Whew, heating up outside already.  Despite the punishing weather, we got in our share of outdoor activities this weekend.  I kicked it off Friday by sitting down at the Brooksider with the boys all evening.  OK, I’ll grant you that may not be considered an “activity” by most.  But it was, in fact, outdoors.  Meanwhile, Donette was wrapping up a week in Chicago.  She had been there since last Friday starting the first week of her NEW JOB!!!  I’ll let her fill you in on all those riveting details.  All I know is we’re a two-income family again, WHEW!!  Myself and my creditors are quite excited.

Donette returned from her travels late Friday night, and then she got up very early (before even myself) and headed off for a 12-mile run.  She is definitely ramping up the mileage in preparation for her upcoming 1/2-marathon in July.  Personally I think it sounds a bit aggressive, but then I’m not a runner so what do I know.  She didn’t get home from that endeavor until around noon, by which time I had accomplished pretty much nothing at all.  Well, you know, the Royals were coming on at 1:00 and I didn’t want to get wrapped up in anything before that and…  Yeah whatever.  Gunsmoke was on, ’nuff said.  When she finally showed up, she rallied me off the couch and we headed down to Kelly’s to show some support for one of her fellow fund-raisers.  Not so hard to get out for that event honestly;  I like Kelly’s, the game was on TV, they have good a/c…  Yeah it worked out well.  We hung out there until the game was over, then rolled back inside our circle for some dinner at Kin Lin’s.  I really do enjoy that place, although I will readily admit few share that sentiment.  Matter of fact, Donette isn’t overly fond of it, she just humored me this time I guess.  Case in point, she wasn’t too keen on her dinner Saturday.  I liked mine though!

Sunday I got up early and biked down to Union Station to join Munkirs participating in the City of Fountains bike ride.  We’ve done this one a few times in past years, but were going to take a pass this time until they announced some event changes.  They had a 50-mile option this year which sort of fit in with our training schedule so we figured what the heck.  They also introduced staggered start times, which definitely worked out better.  The only downside to that was, being on the longest route, we had to be there signed in and ready at the unholy hour of 07:00, yuck.  It was a good ride overall.  Fifty miles felt about right, and the route was nice with the exception of an ill-fated jaunt down the Brush Creek trail.  Hmmmm thirty riders crammed onto a sidewalk for three miles…  Yeah let’s scratch that part for next year.  Another nice addition was that they spray-painted the fountain numbers on the street as you passed each one so you could glance over at them.  It’s pretty easy to forget you’re supposed to be actually touring the fountains if you’re just riding along.  It was kind of interesting actually;  If you REALLY cared the numbers corresponded with a booklet they handed out at the start and you could read a little history on each.  I figured I was doing good to just look over and acknowledge “yep, that’s a fountain.”  In all we passed 45 different fountains along the way, far more than I would have guessed were it not actually documented right there on the street.  When we got back to Union Station they had a nice little picnic set up and Donette joined me for lunch.  That was a nice addition too, although I really would have opted for a shower at that point than a lunch.  Still fun.  We went home and both sacked out for a while after that, then I got up and watched that marathon Royals game.  After they finally won, we ran up to 75th Street for some dinner and called it a weekend.

Playing some fetch in Chicago

As soon as we got back from vacation last week, Donette headed out to volunteer at our friend Dan’s annual golf tournament.  She and Kelly do this every year and always have a good time.  This year, in addition to her time, she decided to donate a little cash too, so she bought a handful of raffle ticket.  I use the word “donate” because that is what our raffle entries always are;  We rarely, if ever, win anything.  So, she was quite surprised when she got an email from Dan the next day asking her to come meet him and pick up her prize.  Assuming it was one of the smaller items, she didn’t get too excited, but I could tell she had her hopes up for some fancy purse she had her eye on.  (The brand escapes me, but it was something well out of our average shopping range.)  She headed down to the Plaza, and found that indeed she had won the purse, ding ding!  If that wasn’t enough, she also won a free scuba-diving class, something we’ve always wanted to try.  (Now if we actually do try it, even with this opportunity, remains to be seen.)  And if that wasn’t enough, she also won an iPad!  She’s wanted one of those for a long time, but it’s remained pretty low on the discretionary-spending list.  Maybe our luck (or at least hers) is finally turning around!

Whew, took a few weeks off from updates there, save my rather lame attempt at vacation photo updates below.  We’re just coming off a nice (if a bit short) vacation, so I’m all rested up and ready for action now.  (Should be burned out again by about noon.)

So, our trip was the reschedule of our ill-fated Spring Break trip, which we missed out on due to some logistical snafus.  We flew to West Palm Beach, Fla last Saturday, spent the night, then got on a cruise ship Sunday afternoon.  It was sort of a “cruise-lite,” which is to say we just sailed overnight to the Bahamas and then got off the boat and spent a few nights on the island.  We selected this trip to kind of get a feel for cruises, which neither of us have ever been too excited about.  I think we both agreed the verdict was “good trip but check cruises off the list of things to do.”  On the positive side, the food really was very good on the boat;  Better than on the island as a matter of fact.  (With the exception of one delicious, if a bit pricey, evening.)  And, I have to admit I sort of enjoyed the shows, which surprised me.  On the downside I couldn’t sleep for anything with all the pitching around, and the cabins, while comfortable enough, were a bit cramped.  As for the island…   Well, let’s just say we didn’t get mixed up and think we were on one of our Hawaii trips.  The ocean was very rough and stirred up so we didn’t get to do any snorkeling, which is my favorite beach pastime.  And, while the resort was quite nice, suffice to say you didn’t want to wander too far off the grounds.  While probably safe enough, there just wasn’t anything to go to.  And, judging from our trip to and from the boat, that wasn’t limited to the area we were staying in either.  All that said, the locals were very nice, the beaches were beautiful, and the costs seemed reasonable.  I just think maybe we prefer Mexico, or ideally Hawaii.

We got back to our house Thursday night.  While it might sound like I didn’t have the best time ever from the comments above, I was actually quite rested and feeling pretty good.  So much so that I ended up cancelling my day off Friday and heading on into work.  That paid off quite nicely;  It was a decent day at work and then I went right into the weekend fun.  As far as the weekend I quickly fell right back into the same ol’ rut;  Baseball games at the Brooksider and some tasty meals.  Saturday (late) morning we headed down to Eggct for some food, but it was far too crowded.  We opted instead for Spin Pizza, which for whatever reason we’ve never been to.  It worked out great, we had an awesome lunch.  Definitely be working that one into the regular rotation.  After that meal, and a subsequent afternoon on the patio of the ‘Sider, we headed down to Manny’s, which remarkably I’ve never been to either.  We were on a roll picking food that day, it was awesome too.  I had a relleno burrito, which might be one of my favorite meals to order when I see it.  It was a beaut too;  Top notch.  Sunday we tried Eggct again, with much more success.  Had a tasty omelet, then spent my afternoon doing chores that had built up while we were gone.  After that, we had dinner at good ol’ Jalapenos, which is a common enough occurrence that it doesn’t bear comment.