MEAT LOAF

Sure, that's the "singer" known as Meat Loaf.

But that's not the one I had in mind to write about today.

This is the one.

This is the before picture of SWMBO's meat loaf that she made yesterday.  Couple pounds of ground beef, a pound of breakfast sausage, 3 eggs, sauteed onions-leeks-carrots-celery, some bread crumbs, some Mrs. Dash, some Worchestershire sauce, some salt, and some Ketchup.  Mix it all up, shape it into a loaf, then (for Low and Slow's benefit) top it with bacon and finish with a sprinkling of smoked paprika.

Here's the finished picture.

The cook gets the heel.

And I get a healthy slice.

Oh, and there's some roasted potatoes and onions and peppers, too.

Pretty doggoned good!

AND THEN . . .

Finally . . .

A cell came over the mountain just south and moved directly over us at mid-morning today, dropping heavy and cooling rain for perhaps 10 minutes.  It was glorious.

PROMISES, PROMISES

We had clouds and lightning and wind and the temperature dropped to near 80 degrees and we got a few drops of rain.  But that was all.  Watching the weather radar, the storm moved in mightily from the east, then split and went south of us by a few blocks or miles or whatever.  But here was our promise before all that.

Pretty.  But like a flirtatious but fickle young lovely, ultimately disappointing.

SOME FUN

It may be in Italian but it has English subtitles. Auctioning off a one million euro Ming vase in 45 seconds.

THE QUIZ SOLUTION

That was fun.  Lots of guesses and some of them were actually correct, including one on Facebook and one that arrived in an email.  I think those folk know me too well.

I did like Steve's guesses (JPG photos) and I'd say those were correct as well.

But here is the real solution, as displayed by a somewhat overweight and out of shape model.

It's the Hawaiian shirt I was wearing yesterday.  To the mystery solver who said it was a Tommy Bahama shirt, I'd have to say I don't think so.  Good Hawaiian shirts are made with the patterns meeting perfectly across the fronts.  As you can see, this is kind of a mish-mash.

As for those who suggested it might be some type of seat cushion, I think you've been conferring with Blackwell, who occasionally climbs on board my reclining figure and kneads my ample tummy.

Thanks for playing along!

IT'S A QUIZ

Can anyone tell me what this is?

NICE TRY

The monsoon finally arrived in our area this afternoon.

Sort of.

The sky was promising late in the afternoon.  But the rain fell beyond those mountains in the distance and all we got was a few drops.  (By the way, sorry about the power lines.)

There was a lot of hue and cry on the local television channels and, to give them their due, some areas of The Valley got some heavy rain for a few minutes.  But here?  Nada.

Still the temperature cooled 10 or 12 degrees and there is hope for the coming days.

Meantime, all we have is some pretty skies.