After much deliberation, Donette & I have decided to go vegetarian.  I’ve messed up one too many briskets in my lifetime.  Heck with it, I’m just giving up meat all together.  To kick off our brand new lifestyle, we made black bean burgers for dinner last night.  Our original plan was to grill them, but the rain rolled in right when we were getting started so we cooked them on an indoor cast iron grill.  Our side dish was sweet potato wedges, done on the cast iron grill also.  It all came out quite nicely.  Next time we’ll probably add a little more zip to the burgers, probably in the form of some chopped jalapenos.  The ‘taters were a hit, I’m sure we’ll be adding them to more meals.

OK so we’re not really going veggie, we just saw the recipe on Ed’s website a while back and thought it sounded good.  We like black beans…  We like burgers…  What the heck.

An abbreviated posting is in order, as I have the day off and I don’t want to spend it frivolously on my computer.  I’m thinking maybe on the couch watching movies or something exciting like that.  Hey, it’s raining, what else can I do.  Plus the paper put me at a two-star day so I better not push my luck.

Good weekend, all in all.  Friday, believe it or not, we stopped by the Brooksider.  Our best intention was to wish our friend Jerry a happy birthday, then get on home.  It didn’t work out exactly as planned, but that’s the way it goes.  Jerry wasn’t even there, but Martin & Brice were, so I ended up staying much later than I meant to.  Then, our friend Brooke made an unannounced visit to KC and dropped by the ‘Sider, and we stayed much much later than planned.  It happens.

Saturday I starting paying the price of my unscheduled later nighter when the alarm went off at 5:00.  Munkirs was picking me at 6:00 to drive out to Independence for a bike ride.  No, this wasn’t a last-second event, we’d been planning it all week.  I was well aware of the plans when I stayed out Friday night, it was just an exercise in poor judgement.  Anyway, I managed to drag my carcass out of bed, get some breakfast in me, and for the most part be ready when my ride showed up.  Martin met us out there, and we all three were actually in relatively good shape by the time the ride started.  (They had coffee and donuts on site;  Probably a life-saver.)  The ride was a cancer benefit called “Freedom Ride.”  We opted for the 40 mile route.  I’m confident we could have survived the listed 50 mile ride, but it wasn’t an option listed when we got there.  It jumped from 40 to 70, which sounded a bit optimistic.  The forty turned out great though, it was really a good route.  I haven’t gotten to ride on any open roads in a long time.  Everything around here is all stop signs every two blocks or so;  Gets pretty old.  This was just long stretches of uninterrupted riding, much nicer.  The only downside was a few listed “rolling hills.”  I wasn’t aware they had mountains in Independence;  Now I know better.  After that nice bit of exercise, I got home to find Donette getting ready for the pool.  Sounded good to me, so I joined her for an afternoon of lethargy.  We got rained out around 5:00, so we headed over to a nearby friend’s house for bit, then home to watch the Royals game.

We took it easy on the holiday.  Just don’t celebrate the Fourth like I used to.  We puttered around the house all day doing a little cooking, and that was about it.  My Uncle Roy & Aunt Joyce stopped by for a nice little visit, so we got to catch up with them.  Then, around 3:30 or so we headed over to our friend Ronnie’s house for a “gathering.”  (He didn’t want to have a “party” due to the work involved with that, so we all agreed on the term “gathering,” with the understanding “You want it, you bring it.”)  It was a fine gathering, indeed.  He’s got a huge front porch, so about 15 of us just sat outside and enjoyed the relatively decent weather and some good food.

Got in a short bike ride last night with Munkirs.  We’ve been on the Thursday night Brookside ride several weeks in a row now, and kept up the tradition this week.  We probably need to pick up the mileage a bit, but I guess seventeen miles is better than nothing.  After the ride we tried to hit the Brooksider for a cheap burger & fries;  Alas, no parking spots to be had.  Dang Thursday night tourists.

My winless streak of Royals games continues.  We went out to the ball park last night with Donette’s parents to catch the game.  Of course, due to my attendance, they lost.  Haven’t won a game I’ve been to yet this season, which has been quite a few actually.  Oh well.  It was a nice night for a game and we had fun, and they didn’t get absolutely crushed like the other times I’ve gone.

In a quite unrelated topic shift, I really need to start riding my bicycle to work.  I had big plans for bike commuting but so far I’ve only actually ridden in once.  I really should have biked today;  I don’t know how many 65-degree days are left but I’m guessing not many.  Next week…  NEXT week I’ll start.

Ahhh, another 3-day weekend.  I just don’t think I’m really cut out for a 5-day work week.  Four is more than enough.  I had Friday off courtesy of my oncall week.  It was earned too, geez.  Oncall is a young man’s game, I tell you.  Once again, I’m having a little trouble recalling exactly what we did that far back.  Maybe I need to start taking notes or something.  I took the motorcycle up the street to get re-inspected.  My tags are expired, as Officer Friendly reminded me on the way home a few weeks ago.  He also reminded me that there is a speed limit on Main Street, and it is not mach II, a fact I was previously unaware of.  After that we went and hung out at the pool for several hours until the heat drove us out.  Wow, it was hot.  Still June and the pool water is hot already.  Dang global warming.  After that details are kind of sketchy.  Donette went to the baseball game with our friend Katie.  As for me, well I did something remarkably fun and exciting, I just can’t remember what.  I think I sat on the couch and watched TV.

Saturday didn’t develop quite as planned.  I had intended to waste my day on the back porch smoking a brisket.  I goofed around all morning and finally threw it on around 10:30.  About that time, Donette reminded me we had a wedding to go to at 4:30.  Dang it!  This left me in brisket limbo;  Too late to take it off and save it for another time, and not enough time to get it cooked.  I ended up cooking it for 6 hours and then foiling it up and leaving it on the smoker.  Don’t know if it got done or not, haven’t even sliced it yet.  It was a failed experiment at any rate;  My goal was to cook it without using any foil but that didn’t work out.  What can ya’ do.  The wedding was fun though, as weddings go.  Man it was hot though, whew.  One of the groomsmen fell out, providing a little excitement.  Actually he didn’t go all the way down, he sort of crumpled then made a nice recovery and ducked out stage left.  We stuck around for a few hours of the reception and then bailed out to tend to the smoker.

Sunday I was supposed to go cycling with Munkirs but called rain-out.  We may have been able to ride anyway, but it looked pretty dicey out.  I ended up opting for the gym instead.  I wasted a few hours there, then made a PC house-call, then it was off to the ‘Sider to watch the ball game.  Donette got to go to the game again, but I had to make do with the TV.  They had the sound on for once too, bonus.  I watched the whole game down there, then Donette & Kelly showed up and we went to get some dinner at Jalepenos.  Ate a tasty relleno, then we all headed back to the house for some Rock Band;  Fine way to round out the weekend.