Wow, my days are ALL messed up.  Mostly because of all the days off work I guess, which is a good thing.  It just now struck me that it’s Monday again, hence the slightly tardy update.  We’ve done so much over the holidays I don’t really know where to start, so I’ll fall back on the “random rambling” technique.

One notable event was my first bicycle ride of the year.  Matter of fact, my first bicycle ride since I’ve moved.  I sure can’t blame the weather for my lack of riding, I just haven’t gotten around to it.  And, honestly, I’ve been a little psyched out by the hills around here.  Back in the good ol’ days of riding in KC, my nemesis-hill was Belinder road on the Thursday night Brookside ride.  It was towards the end of the route, and I usually spent the entire ride dreading the inevitable.  Heck, a few times I even just rode around it.  Then we move out here, and I have to ride up a hill at least that big just to get out of my subdivision.  Just gets worse from there, too.  No amount of foul language can adequately describe the hill I have to ride up to get back home, so I’ll just label it “imposing.”  You see several other riders tackling it day after day, but to be fair I’ve got 10 years and (conservatively) 50 lbs on most of them.  Tackle it I did though, and I made it.  Sure, I zig-zagged back and forth like a little kid on a single speed, and I puked in the bushes at the top, but I made it.  Next time it will be a whole lot easier, I’m sure.  (Because next time I’ll park the car at the bottom of the hill.)

Let’s see, what else…  I covered our fine rib-roast dinner on New Year’s Eve, below.  I haven’t done “what I got for Christmas” yet, but that might take too long.  Uhhh…  How ’bout them Chiefs???  We went to a local establishment to watch the game, proudly sporting our red shirts.  Thank goodness we left at half-time.  Maybe I should adopt the 49er’s, at least they won ONE game.

Fixed an awesome rib roast last night for our anniversary/NYE dinner.  After probably way-too-much debate about the issue, I ended up using the “sear last” method.  It came out very well, although it took a lot longer than I expected.  We didn’t eat until 8:00 at night, oops.  Oh well, not like we had anything else to do.  After filling my belly with beef I hit the couch and tried to watch We’re The Millers.  I honestly don’t think I made it through the first five minutes and I was OUT.

A fine rib roast!

Not a bad weekend, all things considered.  We started it off Friday after work by going on an honest-to-goodness date at 36 Handles.  Since moving here we went from going out nearly every night to maybe two or three times a month.  A harsh drop-off, to be sure.  I’m not completely certain of the reasons behind that change in habit.  Might be budgetary, or maybe we just don’t like any of the places around here.  At any rate, we busted loose and stayed a few hours at that place, which I do sort of like.  After that we headed home and played several rounds of dominoes, then broke out the Wii and rocked our faces off to Rock Band for several hours.  I don’t think we’ve ever played dominoes together, and I know we haven’t played Rock Band in probably two years.  Just an all-around wacky night for the old folks!

There was a price to be paid for all that entertainment, of course.  Saturday we slept in quite late, then crawled to the couch and watched college basketball for the majority of the afternoon.  I did manage to limp up to the park with Teagan and play fetch for a bit, mostly just to tire her out so she wouldn’t drive me nuts all night.  Surely we did something awesomely fun and wacky too, but the details regarding that portion of the day escape me at the moment.  It was too darn nice outside to sit around watching TV all day.  Things happen though.

Sunday we were just a bit more enterprising.  We got around at the crack of 10:00 and headed to the gym, a good start to any day.  After that we felt we deserved some calories, so we headed out to lunch at a place called Cascada.  This marked our first attempt at a Mexican restaurant since moving here.  All-in-all, I’d call it a success.  I had chicken adovado, and Donette opted for an asada burrito.  I thought both were very good, maybe with a nod towards the burrito as the better of the two.  I can’t say I really cared for the “feel” of the place, or the prices, but at least the food was good.  I imagine we’ll be back, if only due to the relatively close proximity to our house.  By the time we finished lunch, the games were on, so we headed back home and turned the TV on.  Once again we were denied the Chief’s broadcast, and were stuck watching the 49ers.  Donette promptly fell asleep, and I sort of stared at it with limited interest.  For dinner I tried a new recipe, spicy linguine with clams & mussels.  Our menu at home is generally dictated by the sale ad at the nearby grocery store, and this one was no exception:  The shellfish was on sale for $2.99, can’t beat that.  It came out very well, I label it a keeper.  The mussels were awesome too, which I’m somewhat excited about.  I do like me some mussels, and the offerings in KC could be a little…  dicey.  Also on sale are whole dungeness crabs for a mere $4.99 per lb, which intrigues me.  I have absolutely no idea what to do with one of those things, but I guess I better give it a go while they’re on sale.  Anybody ever tackle one of those creatures????

We went with a fried turkey for our Christmas dinner.  Cheap and tasty, my favorite combo.  I tried the dry-brine method this time.  I think I have to give the nod to the good ol’ “wet brine,” but it came out pretty well, and was a lot less mess.

Deep fried in peanut oil after a 3-day dry brine in salt, pepper, and lemon zest