I don’t know, for some reason, I like this photo. It was taken randomly doing 55 mph east on I-94. Under those conditions, I thought it turned out pretty well.
I love drive-ins. The Vali-Hi drive-in is a great place for the family to go. There’s nothing like sitting outside to watch a movie on a summer night. My only hope is that these will still be around when my kids are old enough to stay up until the first showing.
So, on Saturday, the 24th of January, my friend Travis Noll and I had the honor of accompanying The Bouncing Souls onstage at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis, MN.
This was almost too hard to believe at first. Only a few weeks before the show, Travis told me he had been emailing the bass player, Brian Kienlen, about playing trumpet in “The Pizza Song” when they come to town. When Travis asked me if I wanted to play the accordion along with them, I first asked if he was serious, but then I said yes. I knew next to nothing about playing the accordion. I’m not sure what possessed me to do this. Travis and I have been big fans of the band since we met in college, and this was an opportunity of a lifetime, whether I was ready for it or not.
Needless to say, we practiced heavily in the upcoming days.
I still can’t believe they let us do that. They had no idea how good we were. There was no background check, no references. I think for this reason, The Bouncing Souls have to go down in history as the coolest band out there.
They played a great show that night, and the crowd loved them. They also gave two of their biggest fans a night to remember for the rest of their lives. Thanks, guys. You rock!
Recently, at a party, I experienced Gravlax for the first time. When I asked about the recipe, I was told it was easy to make. As a salmon lover, this was perfect for me. So, I had to make it for myself. Here’s how it went.
Note: This isn’t a real recipe. I’m just paraphrasing what I did. You can find many great recipes out there if you need to follow more strict rules.
Step 1: Get a fillet of fresh Atlantic salmon. I froze my fillet for 7 days after I bought it. This may or may not have already been done. Also, it may or may not have been necessary. But, 7 days in the freezer should kill any chance of getting ringworm. So, I took the extra precaution.
Step 2: Mix 1 part salt and 1 part sugar. Optionally, you can add crushed pepper. Rub the mixture into the salmon.
Step 3: Next, add dill. Don’t skimp on the dill.
Step 4: Now, wrap up the salmon with a plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
Step 5: Put the salmon in the refrigerator. Let it cure in there for 3 days, turning it over once each day.
Step 6: Slice up and serve. I added some capers, dill, lemon, red onion, and cream cheese.
What can I say about my “stain-proof” grout experience?
I’m not sure if I made the decision to use stain-proof grout because it was my first tiling project or not. Having never tiled anything before, I thought that it was going to be a lot of work to put tiles up in a shower stall. I didn’t want to do all that work just to have it get stained or moldy in a few years. So, I thought “stain-proof” grout would be the perfect solution.
TrafficMaster Stainproof Grout was the product Home Depot was selling at the time. Seemed to me if Home Depot was selling it, how bad could it be? So, without doing any research online, I bought a few containers of the stuff, and headed home.
How did I get such an idea in the first place? After all, I knew next to nothing about grout. Why didn’t I just follow the Tiling For Dummies book?
Well, it’s simple. My father-in-law had recently remodeled his bathroom. When he did, he used the TrafficMaster Stainproof Grout from Home Depot. He was excited about how it was able to prevent stains from setting in (nice for bright white grouts). However, he adamantly warned me not to use this stuff. Having used regular grout many times before, he said this stuff was inferior, and would make the job more difficult for me.
It’s too bad I didn’t listen to him.
So, after getting the tub area all cleared out, I was ready to go. The tiles were all up, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself. They looked good. Now, I just wanted to get the grout on and have the project finished up. I had been showering in the basement for the last three months, and I was getting a little sick of it.
I put the first application on and let it dry. I followed the directions on the container exactly as written, although it never said anything about how long to let it dry before removing the excess grout. I figured I would remove the excess when it was hard enough so that I couldn’t stick my fingernail in it anymore.
Well, after several hours, the grout did not harden. I was starting to worry. Regular grout would have hardened in a few minutes. It had been several hours, and I was still able to stick my fingernail into it.
So, I wiped off what I could with a damp cheesecloth and called it a day. The next morning, though, I woke up to find the grout complete cracked. It was cracked on every single grout line. And when I say cracked, I mean Grand Canyon sized cracks.
Ughhhh!
I was too far along in the process to start over, so my only option was to add another coat and hope that it would take. Well, luckily for me, the second application worked. It took nearly a week to harden, though. A week! I couldn’t believe it. There was nothing in the directions about this.
I’m probably making the process seem easier than it was. Keep in mind I had to clean up after each application, and I was afraid to use any water on the second application, so it was hard to remove the excess grout that had dried on the tiles. Plus, I hadn’t accounted for the extra time it took waiting for the grout to dry. So, it was really killing the weekend that I had set aside to do this.
It’s all over now, though, and I have bright white grout lines that even hair dye seems to come out of.
So, before I go blame the entire fiasco on the grout, I should say I’m not an expert tile worker (obviously, or I would have used regular grout). I may have had too much water on my sponge, right? It’s been awhile, but I remember quite vividly getting the sponge as dry as a bone before I wiped the grout away. Plus, I later sat down and searched for the grout on the internet. I found many people having the same experience as me.
I wish I would have done the research before I tried the product.
I’ve never seen a grasshopper like this. So, I thought I would post a picture to share.
It’s shorter and stubbier than what I’ve usually seen. It also appears to be a little red.
What’s stranger is that was another identical one nearby that was white. It was gone by the time I came back with the camera, though.