This would be the entry where you learn all about what Duncan did last weekend.
On the whole, not a particularly exciting weekend but hey, they can’t all be blockbusters. Friday night was a nice comfy night at home, watching TiVo and enjoying a tasty dinner prepared by Linnaeus. On Saturday, Dan and I motivated surprisingly early and drove up to Vermin Hills to meet neowolf2, feren, roho and genet for tasty eatin’s at BD’s. While we enjoyed lunch and chatted with the staff there (except for the crappy waiter we had, who we never saw), Dan went to investigate a new laptop, since his old one is most assuredly dead due to motherboard issues. From there, we headed up to Antioch and Roho and I attempted to keg up his latest batch of beer. I say “attempted” because unfortunately we suffered a hardware breakdown (broken poppet valve); he’s going to stop by Perfect Brewing today and pick up a replacement, then I’ll talk him through carbonating the beer. We also watched a couple of episodes of Comedy Central’s newest game show, Distraction. It’s pretty amusing, I have to say, much more so than I thought it would be initially.
We took our leave at around dinner time and made the short drive over to Wonder Lake to meet Dan’s mom and take her out to dinner. It’s always a pleasure to spend time with my mother-in-law, who’s a very sharp and fun lady. We wound up going to Culver’s (egad), then we introduced Dan’s mom to the sinfulness that is Oberweis Ice Cream. We spent a little time after dinner chatting, then all too soon it was time to head home.
On Sunday we had a bunch of errands to run, the highlight of which being the discovery of a nice restaurant supply outlet not too far from us in the city. We picked up a couple of good plastic cutting boards for meats for about $12 apiece, a pretty good price. We did our weekly shopping trip at Lincolnwood Produce, and I have to say that Dan, Paul, and I together in a grocery store quickly amounts to a rather steep grocery bill, but we planned some excellent meals for the week and we had a lot of fun doing it. I am in love with Lincolnwood Produce (and their fabulous meat and deli sections) and it’ll probably become my replacement for the crowded, unfriendly, and expensive Jewel/Osco that I used to frequent. We came home and I made a nice dinner of Italian sausage sandwiches (with sauteed onions and peppers and topped with melted mozzarella). Yum! Later in the evening, tincrash stopped by and we had a good time chatting. All too soon, it was off to bed.
And here we are on Monday. Not a whole lot going on early this week, except for LAFF Coffee on Wednesday. I am looking forward to the debut of a new season of The Amazing Race tomorrow night, though! (yeah, I’m an addict) And of course Congenial is coming up this weekend, and that’s going to be a lot of fun. I need to start thinking about what we’ll be packing for that, and what I need to buy. Hmm, I think a small Scotch tasting might be in order…
Shaun and I drove right by Lincolnwood Produce twice on Sunday en route to IKEA. *SHUDDER* (I’m a block south of Touhy, it’s the quickest way to the expressway.)
Heh, we’re just near Foster and Kedzie, probably not too far from y’all. You ought to swing by a LAFF coffee night some Wednesday so I can finally put a face with the name (well, besides an LJ icon 🙂
We’re near Touhy & Sheridan, and I work near Belmont & Kedzie, so all summer long I bike along the river past you to get to and from work.
As for the LAFF coffee night, I won’t bore you with excuses. But for the time being I think I’m comfortable at the peripheral of the fandom.
Yeah, that’d put you about a block from our house – we’re right down from the soccer fields in River Park. I really do need to get my bike tuned up and get my butt out there when the weather warms up.
And for LAFF coffee, hey, it’s cool – whatever you’re comfortable with. For future reference, it’s a pretty clueful bunch of geeks just chatting – usually folks you know like Dave and Jim, Benjie, Perro, etc. It is not a place for ears and tails.
Amazing race is the greatest show on TV, I try to watch when I can, Actually with all the journaling I have been doing and reading I did not know that it was on again, Thanks for the heads-up.
Now you got me excited, I am definitely going to attempt to watch the show. I just hope that people like that Kendra lady (I think that was her name) that last season commented on getting out of Ghetto Africa (that pissed me off) are not on the show this season. I cannot believe that some people can go to another country and rather than appreciate the culture shun it.
The only thing that can make that show better is to make the clues more difficult so as to encourage more interaction with the societal locals.
Kendra was a trainwreck, and I’m not particularly happy that she and Mr. “I’m Gonna Break Somebody In Half” won, but on the bright side it wasn’t Adam and Rebecca (aka The Whiners) and it most certainly wasn’t Jonathan (“Spongebob Spazzpants”). The unfortunate thing is that anything they learned from the airing of Season 6 (the one that most recently concluded) won’t be applied until Season 8, since Season 7 had already completed filming. Maybe they’ll improve the editing or something, though. And I agree 100% on the clues – I’d like to see more challenging route markers, not just “Go to X and pick up your next clue.”
Interesting note too, if you hadn’t heard: Season 8 (to air in the U.S. in the September or so) will have 4-person teams of family members, with the age minimum of 12 years old. I’m hopeful that it will be a really new and interesting departure from the usual.
Incidentally, I highly recommend the Amazing Race recaps on Television Without Pity for an excellent, though incredibly snarky, review of each show. The full recap is typically posted 4-5 days after an episode airs in the U.S. (which is on Tuesday nights).