Not an all bad weekend, considering I was A) oncall and B) left home to fend for myself.  OK, not exactly “fend for myself,” I was left portions of food clearly labeled with what to eat when.  Being oncall took out any opportunity of entertainment, so it was a pretty laid-back weekend overall though.

As I mentioned, I was left to fend for myself.  In greater detail, Donette had driven to St. Louis to attend our niece’s graduation ceremony and the accompanying festivities.  I’d have been there, but the dreaded oncall precluded my attendance.  So, I sat home and did a whole lotta nothing.  Got a good 1/2-dozen more foreign language action movies under my belt.

Saturday I got some exercise in.  Munkirs came over and we rode our bikes down near the Plaza to participate in the Tour de Nicu ride. We opted for the 45 mile route, which we completed without too much trouble.  Honestly, it was a rather marginal ride though, not sure I will do it again next year.  The route covered all the local Neonatal Units, which is certainly a worthy enough cause.  However, this resulted in a 45 mile ride with all the rest stops squeezed together in about a 10 mile span.  Good idea, just not very practical as it pertains to a bike ride.  The route seemed to be mostly uphill too, and most definitely spent too much time winding through neighborhoods.  Geez, I felt like I’d ridden around the block 80 times to get the miles in;  One stop sign after another.  Add to that a good stiff breeze in our faces the majority of the time and it just didn’t make for an entirely enjoyable outing.  After that I laid around on the couch the majority of the remaining day, with the exception of heading over to Leawood to attend my cousin’s baby shower.  (Well, not really a “baby shower,” because guys don’t go to baby showers…  She’s already had her baby, so it was a “meet our little girl” party or whatever you call that.)

Sunday I walked Teagan up to the nearby school for some fetch, then my Mom and sister picked me up for lunch at Houston’s.  I don’t know if it’s the rather stringent diet the wife and I have been following lately or what, but I think that was the best salad I’ve ever tasted in my life.  Holy smokes it was good.  Seared tuna chunks over mixed greens with mango, avocado, and pickled ginger, and a cilantro vinaigrette dressing.  Whew.  I killed that thing, and if they had asked if I wanted a free refill I think I’d have knocked out another one.  After that I lounged around the rest of the day, watching the Royal’s rather exciting game and waiting for Donette to get home.  On a whim, I fired up the fire pit in the back yard and burned up a bunch of scrap sticks that have been building up.  While I was sitting in a chair throwing sticks in the fire Teagan decided she needed some more fetch, so I tossed the ball to her for a solid two hours or so.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her so worn out.  She didn’t even get out of bed for her breakfast this morning;  I can’t really quantify that statement other than to say I’ve never seen it happen before, she is a rather enthusiastic diner.  Probably should have held a mirror under her nose or something.

I might not be able to view my site from a phone, but now I can post from one. Wonderful times we live in.

I spent my weekend up in St. Joe at the eighth annual Apple Blossom BBQ.  It took so much out of me that I really don’t think I can type much up here.  I’m exhausted and sore, and our coffee maker is on the fritz so I’m not quite awake yet.  Perhaps I am getting a touch old for sleeping in lawn chairs.  Good time though I suppose.  Not much of the team showed up for some inexplicable reason.  It was just Chad, Zim, Martin, Brown, and yours truly.  Skeleton team.  We managed though, even talking Chad into cooking ribs.  I didn’t really care to cook anything at all, but finally conceded to grilling up a few chicken thighs.  We did typically horrible;  We always do horrible up there.  I say we cut the competitions to just the Royal;  At least then you know you’re not going to win anything.  For that matter I guess we knew we weren’t going to win anything in St. Joe either, since we didn’t bother sticking around for the awards ceremony.

Sunday was a rest and recovery day.  Donette was down at the City Market running a charity garage sale thing, which was promptly rained out.  We decided to head down the ‘Sider to enjoy some hotdogs and fries and watch the ballgame.  Alas, we ran square into the stupid Art Fair.  I didn’t even bother looking for a parking spot, just turned around and headed for Waldo, where we landed at Tanners.  It proved a serviceable viewing spot, even if the game was rather crummy.

I’m sure you noticed the site is ever-closer to a finished product, thanks to some help from Ed.  Had to make a few tweaks in the mysterious “style sheet” thingie…  Geez I despise those things.  I like the results better than the old one though.

I added a few more colors.  Better?  Worse?  Change it back?  I can’t get rid of the white lines for some reason, despite no less than 45 seconds of focused effort.

I’d say we maximized that weekend’s potential, especially given the rather gloomy weather.  Friday I moped around all day, convinced I was going to get rained out of my Brooksider time.  Matter of fact, I met up with Donette and a few friends at Hooper’s, fully prepared to just call the day a loss.  We headed towards the ‘Sider not long after that though, and actually found it rather pleasant out on the patio.  (They had the heaters running.)  I hung out there for a while, then took the girls down to Westport for some kind of fund raiser.  The Royals were on by that time, so I spent the rest of the evening on the couch watching one of their rare wins.

Saturday we got up early-ish and headed up north to Martin’s house.  One of the nieces is graduating in a few weeks and we were supposed to cook up some bbq for the party.  We had two medium-sized briskets and two monstrous pork butts;  Not a ton of meat but considerably more than I could ever hope to fit on my smoker.  So, we spent the day up there with Martin’s rig, which had more than enough room.  Teagan came up with us too, which made it an exciting afternoon for her.  All fetch, all day.  While the smoker was going, Martin threw on another small pork butt, which we chopped up and threw in a homemade salsa verde;  Wow, that was a hit.  Gonna have to try that one at home.

Sunday didn’t bring much excitement, once again.  Stormy weather sort of tends to do that around our house.  Kelly came down and they drug stuff out of the basement for some upcoming garage sale all day, and I did a whole bunch of nothing.  I watched the Royals return to their losing ways, watched some poor movies…  And that’s about it.  The dog was down for the count after her big day Saturday and just wanted to sleep on the couch, so I figured it best to take advantage of that opportunity while it was there.  We did go out for a little dinner at Waldo pizza, which was solid.  Donette let me pick the pie for once, and I came up with chicken & basil with alfredo sauce, on thin crust.  She agreed it was delicious, although she might have just been humoring me.  I thought it was quite tasty.