No Post Week! (Almost...)

We're so tied up this week with the pending neighborhood garage sale that this will be the closest thing to a blog posting I'll even attempt.  Seventeen houses in the immediate area are all having garage sales on Friday and Saturday from 8 AM until 2 PM.   

We are still digging for other items to sell and we seem to be constantly reorganizing our garage sale offerings... We did sell one set of ladies golf clubs already.

Laurie caught 'some old guy' in this photo of one side of our garage.  We have signs on all the upper shelves stating that nothing on those shelves is for sale.  We've also covered our yard tools...rakes, shovels, etc. as they aren't for sale either.  I did sell a sledge hammer and an axe to one of folks from the crew that washes our windows a couple times a year.

This is a view of the other side of the garage.  Note the hanging items on the wall plus all the fishing rods and reels along the wall.  More golf clubs too.  That couch/love seat at the left by the garage door was sold today and it's gone.

I am selling a bunch of 'collectables' including some Olympic Games vendor's pins... This is a Vons Grocery Store pin from 1984.  I have lots of them from Atlanta and even a couple from Barcelona.  In addition, since I spent my career in retail security and loss prevention I have over 100 security badges bagged for sale.  Who knows?  I might sell a few of them.  Also on sale are 3 Montgomery Ward collectable trucks in their original boxes...

We did manage to sell a set of Mikasa China on-line and we just pulled a scattering of these Czechoslovakian plates and serving pieces out of storage, even matching boiled egg cups.  My mother inherited them from my great aunt Elsie ca. 1951 or so.  Someone might buy them... If not we'll find a home for them in a thrift store.

This rain-style shower head came with the house when we bought it.  It's been in the garage ever since... It will sell or it will become recycled metal!  We are running out of things to put out for the sale.

We have sold a number of furniture items in addition to that love seat previously mentioned.  This antique table came from my mother's house where it served her well for years.  We also sold a buffet, a baker's table with an attached hutch and 2 rocking chairs.  Basically the big stuff is gone and the sale doesn't start until this coming Thursday.

The weather forecast for the sale is that there is a 40% rain on the first day and 60% chance of rain on Saturday.  Whatever will be, will be!

All I know for sure is that this will be our first and last garage sale!  We are looking forward to 'just chillin' with a beverage on our screened porch after the madness we're expecting to take over the neighborhood.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  I'll be back with a new post on 6/10.

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave and Laurie

More Ready-to-Eat Entrees + Beauty

We are continuing to explore easy to prepare meal items.  In this edition, there were no losers among our selections, although we do have favorites.  Goal = meals with little, zero or minimal preparation... Snacks count too!

We bought this pack of 18 Stonefire Mini Naan Originals at Costco... As described by Stonefire Authentic Flatbreads, these mini naans are "delicious, fluffy, versatile and downright unforgettable, it's made to upgrade every meal, from breakfast wraps to midnight snacks".  Laurie and I concur and we've already used them with breakfast eggs, garlic dip, Bar-B-Que and more

Instant pulled pork!  The downside is that there isn't any 'bark' from smoking the meat.  The upside is that you have 2.5 lbs. of pulled pork to do with as you'd like.

Del Real's carnitas/pulled pork is not strongly seasoned so the good news is that you have multiple options with the 'right' addition of seasoning or sauces.

For this meal, Laurie paired some of Del Rio's pulled pork with one of Stonefire's mini-naans, adding a simple salad as her side.  She used BBQ sauce with her pork and she liked it a lot! 

We've enjoyed a couple other meals using Del Real's carnitas/pulled pork.  No surprise that I toasted a bun, covered it with shredded cheddar cheese, nuked it in the microwave and then slapped a couple of over medium fried eggs on top!  Great breakfast!  This product was purchased at Costco.

I don't know if its any healthier or worse than the salty snacks that we usually go for, but lately we have kept some sliced stick salami and pepperoni in the fridge...along with sliced sticks of cheese.  Cabot Creamery's 3 year naturally aged cheddar is one of our 'go to' cheese options. It has a distinctive flavor and it holds up well when sliced in 'sticks' or strips.  Yet another Costco purchase.

We have never found a garlic dip that was worthy of the name...until now!  Most anything labeled as containing garlic here in East Tennessee barely qualifies as 'garlicy' in our estimation.  A bit of Toom Garlic Dip and we knew that we had a cure for those pesky vampires.  I'll bet you can guess where we bought it!

Yes, this bag of Daphne's Beef and Lamb Gyro Slices was indeed purchased at Costco.  It contains 2 packages of meat.  I chose to heat up the meat in my frying pan with a little butter and pepper.  We both like a little char on our gyros.

It is hard to find gyros, (lamb and beef combined), anywhere here in East Tennessee.  We were very happy with the way that Daphne's gyros turned out.  Laurie plated her gyros on another one of those mini naans with mixed greens and cherry tomatoes.  The tzatziki sauce was very nice but lacked the garlic hit that we were used to back in Chicago.  We'll add garlic to the sauce/dip the next time.  The brand was Hannah's Tzatziki - Greek Style Yogurt Dip.

I thought that I'd end this post with a non-food photo.  That very pretty and delicate looking flower above is from a Spotted Wintergreen...a native wildflower that some bird...or more likely the wind, probably planted for us.  This small perennial evergreen herb is native to eastern North America and Central America.  Lucky for us, this plant is very tolerant of acidic soil and shade...both of which describe much of our backyard everyday.  The Creek Indians called it "pipsisikweu", which translates to "breaks into small pieces".  This was because it allegedly had the ability to breakdown gallstones.  Another use by Native Americans was to use it's leaf tea to treat rheumatism and stomach problems.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Memorial Day - 2025

 In Memoriam

Ronald Allen Myers

Born on April 2, 1911

Killed in Action on May 6, 1945, 80 years ago this month.

World War II in Europe officially ended on May 8th, 1945. 

Staff Sergeant Ronald Myers in a column crossing Germany just a little over 3 weeks before he was KIA in what was then Czechoslovakia.

This local memorial for my Dad is located in the Pilsen area of what is now the Czech Republic, near the town of Tesov, where he was killed.

Ronald Allen Myers' final resting place is in the Lorraine American Military Cemetery near Saint-Avold France. (Rest in Peace Dad)

God Bless America and as well the millions of men and women who have fought and died for our freedom!

This flag was used on D-Day at Utah Beach as American forces fought their way ashore.  It is part of the Smithsonian collection.  It stands as a testament to the lives that have been sacrificed for our freedom...

Home, Stuff and Food...

After looking at my photos, I either had to label this post as "Miscellaneous" or, as I ended up doing, "Home, Stuff and Food".  I also considered "Angry, What to Do, Scary and Experimental".  In any case this post is an mix...a mongrel...with a variety of different issues and challenges. 

Home ownership is an investment, a significant cash drain and a source of frustration.  Our home was built in 1999.  Our neighborhood is built on rock...mostly limestone.  Issues arise with older homes.  Example: When one of our HVAC units needed attention, the good news is that despite its age, the problem was resolved for a relatively modest sum of money.  However, the owner of the HVAC company told me that a replacement unit for this particular Air Conditioning/Heat Pump, would cost $7,900.00!  Nuts!  

Anyway, back to the photo shown above.  We have a home inspector/builder who is doing some work for us.  Unrelated to his work he spotted some beginning separation of some foundational cinder blocks at one corner of the house and suggested that we should have someone come out and fix it to keep it from getting worse.  We checked around and contracted with AFS (American Foundation Service) to fix the problem.  It was not inexpensive!  In any case, despite specific warnings from my better half, the AFS crew not only made a mess, but they also severed our sprinkler system's main line.  We had a 2-story fountain until they figured out how to turn the system off.  Now we have mud everywhere with the broken line directly under that rock.  Laurie is all over AFS to have the repairs made, with a meeting with them scheduled today as I compose this post.  Aggravation!

On to more "fun", this time related to our upcoming garage sale.  

We keep finding things that we forgot we had and that we've been carrying around for many years now.  One recent 'find' was this Mrs. Stevens Candies Antique Christmas themed round tin box that is just packed with embroidery thread or floss, as it's sometimes referred to.  Pricing it for the sale is going to be a guesstimate at best. 

When I first moved to East Tennessee, I did a bit of fishing.  Before that, Laurie and used to take fishing vacations to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and up into northwestern Ontario in Canada.  It was a cabin in Michigan with a fishing boat...cook your own meals, etc.  In Canada, it was an all-inclusive deal...cabin, meals, guide with a boat and, in one case even a float plane fly-in to an isolated lake. (The pilot was no more than 19 years old)

So now our fishing days are over... How to price this this tackle box full of all kinds of gear and a plethora of lures for our garage sale?  

The same question applies to this tackle box and an even greater assortment of lures!  Then we also have a couple small tackle boxes, a small suitcase with more gear in it including a couple of reels...and let's not forget the 8 fishing rods with reels all ready to go fishing!

Next we have a family related note to report on... Unless you live under a rock by now you have heard about the tornado that came through St. Louis Missouri.  Major damage at the iconic Forest Park and the St. Louis Zoo.  The core group of Laurie's family lives in the St. Louis metro area.  Her sister Bonnie and Bonnie's husband Bill rode out the storm in a parking garage near their home.  This was to avoid hail damage to their new Subaru.  They live about 3 blocks from the area where the heaviest tornado damage was evident.  Even so, they were without power for almost 72 hours.  They transferred perishable foods to coolers or to the refrigerators/freezers belonging to their kids.  Laurie's other sister, Karole and her husband Bob were in Kansas City when the storm hit St. Louis.  When they returned home, the power was still out and they had to throw away all of their perishables.  Scary...but lucky compared to some.  No major issues...just threats of major storm damage here in East Tennessee. 

Now onto some food items...

We continue to try out/test the 'fast food', prepared food items from Costco.  We're looking for winners that we can rely on.

Caribbean Food Delights Jamaican Style beef patties/turnovers in a flaky cornmeal crust were not spicy...not by anyone's definition.  The 'ground beef' had a mushy texture with close to zero flavor.  No amount of the 4 different sauces we tried could save this product.  This is not a 'food' product that we would ever purchase or eat again.  I rarely throw food away, but I made an exception with this item!  Bye Bye!

The next item on the prepared food menu was this 'new item' that we bought at Food Lion.  This Shrimp Penne Pasta comes in individual servings.  Laurie liked it quite a bit and I thought that it was a decent meal.  There were enough shrimp in each of our dinners, one could pick up the bacon flavor and the pieces of jalapeno gave it a modest little pop of heat...just enough that you knew it was there.  To me it was a bit like an upscale mac 'n cheese with shrimp.  It had enough going for it that we will purchase it again... There was plenty of food for almost any level of appetite.

I didn't take a photo of the pack of thin sliced salmon that we'd purchased from Costco so I can't tell you the brand name.  Actually it was a twin-pack of salmon...almost too much salmon for two people to consume in a relatively short period of time.  On more than one occasion we had salmon in a swirl and salmon on crackers or thin sliced bread with and without crackers and capers.  Then I finished off the second packet of the salmon with the above breakfast entree.  My very enjoyable and satisfying breakfast consisted of a thin slice of rye toast, smeared with cream cheese, topped with 2 or 3 thin slices of salmon and topped with an over easy egg.  This is one time that I didn't use Tabasco with my fried egg. 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

A Favorite Restaurant Re-opens!

It was well over a year ago when we learned that a close by and the most reliable American style restaurant in the area had sold their property to the local hospital and they were closing.  The good news is that they also promised to build a new restaurant to replace the earlier one...

It was open for a few weeks before we decided to try it out.  I personally like letting new restaurants have a little time to 'get their act together' and for the initial rush of customers to slow down a little...before we check them out. 

One of our friends from Maryville Tennessee drove down to Loudon County Tennessee for a visit.  It had been a while since we'd gotten together but we knew that he really liked the Aubrey's Restaurant in Maryville so our first foray to this local chain's new location in Lenoir City Tennessee was a natural.  When we arrived, the parking lot was crowded with vehicles...a good sign for the restaurant as it was almost 1 PM and the early lunch crowd had moved on.

Aubrey's was quite busy but it is a large restaurant and they can serve a large number of diners at any given time.  The 'open' industrial ceiling style that is so popular now is now worn out from my point of view.  It does save cost though.  Like the previous Aubrey's in Lenoir City, there are a lot of windows.  Actually the floor plan and the overall 'look' of this new restaurant is very similar to the one that was sold to the hospital. 

As with the previous location, the bar with additional dining is just to the right after patrons enter the restaurant.  Again the layout of this area hadn't changed much design-wise.  The one notable difference is that there are partial glass partitions separating the bar area from the lobby space.

The kitchen and service area is located to the left of diners as they are led to their seats.  It is more open than it was in the former building.  This transparency gives customers the feeling that the restaurant has nothing to hide...

Now on to the food!

   

All three of us treated our lunch as if it were the evening meal so we ordered substantial items and we all took food home with us for later consumption.  

Laurie ordered the Seafood Pasta, shown above. ($16.00) It consisted of shrimp, Pacific white fish, sugar snap peas, red onion and bowtie pasta with cream sauce.  I was a little surprised as she normally goes for the Haystack Pasta with grilled chicken, sauteed mushrooms, linguine, parmesan and mushrooms in a cream sauce.  However, she was very happy with her choice.  FYI, there are two other pasta options on the menu. 

                              

Our friend Glen ordered his usual, which also seems to be his favorite.  This is Aubrey's Fish + Chips and, as you can see, it is a generous platter of food.  This entree includes plenty of nicely breaded fried fish plus those thin sliced fried potatoes...which are a meal in themselves.  He was very happy with his fish!

The Fish and Chips is a house specialty.  Other specialties include North Carolina Catfish, Boston Scrod, Barbeque Ribs and a Chicken Finger Platter.  All specialties come with one side...and there are 15 different sides to chose from...

There was one more specialty on the menu and it was my choice for lunch.  This is Aubrey's Buttermilk Fried Chicken...a double battered buttermilk marinated chicken breast, which is deep-fried and then smothered with homemade white gravy. ($17.00) I chose the 'smashed Yukon golds' as my side.  I actually took about half of the potatoes and 40% of the chicken home for leftovers.  This entree always was my favorite and it still is...

Aubrey's menu also includes a section entitled "Favorites" with 8 options, plus there are 8 different sandwich offerings plus soup and salads (5 are dinner salads)...and I also skipped over the 7 small plates or appetizers and we managed to avoid the 5 dessert choices.

Aubrey's is a regional chain operating in East Tennessee. They currently have 16 locations stretching from Bristol to Cleveland.  The Aubrey's Restaurant in Lenoir City Tennessee is located at 375 Town Creek Parkway (right off US Hwy 321, very close to US Hwy I-75) Phone:865-412-4178.  Website: https://aubreysrestaurants.com/lenoircity/. 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

What a Mess! A Challenging Event!

Everyone encounters challenges in their lives... This post is tied to the challenges presented by our accumulation of 'things', 'stuff', and 'excess' that we've gathered over 46 years of marriage.  Adding to our 'excess', are items that came from my mother many years ago.  In an effort to declutter a bit, we decided to participate in our local neighborhood garage sale.  So much effort already...and so much more to do before the sale in early June.  Hopefully our marital union will survive the stress and trauma!

The first step was to post larger items on Facebook Marketplace just to clear space for all of the other 'stuff' we want to sell.  We posted 6 larger items... 

First there was this 'loveseat' sofa.

Then there was this large buffet that came from Rich's Department Store in Atlanta.

Plus there is this antique cherrywood rocker that we purchased many years ago.  It's from the late 1800s.

This solid oak possum belly baker's table and hutch was purchased at the same time at the cherrywood rocker.  Both purchases seemed rational at the time...

This more rustic antique rocking chair came to us through my mother's estate.

While we have had a couple of inquiries about the baker's table/hutch combination, that's been all the action we've had in the first 3 or 4 days on these furniture items.  We have managed to sell three of the larger items so far.

Neighbors purchased two of these types of almost never used deck lounge chairs.  They were used once or maybe twice and had spent the rest of their life with us in our storeroom.

A master gardener who has done a lot of work for us snatched up this dresser as it filled a need for her.

If you've ever been to an estate sale or an auction, you will have noted that no one wants chinaware.  We have had this nice set of Mikasa for more than 40 years.  It was rarely used and since we retired and moved to East Tennessee it hadn't been used at all.  As expected, we didn't get very much money for the set, but we did manage to sell it through Facebook Marketplace.

Then there is the rest of the 'stuff' that needs to go...to find a new home.  It's an eclectic grouping of odds and ends, collections and past activities or hobbies.  

For years we've been moving and storing this assortment of dolls and doll clothes that my mother had acquired or actually made.  

For several years in a row, Laurie and I headed to Northern Michigan or Ontario Canada for backwoods fishing adventures.  It had been 20 years since we headed north to go fishing although I did go fishing here in Tellico Lake many times earlier in my retirement.  We found the slickers and wet suits in a box we'd been moving from place to place.

I have very little hope that we'll find buyer for these remnants of a set of Czechoslovakian china that my great aunt had willed to my mother...at least 65 years ago.  I suspect that we'll end up just tossing it out.

Antique canning jars, a nicely framed print, folders, a classic candle holder, a pair of painted antique candlesticks, a signed Brooks Robinson baseball, a collectors plate, a set of German steins, a Tiny Tears doll and boxed toy trucks for kids or collectors.  These are just further examples of the mish mash we'll be offering at the sale.

In the preceding photos you will note a couple of items that were also in other photos.  We keep moving things around looking for the 'right place' to display them for sale.  Disorganization is still our condition...although we have priced more than half of what we're going to try to sell.  I still haven't addressed my fishing tackle (4 boxes) or my 9 fishing rods and reels.  Then there is our golf equipment!  At least 4 bags with golf clubs, balls, etc., plus extra clubs.  In addition, there will be a lot of clothing offered for sale.  The question is, how much can we sell vs. how much do we end up delivering to local charities?

Just click on any of the photos...

Thanks for stopping by!  Wish us luck as we'll need it!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave