That was a nice “relaxing” weekend. Friday night we actually went out on a pseudo-date. Donette had the rather edgy notion of leaving the circle-of-comfort. I was none too keen on the idea, but being the accommodating type I agreed to branch out a bit. She drug me well outside the Brookside area to meet the Munkirs for some dinner, somewhere at or near the edge of the earth. Our first choice for dining was McBride’s, but by the time we got there the Munkirs had already checked it out and been quoted an hour and a half wait. (I might point out that I have never, ever, ever had an hour and a half wait at the Brooksider or Hoopers. Not really relative, just thought I’d mention it.) That wasn’t happening, so we bailed out to Jason’s Deli. Donette loves that place, and there was no waiting. I give it a thumbs up; Honestly it’s pretty hard to go wrong with any place that has a soft-serve ice cream machine. After a big ol’ sandwich and about 4 bowls of soft-serve, we headed over to the Munkirs and played some cards. Hearts was the game of choice, which turned out to be a bad choice because I lost.
Saturday we woke up early and met my Mom out in Grandview at the IHOP for breakfast. Yes, that makes two long drives in one weekend. Sigh. Well worth the trip though, I kinda like IHOP. I had the dieters-special plate: Chicken fried steak with gravy, fried eggs, and three pancakes. And yes, I did eat it all, thank you very much. Mom and Donette ordered a bit more conservatively with the omelets, but there was plenty of food on their plates too. Good way to start a day. That night we had to stay home, having already used up our monthly allotment of car mileage. Ed and Kim came over and we cooked up some chinese food (complete with fortune cookies and sherbet… nice touch) and played hearts again. Apparently the game the previous night was a learning experience, as I won this time rather handily.
Sunday Donette went up north to help her sister paint, and I took Gabe to the park for a little exercise. All the rain on Saturday made things a bit muddy, but he didn’t seem to care. After that I spent several hours rebuilding a messed-up PC that has been sitting in my basement for months. Probably wasn’t the best choice of activities, given the nice weather outside, but it needed done. For the evening entertainment we went over to Susan’s for her annual Oscar party. After enjoying a big dinner of homemade spaghetti, I sat riveted to the TV and watched one spellbinding acceptance speech after another, and marveled at all the beautiful dresses. Or I sat on the back deck and smoked a cigar with Todd, Munkirs and Martin; You have to guess which one is true.