What’s new in the almost country you ask? Not too much, but it’s early and it’s raining so I decided to post while I drink coffee!

It’s that time of year when everything is ridiculously green. S & I had a long weekend last weekend and spent some time on the yard and flower beds. After it’s done raining today, I will probably do some of the mulch. I like to do it myself, because (like my dad) I have a way I like to do it. In my opinion, S uses way too much.

Speaking of dad, it would have been his birthday on Thursday. I wish he were still here, especially because he would have enjoyed the boys so much. Mom said she went to the cemetery. I think she gets frustrated that I am not a cemetery-visitor. I don’t know. I just would rather have fond memories of people when they were alive. I certainly don’t feel closer to their memory at a cemetery. Nor do I feel I am honoring them by visiting. Maybe that is a generational thing? Since I am on this morbid topic, let me re-state my wishes here. Cremate me – no funeral. Keep me in an urn if it makes you happy or sprinkle me somewhere. Oh! How about, dig a hole, sprinkle ashes and plant a tree? That would be lovely.

Work is still shitty, but they did give everyone significant pay increases out of the blue. I guess because there’s not many people that are any good left? Anyway, we are all getting through each day as best as we can, but it’s chaos.

My favorite new recipe recently is Asian Chicken Salad. I marinated chicken with Asian things (soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, oil, garlic, ginger, orange, a little hoisin and a bit of brown sugar). Grilled the chicken and sliced into thin strips. You could also put those same ingredients in a saucepan with a tablespoon of cornstarch and cook them down to make a sauce of glaze and bake your chicken. Anyway, I added my yummy chicken to a salad of Cole slaw mix, chopped romaine, green onion, green bell pepper, sliced almonds, shredded carrot and crispy, bagged chow mien noodles. Really good. We had that twice this week with an Asian dressing. It will definitely be part of the summer mix.

Today, after it stops raining, I am making ribeye sandwiches. Yes! You read that correctly. We are having some bread today. Anyway, we went to this local festival a few years ago and I had one of these there. Kroger had ribeyes on sale last week so I bought a bunch. Two were really small and thin which made me question what I could do with them. Sandwiches!

My favorite new song this week is Luke Comb’s cover of Fast Car.

XOXO