Not a terribly exciting weekend.  On the entertainment scale, I’d put it somewhere between cleaning out the garage and picking up dog crap in the yard.  Kind of sets the tone for my 2008 I guess.  Speaking of the New Year, we had a good, albeit low key, holiday celebration.  The Martin’s came over and we threw some cards all evening.  We celebrated the New Year on east coast time, just in case we didn’t see midnight CST, but we ended up making it.

Saturday, Donette’s parents came over for some routine laptop maintenance.  (Hey, what happened to Friday??  I don’t know, I’m asking myself the same question.)  We went out to lunch at good ol’ Jalapenos, always a solid bet.  And, speaking of Jalapenos, we found out they have “customer appreciation” cards!!  Geez, I’d have appreciated them telling me that about 50 meals ago.  It’s only the 7th day of the year and they already owe us one free meal, and I need one more stamp on mine for another free-bee.  For dinner, I had a rather unusual urge to stir fry something.  So, I broke out the trusty wok and one of my treasured Jeff Smith cookbooks and got to cipherin’.  You can’t beat a Frugal Gourmet cookbook in some instances, particularly for a cheap, easy stir fry.  Heck, he was one of my favorite TV cooks until that unfortunate, alleged incident with…  Oh never mind.  Still good books.  Anyway, I decided on chicken with leeks in black bean sauce.  Solid.  For evening entertainment, I played “Call of Duty” (the first edition) all night, which my friend John loaned me.  I’ve been looking for some alternate means of entertainment, as my usual routine of clicking endlessly through 100 some-odd TV channels is getting rather tedious, and I’ve tentatively decided on PC games as that new hobby.  I’m not sure it’s going to work out, but we’ll see.  I’m not very good at them, generally ending up totally lost and having no idea what to do next.  Maybe you have to play them more than once or twice to figure things out, who knows.  Not being blessed with any sort of attention span, it might be a short-lived hobby.

Sunday I got up and fixed a fine frittata,  our recent weekend breakfast of choice.  Donette labeled it her favorite so far, so I guess I’ll keep that recipe on file for future reference.  (I didn’t like it as much as she did…  Needed some meat in it.)  After that we went on a short burst of “home maintenance” projects.  I have been meaning to work on our generator, which has been sitting idle in the garage since the ice storm in 2002.  I’d blocked out the entire afternoon for this project, convinced it would take hours of Internet research and several trips to the hardware store.  But, what do you know, I poured some gas in it and it fired up on the fourth or fifth pull.  Good ol’ Briggs & Stratton, can’t beat ’em.  Guess it’s good for another six years now.  Meanwhile, Donette was inside trying her luck at carpet patching.  We had a rather disappointing situation arise over Christmas involving Belle, a few pounds of butter she stole off the counter, and…  well, never mind the gory details, suffice to say the carpet needed patched.  The fit came out good, although the color is no where near a match.  It looks better than the previous color though, if you get my drift.  Emboldened by my success with the generator, I then undertook a little plumbing project.  We’ve had a slow drain in the shower for several months, and before dropping the standard $200 fee for the plumber visit I figured I’d at least take things apart and see if there was anything obvious.  I can’t really decide what was grosser, Belle’s mess on the carpet or what came out of the shower drain.  All I’m gonna say is that after that project I spent the rest of the day down at the Brooksider watching TV, trying to erase those horrible visions from my memory.  The shower drains now though…  VICTORY!!

We are still closed for the holidays.  One more day to go and I will be able to say that I’ve successfully weathered another season.  It was a long weekend for me, but a mostly boring one.  Boring is safe though.  We ate out a lot though, and even tried a few new places.  Thursday night we met up with the Martins at The Sky’s down at Crown Center.  It was a solid dinner, but I don’t imagine we’ll make it a weekly dining spot, based on price alone if nothing else.  I had the ribeye steak, which was “OK” but for the money I’ll take Mortons or Capitol Grille.  Martin The Slayer had been out bird hunting all day, and after dinner he gave me a half-dozen quail he’d brutally massacred.  I could have made use of several more, but beggars can’t be choosers.  He said he gave all the rest of his to Schmidt and Scotten so they wouldn’t have to go home empty handed, which I thought noble of him.

Friday brought more dining opportunities.  For lunch I met up with several elderly gentlemen down at George Brett’s on the Plaza.  This is Munkir’s annual effort at socializing, and not to be missed.  We hung out there for several hours, and then a few of us decided to while away the rest of the afternoon at the Brooksider.  Alas, when I stopped by the house to replenish my wallet, I was informed that I would be doing no such thing, as I had unscheduled dinner plans.  Our friends John & Susan took us out to the Blue Koi to celebrate Donette’s birthday.  Yes, her birthday was three weeks ago, and yes she is still milking it.  Dinner was quite good;  I had the duck and noodle soup in case you’re wondering.  While slightly outside our geographically limited entertainment area, I’d say this place will be on our “repeat visit” list.

Saturday brought an almost intolerable day of complete boredom.  My exposure to the outside world was limited to retrieving the morning paper;  After that I was relegated to the couch.  I probably have never been so excited about a football game as I was for the New England game.  Not so much about the game itself, just to have something to watch other than the same reruns I’d been staring at for the last 12 hours.  Hey, I like “The Dog Whisperer” and “American Chopper” as much as anybody, but when they cycle around to the same episode you saw that morning it’s time to watch something else.

Sunday started off looking like a repeat of Saturday.  I finally rallied off the couch around noon though, and decided to make a pot of gumbo.  I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with the quail that Martin had given me, and I figured gumbo was safe.  I threw in a few pheasant that a buddy at work had given me too, and it made for pretty good eating.  You put enough cayenne pepper in something, it really doesn’t matter what else is in it.  Reasonable theory, huh.  Enlivened by that culinary experimentation, I then went down to the Brooksider to watch the Chiefs game.  Alas, the game knocked me right back into my state of perpetual boredom, so I went back home and spent the rest of the day on the couch.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, blah blah blah.  Phil On The Hill is closed for the holidays, so I shall be brief.

Friday I took the day off for reasons unknown to anyone, including myself.  I spent the day Christmas shopping with Donette.  It wasn’t as bad as I expected.  The stores were actually tolerable, but the traffic was horrific, particularly on the bad side of the state line.  Freaking idiots.  We got almost all of our shopping done though, so I guess it was time well spent.  I was pretty worn out after that excursion, so Donette dropped me at Kennedy’s where I wasted the rest of the day with the boys.  She picked me back up around 6:00 and we went out for a fancy date at Taco Bell.  We dropped $15 for dinner somehow;  Now that is a lot of Taco Bell, people.

Saturday I tried to catch up on some of the broken PC’s that have been piling up on me.  I got mine going finally, after spending an entire week with no computer.  After that I headed south to Mom’s house and worked on hers for a bit, and luckily was able to get it going again.  We had a good lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Peculiar while I was out there.  MAN that place is solid.  We picked up a dozen tamales from them too, which we will be having for our Christmas Eve dinner.  That evening we were supposed to go out with the Martins for a fancy-schmancy dinner at The Sky’s, but we ended up nuking that idea because of the nasty weather.

Sunday was spent in the typical fashion;  Sitting at the Brooksider watching football.  I ended up winning one of my Fantasy Football leagues, which goes a long way towards proving the theory that those things are all about luck.  Well that is about it.  Like I said, we are closed for the Holidays.  Have a good one!!

Brrrr.  Surely it is almost Spring by now.  What is it, mid-February?  Poor little Belle, big mean pit bull that she is, gets so cold that she won’t hardly even go outside.  We bought her some boots and a sweater (seriously) but she still doesn’t get too excited about “going” in the snow.  And who would?  I need to take a video of her walking in her boots though, it’s pretty comical;  Probably worthy of a you-tube submission.  Don’t laugh in her face though, she’s very sensitive.

Friday ranked in my “Top 5 Boring Days of All Time.”  Probably somewhere around number six, but maybe as high as four.  I started a two-week stretch of oncall and I was trying to get in work mode I guess.  Finally around 8:00 I got so bored I popped “U-571” in the DVD player.  Not a bad movie, maybe a little Macgyver-esque for my taste.  Donette, meanwhile, went to bed around 7:00.  Whew, wacky day in the ‘hood.

Saturday I got up early and cleaned out the basement, waxed all the floors, and sealed the driveway.  Or, I might have drank coffee and very slowly read the paper.  Something along those lines.  Luckily Donette’s parents come over around noon to take us out to lunch, before I actually burst into tears from the boredom.  We went to Princess Gardens at 89th & Wornall, which, despite the close proximity to our house, we’d never been to.  It was a good lunch, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t make it back there.  Good food, good price, etc, but Kin Lin is closer and we’re used to it.  But, you never know, we may decide to branch out again some day.  After lunch, I worked on my computer a bit, which resulted in a large pile of parts and a non-working PC.  Boy did THAT upgrade go wrong.  But then, what doesn’t go wrong when you put a screwdriver in my hand?  What can ya’ do.  I am still reeling from the scathing feedback given last time I tried to post an exciting expose’ on my computer projects, so I will skip the gory details.  Briefly, my super-duper blazing fast PC has been reduced to rubble for want of a $2.50 piece of plastic, which nobody has in stock.  Sigh.  For evening entertainment, we went to our first (and likely only) Christmas party of the season.  It was at John & Susan’s house over in the good part of town, which we don’t get to venture in to very often.  We had a fine and festive time;  It was pretty much like being at the Brooksider (same people) but with all the cheese you could eat.  My stomach still ain’t right.  After ingesting several pounds of assorted cheeses, I had to go fulfill some oncall obligations, so our evening was cut a bit short, but we had fun all the same.

Sunday I slept in a bit, since I was up well past my bedtime working.  What the heck, I don’t have a PC, why get out of bed anyway.  I had to drag myself up eventually though, as my Mom and niece Rebecca were coming over for lunch.  We fixed a tasty fritatta and some pancakes… more like breakfast I suppose, but that’s OK.  After eating, the girls put together a very Christmas-y gingerbread house.  Now how’s that for festive?  Next thing you know we’ll be putting up a tree and everything.  (Not likely.)  Later in the afternoon I headed down to the Brooksider to watch football while Donette did some shopping.  I took a new tact this week in monitoring my fantasy football team, which was to totally ignore it, and so far my strategy has payed off.  (Well, in one league anyway.)  It ain’t over yet, there are still a few players to go this evening, but so far I am looking like a team of destiny.  And that’s all I’m gonna say, I don’t want to jinx myself.  (If I didn’t already…)

By the way, Donette put up a few pictures of our Mexico trip in our photo gallery.  For a much more comprehensive set, check out Ed’s.

Well that was a nice little diversion;  We spent a “long weekend” down in Playa del Carmen celebrating Donique’s 40th birthday.  We flew out early Wednesday morning on Frontier, which was our first time on that airline.  They got high marks in my airline rating system, which has admittedly low expectations.  Pretty much “Get me there on time and don’t lose my luggage.”  Sounds easy enough, but I don’t have a very good success rate with it.  Anyway…  We took off from KC around 7:30, and were checked into the hotel and sitting in sand by 12:30.  That includes the roughly 45 minute drive from Cancun to Playa.  Sweet!

I guess I’m obligated to give some type of summary of the trip, although I don’t suppose it has to be overly detailed, or for that matter even factual.  We flew down with the Martins, and caught a shuttle service to our hotel, the Gran Porto Real.  We’ve stayed there once before, and it’s high on our short list of “Places We Would Go Back To.”  We settled into “beach mode” right off the bat, and then were joined later by our friends David & Jill, who flew in from Texas, and Ed & Kim came in from Denver.  All your worldly needs are for the most part included in the price of the hotel, so we spent the vast majority of our time sitting in chairs on the beach.  The one exception was Donette’s birthday, when we actually ventured off the resort and went to some club in downtown Playa.  Good times, although I found it rather hard to adhere to my cardinal vacation rule of “don’t attract attention” when walking around with four girls in pink boas.  (Yeah, thanks for that Kelly.)  Other than that, regarding the rest of the trip, there were no events that I wish to retell, or that you want to hear.  I can vaguely say that the birthday girl kept me busy with her rather over-the-top hi-jinx, and the Mexican jails aren’t really as bad as I’ve heard.

We flew back home Sunday afternoon;  Wow, was THAT a rough transition.  We spent the morning sitting on the beach in 85 degree weather, then 3 hours later we’re scraping ice off the car at KCI.  Bummer.  It was late enough in the evening that we just went home and went to bed.  This morning we woke up to the same stupid Van Morrison song that we’ve been too lazy to change for the last 5 years, made a pot of coffee and ate my usual bowl of Special K, and shuffled off to work.  Ahhhh, just like we never left.  Yay.