Friday Roundup #31

Time for another Friday Roundup. The Fourth went off with a bang, and I don’t just mean the fireworks. Saturday night a thunderstorm rolled in right as the whole neighborhood was cued up for the finale, and for a while there the sky put on a better show than anybody’s haul from the fireworks stand. The thunder got loud enough that we gave up on the TV entirely, and there was one crash so big and so close I was sure it had landed in the backyard. (It hadn’t, thank goodness. Remy filed his complaint anyway.)

And just like that, we’re in real summer here in Johns Creek. The ten-day forecast is nothing but 90s with the dew point parked in the mid-60s, the kind of wet Georgia heat that turns a walk to the mailbox into a personal challenge. Bless central air and a ceiling fan on high.

Here’s what’s happening this week:

• Made me laugh: The “foodie edition” of various famous books: Finnegan’s Cake, The Catsup on the Rye … check out the new WrongHands comic.
• Not watching, still sorry: I have never been a soccer person and I did not watch one single minute of this thing, but even I knew the US went out to Belgium. Four to one. Round of 16. In Seattle. At home. All three host countries got knocked out in that same round, which is a special kind of group project. The most-watched soccer match in American TV history and we lost it by three goals; there’s something almost tender about that. To the folks who do care about this sport: I’m sorry, and I hope somebody bought you a beer. The tournament rolls on without us. The final’s on the 19th.
• Coming on the blog: a cucumber salad that has quietly become Zach’s entire summer personality, the laziest iced tea on earth (the sun does all the work; I take all the credit), and a throwback to Maine, from back when being cold was still an option.
• Garden Update: Brussels sprouts seeds are in. I’m still taking the bet. The Japanese stiltgrass has taken over the entire back of the property the way it does every summer and it’s starting to encroach on the garden. If the weather would ever cooperate, I’ll get out there and start pulling it up by the root. It’s shallow rooted and easy to pull up, it’s just time consuming.
• What I’m Reading: I’m rereading Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. [Bookshop.org* | Amazon.com] I was just in Tulsa and Pawhuska, so I wanted to sit with it again while those places are still fresh in my head. (I wrote about that drive in The Road Was the Syllabus.)
• What I’m Watching: The Blacklist, by which I mean Zach is watching The Blacklist and I keep getting sucked in from the next room. We’re on season 2, episode 3; I still could not confidently tell you what is going on, and I do not care, because James Spader’s voice in the background while I work is its own small reward. [IMDb]
• What I’m Eating: Salad, and a lot of it. We put away so much Bo Ssam pork over the Fourth (recipe coming later this month) that my whole body is asking for green and crunchy. Greek salad, caesar with chicken, and big bowls of that cucumber salad for lunch (recipe lands Tuesday).

What are y’all reading/watching/cooking/dealing with this week? Let me know in the comments.

P.S. I dusted off the 105mm macro lens this weekend for the first time in ages and remembered how much I love it. Turns out the back garden is a full-blown bee convention and nobody sent me an invitation; I crashed it with a camera anyway. That cosmos up top is one of about two hundred frames, most of them gloriously out of focus.

P.P.S. Remy still votes couch during any loud weather (Remy always votes couch), and the stiltgrass out back remains undefeated. Some battles are for next week.

* Affiliate link. The asterisk is doing transparency work. Details on the disclosure page.