Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

So very tired, but I’ll use the remaining energy I have to post the pictures I took tonight. I showed up with nearly dead batteries, so it isn’t my usual insane number of pictures, but it’ll do…

If you want access to bigger sizes of these pictures, then click here. Sorry I didn’t clean them up too much, but it’s late!

Oh, and Mike and Mark stopped by right as I was saying goodbye to Trisha. Mike was bumming that he’d missed his big opportunity to meet Chris and the second Rachel. Hey, at least he tried! Better luck next time, Mike! 

Oh, and just in case I don’t get a chance in the next few days to follow this up, I want to thank Karen for the extremely generous gift. When I get these bookends out and put up on a shelf, I’ll be sure to take a picture and post it. She made them herself, and they are lovely. She even gave me a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble to get some books to put in between. What a great gift and a great surprise. My cup runneth over. 😀

I wrote this at about 4am, but my Internet was down. It was still down this morning, but this morning, Aaron fixed it with his big brain. 

When one has insomnia, one does not like it when one’s network is down, although it is probably better for one.

Don’t forget to come and get some barbecue with me and the rest of the Memphis bloggers tonight at the Bar-B-Q Shop on Madison. Sadly, Aaron can’t make it. This mean man has given him a job worth much money, and so he must stay in Nashville to finish it. Still, I will be there. Will it be a Pulled Pork Sammich? Or will I horrify everyone and get the Bar-B-Q Spaghetti?! Come out tonight to find out!

Oh wow! A dedicated Nutella just for scraping the tastiness out of the nearly empty jar:

Here’s a recent webcam shot of me holding my own jar, a jar that is long gone. Alas! Soon I will acquire the knife and finish a jar properly… OK, I probably won’t, but it seems fun.

OMG. It’s like he’s reading my mind.

A teaser to get you interested:

We are surrounded. We are immersed. American consumer culture is teeming with so many neon-colored, overprocessed, semicomestible, demon-spawn products we can no longer even recognize how bad it is, how it is all meant to drive us slowly insane, so slowly we forget to keep asking why we feel so sick all the time, and we just shut the hell up and buy more giant tubs of Country Crock to go with our liquefied reconstituted pork tubes because we think this is the only way.

I posted this picture of the Central BBQ Shop sign in Flickr. I don’t eat here, but please read the comments below the picture. As you see, I was invited to the Happy Ham group, which is described here:

Everybody has seen them: Those oddly disturbing signs on restaurants or butcher shops or elsewhere, showing whistling octopi or dancing pigs or other animals who are just so thrilled that they are about to get eaten. This is the place to collect them.

So of course, I had to post this picture, which reminded me of another picture I had, a BEAUTIFUL picture of my takeout barbecue spaghetti! And did you catch that the entire recipe is posted there?! Yes, I was once an orderer of the pulled pork barbecue sandwich, but since I tried the barbecue spaghetti, it’s been really hard for me NOT to order the thing! YUM! Did you catch that the recipe is right there in the comments?! If you missed it, here it is again (taken from the Bar-B-Q Shop’s Dancing Pigs sauce’s web site:

Bar-B-Q Spaghetti

This recipe was featured on www.foodnetwork.com for the Bobby Flay Show on Bar-B-Q Specialties, which aired Summer 2004.

Cook Pasta for 15 minutes & drain. Rinse in cold water & drain.
Meanwhile in a Large Skillet, add:

1 cup of chopped onions
¾ cup of chopped green peppers
1 pint of Dancing Pigs Original Bar-B-Q Sauce
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke
½ cup of cooking oil
A dash of salt

Stir Occasionally. Cook for 30 minutes slowly. Pour Bar-B-Q Base Sauce over Pasta & stir.
Dice up Pork Shoulder with each serving to put on top.
Serve Hot.

Serves 6 to 8.

Hey, if you’re some random person who comes across this recipe online, I really recommend you actually purchase their sauce. It’s to die for! And yes, the best barbecue really does come from Memphis, so you should listen to what I’m saying!

Oh, and did I mention that the next Blogger Bash is at the end of this month, and it’s going to be at the Bar-B-Q Shop? I’m so there. As you know, I’m a bit of a fan of the place!