Brrr!

Whew, first chilly ride of the season on the scooter this morning!  Note to self, check temperature before heading off to work.  ‘Bout froze my face off.  But then, that’s just random commentary, and not related to what I did over the weekend.  So, on to that.

Overall, I will rate that weekend an 8 out of 10.  Friday I intended to just call it a day and watch TV at home, but alas, Martin & Brice turned up at the Brooksider, forcing me to show up also.  It would have been a crime to sit home when the weather was so nice though, so it worked out for the best.  Donette came down and joined the revelry after a bit, and then we decided to head out to dinner.  Last Friday of the month means chicken verde burrito at Jalapenos, my favorite.  Alas, it appeared to be everyone else’s favorite too, as the line was out the door.  We were extra-hungry, so we bailed and crossed the street to Carmen’s.  In my book that’s a definite menu upgrade, while unfortunately a rather significant tab upgrade also.  Hey, we’re broke anyway, why not pile on.  We haven’t been there in quite a while, making the dinner seem even tastier.  I had lobster ravioli, while Donette went with the always-solid lasagna.

Saturday we had a little private pub crawl on the calendar with the Martins.  The weather slightly altered our plans, but we made the best of it.  We kicked the afternoon off with a stop at The Flying Saucer.  That represented the northern end of our tour, and from there we made stops at The Velvet Dog, Kelly’s, Davies, Bobby Baker’s, District Pour House, and wrapped up at The Beer Station.  A fine day indeed.  Once the rain burned off and we could get out on patios it was even better.  New on the agenda was the District Pour House;  They just opened about a week ago right up the street from our house in the spot formerly occupied by The Gaff.  They’ve done some very extensive remodeling, it’s barely recognizable inside.  Very nice place…  Probably a bit TOO nice for us.  Between their new menu and Louie’s at the other end of the block, it’s a rather pricey area these days.   We’ll have to make a few more visits and decide if it holds a spot in our regular rotation.

We kicked off Sunday with an always-exciting trip to Nebraska Furniture Mart.  WOOO HOOOO!!!  One of those places we love to hate.  They took all our money, as usual, and then we headed to lunch at Amigos to contemplate our dire financial straights.  Ahhh, nothing like a good plate of tamales to cheer me up.  After lunch I was scheduled to head up to Martin’s and do some cooking for the upcoming BBQ next weekend.  In a wonderful bit of good fortune though, he called and said he would rather head to a party out near my house if that was OK.  Hmmm…  Drive an hour north of the river and slave over a hot cooker all day, or sit outside and eat BBQ cooked by somebody else, while listening to local blues bands.  Let me cipher on that for about 1/10 of a second.  We went with the blues & BBQ option, and it worked out very nicely.  A fine day indeed.  Of course we only delayed the inevitable on cooking for the Royal, but that’s just how we roll.