The Daily Grind

Day to day operations are as normal these days in the Snipe household.  I work, Pocket Monkey goes to school, and Mrs. Snipe does her homemaker thing.  The tempo at work has slowed down and I got voluntold for a mantenance assessment team when we go to dry dock.  Tonight’s dinner was chicken wings with a homemade breading.  Work is a lot of making metal stuff to fix or replace things.  We did a major metal onload the other day and my back is still bitching at me. I must say, it sucks to get old.

Friday funnies and foodstuff

During Thanksgiving, I dug out a recipe for sweet potato pie from Mississippi.  According to Dad, this is a vegetable and not a dessert.  I think that the two cups of sugar that top the ingedient list land it square in dessert country.  My late great grandmother, and most of my paternal grandmother’s side is from that area.  In the words of one of my Califonria friends of ethnicity, “That shit is good. White boy throws down!”.  One of my wife’s friends asked for a couple of pies for Christmas.  I routinely crack up at people who are surprised that a white man can cook.  I am not one of those wimps from weekday evening sitcoms.  At one point in my life, I may have been the inspiration for the Carls Junior commercial, “If not for us, some guys would starve.”  I fixed that.  Dad’s side is predominantly from the South.  NC, MS, LA to name the most commonly mentioned states in family BS sessions.  I asked questions, and learned some family secrets and amazing dishes.  I am also a frequent visitor to www.mostlycajun.com  A lot of his recipes are familiar from child hood.  The rest are easy enough for a Hull Tech to comprehend.  I stole the pot roast from his blog years ago, making a couple of changes based on available tools and spices.  My version is still a hit with wife and company to this day.  One day, when the wife isn’t looking, I’ll post the recipe to the pie on this blog.  Her island culture holds recipes that are from family quite dear, and damn near top secret.  I disagree.  I realized that I’m getting old today.  “HT2, was it really cool when they invented rope?”  This is the same smart guy that realized he was battling acne when my first ship was battling Al Qaeda back in ’03.  What a day.  Ideally, more routine posts to folow.  Fall out, and carry out the plan of the day.

A smorgasboard of new things

I have had a busy end of the year. Marriage, inspections, vacations and more inspections.  We dang near aced one.  We almost aced another. High 80s and low 90s. Very unusual for a ship of my same class.  Elections are coming up and I don’t like it.  The Republicans need a better candidate. I’m not sold on Romney, but I would vote for my housecat Cody to do better than Obama.  We drove to MS from CA. It was a long but beautiful drive. Never again will I do that with only 11 days.  The in laws were fun and pleasant to meet.  Soon, I will be on the way to the Midwest to be an instructor for sailor pups.  I am looking forward to be out of the land of fruit and nuts.