GrillSgt's Firepit

The Big Snow

Here are the photos I took during and after the big snowstorm we had that dumped almost 2 feet of snow on us in Virginia. It took me two days to clear the driveway of all the snow. I figured that I cleared 2250 cubic feet, or 45,000 pounds, of snow from the driveway. I probably could have done it all in one day, but we didn’t have a need to go anywhere; besides, the main roads were barely passable anyway. Because of the storm, I had to postpone my Christmas travel plans, visiting my parents, aunt, uncle and multitudes of cousins in Mississippi. Instead, I’ll visit them sometime in early 2010.

Holidays 2008

Thanksgiving was very quiet for Stephanie and I. Since we weren’t traveling for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and had no weary visitors, we decided not to cook Thanksgiving dinner. After all, it’s just the two of us. We would have had plenty of leftovers to eat ’til they came out of our ears; the rest would have gotten thrown away. Then we’d have done it all over again for Christmas. So we went out to a German restaurant, The Bavarian Chef, that’s about 15 miles north. They had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in addition to their regular menu. It was fantastic, and we still had leftovers! But just for one day instead of 7!

For Christmas, we did the usual spread: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, jello salad (we skipped the sweet potatoes since it was just us). This year I brined the turkey overnight, then put it on the grill to smoke. I used the charcoal grill because it smokes better. I didn’t realize that the turkey was going to take significantly longer to cook. It was worth the wait, but I definitely will have to start the bird much earlier if I use the charcoal grill for turkey again. The turkey had a nice smoke flavor to go with the cranberry and herb brine and was extremely moist. Didn’t need gravy on the turkey at all.

As I said, we had no guests, so it was a nice quiet Christmas. I completely surprised Stephanie with an Invicta watch that has very small diamonds around the face (I got a great deal on it too!) and an original seatbelt purse. I also got her the rest of the Fiesta flatware she wanted. Mom and Dad helped by getting her the second hostess set she wanted. She also got a book of the events for 1968, another Invicta watch, some Zune MP3 player accessories, and the slippers she got me because they were too small (don’t worry, I’m getting another pair). Besides the slippers, Stephanie got me a pair of hiking boots. I also got a new bathrobe, that my Mom made herself, The Dark Knight DVD, a second pair of hiking boots, a couple of accessories for my Dremel and some Zune MP3 player accessories. My brother gave us a Chili’s gift card, which we used for dinner last night. My aunt and uncle sent us a Target gift card and we also got some cash from both sets of parents. Pretty nice haul.

New Year’s was also quiet. No invites to friends’ parties, which turned out to be a good thing because, as it turns out, Stephanie has the flu. So we stayed home, snacked and watched The Twilight Zone marathon on the Sci-Fi channel. IMO, it’s still one of the best TV shows of all time.

Happy New Year everyone!

Memorial Day Weekend 2008

Friday

We had a very enjoyable Memorial Day weekend this year. Ed, Stephanie’s Dad, and Judy, Ed’s wife, flew in on Friday morning to spend most of the weekend with us. I took Friday off, so I had a four day weekend. Ed and Judy got into Charlottesville about 11:00 AM and went to their hotel to get a little rest. They came up to our house about 3:00 PM. We showed them our unusual rental house and chatted for a while. We then decided to go to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner. After dinner, Ed and Judy were tired, so they headed back to the hotel. It was a nice dinner.

Saturday

Ed and Judy showed up about 11:00 AM. We served bagels and cream cheese from Bodo’s Bagels, lox, onions and tomatoes for brunch. Bodo’s Bagels are New York style bagels and very good. We’ll be going there more often. About 1:30 PM we loaded up in my truck and drove to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home. We bought our house tour tickets, which were for 5:10 PM. We had a couple of hours to kill before the tour so we took a 45 minute guided walking tour of the plantation. It isn’t a long walk really, no more than a 1/4 mile down Mulberry Row. Our guide was very good. Not only did we learn about the plantation and the lands around Monticello, but also about the Jefferson family and some of his dependencies (slaves). It was quite interesting. After the plantation tour, we stopped in the gift shop to get a couple snacks and souvenirs. After a short rest, we made our way to the line for our house tour. Like the plantation tour, the house tour was quite interesting. Thomas Jefferson was quite the innovator and architect. He incorporated alcove bedrooms, double paned windows, pocket doors, dumbwaiters and a variety of other interesting features into Monticello. Unfortunately, no one is allowed to take pictures or video inside Monticello so I don’t have any photos inside the house, but I have plenty of the house from the outside, the plantation, gardens and the views, which are spectacular. I’ve included a slideshow below. If you want to look at the phots full size, use this link, Monticello Photos or click on the slideshow. There were some things we didn’t have time to see, like the dependencies (slaves) quarters and Jefferson’s grave, so we’ll definitely have to go back again.

After the house tour, we went back to the parking lot on the shuttle bus and headed for home. We were planning to eat out at the Downtown Mall, but needed to get home to let Juneau and Cinnamon out and feed them. So we decided to eat in. We barbecued chicken and green beans, microwaved potaoes and mixed up a quick Caesar’s salad. We had fresh fruit, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries for dessert. Ed and Judy headed back to the hotel around 10:00 PM.

Sunday

Ed and Judy arrived about 10:30 AM for another bagel brunch. About 1:00 PM, we drove down to the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, VA. The Downtown Mall is an outdoor walking mall with a collection of shops, restaurants, offices and other places. There is a movie theater and an indoor ice rink at the west end. At the east end there is the Charlottesville City Hall and the Pavillion. A variety of musical acts play at the Pavillion throughout the summer. On Friday’s after 5:00 PM, there are free shows during the summer. There are also some flea market style vendors, street mucisians and other interesting characters at times. We walked around the mall for an hour or so then had a late lunch at Caffe Italia. Very good Italian food (but I still haven’t found anything stateside that compares with the restaurants I ate at while in Italy!). I took a few photos, which are in the slideshow below. If you’d like to see the full size photos, click this link, Downtown Mall or click on the slideshow.

After our late lunch, we drove around the University of Virginia for a little while then headed back to our house. Ed and Judy left for the hotel around 6:00 PM for an early turn in as their flight back to Florida left at 5:30 AM on Monday.

Monday

Stephanie and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We both liked the movie, but it definitely lacked a little bit in plot and wasn’t as good as the original (none of the sequels were). Still it was good fun. We also stopped off at Lowes to pick up a couple of desk lamps, patio umbrella and a charcoal grill.

Overall, it was an enjoyable weekend.

Sir Slash

The company I work for tries to make work fun and enjoyable. They cater lunch everyday and soft drinks and juices are free. For Halloween, we had a small party in the afternoon. There were three contests: pumpkin carving, costumes and treats. For the treats, people were encouraged to bring a treat to work. A committee then judged the treats on presentation, and of course, taste. The winning entry was called Kitty Litter, was served in a litter box and looked like kitty litter. Second place went to something called Moneky Brain Bread. For the pumpkin carving contest, the company supplied the pumpkins and carving kits. Carvers had but 30 minutes to carve their pumpkins. Then the committee voted on the top three. The costume contest was voted on by anyone… they had a voting box in the lunch room and anyone could vote for their favorie costumes. I dressed up as Slash (Guns ‘N’ Roses, Slash’s Snakepit, Velvet Revolver). But since I work night shift, I wasn’t around very long before voting was cut off, and, as such, I didn’t garner many votes. Still, people thought the costume was cool. After seeing the pictures, it came out better than I thought (and, yes, I even shaved off the stache to pull it off!).