developments / you knew it was coming...

It's finally here. After months and months of waiting, for what felt internally like years, I can see it beginning. It's everywhere, not quite as subtle, no longer like sorting through a vat of pennies looking for a nickel.

Spring.

Ahhh. This weekend it was warm enough outside to have my coffee, breakfast and journaling sessions on the porch. And sunny. Sunny. Amazing.

Weekend updates:

1. Annie and Harriet

I spent Saturday afternoon playing with my new toy. I did try it at first with the wooden grips it came with (see the picture), but after a few rounds with the .38s it went back into the case and the rubbers went on instead, so now my baby looks more like this. (I just liked the first picture because the blanket they're using for the background totally matches one of the blankets on my bed. Just like home.) If you're interested in a little more info on this model revolver, look here. It's a pretty cool thing.

Of course, the one I learned on, which belongs to my mentor, was a dream to shoot. Perfection. A courteous gun. Mine, being that she's mine, was stubborn and cantankerous at first. Plus I was eight months out of practice with handguns (rifles notwithstanding) and had to get back into the groove, and we had to keep adjusting the sights to fit my eyes. But I did shoot one round where six of the eight shots went through the red. (THAT's my Harriet.)

Naturally I prefer to use the .357s. They have this delightful kick. But they're a little harder to manage with accuracy, and the larger caliber behaves differently with the sights. So...I anticipate lots of practice. (Great big yay.) And I can't stress how WONDERFUL it was to soak in some sun.

2. The Grillmaster's Daughter

My fabulous and amazing parents brought me a housewarming present last weekend: a grill. A nice little portable propane grill that sits easily on the porch.

In my three and a half years of living solo, I've never had a grill. This has chafed in unconscious ways particularly in summertime, when it's too hot to really cook something in the kitchen, and the only thing you want is a hamburger. And they just aren't the same broiled in the oven. Plus many of my cookbooks, particularly my Vietnamese and Thai cookbooks (which rank among my top favorites), have drool-inducing recipes that only work with a grill. I've been staring longingly at the pictures for the past two years, dreaming of the day when I can finally...

And now I can.

Last night's first independent grilling experiment, however, was steak. Thanks to Mom's creative insistence, I have rediscovered Aldi (and I don't have to drive to the suburban strip-mall wasteland of Mishawaka to get there), and they carry individually vacuum-sealed not-too-shabby frozen steaks, some of which I bought last week. I took a four-hour nap yesterday and woke up exceedingly hungry, but without the energy to whip up something elaborate, and I thought, like a little cash register noise in my head, ching: Grill.

While I waited for the grill to reach temperature, I thawed out one of the steaks and narrowed my eyes at my spice racks. I remembered one particularly fabulous meal of steaks prepared by my mother and grilled by my father, and remembered that Mom's simple spice rub was the key to the heavenly flavor. I sprinkled, generously, her recommended seasoned salt and black pepper, and then added a large amount of garlic powder and a few dashes of ground red pepper. I rubbed them into the meat until it formed a thick surface paste with the juices, and threw it on the grill.

Oh MAN. It was incredible. I pulled it off just when the flavor was sealed in, but the inside was still red and tender (I like RARE steaks, the kind they warn you about on restaurant menus, still mooing, as Mom says. I would not stick well by a Kosher diet in that regard). I ate every bite going MMMmmmm. A simple side salad and a slice of homemade bread and I had a lovely meal.

Now I'm going to play around with the grilling a bit more, so I'm anticipating some fun tonight. It's another warm sunny day, and the evenings are lasting longer, and there's just Something About the Outdoors in weather like this. And something about that fantastic grilling meat aroma. (Didn't God talk about the delectable smell of burnt offerings somewhere in the Old Testament?)

3. You Knew it was Coming

It's spring. Really spring. Things are not quite green out, but they're going to be soon. In another week this will be obsolete (Midwestern springs are fast), so, as I do every year (well, maybe not, I can't find it in last year's archives and I'm appalled at myself, I mean, this is a tradition, maybe I quoted it to someone instead), I'm getting it in now. (P.S. scrolling through my archives is weird. So much of this stuff seems to have happened both yesterday and ten years ago.)


Spring and All

By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast--a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines--

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches--

They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind--

Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined--
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of
entrance--Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken

~William Carlos Williams