A quick trip to the Crossroads IGA to get onions, potatoes, baby carrots and a few cans of beef broth was my first step.
After a brief phone call to my wife at work to get some guidance, I got started. Prepped the beef with some salt, pepper, and meat tenderizer then placed it in the Crockpot with some melted butter. I let that cook for an hour, flipping it after 30 minutes. I then added the beef broth and let it simmer another 30 minutes.
I cut up a large onion, diced four potatoes and opened a bag of fresh baby carrots. Put them in with the meat and filled the Crock with enough water to cover everything. For additional flavor I added some beef bullion cubes. I set the timer to cook on "high" for 4 hours.
I made this meal in the Crockpot to make sure Paula had something to eat when she got home from work. I wasn't going to be there so I wanted to make sure she had a hot meal without having to cook. More on where I went later in this post.
My next task for the day proved to be more of a job than I thought it would be but that was because of the way I decided to do it.
After a year of cooking with some very successful results it was time to do a serious cleaning of my propane grill. The buildup of grease and residue had started making it difficult to keep the flames under control while grilling.
My first step was to take apart all the components of the grill including: the grates, drip pan, and burner covers. I then disconnected the propane tank and cleared out the bottom storage bin; leaving just the burners and the shell of the grill intact.
I used an extra strength household spray cleaner, steel wool soap pads and a bucket of hot water to clean the shell and burners. I then took the shell out to the driveway and sprayed it down with a hose; letting it dry in the warm afternoon sun.
All the removable parts were so dirty and greasy I knew that using just soap and cool water from the hose wouldn't do it. They needed to be immersed in very hot water and soaked in a greasing cutting detergent.
I took all those things into the house to wash them in our bathtub. It was a good idea for the grill components but a bad idea for the tub. All the grease came off the grates and other things but it ended up deposited on the sides and bottom of the tub. When I was finished scrubbing the grill parts the tub was a black greasy mess.
The clean up and scrubbing required to get the blackened burned grease off the white surface took twice as long as it did to clean the grill. I got the white mop bucket I used for the outside hot water so coated and stained that I couldn't get it clean. I tossed it into the trash and had to go buy another one.
After about an hour of scrubbing and rinsing I was done. By that time I had to clean myself up. I got ready for the next and best portion of my day. I was going into the movie theater in Bowling Green to see the first showing of the Marvel summer movie release: The Guardians of the Galaxy.
The first showing was the 3D version at 7PM at the Regal 10. When I got there I was surprised there wasn't a line to get in. As it turned out there was less than 100 people in my movie.
As I went into theater 9 there was already a line forming for theater 7 next to it. The non-3D version of the movie was scheduled for 7:30 in that one. Later a theater usher would tell me that theater 7 was "packed."
This movie has been promoted and publicized for nearly a year. It's a story about some obscure Marvel characters I wasn't familiar with at all. I went in with an "okay, amaze me" type attitude. Here's a "selfie" of me waiting to meet the Star Lord, Gamora, Rocket Racoon, Groot, and Drax.
Now I'm going to be writing my views about this movie and there will be spoilers. So if you haven't seen it and don't want to know anything that happens skip this part of the post.
The first thing I have to say is that in the very first scene of the movie I thought there was a wonderful surprise that somehow managed to be kept secret. I thought that the mother of a young Peter Quinn was an unannounced cameo by Angelina Jolie. It was such a surprise to me that it was almost a distraction. As it turns out the part was played by Janis Ahern. But she amazingly reminded me of Jolie.
The beginning of the film had potential with Peter Quinn, aka Star Lord, involved in an "Indian Jones" type scavenger hunt and escape. He used some gadgets to retrieve his objective, some kind of ancient orb.
I immediately realized that this was an homage to "Raiders." And it was a cool way to introduce the main character.
The rest of the movie was not all that impressive. It had a lot of action, adventure and special effects. But the story was a bit shallow. The villains were a bit dull and confusing. It was kind of hard to keep track of who was who.
Since I was unfamiliar with any of the 5 characters who make up the Guardians I would have liked less "shoot'em up" action and more back story about each of the them. I wanted a reason to like them because they were different. I didn't get that.
All the 5 main characters were cliche and not at all original. I really didn't care about any of them.
There was not a real "THAT'S TOTALLY AWESOME" moment in the movie.
From the trailers and pre-release buzz about this movie I figured the Guardians of the Galaxy would already a team from the start of the movie.
I'm not a Hollywood screen writer so I wouldn't know how it could have been done but I would have loved to have seen more about their back story weaved into the movie.
Perhaps Marvel has spoiled me by having such great stories about the members of the Avengers before the first Avengers movies.
The best thing about the movie was the soundtrack. The classic 70's song were fun to hear again and used in an amusing way in the plot.
Overall I can't say that I really liked or really hated "Guardians of the Galaxy". I will probably give it a 2nd chance when I take Paula to see it. But as of now I'd only give it a 2 1/2 stars out of 4 on my personal scale.
So there you have what I did during the last day of July in 2014. It was an interesting day. A day that I started a new approach to my daily routine and self discipline practices. Perhaps I'll share more about that late in a future post.
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