So I guess the football season is over, at least for all practical purposes.  This ideally will lead to a more efficient use of our Sundays.  That’s the theory anyway, we’ll see how it actually plays out.

Well,  I really didn’t do much last weekend.  Donette had several events, mostly centered around Susan’s upcoming wedding, but since I didn’t go to any of them that doesn’t do me a whole lot of good, now does it.  For the most part we watched movies; “The Green Mile” on Friday night and “Cars” on Saturday.  Both of them provided moderate entertainment value for me, if not for the purposes of my Weekly Update.

Sunday was the only time I got out of the house all weekend, when we attended a Superbowl party out south.  I was a bit hesitant to make the drive, but was lured out by a few mitigating factors:  1.)  They had my check for my spectacular second-place Fantasy Football finish, and 2.) an enormous BBQ spread.  One of the guys drug his smoker out and cooked up ribs, brisket, pork, sausage and chicken.  There was a big crowd there, but not enough to finish that feed pile.  There may have been some side dishes too, I’m not sure…  I stuck to the ‘Que.  We only made it until half-time though before bolting back to our safety zone.  For one thing I ate entirely too much and was thoroughly miserable, and there was an unusually high attendance of little ‘uns, which lent a somewhat nervous quality to the atmosphere.  So, I went home, cranked up the surround sound, and watched the rest of the game on the couch.  Lame, I know.

Other than that, it was just another frozen weekend.  Sounds like a few more of the same in store too.  Speaking of BBQ, I actually did watch that little poll over on the right with some interest last week.  Burnt ends were the winner, although not by an overwhelming margin.  Who voted for sausage?  I just put that one on there for filler.  Hey, to each their own though.

As you can probably surmise from that generic title, not a whole lot went on this weekend.  I think our social life is frozen right along with everything else in the city.  Friday we actually did absolutely nothing.  I sat in front of the PC and toyed with my “backup” web server, and Donette stayed downstairs, presumably in front of the TV.  Motivation is at an all time low in our household.  Not to mention, I am pseudo-oncall this week so I’m kind of taking it easy anyway.

Saturday I think we may have done something fun, although the exact details escape me.  Guess you’ll just have to trust me on that one.  Whatever it was, it was a real hoot and left an indelible impression on me.  After that mysterious, non-recallable event was over, we drove out to the cleverly named “Great Mall” in Olathe.  Who thought that title up?  Might want to look into a new marketing director out there.  I suppose it’s catchier than “Crappy Mall,” which might be a more accurate description despite a rather negative connotation.   Anyway, I picked up a few pairs of pants at the Eddie Bauer shop, and Donette got some new boots.  Woo hoo.  Saturday night, we went to an engagement party for our friends John and Susan.  It was held at one of the classier venues available in the area, known as the “Brooksider.”  I like going to events at the good ol’ Brooksider.  It’s conveniently located, and they only let you have the room until ten o’clock, which coincides nicely with my bedtime.  Donette and her merry band of troublemakers coordinated the event, and it went very well.  I kind of got caught up in the inescapable excitement of the UMKC game on the television and didn’t get a chance to do a whole lot of mixing with the crowd, but I did enjoy all the good food that everybody brought.

Sunday didn’t bring a whole lot to the table.  I believe I am ready for Spring.  While I didn’t think I really minded the cold weather, it seems to do a good job of keeping me indoors so maybe I actually do mind it.  We did get out of the house for a bit, and met Munkirs up at the dog park.  This little exercise session got cut short when some pansy showed up with his huge Weimaraner.  Despite the fact that his dog weighed probably 100 pounds, he was not-too-subtlety bothered by Gabe’s presence.  I have a hard time convincing people that Belle is probably going to cause trouble before Gabe will;  The boy just doesn’t look very nice, bless his lil’ heart.  Maybe I should get him a flowery sweater or something?  Oh well, it didn’t hurt my feelings too much;  I was about half frozen anyway, so we left.  We stopped by the house and put the pups down for a nap, and then rolled down to Jalapeños for some lunch.  Still grappling with the new menu, I opted for the recently added fish tacos.  I guess they were OK;  I ate the whole plate so it must have been pretty good.  The fish was battered though, which was a little odd.  I would liken it to Mrs. Paul’s on a soft flour tortilla.  Fortunately, I happen to enjoy Mrs. Paul’s products.  That was effectively the end of our weekend.  In a rather impressive feat of lethargy, Donette went to sleep when we got home, and didn’t wake up until this morning.  Now THAT’S a nap.  While I did stay awake, I can’t say as I accomplished anything more than she did.  I wandered back and forth between the TV and the computer, not really watching anything.  One can only hope the Superbowl provides us with some diversion next weekend.

** Exciting addition!!  I remember what we did Saturday…  We had lunch at Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ.  This was one of the places high on our “Why Haven’t We Ever Gone There” list.  I’d say it lived up to the billing, although I doubt we’ll make regular trips out there.  The fact that it’s in a gas station didn’t really bother me as much as some;  I’m not real big on the atmosphere factor.  Donette had a pulled pork sandwich, which was quite delicious, if not quite on par with Brice’s product.  (But then what is???)  I had the burnt end lunch, which was served open-faced on white bread.  It was good, but not what I would consider burnt ends;  It was a pile of large brisket cubes.  This might have been a byproduct of being on the wrong side of the state line, who knows.  The fries were top-notch, the beans were “weird.”  Overall though, good feed.  Four outta five rib bones.

I really can’t get too fired up to type anything, but in light of last weeks less-than-mediocre update I suppose I’m obligated.  So, type I shall… But I won’t like it.  I think the weather has me in a funk;  At least that’s what I’m blaming it on.  I don’t mind the cold so much, but I can do without the snow and ice, or at least the associated mess it makes.  Worst of all, I can’t ride my super-duper scooter.  Buncha crap.

Friday, of all things, we went to the Brooksider.  It was Donette’s final day of work, so we went down there to celebrate her retirement.  Or perhaps to mourn the loss of the paycheck…  Depends on how you view the situation.  The Martins came down, Ronda  and Justin showed up, and even Todd came out of hiding for the evening.  We were forced to leave early though;  Some stupid band was coming in.  Live music; bah.

Saturday we didn’t do a whole lot, for whatever reason.  We went out to Martin City and had lunch at Jackstack, which was solid as ever.  Then we headed over to Sutherlands to catch the big moving sale.  They are moving to Harrisonville and everything in the store is 25% off.  We picked up quite a few things… A lot more than we intended.  I guess we got caught up in the excitement of the sale.  Whew.  Our coolest purchase was a Little Giant ladder.  Wow, 24 ladders in ONE!!  These are wonderful times we live in.  I figure any product endorsed by Al Borland has got to be high quality.  That wrapped up our Saturday for the most part.  We wanted to watch a movie for our evening entertainment, but apparently one of our knucklehead house guests from Friday night had the bright idea to turn off the heater in the TV room.  You could dang near see your breath in there by the time we noticed that.  So, we threw a few filet mignons on the ol’ George Foreman grill and had a nice little dinner, and called it day.

Sunday we headed down to the Brooksider and watched the Bears/Saints game.  I was kind-of-sort-of-not-really pulling for New Orleans, but everybody else at the table was for the Bears; Whatever, works for me.  We had lunch there too, and found that the Brooksider had changed their menu too!!  Man there is some kind of culinary shakeup going on in Brookside, and I’m not too fond of it.  I was grudgingly forced to admit that the menu was better, mostly due to the new improved french fries and the addition of blue cheese in the burger menu, but I made it a point to complain anyway.  Just because.  After that game we headed back home to watch the late game.  Our TV room had warmed back up to an inhabitable level by this point, so Todd came over and we hunkered down in there for the rest of the day.  Thus ended our snowy weekend.  It doesn’t look like it’s going to thaw any time soon either; our “one car family” experiment isn’t going so smoothly at this point.

I don’t have any news.  Absolutely nothing happened to us last weekend.  Well, we went out to dinner one night.  That was it.  Too cold to go out.

It occurred to me lately just how silly the titles of these things are.  But, if you don’t enter a title, it looks funny.  So just ignore them.  Or, know that at least 5 seconds of thought went into it, and it may or may not have some vague association with some bit of content in the corresponding post.

Friday night, we stayed home and made soup.  (See?  That is the “vague association” for the week.)  Potato soup with chicken-andouille sausage.  That was about it for the evening… I’m not sure how much mileage one could reasonably expect me to stretch that into.  After dinner we watched “Black Sheep,” which could probably be considered one of the less-than-classic of the Chris Farley/David Spade movies.  It passed the time though.

Saturday comprised the bulk of our weekend entertainment value.  The Martins came down and joined us at the Brooksider to watch the Chiefs playoff game.  Mind you, the game itself didn’t provide much entertainment value, but it was a diversion.  The ‘Sider was in good form too; packed wall-to-wall with rather enthusiastic fans.  Everybody stayed for the duration of the debacle, ourselves included.  After the game, we trotted down the street and had dinner at Jalapenos.  In a rather exciting and shocking twist to our weekend, they had changed their menu!!  I opted for one of their new items, the tilapia.  It was a decent-sized, heavily seasoned slab ‘o pescado, served with flour tortillas and rice.  It was good… perhaps the seasoning was a little much.  After dinner we headed back to our ranch, where we played a few games of Pitch and Euchre while watching the Dallas/Seattle game.  (Which proved quite a bit more entertaining than the home-town game…)

Sunday, still reeling from the shock of the new Jalapeños menu, we hunkered down in the safe confines of our house.  We made two more pots of soup; A tasty white chili and an interesting new recipe with sausage and artichokes.  Both came out rather well, and I’d say we’re set on lunches for the rest of the week.  After that we hooked up the back speakers in our new surround sound setup, and watched a combination of movies and football games for the rest of the day.  Wow… the surround sound adds quite a new dimension to the TV; I didn’t think it would make that much difference.

Well that’s really about it for the weekend.  The scooter/moped project is coming nicely.  I rode it in to work three out of the four days last week, and hopped on it for this mornings commute also.  I filled it up for the first time last week; cost me $4.50 for premium.  Gotta like that.  I have also found an answer to the question I posed to myself when buying this thing;  “How cold could I possibly get in six short miles??”