A Julia Childs Moment...

Hey folks,
sorry I haven't been on much lately. I was chopping up some cucumbers to munch on since I'm really trying to eat better. I was really getting into slicing the cukes and was in a groove. Well, I think I got TOO much into it because I was not thinking and the next thing you know.... WHACK! and there goes a chunk of the meaty part of my palm into the pile of cucumber slices. It wasn't that big of a piece. But it was enough. At first I was in stunned silence, no blood and no pain. Then all of a sudden there was an avalanche of both. I was able to clean it up and make a dressing for it (uh, for my wound... not for the cucumber salad I was making) and when I cleaned the wound up, it stopped bleeding. It does sting and it will for quite a while but I'm dealing with it alright. It's not too bad. But I realize that a chef, I am NOT... Of course, when I mention it to family and friends, the words of encouragement came flooding to me: "geez Mik, were you trying to make finger sandwiches or something?" ahhhh... delightful folks I deal with... I prefer humor to worry and like I said, it wasn't a real big piece of my skin and tissue. It was about the area of 3/4 the size of a dime, just below my pinky finger... Though it hurts to type. But as the saying goes, this too, shall pass. They always say when you get knocked off of a horse, that the 1st thing you should do is hop back on. Well, for me that meant chopping up more cucumbers and eating them without feeling like I was a cannibal... mission accomplished!

Yo Quiero Taco Bell... Gidget Buys It...

It's not normal for me to wax poetic on a pop culture fixation but I gotta say that I was kind of bummed to read where Gidget, the little chihuaha from the Taco Hell commercials of the 90's had passed away at the ripe old age of 15 years old. I really loved the dog and the character it portrayed. To this day and now beyond, there isn't a time that goes by that people will not automatically associate "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" or "Here Lizard Lizard Lizard" without thinking about that little dog. Gidget was the name, and selling tacos was the game. I still have lying around somewhere, a couple of chihuahua dolls that when you pull the string, the Taco Bell dog says something silly. I'm not an animal freak or anything like that. Of course my girlfriend laughs at the thought of me trying to explain my peculiar, if not misunderstood relationship with that most selfish of doggy divas, my Penney. But outside of my penney-pooh, I didn't have fixation with any other animal. Except for that goofy little chihuahua who hawked some below average (alledged) Mexican food... RIP Gidget... I'm going to eat an enchirito in tribute to you...lol... catch you guys later.

Highlights of the holiday...

what's a guy to do when he's got a girl who is WAY out of his league? Simple: just love her like crazy and never let her go.... A couple of pics from when the gal pal came over on the July 4th holiday and spent the day with me at our garage sale. Well, the garage sale at my place. My gal pal had stuff to sell. Her mom had stuff to sell. My sister had stuff to sell. My sister's boys had stuff to sell. My sister's best friend had stuff to sell. EVERYONE had stuff to sell at the garage sale... Everyone but ME... go figure! But being the congenial (if not exhausted) host, I endured all day long. And I do mean ALL DAY...lol But my gal pal was right there with me. She is simply the best and most wonderful human being on planet earth. Have a good week everybody...

Fireworks? What Fireworks? Well...

Howdy one and all...

I spent the weekend with my gal pal and both of our families... and I had a wonderful time with them. It was a typical Mik experience- whacky. I don't do normal. I haven't for years. Why start now? Let's see... In the span of 48 hours I had to get my house cleaned (no easy feat...lol), welcome my gal pal and her folks into town, get back home because my sister and her best friend were bringing a boatload of crap to sell at the garage sale (our town has a city wide garage sale every July 4th weekend) on Saturday, so my house and my garage were full of things to sell. Plus my beloved and her mom came and brought some jewelry and clothes to sell... Now for those who are parents or are used to company coming over an a routine basis, this is no big deal. For a guy who NEVER entertains at his home, let alone have everyone coming over to have a garage sale at his house, I was simply enjoying the PPF to gauge how nervous I was. (PPF = poopin' pickles factor). Nervous? Me? Nahhh... (yeah right!). But the topper for me was that the girls (Lou and Terri) were feeling good enough to make it out and come over. To give you an idea how significant this was, it was huge to me because it was the first time they had ever been to my house since I moved there several years ago. My place is not wheelchair friendly and with Lou having no legs, presented a touch of a challenge. But she and Terri (who cooked for me for Saturday) were great and it made me downshift from all out panic at having this stuff come together, to a somewhat stunned appreciation to what I was witnessing. My whole family and my gal pal's family sitting at my place hanging out with a garage sale all day and having a great time. All this and to top it off, my oldest nephew became a father for the first time at age 34. Yep, I became a great uncle. And here all this time I thought I was a great uncle because I was a nice guy. But my nephew became a dad for the first time and has a brand new baby boy (7lbs 1oz and 21ins. long). Little Alec has turned my family upside down and I'm a great uncle. And the translation of the term "great uncle"? Simple. I AM OLD...

Say hi to Alec....