Aerie Report, September 7, 2011

So I spent the better part of the day up in Corning going through the steps for pre-op on the calcified lump in my right thigh. Met with the surgeon who will perform the operation, got a compatible pain med for the knees from the young female doctor who can't wait to shoot me up for the arthritis in the knees. Alas, that shall have to wait until "The Lump" has been out for several weeks so I can see if the anti-inflammatory meds she prescribed a couple of weeks ago have done any good.

Then it was over to the Corning Hospital to have a chest X-ray, EKG, and blood work done. Chest X-ray looked clear. The EKG looked excellent. Although there was a question about my pulse--just 39-44 beats per minute--which is not new. When I had surgery on my back 20 years or so ago, they almost didn't want to do it because my pulse was so low. My BP was a wee bit high at 130 over 80 but that's a level it's been at for years and years. Essentially, baring something weird from the blood work, I'm good to go on the 15th.

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Later, Terry and I went and had lunch at Five Guys in Horseheads. It's a burger and fries joint that's growing into a national chain. If you haven't had one yet, just a word of warning: Go with one small fries for two people and think seriously of the small burger. They really serve up a heap of good food for a reasonable price.

I had a regular--that is to say "large"--bacon cheeseburger with tomato, onions, and mushrooms while Terry had the same sized cheeseburger with virtually the works. We also got one large fries to share and it was enough for four people. This was to be our main meal for the day. We left pretty well satisfied and knowing we would come back again. (There's a regular mall and several strip malls including a Staples, Michael's, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Barnes & Noble nearby so, yeah, we'll be back.)

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Getting home, I emptied the rain gauge before heading into the house. It's been raining and raining and raining some more since sometime over the weekend. I last emptied the gauge last Thursday before our trip to West Wareham. The gauge held six (6) inches of water. If it rains all night like it did in the hour AFTER I emptied it--and it might--there could be another six inches in there tomorrow afternoon. Some farm creeks are well over their banks and some small rivers have flooded roads in the county already and the runoff hasn't reached many of the lower lying creeks yet.

There's a report that the local high schools are ready to recruit for water polo teams. None of them have pools, but field hockey and soccer just are not going to cut it if the rain doesn't stop soon.

College Football 2011, Week 1 results

Week one has ended and, due to the usual scheduling of non-conference (and non-challenging) opponents, there were few surprises. Only two matches saw ranked teams face each other and the meeting of #3 Oregon vs. #4 LSU in which LSU proved victorious could hardly be called an upset except in the margin of victory (40-27). The other game saw #5 Boise State roll over #19 Georgia 35-21 and one could say that too was as expected. In games that could be considered true upsets, the unranked Baylor Bears came out on top beating #14 TCU 50-48 in what was perhaps the most entertaining game of the week while unranked South Florida upset #16 Notre Dame in a 23-20 squeeker.

Here’s the results from all the Top 25 games. The three pre-season rankings are, in order, the AP/Coaches'/CBSSports.

1/1/1 Oklahoma (1-0) The Sooners easily handled the Golden Hurricane of Tulsa: 47-14

2/2/2 Alabama (1-0) The Tide rolled over out-matched Kent State. Twenty-one points in the first quarter became 24-0 at the half. The final? 48-7 ‘Bama.

3/3/4 Oregon (0-1) The Ducks stuck close in the first half, but the #4 LSU Tigers mauled them in the third quarter as they posted 14 unanswered points. LSU never looked back as they handed Oregon a 40-27 defeat.

4/4/3 LSU (1-0) After taking a close 16-13 lead into the locker room, the Tigers came out roaring in the second half and downed the #3 Oregon Ducks 40-27.

5/7/7 Boise State (1-0) The Broncos and Kellen Moore easily defeated the #19 Georgia Bulldogs 35-21.

6/5/6 Florida State (1-0) The Seminoles tossed a shutout in downing Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks 34-0.

7/6/9 Stanford (1-0) The Cardinal dominated San Jose State 57-3.

8/9/10 Texas A&M (1-0) The Aggies proved they knew how to handle Mustangs as they defeated SMU 46-14.

9/8/12 Oklahoma State (1-0) The Cowboys cooled the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns 61-34

10/11/11 Nebraska (1-0) Taylor Martinez ran for three TDs (7, 43 and 47 yards) and Brett Maher kicked four field goals (50, 48, 34, and 21 yards) and made four extra points in leading the Cornhuskers over the Chattanooga Mocs 40-7.

11/10/5 Wisconsin (1-0) The Badgers rolled over the UNLV Rebels 51-17.

12/12/16 South Carolina (1-0) The Gamecocks downed the East Carolina Pirates 56-37.

13/13/8 Virginia Tech (1-0) The Hokies had little trouble defeating the Appalachian State Mountaineers 66-13.

14/15/13 TCU (0-1) In what was perhaps the most entertaining game of the week—if you weren’t a fan of either team or of defense--the Baylor Bears built a 47-23 lead after three quarters and still had to come back to upset the Horned Frogs 50-48. Aaron Jones kicked a 37-yard field goal with 1:04 left to give the Bears the win. Robert Griffin threw for 359 yards and 5 TDs. Kendall Wright caught two of those (35 and 28 yards) and threw for another of 40 yards to Terrance Williams. Williams also had a TD catch of 42 yards from Griffin. The Frogs’ Casey Pachell tossed for four TDs and ran for one in a losing cause.

15/14/17 Arkansas (1-0) The Razorbacks had little difficulty downing the Missouri State Bears 51-7.

16/18/21 Notre Dame (0-1) The Irish were shut out in the first half and trailed 16-0 when they switched QBs. Tommy Rees didn‘t quite have enough to pull it out as the South Florida Bulls came away with a 23-20 stunner in a game interrupted several times by thunder and lightning.

17/17/15 Michigan State (1-0) The Spartans iced the Youngstown State Penguins 28-6.

18/16/14 Ohio State (1-0) The Buckeyes zipped the Akron Zips 42-0.

19/22/20 Georgia (0-1) The Bulldogs got off to a 7-0 lead but the #5 Boise State Broncos stomped on any further hopes Georgia may have had as they handed the Bulldogs a 35-21 lesson.

20/20/22 Mississippi State (1-0) The Bulldogs rolled over Memphis Tigers 59-14 as Vick Ballard rushed for three TDs and 166 yards—on just 10 carries.

21/21/24 Missouri (1-0) The Tigers of Missouri slipped by Miami of Ohio RedHawks 17-6.

22/23/25 Florida (1-0) The Gators dined on the Florida Atlantic Owls in their opener, 41-3.

23/19/19 Auburn (1-0) The Tigers fell behind 38-28 in the fourth quarter but came back to eke out a 42-38 win over the Utah State Aggies.

24/NR/18 West Virginia (1-0) Rain, thunder and lightning caused the game to end early in the fourth quarter, but the Gino Smith lead Mountaineers pulled a 34-12 victory over Marshall’s Thundering Herd out of the quagmire.

25/NR/NR Southern California (1-0) The Trojans held a 19-3 lead at half time and had to hold on for dear life as they escaped with a 19-17 victory over the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.

NR/24/NR Texas (1-0) The Rice Owls managed just three field goals—one each in the first three quarters—and were down just 13-9 in the third quarter when the Longhorns got riled. Texas put 21 up the board while allowing nothing and came away with a 34-9 victory.

NR/25/23 Penn State (1-0) Penn State easily felled the Indiana State Sycamores 41-7.

THE Clam Bake: Part 2

After the luncheon of fresh made clam chowder and Boston Brown Bread fresh from the can (B & B does a reasonable job on this traditional dark, brown bread) it was back to the reason for this gathering! The Clam Bake. (Okay, they had a 50-50 and a couple of gift baskets to raffle off first. Proceeds to help pay for the copious amount of food, porta-potties and dumpster. Terry won one basket with all sorts of barbeque goodies: rubs sauces, spices etc.)

Food prep continued apace. When it was all done, each food bag had two red potato, one half of a sweet potato, one small onion, one haddock filet topped with clam stuffing, one package of sausage links, and a quart of clams. (Depending on the size, that could be 18-24 clams!) In a separate kettle, corn on the cob was steamed over a propane burner.

Clam stuffing gets cut into squares.

Stuffing stacked on haddock filet and wrapped in paper.

Hardwood charcoal is piled on the tray...

...and lit using a propane torch.

It eventually catches after some prodding.
(Should have left the bags in the pile?)

Once the fire burned down to a nice bed of coals, a heavy metal tray cap was placed over the tray and covered with wet seaweed.

Seaweed goes first to provide the steam...and flavor.

The bake was prepared in a plywood box having a hardware cloth mesh bottom. Canvas soaked in seawater went down first, then the bags of food, followed by trays of hot dogs and linguisa (spicy Portuguese sausage) , then a covering of soaked canvas, plastic and canvas.

The bake goes on the hot seaweed.

Steam passes up through the whole thing to cook what's inside.

An hour or so later it's ready to be served.

Set on the side of the table, ready for dinner.

We moved in a buffet line picking up our sacks of food, corn on the cob and small tub of melted butter. Shuffled off to a seat under the tarps and enjoyed!

And then I forgot to take any more pictures as I was too busy eating! Sorry, you'll have to use your imagination.

After we enjoyed our meal--and sat around digesting it for a time--deserts came out. Home baked cookies, cheesecakes, and lots of other...stuff.

And after that, it was time to clean up. By nightfall, the tents were down, all the garbage was hauled off to the dumpster and the place was clean as ever. Only Bruce and Sue's immediate family and we four trekers (Nancy, Robert, Terry and I) remained to sit around the campfire.

It was great!

THE Clam Bake: Part 1

Bruce and Sue have nearly an acre and a half of land and while a third is dedicated to the house and small barn as well as a couple of huge vegetable gardens, the rest is an open pine grove ideal for picnicking and camping. The family is a large one (both Sue and Bruce have numerous siblings) and a gathering requires plenty of space and preparation. We were told that this was a small group compared to some years yet there were still approximately 75 folks there.

Saturday, a few family members showed up to begin prepping the potatoes and onions fro the chowder and food bags. Through it all there was a steady supply of raw and cooked oysters and clams on the half-shell for those wishing to partake.

Early Sunday things really started rolling. Bruce went out and picked up the two-and-a-half bushels of clams and we then went down to the water to get some seawater in which to wash them. After that things got both confusing and organized at the same time. Folks kept piling in and the gathering grew and grew. Every one pitched in to get things done.

Several large pavilions were set up to cover the tables
and offer protection from the elements.

Bruce seemed to be everywhere coordinating things.

Crumbled newspapers served as the base for the bake's charcoal fire.
Done in a tray as opposed to a pit, it made clean-up a snap.

All the foods were prepped to go into the individual meal bags for the bake.

Even more food for the bags.

The clams got bathed.

Clams got switched from one cooler to another
with new, cleaner seawater.

Meanwhile, a big kettle of clam chowder was prepared to 1) keep the natives from becoming restless ad 20 whet everyone's appetite.

Previously shucked clams and onions got ground for the chowder.

Chowder was the first order of business.

Teddy oversees the chowder.

Chowder is served.

Everybody wants some!

Back at the Aerie

Terry and I had a wonderful time in West Wareham, MA.

Bruce and Sue opened their trailer to serve as a guest house and we were made to feel right at home.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover we weren't the only couple from the Alaskan Adventure to be invited to the family clambake. Robert and Nancy from Tennessee pulled into the driveway with their camper in tow as we were unpacking our vehicle Friday afternoon.

Our Hosts: Sue and Bruce pose with their daughter
Caroline and her two kids Dougie and Morgan.

Our Alaska Gang: Rich, Terry, Sue, Bruce, Robert and Nancy

That evening we found that this would be one heck of a food weekend! It started with Cornish game hens on the grill with baked potatoes and baked onions with a rhubarb compote topped with vanilla ice cream for desert.

Bruce with the grilled Game Hens

Potatoes baking over an open fire.

After dinner we sat around the campfire with some adult beverages and caught up on the past year. Robert and Nancy had been down in Louisiana for the Mardi Gras gathering and Bruce and Sue had had a couple of folks drop by as they visited nearby Cape Cod.

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As soon as I finish editing the rest of my photos, I'll be posting more. Suffice to say that Saturday saw the arrival of some of Bruce and Sue's family and early preparation for Sunday's clambake. Saturday also ended with one huge pizza party under the pines in the back yard, accompanied by plenty of adult beverages and another campfire.

On The Road for the weekend

We're going on the road this weekend. We've been invited to an old fashioned clam bake in West Wareham, MA. We met our hosts--Bruce and Sue--on our Alaskan adventure last summer. This is an annual event for them and includes their extended family and friends. Bruce promises lots of seafood and fresh produce all we have to do is bring our own beverages. We will, however, also bring a quart and a half of refrigerator pickles and a loaf or two of zucchini bread.

I've got a case of beer (but probably will not drink it all) and Terry's set aside four bottles of Finger Lakes' wine so we're set. Should be a good time.

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Our travels will take us up I-88 toward Albany before we head east to the Mass Pike. Some of that area was pretty hard hit by Irene but I've heard nothing of road closures. As of mid-day yesterday (Wednesday), a lot of the National Grid power customers in that area of New York and east into Massachusetts were still without power. Bruce and Sue were on the east side of the strength of the the storm. Since Bruce hasn't said anything, I'm going to assume that they are and have been fine.