I skipped playing pickleball Monday. I usually go to the Ocean Beach Recreation Center on Mondays and Wednesdays to play. I did house work instead in preparation of Donna’s return in the afternoon. Then I did a deep clean of the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill.

Around 1:30pm, I fired up the Traeger and set out the two racks of babyback ribs I’d prepped the day before. I preheated the grill for 10 minutes with the setting at 300 degrees which gave me a pit temperature of 270-280 degrees and put the ribs on.

There wasn’t much more to do for a couple of hours other than check the pellet feed from time to time and monitor the temperature for any anomalies. So I sat outside and read a book on my Kindle. The outside temperature reached 75 degrees yesterday, but it was breezy and felt cooler.

Donna came home from her trip to Akron for her nephew’s wedding around 2:30pm. We relaxed and talked for a short while, then she took the Spyder to Trader Joe’s to do some grocery shopping.

I was making the ribs for a guy’s night at my friend Dan Cullen’s house in Bay Park. Bay Park is a terraced neighborhood south of Clairemont overlooking Mission Bay. On the south side of Clairemont Drive, the streets in Bay Park are alphabetical. Going east from Morena Boulevard as you go up the mesa there’s Chicago Street, then Denver Street, then Erie, Frankfort, Galveston and so on. From north to south there’s Ingulf Street, then Jellett Street, Kane, Lister and so on. This makes it pretty easy to navigate the area. Dan’s house is on the corner of Erie and Kane. He has a nice view of the bay – I wish I would have taken a photo.

After two hours and twenty minutes, I pulled the ribs out of the Traeger and wrapped them in aluminum foil. I put them back on the grill and dropped the temperature to 180 degrees. About 25 minutes later, I placed the foil-wrapped racks of ribs in a towel to retain the heat and loaded them in the Spyder.

When we planned to have the get-together at Dan’s place, I didn’t realize it was meant to be a guys’ night with Monday Night Football in his man-cave, which he calls “The Irish Room.” I would have put it off rather than leave for guys’ night on the day Donna returned.

The Irish Room is an addition to Dan’s house. The main house has an attached garage – The Irish Room is on the far side of the garage from the main house. It has patios in front and back and a half bathroom behind the garage on the rear patio.

I planned to take some photos of the place and the guys. After snapping a couple of quick shots, we got down to the business of dining on babyback ribs and the baked beans and seasoned fries that Dan’s wife made. The Monday Night Football game was on the big screen TV. I never took another photo!

Bar and refrigerator in The Irish Room

Decorative lighting – you can see the big screen TV in the lower left

The ribs were a hit as usual – the method I’m using now of foiling the ribs at the end of the cook works great. I’m happy with my rub and the way the meat stays moist yet firm and easily pulls away from the bone. The party broke up at halftime of the game. I came home and watched the second half as Chicago surprised most everyone with an upset win over Minnesota.

This morning Donna started her day with a run – she’s out running as I type this. When she returns we’ll enjoy breakfast together, then I’ll head over to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center for pickleball and she’ll get back to work on her book. The forecast looks great with clear skies and a high temperature in the low 70s.