Technical Difficulties and a Quick Recap

(I tried for a while last night to upload photos from the lobster-fest but Blogger was acting buggy. I will try again tonight and hope to fair better)

It was a good weekend, overall; pleasantly busy. I did all the grocery shopping and errands for the lobster dinner on Friday night so that Dan could take the car at-will on Saturday. Once I was home and put all the groceries away, we ordered a pizza and watched "Charlie Wilson's War". I was disappointed in the movie, it wasn't terrible, but rather uninspiring. I already knew that America really dropped the ball in Afghanistan back in the '80's, so that history lesson wasn't interesting to me wrapped up in an otherwise dull movie. But Phillip Seymore Hoffman owned the screen, as usual.

Saturday morning was our usual weekend trip with Flutie to the dog park to get his wiggles out and for a treat at the dog bakery. Don't laugh. I know how ridiculous that sounds, but Polka Dog Bakery in the South End is incredible. I actually like to go there, its almost more for me than the dog. They have the coolest stuff. Each weekend, after the dog-park, I go and get Flutie an assortment of treats to put in his crate during the week to tide him over during the work-days. They have all manner of dehydrated animal parts and fresh-baked, healthy treats. My goal is always to find him the grossest thing in the store. So far I've brought him a dehydrated pig snout, a goat knee-cap and a few lamb lungs. It's completely disgusting but they're good for him and he munches on one of those things all day long.

The rest of Saturday I was home working out, getting ready, cleaning the house top to bottom and preparing the food. The crab cakes turned out really well, I'm proud to report. Less mushy than last time, but still a little soft - that must just be how the recipe turns out. The first batch that went into the frying pan kind of fell apart, but I adjusted the heat and the rest of them came out great. The mojitos were lime-minty and delicious, as well. I'll post pictures once I can get the internet to cooperate.

Then there were the lobsters. Dan went and picked them up fresh (i.e. alive) right before everyone was scheduled to arrive. I've been served lobsters a few times now, but this was the first time I've ever directly been a part of cooking/serving them. Now that I've had an up-close opportunity to reflect on it, I must say that everything about lobsters and cooking them is wholly unseemly. To wit:

• Lobsters are awful looking. They are like the arachnids of the sea. And, friends, if that doesn't shake you to your very core then I know who I'm calling the next time my husband isn't home and I find a daddy long-legs crawling in the shower ::sudder:: Although, I suppose in cracking their shells and feasting up on their flesh, there should be some dominating satisfaction. But really? Just "ew" and "no".
• You boil them alive. No joke. Some animal rights activists are none-to-happy about this. Not twenty minutes after you're letting them romp around on the patio while your dog loses his marbles, they're on your plate, steamy and red and slathered in butter.
• You have to crack into its body and tear out its flesh with your bare hands. Sure there are tools (cracker, pick and mallet) to help you along, but really its all about sweating it out with your fingers to scrape every last bit of lobster-meat from every crevice of its carcass.
• If the bone-cracking and flesh-ripping isn't enough for you, this ought to put you over the edge: there is poop in there (i.e. in its belly). Y'all, I would not kid you about this, its green and gooey and stinks. My husband scrapes it right out, pours in some butter and moves it along into his belly. That's something they don't like to tell you at the Red Lobster, isn't it?

I hope no one was about to each lunch; if so, I apologize. But maybe you like lobster more than me and its no big deal. Me? I marinated and grilled myself some delicious steak tips and all was right with the world. Especially after a few mojitos. We had a great time with our cousins and cooing over cutie-pie Nolan. Everyone must have liked the food and drinks because there was none left at the end of the night. Always a good sign!

The party didn't rage too late, which was for the best since we had to get up quite early and take Flutie to obedience school in the pouring rain. We had to park a few blocks away and poor little Flutie was sopping wet when we got to class. He was an excellent pupil (other than peeing on the floor in the middle of class) and the teacher was quite taken with him. This class focused on "sit" and "go to bed", both of which he already knows. But she taught us "sit" and "go to bed" with a hand signal instead of a verbal cue, so that was new and Flutie took to it without much problem. The handfuls of hot-dog bits were shoveling into his mouth the whole time provided some incentive, I'm sure. Our teacher seemed good and Flutie responded well to her, so I'm excited to see what the next five weeks will bring. The class is only an hour-long and the time flies by so fast and I have so many questions. I might end up signing us up for in-home one-on-one classes at the end if I think we need more attention. So far, Dan and I have been really good about working with him at home and that's the most important thing; consistency!

Dan went to play golf with his Dad for Father's Day after obedience class and I stayed home with Flutie all day. I don't know what my problem was or if I am fighting off sickness, but I was an absolute sloth for the rest of the day. Me and Flutie just napped together on the couch all day watching Food Network. It felt really good. Dan came home from golfing and we watched the end of the US Open (go Mediate! too bad he already lost) and then the Lakers/Celtics game.

I have to gripe for a moment about the NBA Finals: the games on the East Coast don't start until 9pm every night and go until after midnight, and they're always on work-nights. It's killing the entire city of Boston, everyone is so exhausted around here. I haven't made it to the end of a single game yet without falling asleep. Kind of takes the fun out of it. I don't see why they can't start them in the afternoon or earlier evening for the poor, tired East Coasters. Of course, I am roooting for the Celtics nowadays, but I have to admit (don't tell Dan) that I won't be that sad if the Lakers win. I was a Lakers fan for years in California and my allegiance hasn't totally died. Can't I like them both? May be the best team win, I say.