Goin' South

I've decided I shall not blog on the weekends. I can always comment about weekends on Monday.

I was very pleased with the outcome of Survivor this season. Tom the Brooklyn Fireman, was my favorite and I am delighted he won. He deserved it! Besides, I always root for the older peeps. I wonder how Rudy from Season One is doing? He must be getting pretty close to 80 by now. He was a pip. I wish he'd won, too.

W4D's commuter car (ack, we've already had it for 8 months? can it be??)

doesn't have a digital compass and we are used to having one so we miss knowing which way we are headed. This weekend, the DH picked out a little bubble one for the dash. It won't stick on the dash - has to go on the windshield or something glass. Inconvenience numero uno.

On the way home from Tar-JAY, I applied it to the glass light on the header or whatever you prefer to call the ceiling of a car. We were headed south. I noticed that the compass directive needle was on South the whole time it was in the nearly indestructible, need a hacksaw to open packaging, but that's the also the direction we were driving by the time I got it positioned.

W4D had to keep looking skyward to see it so I decided as ugly as it appears, it would have to be on the windshield or my Dear Hubby would surely crash into something while he was constantly glancing upward to see which direction he was headed - not that he hasn't been driving this same road and this same direction two to four times per day for the last 20 odd years.

Anyway, we took a little side jig East and the compass was still pointing South. DH informed me that this little water bubble with the floating compass probably just needed "time to warm up." :::rolling eyes::: I burst out laughing. He really believed what he said so I bit my tongue and suggested we speed up the warming up process by circling through the parking lot at the district post office in Gainesville. We did a complete 360 over about 40 acres and the compass did slightly "warm up" to SSE when we turned West. Never once in the rest of the full circle did that ball bobble, move or even twitch. Now remember, this is a water based bobbling bubble compass, the kind you see all the time. It is not near anything magnetic or electric. By this time, I have had it in 4 different places and it still points South. The packaging says it was made in China. I am thinking it must have been made in South China.

Always the optimist, DH flicks it a few times, taps it, boings it, jiggles it and we are headed south and yes, the compass shows the correct direction. I decide the compass has got to go or we will surely end up in a ditch or worse. It is a total distraction when you are driving and can't take your eyes off the compass.

We headed East, the compass showed South. We headed West and the compass showed South. DJ still thinks it just needs a little more time to warm up. Okay. Whatever you say, dear.

A new day dawns... After DH drove North, NW, NE and N again today on the way to work, I inquired of the compass. DH asked if I had saved the receipt. He's going to trade it in on a Big Mac or something tomorrow after he makes a trip to Target to get his $2.79 back. I told him he should keep it a few days longer for it is probably still warming up.

This gives the old expression "goin' south," more meaning, doesn't it? bwahahahaha!

Dinner last night was a nice pork tenderloin

that I marinated for 36 hours and then grilled outside. Pork tenderloins always have one end that tapers off to nothing so to grill it evenly, just fold the skinny end up until it is uniform in width with the top part of the tenderloin. You can tie it off with butcher twine or if grilling, use fireproof twist ties if you have them on hand.

To go with the grilled tenderloin, I made fresh haricot verts (green beans to us in the South, snap beans elsewhere?) with tiny creamers.

You will note that I peeled slices off the creamers just as I always do even though I had purposely selected the tiniest possible creamers (new potatoes) at the market. None of them were larger than a quarter, each only slightly larger than a quail egg. I dressed the veggies with a butter and minced garlic with herb sauce of dill weed and parsley and added lots of coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. The best part is that there's enough left for a second meal later this week.

I think I already have enough meals cooked so that I don't have to cook from scratch at all this week. I can serve pre-cooked foods which are much better than frozen stuff. In fact tonight, we are having crispy, leftover fried chicken. I'll slam together some smashed potatoes, slather them in butter, steam some fresh broccoli and dinner will be ready in less than 20 minutes. I love it when a plan comes together.

Happy Monday.