New refrigerator, ribs on the grill

This is my new refrigerator. Last night, I got all the food out of the coolers where it had been languishing for a day and got it into the new Amana refrigerator. Yahoo. It's nice to have the kitchen back to it's semi-organized state. Tiffany commented snidely that it's more room to keep expired food. Harrumph.

Regis and I got up early this morning and went to Menards on a mission for two things: a utensil to clean leaves out of gutters and a rack to hang from the ceiling for pots and pans. Success on both counts. Then we went to Perkins for breakfast and to HyVee to restock the larder. We both noticed that the help in both places is a lot friendlier and helpful early in the morning.

We bought a big rack of ribs because we've been wanting to try making them on the grill. We read up a little this afternoon (Grilling for Dumbies) and think we found the right process: a nice dry rub, basting with Jim Beam bourbon and water, and barbecue sauce for the last twenty minutes. The charcoal was complicated because it had to be replenished over the two hours of cooking time and we used mesquite wood chips that had to be soaked and added from time to time, too. The ribs were tender and delicious and I think we're spoiled. I wanted Regis to take a picture of them but we got distracted and ate them before we thought of it again.

I worked in the garden for a while today, too. We're getting rid of all those sunflowers (oh sure. they come up everywhere and forever. like white daisies there is no getting rid of them.) that take over and end up looking like hell by the end of July. One thing I like about them is when the goldfinches sit on them and ride the flower to the ground as the stem bends. It's like a carnival ride for birds. I saw a hummingbird today. He better get on his way wherever they go. Also saw a tiger swallowtail butterfly whose back end was pretty chewed up. He must have narrowly escaped being eaten by a bird.

Ella is coming over tomorrow while her daddy finishes painting the garage. She's always entertaining. Regis asked her today if she wanted to come to Nana's house tomorrow and she said, "Yeaaaaahhhh..." What a girl.