As you can probably surmise from that generic title, not a whole lot went on this weekend.  I think our social life is frozen right along with everything else in the city.  Friday we actually did absolutely nothing.  I sat in front of the PC and toyed with my “backup” web server, and Donette stayed downstairs, presumably in front of the TV.  Motivation is at an all time low in our household.  Not to mention, I am pseudo-oncall this week so I’m kind of taking it easy anyway.

Saturday I think we may have done something fun, although the exact details escape me.  Guess you’ll just have to trust me on that one.  Whatever it was, it was a real hoot and left an indelible impression on me.  After that mysterious, non-recallable event was over, we drove out to the cleverly named “Great Mall” in Olathe.  Who thought that title up?  Might want to look into a new marketing director out there.  I suppose it’s catchier than “Crappy Mall,” which might be a more accurate description despite a rather negative connotation.   Anyway, I picked up a few pairs of pants at the Eddie Bauer shop, and Donette got some new boots.  Woo hoo.  Saturday night, we went to an engagement party for our friends John and Susan.  It was held at one of the classier venues available in the area, known as the “Brooksider.”  I like going to events at the good ol’ Brooksider.  It’s conveniently located, and they only let you have the room until ten o’clock, which coincides nicely with my bedtime.  Donette and her merry band of troublemakers coordinated the event, and it went very well.  I kind of got caught up in the inescapable excitement of the UMKC game on the television and didn’t get a chance to do a whole lot of mixing with the crowd, but I did enjoy all the good food that everybody brought.

Sunday didn’t bring a whole lot to the table.  I believe I am ready for Spring.  While I didn’t think I really minded the cold weather, it seems to do a good job of keeping me indoors so maybe I actually do mind it.  We did get out of the house for a bit, and met Munkirs up at the dog park.  This little exercise session got cut short when some pansy showed up with his huge Weimaraner.  Despite the fact that his dog weighed probably 100 pounds, he was not-too-subtlety bothered by Gabe’s presence.  I have a hard time convincing people that Belle is probably going to cause trouble before Gabe will;  The boy just doesn’t look very nice, bless his lil’ heart.  Maybe I should get him a flowery sweater or something?  Oh well, it didn’t hurt my feelings too much;  I was about half frozen anyway, so we left.  We stopped by the house and put the pups down for a nap, and then rolled down to Jalapeños for some lunch.  Still grappling with the new menu, I opted for the recently added fish tacos.  I guess they were OK;  I ate the whole plate so it must have been pretty good.  The fish was battered though, which was a little odd.  I would liken it to Mrs. Paul’s on a soft flour tortilla.  Fortunately, I happen to enjoy Mrs. Paul’s products.  That was effectively the end of our weekend.  In a rather impressive feat of lethargy, Donette went to sleep when we got home, and didn’t wake up until this morning.  Now THAT’S a nap.  While I did stay awake, I can’t say as I accomplished anything more than she did.  I wandered back and forth between the TV and the computer, not really watching anything.  One can only hope the Superbowl provides us with some diversion next weekend.

** Exciting addition!!  I remember what we did Saturday…  We had lunch at Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ.  This was one of the places high on our “Why Haven’t We Ever Gone There” list.  I’d say it lived up to the billing, although I doubt we’ll make regular trips out there.  The fact that it’s in a gas station didn’t really bother me as much as some;  I’m not real big on the atmosphere factor.  Donette had a pulled pork sandwich, which was quite delicious, if not quite on par with Brice’s product.  (But then what is???)  I had the burnt end lunch, which was served open-faced on white bread.  It was good, but not what I would consider burnt ends;  It was a pile of large brisket cubes.  This might have been a byproduct of being on the wrong side of the state line, who knows.  The fries were top-notch, the beans were “weird.”  Overall though, good feed.  Four outta five rib bones.

I really can’t get too fired up to type anything, but in light of last weeks less-than-mediocre update I suppose I’m obligated.  So, type I shall… But I won’t like it.  I think the weather has me in a funk;  At least that’s what I’m blaming it on.  I don’t mind the cold so much, but I can do without the snow and ice, or at least the associated mess it makes.  Worst of all, I can’t ride my super-duper scooter.  Buncha crap.

Friday, of all things, we went to the Brooksider.  It was Donette’s final day of work, so we went down there to celebrate her retirement.  Or perhaps to mourn the loss of the paycheck…  Depends on how you view the situation.  The Martins came down, Ronda  and Justin showed up, and even Todd came out of hiding for the evening.  We were forced to leave early though;  Some stupid band was coming in.  Live music; bah.

Saturday we didn’t do a whole lot, for whatever reason.  We went out to Martin City and had lunch at Jackstack, which was solid as ever.  Then we headed over to Sutherlands to catch the big moving sale.  They are moving to Harrisonville and everything in the store is 25% off.  We picked up quite a few things… A lot more than we intended.  I guess we got caught up in the excitement of the sale.  Whew.  Our coolest purchase was a Little Giant ladder.  Wow, 24 ladders in ONE!!  These are wonderful times we live in.  I figure any product endorsed by Al Borland has got to be high quality.  That wrapped up our Saturday for the most part.  We wanted to watch a movie for our evening entertainment, but apparently one of our knucklehead house guests from Friday night had the bright idea to turn off the heater in the TV room.  You could dang near see your breath in there by the time we noticed that.  So, we threw a few filet mignons on the ol’ George Foreman grill and had a nice little dinner, and called it day.

Sunday we headed down to the Brooksider and watched the Bears/Saints game.  I was kind-of-sort-of-not-really pulling for New Orleans, but everybody else at the table was for the Bears; Whatever, works for me.  We had lunch there too, and found that the Brooksider had changed their menu too!!  Man there is some kind of culinary shakeup going on in Brookside, and I’m not too fond of it.  I was grudgingly forced to admit that the menu was better, mostly due to the new improved french fries and the addition of blue cheese in the burger menu, but I made it a point to complain anyway.  Just because.  After that game we headed back home to watch the late game.  Our TV room had warmed back up to an inhabitable level by this point, so Todd came over and we hunkered down in there for the rest of the day.  Thus ended our snowy weekend.  It doesn’t look like it’s going to thaw any time soon either; our “one car family” experiment isn’t going so smoothly at this point.

I don’t have any news.  Absolutely nothing happened to us last weekend.  Well, we went out to dinner one night.  That was it.  Too cold to go out.

It occurred to me lately just how silly the titles of these things are.  But, if you don’t enter a title, it looks funny.  So just ignore them.  Or, know that at least 5 seconds of thought went into it, and it may or may not have some vague association with some bit of content in the corresponding post.

Friday night, we stayed home and made soup.  (See?  That is the “vague association” for the week.)  Potato soup with chicken-andouille sausage.  That was about it for the evening… I’m not sure how much mileage one could reasonably expect me to stretch that into.  After dinner we watched “Black Sheep,” which could probably be considered one of the less-than-classic of the Chris Farley/David Spade movies.  It passed the time though.

Saturday comprised the bulk of our weekend entertainment value.  The Martins came down and joined us at the Brooksider to watch the Chiefs playoff game.  Mind you, the game itself didn’t provide much entertainment value, but it was a diversion.  The ‘Sider was in good form too; packed wall-to-wall with rather enthusiastic fans.  Everybody stayed for the duration of the debacle, ourselves included.  After the game, we trotted down the street and had dinner at Jalapenos.  In a rather exciting and shocking twist to our weekend, they had changed their menu!!  I opted for one of their new items, the tilapia.  It was a decent-sized, heavily seasoned slab ‘o pescado, served with flour tortillas and rice.  It was good… perhaps the seasoning was a little much.  After dinner we headed back to our ranch, where we played a few games of Pitch and Euchre while watching the Dallas/Seattle game.  (Which proved quite a bit more entertaining than the home-town game…)

Sunday, still reeling from the shock of the new Jalapeños menu, we hunkered down in the safe confines of our house.  We made two more pots of soup; A tasty white chili and an interesting new recipe with sausage and artichokes.  Both came out rather well, and I’d say we’re set on lunches for the rest of the week.  After that we hooked up the back speakers in our new surround sound setup, and watched a combination of movies and football games for the rest of the day.  Wow… the surround sound adds quite a new dimension to the TV; I didn’t think it would make that much difference.

Well that’s really about it for the weekend.  The scooter/moped project is coming nicely.  I rode it in to work three out of the four days last week, and hopped on it for this mornings commute also.  I filled it up for the first time last week; cost me $4.50 for premium.  Gotta like that.  I have also found an answer to the question I posed to myself when buying this thing;  “How cold could I possibly get in six short miles??”

Ahhhh, the first post of ’07.  Oh the excitement.  I better keep it brief, I know everyone is still reeling from the length of last weeks post, which judging from all the negative feedback still wasn’t granular enough.  Sheesh.  Plus, I added three new sections in the “photo album” section, which should count for something.

Saturday we got up bright and early and headed up to Mom’s for our second Christmas celebration.  All the little ‘uns had a great time opening all their presents up.  They all seemed quite overjoyed by the whole situation, most likely because they didn’t have to drive.  Ahhhh, youth.  After the present-opening, we enjoyed an awesome meal; honey-baked ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, and assorted other goodies.  This all went on well into the afternoon, and left me quite exhausted.  We went home and rested up a bit, then I met Todd down at the Brooksider for dinner and that boring NFL game.  For whatever reason, this was the last time Todd would be seen or heard from for the remainder of the weekend.  We are semi-concerned for his well-being;  He won’t even respond to text messages.  If you have any information on the whereabouts of Todd, please call our hotline at 1-800-findttr.  There is a $25 reward offered for information leading to his safe return, or callers can remain anonymous.

Sunday was declared “Farewell to Ed and Kim” day.  We met up with them up at the Brooksider to watch the football games, marking the last time they would ever, ever set foot there.  OK perhaps not, but for a while anyway.  As I’m sure everyone is aware, it was quite an exciting day of football.  Ed’s Bengals lost, throwing him into a 30 second funk, but it was all part of the grand scheme that would eventually culminate in the Chiefs going to the playoffs, so nobody felt bad for him.  After the 49ers/Broncos game, Ed and Kim joined us across the street at Carmens for our New Years Eve dinner.  We had a great meal, and then headed back to our house and played cards for the rest of the evening.  Not an overly wacky New Year celebration, but thankfully they saved us from just sitting at home and doing nothing.  It was our wedding anniversary too, so we’re rather obligated to do SOMETHING on the holiday.  Yep, it marked 16 years, in case you didn’t know.

Yesterday doesn’t even warrant a mention.  I don’t know if it was the relatively late night we had Sunday, or the cold I’m battling or what, but I never even managed to get dressed.  Just laid on the couch all day and watched the bowl games with the dogs.  I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do on New Years Day.  It suited me just fine, so whatever.  I rode my super-duper scooter in to work today; that went relatively well.  My buddy Wally up at the coffee shop, who is a rather avid motorcyclist, recommended only riding if it’s over 35 degrees.  After today’s 26-degree jaunt, I might just tend to agree with that.  I’m sure the feeling will return to my fingers some time today.