Road Blog-a-logue Begins (with apologies for the delay. The google ate my blog controls)

What a cold psychobitch.

In my line of work I have come across parents who have been diagnosed with antisocial personality and they are not nice people. There is a total lack of basic human empathy which is discomforting to most people in their presence. APDs are also very charming and personable, which is why they generally enter a life of crime or politics.

I have never seen one as openly pathological as Casey Anthony, though. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when the jury begins to deliberate. And from now until the day I die, when I lapse into self-pity over the dysfunction I experienced growing up with my grandparents and brother, I will think about the Anthony family and realize it could have been a lot worse.

Having been separated from my kitchen for ten days, there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to have to cook something, anything tonight. By adapting a recipe from Guy Fieri, I came up with a good way to utilize pork chops. I got to chop onions, and that is always relaxing. Weird, I know.

Vacation and travel blog posts and pictures will be going up over the next few days. There are a lot of pictures of food, and you may have to restrain yourself from licking the screen. And check the recipe blog for pork chops with drunken sausage gravy.

And now, from the "Old friends are the best friends" department:

Happy 37th anniversary, Mark and Sandy.  Let's thank Tony Robinson for bringing us all together, so to speak.  Although for a while, I thought Sandy and I were going to be stranded in the Shawangunks for all eternity and never make it to freshman English.

Let the Road Blog-a-logue begin:

June 16, 2011
Hard to believe I'm leaving for Arkansas day after tomorrow. Somehow that trip snuck up on me, but in a nice way. Never mind that I've had to run around like a whirling Tazmanian Devil, getting my cases lined up to be handled by my coworkers. And in the middle of all that, I found myself making a much needed side trip to the Kissimmee Police Department to finally file the police report of the identity theft. I have to say something nice about the officer who handled my case. Both times I spoke with her, she was incredibly helpful and pleasant. UPDATE: Hard to believe I never finished that blog post, and here it is Saturday, June 18, and we are gassing up in Valdosta, having picked up some much-needed caffeine at Starbucks. We've been stopping at this Starbucks for a number of years, and this is the first time one of the baristas was less than pleasing. Boy, if you are reading this, you are bound for a very short career. Starbucks has standards, and you do not even come close.

I have been knitting the Antimony shawl since leaving home. It was a pain to start the center piece, but not as difficult as I anticipated the start would have been if I had gone straight to the Vortex shawl. Now that I am past the center and working on my size 8 rosewood circular needles that I picked up at like 75% off at Joann's, all is well in the world of knitting. Will I finish it before our return home? Only if I stop blogging and start knitting . . .

Today's ear worms brought to you courtesy of Queen, ABBA, and Johnny Hates Hollywood. My head is a mess from all this unsolicited musical claptrap.

I am at the point that the Antimony shawl is resembling the Antimony floppy beret, if there was such a thing. Which means I cannot put the knitting on the bed. The bad luck hat fairies may not realize that it is a very young shawl-in-training and all hat-hell may break loose. I'm sure you can see why I can't take a chance. You can, can't you?

An Ode to Mandy
Mandy is my GPS, and today she more than earned her keep. If you have ever driven to Atlanta, you've likely gotten stuck in traffic along Interstate 75. This time, we got stuck in a traffic jam that was backed up all the way to Macon. Mandy, recognizing that we were delayed, asked if we wanted to try an alternate route. What a Smartgirl! Following her lead, we got out of the mess and made it to our hotel area with time to spare, which meant getting to Thompson Brothers before they closed.

That barbecue was soooooo good, I would have kissed the Brother in charge, if we hadn't taken the food out. I ordered some ribs, Rob ordered the Whole Nine Yards, and we had a small feast back in our room. I personally think the Brothers do the best job of smoking of all the 'cue places we frequent.

June 19, 2011

On the road to Sevierville, Tennessee. Such a beautiful state, I can understand Al Gore growing up to be an unabashed tree hugger.

I made considerable progress on Antimony yesterday. Will eventually post pictures.

Our hotel in Sevierville is next to the largest Bass Pro Shop I have ever seen. So big that it has a casual restaurant in it, and that is where we stopped for lunch. Not bad . . . When the waitress brought out their version of BBQ chicken nachos, served over fresh thick cut potato chips, I thought we were going to have to ask for a separate zip code in which to place the platter. Huge doesn't adequately describe it. Maybe that's why the word ginormous was created. It was ginormous.

The traveling has caught up to us both. There will be leftovers for dinner as we collapse on the bed, barely keeping our eyes open long enough to watch the Next Food Network Star.

         

Shark jumping the diners at Bass Pro Shop, and ginormous food

Okay, Allison will not be the Next Food Network Star. The one time she didn't cry on camera. Weepy thing was getting on my nerves. Now they need to get rid of Penny and Chris. Are these people told to act obnoxious?