIUM , which is a   "channel of science and engineering videos featuring experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science."

Dinner

We still had everything to make another one!

Daily Koda

Out spell of pure Summer stretched on another day, they say the whole week - too hot for Neil right now. I feel right at home, got the lawn mowed, etc.

The rare inside Koda, a hot evening, we just hunkered down together in the AC...

MOVIE MONDAY ( a day late )

Let's face it , even I , a total ex comic book geek, and getting a little saturated with comic book movies . ( unlike most everyone else , I think the Superman/Batman and Fantastic 4 re-boot #9 things look dreadful ) . I mean I will still see everyone - just a tad full.

That said, THIS ONE IS GOOD, and here is why. It fits super seamlessly into the new Marvel Movie Universe - with plenty of bones thrown to the hard cores, but it is a self contained SMALL story. Not every coming book that came out back when I read comics was some save all of mankind and the world/universe. Sometimes superheros were just dealing with one bad guy.. LIKE this movie. Also it is really funny - something that the X-Men / Avengers movies dont really get.

marching

BOY SCOUTS END BAN ON GAY LEADERS

R.E.M Country Feedback live on Jools Holland 1998

Some Michael at his very best. One of those videos that you just want to crawl inside and make it  your world.

Dinner

A great big home made COBB SALAD.

This was so darn good, it's going to be my go to meal for the rest of the summer.

Peach Short Cake

From the peaches that we got yesterday. They were good , but not super sweet - making me think that they are local. 

A Double Daily Koda

( plus you got the video which may or may not still be there ..)

Koda and I dropped Neil off at day two of the iris sale, he popped out to say hello

Then when we got home later that afternoon Neil took him for a quick walk.

Suddenly Summer

All the complaining about the rain and lack of heat will be GWTW this coming week. Full blast for this far north. 'Bout time.

SUMMER I

SUMMER II

SUMMER III

Paris - City of Fashion

Koda Koda

( I bet this will not stick around with a song from the radio in it... 

if not enjoy some silent Koda surfing )

Evening in Mendon

 The rent a church right down the road is super busy this time of year, at least two a weekend, once or twice there have been two a day. It's a good deal for sort of one stop shopping somewhat traditional wedding days , in sort of a church but with out the church trappings. They have built a nice sort of tent addition on to the back and added a nice lighted patio - Koda really wanted to be in this photo.

 This lovely young bride and her smoking hot husband to be were just walking around this parking lot today , taking pics all over. It is not filthy or anything, but normal parking lot dirt and grass.. it what looked to my eye a very expensive dress... these kids today

 The morning rain cleared out to a very nice afternoon/ evening. All these clouds went away giving us a blue sky later on. A nice night for Koda and I to grill out

 DINNER

BBQ CHICKEN

 Red POTATO and Fresh CORN SALAD*

w/ grape tomatoes

Summer Greens Salad

* this was easy and very good, a little twist to the normal potato salad.

Just boil some red potatoes, I get the non tiny ones, I like the texture more and they are cheaper. 

Grill your fresh corn, out of the husk - I made this yesterday, and did the corn in the house, just putting it in a hot black skillet- turning it over and over, make the house smokey, but it worked, the grill would be better.

When the corn and potatoes are cool, shave the corn off the cobb into a big bowl. Add equal parts mayo and sour cream ( really as much as your family likes) salt , pepper a little lemon juice and a scant quarter to half teaspoon of toasted cumin - really gives it a smokey outdoor taste. Just put your small mouth of cumin in a dry pan and toast for just a couple of min, sort of shaking it around a bit. Will change the whole flavor of the spice- and add a very nice touch to the salad. Mix into dressing

Lightly toss - then add the tomatoes tossing a bit more to cover all. Something green would have been nice , parsley or tarragon or something, but I didn't have anything...

MORE IRIS - PA - LOOZA

Pretty self explanatory

The annual GRIS Iris Sale - this time held at a farm/ garden store a town of. 

I went in at the crack of nine to help Neil get set up, there are still things that he is not allowed to do. Lift and pull being two of them

A little bit of a rainy morning all around, but cleared by the afternoon

A happy Neil

I was told they got pretty busy in as the day rolled on. The garden shop just could not have been easier to Neil's club. Free space, extra tables, etc...

They have these long tables of growing strawberries there in the front of the place. I do not know if they are " pick your own " of if they only have them to sell in their market. There is just close to nothing better than a sun warmed just picked strawberry. One odd thing is though you have to eat them right when you get them - or else they go a bit wonky.

A non summer grocery store berry , a Driscols, will last for a week to ten days - you have to wonder what is done to the giant hollow berries to make them last so long. I really try and not buy them , other than if , like a roma tomato, just need something red on the plate.

These peaches are supposedly somewhat local, but it is a bit early for Lake Ontario peaches, so I bet these came from Pennsylvania or somewhere close. The blast of peach smell when you walked into this place was just overwhelming, so I just had to have them. We did not eat them tonight , but will report back tomorrow.

I almost bought this cat pot.

47 second quick change .

IRIS STUFF

Neil's club's sale is this weekend - and he is still pretty limited in the things he can do, so I was helping out with things. Kodak was as well .

Adventures in Health Care - THE RESULTS

We have been living the life of Damocles - pretty much since March when we first got the news , Until this morning when we most unceremonious go the good news - CANCER FREE ! The appointment scheduled since the surgery to remove his most annoying catheter and get these results. Every doctor told us from the get go that since it was caught so early that things should be ok. But, you just never know unless you hear the words.

It was the PA that told us, our most cool surgeon just popped in to check on how we were both doing and popped right back out - don't think he has much interest in the non sick. I then left the room for the tugging part - and Neil was out in less than 10 minutes.

Seriously though it really is like more than a ton of bricks has been lifted from us both. We were not talking much about it, but it was always around. Now gone!

Hopefully things can get back to more of a normal pace for me and the blog. Summer should pick up a little bit now.

History In The Making- Documentary Trailer (2015)

The Iris Folk

It is high summer here and Neil is totally still out of the gardening game - which is not a good thing. So today a group of his garden club pals came over and did a bunch of garden work for him - a very nice thing for them to do.

I made them a little lunch, chicken and tuna salad sandwich, chips, cookies, pickles - a little working picnic

They are getting ready for their annual sale that is coming up this weekend -

Turned out to be a really nice day, not all that hot - nice breeze . Many thanks to all the folks that came over and helped o ut.

and going back in the house I snapped this pic because this flower was really pretty