I’ve got the day off, SWEET.  An entire day to rest up from an exhausting weekend of… Nothing.  Friday I was too spent to do anything.  I sat on the couch and watched a few movies, including the internationally acclaimed thriller “Hatchet.”  Ninety minutes of senseless gore;  Nice.

Saturday, once it warmed up just enough to step out the door without losing fingers to frostbite, we headed down to the swanky Power & Light district.  We met up with the Munkirs at McFadden’s for a little lunch, and loitered there for a few hours.  After lunch we scurried back to Midtown for another low-key evening.  Donette took the car to the shop for some “emergency maintenance.”  The mysterious “check engine” light had been on for a few days, and we thought we’d better get it looked at.  What a drag, I hate spending money on cars.  I try to rationalize that a trip to the mechanic once or twice a year to fix our ten year old car is a lot cheaper than a car payment, but I never really convince myself.  I have all kinds of cool toys lined up that I want, and instead I get the seventh fetzer valve replaced in my car.  Bummer.  But it’s one less thing to worry about I suppose.  Meanwhile, I stood in front of a hot stove and practiced my gumbo technique.  I’ve been commissioned to whip up a pot of gumbo for Float Trip, and the pressure is building already.  It came out pretty well, aside from the third-degree burns on my hand.  Man, you do not want to be too aggressive stirring that hot roux.  Stuff is like napalm.

Sunday we had our sights on another day on the couch, but we rallied briefly to go visit everybody down at the Brooksider.  In something of a dramatic shift in scenery, we sat on the south side the whole time we were there!  Sometimes we just get crazy like that.  We thought maybe the air quality would be a little better.  Naturally this theory didn’t pan out, and the smoke drove us back home pretty quickly.  That pretty much wrapped up Sunday.  We sat on the couch and watched the football games and tried to entertain the dogs, who are darn near stir-crazy from being cooped up.  (But they won’t go out in the cold.)  Schmitty came over for a bit and picked up some scrap PC parts, but didn’t stay too long.  Maybe he wasn’t comfortable sitting around with us in our jammies at 7 o’clock in the evening.  We were plenty comfortable though.

For the holiday today, I have my sights set on roasting a big ol’ 5 lb. piece of beef.  I will be using a recipe from Saveur, substituting a rump roast for the rib roast.  Oh, the excitement is thick in the air at the Kenagy house.  My plan is to roast it and shave it up for sandwiches.  Daunting task, but I’m feeling kind of edgy today so I figured “what the heck.”  That’s how I roll.