Brisket & Blues Hangover

As usual we had a grand 4th of July celebration. It's been an unusually wet summer so we were concerned but had a contingency plan in case it rained, but we were blessed with the first really pretty day we've had in awhile.

We're known for our hospitality around here so folks came from all over to eat, drink & be merry. The picture is of my husband's smoker. See, I won't let him use my kitchen or my grill, because he thinks the only setting is "high," so he burns everything, but the smoker is all his. He cooks about 2-4 times a year and meat is all he does. Ohhhhh but he makes the best goddamn pecan-smoked brisket you'll ever put in your mouth so those other 361 non-cooking days are forgiven.

The Man makes the brisket & sausage but I make everything else (yes, from scratch, silly): my world-famous potato salad, pasta salad and baked beans plus a melon/berry compote and homemade salsa & dips for the snacky stuff - 'cuz if you've got a bunch of people drinking, you'd better give 'em plenty to eat or you'll end up with a bunch of drunk people before dinner is even served. The badass blues band started around 7-ish and played until midnight and our fireworks show went on for a good couple of hours. A good time was had by all.

We had some interesting tales from this party, including the drunk chick who passed out and pissed in someone else's lawn chair right after the band started playing - and all the fucking parents who weren't paying attention to their little children, who naturally were attracted to the pool, especially after dark when we turned the light on. I'd take their wee little hands and tell them to take me to mommy or daddy, then when we got there I'd admonish them for not watching their kids. Of course they didn't like me much when I did that but I don't give a fat shit. The last thing we need is a lawsuit - or a dead baby - on our hands.

Even though we have so much fun, the worst part is always the cleanup. The Man bought one of those RTV things which is really just a golf cart on steroids (the dump bed is really cool), so The Girl & I loaded that up & drove the 12 very large bags of trash & fireworks debris up to the road for trash day today so I didn't have to get leaky shit in the back of my Tahoe. Then there was the problem of margarita sticky everywhere. You'd think adults wouldn't sling their shit everywhere but that seems to be part of the deal when you invite 100 people over and ply them with alcohol. The most fun part of the cleanup is trying to figure out how people ended up leaving random articles of clothing all over the yard and making up stories of the circumstances surrounding how they might have gotten there.

Now if I can just figure out what the hell happened to my garbage disposal...O_o

I still have a bunch of polishing yet to do on my dissertation, and now that these 3 parties are out of the way I can actually get something done. Chances are good that I won't be around for a couple of days. Oh shit, only 2 weeks left until my defense...