Out with the old...

Well we finally broke down and got rid of the family truckster. I have a minivan no more. For now anyways. We leased a Dodge Caravan (in homage to a band I was in ) and the lease came up last week. We were only a couple of thousand miles over the limit. We drive around alot. It was a minivan with DVD and seating for my family of 5 and 2 extra seats for us to haul various friends, dogs or to separate sisters who are bugging each other. We went from toddler car seats, to booster seats to just regular seat belts in the Caravan. We've been to Memphis, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida & all points in between. I don't think they will ever really get the sand outta that thing. It's time had come when we realised that we would have to put a couple of hundred dollars in tires, possibly a new transmission, a new rack for the rack and pinion steering and yet another automatic door opener housing. Thanks, but no thanks. The warranty was out and there are a bazillion Dodge Caravans out there on Dodge lots. I tried to bargain with them on the buyout price and they would not budge. When I turned it in, the Dodge salesman was just shaking his head. He already had a lot full of used 05 caravans that had been turned in and 16 more on the back lot he had no room for. I pity the fool. She served us well and she will be missed.
We now have a new Suzuki Grand Vitara. We have not named her yet but she will be loved like any other member of the family. We got as good of a deal as any other gut that sells Suzuki's for a living might get. We also opted in for the bumper to bumper 100,000 mile warranty with no deductible. We are set for 7years and it will most likely be the first car my oldest drives to high school.
I am gonna trick it out with tinted windows, a new stereo, custom rims ( I'm thinking 20's) and a big ole T sticker on the back wheel cover ( for Tennessee ). The best part about this is because we got such a great deal, Suzuki cut me a check back to cover going over the miles and the turn in fee. It cost me less than $100 to drive off the lot and to turn in my gently used heap. To beat all the payments are less and it gets better gas mileage. Win/Win. I know my family misses the space, the DVD player and the acceptance that a minivan affords, but the will make due, for now, until I have to turn in my truck ( Awesome Kong II ) in April and then I am sure we will get minivan pangs again.
Until then I am proud to say my southern family has an SUV and A big ole truck riding around the suburbs of Ohio with a big orange T on the back of them. I might just get a Bochephus sticker for the little lady.
4x4x4x4
SF

End of Summer,BBQ, Olympics & cars.

Well it is getting close to the traditional end of Summer here in the Midwest & that means end of Summer cookouts, more festivals to go to, high school football and cooler weather. I mentioned before that we had our first real party in 13 years on July 4th. Well, a friend of ours has an annual Memorial day cookout and an annual Labor day weekend cookout. She says they always do burgers and dogs and many, many side dishes. She mentioned something about me BBQing a pork shoulder for her at one of her parties. I am pleased to announce that I have been summoned. I am taking my show on the road, albeit about 2 miles down the road, but this is for a different crowd. She asked me how I do what it is that I do and what she needed to buy, so I sent her an e-mail. I decided to put a portion of it here. This is by no means and end all be all list or procedure-just an better than novice take on BBQ pork shoulder. If you see something not quite right or have a better idea-please comment and help a brother out.
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Dear CJ
I could come over early and start the pork and from there it is just adding coals, wood,turning it every 2 hours and waiting around for it to cook. I can bring over my charcoal grill if you only have propane. ( I didn't want to say "if you only have gas"-just doesn't sound right) Anyway You'll need about 2 medium size pork shoulders 6-9 pounds, (I'll split the cost of those so I can take some BBq to the draft) Some hickory chips, and lump charcoal. I also use Famous Dave's rib rub, celery seed, garlic salt and coarse ground black pepper for the rub, Worcestershire, apple juice and BBq sauce for the baste. I really like Sweet baby rays' BBq sauce. But it is up to you. I get the soulders at Cubs. You have to do it a day or two early cuz they cut them up for chops & stuff. Sorry about the long e-mail, but I get really excited about this stuff. So, the process, I get the shoulders the night before and wash and dry them. Then I put the rib rub all over each shoulder. You wanna do this on a cookie sheet as it gets really messy. Make sure they are evenly coated and not caked on. I then sprinkle celery seed on them, just a light coat-like if you were putting salt or pepper on a steak. Then Double wrap them in aluminum foil & put in the fridge.The next morning I start the fire 7 hours before the food needs to be on the table. Take about an hour to get the fire just right. You wanna big fire but only on one side of the grill, the opposite side of the flu/chimney. Soak your wood chips overnight in apple juice. You're gonna use the whole bag. When the fire is ready, spread the coals only halfway until they are even. Take the wrapped pork and put it on the opposite side of the coals fat side up and open your flu/chimney halfway and your air intake? about 1/4 of the way. You don't want a super hot fire. remember "slow and low". It will start out really hot, around450, but you can control this with adjustments to the flu/air intake. Hotter-open wide, cooler-almost closed. Turn the pork, just rotating-you do not want to flip it as you want the fat to melt into it to make it moist--mmmm....moist pork. Sorry, got off track. So you wanna rotate this about every 1 1/2-2 hours.You're gonna wanna check your coals about that time. If it needs it, add a couple of hand fulls to the furthest end. After about 4 1/2 hours you wanna take the foil off of the pork and set it fat side up basting with half apple juice, 1/4 Worcestershire and1/4 BBq sauce mixture. Check your coals and start putting the wood chips directly on the hot coals. Close the lid and watch the smoke rise. After about 30minutes, check the pork for color, rotate and baste. Pull the pork off of fire when color is a golden to dark brown. Let sit on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Pull or chop pork, put in deep pan and sprinkle some rib rub and hot basting sauce to keep moist----mmmm...moist pork. Sorry, I am getting hungry. *Mix it all together and put a baseball size hand full, compacted on a bun, put BBq sauce, hot sauce and slaw on top of that. You want a tower of a sandwich. put top bun on and put your bib on. Eat,Drink & repeat last step*. I hope this helps. If not you can read this later for insomnia.
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Like I said in my earlier disclaimer-I ain't no expert, but it sure tastes good.
So on to other stuff. Like I said end of Summer, blah, blah blah. I still have yet to take a vacation, still brokety, broke, broke and am still longing for the beach and the people at the beach are longing for my money. But some great festivals are coming up. The Italian festival is in a couple of weeks with pizza, calzones, live Italian music (played by live Italians) and college football on the big screen in the courtyard; Seafood festival, popcorn festival and soon after that Harvest festival and Oktoberfest. Mmmmm....bratwurst! I love me some festivals.
Speaking of festivals, how about that big festival in China? (how's that for a segway) I have a couple of questions. The United States is spelled in English, as is Canada Great Britain, Jamaica and the like. Why is China, South Korea, Russia & every other non-English speaking country spelling their name in English on their uniforms? They are not spelling it in their home language. I have a hunch that it is because English is the language of business and a bunch of people from other countries speak English as well as their native tongue. It could be that most of the countries are being sponsored by American interests such as Nike, but then most of the stuff they are wearing was made 40 some odd miles from Beijing. It could be that we, as Americans just don't care to learn another language & T.V. coverage is generating mucho dinero for the teams and countries. Any thoughts?
Speaking of thoughts, we have to turn our trusty Caravan in by Monday and are thinking about either buying it or getting a newer, cheaper car. As you may or may not know, I sell cars. I have done a boatload of home work on this and we will come out better if we just bite the bullet and buy a new car. The Caravan served us well, but it has almost 60k miles on it and it is due to break down or explode or do whatever Dodges do. It is sure to depreciate more in value and we would be $9000 in the hole as soon as we signed the paperwork. I'll keep all 2 of you updated.
Wow that could've been about 5 different posts. I'll try to keep this updated a little better, we are having internet trouble yet again. If we wanna watch the satellite we cannot be on the computer & vise versa.
Have a good end of Summer,
SF

Rant of the day

If you really wanna know what the economy is doing-ask someone in sales, or restaurants, or any service industry. It is not going well. Businesses are cutting back and at the same time demanding that the profit margin go up. I know of a 14 million dollar restaurant that is working with 8 managers right now. Not because they are short staffed but because of cuts they have made. A 14 million dollar a year restaurant should have no less than 14 managers at a time and a couple of trainee managers to fall back on. I work in car sales. Now I know what you all are thinking, but we actually are one of the few that wanna help people get a car. We do not bully people or make them feel pressured. We encourage people to shop around because we have the best car for the price and people remember great customer service. I won't buy from a jackass and I wouldn't expect anyone else to either. It has been soooooo slow and to make matters worse, the soccer moms and the older generation who think that they need to get close to or near what they paid for their 10 year old gas guzzling SUV or Lincoln town car and expect to find a car that gets 40 miles to the gallon with all of the bells and whistles for under 10 grand are coming out in droves. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!! We buy our cars from the manufacturer and we pay for them through the bank. Yes, we have a note to pay on them every month-just the interest, but that adds up when you have 100's of cars on the lot. We also mark up the cars about $400 dollars. There- I said it. $400 dollars. All of the people who are out of touch seem to think cars are marked up 3-4 thousand dollars by the dealer. That is true in some cases-Maybe Mercedes, BMW and Land Rovers, but not on little 4 bangers or small SUV's that are marked at 25k. My point is if you are out car shopping and you have not done your Internet research you deserve to get upset and frustrated, but only with yourself. The market has changed so much in the last 5 years. When you are doing you research, please bear in mind that when advertised the dealer will put in the lowest priced base vehicle and add all of the rebates and bonus money in i.e. small print, and no one ever, I repeat ever qualifies for every rebate or bonus. Also when doing your research the price on the manufacturers website never includes taxes, shipping fee, destination charge, title or doc fees, all of which the dealer has no control over. That alone adds up to thousands, and I haven't even mentioned financing charges. So be cool, do your research and expect to be in the dealership for a minimum of 2 hours ( you are not buying a pair of pants-you are buying a very expensive and technical machine) . Average time at my dealership, from picking out and driving a car to leaving the lot is around 3-4 hours. We have to do paperwork, pick a car, gas the car, detail the car, more paperwork, get the tags , appraise your trade, get the financing, more paperwork, finalize the delivery, go through the checklist for the delivery, set the radio stations, check for your insurance, yet more paperwork and then you are free to drive your car off the lot where it depreciates as soon as the tires hit the asphalt. I hope I have enlightened you all. I know I feel a little better. Now come buy a car from me so I can keep the Internet access, will ya.SF