We just pulled into Vail, CO, after a three-night stay in Denver.  While in Denver we pretty much rocked our faces off for two days straight, at the Mile High Music festival.  We probably hit it a little too hard for old folks like us;  We pulled into the hotel well after 2:00 both nights.  It was definitely a good thing though;  We saw some great shows, and I think the people-watching was even better than Silver Dollar City.

And now, I am off to the hot tub.  I may or may not relate more detail of the weekend at some later point.  Right now I have a hot tub and free WiFi access for the first time in three days, so I ain’t got no time for this.

Well my current funk continues;  However, I have a nice vacation on the horizon so we’ll see what effect that has.  It’ll take things to the extreme one direction or another is my guess.  Hey, that week was nothing to complain about though, I’ve had worse.  We ate out nearly every night, which, if not necessarily in the budget, is certainly fun.  We started that trend off Monday night with dinner at 75th Street Brewery.  It was solid as ever;  We split a dinner in true old-people fashion, which worked out well.  Tuesday night probably bears a recap too.  We ordered takeout from Waldo Pizza, a perennial favorite.  For reasons that even I cannot explain, I came up with a combination of roasted chicken, bacon, and anchovies for my toppings.  Wow, I’m getting a bit unsettled just thinking about it.  I must say, the pizza was really quite good.  So good, in fact, that I ate the entire thing by myself.  (It was “buy one, get one 1/2 price” night, so Donette had her own combo.)   The phrase “All things in moderation” comes to mind.  My stomach was really quite out-of-sorts the rest of the night…  And I think I’ll leave the recap of Tuesday at that, for everyone’s sake.  Wednesday night was at Jalapeno’s, and Thursday we went to the Brooksider.  I’ve had everything on the menu (several times over) at both of these places so they really don’t bear re-telling.

Friday, I met Donette and her parents up at the Brooksider for lunch.  Although I just finished saying I’d had everything on the menu, that proved not quite true.  Actually, in truth, all I ever eat there is the chicken strips.  They aren’t exactly known as the culinary epicentre of the area, but the chicken strips are solid, (not to mention 1/2 price before 7:00) so it makes for an easy decision.  Friday, though, I branched out and ordered the “lunch special.”  This monumental event, combined with the fact that I never eat lunch at the Brooksider, added considerable excitement to my daily routine, needless to say.  The lunch plate was a large chicken-fried steak, with mashed potatos and green beans on the side, smothered in a considerable pool of gravy.  Quite delicious, although I had some trouble staying awake at my desk the rest of the afternoon.  That night for dinner, we cooked at home for the only time the entire week, fixing a recipe I’d seen on Robin Miller earlier in the week.  We fixed it on the grill though;  Too hot to be firing up the oven.

Saturday, the event of the day was Kelly Martin’s 40th birthday party.  Another one bites the dust, so to speak.  After dropping Gabe off at Aunt Ronda’s, I took Donette up there to join several other girls in a big stretch limo. They then drove over to the Martin house and picked Kelly up.  They drove around all afternoon doing whatever it is that girls do when they get together, and then came back to the house at 6:30 for a big party.  This whole episode was a surprise event, facilitated by Chris believe it or not.  It looked to be a big success, but I found myself just as entertained by the planning as the party itself.  I have watched all these girls email back and forth for several weeks, plotting and scheming how to best lie to their good friend Kelly in order to conceal their true motives.  It was troubling how easily they came up with these elaborate hoaxes, and how straight-faced they were as they told them.  Just as unnerving was the obvious glee they took in this whole act of deception.  I have seen evil my friends, and it lives among us.

Oh, another positive from last week was that I finally got my “tax rebate” check thing.  I don’t really know why mine was so late, something to do with how we filed through Turbotax.  Unfortunately, now that it finally got here, I’ve pretty much lost interest in the things I had planned for it.  I ended up ordering a new iPod, which I really don’t need.  It’s nicer than my old one though, and I thought it in the best interest of the economy to do something with it.  I also got two tickets to a “Brewmaster Dinner” at 75th Street this Tuesday evening, which I thought sounded festive.  The rest went in the checking account to pay overdue bills;  BORING!!

Wow, it seems like I’ve been gone much longer than a week.  Guess I got my money’s worth.  I spent the better part of my vacation in Branson/Silver Dollar City with my family, including all eleven nieces and nephews.  Actually there were only four little ‘uns, but they were really fast;  Seemed like more.  It was a good get-away, made even better by the choice of lodging.  Mom rented a “cabin” at a place called Stonebridge, about ten minutes from Silver Dollar City.  Ahhhh, camping at it’s finest.  If I had researched it a little better I would have brought a fishing pole, as our cabin backed right up to a stocked lake.  But, it backed up to a nice swimming pool too, so that worked out fine.  Most of our time was spent at the amusement park.  In two days of attendance, the rides I went on included the train.  That was it.  Oh, and the tram from the parking lot.  It was too hot to stand in line for the rides so I just hung out.  I had plenty of amusement watching the kids ride everything, and counting the teeth on the locals.

We got back home on Thursday, and started planning for a nice long weekend in the ‘hood.  When Donette woke up on Friday though, she got it in her head that she absolutely had to be at Kim’s bachelorette party that night… In Cincinnati.  What the heck, she was still packed from the Branson trip, so she threw her suitcase back in the Pilot and headed east.  She was sort of upset about missing Pigfest this year, so she got to hit that also.  Sounded like a good time, although I don’t have all the lurid details yet…  She hasn’t made it back home so far.  Last I heard from her, she was too tired to drive and was holing up in some seedy hotel in Illinois.  I thought I heard another voice in the background, but it was probably the radio.

Left to our own devices, Gabe and I did a whole lot of nothing over the weekend.  Let’s see…  I did some cooking, including a practice brisket that took up the better part of my Saturday.  We went for a few walks.  I had dinner at the Brooksider and Tanner’s.  Mowed the yard.  Went on a short bicycle ride.  You get the idea.  Oh, and I watched “The Fast & The Furious:  Tokyo Drift” three more times, bringing my total to somewhere around 27.  I really need to drop HBO.

That weekend wasn’t much to write about, and I don’t have any more pictures to post. Quite the dilemma. Actually it works out nicely, as I’ve got today off and would rather be out doing “something” than sitting here typing.

I had to go to the Orthodontist last Wednesday, and I think this likely precipitated my rapid slide into a weekend-long funk. Man, they cranked the hardware down good this time around. He was so nice as to even inform me, “Wow, you’re gonna feel this one for a week or so.” Gee, thanks, Dr. Evil. His other line that oddly amused me for some reason was, “Whoops… Can somebody bring me a magnet over here?” At any rate, he was correct in his assessment of discomfort; My teeth friggin’ hurt.

Friday night we went to a retirement party down at the Brooksider. Our friend Jerry (finally) retired from Hallmark after 55 years. Fifty-five!! Good grief, did he start working when he was 10 or something? It was a good party though, and I stayed quite a while. I spent the majority of my time off to the side working on Ritchie’s laptop that he brought down for me to look at though. Wow, what a mess. He had somehow managed to install an antivirus program that is just short of being a virus itself. (Actually most sites I looked at DO classify it as a virus.) If there’s anything worse than getting a virus on your PC, it’s paying $50 for the privilege. And, just when I thought I had it licked, the battery on the laptop went dead.

Saturday, after a morning at the gym and lunch at Jalapeños, Donette took me shopping out at Cockrell Mercantile in a blatant effort at snapping me out of my bitter streak. I’d never even heard of this place, but she’d been there with my Mom before on a shop-a-thon. It was a cool place, I must admit; Several building full of likely every kitchen gadget you can imagine, as well as pots and pans, knives, etc. Toys upon toys. Impressively though, I didn’t buy a single thing. I made a list of things I’d like to have though… I can email it to you if you are looking for my Christmas presents already. I even tried to sign up for their bridal registry, but they wouldn’t let me. C’mon people, this is the 21rst century, open your minds a little.

OK that’s enough random rambling for one entry. I’ve got a three day “vacation” at Branson staring me in the face and I have to go get psych’d up. I’m not entirely sure how one does that, but we’ll see what happens.

Well, what can I say, another dead weekend.  I sat in front of my laptop so long I think I actually got a slight tan from the screen radiation.  Friday night, just to get in the swing of things, I did nothing at all.  I sat on the back porch and tried out my new cigars that came in the mail, listened to the Royals on XM, and swatted mosquitoes.  Woo hoo!!

Saturday, after a similarly slow start, I at least left the house for a while.  I drove out to the going-out-of-business sale at KC Creations in Merriam, mostly just to check out the bikes.  Wow, did they have some.  Unfortunately I could never hope to afford one, which I imagine is a common situation… Hence the sale.  They had some little things I would have liked to have, like some sunglasses, jackets, and helmets, but I left empty-handed.  For one thing the sale was “cash only” and I didn’t have a nickel on me, and for another thing I just really didn’t need any of it.  (Even I have come to the grim realization that I probably don’t need four helmets.)  After that brief outing, Gabe and I went to the park so he could get some much-needed exercise.  This had the desired effect of putting him in a deep slumber, while Donette and I went to dinner over at John & Susan’s house.  I tried to weasel out of this initially;  Not that I didn’t want to go but the oncall thing had me nervous.  I was informed that John had ordered live lobsters from Maine though;  Uhhhh, yeah never mind, I can make it.  I’ve never eaten a whole lobster that I can remember, and definitely never cooked one, so the evening was an experience.  To go along with the “main course” we had 10 lbs. of crayfish, corn on the cob, andouille sausage, and new potatoes.  Wow.  There wasn’t a speck of it left when we were done either.  It took John & I nearly two hours to mow through the 10 lbs. of mudbugs, but we finished ’em.

Sunday I spent the majority of the day prone on the couch, deeply remorseful for my gluttonous ways the night before.  I blamed it on fatigue from working into the wee hours of the morning, but it was more likely the multiple pounds of food I put away.  I waited until it got good and miserably hot out, then ventured out for short while to wash the scooter.  Also, in something of a monumental event, I dug my bicycle out of the basement and went on a (very) short ride.  This was literally the first time I have been on my bike since the 200 mile trip down the Katy Trail a few years ago.  I’d like to say it felt good but I’d be exaggerating.  We’ll see if I get it out of the garage again this summer.  After that, well not much else happened.  I grilled some steaks for dinner, which probably would have been worth retelling if not for paling in comparison to the lobster dinner the night before.  And, that was about it.  In my copious free time over the weekend I did post some new pictures finally, so feel free to click through those.  I really can’t explain all the food pics…  I was cleaning off my memory card and found all those so I went ahead and posted them.  Strange.