Friday

When I got up at 4:00 AM to visit the bathroom, I looked outside. Everything was covered with snow, but it didn't look like much accumulation. However, when I woke up at 5:45, the snow was coming down hard! I checked the weather and traffic on the TV and saw that I-96 (an expressway and my usual route) was snow covered and, since Plymouth Road was too, I just stayed on Plymouth to Eckles to Schoolcraft and work. I figured there was less of a chance on the surface streets of some yahoo trying to rush to get to work and crashing into me. Had to use the W button all the way (it's a traction thing in a Volvo. I think you are starting in 2nd or 3rd gear instead of 1st so you don't spin your tires and lose traction. But, what do I know? I never did get the owner's guide!) The whole trip into work, I never got over 25 MPH. It took me 40 minutes to get there (usually a 10 - 15 minute trip for the approximately 7 1/2 miles).

I went out at lunch to get my company's Christmas gift of a Honey Baked Ham. I want the ham bone to make some split pea and ham soup. I'm hoping to take that and some of the ham out to my Mom's on Sunday. I went from there to my house to drop it off. I made some of it into a ham sandwich for my lunch. Actually, I had two, with a dill pickle and washed them both down with buttermilk.

Road conditions at noon? The north-south roads are clear and salted (such as Newburgh and Inkster) but the east-west ones are not (Plymouth or 5 Mile). Although they said on the Channel 4 news at noon the snow had stopped, it hasn't here yet (it did lighten up around 10:30). They said they cancelled the Heavy Snow Alert and we might only get another inch or so.

I checked and measured 3 inches of snow at lunch at the house. And, heading back to work, on Plymouth, I still had to have the "W" button on to keep from sliding. But, I took the expressway back to work and it was okay by then.

Throughout the afternoon, people kept leaving, wishing me a good weekend. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to beat the next round of snow home. I did check the weather maps on the internet and there was another big snow storm approaching from the south. By 4:30 PM, there were only two of us IT personnel left: me and Ying, a Chinese programmer. All the Manufacturing folks had gone and their wing was dark and the middle wing (Purchasing) had only about half its staff left.

At 4:50 PM, Jake told me to go home (it was snowing again by then). So, I gathered up my stuff, said goodbye to Ying and headed out. Since I left about 5 minutes early, "Bang the Drum" was still playing when I pulled in my garage.

Now as you may have surmised, I am constantly surprised by Caley's antics. The closest thing I can come up with to describe it to you would be a very bad Hallmark channel movie, where the crusty old Grandpa, who had lived alone for twenty years or so, finds out his only son and daughter-in-law were killed in a car accident and has to adapt to living with a 14-year old teenage grandson.

What do I mean by that? Well, me and Scruffy are probably about the same age (in human versus cat years) and we have, over time, settled into an understanding of sorts. We each do a lot of sleeping, being lazy, a little eating, yawning, and so on. We seek each other out when we might feel the need for some attention or comfort and ignore each other, otherwise. But Caley is always bouncing around, fighting with Scruffy, pushing on me, and causing trouble, etc. For example, when she recently jumped up and broke the office lamp.

So, tonight, I am checking my blood sugar (I do it once in the morning and once when I get home) and she decides it would be fun to jump from the dresser to the top of the TV. But, what she doesn't know is that I put the remote on the top of the TV when I went to work.

Upshot? The remote goes flying, hits the hardwood floor and separates into three pieces. So, I spend the next half hour trying to get the little rubber buttons back into the top of the outer plastic case, then getting the outer case lined up with the inner circuit board and the bottom of the outer case. If this sounds complicated, it was much, much worse in reality. But, by 7:00 PM, I had it back together (secured with tape - I look like trailer trash, now) and working. That cat is NOT gonna make it to three years old if she keeps this sh*t up!!!

(Here Caley, here, Caley... would you like some milk on the patio?)

So, it's 7:00 PM and I'm not hungry yet, so I lay down to read and maybe take a nap. It's the weekend and I can stay up as late as I want!!!

Amazingly, I sleep until after midnight. I awoke, not so much hungry as feeling a little pressured because of the food prep I needed to do Friday night. As I said before, I want to make split pea and ham soup on Saturday to take to Mom's on Sunday. And, Jake and Carla are coming over Saturday afternoon. We are going to make appetizers, pig out and probably play cards or a board game or two. I'll be making my Jamaican Jerked Chicken Wings, so I need to get the wings into the marinade.

First, I sort through the split peas. I know, I know what you are thinking... I'm always tempted to blow by this step, myself. But, I always find a little stone or two, the same size as the peas (which is how it gets through the grate or whatever they use to sort them), so trust me, do it! I only found one tonight, BTW. I covered the peas with water and leave them to soak overnight.

So, let's do the marinade next. I combine the following: 1/2 cup Jamaican jerk seasoning (I always buy McCormick's), 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup orange juice (Since I don't drink orange juice, I just buy an orange and juice it), two tablespoons of lime juice (same as the orange - one lime will easily do it), two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of a good soy sauce. I whisk that all together and dump it over two pounds of thawed chicken wings I put in a big (gallon) baggie. I work that around a bit and throw it in the fridge. You need to keep it in the marinade from 4 to 24 hours (revisit it every now and then and turn the bag after massaging it a tad).

Finally, I made the dipping sauce for the wings. Now, in the past, I've tried the recommended salsa (didn't like it - seemed weird, after buffalo wings and blue cheese dressing) and store-bought blue cheese dressing (okay, but, well, store-bought, if you know what I mean). So, I searched the 'Net and found an interesting dip. It was Emeril Lagasse's and originally made for fried clams, but I'm gonna try it! He calls it "Gaahlicky Blue Cheese Dip." Spelling was his idea, not mine, lol!

So, in a large bowl, I combined one cup of sour cream, 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1/4 cup of finely chopped yellow onion (and, I ain't bragging... no, wait a minute, yes I am! But, those were some beautifully fine chopped onions - knife skills, knife skills!), two tablespoons of minced garlic (again, minced perfectly - Damn! I am GOOD!), 8 ounces of crumbled blue cheese (here, I must pause for a CaptainK moment)...

Sidebar: So, it's like 1:00 AM or so. Scruffy's lying in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, sleeping. Caley's lying on the kitchen table, watching me intently. I had bought two of the Kraft crumbled blue cheese tubs (5 ounces each) as I am still a little short of cash from Christmas. Otherwise I would have bought a good gorgonzola and crumbled it myself, lol! Anyway, I went to open the first tub and, without thinking, in the deepest, loudest voice I could muster, yelled, "Let's get ready to c-r-u-m-b-l-e!" (I guess only boxing fans would appreciate that, BTW). Caley jumped straight up and ran into the bedroom. Scruffy freaked and hid in the living room. Me? I damn near choked, I was laughing so hard!!!

Okay, so back to my dip. I added two teaspoons of hot sauce, one teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper. I took my hand mixer and whipped it until well blended. I put it in a container and stuck it in the fridge to get happy over night (you want to chill it at least one hour or up to 2 days before using). I did taste-test it and couldn't decide what the more dominant flavor was: garlic or blue cheese. But, it was damn tasty!

I loaded everything in the dishwasher, turned it on and went back to bed. I woke up at 3:30 for a bathroom break. Filled all this in and posted it and now I'm going back to bed! Just realized, I never did eat dinner! Oh, well, goodnight, and good eats!