Smokin

I fired up the smoker yesterday, for the first time all summer, thanks to our friends Mickey and Carolyn. They had been kind enough to send five racks of ribs, frozen and packed in dry ice, as a most generous thank-you for having stayed here a couple days. It hardly seemed necessary, as the pleasure of seeing them both was more than enough thanks for the modest hospitality we had been able to show.

Still, it was just the right motivation to clean the smoker, soak the chips, prep the ribs with dinosaur red rub, and then spend yesterday afternoon in the barbeque pit, keeping an eye on the temperature, stoking the smoker with coals and wood chips, all the while keeping a book and a glass of beer nearby. We won’t know until later today, after we’ve reheated the ribs, and slow cooked them some more, how they turned out. Let’s say we’re guardedly optimistic. But for now, it was fun enough to have had the smoker running all day yesterday.

And speaking of smoking, how about that Clay Buchholz? Just a few weeks past his 23^rd birthday, and in only his second major league start, he tossed a no-hitter against the Orioles on Saturday night. An assist to Dustin Pedroia, another kid, who made a sparking play in the seventh to keep the no-hitter alive. But with nine strikeouts, and a number of lazy fly balls, Buchholz was well in command all night long. Now the big question is whether Tito finds room for him on the roster, or if he’s just filling in until Wake is healthy again. I guess these are the kinds of problems, if we’re going to have problems, which we’d prefer to have.

So check back here to find further news on how the ribs turned out, and whether Buchholz sticks around to help the Sox in their quest for the post-season.