Good pork shoulder roast

I just suprised myself…

Last night I was fishing through the freezer – I saw an unmarked slab of meat wrapped in butcher paper. I left it out overnight to thaw, thinking it was going to be another one of those awesome chuck roasts that my parents gave me – it was pork. This isn’t your ordinary swine either – this is wild hog caught on my parent’s property.

Anyway, I was little disappointed. I’m not the biggest fan of wild hog meat – it’s pretty gamey – and I prefer wild game. But this stuff, well – it has that different kind of gamey taste.

So, I had to think fast. I cut a bunch of slits in the meat and stuffed it with probably 7 whole cloves of garlic. Then I sauted some tomatos and paper thin garlic slices in some evoo, seasoned the meat w/ some kosher salt (almost curing it) and some fancy 3-corn fresh pepper. The I dropped it in the pan with some purple onions and covered it.

I cooked it on med-low for… I don’t know, a couple hours. After I couldn’t resist the smell any longer, I opened the pot, tried to lift it up by the exposed bone and the meat literally fell off.

So I started pulling it apart. At this point, Riley is at my feet begging. So I let him have the first bite. He seemed to like it. Then I tried it. Hmmmm – tasted too gamey. So I added some dried oregano. That helped, but not much. Basil – a little better. Then I remembered my lesson in East Coast barbecue. I added a few splashes of red wine vinegar. Awesome.

I’m thinking some long grain pecan rice and an apricot coulis… too bad all I have is tortilla chips and Hershey’s syrup. Oh well, the pork is great by itself.

After I watched motorcycle racing on Tuesday night, I got into motorcycle mode and watched Easy Rider. While doing that, I honed two of my favorite knives. I think I spent about 20 minutes on each one. Whew… talk about hair splitting.

I just went ape nuts with the message rules for Outlook Express 6. If El or I get any spam, I’ll be pretty damn suprised.

I’m thinking that the most effective will be the “If body message contains text: ‘to unsubscribe'” move to: “SPAM”.

We don’t subscribe to anything, so we won’t be missing much. At first I set the filter to immediately delete the message from the server, but then I thought I might get an email from a friend or family member who might need to say ‘to unsubscribe’. So I created a seperate Spam folder that can still be checked.

The crap you have to deal with.

Crummy way to start a holiday

I got up relatively early this morning. I hopped up, fumbled around for some quarters, grabbed my laundry basket along with some detergent and walked to the laundry room.

I was impressed that our apartment complex had installed new washers and dryers. I was not impressed when I couldn’t find a coin slot to save my life. All of the washers and dryers are equipped with some sort of card slot.

So, I look around for some sort of laundry card distribution contraption. Nothing.

And, of course, the leasing office is closed. I was pretty pissed. So, I guess it goes without saying that I’m going to have to go ‘commando’ for the rest of the day. I really hope the leasing office is open tomorrow.

“But Josh, why don’t you just go to a laundromat?” Yeah, try lugging your laundry on a motorcycle.

So I come home, already having started my day off on a bad note – I check my email… SPAM. Damnit – for as long as I’ve owned Janicek.com, I haven’t received any spam.

I try to nip this in the bud from the get-go. I set up an account with SpamCop… what a joke. So now I’ve been setting up spam filters on El’s and my email clients.

Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do tonight. I might just take my underwearless self and hop on the bike and head to Austin.

Elise is gone

Elise left for Dallas today around 6. Tomorrow, her and Jenni are leaving for Iowa.

Everybody keeps asking if I’ll be okay…. YES!!! I will be fine. Geez – I guess I’m made out to be co-dependant. I love my wife and all, but I know how to work the toaster and change the toilet paper. Plus, I’m grinning right now thinking of all the leg room I’ll have in bed.

Anyway – El went to the grocery store and picked up some goods for yours truly (heh). She picked up some beer for me as well. So, after she left, I went to the fridge to make myself dinner and saw the beer. I smiled and thought: bachelor pad!

So, a grabbed a beer, nuked a pizza and cranked up Speedvision on the surround sound. I watched an AMA 600 Super Bike race. Kawasaki almost won – Honda pulled up in the last lap to win the race. I’m always torn between Honda and Kawasaki. I’ve actually never owned a Kawasaki, but the ZX7R has always been my dream bike.

When I was a wee lad, I had 2 little Honda 50cc dirt bikes (actually, I think they were originally Terri and Lisa’s). Then, when I was 17, my Dad bought my brother’s old 1976 Honda CB750 for $100. Dad and I piddled around with it in the garage for a while. It ran, but it backfired like crazy. I rode it around the pasture, but I knew my parents weren’t going to let me ride it to school. I don’t know what we did with that bike.

Motorcycles are just in my blood (from my Mom’s side I guess). I don’t think Dad likes bikes much. I don’t think Mom does either – she was the only girl. Get me around my Uncle Bill… {grunt}

We actually once had a cat named Panhead (another motorcyle reference). That cat was great. He was a solid white, long haired, gorgeous cat. He was extremely loyal as well. After I moved to Austin, I remember Mom telling me stories about how Panhead would stand between my Mom and a mother cow if they got ‘too close’ and the cow became angered and wanted to charge.

Panhead was always getting into something – but he always managed to stay as white as could be – even being a cow herder in the middle of the country. He died a while back either by being attacked by something he thought he could handle, or he got hit by a car. He couldn’t see that well either as we had to have his right eye removed after another fight he had.

Anyway – we inherited Panhead before we moved to Cat Spring. I think Bill’s ex named him before we got him. The Panhead is actually an early Harley Davidson model motorcyle.

I’m going to go to bed now… and hogging the WHOLE bed (sorry Riley – looks like you get the couch tonight!)

Thrifty, not cheap

Josh wrote an entry yesterday about the plethora of H2O we now have stacked in our dining room. He also mentioned that I ran around town trying to use up the coupons. Alas, it is true. It’s not as though we were in desperate need of bottled water, but the idea of passing up “free” stuff is hard for me to contemplate. You see, I come from a long line of thrifty shoppers. It originates from my maternal grandmother’s side of the family. I’m told that it started during the Great Depression. There are even tales about my great-aunt driving across town just to save a few pennies on an item. (I guess somebody forgot to tell her about gas usage.) My parents and I even joke that if we need some off-the-wall item we can call Grandma T. and she’ll know the store that has that item on sale, or at least the best price. So you see, using coupons and bargain shopping are in my blood. I refer to it as being thrifty, not cheap.

I’m leaving tomorrow for Dallas. I’m going to spend the night with Jenni and then Wednesday morning she, her dad and I will leave for Des Moines, Iowa. I’m excited! I haven’t been home since Josh and I were there in September. I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my parents and friends. I also get to see Heather’s baby, Juliet for the first time. Yea! I’m going to miss Josh though. I wish he could come along, but it isn’t to be. I’ll miss watching fireworks with you baby.

I found out the other day that I start a job through the temp agency on July 15th. I’ll be working for Sallie Mae (financial lender) in Killeen. I’ll be doing data entry work…yuck. The worse part about it is I had to buy some work clothes because the attire is business-casual. I didn’t mind getting new clothes, just spending the money. Josh and I think it’s ridiculous that I have to dress up to sit in a pod behind a computer all day. Oh well…

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!

– Elise

Nothing new, Taste of Texas, wishing we were rich

Sometimes I just crack myself up. My Mom sent me a couple scans from the Hendee newsletter…

We lived in Houston until 1987 (I think). So I spent my childhood there. As do many kids, I played little league soccer. I think I played for 5 years. Our coach was Edd Hendee. His son, Edd K. was the same age as your humble narrator. Edd K. and I were friends. I think we even did the sleep over/slumber party thing.

Anyway, around this time, Edd and Nina (Edd K.’s parents) were working hard at their restaurant, The Taste of Texas. If memory serves me correctly, they started out making hamburgers, mexican food, chicken fried steaks, etc., etc. You know, Texas fare.

So anyway, the Hendees send my parents a newsletter every so often, letting folks know what’s going on in Hendee World. My Mom just emailed me a copy of said newsletter that was written by Lisa (the middle child). Last time I saw Lisa, I don’t think she was even speaking yet.

Well, now Lisa is about to go to grad school at UT. Edd K. is in San Diego with his wife while being a Lt. in the Navy. The youngest daughter, Kristen is about to go to college in Virginia. All the while they are taking trips in private planes to Cabo. Edd (dad) has dropped down to part-time on his radio talk show so he can work on his water skiing. His restaurant employs 200+ people. Nina is on all kinds of boards and committees. I was really waiting to hear the update on getting tires rotated on the Hummer H2 and the matching Viper.

I’m not complaining… I’m just envious. I know the Hendee’s are hard working people and deserve what they have received. Hell, if I were to be executed tomorrow, I would probably want my last meal to come from The Taste of Texas.

So anyway… Mom was having a hard time resizing this newsletter in Photoshop so I could read it. We finally finally got it figured out for her. I wrote her to tell her that I received the newsletter. Then I wrote:

“Okay – I could read them that time. Hmmm… must be nice to be able to fly
into Cabo whenever you please. I wonder what my boss would say if I said I
needed a little more water skiing time… Ha!

Oh well – on that note, I’m going to take my poor ass out into the rain and
go change the oil in my unemployed wife’s beat up late 80’s model truck.”

Bottled water, Monster Garage

Circa 5 years ago, my parents gave me a handful of coupons (pronounced: kyew-pons) for free Sparklets water. I’m not talking about a small stack of coupons – a mondo bushel of coupons are what I’ve held onto for the past half decade. Anyway – they would have expired tomorrow. El realized this and went to almost every grocery store today to cash them in. You should see the foot of my kitchen. We have a gross of bottled water. If I wanted to, I could bath in bottled water for the rest of this week.

Know what the funny thing is? We’re so used to being poor that we refill our water bottles to make it seem like we’re drinking ‘fresh’ bottled water. So it’ll take us years to go through our newly aquired palette of water.

Monster Garage was on again tonight. I could watch that show all day, every day. Tonight I watched three consecutive episodes. On the first episode they made a garbage truck out of an Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer. Again they used a plethora of hydrolic pumps to power the motors that opened the hatch and released the claw which grabbed the garbage cans.

On the next episode, the made a fire engine out of an old limo. More hydrolic pumps. A lot of welding. It was pretty damn cool – and it actually put out a fire.

And I finally got to see them construct the 100 mph lawn mower out of a 5.0 Mustang. It’s unbelievable how they do this stuff. They have to do it with no more than $3000 and they have to make the vehicle look stock. I think that’s the coolest part. It reminds me of the days when I used to play w/ GoBots and Transformers.

I just found Super Mario Brothers for my Nintendo… I’ll be doing that for the rest of the evening.

Pretzels, DJ, seat stitching

Rain, rain, and more rain. It rained all weekend. I guess we really needed it, but it put a damper on my plans.

I just read something pretty interesting…. It’s kind of dated data, but interesting nonetheless. In 1994, the best value college education could be attained at the University of Texas at Austin. Second best was Texas A&M. First runner up was Baylor.

Also, did you know that it’s not proper to address or refer to a married woman by using Mrs. and her first name? For example: Mrs. Elise Janicek is improper. She should [formally] be addressed as Mrs. Josh Janicek, or Ms. Elise Janicek.

Anyway – it just started pouring again.

Friday night El and I hopped on the bike and went to Bruckbauer’s for pizza and beer. Our pizza was burnt. The entertainment for the evening was provided by DJ Dr. Time. The whole scene was pretty bad. It was like a junior high dance where everyone avoided the dance floor as well as any sort of interaction with the DJ, despite his pleas.

Once the DJ started playing, 80% of the crowd left. We stayed because El and I were deep into an existential discussion. Around 11, the crowd grew a little. The DJ made another attempt at audience participation…. “If you can tell me how hot it is in Texas, I’ll give you a prize.” Well, Elise won the prize. I can’t tell you what she said, but we made out with a nice Pokemon water bottle and a box of half eaten, charred pizza.

I got up on Saturday and started stitching the seat on the Shadow. I got about half way done and it started pouring. I came inside and worked on El’s computer and made some more soft pretzels. El’s machine is pretty much back to normal – minus all of her files. I reinstalled Kazaa and now she’s been working diligently on downloading mp3’s.

I deleted all of the replicated wedding photos on Janicek.com. I freed up almost 15 megs. While doing that, I listened to Eminem’s new CD – twice. Pretty good stuff.

Later in the evening we rented The Others and A Beautiful Mind. I didn’t like the latter. I fell asleep in the middle of The Others. Guess I’ll finish watching that today while it continues to rain.

I just finished stitching my seat. It looks pretty ghetto. Oh well, I guess I can officially call my bike a custom cruiser!

I’m making some more soft pretzels today. I’m getting pretty good at it. This batch is going to be wheat berry. The ones that I made last night were awesome. I could seriously run those mall kiosks out of business.

Long awaited weekend… what to do?

Today took forever. The hard part about working where I do is that it seems like everyone takes off on Friday, or at least leaves early. So you’re sitting there the whole day daydreaming about leaving early. I thought about jetting, but then I said: “Nah, I probably wouldn’t do anything worthwhile at home anyway.” So, I actually got some substantial work done this afternoon. Of course there is the nice occasional cube visit by a coworker that breaks the monotony.

I’ve already assigned myself a mission (a couple of them actually) for the weekend. First, stitch the trusty Shadow. Then, change El’s oil. Then, when it’s nice and toasty outside, I’m going to drink as much malt liquor as I can, eat some cottage cheeze, wrap myself up in afgan blankets to look like a ninja and sprint south on the I-35 shoulder. Then I’ll come home and shave my head with a cheeze grater to cool myself off and chew on some tin foil.

But really, I’m going to get the ol’ Pinnacle DC30 (video capture card) up and running properly. I can capture video, but not audio. I’m thinking about installing AfterFX as well. Assuming that all goes smoothly [yeah right], I think I’m going to start writing a script. I still really want a DV camcorder though – that would make things so much easier, what with a Firewire and all.

Oh yeah, I need to wash my bike too – and lube the chain. I think El and I will take the bike out tonight – once it cools down a bit.

When I got back to work from lunch today, a lady stopped me and asked where I got my bike… blah blah… she said her boyfriend was looking to buy a motorcycle. I told her I would sell him mine and I gave her my card – we’ll see.

Mom’s Birthday

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is my Mom’s 35th birthday… Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Moooo-ooooom, Happy Birthday to you! I love you. Hope you had a wonderful day!

Elise and I just got back from our walk. Yeah – she’s mad at me for losing her folder. I really screwed up on that one. She had a good 3 gigs of mp3’s, her resume, cover letters, phone numbers, addresses, pictures, wedding stuff, documents… I’m a moron.

Anyway – I got a much deserved earful. Our walk was fine after the first 10 minutes. We found a crabapple that we kicked around the whole time. We talked about everything – like we always do. Now I’m back, geeking out in front of her computer – getting everything installed again for her.

Tomorrow’s Friday… ’bout time. No big plans for the weekend. I need to remember to stop somewhere and pick up blue dental floss manana. Maybe I’ll attempt to inch my way back onto El’s good side and take her to test drive a Jeep on Saturday.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

I goofed, Evelyn & Bob are homeowners

Oh man, what a day! Elise is going to kill me when I tell her that I lost her folder that used to be on her computer. I could have sworn that I moved it over to my machine whenever I installed Linux. I was confident that I moved everything over. Just goes to show: Measure twice, cut once. I really feel like crap now. It had a lot of her important stuff in it… resume, cover letters, etc. etc. So now I’m in the process of reformatting her machine and installing Windows so she can have her own computer again. I guess I can offer to help rebuild her resume with her.

I just killed the mp3’s that I had on my site to free up disk space. If you linked to them… sorry – I’m running out of room.

In other news… there really is no other news. My friend Evelyn and her boyfriend Bob bought a house last week. I’m pretty excited [jealous] for them.

Hell… I still feel bad – I have to come up with a way to make it up to Elise.

I Hate Computers

I hate computers. I hate printers. I really hate my printer right now.

I was trying to print in “best” mode. Yeah right. Damnit. I’m pissed. I hate computers. I hate the internet. I hate websites. I hate email. I hate e-everything.

It’s raining and my cat is in my closet eating my shoelaces. The lights just went out. This has not been a good hour.

Walk with the wife, Code for Food

Elise and I just got back from an invigorating (Ha – never thought I’d use that word) walk. We’ve both been sitting on our duffs for long enough. Well, El’s been making frequent trips to the pool during the days. Makes me wish I had done the same thing when she was the breadwinner for three months.

Tonight I made something like a burrito for dinner. They stunk. The filling was good, but the ‘tortillas’ we bought are gross. We went to HEB last week to do our normal grocery shopping and impulse purchased some “Garlic & Herb Wrap Arounds”. Bad bad bad.

We’ve been trying to be frugal, so I’ve been trying to piece together dinners at night. Last night I lightly fried some dory filets with homemade garlic bread crumbs. Then I made something like a casserole. Yes – I stooped and made a casserole. It was pretty good though – I was just trying to kill stuff in the fridge. I used some of Mom & Dad’s white squash, broccoli, garlic, mozzarella, cheddar and more bread crumbs.

I guess tomorrow we’ll have to go trade plasma for a couple hamburgers. In case you haven’t figured it out, El hasn’t found a job yet. She’s going to call the temp agency again tomorrow. She’s going to Des Moines for the weekend of the fourth which makes for somewhat of a hitch.

The seat on the trusty Shadow has begun to seriously unstitch itself. A few months back, Mom and Dad visited and helped me take my bike in for new tires and a new chain. The seat had a small part that had started to come unstitched, so Mom and I used blue dental floss to re-stitch it. I thought it looked pretty cool. Well, now the whole seat has gotten pretty bad. Guess I’ll be pulling out the blue floss this weekend. My tank is in dire need of a paint job too – I’m tempted to tackle that project too… just don’t have the facilities. I just need a new bike – Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Whew. One day…

Anyway – thought the picture above was very fitting. I hate our current economic situation – I don’t even track my investments anymore. I guess I’ll wait until someone [omniscient] taps me on the shoulder and says: “Hey, we’re doin’ alright now!”

Motorcycles, Jesse James, work clothes, Oh my!

“Your mission, if you choose to accept it: Make a fire-breathing, turf-rocket lawn mower that can trim grass at 60 mph … from a 1990 Ford Mustang convertible. Oh, and in only seven days. With no more than $3,000.”

Hell yeah!… Give me a quart of 10W-30 and a bendy straw – this is what I call reality TV – the cure for summertime reruns. The Discovery Channel has a new show called Monster Garage and after watching it once, I’m already hooked. Last night, Jesse James and his grease monkey gang turned a 1999 VW Bug sedan into a swamp buggy. They didn’t just do it the ol’ Junkyard Wars way – they created a customized amphibious vehicle complete with special order rims, custom paint, and a hydrolic retractable rear engine with an aircraft propeller. I’m seriously thinking about taking some classes to learn how to weld and fabricate!

Said show ran for an hour and was over at midnight. As I was about to turn off the TV, another episode came on. This time, they were to build a lawn mower out of the 5.0 Mustang. I had to go to bed though, I was too tired – and I figured it will be on again later this week.

Monster Garage came on after Motorcycle Mania 2 – I’ve already seen this show, but couldn’t help but watch it again. Jesse James owns West Coast Choppers and is definately an artist. His custom built bikes start at $60,000.

So anyway – I hate watching stuff like that right before bed. I couldn’t fall asleep for another hour… I just tossed and turned in bed thinking about motorcycles. I’m an addict. I wish I had a bigger bike so El and I could go to Sturgis in August – just don’t think the trusty Shadow would make it. Well, it’d probably make it, but it would be uncomfortable as hell. One day we’ll make it there… El already said she wanted to go.

In other news… If memory serves me correctly, tomorrow marks the 2 year anniversary of your humble narrator entering the real world. I think I started working for LearnFREE.com on June 26, 2000. What a dream-come-true that was (literally). I remember telling El: “I’m going to have a job lined up before I graduate from college with a small dot com and I’m going to wear shorts and flip flops to work”. Well, Elise actually found the job for me in the Austin American-Statesman classifieds before I graduated, but I took care of the shorts and flip flop part.

Soon after being interviewed, I was offered the job. I reported to work on my first day dressed in ‘business-casual’. Kirk told me that I could wear: “whatever the hell you want!” So, then next day, I dawned my desired business attire. Man, that was nice.

Anyway, I was laughing at myself this morning as I was putting on my ‘business-casual’ work clothes. I guess it beats wearing a tuxedo for 17 hours a day. I’m really tempted to wear my underwear on the outside of my pants. Nobody would notice. The people that I encounter to and from my cubicle each day I could count on one hand. And then I just go to my cubicle. I don’t really see anyone unless I have a meeting. On those days I could wear ‘nicer’ clothes – but I just don’t see the point of wearing nice clothes when nobody is going to appreciate it other than the action figures on my desk. I don’t wear nice clothes when I’m in my apartment watching TV, cooking or on the computer. Why should I pay to have my shirts and pants laundered and pressed when nobody is going to appreciate that effort?

People might swing by my cubicle to chat, see me with my plaid undies over my slacks and laugh and say: “Oh, that’s just Josh”. If I were in sales and had to deal with people, I would understand ‘dressing the part’. I just don’t have a part that necessitates being in a monkey suit all day. When I own my own business (assuming it doesn’t overly involve customer service), I’m going to have “Spandex, legwarmers, tank top and fedora Fridays”. On the other days, you can wear whatever the hell you want. And you wouldn’t have to participate in the fun Friday activities… hell, don’t even come in if you don’t want – so long as you got your work done.

I wonder what the people of Bell County would think if they saw a guy riding a motorcycle to work at 7:45 in the morning with his boxer shorts on the outside of his trousers….