“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” – Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men in a Boat”, 1889
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Day Lily Blooming Time-Lapse
Here is a short time-lapse video of a day lily blooming in our back yard. Actual time was probably about 1-1/2 hours. Taken with the Brinno camera that Lynne got me for Christmas last year.
Posted under: New Jersey • by Rick on 07/14/2013 at 07:45 AM
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Saturday, July 13, 2013
Mid-Summer
I think we are mid-summer. Tonight, out by the pool we saw only a few, last fireflies. They have moved up into the trees. Their blinks are bright and long, but there are very few of them. And, I think we heard the first (non-17-year) cicada tonight. It only lasted a few minutes, but is a signal of the noise to come. Next week is historically the hottest week of the year, and it is not going to disappoint this year. We will be in the 90s all week.
That means lot of pool time!
The pool water has been evaporating, so tomorrow I may add an inch or two of cold well water--something I always hate to do because it lowers the pool temperature by a degree or two. But, the hot weather will warm it back up.
Tonight we swam some. I did 10 laps, Lynne did 20. The water is about 83°. Not bad at all, but I've grown to love 86° or 87° 
Alex is doing great today. He has now had two chemo treatments, but the first seemed to kill off most of the bad cancer cells. We are celebrating his strength and progress while enjoying the nice evening.
Oh, and we got the canoe back today. Andy did a phenomenal job of giving her a spruce-up with new varnish and polished fittings. I left her on the truck tonight with the plan of taking her out some tomorrow. We'll see.
Posted under: New Jersey • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 07/13/2013 at 07:19 PM
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Thursday, July 04, 2013
Happy 4th of July, 2013! [Updated with Photos]
Wow. It is another 4th of July holiday. Of course, I have off work today, and even though tomorrow is a work day, I'm taking it off.
Plans? Well not much. Our activities will revolve around food and the pool, of course. It is supposed to be in the high 80s but with the humidity percentage equal to the temperature, it will be a muggy day with a heat index well into the 90s. The pool is open and the robot is cleaning to prepare for an afternoon in the water.
We call this the Chic Sheik Shack. A great place to hang out if not in the water!
I'm going to try a ceviche for lunch. I love ceviche, but have never tried to make one myself. I'll let you know how it goes.
It went well!
And, around noon I will start the process of smoking then roasting a pork shoulder for pulled-pork sandwiches. I made a spicy rub yesterday and the pork has been sitting in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, sucking up the flavors of the rub. I've got hickory chips soaking in water. Soon, I will fire up the Weber charcoal grill and when ready smoke the pork for about 3 hours. Then it gets wrapped in foil and goes in the oven for another 2 hours. Then into a double thick paper bag for one hour. Even after resting for an hour, it will be very hot, but by then we will be so hungry I'll tackle it with a couple of forks to "pull" the meat off the bone. We'll serve it on hamburger buns with a ketchup-based barbeque sauce and cole slaw. Yum. I can hardly wait.
Pork shoulder smoking.
Pulled pork.
The completed dish.
Ice cream for dessert.
Posted under: New Jersey • Stuff You Gotta Know! • Food and Cooking • by Rick on 07/04/2013 at 07:09 AM
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Monday, July 01, 2013
Nice Weekend
We had a pretty nice weekend.
We worked at power-washing the deck for about 3 hours on Saturday morning. Even with an early start and a cloudy morning, it got pretty hot before we were done. It had been a couple of years since I'd washed it and it needed it badly. It looks great now.
Then, we did some shopping and had lunch at a local old-fashioned diner called Good Times. The afternoon was spent around the pool.
We had beer-can chicken for dinner and it was great. Grilled corn-on-the-cob was an excellent accompaniment.
Sunday, we went to the Warwick market where we got some veggies and greens. Upon arriving at home we made a nice green salad with goat cheese and roasted beets. Yum.
Another afternoon in the pool. Toward evening the weather got cloudy and looked threatening, so we spent the evening inside. Although we did fire up the bbq to do grilled lamb chops along with some roasted carrots and fingerling potatoes.
The only real bad thing on the weekend was our discovery of swollen lymph nodes on Alex. That is a sure sign that something is not right, and that "something" is most likely lymphoma. We've been through this with Sailor several years ago, so know the protocol of chemo treatments. Lynne will get him into the local vet this morning and we'll take it from there. Alex is approaching 11 years old--old for a Bernese Mountain Dog. And, he has always been a wonderful dog so we'll do whatever we need to do to keep him with us as long as possible.
Posted under: New Jersey • Dog Stuff • Food and Cooking • by Rick on 07/01/2013 at 06:49 AM
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Monday, June 10, 2013
Flowers on the Deck
A nice photo from Lynne's Lytro camera of flowers on our deck. You can barely see the pool in the background too. This shows off the refocusing feature of Lytro photos nicely. Just click where you want to focus:
Posted under: New Jersey • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 06/10/2013 at 11:52 AM
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