Picture Sunday

Hello, end of weekenders. And did your personal weekends go as quickly as mine did? Never mind, it's late Sunday night, the work week starts again tomorrow, and it's time for a Picture Sunday.

I had an interesting happening this weekend. I decided at approximately 2:00 on Saturday morning that I was going to see the Hackensaw Boys. I knew they were playing a date in West Virgina this weekend, but until I started looking, I didn't realize just how close it was to my little Virginia home. When I realized it was only probably about 90 minutes away, I figured there was no reason to wrestle with the "should I or shouldn't I" question. Of course I should.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to convince Mr M to come along, but on Saturday morning (not at 2 am) I called up the folks, just on the off-chance they might want to join me for the trip. And after a think they called back and said sure. So off we went to the almost-town of Lansing, WV, to a place called Wild Water Expeditions, a whitewater rafting place, where at the end of the day, in a nice field, the Hackensaws would be working their particular magic.

There was food beforehand, and hellos to the boys, and a lovely picture of Salvage in someone's chinese sun hat.

























Sherman took up residence on the blanket, with his fiddle, waiting for the show.























While I was lying on that blanket, the folks had chosen to take their chairs into the shade. Before the Boys took the stage, I thought maybe I'd better get up and visit the restroom, so I hopped up, grabbed my bag, and went to take it to Granny to hold for me, only to happen upon - my mom and dad sitting there in their chairs, and sitting on the ground beside them, Ferd. They were having a fine old time while I was there lying on the blanket.

And so after an interminably long wait and an interminably long opening band (who I won't say much about other than, there's not much worse in the world than a really, really bad bluegrass band), the Hackensaw Boys came out on the newly built stage to entertain us all.
















They did all the favorites, the new, the old, the traditional, Ferd broke about a million fiddle strings, the audience danced like mad people, and I even coaxed Granny up for a little flatfoot during "Ruby Pearl."

It was a little odd at the end when the Boys do their "we're coming out into the audience to play" thing, because the audience was in a field. No lights. No matter, everyone crowded around, and they did about three songs out there, one an instrumental vamp while Ferd went back to the stage to change a fiddle string. (Poor Ferd.)



















How about a hello to Salvage?





















It was a lot of fun, I'm glad I made the decision to go, and I'll leave you with two bits of information. 1) Nice fellows that they are, they took my suggestion in the crowd to do "What Are You Gonna Do With The Baby," and 2) dancing on the side of a mountain isn't very easy. I had trouble keeping upright at some points. Then again, I'd had a few beers.

OK, let's talk blue dogs. As I'm sure you know, since I've told you, my friend and boarder Huckleberry Hound is an excellent cook. He asked me if he could contribute a dish to the recipe du jour, and of course I agreed. So from the "Huckie's Favorites" file at cardland, please say hello if you will to Bean Ka-bobs.






















This is one of the cartoon character favorites around here. These ka-bobs are made from butter beans, kidney beans, green beans, pinto beans, and garbanzo beans, all marinated in Huckie's "Special Curry Sauce," then grilled to perfection. There's one there for everyone, even Che Guellama, and if you'll notice, Quick Draw McGraw's ka-bob is pinto beans only. Because, you know, he likes him some pinto beans.

Happy week.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* There's not a holiday in this week, is there?
* You know how I'm always complaining about Picture Sunday? Well, I may not have to worry about it soon. After only 2 or so months of the new Blogger, I'm already at 12% of my picture capacity.
* Oh, crap, I almost forgot!