I hope everyone had a good one- Joelle and I had a simple one with ham, scalloped potatoes, and asparagus, and it was maybe the best asparagus I have ever had- very thin and young and just delicious with none of the woodiness of older asparagus. Basically the veal equivalent of asparagus, if you will. Joelle is very good ad doing things in small portions. Were it up to me, it would have been this ginormous fucking process of cooking a whole ass ham because it was half off and then basically having to center every meal for the next 3 weeks focused on ham. Ham omelettes, ham and cheese sandwiches, ham and split pea soup, ham salad, and on and on. One of these days I hope to learn how to cook for something smaller than a platoon.
It was also 420 day, and as a child of the 70’s and teen of the eighties, when getting caught with an eighth of weed would have been a really big fucking deal because everyone was so fucking psychotic about marijuana laws and the halcyon days of D.A.R.E. and Nancy Reagans “Just say No,” having something like 420 day and 420 sales and people smoking openly at :20 like they are going to happy hour or it is margarita Monday is kind of surreal. Has there ever been a bigger load of bullshit than D.A.R.E.? Man I saw right through their bullshit. You can’t go around telling everyone that if you smoke pot once you will kill your family and jump out of a third story window and not have at least one person like me who will say “Oh yeah” and try it for that reason. And then tell everyone that they are full of shit. And that is exactly what happened all over America. I would be shocked to see a study that showed D.A.R.E and their bullshit tactics had any impact on drug usage trends.
No one ever gets to why people are drug addicts, and the reason is because DRUGS MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD. Maybe not you, but for a lot of people it does. A lot of people’s lives are so fucking miserable that being smacked up really is the better option. I personally will never understand the allure of smoking crack, but I don’t live in the middle of the country with no running water or what water there is poisoned by mining, there being no one around me, the only store in “town” is Dollar General, and you have to hitch a ride 30 miles to the Walmart Supercenter. Stitch together a couple of years and misery and toothaches and just the shit of that existence, and crack or meth seems like a pretty good fucking option.
Whatever.
Talked to the parents and the future mother in law, so now it is time to say Happy Easter to you all. Let’s hope for some good news tomorrow.
Oh we officially set a date- 9/25.
Medium Cool – Holidays, Songs and Movies Story-Telling Free-for-All
ArchPundit
Congrats! Best of luck and it’s good to see you enjoying life.
geg6
Talk about burying the lead! Yay!
John Revolta
mmmmmm……………ham and split pea soup…………..
Oh yeah, congrats too.
…..mmmmmm…….
frosty
@geg6: Yeah, I’m reading and at the last sentence it’s “Wait, what??”
NotMax
A Thursday ceremony. In WV?
SiubhanDuinne
9/25. In the calendar.
May we Brangelinize your names and refer to you collectively as Coelle?
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
JoCo?
:)
Central Planning
Anyone else celebrating Dyngus Day tomorrow?
Another Scott
The 1750th anniversary of the last Roman Senate choosing an emperor.
A good day!
:-)
Congratulations to you both, and to the happy parents and in-laws!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Joy in FL
I just put Sept 25 in my calendar.
Congratulations to Joelle and you.
JKC
Congratulations to you and Joelle, John!
Timill
I never could get the hang of Thursdays…
Dr Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)
Congratulations to the both of ye.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: I like JoJo better
BTW how have you have been? Long time no see
OT Last coloring page I shared. I don’t do faces that often. This is I think only third one I have done
@JGC: Congrats!
RevRick
Do you need a preacher? Asking for a friend.
lowtechcyclist
Just five months and five days until the big day!
hitchhiker
Mr h is really good at that; I’m like you. I learned from my mom, who was trying to feed a family of ten. Giant pots of everything! I still make four times as much pasta as the two of us need.
My dad used to look over the dinner and say, “Are we expecting the Green Bay Packers?” It was a little funny the first 40 times.
Congratulations to you both!
Jay
Congrat’s Joelle and John.
T got a 25lb ham for 1/2 off, (a big deal these days, as most of the pork we get here is US raised, Canadian slaughtered and cured, so tariff’s (FFS)). Package had been torn open. Still in the cooler, so safe. Bone in, so a bit of a process. Cutting it down into sandwich meat, a few steaks, save the bone for pea soup.
Still working on it.
zhena gogolia
Fall weddings are great! Ask me how I know.
beef
DARE was such an amazing failure, that by 1994 or so, someone wearing a DARE t-shirt was a clear sign that they probably could/would sell you drugs.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s lovely! I really admire the way you play with light — the way it reflects off the eyes and jewels. So glad you’re enjoying your art. Thanks for sharing it.
It’s true, I haven’t been commenting much recently, and I’m staying busy enough with putting together my classes that I often don’t read BJ posts until they’ve long expired, at which point it seems pointless to comment. And my phone is having some connectivity issues the last few weeks. But I’m still here and don’t plan on going anywhere.
Ohio Mom
I was sure Cole and Joelle were going to sneak off to be married and announce it after the fact.
Happy to be wrong. The people in your life deserve the joy of witnessing the occasion.
sukabi
John….regarding how “effective” DARE was…my kids were both pre-teens when they were introduced to that… both of them came home and told me they learned what all the drugs were AND HOW TO DO THEM… even they thought it was grossly inappropriate… their first “introduction” to drugs was done by cops with demonstrations on what each drug looked like and how to take them…
NotMax
A secret to cooking asparagus in the Instant Pot is to cook at high pressure in a cup of water (optional to add butter to the water) with the timer set to zero minutes (one minute for thick stalks). Quick release afterward.
Don’t need s steamer basket, can trim them to fit horizontally on the trivet, in crosswise layers if whipping up a larger batch.
Jackie
9/25/25??? YAY!
Quaker in a Basement
“Eternity is a ham and two people.” –Dorothy Parker
Jay
@NotMax:
The secret to eating Asparagus, is to go to the Thompson River, ( the one in BC), near Wallachin, just after spring freshet.
Pick a 20 gallon cooler full of wild asparagus off the flood plains.
Fish a stonefly nymph fly on a sinking tip, just over the bottom, (they will have just started their hatch), catch and kill 2 25lb Kamloops Trout, (rainbow sub species), clean them, air dry them, put them in a separate cooler, (no ice).
Drive home the 6 hours, munching on asparagus from the cooler.
Arrive home with no asparagus, but two amazing “presentation trout”, great for whole family dinners, inlaws included.
Hide your pee for the next 3 days from what is now, the ex-wife.
Jackie
@Ohio Mom:
Don’t get complacent… JC is well known for compulsive behavior! LOL
H.E.Wolf
May the two of you have many happy anniversaries on Sept 25th’s to come!
MCat
John, so happy for you both. 9/25 is on my calendar.
Timill
@Ohio Mom: Well, it could have been 9/25/24 and we wouldn’t know it…
Phylllis
Even the feds knew DARE was nonsense. School districts used to receive a pot of funds called ‘Safe & Drug-Free Schools’. We weren’t allowed to fund DARE activities, because there was no evidence to show it was effective.
Librarian
John, it looks like your fear of what Kash Patel as FBI head might do was a bit misplaced. Kash has been spending most of his time not doing his job, but goofing off, living in Vegas and flying to sports events and to see his girlfriend in Nashville. I have no problem with this, as the more time he spends doing stupid crap the less time he spends doing his job, which is better for the country.
ema
Congratulations!
seefleur
Congrats!! You’re both in for a fun ride – says one who has 44 years under their belt… Best to you!
Matt McIrvin
@Librarian: He’s just getting started. We know he wants criminal investigations of NGOs and Democratic political organizations.
CaseyL
A date has been set! I no longer need to wonder if the wedding happened and I somehow missed hearing about it! (Honestly, I thought you two had already tied the knot via elopement.)
Congrats!’
Will the wedding be live-streamed? :D
Captain C
@Phylllis:
School districts used to receive pot funds? Mine never did…wait a minute, maybe I misread that…
Chigail
Congratulations! Something to look forward to. And I second the idea for a zoom wedding.
Snarlymon
Oh wow! I guess you two are serious. So happy for you.
Maxim
Congratulations!
mvr
@CaseyL: Yes, I too thought they were already married. BTW, elopement is a good thing. DAMHIKT.
Msb
Many congratulations!
frosty
@Joy in FL: LOL I just put it in my calendar too. And I’m in driving distance of WV!! How many of us are going to show up on the lawn?
frosty
Hah! I guess she liked fresh asparagus, eh?
The Pale Scot
smike
Congrats to JoJo (I like it!).
Tehanu
Sept. 25 2025 will be 3 days after our 51st anniversary — yes, we got married on Bilbo & Frodo’s birthday. John, I hope your marriage will be at least as happy as ours and last even longer!
Ruckus
@The Pale Scot:
This is true my premise is that most people use drugs to escape reality even if it’s just a short time.
I’ve never figured out if their life is crappy and they get a break with the drugs, or if their life is fine but not what they expected, or if they just like the drugs. Maybe it’s all three.
Don L
9/25, the day before my 70th birthday. Cool.
In celebration of 4/20, I give you my best line: “The only people against getting high, have never gotten high.” Cannabis is the only thing that helps these days.
Liminal Owl
Congratulations, JoJo! (I vote against JoCo because to many of my friends that refers to a specific individual.)
How about this one? “The fact that half of the included studies reported no beneficial effect of D.A.R.E. beyond what would be expected by chance casts serious doubt on its utility.”
Wikipedia’s entry on DARE has a lot of good info.
My PsyD thesis (proposal) suggested that addictions treatment focus on that idea and on helping people find/develop healthier alternatives as an integral part of recovery. Unfortunately, I had too much of a reputation for being weird and difficult, and nobody in my very conventional department wanted to be my advisor; I remain ABD.
Jack the Cold Warrior
Congratulations!
Paul in KY
Many congrats to you & Joelle!!
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: This was an interesting one:
1066 – Battle of Stamford Bridge: Harald Hardrada (King of Norway) defeated by King Harald II of England.
After his win in North of England, King Harald II force-marched his men 140 miles to meet up with Duke William of Normandy’s rested men.
Maybe if he’d rested them a bit…
Paul in KY
@sukabi: The stoners are all taking copious notes…
Paul in KY
@Librarian: He’ll run afoul of Reichsfuhrer Miller that way!
Joelle
@Jackie: and 2025 is a perfect square year. The last square year of our lifetime. Did I mention it’s at 5 PM? I basically looked at the calendar and said… “what date would someone with debilitating ADHD remember?”