SENSATIONAL SUNDAY

What could be better than a warm Sunday morning on the patio with a couple of pieces of re-heated pizza for brunch?

Well, let me tell you.

Late Sunday afternoon, with the temperature hovering in the low 70's, SWMBO fired up the grill for the first time this season.

She had found a recipe for Spatchcocked Chicken in a magazine and was determined to fix it.

I told her I had mentioned Spatchcocked Chicken to her several times over the years with no interest until she found a recipe on her own.

She replied "Oh, I've known about fixing chicken that way for years only I never heard it called Spatchcocked. I just smashed that sucker flat!"

So, with apologies for my idiotic camera setting on the chicken picture, here's our meal.

In case you don't know that's a temperature probe in the chicken.

To accompany . . .

A mix of vegetables also grilled.

And my oven-baked sweet potato spears with a citrus sour cream sauce.

Oh and there was this too.

A nice bottle of white.

By the time we got through all of that, y'know what?

I had forgotten all about my breakfast pizza.

THE DREADED ZOMBIE

SWMBO and I visited a Tiki bar when we last lived in Phoenix.

It was my suggestion.

I remember fondly the many happy meals (and drinks) we used to have at the original Trader Vic's restaurant in Scottsdale.

It was loaded with kitsch, fake food of the islands and powerful drinks.

But we young(er) romantics loved it.

So when I read about a bar and restaurant called Hula's Modern Tiki in Central Phoenix, I had to check it out.

We stopped in one day just for a peek and a drink.

The drinks are shown on the banner at the top of this page.

Mine is a Pink Bikini Martini, which featured watermelon juice.

SWMBO said she'd try a Zombie, a drink she hadn't tasted for decades.

Probably for a good reason.

Esquire Magazine's recipe is on the web.

It has light, dark and golden rum mixed with lime, pineapple and papaya juice and a teaspoon of superfine sugar.

Then to top it off there's a "float" of 151-proof rum!

And there's a toothpick with two cherries surrounding a cube of pineapple atop the drink.

Don the Beachcomber supposedly invented the drink back in the 1930's for some guy with a horrendous hangover.

It is said that no self-respecting bartender will allow a patron more than two of these killer cocktails.

SWMBO said hers was good and we left after one to go home for a nap.

All of this has absolutely nothing to do with this next song but I always enjoyed it back in the mid-20th Century.

THE PRESAGE

I can't say I wasn't warned.

It snowed here much of Wednesday afternoon.

I was stunned.

It was the last day of March and I thought we had escaped the traditional early Spring snowstorm.

I should have known better.

A short while before I noticed the snow in the air I had taken note of an extremely cloudy looking sky to the north.

I thought it was just a low-hanging cloud.

Mainly fog.

Perhaps a spit or two of rain.

Even though it looked ominous.

A short time later I noticed the snowfall.

It was warm enough that even though it snowed, on and off, most of the afternoon none of it stuck to the ground.

SWMBO escaped the weather wrath as she was visiting a friend in Sun City, a suburb of Phoenix, on that day and was enjoying 70 degree weather.

She returned the next day and brought warming temperatures with her.

The forecast says it will be 82 F/28 C here NEXT Wednesday.

"If you don't like the weather, just wait an hour. It will change."

                        --an old expression, used everywhere

FRIDAY FUNNIES

How could anything be any more perfect?

It is Friday and time once again for the Friday Funnies.

AND

It's April 1st!

April Fool's Day!

Could anything be more perfect?

Well, one thing, maybe

All right.

With that little gift for the dog lovers among you, we'll say good-bye for this week.

Here's hoping you don't get fooled too bad today, that you have an incredibly satisfying weekend and that you always remember to keep laughing.

Here, kitty kitty.

(Ohhhhh, this is gonna hurt . . .)

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Before I discovered the pleasure of a beard.

Auditioning for the role of the Sundance Kid in some movie with Paul Newman.

(Just kidding.)

It was a selfie taken in a bathroom mirror in Indianapolis back in the very early 1970's.

LATE NEWS FROM WEATHER CENTRAL

Turn your sound up.

This is Arizona, folks.

This crap ain't supposed to happen!

DRIFTING, THROUGH THE SANDS OF TIME

I was meandering around on this blog yesterday and checked to see how long I'd been writing it.

I was stunned to see it has been over 8 years!

My first post was on March 2nd, 2008 and it concerned my starting it up again.

This was my third attempt at blogging.

This is the 2,454th post.

That averages out to more than 290 posts every year!

What, one wonders, can one find to say for that much of one's life.

Nothing important, I'd guess.

Nothing earth-shaking.

Nor newsworthy.

Some time in the past I began copping out, sort of, on three days of each week.

Tuesday is devoted to Tuesday Travels.

Thursday is Throwback Thursday.

Friday is the Friday Funnies.

But with persistence, the number of page views has risen.

While, on a good day, I may get around a dozen comments, I know there are many more "lurkers" who check the blog from time to time.

In the 8+ years I've been posting here, I have accumulated more than 280,000 pageviews.

What do they find so interesting, I wonder.

I have contemplated stopping, like so many other once-upon-a-time bloggers.

Like I did twice before.

Still I keep plugging along, looking for something to fill these pages.

Many times, in desperation, I turn to music, and that's what I shall do today by taking the Wayback Machine to 1945 and Spike Jones and the City Slickers.

See you tomorrow.