I suck and I know it

Really quick post while I'm thinking about it and in the five minutes I have left before dinner comes out of the oven. Yes, I know that it's after 9:30 pm and we haven't eaten dinner yet. Kind of a fact of life around here. Guess I should have realized the shoulder roast was in the fridge and not the freezer on Sunday when I had more time to cook it.

It's still raining. No, it hasn't been raining non-stop, just any time that I would like to do something outside. We did manage to squeeze in a trail ride with friends on the 4th, but we literally had to run back to the house to try to avoid another storm. Surprisingly, it didn't rain, but the risk of lightning was enough to get me back to shelter in a hurry. Something about spending your work week researching the hazards of natural disasters is enough to give you a new found respect for mother nature.

We didn't end up taking the dogs to the trainer's party on the 4th. With all the trees around us, our neighbors aren't ones for setting off fireworks, so the dogs didn't really need the distraction. Matt, however, really wanted to see fireworks. We actually got a bit of a fireworks show all the way down CR 41 to Dade City. We could even see another town's display from the top of one hill. Zephyrhills maybe? Dade City's show had already started when we got there, but there was still a good bit of it left. We pulled off the side of the road, being sure to position the car for an easy escape. It was a fun little outing. And we calculated our escape just right. It took the same amount of time to get home as it took us to get there. Pretty good considering I talked to one woman at Publix who spent two hours trying to get home from the Weeki Wachee fireworks.

Gosh, now that I'm writing, I'm thinking of so many other things to write about. Pretty good considering I started out not knowing what to write about. Oh yeah, dinner's already been served and eaten. Anyway, we actually had a really good 4th. I mentioned that we had friends over for a trail ride. Well, we got to a late start, partially because of an uncooperative pony who preferred to visit rather than have shoes nailed to her feet. So we opted to cook lunch before going on our ride. I had just gone to the farmer's market the weekend before and was looking for an excuse to cook up some green tomatoes, zucchini, and egg plant. I was quickly replaced as head chef when one of the girls asked why I was using flour instead of corn meal to coat the veggies. Now, for my grandmother's sake, I was taught to use corn meal; however, over the years I've gotten lazy and usually never had corn meal in the pantry, so I started using flour. Leave it to a southern cook to point out my mistake. I'm not mad at her in the slightest though. She can make some damn good veggies. We had a lot of fun cooking in the kitchen. I cut the veggies, Marcy cooked, and Theresa sprinkled with parmesan cheese. And we gabbed. The guys disappeared outside for most of the time. Three women in the kitchen probably scared the crap out of them. Men are safer with their power tools. Then, like I said, we went on our trail ride. Note to self: when the farrier tells you to take bug spray on the trail, take the bug spray. The deer flies were horrible. They were swarming all over my gelding's face. And Maverick, being the coward that he is, thinks that the solution to anything that he doesn't like is to run from it. My shoulders are still sore from holding him back. Not like I could keep him walking anyway. Marcy and Theresa were riding gaited horses and it was everything my quarter horses could do to keep up at the trot. Then our frantic race back home on out of shape horses, carrying out of shape riders, to quickly untack and race into the house before the onset of the impending storm....that never came. Ah, story of my life.