cook-out update

I have a new best friend.  He is the butcher at the commissary who cut this gigantic piece of meat into nice 1-inch thick rib-eye steaks for me.  I asked him about this huge cut of meat and what kind of steaks it could be turned into and then told him I'd been watching u-tube videos to learn how to cut steaks.  He laughed and said that he would do it for me!  In the "old days" the butcher would do a lot of special services but since all the meat is now packaged before it ever gets to the grocery and they don't have giant slabs of meat hanging in the back I had no idea that they would still do special cuts.  But it may have been that I was just so funny with my questions because the next guy that wanted some special 97% lean ground meat got the stink eye from the butcher.  Whatever...... I now have my meat problem solved.

And the lawn is mowed but I wasn't able to do a very good job because it was so wet the long strands just fell over and didn't get cut.  Maybe it will dry out enough for a quick trim before Saturday.  And I have all the wooden deck furniture covered in giant blue tarps so they won't get all soaked before Saturday.  The wood really holds the dampness unless you have a good strong sun and I'm afraid I may never see the sun again.  I feel like I'm living in Portland.  Forecast for Saturday is still good but deteriorating.

Guest list is up to 20 with a couple of tentative so on my Friday a.m. grocery run I can grab a few more potatoes, the green beans, a few more tomatoes, and a couple of more steaks.  I'm good.  Maybe I should start on the brownies and blondies if I can find some freezer space.  (The freezer is full of ice from the hurricane when I was afraid of losing power.  Now I'm keeping the ice to use to chill drinks, resulting in a freezer that is not very useful for party food.)

I can't imagine how I used to do this when I was working.  I do remember lots of late nights and frantic grocery store trips on my way home from work.  This just seems too easy.  Well, I still have to pick up all the grocery bags and put them away and unload the dishwasher and throw in a load of laundry and........