Okay, now take a deep breath...

Damn it's hot! The weather radio kept going off all day with severe thunderstorm warnings. No rain here at the house just unbearable humidity. The taller half put in the invisible dog fence, mostly, so I guess I'll start with the training sessions tomorrow. I hope this doesn't make nervous red dog a complete basket case.

Just call me stupid: I went to Wally World today - along with every tourist in town for the holiday. Sometimes I have to wonder where my brain goes at times like this. Ran into a couple of friends who had the same deer-in-the-headlights look as all the poor locals. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad folks like to vacation in my town - keeps me in a full-time job. But ... does the whole family have to go to the store together? There ought to be a crowd cluster limit on the shopping carts. No lie, I saw 17 people walking along with one cart and driver. Seventeen!? Why can't just a couple of the group go shopping and the rest stay at the beach I thought they came to see?

While I'm on a roll ... why do tourists have to go eat at the fast food places exactly at noon when they could go anytime at all because they are on vacation! It is almost impossible for us working people to get out in the traffic, go through the drive-up (or even walk in, for that matter) and get back to work in the allotted hour lunch break. I really feel for the people who only get 30 minutes. Please, visitors to our fair city, think about those of us who aren't on vacation and don't have all day to grab a bite to eat because we are providing the services you want, deserve and expect to be available. Please don't make us wait behind you while you keep asking "honey, what do you want" when "honey" is only 3 years old and would believe anything is a chicken nugget if you said it was. Actually, I tried that with a little one once -told her that popcorn shrimp and bites of hamburger steak were chicken nuggets - it worked.

Whew, that was a lot to get out of my system. Now for the rest of the weekend I'm going to stay here at the ranch(house), drink lots of cold beverages, barbecue some ribs, spend a little quality time at the workbench - still haven't gotten to those lovely new beads - and read the new Dave Robicheaux novel from James Lee Burke. www.jamesleeburke.com/bibliography/42.php

Thanks for reading and letting me vent my frustrations. I feel like I have gotten in touch with my inner George Carlin -- God I'm going to miss him. www.georgecarlin.com/

I really do like tourists it's just that sometimes...

Long Holiday Weekend Plans

I can't wait for 5 o'clock this evening - I'm off work until Monday morning. Huzzah! Tonight the taller half and I are going to the Tom Waits concert in Mobile. We've both been hoping to see him for years but his sporadic touring schedule never matched up with where we were. Tour info at http://tomwaits.com/

Big plans for tomorrow, too. We bought an invisible fence to put around the yard. Nervous red dog needs more exercise than her rapidly aging mama can provide so we're going to put in the fence and pray she doesn't fry her brains learning where the boundaries are. Working with the taller half to accomplish this may not be a good idea so I plan on strawbossing and providing cool adult beverages along with a running commentary. Should be interesting to say the least.

In our local paper this morning, my favorite food editor had a great column on barbeque. Check it out at blog.al.com/generous-portions/ He has some great tips from Steve Raichlen's Barbeque Bible www.barbecuebible.com/ This is my favorite book for grilling and bbq-ing info. I'm thinking baby back ribs, chicken, maybe some sausages...yum. The 4th of July barbeque was always a big deal at home when my brother and I were kids. Mama would wrap sliced potatoes and onions in tin foil, put in lots of butter and chives and a dash of cayenne. The package would cook alongside the ribs and smell heavenly. I loved the potatoes that would almost stick on the bottom - they were golden brown and crispy. I think those will definitely be on the menu this year. Daddy always made homemade ice cream in an old hand crank freezer. My brother and I would start off the cranking so energetically and tire almost immediately. Daddy wouldn't take over until the handle wouldn't turn even with both of us pulling on it. Watermelon frosty cold from the cooler, ice cream made with a real vanilla bean, ribs so tender you could pull the meat off the bone with your lips...now that was a 4th of July barbeque!

After the feasting, we'll head over to the state park to get a primo view of the city's fireworks show. Every year a barge anchors about 1/4 mile offshore from the public beach and fires a spectacular show out over the gulf. The traffic is horrendous so we try to park on the backroad around the lake so we can scoot out and get home before the rest of the people start playing bumper cars. There really isn't a bad seat anywhere along the beach road and lake road through the park.

Finally Saturday will get here and I can spend the day at my workbench. Hopefully, the taller half will go diving so I'll have the day to myself. I got some beautiful new opalite teardrops from http://gottacraft.etsy.com. I have several ideas for using them - can't wait to get started.

Barbeque, fireworks, crafting time - what more could a girl want or need?!

Happy 4th of July to you!