Memorial Day Weekend – Sunday

I woke up at 07:00 (Oh, crap! I watched too much military movie yesterday). It took forever to fill in the Blog and process the photos. Then I moved on to the Sunday morning chores. I also ran the dishwasher, swept the kitchen floor and washed the kitchen counter.

I had a robo-call from CVS and, if you remember, I need gas in the truck. So, I shaved, showered and ran up to the corner. I stopped at the quarter carwash first, though, and vacuumed out the truck.

I realized when I got to the gas station that the Memorial Day gas price hike was in effect. Damn, why didn’t I fill it up last week? Cost me $73.54 US to fill up. CVS was next (that only cost me $15) and then I went back home.

When I pulled in the driveway, I notice one of the yellow iris next to the porch had bloomed overnight.

I made a quick marinade for my boneless pork chops.  Now, as you probably can guess, I would prefer bone-in (bone-in anything tastes better) but I can’t find them in Kroger’s anymore. And Westborn is a little pricey in their meat department. So, boneless it was.

In a bowl, I mixed one teaspoon of onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon of oregano, one tablespoon of dark brown sugar, 1/3 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1/4 cup of soy sauce and a lot of fresh ground pepper. I poured that into a baggie, added the four boneless pork chops and massaged my meat. I stuck it in the fridge and will shake it up occasionally until grillin’ time.

I also trimmed the five ears of sweet corn (it was 10 ears for $3.00 at Westborn, but no way could I eat that much corn) and put them in the medium stock pot. I covered them with water and I figured most of my cookout prep was done.

So, I figured it was time to tackle the bike remodels next. Now, as I think I mentioned, everybody (including the bike shop owners) warned me that the batteries on the RE suck and replacing them is a b*tch. They all suggested a battery tender. So I had bought one.

Now I had to wire it into the battery. Well, the positive side was difficult, but do-able. However, the negative side was impossible, unless you took out the battery! So that’s what I ended up doing. All in all, it took over an hour it install it. Then I used wire ties to make it all look neat.

I plugged in the battery tender and moved onto the next project: the headlight visor. That was much simpler. It was even easier that the on-line community had me believe.

I was hungry, so I made another canned corned beef sandwich, added some chips and a pickle and ate it sitting in the shade on the patio. It was getting hot out!

I changed into shorts and went out back to the wall. I resumed my search and destroy mission of the Virginia creeper. I worked for about two hours and, while there’s still plenty more, I made a dent in it.

Before calling it a day, I put some grass seed patch on a bare spot out in front. Now, as you may have guessed, I have a LOT of bare spots out back, but only this one in front. So, I worked up the soil, put down the seed and then watered it with a watering can.

Back inside, I took the meat out of the fridge to come up to room temperature. I had a steak, the pork chops and some brats. I seasoned the steak with kosher salt and pepper. I put the brats in a pan with half of a red onion (sliced) and two bottles of beer. I also cut up a big red bell pepper into four chunks and got a big slice of a Vidalia onion. I oiled the veggies with olive oil.

Then I laid down to rest my legs. I watched an old episode of NCIS (they were having a marathon on one channel). When it finished, I got back up and lit the charcoal.

I grilled the sweet corn first. When it was ready, I shucked it outside, put it on a half sheet pan and stuck it in the pre-heated oven to keep warm.

Next I grilled the steak and the brats. Those went into the house to rest and cool.

Finally, I grilled the four pork chops and the veggies. When the pork chops were done, I painted them with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and let that caramelize on each side.

I went inside and feasted! I ate a pork chop, the grilled onion and a wedge of red pepper. I also ate two ears of sweet corn.

I put all the leftovers and the rest of the meat in the fridge. I cleaned up the minimal mess in the kitchen and then wandered in to watch some TV. I stuck with the NCIS marathon for a show or two until I fell asleep.