Wow the big Valentine’s holiday has come and gone.  It’s not totally over yet though, I get today off to celebrate it.  At least I assume that’s why we got today off;  I’m not asking questions.  Don’t have much planned though.  Go to the gym and maybe cook some dinner.

Well that weekend didn’t come together quite as planned.  Friday we were supposed to go bowling with a bunch of friends, an annual event sponsored by the Belangers.  I was even planning to roll a few games this year.  As it turned out though, neither of us were feeling very well.  I don’t know if we just had the beat-downs from the week or what.  Plus, I was on call so that always cuts into my plans.  We ended up staying home and going to bed around 7:30.  Weak.

Saturday we were still kind of shaky.  We finally got up and around at ten o’clock or so, and headed down to Sharp’s for breakfast.  It was ridiculously crowded as always.  It reminds me of Jalapeno’s;  It’s good but not great, yet there is always a 20 minute wait for a table.  Odd.  We stood around and scored some chairs at the bar finally.  Breakfast revived us somewhat but we still took it easy the rest of the day just in case.  We didn’t do much for Valentine’s either.  I’d planned a big dinner of grilled tuna, but that menu got re-worked real quick when I saw the price of fresh ahi.  Instead we went with eggplant parmesan, which was still good and much more budget friendly.  We had some steamed mussels too, which came out quite nicely.  I’d been wanting to try cooking them since we had them at a bar in Dallas recently.  Kind of an odd pairing with eggplant, but oh well.

Sunday was similarly boring.  We slept in, and then Donette went out with Anne & Susan and I did a whole day’s worth of nothing.  Other than taking the dog for a walk I really didn’t accomplish anything.  We did go out to dinner at 75th Street, which was fun.  That place has been growing on us.  It ranks pretty high on the list of “new places” we’ve been trying in our semi-successful attempt to go someplace besides the Brooksider.  Not that there’s anything wrong with the ‘Sider, just need to branch out a bit.  After dinner we went home and fired up the Rock Band game.  The neighbor came over for a while to help play bass, and that pretty much wrapped up the weekend.

Note the weekly poll on the side of the page.  I need to learn to play some kind of instrument so I can try out for “the band.”  These are my top choices so far, but feel free to add suggestions.

I hope everybody enjoyed the brief respite from winter;  I don’t think it is going to last long.  I’ve lucked into a streak of 3-day weekends lately, and that was the case this past one too.  Friday was a premium day to have off too.  You don’t get too many 60+ degree days in February.  We went to the gym and kicked around a bit, then took Gabe on a nice long walk, then just sat outside and enjoyed the sun.  For dinner we met up with the Munkirs and Martins at a place in the southern-most tip of civilization.  It was cleverly named “The Wine Bar.”  Sounds like something I’d come up with.  We shared a nice bottle o’ red and a bunch of appetizers, which made for a solid enough dinner.  After dinner we went over to the Munkir’s pad and annoyed their dog for a few hours, then made the trek back to midtown.  Although I was stuffed when we left dinner, I must have digested somewhat because we had to make the dreaded run to Taco Bell on the way home.

Saturday, by the time I finally dragged myself away from the morning news and the computer, it was about seventy degrees out.  I took advantage of the rare weather by meeting up with “the team” over at Brice’s for a little BBQ practice.  In a recent effort to add a little interest to the coming season, we’ve switched up cooking responsibilities so we all have some experimenting to do.  Brice is stuck with chicken, so he was hard at work trying new recipes and techniques while the rest of us sat back and enjoyed the sun.  The bird came out good;  Not quite competition-ready perhaps, but it must have tasted OK because we devoured it all.  The sun was going down by that time, so we headed out to entertain ourselves at the nearest pool table.  After a rough start, Martin & I warmed up and thoroughly thrashed the Brice-Fahlstrom team.  I think the final score was around 13 to 3, although there was some dispute over the exact numbers.  As a side note, I forgot my cell phone at home that day, so if you were one of the bitter horde that tried contacting me I’M SORRY!!!  Good grief.  I don’t think that many people have called me in a week, much less all on the same day.

Sunday could be classified as a non-event.  The three-day weekends are a good thing, but they take a toll on an old man.  We went to lunch at Jalapeno’s, took Gabe for another long walk, and then I settled in for a few hundred rounds of Sudoku, interspersed with worthless television shows.  I feel rested though.

So no more football on Sundays huh?  Somebody send me some new Sunday hobbies, pronto-like.  I’m thinking maybe something along the lines of laying on the couch watching synchronized swimming or rugby.  Cartoons?  Outdoor soccer?  Whatever it takes.

That weekend wasn’t all bad considering I was oncall.  We started off Friday stopping by the Brooksider to say hi.  That entertained us for an hour or so, then we walked down the street for dinner at Jalapeno’s.  I was moderately fired up for this excursion, as the last Friday of the month is “chicken verde burrito” day.  As I’ve probably mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of the menu at Jalapeno’s, despite the fact that I eat there once or twice a week.  The chicken verde isn’t on the menu though, it’s a once-a-month special that I rather fancy.  Apparently I don’t fancy it enough to wait in line though, because when I saw the crowded dining room and the waiting list, I turned back around and left.  Mexican food still sounded good, so we headed to option B, which was Cantina Del Rey up the street from our house.  I like the food a lot better at that place than Jalapenos, yet I’ve only been there twice since it opened several months ago.  Go figure.  Apparently lots of people like it, because it was even more crowded, and the wait even longer.  We were getting hungry though, so we decided to hunker down for the 20-minute wait the girl quoted.  After 30-35 minutes we went and checked on our spot, and got the uncomfortable blank look that said we probably had gotten lost in the shuffle.  She guaranteed no more than 10 more minutes, but we’d kind of lost our appetites by that time so we called dinner a bust and went home to round out the evening with a few sets of Rock Band and a bag of chips.

Saturday we didn’t have a lot of qualifications around the day’s activities, just that they be outdoors.  So determined were we to take advantage of the forecasted 60-degree weather, we even conceeded to crossing the river to join the Northlanders for some entertainment.  Kevin was debuting his newly-completed smoker, so we threw a few slabs of ribs in the car and made the arduous trip up I-435.  We finally arrived at noon, and were pleased to find that the smokers were running, and Carol had a spread of snacks out that would have kept even Todd happy.  We threw the ribs on, made a plate of nachos, and spent the rest of the day sitting in the driveway watching the flesh cook.  Around six, we started pulling ribs and doing some taste-testing.  (Not of consequence, but definitely of note, our elected onsite judge ruled one of my slabs the #1 entry.  Just thought I’d throw that in there.)  As to the performance of the new smoker, well I must grudgingly admit it turned out some good product.  It is a super-duper bleeding edge pellet fired machine, as opposed to the traditional off-set wood burner we’ve used for the last several years.  We had both of them running, and I did one slab on each;  The slab off the pellet smoker was undoubtedly better.  But, that said, there is an underlying feeling of “cheating” when you flip a switch, go play cards for 5 hours, then come back to a finished product.  We’ll just have to see if my morals hold up when it’s 3 o’clock in the morning, freezing cold, and I’m faced with throwing a log on the fire every hour or flipping an “on” switch and going to bed.

Sunday afternoon we were still sort of hungry for some Mexican food, so we went back to Jalapeno’s again.  Alas, they were closed.  Geez, who closes for Super Bowl Sunday???  Not like it’s a freaking holiday or something.  We rather dejectedly walked up to the Brooksider and narrowed the arteries on their deep-fried offerings, then went home and waited for game-time.  For the big game, we headed South to our friends the Johnsons.  So far South is this trip (like 15 miles MINIMUM) that we only see them twice a year;  The Fantasy Football draft and Super Bowl Sunday.  I must admit the game didn’t hold a lot of interest for me, but the promise of more BBQ certainly did;  There was a fine spread of smoked ribs and sausage, as well as the various side dishes that everybody brought.  We tore up the buffet table, then settled in and watched the first half of the game with the crowd.  We left at half-time though;  For one thing it was time to get back into our well-defined one mile circle of safety, and for another thing the little people were making me nervous.  I’d say, conservatively, there were at least 10 party-goers under the age of 3 in attendance.  Might have been more, but it was hard to get a count because they wouldn’t quit moving.  Well enough behaved lil’ urchins, but I was sure I was going to turn around and accidentally punt one of the munchins sooner or later.  You just don’t want to be between me and the rib platter, especially when you’re only knee-high;  Dangerous situation.  So, for safety’s sake, we headed back home and watched the second half on the couch.

That was a nice three-day weekend, although I will quite likely have some moderate to severe motivational issues around Wednesday this week as a result of the back-to-back long weekends.  I took off Friday for no particular reason;  Just seemed like the the thing to do.

Friday I went to the gym…  And that was about it as far as productivity for my day off.  I probably should have had a little better plan for burning a vacation day, but it didn’t work out that way.  So I spent a little time goofing off there, then took the dog for a walk, then went and met Martin & Brice up at the Waldo Bar.  We played several games of pool, of all things.  Haven’t done that in a while.  Donette & our neighbor Brooke joined us after a while, and we got down to some of the more competitive games;  The trusty Photo Match game.  After we’d fed enough quarters to that game, we headed down to Brookside and met David for some dinner at Carmens.  We adequately stuffed our bellies on pasta, then headed back home to play a little Rock Band.  I’m not sure what time we started, but I was rather shocked to look up and see it was 1:00 in the morning when we called it quits.  I don’t think I’ve seen midnight in the last six months, so that was something of a record rock-a-thon.

Unfortunately, the expense of staying up so late Friday night was the the total loss of my Saturday.  I got out of bed at a reasonable hour and Donette made us a solid breakfast of corned beef hash, eggs, and hash browns.  But, then I hit the couch in front of the TV and never moved again.  Well, I take that back;  We did make a rather “interesting” pot roast for dinner so that provided a short diversion.  We used an Alton Brown recipe, and it came out rather well.  (Minus the raisins…  That just don’t sound right.)  Other than dinner though, the day was a complete waste, consisting of basketball games, bad movies, and a few Wii games.

Sunday, after reading the thoroughly uninteresting newspaper, my day started shaping up much like Saturday.  I blame the cold;  I just don’t really feel like getting outside when it’s so miserable out.  Luckily though, Martins came down later in the day and saved me from another wasted day.  The girls went down to the Plaza for a short shopping trip, while Martin & I headed out in search of a pool table.  (I rather enjoyed playing Friday, so it sounded like a good thing to do.)  The place we went Friday was closed though, and so was every other usual haunt in the area.  We ended up sitting at 75th Street and watching something or another on TV.  After wasting a few hours in that fashion, we headed back home for dinner and then closed out the weekend with more Rock Band.

More days off, SWEET.  I have today off work, and then I took off Friday too in order to, you know, keep things balanced.  So, I’ve got a nice three day week staring me in the face.

Well, to be brief, we didn’t get out TOO much last weekend.  Or we did and I just don’t want to go over it because I’m in a big hurry to get out there and waste my day off.  Friday we went out with the Wilcox’s again, and again to Waldo.  We’ve been trying to like the Waldo Bar, so we went there again.  And, I kinda do like it, other than the fact that some knucklehead keeps playing country music the last few times we’ve been there.  That’s going to be a deal-breaker if  it keeps up.  It was tolerable though;  We played Buckhunter and Photo Hunt again and tried to ignore the twangy tunes.  After a while we wandered over to Tanner’s and had a little dinner.  Again with the mini-burritos. 

Saturday got off to a pretty slow start.  We went to lunch at Jalapenos, then I went to the gym for a rather half-hearted attempt at working out.  I figure a bad workout is better than no workout at all, although I’m not sure that is really the case.  I goofed off there for the better part of the afternoon, then went home to nice quiet house.  Donette went out with the girls for their big “Girls Night Out” so I had an evening on the couch watching TV with Gabe and Kane.  Remarkably similar to what the evening would have been like even if she had been home.

Sunday we started the day with a nice hot breakfast casserole, then off to the gym again.  This time I didn’t even pretend to work out though;  Straight to the hot tub.  We loitered there for quite a while, then back home for a late lunch.  After lunch, we went down to the Brooksider to watch the second playoff game.  Donette’s nephew Josh is a big Steeler’s fan, so her family all came down and joined us to watch it on the big TV’s.  It was a little more crowded than I would have liked, but we scored a good table so it wasn’t too bad.  Good game too. 

Well that effort at an update is about as lackadaisical as my last few trips to the gym.  That’s all I got though, I gotta use my holiday wisely.  (There is a very strong chance I will NOT use it wisely, but my intentions are good.)