Off to the wiener dog races

Yesterday, as part of our "Semana de Juli" we attended the Old World Octoberfest in Huntington Beach. The "Semana de Juli" is Juli's weekly festival that either starts or ends on her birthday. This year we are starting a week early and we'll end on her birthday, October 4th. Yesterday I made breakfast, complete with mimosas and after drinking a bottle of champagne at 8 am, Juli got to take a nice long nap before we headed over to Old World to listen to some live German music, drink a few Spaten, eat some sauerkraut and mashed taters, and of course, watch the wiener dog races. People were seriously getting all riled up about the races. It was pretty funny watching the weirdos get all huffy and puffy about a freaking dog running 100 feet surrounded by a crowd of drunken idiots screaming their names. One of the dogs was named "Harry Wiener" - he was a favorite to win, but got sidetracked by some bitch in the semifinals and lost.

Today we are continuing the celebrations by taking a cruise through the harbor in a Duffy boat, Tuesday is dinner in Los Feliz with Ali, Wade and Tarik, Wednesday is "The Dark Knight" at the IMAX theater, Thursday we go bowling (fuck yeah), Friday, the Black Lips and Japanese Motors are playing at Detroit, and Saturday we are just going out to get "really drunk" as Juli puts it. Good week.

I survived another September...

Well, it's not over yet... But the month of September is always a crazy one and I feel like it's never going to end. Tradeshows are fun, but they take an incredible toll on me, both physically and mentally. It's so hard being away from Juli and Vaughn for so long, and it's hard for her to rationalize that in between all the drinking and dinners and late night shenanigans that we're actually getting a lot of work done... Then after almost two full weeks of that it's my birthday, which this year we spent in Los Gatos at a wedding. Not my idea of the perfect bday, but the wedding was amazing and in the end it was peachy - the Stratton's are good people and we were stoked to be a part of it. At some point I'll post a photo of the winery/house where they were married.... Totally awesome to say the least.

The night before we went up there, Juli and I had planned to go out to dinner with a couple of our friends, Skye, Brooke and Tabitha (who is currently in the running for the 2nd place prize of cutest pregnant girl ever - Juli of course is the champ). BUT, as I got home from another stressful day at work, I got a huge "Surprise" when I walked in the door and a dozen of our closest friends were at our house waiting for me to come home. I knew she was up to something... But I was very surprised. We had a few drinks, ate a delicious dinner prepared by Ali and Wade (he eats!) and then had the best birthday cake I've ever had... Handmade by the best wife/mommy in the world. It was red velvet cake with vanilla frosting, yummy! Thinking back now, I realize that I have such a rad group of friends, and the best family a guy could ask for...

7 years ago... tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the 7th year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on NYC. Tomorrow is also a day where I'm driving to LAX and getting on a cross country flight to Orlando at 8:45 am. It's kinda got me thinking a little bit about it, but you really can't live that way, and if some asshole is going to do something that like that there's not really anything you or anyone else can do about it. I can't believe that people actually can rationally think that killing a bunch of people and yourself in a mass murder/suicide attack is going to help you get to a better place in your version of the "afterlife". What if this is it and those people are just dust? Do you even know it then? I guess not. Anyway, I didn't mean to get into religion here, just thinking about it and hoping that no one tries anything stupid.

I really like to pull my pork!

One of the only things that I really miss about Florida is the BBQ. Charlie and Jake's, Mmmmmmmmmm. Memaw's, Mmmmmmmm. Hushpuppies, Mmmmmmm. So the other day I was thinking about eating some good pulled pork and decided that if some redneck in Florida can make it, then I can too. I knew you could make it in a Crock Pot, and since Juli and I got one as a wedding gift and only used it once or twice in the last year and a half, I had to give it a shot.

I googled "pulled pork - crock pot" and tried the first recipe that came up - of course I improvised. The recipe called for a 2-4 pound piece of pork butt or shoulder, 2 onions, salt and pepper, a jar of BBQ sauce and a can of ginger ale. I got all of these, but substituted a Newcastle for the ginger ale.

I sliced the onions into hockey pucks and laid them in the Crock, then laid the pork butt on top (mine was 3.25 lbs.) after generously salt and peppering the bitch. I had a few more onion slices so I through those babies on top and then drenched her with that bottle of Newcastle. Then I drank the other 5 that came in the six pack while the pork was sitting in the pot. It cooked on low for 12 hours - I started at 6:30 and the buzzer woke me up and 6:30 am, even though the awesome smell of pork and onions had Juli and I waking up all night sniffing the air.

I turned off the Crock and took the top off, the piggie steam was everywhere and the meat was perfect! Then I took Joneser for a walk and let it cool down, after an hour I pulled it out in pieces, cause it was so tender that chunks were coming off every time I picked it up. I threw out the pieces of fat that were left, dumped out the beer and onions, and threw the meat back in the Crock. Then I dumped a whole jar (18 oz.) of Stubb's Hickory Smoked BBQ sauce in there with about a half a minced onion leftover from the slices the day before. Back on low for 3 more hours, and WHAM! The best damn pulled pork I've ever eaten.

We had so much pulled pork that we took some to a BBQ the next day, and everyone loved it there too. We even got a pizza dough and made pulled pork BBQ pizza. Damn it was good. I am the redneck top chef/kithen master/Crock Pot king. And I rule.

Next up, Carnitas. Same recipe, just less liquid and some hot spicy things! I'm going to steal some Daddle Peppers from Robbie and make that shit buuuuurn.

9 Months - Holy SHIT!

Tomorrow Vaughn will be exactly 9 months old... Damn that went fast! He is the best baby in the world though, and it gets better everyday!!!!