So, I wasn’t able to update this yesterday due to an extremely full schedule on the holiday.  That, of course, is a blatant lie;  I just didn’t feel like typing it.  Plus, there is always that slimmest of chances that I might do something noteworthy on my day off, which might bear re-telling.  That, of course, didn’t come about.  I was slightly out of sorts from a rather busy weekend though.  We started things off Friday night with a pseudo high-school reunion up at The Well.  It was kind of an informal get together;  Somebody posted on Facebook “Grandview alumn night at The Well” and that was about the extent of the planning.  Had a rather good time of it at any rate.  I’d say about thirty people or so showed up, some of whom I even remembered.  We must have been enjoying ourselves;  We stayed out until (gasp) 10:30!!

Saturday, I was scheduled to throw some ribs on the smoker and then spend the rest of the day watching them cook.  That plan was derailed when I opened the ‘fridge to find the ribs frozen solid.  This opened me up to spend the day in a more productive manner, so when I got a text message that everybody was headed to the Brooksider I quickly decided that qualified as “productive.”  Well, I’m not sure about the productivity of the afternoon, but it was fun.  Rather well-attended too;  Martin, Scotten, Munkirs, Brice, Fahlstrom, etc.  Lots of planning was put towards the BBQ team schedule for the upcoming season.  Rather remarkable considering the team has technically disbanded.  Hmmm.  I ended up spending the majority of the day down there, finally dragging home to watch the evening football game on my own couch.

Sunday we started the day off right by meeting Donette’s family up at 75th Street to try out the new brunch menu.  I was quite happy with it;  We might well make it part of our regular rotation.  I made a reasonable effort at depleting their stock of smoked salmon, but they must have been ready for me because there was still some on the tray when we left.  It’s worth checking out if you dare venture to the Waldo area on a Sunday.  It’s only the second week they’ve done it so they are still getting a few kinks worked out, but a few more weeks and it’ll be ready for prime-time.  By the time we got done stuffing ourselves, the ribs has thawed sufficiently, so after reading the paper I threw them on the smoker and commenced to wasting the rest of the day.  While they were cooking, I spent somewhere around way-too-long working on a backlog of computers that been dropped off at the house with various afflictions.  There must be a rash of “bad stuff” going around or something, ’cause they were messed up.  I got the computers pretty well fixed up, but the ribs didn’t come out too well.  I think they coulda stood another hour on the smoker.  Not remarkably, I had a little trouble keeping the temperature up;  It was running right around 200 for most of time.  I sliced up one slab and they were…  “OK” I guess.  (Donette gave them a rather harsh “thumbs down.”)  I wrapped the other slab up in foil and threw them in the oven, they should be a little better but I haven’t tried them yet.  Donette, meanwhile, had some friends over for a TV watching party.  They watched whatever awards show was on;  Golden Globes if I remember correctly?  (And my memory is always highly suspect.)  I never ventured downstairs so I’m not sure who all came over, or how many.  Sounded like about a hundred.  I spent my evening upstairs playing “Need for Speed” on the PS-3 and watching a few movies.

As for my day off on Monday, well I didn’t accomplish too much.  Munkirs came by and picked me up, and we did a little bicycle shopping.  Didn’t find that perfect deal though, at least not yet.  The guy at Waldo Bikes suggested I get the most heavy-duty wheels available…  Not sure exactly what he was implying by that.  Geez, come on man.  Every bike I looked at, “Don’t worry, I can swap those rims out for you.”  Harsh.  After that I continued working on the pile of broken PC’s at the house for the rest of the afternoon.  For dinner Donette was going to make some tacos, but alas, the chicken that was destined for that meal had gone a little bad on us.  So, we headed up to 75th Street again and had some tasty mussels for dinner.  And I do mean tasty;  They were even better than usual for some reason.  Good timing on our part I guess.

Wow I am amazed how warm it feels out this morning.  I think it’s only in the mid-twenties and I worked up a sweat on the walk to the office, wearing a light jacket.  Everything is relative I guess.

That was a pseudo-lame weekend, due in part to the fact that I was pseudo-sick.  I spent most of last week really sick, afflicted with quite possibly the worst sore throat of my life.  I even went to the doctor on Wednesday, when the fever started kicking in.  Not that it really helped anything, as usual.  He gave me a bottle of pills about the size of my thumb.  Gee, thanks Doc;  I can’t even swallow a drink of water, much less a freaking gigantic pill.  Oh well, it cleared up eventually.  Hopefully I lost some of my extra holiday poundage over the course of my four-day fast.  Ever the optimist.  By Friday, I was actually feeling “OK” at best, so on the way home from work I hopped off the bus at Linwood and met Donette at Costco for happy hour.  We kicked around checking out all the latest merchandise and munching on the hor d’oeuvres for a good hour and a half or so, then headed home for a night of movies.  I signed up for Netflix again, solely for the purpose of checking out their “streaming movies” offering.  So far, I rate it “The Coolest Thing I Have Ever Seen.”  After spending about ten minutes getting it all set up, I can instantly stream movies to my new PS3 wirelessly.  It works perfectly too, no stuttering or buffering or any of the problems I was expecting.  They have a somewhat limited number of movies available for streaming, so I don’t know how long my fascination will hold, but I’m good for several months at least.

Saturday I was feeling relatively human, so when Martin called around 2:00 to tell me that he & Brice were up at Kennedy’s, I sprang out of bed, got dressed, and rushed up there.  It was definitely good to get out of the house for a while;  Watched the Missouri game and a bit of the football playoffs, and worked in some good planning on the BBQ’s that we’ll never do this coming summer.  That was about it for the day though;  Didn’t want to push my luck.

Sunday started off strong;  Donette woke up with some kind of unusual motivation and made pancakes for breakfast.  I don’t know exactly what prompted this flurry of activity, and I wasn’t asking.  Just enjoy the moment.  I didn’t share any of her energy though;  About 3-ish she headed out to watch a movie with some friends, while Gabe & I settled in on the couch for a day of TV.  I didn’t even feel bad about it really…  There were some entertaining games on all day, and it was still relatively nasty outside.  I’ve about had it with the snow I think, as have the dog and cat.  Poor lil’ animals are about bored to tears but there’s about three feet of snow in the back yard that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

I have the day off and don’t intend to fritter it away typing on this thing.  No, I will use it much more wisely, sitting in front of the television eating potato chips.

So, for the brief overview;  For New Year’s Eve, we went over to my long-lost-friend Laura’s house in Lenexa for a pig roast.  Spent the majority of the evening catching up on the last dozen years and watching a pig spin on a spit.  We didn’t see midnight though, at least not at their house.  Don’t want to be out too late with the crazies, you know.

New Years Day, we kicked things off by going to Harrah’s.  This officially marked my first trip to any of the boats.  While most people make silly resolutions, I usually opt for picking up a new vice each year.  So, this year I resolve to gamble at the boats.  Ha.  Gotta have goals.  We hung out down there for about three hours, then headed back home where our friend Brooke joined us for a tamale-making fest.  They came out pretty darn good too.

Saturday, I got off the couch and got dressed at the crack of 7:00.  (In the evening.)  Whoa.  Won’t get that day back.  Too cold out to do anything anyway.  I ended up braving the snow and driving to Target, and picked up a new PS-3, (thanks Mom!) and spent the rest of the night setting it all up.

Sunday was about as productive as Saturday.  I was supposed to go to the shooting range with some guys but that got canceled;  Snow-out.  So, I watched football all day, flipping occasionally to the PS-3 to kill bad guys.  Maybe this coming week will be more productive;  Given the weather forecast I have my doubts.