Category Archives: Weekend Recaps

An Inane Weekend Recap. (That is, the recap is inane. The weekend was just lovely.)

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I knew I had a pretty good weekend, but it was one of those that when a coworker asked me about it I had to take a moment and think, “Now what did I do again?”. Recap follows and (WARNING!) some of it is painfully nerdy.

Friday Night: Met Emily at home after work. Friday is one of the days when she’s not working the second job, so it’s kind of a nice, novel treat to both be at home at the same relatively early hour of 6pm. And I think it’s at that relatively early hour that we started drinking. Not to excess and for no other reason that it was Friday and we could. Watched some TV and then decided a.)it was dinner time and b.)neither of us was willing to saddle up and cook. Because of the afore-mentioned cocktails, driving somewhere was out so we took stock of the walkable options and headed over to Taco Yo, the closest taqueria to our apartment. This is one of the things that Chicago does really well. Most neighborhoods have quality mexican street food carryouts. Love it. Got the food/brought it home/devoured. I am not to proud to admit that I was fading fast and finally fell asleep on the couch before the clock hit ten. A decade ago that would have felt like a failure. Today it feels like… contentment.

Saturday: Emily had a baby shower to go to in Indiana, which left me on my own. We were having company for dinner so I knew there was some cleaning to do. But I also knew that cleaning wouldn’t last all day. So I ate some cereal, cleaned, showered and dressed. Then I had a good chunk of the day left with nothing to do and no desire to stay cooped up inside. <PAINFUL NERDINESS> Since I ride the CTA every day, I decided some time ago that I want to ride the entirety of the ‘L’ system. I’ve already ridden the entirety of the Blue, Orange, and Pink Lines. Saturday I rode the south half of the Red, taking me down to 95th street as well as both branches of the south half of the Green, taking a bus across 63rd street to get me from the end of the Ashland branch to the end of the Cottage Grove branch. It was nerdy railfan fun, but I will say this. I was certainly the minority during my travels. I never felt unsafe, but I definitely felt unwelcome at a couple of points. But I got to see parts of Chicago I don’t see every day and I got to listen to a few podcasts that I’m a fan of. </PAINFUL NERDINESS> After that, it was home to Emily. Her sister and her sister’s boyfriend came over and we headed out to try a new place in the neighborhood. My pork tenderloin sandwich was tasty (if not a little too small) and the beer was good.

Sunday: A typical lazy Sunday morning. Yes, breakfast sandwiches were involved. I think I may have perfected my bacon cooking technique. Lately we’ve been cooking it in the oven, which is all kinds of awesome, but the oven is busted and slow to be fixed – oh, the woes of the renter. Anyway, so this time the bacon was on stove top. In the past, I’ve cooked bacon on high which does the job and does it quick, but can lead to tough, black bacon. Which isn’t my thing. This time I cooked it on medium, flipping each piece three times. Worked out pretty well, ifIdosaysomyself. Didn’t hurt that Emily got the thick cut, so each piece was about a foot and a half thick. Yum. Eventually I got myself showered and put together and headed out to return some shoes that, while they looked awesome, did a pretty good job at destroying my feet. Wore them for eight hours one day last week and was in legitimate pain by the end of the day. Swapped them for some sweet Teva trail shoes and went home happy. Sunday night we watched the Oscars which were pretty boring as far as I’m concerned.

Today, it’s back to work.

This entry has been trite, I admit. But sometimes it’s good just to write.

If any of my regular readers (and hello to both of you) have anyhing you want me to write about, hit me up in the comments.

DST, Fightin’ an Old Lady, and Fried Chicken

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Am I getting old?

I don’t think I partied like a rock star this weekend, and yet Saturday’s game-day festivities combined with daylight savings time have me almost totally exhausted.

Yes, that’s right. My ass. Kicked. By Daylight Savings Time.

I am almost too embarrassed to write that.

Friday turned out to not be the balls-to-the-wall going out and getting wasted that it was rumored to be which, in all honesty, I was totally fine with. What it was was an evening of pizza and beer and a warm cozy house filled with laughter. Good times.

Saturday started pretty doggone early, but by design of course. We made it down to kegs ‘n eggs in Federal Hill by 7:30 or so, and I had my 1st beer in hand by about 8. Much good food, many friends, and a looong game of cups later it was time to head over to the stadium and watch the Notre Dame-Navy game.

Luckily, Notre Dame won thus extending their Navy-beating streak to (I think) 43 years and ensuring that I wouldn’t be considered a jinx on their good luck. It was a fun, if windy time in which there were only about 5 minutes where I was considering starting a fight with an elderly woman.

But, honestly, Emily didn’t mean to spill some beer down the back of the lady in front of us and was completely, totally, and sincerely apologetic about the incident. Moreover, the lady was wearing a fundamentally waterproof windbreaker, the likes of which I bet deckhands on merchant ships in the North Sea would be happy to get their hands on. What set me off was when Spilled-On-In-Technicality-Only turned to Emily and said, in a voice that sounded exactly like a yellow sour patch kid tastes, “Well, do you at least have a napkin or something?” In my head, I vaulted over the seat and pile-drove the crone down in to the Club Level. What I said was “Oh, no, I’m sorry we don’t. We didn’t exactly plan for this to happen, you know.” She looked at me, killed me with her eyes, and turned around; nevermore to rotate in our direction. And I? I chalked it up as yet another Victory.

Anywho, after the game, we went back to the site of the earlier kegs ‘n eggs and I, being the hard core, go-get-em, party guy I am – well, I passed out on the couch. And then, later, was in bed by about 9:30.

So Saturday kind of wiped me out and then this whole time change thing through me off and now my body doesn’t know where, when, or anything else.

I do know two things though: I just got a new game for the PS2 which kicks all kinds of ass. And also I am going to attempt to make fried chicken for dinner later this week and am turbo excited about that. I just made up my own recipe too.

We’ll see how it goes. Ok, officially, this is easily the most disjointed post I’ve seen today.

You’re welcome.

Bachelorized

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Son of a…

I waited too long to blog about my bachelor party. I’m at the point now where I can remember impressions and not actual events. Of course, that might also be because of the booze, but who’s counting.

Let’s see, what comes to mind? Well, it was tremendous – that’s the main thing. I had an awesome group of friends out with me. Pete, Zach, Jimmy, Dom, Nick, Ben, Joe, Mike S., Chad, Tom, Chris, Duff, Rich, Adam, Dave, and Erich. Phenomenal people. And phenomenally phunny people.

We had dinner at Fleming’s which, as always, was incredible. No creamed spinach this time, what with the e.coli and such, but still, one of the top 3 steaks I’ve ever had. Leaving the restaurant, I knew I was already drunk as I couldn’t remember anyone paying. The boys were quite clear that I didn’t have to, but I couldn’t remember *anyone* paying.

Then, it was a great return to one of the great college and early-20’s hangouts – Max’s on Broadway. Beer and shots and one of my goodfornothingbecausetheyshouldknowbetter friends buying me a shot of Jaeger.

Yes, I got it down.

Yes, I did immediately sprint for the bathroom and upchuck one of the top 3 steaks I’ver ever eaten. I think some were impressed when I came back out of the bathroom ready for more. I wasn’t impressed – just proud.

So I drank some more. I puked again; upstairs this time. And I came backk swinging once more.

By this point in the evening, (11? 12?) I was seeing double and everything was blurry which is how we ended up at the strip bar.

The strip bar was fun, I think. I remember laughing alot and getting handed drink after drink after drink. I did see some boobies, but could not tell you anything more than that. By this point, I was well and truly…what’s the medical term…. sloshed.

After a while we left and wandered down to the pretzel dog stand where, well, pretzel dogs were consumed.

Then it was time to go home. And by “home” I mean my cousin’s apartment. He made me drink lots of water and take a B-complex. Amazingly enough, I was a little hungover the next day, but not the oh-my-god-i-hate-everything-and-want-the-sweet-release-of-death that I was expecting.

Anyway, it was a great night. I know I will remember it (fuzzily) for ever.