To be home and lost

As she came out of the water
Matt Bauer "The Island Moved In The Storm"
comes out September 2nd.
Look for it.

Mackinaw

Well, this last weekend I went to Priest. . . Caught a nice mackinaw. 5-1/2lbs. 24 inches. A nice trip truth be told.

The Robots

Well, what you have here are a couple of newish toys. I am still way back at the begining in regards to learning to play these bad boys but they sure are fun/aggrivating. I guess the difficulty lies in the split hand technique with one hand trying to keep up with two. I will get there i'm sure. just give me six months. . . or better yet, ten years.

The beauty of a whiskey and cigarette beatdown

So Sunday, Chris and I decided to hike up tower mountain not far from my house to the towers. . . Well, it was an amazing hike. It was not to bad in the begining and it was fairly easy to find a rhythm. Further along it got quite a bit more strenuous. Humorous when you find yourself taking ten steps, resting, then repeating for say the last 100 yards or so only to wind up at about 3800 feet. Not far from the top we spotted a Moose. He was kind of rusling around and then bedded down in a thicket. Soon, we were at the top. I found it rather funny that these giant towers come down to a point on what appeared to be about an eight inch circle. The other weird thing is when you stand at the base and look up it really seems like the tower is leaning over you. I am pretty sure that is some sort of optical illusion. Well, we hiked all the way down the ridge past quite a few towers until we stumbled upon these huge rock formations on the south side of the ridge looking out over the Palouse. I was later told these are the rocks of Sharon.

We looped around till we found another ridge running back north and made the full loop back around to where we parked the car. All in all it was a great hike and I would gladly do it again. I myself returned tick free but Chris brought home two of the little vampires. I am still amazed that I have lived near here several times during my life and I have never known about this place. Crazy.

A Sip Of Wine, A Cigarette

Well, quite the weekend. Spent it listening to Leonard Cohen "Ten New Songs" on vinyl. And Throwing three hell of a bar-b-ques. Yes three. See the highlights below.

Smoking the day away. . .

How about a little mop sauce, This one has rum in it.

Eight hour Turkey Roast. Tender enough to fall apart.

Hows about a little Pork Butt?

This damn beef Brisket is bigger than my microwave! It ended up on the Bar-b-que for 11 hours on Memorial day. Wow. To die for.

Host Organism. . .

Funny, I guess the reasoning behind this is the fact that I am making Kombucha on top of the fridge. and I guess also that I regularly drink Kefir as well. I do find that I feel better when I do, so most likely I will continue to drink this stuff pretty regular. But yes, people have taken to calling me Host Organism, so that humorous or not is the reason behind that. I have a 11 lb beef brisket, a 4 lb pork butt and a 4 lb turkey roast I will be smoking this weekend. MMMM. perhaps more on that later.

Didn't know yet what I'd know when I was bleedin'

Well It has recently come to my attention that my favorite slurpee has officially changed. The reigning king is no longer frozen Dr. Pepper. See, after spending a portion of the day experiencing the joys of yardwork, I had the distinct pleasure of taking a break and riding to the local Shell station where I found a new taste sensation. All hail the new reigning king and its name is a tasty little thing called "Orange Mango".

In other news, a little while back I purchased a new barbeque grill. A "Char-Griller Super Pro". I must say it is absolutely amazing. I am very impressed. It even has cast iron grates. Now, I just need the smoker box attachment. My brother Chris and I have essentially been living off the grill. Beer can chicken, Smoked pork loin and last night, Smoked trout. I have three kinds of wood for smoking. I am using Alder for fish with Mesquite or Hickory for the balance. There really is nothing like kicking back with a beer to keep your hand cold, putting your feet up and watching the smoke roll out the chimney. Yeah, things at my place are pretty rough.

Another excellent dinner

Eating like a king... at least for the moment. Some "srimp for strenth" with a little cajun shake,
Steamed baby reds with balsamic, grilled asparagus, Ball tip with punjab piledriver and one little lobster claw, top it off with a alaskan amber and it is not a bad way to wrap up a day of fishing with your brother. . .

Troutacos

Step 1. Lubricate

Step 2. Find ingredients / lubricate
Step 3. Chop (tomatillos) / lubricate
Step 4. More chop (serranos) /Lubricate
Step 5. More chop (scallions) /Lubricate
Step 6. mix (Cumin, Vinegar etc...) / lubricate

Step 7. Stuff (salt, pepper, lime and cilantro) / Lubricate

Step 8. Grill (fire) / Lubricate

Step 9. Eat / Lubricate

Fishin'

Well, yesterday I went on my first fishin' trip of the year. A great day all in all. Chris and I headed out at the butt crack of nine and Jim came out at about one thirty. They did however tease me about my fishin' hat... Chris named it "Shakira". The fish were not jumping in the boat but we brought home four nice trout. (troutacos with salsa verde will probably arrive tonight) Chris, the poor bastard, fell in when we were pulling the boat out. I however, only got ripped by one hook and broke one of my poles. Still it is better than a day at work. Good thing I had a spare.

Ka'ano'i

My skin outside the door

Feeling a need to push forward for spring I bar-b-qued this weekend. Crazy I guess since it has been snowing and all that cold... Well, I made a nice whole grain pasta salad with roasted red & yellow peppers, Pepperoncini and marinated mushrooms. Q-ed some steak and had a nice green salad. The Amber was not bad either...

Spring is finally here...

I Had a great time today. . . Wandered a little bit of the Centenial trail with Chris. We wandered around by the river. Talked about cayaks. Priced cayaks at Joes. I even got to spend about a half an hour jumping on the trampoline with my nephew. In the end we settled in for a bar-b-que. . .

Couple of Yahoos watching the barbie...

It doesnt get much better than an ice cold Carona, some green Tabasco and an oyster hot of the -que...

Behold the wonder.

Just a little butter, scallion and Tabasco and its down the hatch

This is my plate. Shrimp, oysters, steak (teriyaki and regular), crusty garlic bread, fire roasted pasilla chili, grilled asparagus, grilled scallion, radishes, olives and a delicious pasta salad. Now I am beered, fed and rather content. . . All in all a rather good day.

The golden stranger and stolen fire

I went to Madeline's Last night for dinner. The food was excellent. The Chimay Blue reminded me faintly of Port. More with the first than the second. Afterwards I wandered around to Farwest Billards for a quick game and a Bourbon Seven... From there I headed over to the Bing Crosby theatre and watched the Great Wall Youth Orchestra. It was a gorgeous concert featuring

Sheng: a type of reed mouth organ.

Pipa: a large 4 string Chinese Lute

Liuqin: A smaller four string Chinese Lute

Yueqin or Moon Guitar

Erhu: a Chinese Violin two strings and the bow passes between them.

Guzheng: a zither

The show was amazing and all in all I had a wonderful night. The purple silk organization is doing great things.

This Year Is Haunted

Real World - Steve Scott

Above our heads
the slow wheels of fading color
thickly turn
They are imbedded with the usual
bones, wings, and seeds
History and dreams of flight
move thru us
like water

This year is haunted

too many faces
pressed against the window pane
too many echoes
as the heart climbs

her icy radiance
burning the calendars empty houses
think of how the heart betrays the hands
her tides striped their pale beaches
with broken promises

and her bright pull marshals the fingers until they stand
like tall trees crowned in her cold light

Each single leaf is an unfolding map
and the maps sing like angels
of all the places
that we once dreamed of going to.

Look at the roads, they throb like veins
filled with shadows, clues, clouds, tears and words

there is a world, and then there is a real world
what are you waiting for?

There is nothing more precious than blood