Thursday Debacles

First thing this morning I hear the trash trucks coming down the street. So I did what any sane person would do and quickly put on clothes, stepped into mis-matched flipflops, and threw on my robe then booked it to the garage with sleep in my eyes and opened the garage door. Then, I grabbed the trash can, pushed it out of the garage in front of me and then looked up and down the street for the trash truck. It had passed our house and was down in the cul-de-sac. So I take off, running down the street, bath robe billowing behind me and I'm shaking my fist at the trash guys, while yelling "Come back here, you!"

They took one look at me and continued on their merry way.

Hunh. They must have thought I was like the crazy cat lady or something. So, I turn around, defeated, and walk lopsidely back to the house still pushing the trash can (I did, after all, have mismatched flip flops on). I wheel the can back into the garage and resignedly close the door.

Of course, this is when I wake up, and it's just in time to see the trash truck sailing on past our house. Sigh. Well, it's not like we really had any trash to go out anyhow.

THEN, THERE WAS THE BRISKET DEBACLE.

For whatever reason, we decided we would put off getting a brisket for the barbecue until the last possible minute...which, when you're smoking meat for anywhere between 10 and 15 hours, that means "the night before". Of course, it only REALLY is an issue if you decide to put off looking for barbecue meat until the day before a national holiday. A holiday in which EVERY SINGLE TEXAN decides it is their god-given-duty to smoke meat. But I digress.

At 9:51 pm we decided we ought to go grocery shopping. we arrive at the HEB by our house at like 9:59. And the parking lot is packed. We go inside, and the only brisket they have left is a poor little 30# packer's cut hunk of beef. Yes, that's a little much. So we go to the OTHER HEB by our house....Where they don't even HAVE any brisket left. And so, we make a last ditch effort at 10:30 to go to the Walmart. Yes. The Walmart. And they actually HAD brisket, and an ACTUAL selection of it as well.

So, lessons learned:
1. Do not put off buying brisket until the day before you need it.
2. One must absolutely, and without fail, follow rule one. Especially if it is the day before a national barbecueing holiday (labor day, 4th of july, memorial day, father's day, perhaps even possibly canada day)
3. Never discount the Walmart. They've always pulled through for us before.