Friday, at last...

I'm not sure why, but Friday afternoon was incredibly long, incredibly boring and incredibly sleepy at work. I could not stop yawning. I was bemoaning this fact to my friend B___ because I have some serious duck carving to do tonight. He suggested I take a nap immediately upon my arrival home to ensure I could stay up late, later.

Stopped at Farmer Jack's on the way home to pick up some corned beef and cabbage for St. Paddy's Day. I wasn't going to, as I don't have the Dutch oven that traditional recipes call for. But I saw one for my slow cooker and, since I love corned beef and cabbage, decided to become Irish for the day. Name's O'Goerlich, me boyo!

Speaking of that, I must have missed the memo, but when did "crock pots" become "slow cookers"? You cannot find the word "crock pot" in any recipe or sales literature now. Weird.

Got home and tried to nap. Two phone calls later, it was 6:30 PM, I hadn't slept a wink and I was getting p*ssed. So, I got up and went back to duck work.

Okay, amusing story. After lunch, my friend B___ and I stopped in to World Market to browse (and avoid going back to work, truth be told). While passing the Easter display, B___ pointed out a pull-toy duck. Pshaw! It wasn't a three dimensional, carved duck. It was a silhouette cut into half-inch wood and painted to look like a duck. And, it had four wheels, not two egg-shaped wheels, each slightly offset to the axle so it could waddle. I demonstrated by pulling the string. The duck moved forward, AND THE DAMN THING WADDLED!!! And, you know how they did it? No complicated formula like mine, they just sanded flats in each wheel!!! Damn clever, these third-world craftsmen. Don't tell anybody, but this is now my fall-back position should the egg-shaped wheels fail.

Anyway, got the wings cut into the wing/body-side boards (this is getting hard to explain) by undercutting the body-side with a router. Then worked on the duck's neck and butt, rounding both. The rounded butt is important (hey, for me, it always is, okay?) because that will be the third point touching the ground when you pull it and it has to be rounded to allow it to waddle (assuming it does... those third-world craftsmen have shaken my confidence with their flat-tire solution!)

Then I got two bar clamps and some glue and carefully glued the wing/body-side boards to the body. This will have to set up over night, its after 8:00 PM and I'm hungry, so I'm duck-done for the night. I didn't even clean up the sawdust!

While picking up my corned beef, I spotted a rib-eye steak with a two dollar off "Manager Special" tag, so I grabbed that, too. I used my house seasoning on it and threw it on my two burner grill pan (vent fan on), took the skins off the sweet potatoes I made the other day, reheated them in the microwave and mashed them with a fork. Sauteed the rest of my white mushrooms in butter and olive oil, then used them to top my steak.

Oh my, that was a great dinner!

Started watching the Friday night fights (also taping them as I know how tired I am) and fell asleep at some point. I woke up at 1:30 AM, went to the bathroom, glanced outside, and, DAMN, it's snowing!!! Where the hell did that come from? It was supposed to be dry this weekend!

Sigh...