Leveling the Playing Field

I was up early – somewhere close to 7am. Despite a clearing sky the night before, more storms rumbled through overnight and it wasn’t done yet. More was on the way. I exercised, took Frankie out, and eventually headed off on a run. I was fortunate and avoided any dangerous weather. Mindy was up around 930am or soon after I got back home. She headed out for yoga around 1130am. While Mindy was away, I did very little. I wrote some in my blog, put air in our bike tires, and took a nap. I kept Frankie entertained too. That was a job in itself. Mindy got home around 1-130pm. Just as it had for the past several days, the weather cleared for an hour or so, long enough for Mindy & I to head out on a bike ride through the subdivision. It was fun but also awfully sticky. Feeling tired, I took yet another nap mid afternoon. It was just that kind of day. Mindy shared that we were expected at her brother’s downtown condo around 5pm. We started preparing for that around 345pm. We left the house between 430 and 445pm. C & Js condo is in the Arena district overlooking Nationwide arena – right in the heart of all the activity. To that end, we still had to pay $10 to park in the condo’s parking garage even though we were visiting a resident. Odd, I thought. This was our first visit to their downtown condo. Small but nice. It also holds a spectacular view of the Arena district and should provide a stellar view of Red White & Boom. We hung out at their condo until all seventeen guests were present. We walked from their condo to Level (formerly RJ Snappers) which is located at the corner of N High St & Lincoln Av, about a mile walk. I took about 20 pics during the 10-15 minute walk. Thankfully, the sun was shining the entire time. We were promptly seated in a special area (upstairs) designated for our rather large group. Drinks were first. Like a lot of trendy new restaurants, they’re noted for their specialty martinis. I went with a Sam Adams. Along with drinks, we shared a few plates of appetizers too, humus and sweet potato fries. Not straying far from my usual faves, I ordered their bay scallops. Good choice! They were fabulous! But there were lots of interesting entrees on their menu. It was very difficult to choose. Great choice of restaurants. We’ll definitely return. Craig graciously picked up the tab for the entire group. I’m sure it was a doosey. The plan all along was to head back to the condo for dessert (birthday cake). Mindy headed out in front of the others. It started raining at a fairly good clip during the trek back. Mindy spotted her heart specialist dining on the patio at Hyde Park. We stopped long enough to chat with her and her husband. I felt like we were interrupting their dinner. Mindy and I toyed with slipping into Barley’s Ale House #1 for a quick beer. As we passed it was raining much harder. We slipped inside but only to pee. They didn’t have a to-die-for beer on tap anyhow. By the time we made it back to the condo, all others were already there. We had to buzz through security and have someone come down to let us in. We sang happy birthday to Gloria and Jeff then enjoyed birthday cake and a lot of humorous birthday cards. I stopped drinking at dinner to allow Mindy to have some fun. She enjoyed a couple more glasses of wine. We stayed until almost 10pm. By the time we left a severe thunder storm was heading our way. The light show coming form our immediate west was incredible. I was determined to make a stop at Barley’s Smokehouse on the way home. The place was almost empty save for our good friends ‘Doomie’ who were sitting quietly at the bar. A few other familiar faces trickled in late too. I ended up having 2.5 West Coast IPA’s while we chatted with Doomie. It was fun! Mindy was happy we stopped in. She drank only water while at Barley’s so she drove home. After taking Frankie out in the rain, I sent Bob I. and email confirming my interest in Sunday golf at Darby Creek. We had a 1030am tee time. We headed straight to bed.