Now That's a Steak!

1) My Steak - now that's a STEAK! 2) Our friends and guests, Jeremy & Courtney 3) Jimmytoasting 4) Mindy, Jeremy, and Courtney Saturday would be yet another lovely spring-like winter day. And while the weather was delightful, I was extremely tired after an all but sleepless Friday night. I got up and moving around 8:00am. I made coffee, took a vitamin, and begn my exercise regiment. Once I got the blood flowing I felt significantly better than I did just minutes earlier. I walked Ykraps. We took our merry time. There was no reason to hurry. When we finally made it back home, I poured a cup of coffee and cozied up to my PC to read more about Saddam's final moments. Mindy and I had some issues to talk through and pretty much did. Because I was so tired, the coffee didn't taste as good as normal and instead of waking me up, it gave me the shakes. By 9am I already felt that I needed a nap. Instead of slumbering around the house I dressed and left for a run. I took the Trabue Rd route as I had all week long. Traffic was minimal, although I did have a semi truck to dodge heading while running south on Hague Ave. I was back in one piece and felt pretty good. I knew, however, that I was operating on endorphins from my run and that sooner than later the sleepies would soon return. I snuggled up in my reading chair and took a little cat nap. When I woke, Mindy asked if I wanted ot go with her and the kids to Target as we'd planned the day before. I said I did and got up, took and shower, and dressed. We left for Target in hopes of finding a piano/keyboard for Bella to replace the broken one Mindy returned two days after Xmas. We saw one on line that was less than half the price and at the same time seemed so much more practical. I also had designs on stopping at Home Depot, which is right next door to the Mill Run Target, to pick-up some wood plugs and drill bits to complete the new coat rack project. Target was not too crowded. Both kids were being a bit insubordinate getting out of the car and into the store, and I have neve done well shopping with kids anyhow. My nerves were on full alert.. I guess it's a phobia of some sort. Add to it, I've experienced some terrible times shopping with my kids when they were teenagers, more specifically Lindsey. She could get very indignant while shopping. I've never cared for kids acting like little brats in stores with their parents, and I certainly didn't want to be party to that type of thing myself. Mindy did a good job of keeping the kids under control without embarrasment. We couldn't find the keyboard we had seen on Target's webpage. We gave up after about 15 minutes of looking and eventually left after casually browsing some other items. We bought nothing. We loaded in the car and drove right next door to Home Depot. jacob insisted on staying in the car alone. I was all for it stating that we'd simply lock him in. Mindy would have no part in it, however, and for good reason. She felt it too unsafe for many reasons. He reluctantly came along with the rest of us. With some help from an employee, we found the wood plugs in short order. I also found a new set of much needed drill bits. Between the two items, I spent like $19. As we loaded into the car we talked about trying Wal-mart for the keyboard/piano, but the kids were cranky and both Mindy and I were tired. We opted instead to go straight home. Once at home, I made a beeline for my bed. I was needed some sleep in a comfy bed. I took my book to hel pbring o nthe sleep. Sometimes I can be so tired that I can't fall asleep. Reading takes care of that. I slept for about two hours. Mindy advised me when I went for some water that she had talked with our friends Jeremy and Courtney and had made our dinner reservations at Mitchell's for 8pm. That sounded perfect, and I was starting to get a little hungry. In fact, I was beginning to feel almost normal. I went back to bed for another short nap, probably about 10 minutes. I woke feeling rested and felta strong urge to be productive. Downstairs Jimaken showed up to pick-up the kids. He'd have them until about 3pm on New Year's Eve. After they were gone I gathered my tools to mount the new coat rack in the laundry room. My plan was to counter sink the screws and plug the larger hole with the wood plugs I bought earlier i nthe day. But before I could accurately mount the rack, I had to locate the studs. Enter Mindy's stud finder (after all, she found me:)). I had one good stud already located and used the electronic stud finder to verify that. I marked a dot on each stud. The mounting went pretty well except for drilling the larger 3/8" to countersink the mounting screws. The new bit I bought did everything but drill clean holes. The wood splinter on the surface of an otherwise clean knot free pine baord. Now, to make the piece look professional, I'd have to use wood putty to fill the splintered holes/scars. After allowing about 45 minutes for hte putty to dry I sanded the npainted over the plugs making the job look finished. Now, instead of 4 hooks, we have ten double hooks for coats, book bags and such. We had a reservation at Mitchell's for 8pm and made arrangements to pick-up our guests, Jeremy and Courtney, at their Grandview home. We aimed for 7:15pm. We eventually readied to go having showered earlier in the day. We were ready to leave by 6:30pm. We slowly puttered around the house until 6:45pm and decided to get going. We phone Jeremy and Courtney on our way to let them know that we were running early. They were ready, too. We arrived at their home at exactly 7pm. We were given a full tour of their restored Grandview home. It is very nice. What stood out most was the roominess, good use of space, and the original woodwork. While there, we each enjoyed a drink. The others all had a glass of wine, but I had a beer. We left for Mitchell's at 7:45pm. Not a wasted moment. We were taken right to a finely appointed table for four. No sooner were we seated, when I excused myself for the men’s room. I had to pee. Outside of the restrooms they had a number of 8X10 pictures of celebrities who have patronized this establishment. I spent a few minutes checking those out before heading back to our table. When I did return I noticed a bit of chaos at our table. My chair was now gone and our table cloth was being changed. Apparently the “water boy” spilled a couple glasses of water onto our table and my would-be chair. The glass broke and the chair got soaked. Mindy only got a little wet. Our guests, Jeremy and Courtney were dry. We laughed it off. To get started I ordered a Columbus Pale Ale – Cameron Mitchell’s signature brew and one of my faves. Mindy ordered a glass of wine. Courtney and Jeremy ordered a bottle of PNW wine. We all ordered steaks. I ordered the New York strip and shrimp. Mindy, Jeremy, and Courtney ordered filet mignon. Mindy and I split a bowl of lobster bisque and we ordered two helpings of their scalloped potatoes for a side. As an appetizer, we ordered their calamari. There was no disappointment when our entrees arrived. Not only were these steaks very pleasing to the eye, but they were also very, very good! My strip was about two inches thick and Jeremy’s 12 ounce filet was at least three inches thick! The food was incredible!! With a full stomach and little sleep the night before, I was crashing quickly. We left he restaurant around 10pm and dropped Jeremy and Courtney at their place in Grandview. We were home by 10:30pm where we went straight to bed.