Weekend in northern Missouri

Friday…..

A BUSY morning!!!! Was at WM by 9am to pick up a few more items that I needed for fixing dinner for Mike……and then it was back to TheHowserHouse and the chef began. Fried a pound of bacon and while doing that I made my “special sauce” for the T-bone steaks and spread it over them to marinate for an hour. I also infused the meat with slivers of fresh garlic….inserting the slivers into small slices I made in the raw steaks.

Then I began to chop and get the veggies ready for the tossed salad, which I decided to not add the dressing until we arrived in Bonne Terre. By that time it was time to get the steaks in the oven to broil. This took about 25 minutes to cook…..perhaps a bit more….as I wanted the steaks just a bit pink in the center. I added fresh mushrooms which I had sliced and marinated to the top of the steaks when I turned them on the broiler pan.

At 11, I called “The Branding Iron” in Farmington and told them I would pick up a dozen BBQed ribs at 1:45pm. Then I called the local Pizza Hut and told them I would need 10 bread sticks at 1:30pm for pickup. When I finished the calling, the steaks were done and they needed some time to rest prior to me cutting the meat into bite sized pieces. By the time I finished, the 1st Lady had arrived from school…..she took the afternoon off so she could go for the food visit with Mike.

We picked up the ordered food, met Becky in the parking lot at Bonne Terre, and then had a great afternoon eating….the whole afternoon. Becky had brought fried shrimp and a banana cream pie that was special ordered from Kansas City…..thru one of the large groceries in St Louis

Leaving there around 7pm, we headed north, stopping at the Gravois Bluffs shopping area in Fenton for some meds for the 1st Lady and a cup of cappuccino for me. Then on up Hwy 141 and picked up Rachel, and onwards up the east side of Missouri to Monroe City, just east of Hannibal. We arrived around 11pm at the 1st Lady’s mother’s home……a wee bit exhausted from a BUSY day.

Saturday…….

Dr. Jeni, Darrel, Meghan, and Ava all arrived around midnight last night and so by 8am the girls were ALL up and playing loudly!! The 1st’ Lady’s mother had had two teeth extracted yesterday morning, so she was a bit swollen this morning. I made a couple of runs to the local grocery, sat on the patio and drank some not-so-good coffee, and before long dinner was ready………as her mom was a farm wife/mom, the large meal is always eaten at noon….ALWAYS. This afternoon, the Moser family and Rachel headed to Mark Twain Lake and an afternoon on the beach…….the girls always love the water….and they certainly enjoyed it today!!!

I spent the afternoon reading on the patio…….a pretty good novel by Ken Follett which I had not read before. Some of his are better than others……and this one, while not his best, at least keeps the mind occupied. He made a couple of dumb mistakes, or at least his researcher did, because the novel is about the 1958 era and one of his characters hot-wired a “Ford Fiesta” in the story. Now, I am certain there was no Fiesta on the market in 1958.….I remember that time period WELL!!! Also one of the lines by one of the characters mentioned that something about “going out with a young lady”. That line was spoken in a flashback that occurred just prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor…..and I feel certain that that particular phrase is much more recent than that……believe they would have used the verb “dating”, wouldn’t they???

Tonight……read some more and watched a bit of TV……my mother-in-law has satellite but doesn’t get many channels of any interest…..very very few movie channels. Oh well……different strokes for different folks. We’ll see what tomorrow brings…….

Sunday…….

A beautiful morning up here in Monroe City, MO!!! Had coffee on the patio enjoying the blue sky and the cool (72 degrees) temps. The rest of the morning was spent in reading and watching the Sunday morning news/talk shows……with one trip to the grocery store for some much needed items for lunch.

The Moser family left around 3pm for their home and we hit the road around 3:30 for SE Missouri. Dropped Rachel off in Fenton and then came on home. Have spent the evening either watching the developing Katrina as this young lady begins to mature as she approaches one of my favorite places to visit: New Orleans.
W’OW…..have I ever had some GOOD times there over the years!!!! Such a fun place with wonderful food and drinks…..and such a good place for people watching along with all the live music on the streets and in the clubs.

Also watched on HBO the new 12 week series, “Rome”. Certainly not for the younger set…..parents will have to decided the watchable age, but it is an interesting series…..so far. I also have only a few pages left on the Ken Follett book that I am reading and …….it has become more and more interesting and spell-binding as I get closer to the closure. Definitely a good read…..if you like a mystery with some surprise touches.

Soooo, I will post this and then check to see the pics that the 1st Lady has been taking all weekend……might be a few to share??? Surely not…..hahaha.