Yes, I’m a geek – I bought this for Rachel a couple of years ago:
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She’s a geek, too – she loved it….
(And yes, I bought myself one as well – can’t be letting her have all the fun!)
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You can purchase a Pi Plate of your very own from the What On Earth? catalog – it’s a veritable smorgasbord for a nerd like me…. đ
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In keeping with the Texas theme, I thought that a Texas-themed tune might be fun.
Paul, his Dad, and my Dad are/were all Texas born and Texas bred. This one fits them (and all the other Texas men I know) to a “T” –
Fellow Texan (and fellow Texas Aggie!) Lyle Lovett never fails to deliver:
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The man knows how to put on a show, don’t he?
Have a great day!
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The President was in the Oval Office when his telephone rang.
“Hello, Mr. President,â a heavily accented southern voice said. “This is Archie, down here at the Joe’s Crab Shack in Houston, Texas. I am callin’ to tell yaâll that we are officially declaring war on ya!”
“Well, Archie,” the President replied, “This is indeed important news! How big is your army?”
“Right now,” said Archie, after a moment’s calculation, “There is myself, my cousin Harold, my next-door-neighbor Randy, and the whole dart team from Hooters. That makes eight!”
The President paused. “I must tell you, Archie, that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command.”
“Wow,” said Archie. “I’ll have to call ya back!”
Sure enough, the next day Archie called again. âMr. President, the war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!”
“And what equipment would that be Archie?” the President asked.
“Well sir, we have two combines, a bulldozer, and Harryâs farm tractor.”
The President sighed. “I must tell you, Archie, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also I’ve increased my army to one-and-a-half million since we last spoke.”
“Lord above”, said Archie, “I’ll be getting back to ya.”
Sure enough, Archie rang again the next day⌠âMr. President, the war is still on! We have managed to git ourselves airborne! We up an’ modified Haroldâs ultra-light with a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and four boys from the Legion have joined us as well!”
The President was silent for a minute then cleared his throat. “I must tell you, Archie, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I’ve increased my army to TWO MILLION!”
“Oh Lord,” said Archie, “l’ll have to call you back.”
Sure enough, Archie called again the next day. âMr. President! I am sorry to have to tell you that we have had to call off this here war.”
“I’m sorry to hear that” said the President. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Well, sir,” said Archie, “we’ve all sat ourselves down and had a long chat over a few beers, and come to realize that there’s just no way we can feed two million prisoners..”
 TEXAS CONFIDENCE CANNOT BE SHAKEN
If you are a TEXAN, you won’t even need to be told to pass this on.
GOD BLESSÂ TEXAS!
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Since we’ve been commemorating Texas events this week, I thought I would post THE quintessential Texas recipe – Chicken Fried Steak.
This recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman, ‘cuz she knows how to do Southern Comfort Food right – if you click on the link, you can see step-by-step pictures of how to make this dish, along with a yummy recipe for mashed potatoes.
(As always, I use gluten-free flour to make this recipe – one advantage of using GF flour when making gravy is that it won’t clump up when added to liquid; every sauce and gravy that I’ve made since going gluten-free comes out delightfully smooth!)
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Today is my Dad’s 82nd birthday. I can’t tell you how very glad I am that he is still here to celebrate with us –Â Paul lost his Dad last year, so I certainly cherish the fact that my Daddy is still around.
March 5-6th were very important days in Texas history, as those were the days which led up to the fall of the Alamo,  a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution which would mark the beginning of the end of Mexican rule.
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Today is Mardi Gras – also known as “Fat Tuesday” – so what better song to celebrate the fun than the song that has become synonymous with New Orleans and Dixieland Jazz than”When the Saints Go Marching In”?
We’ll start off with the “original” – the one and only Louis Armstrong:
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The original mantle, minus additional side panels (which broke off when taking fireplace apart)
Welcome back!
When we left off last weekend, Paul had just finished joining an additional strip of wood to the back of the upper mantle piece:
Using “biscuits” to join the old mantle shelf to newly-made piece
Because of changes to the position of the right column and the addition of the strip of wood to “even up” the upper mantle piece, we had to add a little more wood on either side of the original upper piece to make it wide enough to match the correct dimensions for the final piece:
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My dad sent me this a while back; since today is Texas Independence Day, I wanted to share them with you:
Due to the popularity of the “Survivor” TV show, Texas is planning to do one entitled: “Survivor – Texas-Style!”
The lucky contestants will all start in Dallas, drive to Waco, Austin, San Antonio, then over to Houston and down to Brownsville.
They will then proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso, Odessa, Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo.
From there they will go on to Abilene and Fort Worth.
Finally. back to Dallas.
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Growing up in the South, a girl isn’t considered a good cook unless she knows how to make a proper roux for a good pot of gumbo. It never ceases to amaze me how something as simple as flour and oil can cook for a few hours and become something as delicious as the base for this most wonderful of dishes.
I got this recipe years and years ago at my local grocery store – it was on one of those cards that they put up in a display at the seafood case. It is very, very simple, and once the roux is done, you can just go in and stir the pot occasionally until you can’t wait another minute.
Since no one in our family is really fond of crab or oysters, I have always left them out. As with any recipe, feel free to adjust to your family’s tastes!
The longer this cooks, the more the flavors marry together, so be patient đ
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