Sick at Home, what to do.....Aha, Blog of course!

Ok I don't feel good, every time I breath in I cough, and the lack of oxygen is causing some mind wondering issues (of course Lightnin' will tell you that part is normal)!

I had been asked to give the Shrimp Stew & Grits recipe, so here's a shot at it (you see I usually don't measure out what I throw into a recipe so it's not always easy to backtrack):

4 strips of thick sliced, hard wood smoked bacon; chopped
2 lbs Gulf White Shrimp
2 stalks of celery; finely chopped
1 Pablano (or bell) pepper; finely chopped
1 small yellow onion; finely chopped
1 bunch of green onions (scallions); sliced on the bias (you know for presentation)
fresh parsley; chopped (for presentation)
1 package of cajun crab/shrimp boil
4 pints of cheap beer
1 lemon; quartered
4 Tablespoons of flour, approximately (for the roux)

Pour the beer into a pot, add crab boil and lemon, and bring to a boil. Add shrimp and remove from heat, allow to stand for 2-3 min. and strain off shrimp retaining about 4 cups of the liquid.
Hold both the liquid and the shrimp for later, (hey, put that shrimp back!) rinse out the pot and dab dry any remaining moisture.
Place pot back on heat and add the bacon. Allow it to brown and then remove to drain on a paper towel. Turn down heat and add the trinity (chopped pepper, yellow onion, and celery) to the remaining bacon grease, stirring to prevent too much browning (for a healthier version you could drain off the bacon grease and then back add a few tablespoons of Olive oil, but hey this is good I didn't say it was healthy!). Sprinkle in the flour, while stirring, until the roux thickens. Stir in the shrimp boil liquid, 1 cup at a time until the thickness of the stew is about the way you like it. Stir in the shrimp, turn off the heat, and put the lid on it.

For the grits I used Quaker Old Fashioned Grits. I'm sure you could probably use instant grits, but I like mine a bit more on the thick side so the old fashioned way is just fine for me. I followed the directions on the package, but left out some of the water to make sure they were nice and firm.
To serve add a scoop of grits to the bowl, and then spoon the shrimp stew on top. Garnish with a pinch of the parsley and a spoon full of the sliced scallions. Serve and enjoy!


Lightnin' decided that since we weren't together this past Thanksgiving (by the way this is the first time we have been apart on that holiday since we met 25 years ago next month!) that we should have one, but with a twist. She roasted the turkey and we served it with a fried pecan glaze that we got from Paula Dean.

It was awesome and went surprisingly well with all the normal fixin's.













Last weekend I taught yet another person how to brew beer. It's fun to teach others this art form, and even more fun to sample the good quality beers that they make after they get going on their own!



Here's the literature
































Here's the ingredients














Here's the tools













And here's the recipe








We'll know how it turns out in a couple of months, for you see we brewed a lager and it will need to cold age for a minimum of 8 weeks. This one will probably wait until my first trip home from China before I keg it.

By the way, what do you get someone who is going to China for a year?





Chopsticks of course, and a knife, spoon, and fork for when he gets tired of trying the chopsticks!














It's in the 30's outside and we've got snow on the ground. It's supposed to rain/snow all weekend too. I guess if I had to pick a weekend to be stuck inside, sick, this is the best one. I'll just keep a pot of water boiling on the stove (my hillbilly humidifier) and a fire burning in the fireplace, and my butt parked under a blanket in my favorite chair.

Shrimp n Grits

Well I think I did pretty good with my rendition of Shrimp Stew and Grits. I promised some photos when we fixed the grits. (by the way, the grits are hidden underneath the shrimp stew and the flavor combination is great!).






Here's a photo of the Depot's serving
(yes this was for breakfast, and that's a bloody mary and a beer chaser, hey I was on vacation!)

Here's my version (sans bloody mary and beer, hey I'm back to work now!)














Lightnin tried it last night when she got back home from Missouri and thought it was awesome. Now you need to understand that she HATES grits so for her to even eat a bowl of anything that has grits in it is something, but to actually say that she likes it is unbelievable!

Cold Weather Cooking

It's been seasonably cold here this weekend, but if you've been following along you know I was down in a warmer climate this past week. It was a shock waking up to temperatures in the 20's these past couple of days. So what do you do when it's cold outside? Cook, of course!




I spent the day splitting fire wood and cooking.







I whipped up this beef and bean chilli.


I'm also working on a shrimp stew that will be served on grits. This was a tasty treat that we sampled at the Depot Cafe at Cedar Key. I decided to give it a try and I'll show photo of it when we fix the grits later this week.

I also decided to boil some peanuts, and added some Cajun crab boil to mine.











Now that I'm done cooking I'll get a fire going before it get's too cold.
They're calling for rain all day tomorrow, but at least it will warm up a bit.

The End of the Trail

Well another road trip has come and gone. We pulled into the drive about 7:30 last night ending a long trip back up into the frozen tundra of Ohio. This morning we awoke to 23F temperature with an expected high of 44F. This past week our low was 49F with highs in the upper 70's to lower 80's! (We've gotta' get that house built!)

Here are just some random thoughts and memories from this trip and those before:

Lightnin and I started a game awhile back to keep the kids occupied while we were on the road. We drove everywhere for a couple of reasons: 1) The journey is 1/2 the fun, and 2) For crying out loud we weren't made of money, we could barely afford the gas much less airfare! Anyway, the name of the game was: "Name that road kill"! (Hey, I never said we were normal parents! Besides I guarantee that if you aren't already playing this game, you will be after I describe it!) OK, the game is simple when you spot road kill you shout out what you think the animal, alien being, object, etc., was in it's original state! Here's an example: We're driving along and you spot a raccoon "sleeping" by the roadside, you simply state: "Raccoon!". OK stay with me and I'll get to the point. We've spotted the standards, squirrels, skunks, opossum, raccoons, and even an otter once down in Georgia, but this trip topped them all! On our way to Cedar Key I spot a wild boar "sleeping" at the roadside and think "what could possibly top this?" then about 1/2 mile later we topped it, a fish, honestly a fish; and I think it was a mullet. My Dad chimes in with "probably a flying fish"! Now I've got my Mom and Dad playing!

Well as it turns out I come by my travelin' jones honestly. Mom and Dad confess that they used to drag us kids around the country, starting this family tradition before I even saw daylight, so it's no wonder I can't stand to stay in one place for too long! And apparently I've passed this on to our kids with one in KC, one in NY, and the other in Kuwait! It should be quite an experiment to actually try to settle down into our new house, but I think I'm up to the challenge. Besides we'll be living 30miles from anywhere, so just going to the store and back should help to keep the wanderlust in check.

Well, I hope you had fun following along on the weeds and fence road trip!
This next one will be a experience of a lifetime, and I hope you'll follow along with me!

More Thoughts and Photos from the Road

This morning we went back out to the property to hang the chain and sign across the entrance to let folks know that the property actually belonged to someone, and wasn't some pace to dump trash. So with all of our business and manual labor out of the way it was time to rest and reflect a bit.

We stopped by to see FC for a quick visit to wish he and his family a Happy Thanksgiving, and then we headed over to Manatee Springs to relax and view a bit of nature. What a beautiful day to do that, it's sunny and 80F today and the breeze blowing in from the Suwanee felt really nice. (Sorry Lightnin, I don't mean to rub it in!). We didn't see much wildlife out there though, a few Mullet, one Anole (sp?), and a few Vultures (both Turkey and Black).

Here's just a few random shots of the trip so far that I haven't shared yet:

Just a shot of the now signed entrance (Hey, you can actually see the drive now!)

Here's one of our Palm trees

Here's another one (We've got several more!)

This was on the boardwalk at Manatee Springs, right near the Suwanee River.

(Mom's going to hate me when she sees this one because she doesn't like to have her picture taken, but I wanted to give this tree some scale)

This was another shot of the sunset from last evening, I thought I would leave you with this photo!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the coffee shop where I've been blogging from is closed. We'll be leaving early on Friday morning to head back north, so this will be the last post for a few days. I'll complete my tales from the road once I get home.

It's been a good trip despite the fact that Lightnin and I had two separate tasks which prevented us from being together for the holiday. Both of which needed to be completed before I leave the country for the next year. It was also good that I was able to spend this time with my parents. I think they've had a fun time, and again I can't say enough how I've appreciated their help and company during this trip! One of my tasks was to try to convince them to move down here once our house is completed. I at least have them thinking of wintering down here and that's a start! ;-)

Tomorrow we'll be playing "Guess what's for dinner" as we look for whatever eating establishment(s) may be open. I'll let you know how that turns out on my next post!

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Business Concluded, and Now the Work Begins

Yesterday we made it out to the property to start cleaning it up a bit. The weeds weren't nearly as bad as I thought they were going to be, but they will still a worthy opponent! I started off by whacking at them with the new brush-cutter I purchased, and Mom and Dad pitched in by helping to haul off the cut brush behind me. (hey I didn't make them they just couldn't stand by and watch. They have 7.5 acres back in Missouri that they keep in great shape so their instincts kicked in and they jumped in to help, man am I glad they did or I'd probably still be out there!)

After we cleared the brush Dad began to treat the fence with water sealer while I went back to drive fence posts into the ground near the survey markers. I painted them a bright fluorescent orange, below the reflective white top tip to make them easier to spot when we come back down. Once that was done I joined Dad to finish treating the fence. We started around 8AM and took a couple of short breaks for water, but finally wrapped things up around 4PM.

I thought I'd share a few before and after shots so you can see the difference we were able to make.

Before - you couldn't even see my Dad

After - Not only can you see him, but hey look there's a driveway!

Just another shot to show the nice view of the fence. Good job huh?

When we finally decided to stop for lunch we went over to Cedar Key to Tony's for some chowder and a fried oyster sandwich. Here's the chowder, oops (sorry) it was so good I couldn't get a picture of it fast enough! ;-)

After we ate we walked across the bridge and watched the sun set. It was hard work, but look at the payoff!

I'm glad Mom and Dad were here to share this with me, and I certainly wouldn't have been able to complete the work that was necessary, in one day, without them!

The House (Well a model anyway)

This is the model home that is somewhat similar to the one we're planing to build.

This is the front of the house

This is the side where we'll do a prowl rather than the flat wall, with more galss for better scenic viewing

Here's a view from the interior loft

Another view from the loft. These are false beams with cyprus covers. We're going with cyprus beams.

From 1st floor to the loft. Here we're planning to go with the open stair rail and wood panel, rather than the dry wall.

The Kitchen, but without the extended loft as a ceiling over it. And again the open wood rail rather than closed in dry wall.

The contract is in place and we'll be building in the next couple of years.

It's getting exciting now!

Blogger Issues

Sorry all I'm trying to post about the latest road trip that I'm on, but Blogger isn't cooperating with me!

I'll get them posted as soon as I can get photos uploaded, hopefully soon.

Another Road Trip (Weeding and Fence)

I had tried to send this out yesterday, but I wasn't able to get a connection.

Here I am on another road trip, this time to beat back the jungle and treat the fence on our property. My Mom and Dad came out to meet up with me and have joined me on this adventure. Lightnin wasn't able to make it this trip because she's heading back to Missouri to meet her sisters and take care of things there. A little bit of divide and conquer strategy this time!

We headed out of Cincy yesterday morning around 6AM and hit the hotel here in Florida just before 8PM. Traffic was pretty light which helped, and we only had one directional mishap which was a minor distraction. This morning we rose early, ate a light breakfast and headed out to take a look at the property. Just as I had figured, the weeds were tall and thick (you can see in the photos below). Today's task was to size up the job and set a game plan for weed removal and treatment of the fence.

Here's a shot including the SUVan to show some scale

Here's the front gate

Here's the weed's, taller than my Dad! We've got our work cut out for us.

Tomorrow (today) we go visit the home builders and get a look at one of the model homes, similar to our design!

Fun in R&D (The "Gator Room")

This one is for all you Gator fans out there!





You have to understand that R&D is not always work and that we actually do have fun at our jobs (sometimes). Well over the past couple of weeks there was a contest to decorate the small 4-person capacity "huddle" rooms to help break up some of the monotony. As it so happens we have several engineers from Gainesville and they took the liberty of creating "The Gator Room"





I hope you enjoy the following photos I took:






This is the dry erase board (east wall)















The west wall












The south wall
















The north wall










It was a pity, but they didn't win the contest. I just figured you should see some of the not so boring, and non-confidential, world of corporate R&D

Veteran's Day, The Castle, and Other Stuff!

This post was originally written yesterday, but Blogger wasn't cooperating with me.
I hope you enjoy!


Veteran's Day 2007

We're proudly flying our flag today, and will again tomorrow! We were able to talk to SPC. "Dude" AKA "G-Nerve" yesterday. He's doing good and it was good to have him back home a couple of weeks ago, even if it was for just a few days! I just want to say thanks to all of the veterans of past and present wars, conflicts, police actions, etc.; and thank God you all answered the call to duty. Thank you for preserving the freedom that we enjoy as US citizens

I'm especially reminded this year because I am about to suspend some of that freedom for the next year as I have accepted a position at one of our sites in Beijing, China. It will be a one year assignment, and the opportunity/experience of a lifetime. I'll take my camera so that I can try to bring the rest of you along for the ride


The Castle (Chateau Le Roche)
Last night we visited a castle right here in Ohio! It was to throw a wake for one of the knights of the castle who had passed away a couple of weeks ago. The celebration needed to wait because at the time of Sir "Bear's" passing the castle was set up for Halloween. There was a brief eulogy, and then a small jar of his ashes were scattered from the top of the castle a spoon full at a time by those that knew him well.



The Castle utilized three main styles of castle architecture: The ground level is German, the second level is French, and the top level is English. It's an absolutely beautiful structure.











Here the always lovely Lightnin giving a bit of scale for one of the towers of the English Battle Deck

















Sir Thomas (one of the knights of the castle, and good friend of ours) and I






















Lightnin with a new friend
















Sir Thomas and I think an English suit of armor (I'll have to check the facts with Sir Thomas)
















Me next to a suit of German leather armor




















Myself again with the handsome Young Thomas and his lovely and humorous sister Chrystal












It was a special and fun evening and I know this won't be my last visit because there's much more info I'll need to collect and share about this place than I'm able to do in this post!

As we descended the spiral steps we toasted at each of the levels: Cheers, Sante, and finally Pros't.

A Tribute to Orville A. Hinck (A.K.A.: GGL, "Big-O", O-Hinck)

Orville was born in April of 1929 in Ernestville, MO, although when I met him he and his 2 brothers shared ownership of the family farm just outside of Concordia, MO. It was a place that I got to know well over the past 20+ years. This is because we used to meet him there on a weekend around his birthday to go morel mushroom hunting in the woods, and cat fishing on the pond. The first time we went out there he actually got a bit frustrated with me because I was finding more mushrooms than he was and I was walking right behind him. He got the last laugh though because the first year we moved to Ohio he sent us pictures of the 5 gallon bucket full of mushrooms he had found, and several of them were the size of a twelve once beer can which he placed next to them for scale!

Being a "city boy" he and his daughter (Lightnin of course) delighted in quizzing me on farming type stuff that I of course knew nothing about. As it turns out the joke was on them because I actually paid attention and learned much more than they thought I would. I'll miss his laughter as he would tease me though, some times to the point where he couldn't get the punchline out without stopping to laugh himself!

He had no choice but to have a good sense of humor though, you see he came from a family of three brothers and fate dealt him a hand of three daughters! After meeting and getting to know all three of these women over the years, I think he must have earned his wings early on! All three of them have taken bits of Orville's humor and when you get them together in one spot look out.

Here's a bit of an interesting twist though, all three of the daughter's names start with a "T", and they all three married David's! That's right, when we get together I'm not alone in my battle of the wits with the three "T's", I have my fellow Dave's to lend a hand. I was lucky enough to marry the middle sister of the three. I'm going to say lucky because the other two were already taken at the time that we met, so I was lucky to get the third (well ok technically the 2nd) before she was taken too. (whew, that was a close one!) Interestingly enough Orville was the middle brother. I can honestly say that I never saw any favoritism by Orville towards any of the three girls, but I do think that Lightnin and GGL had a special bond that only middle children would understand. (not that I would have a clue, I had one brother and that was it).


I think I should stop here and apologize for the few photos that I have of the man, and the fact that all of them that I do have are of him with our grandson. You see I didn't enter the digital camera age until a couple of years ago and we live about 600 miles east of Missouri, so my choices of photos are somewhat limited. Although I think this one definitely shows the little boy that was hidden within the grown man's body, something that I definitely identified with.



I think one of my most fond memories with him was when we took a trip to Washington, D.C. to see the dedication of the Korean war monument. You see Orville was a veteran of that conflict and we actually were able to meet a few folks from his unit. The dedication ceremony was definitely a moving experience and I was glad to have been able to witness the event, even though we had record high heat that week.

We ended up traveling with him on another occasion. We took him down to Florida with us on a trip where we house sat for some friends of ours in Pompano Beach one Christmas when they headed back to their families in Michigan (I'll never really understand that 'cause I'd take Florida over Michigan any day, but hey it worked for us!). We took him to the beach for the first time at Ft. Lauderdale, then we hung Christmas lights while dressed in shorts and t-shirts, and spent Christmas day on Key West (I'm sure that was an eye opening experience for Orville). It was a fun trip, and I'll never forget it!



Once again you can see the smile on his face as he clowns around with the little guy. No doubt teasing him while this photo was being taken. I'm pretty sure Easton didn't mind a bit though.








We didn't get to see him as much as we had wanted to this past year. He was planning to come out to visit us during the Donauschwaben Oktoberfest, he usually came out to see us on Schwaben Tag (Schwaben Day), but his gall bladder had acted up on him and he decided to stay home to let it settle down. On the night of Wednesday October 20th, following his gall bladder surgery, he finally succumbed to the dark angle of death and ended his time in this purgatory we call Earth. We really shouldn't feel sad for Orville because as I stated earlier he had already earned his wings, although it is very difficult not to morn his loss while the rest of us put in our time here without him.

We'll always have our memories of him, and that will just have to do until we're called upon to make our final journey!

God speed Big-O, and hey save some of those morels for the rest of us!

Speedy Recovery to GGL

Dear fellow Bloggers and Quiet Readers,

I just dropped Lightnin off at the airport. She's headed home to see her Father (GGL in comments to my blogs), by way of Atlanta!
Side note: I don't understand why you have to go from the Cincinnati Delta Hub to the Atlanta Delta Hub to get to Kansas City (Check out the map). Someone once said: "You can't even get to hell without stopping in Atlanta first!"
Anyway, the good thing is that she'll meet up with her sister in ATL and they'll be flying to KC together.

GGL had his surgery today and things did not go as well as we had hoped. When he was coming out his heart rate went out of control and they weren't able to get him stabilized at that hospital, so they Life Flighted him to one that had more capability.

When I got home from dropping her off at the airport she gave me a call that they had stabilized him during flight. That's good news, but obviously he's not completely out of the woods yet. So please keep him in your thoughts and prayers for a full recovery!

Typical Ohio Fall, Air Conditioning in the Morning Furnace at Night

If you read one of my posts during the past week or so you'll know that we've been breaking records for high temperatures ever since July. This past Monday (October 8th) we broke a record of 91F that stood since 1860, when they first started recording Ohio weather!

Well that all came to an abrupt halt today. In true, typical Cincinnati fashion We went from 90F to 60F for the high in 24 hours, and we're supposed to get down to a high of 48F tomorrow!

Yep, once again it's air conditioning one day and furnace the next! I could sure use some firewood right about now.

Donauschwaben Oktoberfest 2007

We've been members of the Donauschwaben Verein for about 14 years now, and haven't missed an Oktoberfest since!

The colors of Oktoberfest are Blue and White, and the sky cooperated fully this weekend.

It's the celebration of the coming of fall, complete with Music, Beer, Dancing, Beer, Food, Beer, Friends, Fun, and of course Beer.

The Fire pit!

We end up roasting over 500 chickens and nearly 20 pigs during the three day celebration.

Herr Klein serves up a Dunkle for a thirsty customer.

The pouring of a Festbier, an art form all it's own!

How many men does it take to pour a beer?

Apparently 4, 1 to do the pouring, and 3 to admire the work!

It's a family affair! The Klein's have been good close friends of ours, and are fellow Schwabians! We can always count on them for keeping our thirst in check!

It's been unseasonably hot this year, up in the 90's (F), but the heat hasn't affected the attendance. Lederhosen (leather shorts) are amazingly comfortable, even in this heat.

We'll be back out there again today doing our part to keep the tradition alive!

Ein Prosit Der Gemutlichkeit!

2 years

I just realized it's been two years today since I started blogging. My good friend FC talked me into trying this, and it's really been fun! (I know that he gets a bit disappointed that I don't blog consistently, but hey I do what I can). It's actually been more than just fun, it's been sort of like therapy for me. It's given me the ability to express my thoughts and my view of the world around me, sometimes as an observer and other times as a participant.

I've had the good fortune of traveling to Europe several times for work, and I've enjoyed sharing those experiences with all of you. I know that some of people that I've met during my travels read my posts, even if they don't comment on-line.

It's also given me the pleasure of being able to live vicariously through the posts of all of you other blogger's out there who are willing to share your lives with the rest of us.

I intend to keep going, posting things that seem significant to me at the time and are hopefully at least somewhat entertaining for those of you who read them.

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Remembering September 2001

On Friday we found out that the traveling September 11th National Memorial and Museum was in town, so we decided to go down town yesterday morning to witness the Dedication Ceremony. We were joined by our friend's son "Young Thomas", who is one of SPC Dude's friends from school.

By the way Lightnin's shirt states: "My Son is Away Protecting Our Freedom and I'm Very Proud of Him". Mine has a photo of a WWII soldier drinking from his mess cup and states: "How About a Nice Cup of Shut The Hell Up and Let Us Do Our Job We're Freeing a Nation".

It was a somber and yet relaxing atmosphere. Several local dignitaries spoke along with several from New York.

One man from Connecticut, Tom Roger, spoke about losing his daughter. She was a standby flight attendant who was flying on American Airlines Flt#11.

The grey background for the speakers was actually two steel beams that will become part of the structure of the Museum. Everyone that was present was asked to sign one of the beams.

We gladly added ours to the several thousand names already inscribed.

We also met a women who's son was lost in one of the Twin Towers that day. She's holding a shadow box that contains the charred remains of his driver's License.

She saw our shirts and came over to us and thanked us for what our son, and those like him, are doing as a result of events of that day. Unfortunately we didn't catch her name.

These three young men raised money to help support the memorial by walking from Rossford, OH to Washington DC, a 65o mile hike.

I'm glad that we went down there to be a part of remembering this tragedy. Getting to meet folks that lost their loved one's in this terrible act of terrorism helped to rationalize why our son is in the desert for his second tour, and our Nephew has also completed two tours. They both signed up as a direct result of that day.

We need to remember this day above all others, even Pearl Harbor. After all this was an attack against innocent civilians, not a military facility. On that day nearly 3,000 people were senselessly murdered, and over 400 rescue workers lost their lives trying to help those in need. If we don't remember then we are likely to let our guard down and allow a similar or worse attack against freedom to occur!

Once we returned home we further honored the day by exercising our right to brew beer! Hey several of our founding father's were avid home brewers, and when we brew beer we truly do honor their memory!