So there I sat on Friday afternoon, just waiting until the weekend would start so I could just hang around the house and relax. Then the first text message came in: "I'm brewing beer on Sunday and you're welcome to come help and drink some beers in the process". Who am I to pass up drinking beer? 8 hours later and Lisa, the kids and Lisa's mom and dad were sitting in Chicago land drinking several of Brad's fresh home brews. By the way, the home brew was delicious; much better than my feeble attempt at brewing beer several years ago with a Mr. Beer kit. I'm convinced my issues were purely in poor sanitation methods and really bad measuring. One day in the not too distant future, I may give it another try since I'm now much better educated in the process.
On Saturday, I watched Brad brew and it really seems rather simple. I can't believe I botched it up so bad when I tried it. Once the brewing was done, we headed over to Two Brother's Brewing Company for lunch. Since I have been watching my rapidly expanding girlie figure I had the grilled veggie sandwich and it was really good. Lisa and Shawn split a pizza that I managed to sneak a piece of and it was good as well. Once we finished lunch we took the brewery tour which was really interesting and the beer samples weren't bad either.
Sunday we headed out to breakfast and then to an ethnic grocery store. We headed back about 1pm. I did make the trip in record time. On the way over my total moving time according to my GPS was 3 hours, 45 minutes. My return drive time was a mere 3:30! Of course actual time was longer due to gas and rest room stop but not by much. With such a short commute to Brad's maybe I will do it more often.
Tonight we're taking Shawn to a cross country practice to see if he likes it. Cross country practices 3 times a week and they have 5 meets this fall. Shawn's grade is classified as junior and their races are 3/4 mile long. I'm not sure how he's going to like running but I guess I will see very shortly. If he likes it, he's going to have to get a quick physical in order to get a doctor's release to participate. Next week, Shawn starts piano lessons. He's pretty excited about piano so hopefully the piano that has been collecting dust in the living room for the past 12 years will finally get some use. Unfortunately, it also means we will have to invest some cash in getting it tuned.
Lisa and I are taking Friday off this week so we have a short work week this week and next week and an extended long weekend coming up. I can't believe we are moving into September soon and the leaves are beginning to change a lighter shade of green. Before you know it, the leaves will be gone, the weather will be crappy and work will become hectic once again. I can't wait until spring already!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Not too much new going on in my neck of the woods lately. Shawn starts school Monday and he isn't too happy about it. I can't believe that summer is starting to wind down, it's beginning to get dark earlier in the evening and winter is just around the corner. I absolutely hate winter!
Last weekend we had Katelyn's 18 month pictures taken. We actually got one decent picture out of the 50 or so they took. Speaking of Katelyn, her attitude is getting worse as the days go on. She's just cranky and irritable all the time now. I'm not sure if it's because she moved into the toddler room from the infant room at daycare and she's now lacking attention or if it's just because she's a girl. I apologize if that last comment sounded a bit chauvinistic but I've heard that girls are just drawn that way and I've heard it from women (I had to qualify the comment so I don't get bashed).
We don't have any big plans this weekend that I know of yet. Lisa has a jewelry party to go to on Saturday and she doesn't even wear jewelry. I will more than likely take Shawn to see "The Clone Wars" on Friday after work and we are going to dinner on Sunday with Bev and Ted as a thank you for watching Shawn all summer long which was a chore at times I'm sure. Between asking Papa what a "slut" was, letting people know that his burp "taste like butt" and letting Bev and Ted's young neighbor that "he likes naked girls" we was probably a perfect little angel....NOT!
I think we're all ready for school to begin. I have a funny feeling that Shawn is going to get in a lot of trouble this year.
Last weekend we had Katelyn's 18 month pictures taken. We actually got one decent picture out of the 50 or so they took. Speaking of Katelyn, her attitude is getting worse as the days go on. She's just cranky and irritable all the time now. I'm not sure if it's because she moved into the toddler room from the infant room at daycare and she's now lacking attention or if it's just because she's a girl. I apologize if that last comment sounded a bit chauvinistic but I've heard that girls are just drawn that way and I've heard it from women (I had to qualify the comment so I don't get bashed).
We don't have any big plans this weekend that I know of yet. Lisa has a jewelry party to go to on Saturday and she doesn't even wear jewelry. I will more than likely take Shawn to see "The Clone Wars" on Friday after work and we are going to dinner on Sunday with Bev and Ted as a thank you for watching Shawn all summer long which was a chore at times I'm sure. Between asking Papa what a "slut" was, letting people know that his burp "taste like butt" and letting Bev and Ted's young neighbor that "he likes naked girls" we was probably a perfect little angel....NOT!
I think we're all ready for school to begin. I have a funny feeling that Shawn is going to get in a lot of trouble this year.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
This past weekend was pretty busy. Lisa had, or participated, in her second garage sale beginning on Thursday and did pretty well. The sale pulled in over $900 but only about $400 of it was ours. We did manage to sell some larger items that we have been wanting to part with for awhile. We sold an old patio table and chairs, the flowered couch that sat in our living room that we rarely ever sat in if ever, the Thomas the Tank Engine train table, coffee table and end tables as well as other items that were collecting dust. Now that the living room is pretty much cleared out for the exception of a diaper changing table, a piano and a make shift desk we are going to transform it into a home office. So now the task begins to look for a couple of leather chairs and a desk.
Brad also came into town this past weekend. He arrived on Friday and we ended up taking a trip to the adult candy store (liquor/beer store) and picked up a bottle of Red Breast and a six of Mad Anthony's pale ale. The Red Breast is remarkably smooth and other than the fact it is twice as expensive as Jameson's, it is my new favorite Irish Whiskey. Brad, Bev, Ted and I sampled Brad's home brew, the Mad Anthony and some mead that Brad has brewing in his basement. The mead was very good, not that his home brew is not good but the mead was different. I would describe it closer in taste to wine than beer. The mead will probably only get better with time.
Saturday, we all headed to the Woodville Army Surplus store to browse a bit, Titgemeiers for home brewing supplies and then we ended up at The Maumee Brewing Company for dinner and beer.
Sunday went out to breakfast at Rumors and pretty much just hung out the rest of the day.
This week we have a house guest. Jill and Todd's dog is staying with us while they are on vacation. It's strange having a dog around the house all the time again. It's nice but also inconvenient at the same time.
I also booked Lisa and my annual trip to Columbus to act like 21 year old college kids (at least I do). Can't wait for the sweet sound of Heineygate and the cold beer that goes with it. This year we are going to see some singer that Lisa go out to hear in college. I'm sure he won't be anywhere as good as she remembers since she was in a drunken fog every time she heard him sing! Not sure what else is planned for that weekend but I'm sure it will be fun.
Brad also came into town this past weekend. He arrived on Friday and we ended up taking a trip to the adult candy store (liquor/beer store) and picked up a bottle of Red Breast and a six of Mad Anthony's pale ale. The Red Breast is remarkably smooth and other than the fact it is twice as expensive as Jameson's, it is my new favorite Irish Whiskey. Brad, Bev, Ted and I sampled Brad's home brew, the Mad Anthony and some mead that Brad has brewing in his basement. The mead was very good, not that his home brew is not good but the mead was different. I would describe it closer in taste to wine than beer. The mead will probably only get better with time.
Saturday, we all headed to the Woodville Army Surplus store to browse a bit, Titgemeiers for home brewing supplies and then we ended up at The Maumee Brewing Company for dinner and beer.
Sunday went out to breakfast at Rumors and pretty much just hung out the rest of the day.
This week we have a house guest. Jill and Todd's dog is staying with us while they are on vacation. It's strange having a dog around the house all the time again. It's nice but also inconvenient at the same time.
I also booked Lisa and my annual trip to Columbus to act like 21 year old college kids (at least I do). Can't wait for the sweet sound of Heineygate and the cold beer that goes with it. This year we are going to see some singer that Lisa go out to hear in college. I'm sure he won't be anywhere as good as she remembers since she was in a drunken fog every time she heard him sing! Not sure what else is planned for that weekend but I'm sure it will be fun.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Vacation was nice, not relaxing but fun. Traveling with a 7 year old boy and a 17 month girl wasn't what it was cracked up to be. The drive was only about 7-1/2 hours to Franklin Tennessee but when you have a screaming little girl that does nothing but scream for an hour strait, it makes the drive seem like 15 hours. The never ending "I'm hungry" and "are we almost there?" started about 20 minutes into the trip. We left about 4 pm on Monday and arrived in the Nashville area about 11:30 local time. It's really a pretty easy drive other than the kid issues.
Tuesday, we headed over to my Aunt's house and really just visited and chilled out which was badly needed after the long drive. My aunt lives in a pretty cool planned community that has parks, lakes, a community center complete with media room, art room, game room (with free video games) and a huge pool. The community also includes a few shops, doctor's offices and the retail area is expanding to include a grocery store, drug store and other shops. The homes are all less than 5 years old but they were built to look like they have been there for decades. All in all, a really cool place to live it seems. We also took a stroll though the downtown Franklin area which is a quint old civil war town where one of the bloodiest battles of the war took place. There is a ton of history in the area.
Wednesday was site seeing day. We picked up my aunt and headed toward downtown Nashville. On the way to town, we took a little country music home tour and stopped in front of Alan Jackson's house (or should I say mansion) to snap a picture. As I got out of the car, a white SUV was pulling up to the gate and leaving the grounds. Guess who was driving the SUV? Non other than Alan Jackson himself. He just kept driving and gave us a wave as he pulled out of the driveway. After our little brush with a country music star, we headed to The Parthenon. Nashville built an exact scale replica of the Greek Parthenon for the Tennessee Centennial celebration in the late 1800s. It was build as part of a large display of temporary buildings for the celebration and was to be torn down after the exhibition. After the celebration was over, the city decided to keep the Parthenon for future generations to enjoy. The temporary structure was rebuilt to be permanent and is now used in part as a museum that includes artwork dealing with the Greek Parthenon. There is also a huge statue of Athena on the second floor which is said to be the tallest indoor statue in the U. S. All in all, it was a neat visit.
After the Parthenon, we headed into the downtown area to eat and to explore a bit. We walked down the main tourist drag and ate at The Wildhorse Saloon. The Wildhorse is also a concert venue and what a coincidence but Hootie and the Blowfish were performing there that night. After lunch, which by the was was not bad but nothing to blog about other than the couple of Yazoo pale ales I had during the meal, we headed down toward Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. Tootsie's is a dive bar that is across an alley from the Ryman Auditorium better known as the original home to the Grand Ole Opry. I guess the acts that were to perform at the Ryman would have a couple of drinks at Tootsie's and then warm up in the alley before they performed. My aunt said I had to at the very least walk inside to take a look. I did one better than that, I had a shot of Jack, then looked around. On the way to Tootsie's, we had to pass at least 8 other small bars and all of them had live music and it was only 2:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday afternoon. If we didn't have the kids with us, we could have had a blast going from one bar to the next listening to the bands all day and all night long. In some of the bars, the bands start at 10am everyday! After the walk around downtown which did include a quick stop at the Ryman, we headed back to drop my aunt off at home and head back to the hotel. On the way to drop my aunt off at home, she got a text from my cousin saying they saw Keith Urban and Nichole Kidman at the mall and they got pictures to prove it. The were shopping at Bath and Body Works. Of course, Lisa and I had to go to the mall to see if there were any other celebrity siting to be found and there was not. That evening, we had some very tasty pizza for dinner from Pie in the Sky Pizza.
On Thursday, we were on our own because my aunt had to work a 12 hour shift at the hospital. We headed to Opryland hotel and the Opryland mall and spent the day wondering around. The hotel is as cool of any hotel I've ever been in and the mall was huge. While at the mall, we visited the Stingray Reef. We all got to touch the stingrays and I actually fed them which was a strange event to say the least. We were all exhausted after walking for 5 hours or so and shopping so back the hotel we went. I took Shawn down to the pool and before we knew it, both kids were fast asleep.
Friday morning we went to Dotson's for breakfast. Dotson's is located in downtown Franklin and is frequented by several of the country music industry stars. I had a good ole country breakfast that included, eggs, biscuits, sausage gravy, potato casserole, grits and country ham. The breakfast wasn't bad at all but I could make grits just as good and the portions were smaller than what I am accustom to up north. The big draw for me was the country ham. I had never had country ham and was curious to see what the difference between it an the typical ham I know and love. All I can say is the ham was major salty due to fact it is salt cured. Wow, was it salty. I would compare it to a giant piece of bacon with a bone in it. Not bad but different! After breakfast, we went on a plantation tour of Carton Plantation. The tour was pretty neat. The house was used as a hospital for the confederate army during the battle of Franklin during the civil war. The family was at home during the battle and assisted many of the doctors in treating the wounded. There was so much blood in the house that you could still see blood stains on the floors in the bedrooms! It is said that the morning after the battle they found 4 dead confederate generals laying on the back porch which was the second most generals lost during any battle during the war outside of the battle at Gettysburg. Considering the battle at Franklin lasted only about 5 hours and the fighting at Gettysburg last a few days the loss of life and generals was as bad a loss as the Confederate side saw during the entire war. The entire story is interesting. It is also said that the plantation is haunted to this day. After the tour and since it was approaching triple digit temperatures, we headed back to the hotel to swim for the rest of the afternoon.
Friday evening we had dinner at a place next to our hotel called Jonathan's Grille. Really nice sports bar/restaurant. I had the grouper dinner which was as good as I have ever had and Lisa had a steak which was much better than any of the steaks we had during our Chicago trip last month. The best part of the meal is that we found out there were half price appetizers and 2 for 1 draft beers during the time were were there. I don't think I've seen 2 for 1 happy hours since I was too young to be drinking! I need to move to Tennessee!
Saturday, we packed up and headed over to my aunts to spend an hour or so with her before the long drive home. The kids were much better on the way home by the way. I really want to go back a visit again soon. There is so much more that we could have explored. I really want to take a few more of the plantation tours and maybe a Franklin street tour the next time I go for a visit.
Sunday was spent getting back to normal life. I did a bunch of yard work, Lisa went grocery shopping and did some laundry and then we had dinner over Todd and Jill's place.
Alan Jackson's House
Lisa, Aunt Peggy and I at the Wildhorse Saloon
Katelyn eating her lemon 
Parthenon
Athena (more woman than I would care to handle) 
Shawn and I feeding the stingrays
No Fear
Katelyn at Opryland Hotel
Front of Carton House Plantation
Back porch of Carton
Largest privately owned confederate cemetery at Carton Plantation
Slave quarters at Carton
Tuesday, we headed over to my Aunt's house and really just visited and chilled out which was badly needed after the long drive. My aunt lives in a pretty cool planned community that has parks, lakes, a community center complete with media room, art room, game room (with free video games) and a huge pool. The community also includes a few shops, doctor's offices and the retail area is expanding to include a grocery store, drug store and other shops. The homes are all less than 5 years old but they were built to look like they have been there for decades. All in all, a really cool place to live it seems. We also took a stroll though the downtown Franklin area which is a quint old civil war town where one of the bloodiest battles of the war took place. There is a ton of history in the area.
Wednesday was site seeing day. We picked up my aunt and headed toward downtown Nashville. On the way to town, we took a little country music home tour and stopped in front of Alan Jackson's house (or should I say mansion) to snap a picture. As I got out of the car, a white SUV was pulling up to the gate and leaving the grounds. Guess who was driving the SUV? Non other than Alan Jackson himself. He just kept driving and gave us a wave as he pulled out of the driveway. After our little brush with a country music star, we headed to The Parthenon. Nashville built an exact scale replica of the Greek Parthenon for the Tennessee Centennial celebration in the late 1800s. It was build as part of a large display of temporary buildings for the celebration and was to be torn down after the exhibition. After the celebration was over, the city decided to keep the Parthenon for future generations to enjoy. The temporary structure was rebuilt to be permanent and is now used in part as a museum that includes artwork dealing with the Greek Parthenon. There is also a huge statue of Athena on the second floor which is said to be the tallest indoor statue in the U. S. All in all, it was a neat visit.
After the Parthenon, we headed into the downtown area to eat and to explore a bit. We walked down the main tourist drag and ate at The Wildhorse Saloon. The Wildhorse is also a concert venue and what a coincidence but Hootie and the Blowfish were performing there that night. After lunch, which by the was was not bad but nothing to blog about other than the couple of Yazoo pale ales I had during the meal, we headed down toward Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. Tootsie's is a dive bar that is across an alley from the Ryman Auditorium better known as the original home to the Grand Ole Opry. I guess the acts that were to perform at the Ryman would have a couple of drinks at Tootsie's and then warm up in the alley before they performed. My aunt said I had to at the very least walk inside to take a look. I did one better than that, I had a shot of Jack, then looked around. On the way to Tootsie's, we had to pass at least 8 other small bars and all of them had live music and it was only 2:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday afternoon. If we didn't have the kids with us, we could have had a blast going from one bar to the next listening to the bands all day and all night long. In some of the bars, the bands start at 10am everyday! After the walk around downtown which did include a quick stop at the Ryman, we headed back to drop my aunt off at home and head back to the hotel. On the way to drop my aunt off at home, she got a text from my cousin saying they saw Keith Urban and Nichole Kidman at the mall and they got pictures to prove it. The were shopping at Bath and Body Works. Of course, Lisa and I had to go to the mall to see if there were any other celebrity siting to be found and there was not. That evening, we had some very tasty pizza for dinner from Pie in the Sky Pizza.
On Thursday, we were on our own because my aunt had to work a 12 hour shift at the hospital. We headed to Opryland hotel and the Opryland mall and spent the day wondering around. The hotel is as cool of any hotel I've ever been in and the mall was huge. While at the mall, we visited the Stingray Reef. We all got to touch the stingrays and I actually fed them which was a strange event to say the least. We were all exhausted after walking for 5 hours or so and shopping so back the hotel we went. I took Shawn down to the pool and before we knew it, both kids were fast asleep.
Friday morning we went to Dotson's for breakfast. Dotson's is located in downtown Franklin and is frequented by several of the country music industry stars. I had a good ole country breakfast that included, eggs, biscuits, sausage gravy, potato casserole, grits and country ham. The breakfast wasn't bad at all but I could make grits just as good and the portions were smaller than what I am accustom to up north. The big draw for me was the country ham. I had never had country ham and was curious to see what the difference between it an the typical ham I know and love. All I can say is the ham was major salty due to fact it is salt cured. Wow, was it salty. I would compare it to a giant piece of bacon with a bone in it. Not bad but different! After breakfast, we went on a plantation tour of Carton Plantation. The tour was pretty neat. The house was used as a hospital for the confederate army during the battle of Franklin during the civil war. The family was at home during the battle and assisted many of the doctors in treating the wounded. There was so much blood in the house that you could still see blood stains on the floors in the bedrooms! It is said that the morning after the battle they found 4 dead confederate generals laying on the back porch which was the second most generals lost during any battle during the war outside of the battle at Gettysburg. Considering the battle at Franklin lasted only about 5 hours and the fighting at Gettysburg last a few days the loss of life and generals was as bad a loss as the Confederate side saw during the entire war. The entire story is interesting. It is also said that the plantation is haunted to this day. After the tour and since it was approaching triple digit temperatures, we headed back to the hotel to swim for the rest of the afternoon.
Friday evening we had dinner at a place next to our hotel called Jonathan's Grille. Really nice sports bar/restaurant. I had the grouper dinner which was as good as I have ever had and Lisa had a steak which was much better than any of the steaks we had during our Chicago trip last month. The best part of the meal is that we found out there were half price appetizers and 2 for 1 draft beers during the time were were there. I don't think I've seen 2 for 1 happy hours since I was too young to be drinking! I need to move to Tennessee!
Saturday, we packed up and headed over to my aunts to spend an hour or so with her before the long drive home. The kids were much better on the way home by the way. I really want to go back a visit again soon. There is so much more that we could have explored. I really want to take a few more of the plantation tours and maybe a Franklin street tour the next time I go for a visit.
Sunday was spent getting back to normal life. I did a bunch of yard work, Lisa went grocery shopping and did some laundry and then we had dinner over Todd and Jill's place.
Alan Jackson's House
Lisa, Aunt Peggy and I at the Wildhorse Saloon
Katelyn eating her lemon 
Parthenon
Athena (more woman than I would care to handle) 
Shawn and I feeding the stingrays
No Fear
Katelyn at Opryland Hotel
Front of Carton House Plantation
Back porch of Carton
Largest privately owned confederate cemetery at Carton Plantation
Slave quarters at CartonMonday, July 14, 2008
Pretty busy past weekend. I took the day off and went golfing at The Legacy and played very well by my standards considering I have only played 27 holes all season. I shot 85 at a pretty difficult course and beat the others I played with which is always nice considering they play a lot more golf than I do. After golfing, we went to the LPGA tournament that was going on in town and followed around Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer for obvious reasons; not to mention they were playing in the same group and Paula shot a tournament record 60 on Thursday.
Saturday, we cleaned up around the house a bit, did some yard work and began the packing process for our trip. Sunday, I went to work to finish up a project and then we finished up cleaning up and packing. For dinner, we ate at The Melting Pot. The food was decent but the concept was a bit strange for us. I don't think we will be visiting anytime soon. For the money, there are much better places to eat in the area and they do the cooking for you. I'm not sure that fondue is the best food choice for nice restaurant experience. It is also a major pain to sit and watch the time to see when your particular food was finished. The last thing you would want to do is bit into an undercooked piece of chicken because you though you were cooking beef!
Saturday, we cleaned up around the house a bit, did some yard work and began the packing process for our trip. Sunday, I went to work to finish up a project and then we finished up cleaning up and packing. For dinner, we ate at The Melting Pot. The food was decent but the concept was a bit strange for us. I don't think we will be visiting anytime soon. For the money, there are much better places to eat in the area and they do the cooking for you. I'm not sure that fondue is the best food choice for nice restaurant experience. It is also a major pain to sit and watch the time to see when your particular food was finished. The last thing you would want to do is bit into an undercooked piece of chicken because you though you were cooking beef!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
This weekend was a little strange. We took Thursday off to extend the extended weekend and relax a bit. Relaxing the weekend was but it was also busy if that makes any sense at all! Thursday was the night of our community fireworks display so I cut the grass in the morning and started up the smoker a bit later than I should have. I decided to smoke a pork shoulder roast and two chickens....what a nightmare. The problem was that I couldn't keep the heat high enough to cook efficiently (read timely). The temperature is supposed to be near 180-190 for smoking and I was lucky to see 135 degrees most of the time. The 4 hours is was supposed to take ended up being 7 hours and still not completely done. At the 7 hour mark, I decided to finish up the cooking on the trusty propane grill. The finished product was still good but the heat issues were frustrating to say the least. After dinner, I put on a small firework display in the driveway and then we watch the community display.
Friday we took a drive to Cabela's. Cabela's has a conversion kit for my smoker that would turn it from a charcoal fueled smoker to an electric controlled smoker. Unfortunately for me, they don't stock the conversion kit at the stores. After Cabela's we headed to wander around Ikea. We ended up buying a few odds and ends, nothing too exciting. Then we spent the evening sitting on the patio watching neighbors shooting fireworks.
Saturday morning began the work part of the weekend. We decided (I actually decided to appease Lisa) to paint Katelyn's bedroom. Lisa's parents took Katelyn for the night on Friday so we could get the painting done uninterrupted. We got the taping done on Friday and a coat of primer and one coat of paint finished on Saturday before we left to go to the Mudhens game. The paint went on extremely light, so light that I sent Lisa out to Lowe's to pick paint that was a couple shades darker. By the time Lisa called me to say she was having problems deciding on a color, the paint on the wall had darkened up nicely so she came home without the new paint. The original paint was going to work just fine. On the way to the game, we stopped by Home Depot to pick up another gallon of paint for the second coat.
The Mudhens lost the game. Katelyn was her usual self and we left before the post-game fireworks began. Once Katelyn got to the car, she relaxed a bit and allowed us to pull over and watch the fireworks display.
Sunday, I put the last coat of paint on the room and Lisa and I put the room back together. That pretty much did it for the weekend.
This week I am golfing on Friday and then heading over to the LPGA tournament being held this week in town. Tuesday we are going to the annual "Jamie Farr Kroger Classic" dinner gala. The entertainment this year is Hootie and the Blowfish. Am I getting old or what? The entertainment at these events always seems to be a singer that I was too young to remember or someone that I remember my parents enjoying. I actually remember Hootie and listened to their music. I must be pushing 40 years old!
Other than that, no big plans other than getting ready for our short Nashville trip next week.
Below are a few pictures that I mentioned either in this post or previous posts:
Fresh Basil from the garden
Pesto (green food is so appetizing)
Finished product on Pasta
Slowest Smoker ever!
Pork roast on the smoker (at about 5 hours)
Finished Chicken
New Patio Furniture
Katelyn enjoying the patio furniture
Katelyn's new room color
Friday we took a drive to Cabela's. Cabela's has a conversion kit for my smoker that would turn it from a charcoal fueled smoker to an electric controlled smoker. Unfortunately for me, they don't stock the conversion kit at the stores. After Cabela's we headed to wander around Ikea. We ended up buying a few odds and ends, nothing too exciting. Then we spent the evening sitting on the patio watching neighbors shooting fireworks.
Saturday morning began the work part of the weekend. We decided (I actually decided to appease Lisa) to paint Katelyn's bedroom. Lisa's parents took Katelyn for the night on Friday so we could get the painting done uninterrupted. We got the taping done on Friday and a coat of primer and one coat of paint finished on Saturday before we left to go to the Mudhens game. The paint went on extremely light, so light that I sent Lisa out to Lowe's to pick paint that was a couple shades darker. By the time Lisa called me to say she was having problems deciding on a color, the paint on the wall had darkened up nicely so she came home without the new paint. The original paint was going to work just fine. On the way to the game, we stopped by Home Depot to pick up another gallon of paint for the second coat.
The Mudhens lost the game. Katelyn was her usual self and we left before the post-game fireworks began. Once Katelyn got to the car, she relaxed a bit and allowed us to pull over and watch the fireworks display.
Sunday, I put the last coat of paint on the room and Lisa and I put the room back together. That pretty much did it for the weekend.
This week I am golfing on Friday and then heading over to the LPGA tournament being held this week in town. Tuesday we are going to the annual "Jamie Farr Kroger Classic" dinner gala. The entertainment this year is Hootie and the Blowfish. Am I getting old or what? The entertainment at these events always seems to be a singer that I was too young to remember or someone that I remember my parents enjoying. I actually remember Hootie and listened to their music. I must be pushing 40 years old!
Other than that, no big plans other than getting ready for our short Nashville trip next week.
Below are a few pictures that I mentioned either in this post or previous posts:
Basil/Pesto Pictures
Fresh Basil from the garden
Pesto (green food is so appetizing)
Finished product on Pasta
Slowest Smoker ever!
Pork roast on the smoker (at about 5 hours)
Finished Chicken
New Patio Furniture
Katelyn enjoying the patio furniture
Katelyn's new room color
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