Pics added to Saturday's post!

We ended up with a dusting of snow, and the rain from Christmas Day has muddied the White Water River so I'll wait until the water clears a bit before I snap some photos.

Christmas Turkey, DUCK!

For 3 days now I have been trying to publish the following post, but Blogger has decided that my Christmas gift from them is not allowing me to upload pictures!
After much effort and frustration I was finally able to upload 2 of the pictures that I wanted and I'll update with the rest when I can get them uploaded!

On Christmas Eve Lightnin headed out to get the mail and spotted this field full of turkey.
Lightnin said there were more than 20 of them















Lucky for them our Christmas Eve menu was already set: shrimp and Lobster bisque, prime rib, potato balls, apple spice muffins, and red wine

The chowder and place settings

Prime rib and potato balls















On Christmas morning our breakfast was that of bacon, Cinnamon rolls and mimosa's. I then spent the better part of the day fighting the rain and blowing wind to smoke the duck that would be dinner, along with cranberry cornbread stuffing and date pudding for desert.

Donald D prepped and going into the smoke
Smokin' goodness!














Today is starting out cold and we're expecting snow later in the afternoon.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Winter Wetland: A Weather Story (part er)

Well the sleet finally stopped and the temperature rose so we were able to get the little car back home safe and sound yesterday.

This morning was met with a cold mist, but at least it was above freezing! Later tonight and early tomorrow morning we're supposed to get rain mixed with ice and snow, switching to rain for most of tomorrow/Friday and then switching over to snow on Saturday. It looks like Santa had better be wearing a rain coat and waders with pontoon attachments on his way through Ohio, 'cause that sleigh is likely to get stuck in the mud!

The Whitewater river has cleared up nicely and is a beautiful blueish green color now so if we do get a decent snow covering on the banks I'll try to get some photos to share.

From Lightnin and I:
Here's wishing everyone out there (even those of you who choose not to send in comments, and you know who you are!) a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

For our friends in Beijing: Sheng dan jie kuai le ye Chun jie kuai le!

Winter Wetland: A Weather Story (part yi)

Today has turned out to be interesting!

Our oldest son has come from New York to visit us for Christmas, and so for him to go see his friends while we're at work we need to lend him one of our vehicles, but of the three (running) vehicles that we have only 1 of them is fully weather worthy. So we've been watching the weather to know when he could take the truck and we would take the "little car". This morning's forecast looked safe with only a slight chance of flurries in the morning with warming temperatures and precipitation ending in the afternoon! Wrong again!

Oh it was fine this morning when we left for work, but within an hour the snow started coming down, not just flurries, but actual snow. Luckily the temperature was still warm enough that it melted on impact, so I was able to go to lunch with Lightnin. However, when we left the restaurant of choice it was no longer snowing, oh no, it was now raining and sleeting.

Still no problem as it was still melting on impact. I drop Lightnin off at her place of employment and I head back to mine as the rain/sleet now turns to SLEET. As I turn into the parking lot I notice that the surface has cooled off enough that it is actually starting to stick. Not much else to do except park it, head back in to work, and hope that the temperature rises to at least the warm 38F that the incompetent weather analysts predict so we can drive it home!

To be continued....

First Snow of the Season

This morning we arose to the first falling snow flakes of winter. It only snowed a little over an inch, but the traffic backed up severly! It took Lightnin 2 hours to get into work, about 23 miles away. I'm working from home because the little car just isn't made for this weather. I admit I did give it a try and drove, well slid around the block and headed back home. Luckily I was able to get it back up the driveway where it will stay until the snow goes away!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Thunder and Lightnin!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Twas the day before Thanksgiving and I don't have a rhyme at all!

Hey I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from the two of us!

We'll be celebrating in a traditional, yet non-traditional manner this year. The traditional portion will be the meal itself with turkey, cornbread/sausage/cranberry stuffing, cranberry sauce (yes the jelly in the can version), mashed potatoes, corn, and sweet potato pie with cool whip! The non-traditional part is that we are staying home and not traveling anywhere!

I've got plenty of firewood split and ready to go, which is a good thing because they are calling for the possibility of snow on Friday! If it does I'll try to post some pictures!

Random Shots From The Road

We took the bike out yesterday and it was a little chilly, but if you're dressed properly its not bad! We thought it would be a good idea for Lightnin carry the camera and snap a few shots while we were on the road so we could try to share the experience. So here's our ride yesterday:




























I hope you enjoyed the ride, we did!








It's supposed to be a couple of degrees warmer today, and the sun is out so who knows we may just hit the road again!

Thank Goodness for Leather and Neoprene!

It was a rather chilly ride into work this morning! The air temperature gauge on the bike registered a balmy 35F (1.7C). ti will be worth it this afternoon on the way home though, it should be sunny and in the 60'sF!

I was properly suited up in the leather jacket, gloves, and chaps; and had a chance to use the new neoprene mask to keep the skin from peeling off my face! It works, but I still need to do a bit of adjustment on it because my breath still comes up, instead of out, which then fogs up my eye protection. Not exactly the sort of thing you want when your up on two wheels!

I'll have to have Lightnin take a picture of me all suited up so you can see the other reason I like to wear the mask! it definitely grabds the attention of the other drive3rs on the rode! ;-)

Later today we'll hit the road heading west and grab some of the best fried chicken on earth! For those of you that know what I'm talking about I'm sure your mouths are watering; and for the rest of you, you have no idea what you're missing! ;-)

Tomorrow should be a good day for a ride, so we'll be out and about and will hopefully catch some photos from the road!

Newcastle, UK

I know, I know, I've been back for nearly a week and I'm just now posting photos from Newcastle! I tried to post from there and kept betting kicked off the web before I could get the post uploaded, and on top of that my blog site was stuck in Flemish mode from the Brussels trip and it was a little tough to figure out what the error messages were saying, at any rate here it is:

When we arrived in the UK it was a bit of typical weather with cold horizontal rain pelting us. This went away that night though and the rest of the week was unseasonably warm and sunny!

Here's the view from my hotel room, overlooking the Tyne River and the Quayside (pronounced: Key side)









We were able to meet up with one of my "Best Mates" from China and he had found an authentic Mandarin style restaurant for us to try out. It was awesome and the atmosphere really made me homesick for Beijing!

Here's a shot of my "Mate" Arif and another of his "Mates" Tony

This is a shot of Arif and I at a pub called "The Fourth", No I don't know why and didn't think to ask










I did stop at one of the most famous pubs in town, the Crown Pasada, where I was surprised to find the same bartender there from 2 years ago and even more surprising he remembered me!

AS luck would have it one of my favorite pubs, Loyd's Quayside, was having a "Real Ale Festival" where they had over 100 different cask aged ales available for sampling, but only one barrel of each, and serving only six different ales each night. So this became a regular stop on the way back to the hotel after dinner to see what was on tap at the time.

It was a good trip, both professionally and personally, but as usual it was good to get back home!

Wordless Weekend in Brussels

Taking Up Where I Left Off

I was having trouble getting pictures to upload the other day so I'll give this another try!

So here I am in Brussels once again, which happens to be my second favorite city now and I think you can guess which is my first. ;-) After touching down I hopped in the rent-a-car and headed off to the hotel as part of my now ritual of checking in, dropping my bags, showering and changing, then heading down to Leroy's on the Grand Platz for a Kriek. When I first arrived at the hotel it was starting to sprinkle and I feard for the worst, but by the time I was ready to leave the room the sun was out once again and off I went.

Mission completed, with the help of my good friend Joia, so off we went on a foot tour of the entire city. We managed to make it to one of the higest points in the city where I snapped this shot where you can see both the tower of records (the spire to the right), and the Atomium (the hugh "jack" looking sculpture to the left). The Atomium has always been a bit special to me because it was erected for the 1958 worlds fair (I'm going to let you do the math and figure out why that might be important to me)!

This shot is of one of the famous Basilique's in the distance

This just simply caught my eye, I'll call him Mr. Fritte











Well, it's getting late so I think that's about it for tonight, I'll try to share some more of my journey when I can!

Fall Colors (delayed) and Eurotrip 2009

Sorry for the delay in posting some of the fall colors promised last weekend, but I was preparing for my current trip to Europe.

First with the fall colors!

Last Saturday Lightnin and I set out on the bike on a rather cold morning, but we were all leathered up to help fight off the elements. We took a trip down through Rabbit Hash, Kentucky by heading west/south on Hwy-50 - Hwy-56 through Lawerenceburg, Aurora, and Rising Sun, Indiana. The return trip was via Ky-20 completing the loop. Lightnin kept the camera on hand to snap some action shots on the way back home.

Markland locks & dam from the restaurant where we stopped to eat lunch, They have deep fried green bean on the menu and they're really good!

Fellow bikers enjoying a ride

Tobacco curing in a tobacco barn

Heading across the Ohio River from Kentucky to Indianna











We were about a week too early to catch the leaves changing color in the hills, but we got a couple of shots of color after we got home.

A tree behind the infamous Dew Drop Inn

One of our mum's in bloom

Sorry, but I'll have to try to continue my post in another edition because I'm having trouble uploading the rest of my photos!

Rain, Rain, Go Away.......

Sorry no pictures, just letting you know that I am still around and intend to post again soon!
Work has just gotten the better of me lately as my new assignment is proving to test my capacity, which is actually a good thing because There's nothing I like more than a good challenge!

Anyway, if the rain stops today and the roads dry out enough we'll be back on the bike tomorrow and heading to such exotic destinations as Aurora, Indiana and Rabbit Hash, Kentucky (I know, we've posted from there before!). Who knows maybe we'll even end up at the infamous Dew Drop Inn in sunny Blue Jay, Ohio.

Hopefully we'll have some colorful foliage to photograph along the way as the leaves are starting to turn here.

Ming tian jian!

Thunder Hits the Stage in Atlanta

This past weekend we headed down to Hotlanta to help celebrate our Brother-in-Law Dave's 50th birthday. It was a great time seeing their family again and meeting a lot of their friends too.

We travel down there a lot because it's just fun to hang out with them! Ok, that and it's about the 1/2 way point to our place in Florida! ;-) A typical weekend with them is to arrive, go to the grocery store and buy veggies and stuff, then Dave and I concoct some sort of exotic dish while the girls sit and visit. Of course we usually sample different varieties of either beer or wine while cooking which also keeps us entertained.

This time though we attended a big party that was arranged to celebrate Dave's turning a 1/2 a century. It was set up so that he could have to opportunity to play guitar all night while all the other band members swapped in and out on various songs. It was a fun night and the music was spectacular! I was honored to be able to get up on stage with such talented musicians!


Here's the star of the show jammin out



A shot of myself with a better view of the band












I'm looking forward to the next trip down!

Musikkapelle Ruderatschofen

Saturday evening I had the pleasure of meeting the Musikapelle Ruderatchofen, the main band playing at the downtown Cincinnati Oktoberfest! My good friend Ollie invited me to tag along with him to enjoy some good home cooked German food and some good German beer, while listening to some good German music!

We got to meet some of the band members and mingle with some of the members of various German American groups from around the city, we're members of the Donauschwaben Verein. These groups are trying to preserve some of the heritage and culture through song, dance, food, language, and of course beer!

Here is my friend Ollie to the left and our host for the evening, Mike, to the right

The Musikkapelle Ruderatschofen performing for us











The hosts had some of these awesome flowers planted around the place and I couldn't resist taking a couple of photos hoping to be able to identify them. Anyone know what these are?

Let Us Never Forget!

Thank you to the brave who have stepped up to answer the call of duty protecting freedom, and curse those that would try to steal that freedom through the taking of innocent lives!

Labor Day Weekend Grillapalooza!

More Americans fire up the grill on Labor Day weekend than on any other, with the possible excepting being the 4th of July. So in honor of that tradition we decided to hold the first ever Grillapalooza, or as Lightnin refers to it Meat Mania! We lit the fires on the Brinkman smoker to cook ribs, the big Weber for rib eye steaks and lamb chops, and the medium Weber for ham steaks and chicken breasts!

I've been grilling for a long time, a little over 30 years now, and continually work on honing those skills and I think I'm getting close to perfection with this rib recipe, but not so fast let's talk about the other meats first and we'll get back to the ribs.


The Rib eyes we dusted with a commercial grilling spice that included coriander, garlic, powder, salt, pepper, and a few other goodies, and then gave them a spritzing with some good Tennessee bourbon. After letting them sit with this mixture for several hours they went on the grill.
The Lamb chops we treated with some Xin Jian spice that somehow made it's way into my luggage when I left Beijing, again letting them sit for a couple hours and then onto the grill.



The Chicken breasts we merely salted and peppered and then on the grill because they will be used to make some other yet undetermined meals this next week.
The Ham we dusted with dry ground mustard seed and then dusted with the rib dry rub (we'll get to it in a minute) and then a spritzing of the bourbon, then onto the grill!




So then let's see what's left, oh oh that's right, the ribs! ;-)
The ribs we dusted with our home made curry powder, let them sit over night in the fridge, and then dry rubbed them with this mixture: 2cups brown sugar, 3 TBS cracked black pepper, 2 TBS cayenne pepper, 1 TBS smokey paprika. Then into the smoker they went!

The choice of wood for the event was a mixture of Maple, apple, and oak chips which give a little more mild smoke flavor than either hickory or mesquite.







So what would you prepare to go with all this meat? We decided to do some prosciutto wrapped asparagus, and cheesy potatoes and broccoli.













Well, there you have it Grillapalooza! I think we'll make this an annual event, and who knows maybe next year we'll expand the menu and put something on the little Weber too!

Happy Labor Day everyone!