Wild and Wacked Out Weekend

Well, I don't even know where to being with this one. It was definately not your typical weekend for the Reeves'. But then again, nothing for us is normal, so maybe it actually was a typical weekend for the Reeves'.

Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day, and I had Spring Fever something fierce. So when I got home from work, I decided it would be a good night to cook outside on the grill. Heather made up a pile of burgers, and I cooked them. I had stopped on the way home at Publix to pick a couple of things, but of course forgot the charcoal. I rummaged through the utility room until I found 2 bags that when combined, gave me just enough to make do with. Halfway through the burgers, that old charcoal gave out on me. I had a pack of conecuh sausage (because if I am going to the trouble of lighting the charcoal, then I am cooking some conecuh sausage) that seemed to take forever on the lukewarm coals, but eventually everything got done. Heather made a new cole slaw that is low carb and probably some of the best I have ever had. I'll include the recipe at the bottom of this post.

So Friday was fairly calm.

Saturday morning we slept late. I had a meeting scheduled at the house with a friend of ours to get an answer to a couple of questions concerning the tax return I am doing for her, and while she was there, the Fed-Ex man delivered my new printer from Dell. After K left, I spent the next few hours trying to set up the wireless connection between the printer and my laptop. I never got finished with that.

Heather works with a girl at UAB who she has gotten to be friends with, and who had invited us to their house for dinner and karaoke. Now let me just take a minute here and say that I have done my share of karaoke in the past. Actually, Katie Benefield and I were quite the entertainers at Harry's Bar back in the day. But that has been the extent of my karaoke....bar singing, if you catch my drift. Well, Rachael and Ricky are not bar people, which is of course, just fine. I'm just saying that singing without a little liquid courage was something that I was not recently familiar with.

Back in high school, at dear old Jackson Academy, I sang in a barbershop quartet. We called ourselves "The Jackson Four." (Get it? Like the Jackson Five?) We wore white pants with red and white striped shirts and straw hats. I guess we were good. We sang all over the place, and we actually won a couple of national competitions. But that was over 20 years ago.

So Heather and I drove up to Oak Grove and had dinner with Ricky and Rachael. About half way there, I went over a railroad track that I should have slowed down for. It didn't look rough, but there was a dip in the pavement just on the other side of it. I hit it at about 45mph and thought I had knocked the bottom out of the car! My head actually hit the car roof. I had a stadium cup full of diet coke in the console, and it flew out and landed upside down, covering us with coke and soaking everything in the console.

Ricky cooked for us, and it was absolutely outstanding! We had a shrimp and andouille sausage pasta dish with "Olive Garden" salad and big pieces of crusty bread. So much for the low-carb. I thought my body might go into shock right there at the table! It was all sooooo good! Strawberry cupcakes were for dessert! I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.

Until after dinner. Then they fired up the karaoke. And nobody would take no for an answer. I think I did ok though. After the first couple of songs, I got over myself and actually had a good time. We all took turns singing and joining in to help each other out. In fact, we sang until nearly midnight, which with the clocks springing forward, put us getting home around 2am!

Sunday was non-eventful until the afternoon. I spent a hella lot of time on the phone with Dell. That printer is still not working wirelessly. They are now sending a replacement printer because evidently the wireless card is faulty. Why in the world can't I have something simple for once?

I had picked up some shrimp to do for supper. I seasoned it up really good and let it sit for a while in the fridge, and we were wrapping them in bacon when I noticed a bright light shining through the oven door. Early in the week, the oven had caught on fire, and I put it out with baking soda. We weren't so lucky this time.

At this point I need to stop and clarify that we do not have a dirty oven. That is not why it caught on fire, I don't think.

But yesterday, the thing was burning again! This time, I couldn't get it put out. I turned off the oven and it kept burning. It was this white sizzling fire that was moving along the bottom element. I was concerned that it would reach the back of the oven and then we were going to be in a mess. Heather already had the phone book out and was going to call the fire department, but I told her to wait. She said she couldn't find their number anyway. I guess she has never heard of 911.

The fire eventually stopped, but the oven is kaput. And that's fine. My dad suggested weighing the cost of fixing it instead of buying a new one, but Heather said no. She wants a new one. So I guess tomorrow when she is off, we will be at Lowe's or Home Depot or Sears shopping for appliances. We were already looking at microwaves. We'll just add a stove to the list.

And that's our weekend in a nutshell. Nuthouse may be more like it.

Here's the Coleslaw Recipe:

Ingredients:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons Splenda brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon plus one pinch salt
1 lb cabbage, shredded

Mix all cole slaw dressing ingredients together, and then mix them into the cabbage. Balance the lemon juice and sweetener to your own taste.

Nutritional Information: This makes about 7 servings of 1 cup each. Each serving has 4 grams effective carbohydrate plus 2 grams fiber, 2 grams protein, and 145 calories.