Three Beautiful Things 09/09/16: Spiffing Up the Joint, Daft Badger and Rare Earth, Moroccan Toast

1. Any plans I had to go to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens today and get back to taking some pictures were thwarted when I walked a couple of bags to the recycling area and experienced today's duvee of over 90 degree heat coupled with a duvee of humidity. So, I decided to stay in the air conditioned confines of our apartment home and mop floors, clean out the refrigerator, do a couple loads of laundry, and generally spiff up the joint.

2.  Earlier this summer, while I was enjoying a Badgers Bounty IPA at the Daft Badger, proprietor Darrell Dlouhy, whom I've known since our freshman year at NIC, dropped by our table to shoot the breeze for a few minutes and told me he wished I could stick around North Idaho into the late summer because on Sept. 17th the Daft Badger was putting on an Octoberfest party, featuring music by the Step Brothers, Peter Rivera's band -- yes, Peter Rivera, former drummer and lead singer for Rare Earth. Good Lord. Forty-four years ago, I loved Rare Earth, especially their 1971 double album, Rare Earth in Concert, and its uni-pack styled album cover - remember?

I loved listening to this album today-- "Hey, Big Brother", "Born to Wander", "I Just Want to Celebrate", "(I Know) I'm Losin' You", and the great jam track, over twenty minues long, of "Get Ready".  The music took me back to the summer of 1972 and the boys of the Kellogg-Wallace Miners American Legion baseball team and Steve Rife's arrival at a game one late afternoon (did he drive a Pinto?) with this album blasting away on his tape deck, the first time I knew that anyone else loved this album.  I nearly came out of my uniform!

3.   Somewhere several days ago, I read about a simple meal called "Moroccan Toast".  All it requires is guacamole spread across a slice of toasted bread with a fried egg plopped on top and then seasoning. The recipe suggested paprika, but I wasn't in a paprika mood, so I just peppered the egg. I liked it a lot and can see myself whipping it up often since we always have bread, guacamole, and eggs on hand.