Survival
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006Brad and I are in survival mode as Rhonda and Beth are gone on Carnival’s Holiday ship until Saturday. I’m glad I never learned to cook as it turns out that you can buy almost anything and just heat it up. Here’s my list of stuff that I scored at Wally World:
- skillet meals (a true test of my ability to spray Pam)
- shrimp fried rice
- steak teriyaki
- teriyaki chicken
- microwave or heat ‘em up
- beef and bean burritos
- beef and cheese taquitos (120 seconds)
- mini-chicken sandwiches (45 seconds)
- corn dawgs
- cajun favorites – seafood fettuccine single serving
- italian sausage & rigatoni with roasted peppers in spicy tomato sauce – probably just for me, not Brad
- Ore-Ida fast food fries
We had steak teriyaki tonight (8 minutes at medium heat covered, then stir for 6 1/2 minutes). It claims to be for two people, but that assumes you haven’t been on the boat all day. Brad ate his share, then came back in for more. I had eaten the rest already. I told him we had stir-fry chicken that would take 8 minutes and he said that was too long! He heated up the 45 second mini-chicken sandwiches (3 of them), then came back in for something else.
We took the boat out today, launching at Safe Harbor and running up to the sandbar opposite Coal Bluff campground. I had intended to rent a slip for the summer today, but Brad was turned off by how junky it looked and he thought we should wait for Rhonda to come home. I admit it’s junky, but there are no alternatives until the new development is completed at Main Harbor. My boat (actually, the combination of my boat with my trailer) is so hard to launch that Rhonda and Beth can’t take it out by themselves. If I had a slip on the water, I would have to deal with the scum on the bottom (no bottom paint for me on a ski boat!), but we would use it a whole lot more. It’s 15 minutes from the house to board it, then 20 minutes downriver to the reservoir and 25 minutes up to Cole’s Bluff. I figure that a pressure washing once a month would keep the scum to a minimum, except where the trailer boards go…I couldn’t get to that area of the boat. I even computed the extra cost of buying fuel on the water instead of at a gas station - I figure $30 extra a month based on 40 gallons a month. I bought all the stuff at Wally World to fix up the slip (extra fenders, some line to create a grabline for docking, new winch strap, etc.), tried to negotiate a free trailer storage deal, and all but signed up for the slip. Brad talked me out of it. We’ll see what happens when RC and Beth get home - my guess is that they’ll jump on the idea.
We took Gracie out (she loves going on the boat) and just chilled at a sandbar. Not many people were out, but there were a whole lot of people who have staked out places for Memorial Day weekend. Thunderstorms popped up all around us, but we headed back in time to avoid them. It did get rough, even on the river, but it could have been a lot worse. It was raining cats and dogs on the reservoir and I had considered putting in there. We would have been stuck until the storms passed. At least Rhonda’s plants got watered - it looked like heavy rain had come down at our house.
No word from the girls - either they have no internet connectivity or no feelings…could go either way.
