Ribs, Pizza, and Enjoy!

Ribs - Saturday, we produced an excellent rack of baby back ribs.

Laura put an excellent rub on a large rack of baby back ribs. She used our favorite blend of garlic-pepper seasoning, Pappy's Seasoning, Gebhardt's chili powder, ground black pepper, and brown sugar. She then placed the rack in the refrigerator, where it rested for several hours.

Laura ignited our Weber grill, cleaned the grate, and placed the rack of ribs directly over the three left-hand burners. The burners were on high; the meat side of the ribs was facing the flame.

After 15 minutes, she turned the ribs.


After 30 minutes, she moved the ribs to the right-hand side of the grill and continued cooking them using indirect heat.

She sprayed the ribs every 15 minutes with a mixture of three parts apple cider vinegar and one part olive oil.

After two hours, Laura applied a swabbing of Stubbs sauce to half the rack.

She cooked the ribs for another hour and took them to the table.

They were absolutely wonderful!


While Laura tended the grill, I produced a stellar batch of Cajun rice and beans. It was an excellent complement to the ribs!


We feasted upon this delightful meal until we were sated. The leftovers provided a particularly delicious brunch Sunday after church.

Pizza - Sunday evening, Laura produced a succulent pizza.

She used a thin pizza crust, brushed it with extra-virgin olive oil, and topped it with pizza sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, red peppers, pepperoni, mushrooms, and cheeses. Leftovers followed us to work this morning.

Enjoy! - Relax and enjoy!

Meet HAL!, Positive Thinking Day, and Enjoy!

Meet HAL! - Meet HAL, my new graphic workstation!

HAL:

Hewlett-Packard h9xt-w7 Phoenix

Windows 7 Ultimate 64

3rd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 quad-core processor [3.4GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]

Liquid Cooling Solution

2GB Nvidia GeForce GT630 [DVI, HDMI and VGA]

16GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [4 DIMMs]

256GB Solid State Drive

1TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive

Blu-ray writer & SuperMulti DVD burner

15-in-1 memory card reader, 4 x USB 2.0 (front), 2 x USB 3.0 (top)

4 x USB 2.0 (rear), 2 x USB 3.0 (rear)

Beats Audio (tm) -- integrated studio quality sound

Premium HP keyboard and optical mouse

Wireless-N LAN card (1x1)

Positive Thinking Day - Today is Positive Thinking Day. HAL is a positive thinker!

On this day, we should think positively:

Use affirmations - Read and listen to affirmations so that you can begin to change your self-talk.

Intention - Set your intention each morning to have a positive day! Remember you choose your attitude!

Mindfulness - Keep your attention in the present moment.

Link to think -Pick something you do frequently (perhaps making a phone call) and let that be a reminder to think a positive thought.

Gratitude - Develop an attitude of gratitude by keeping a gratitude journal.

Inspiration - Read and watch inspirational and motivational material to lift your mood.

Positive people - Surround yourself with positive people. They will help you stay focused on the positive.

Kindness - Be kind to yourself and those around you.

Applied faith - Trust that every situation has the seeds for growth and opportunity.

Smile - Smile when you see others. Smile when you are talking on the phone. A smile is contagious.

Enjoy! - Relax and enjoy these images and videos!

National Police Woman Day, In the News, and Enjoy!

National Police Woman Day - Today is National Police Woman Day.

Chicago might have had the first female police officer ever in the United States in the 1890s. A retired federal agent researching Chicago law enforcement stumbled across her name: Marie Owens.

Records show she worked as a factory inspector who enforced child-labor laws, then was transferred to the police department in 1891.

Los Angeles and Portland both have claimed the nation's first female police officer, but hired them first in the early 1900s.

In the News - Ripped from today's headlines: The amazing, the unusual, the stupid, the lame, the dumb, the weird: In the news!

Seahawks: Undercover Cops Hired for Crowd Control to Wear Opposing Team’s Uniform

iPhone 5S: Thieves May Mutilate Owners to Gain Access to Fingerprint-reading Handsets, Expert Warns

CBS 2 Investigation: Illegal Underground NYC Dinner Parties

Conservative Group Wants Liberation for Western Maryland, Create 51st State

Court Orders Farm to Pay Worker Who Claims Deafness Caused by Pig Squeals

Enjoy! - Relax and enjoy these images and videos!

Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance, Pizza, and Enjoy!

Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance - Today is Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance.

Today, we pay tribute to the selfless heroes and innocent victims of September 11, 2001, and we reaffirm the spirit of patriotism, service, and unity that we felt in the days and months that followed.

Pizza - Laura made an excellent pizza last evening.

She began with a Boboli Thin Pizza Crust.

She lightly brushed the pizza crust with extra-virgin olive oil.

She spread pizza sauce on the crust and added pizza cheeses.

She added mushrooms, pepperoni, and julienned fresh basil.

It was delicious, and it quickly disappeared!

In fact, it was SO good that she is already planning to make another pizza Friday evening!

Enjoy! - Relax and enjoy these images and videos!

The Eve of September 11, God Is Great!, and Enjoy!

The Eve of September 11 - Tomorrow is the anniversary of September 11, 2001. I pray that there are no acts of terrorism attempted on this day!

The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th, or 9/11 were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

God Is Great! - My Nexus 7 2013 tablet fell victim to a failed firmware update recently and was sent to an ASUS repair facility.

I waited (im)patiently for it to be repaired and returned to me. I received an email notification that it had been repaired and was on its way back to me. The estimated arrival was Tuesday, September 11 (today). I left my office at 3:30 PM yesterday. As I turned onto Solano Street, I saw a FedEx truck stop in the vicinity of my office. Generally, I do not take this route when going home at the end of the day. Generally, I take back streets that do not reach Solano Street for several blocks.

I saw the delivery person walk to the front door of my office. In his hand was a box. I quickly slithered Mr. Nitro R/T to the curb, hopped from his cabin, and skittered to the delivery person, calling out to him! I took the package from him, returned to Mr. Nitro R/T, and journeyed to our home. I opened the box, removed my repaired Nexus 7 2013, and began the process of restoring my accounts and apps.

Had God not directed me to take the route I took, I would not have encountered the FedEx truck, and I would not have my Nexus 7 2013 here with me!

God is great! Thank you, God!

Enjoy! - Relax and enjoy these videos!