What we're doing
Now Playing: 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins
Topic: Rambling on

Tonight we went raspberry picking, I would have liked to take a few pictures but the slope the berries are on is so steep I wouldn't chance my car keys or my camera phone near it! The kids however, well that's another story! We picked as many as we could safely reach, Mr 6 suggested we bring a rope back & lower him on it, I pointed out that if we had to drag him back the prickers on the berry vines would be a little painful to be dragged over & he concurred, he always is more agreeable if I act like I would let him carry out his ideas except for what ever I think of as a snag. Until this year I wouldn't let anyone but miss 16 go near the berry bushes, due to the steep slope & the fact that 16's friend who lives about a mile away told us a few years ago that bears had been seen there multiple times & that right in the middle of the berry bushes is a hole it's a large hole & has gotten larger in the 9 years we've been going there, a couple of times we've seen animal carcasses outside of the hole, mostly just deer & squirrel pieces but anything that's taking down deer is something I don't want to meet, due to that & the possibility of snakes we are always sure to talk very loudly while we're there. Came home & sat down & 5 hours later I'm still here (I had a whole entry all written & the computer crashed)
It could be worse, I could have to work on the 4th of July, I'm off for once, out of the 6 paid holidays I get I usually work at least 3 of them, it all depends on what day the holiday is & if your regular schedule has you off that day or not. I'm off & fully intend to have as much fun as possible with 3 kids one of whom is usually sulking about something & when she's not she's on the phone! We're going to have Shish Kebabs (recipe to follow) & Rice Pilaf for dinner on the 4th & light sparklers & morning glories & have a bonfire with all the sticks & branches which have come down over the year (last bonfire= last 4th of July)I'm seriously considering not going to the town fireworks event, every year but last year we've been in Mass for the 4th & I nearly died of embarrassment last year when miss 10 said (loudly, I might add) 'is that it? that's all we get?' last year when the fireworks display was over. Of course, in her recent memory we've been in Mass either watching the Boston Fireworks from Hull or in the city of Haverhill right near where they shoot them off. either way they're bigger & longer & she was quite disappointed, I understand why but she didn't need to be so loud about it!
In other news We're in the throes of the Vacation planning, we leave a week from Monday & we're, as always trying to plan what to do while we're there, of course there's the really important things like seeing the family & friends, but we always do things while we're there, I try not to drive the kids nuts with going from place to historical place (historical in MY life at least!) & we've got a sort of tradition of going to a museum or historical site with my mother, we've done Plimouth Plantation & the Mayflower, The Boston Childrens Museum & the Museum of Science, (my favorite as a kid & Mr 6's too, but of course he barely remembers the first 2, he was 3 & 4 those years)This year the plan is for us to go to the salem witch museum & we're Thinking about a trip to the ">Salem Witch Museum & maybe going to the White Mountains of New Hampshire ">The White Mountains of New Hampshire with ">Ann
Who I can't wait to see!
When discussing this with the kids on Wednesday during our patio lunch I heard all the favorites from other years, ">Quincy Market & Both Hampton Beach Hampton Beach NH & ">Nantasket Beach Mass. Mr 6 suggested a repeat visit to ">Edaville RR for another day out with Thomas. His sisters loudly vetoed this idea & I can't say I disagree with them, it was fun to see his excitement when he was 5. Now it seems, since he'll be 7 on the 14th that he'd be about ready to give up the Thomas thing.
(I suppose it's better than the alternate Spiderman & Batman obsession he's developing- at least less violent- but those are more understandable to me, as a generation x'er I can remember back when the only channels we had came from the antenna & those few were not always showing what we wanted to watch. A cartoon was a cartoon even if it was Spiderman & the 60's live action Batman show while campy by todays standards was actually pretty entertaining! I can totally get behind Spidey & the Caped crusader to this day!)
We'll see how the whole trip turns out, usually I waste reams of paper (recycled from work, 1 side full of work stuff) writing out itineraries for us. Then when we go other than a loose guide of where we wanted to go we don't follow it at all. This year I'm just listing places & people to visit & not really putting down when, the only guideline is my Grandmother's first & my Mother's last. in between those the whole trip is an empty page!


So here it is, the best Shish Kabob recipe in the universe, my ex used to try to improve upon it but it can't be done!
the night before you want to serve them mix:
1 & 1/2 cups of white wine,
1 & 1/2 cups of cooking oil,
4 cloves of garlic chopped, (remember the bigger the chunks the milder the flavor, also I really do use more garlic but my family likes garlic a lot)
2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 t pepper.
then add:
1 & 1/2 pounds of cube steak, or cut a good thick steak into 1 & 1/2 inch cubes.
cover & marinate until ready to assemble,
while the regular method with all the stuff you're cooking all shoved onto the skewer in alternating pieces looks really nice everything cooks better if you make meat skewers & vegetable skewers. This is just my personal opinion though.
Grille the meat with mushrooms, onion chunks, green peppers & cherry tomatoes over what ever kind of grill you have until meat is done to taste & veggies are tasty. I've always served this with rice pilaf & a salad.