Snow... All Day

It has been snowing all day. When we got up this morning it was snowing and it hasn't stopped at all for any amount of time. That should be a lot of snow for a December 20th but... maybe we got an inch over the last twelve hours or so today. Nothing has accumulated. It just comes down and melts away. It's all very slushy but nothing is sticking.

I went out to shovel the snow a little and it was kind of a joke. It had been snowing all day and I wanted to clear off the steps which were covered but not much. I thought I would get rid of the little bit of snow there was on the sidewalk so that it wouldn't freeze later. It took all of about two minutes.

It's supposed to keep on snowing into the night but still not expecting much to accumulate. Very odd for this time of year.

Those Burgers

We love the burgers from Dash's and especially on some nice brioche rolls. Instead of her usual home fried potatoes she cooked up some of those sweet potato yams that she had brought home for Thanksgiving but didn't use. We've been eating a lot of them lately and they are great. Nice salad too.

New Stove Time?

Our kitchen stove is old. We bought it as a replacement for the crappy stove that was in the house when we moved here in 1997. We got this stove several years later probably around 2001 or 2002. I know our current stove is over 20 years old. So why is it probably time for a new stove? First of all we have started smelling a faint trace of gas when the oven is lit. The smell only last a minute or so but it is enough to cause concern and means that maybe when we light the stove there is a puff a gas released before it is lit. The oven does light right away and stays lit. 

One of the burners has needed to be lit by hand for several years now. We have a lighter handy in the adjacent drawer to fire up that one burner. The others work fine. There are some rust spots on various parts of the stove. It is time to get a new stove.

We also have been wanting to replace the hood over the stove for some time. The light doesn't work and the fan is erratic. We have had to set up a desk lamp next to the stove to provide enough light to see what's cooking on the stove. So when we replace the stove we will also replace the hood light and fan.

Another School Shooting

Another school mass shooting happened this week. This time it was a young girl shooting her classmates. Apparently only 3% of mass shooters in America are female. But here again there was a troubled teenager with access to guns. 

This shooting was at a Christian school. Makes the thoughts and prayers mantra sound particularly sick. The shooter also shot herself in the head following the attack on the other students in the school.

There have been 488 mass shooting cases in the United States in 2024 according to the database of the anti-gun violence group Gun Violence America (GVA). 

Shots have been fired in schools This was the 323rd school shooting this year according to the national K-12 School Shooting Database. This is our sick American society. Nowhere in the world is there another country with the gun violence of America. Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children in the USA. 

Dinner at Romeo & Juliet's

We had another wonderful dinner tonight at one of our favorite nearby restaurants... Romeo & Juliet's Cafe on Hertel. Started off with some nice Italian wine and then we shared a Picasso Panini which they describe as an artwork of prosciutto crudo, soppressata, capicolla, salami and mozzarella. We also shared an oven baked Margherita pizza. Delicious as always and a nice way to spend some quality time enjoying ourselves after a busy day getting ready for the holidays.

Rebop Kwaku Baah

The other night Becky and I were watching some music concert clips on YouTube and one of them I put on was Traffic performing The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys from a concert in 1972. She asked about the African percussionist playing with them and did know who he was or when he played with them. I always remembered Rebop as he was known from the early 70's until the band broke up in 1974. The African percussion was an important part of their second band sound. He was not with them in their earlier 1967 to 1969 period.

I saw Traffic in concert in Norfolk in early 1973 and Rebop was playing with them at that time. I had also seen them in 1969 but of course that was a somewhat different band at the time with Steve Winwood, Dave Mason, Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi. 

So today I looked up Traffic and their history because I was interested in the backstory of Rebop. I saw that he was Ghanian from the Ivory Coast. He played on five Traffic albums and also on Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert album which has always been one of my favorite live records. After Traffic broke up he joined the band Can and played with them until they broke up in 1979.

Sadly I read of his death in January 1983 from a ruptured brain aneurysm that occurred on stage while performing on a tour with Jimmy Cliff. Another brain aneurysm connection that kind of freaked me out. 

Chicken and Sweet Potatos

I should say chicken cutlets and big sweet potatoes. Really big sweet potatoes. Or should we call them yams. Whatever we call them they were delicious for dinner tonight along with a nice salad. Those sweet potatoes were amazing just cut in half with salt and butter.

Becky had brought home a large number of sweet potatoes from the market to prepare a side dish for Thanksgiving dinner at Dave and Donna's house. Then she got a call from Dave asking her to bring something other than sweet potatoes because they were trying out some new recipe. So Becky put the very big yams/sweet potatoes in the freezer for later use and made something else.

Today was a day of later use. She put two of the yams in the microwave to thaw out and then to bake. It took quite a long time to soften up and then to heat up properly. Meanwhile the chicken cutlets were getting ready.

Everything turned out great and we had a very nice Monday night dinner.

Bills Score 48 Pts.

Tonight was another entertaining Bills game and they scored 48 points. They also gave up 42 points to the Detroit Lions. That's two weeks in a row they scored over 40 points and gave up over 40 points. In the two weeks they scored 90 points and were 1 - 1. Last week I wrote about that entertaining loss. It's going to be an interesting playoff time. The game set the record for most points scored in a game this season and beat the record set last week when the Rams beat the Bills 44-42. 

Josh Allen was amazing once again but there were a lot of injuries to the Bills defense.

Those Drones

There has been a lot of stories in the news recently about the numbers of drones people are seeing flying above their homes. This has been especially reported in New Jersey and other areas of the Northeast. Nobody seems to know where they are coming from and who is operating them. Some airports have even had to close for a while because of these drones. The state governments are starting to make some waves like they are going to do something about the issue because nothing has been done by the Federal government including releasing any information about the drones.

Of course some people claim they are UFOs and others say they are foreign country's spy drones. Some of these drones are very large too. It seems like every day there is a new story every day on the news channels.

This morning I woke up very early around 5:30 am and walked over to the window and looked out at the sky. I saw a drone flying. It was a clear night sky and I could definitely see the drone flying back and forth with blinking lights. Some were white and some were red. It was off to the west which to me meant that it was probably a traffic drone flying over the expressways where the 198 comes together with the interstate 190. That intersection is about 4 miles away and I had no doubt that I was seeing a drone but it was probably an official one that was monitoring traffic. I later saw that there was an accident on the highway in that area but it was weird to experience a drone this morning.

I looked again later when I got up but I could not see any more of them.

PM with Dave

Dave and I went down to the PM tonight. We walked over together after meeting at the corner of Crescent and Russell as usual. This is our fourth time going down there together for a couple of beers and a lot of talk. 

It was another crazy crowded Friday night even at 6:45 pm. The bar was full and most of the dining room tables were full too. We parked ourselves at the waitress station after asking the staff. That station is a high top table with a couple of stools where we sat for awhile. A little later a couple of seats opened up at the bar and we moved over.

As usual we talked with a few other folks at the bar and I ran into several people I knew including a couple of neighbors on our block... just like last time but different neighbors. Dave and I talked a lot and we also talked with the neighbors. We ended up having three beers because those neighbors bought us a round when they were leaving. We had one IPA and a couple of lagers for the night.

We walked home. It was cold and there was a lot of ice on the sidewalks but we were careful. I had a flashlight too. We were home a little before 9 pm. Also didn't realize it was Friday the 13th. I had an NA beer when I got home.

The Flynn Wake

Earlier this evening Becky and I went over to a funeral home in Kenmore to attend the wake of Suzanne Flynn, the mother of John, Patrick, Kevin and Maureen. She had just turned 99 last month. Their mother was a wonderful person and one of the first people I met in Buffalo back when Ii moved here in 1979. We attended a party hosted by one of the Flynn brothers and their mother Suzanne was there. We had a long conversation as she welcomed me to Buffalo. It really helped too that I was Irish because she loved being Irish. We would run into her throughout the next few decades at the many Flynn parties we attended over the years although we probably hadn't seen her for nearly ten years but we remembered her fondly.

We talked with a lot of people at the wake. I was especially glad to talk with John who I haven't seen in a while. He and Patrick were part of our Men's Club group that met regularly over the years but not recently. It's a little weird that I had just run into Bob, another member of our group, at physical therapy where he has been recovering from a stroke. I thought I might have seen him at the wake too but we were there for about 45 minutes during a three hour wake.

Hum... a novel

Hum by Helen Phillips, 2024. I just finished reading this novel today and I'm not sure of my impressions yet. It is still sinking in. I don't remember where I first saw this book but I did put an e-book hold on it at the library right away. It took about two months waiting when suddenly it was available. I was reading a couple of other books so at first I thought of sending it back and waiting but who knows now long it would take. Already I saw that there were six people waiting for my copy so I jumped in. That was December 3rd.

It was a slim novel and it took me just under a week to read it. There were times when I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue. There were many interesting aspects to the story but it didn't really grab me overall in the way I was expecting. Something was missing or just so different and I'm still not sure what it was. The story was rather dystopian and in a way it was a social media horror tale or a good reason to never pick up a cell phone again. It was really scary. 

It takes place in a near future city overcome with climate change and full of intelligent robots called "hums". It really was a very serious critique of our current technology and what could happen in the very near future it we're not careful. It felt like that dystopian society was actually really happening today and even more so under the current threat of the magat control of the government. A very chilling world of capitalism run amok. This novel would also be an example of a story exploring the new world of "brain rot" caused by excessive social media use that some in the medical field have been warning about. Reading this made me fear for my grandchildren and the influence of their devices.

Bills Highly Entertaining Loss

The Bills were 10-2 going into the game with a 7 game winning streak and the Rams were 6-6 so I was not a bad assumption that the Bills were going to win. But... LA won the game 44-42 and it went down to the last seconds. The Bills were losing the entire game and were down 17 points for awhile. 

Josh Allen was amazing and scored 6 touchdowns making NFL history. He threw 3 touchdowns and ran for 3 more but what the hell happened to their defense to let the opposition score 44 points. Apparently the Rams wanted the game more because if they had lost they would have been out of the playoff hunt. The Bills have already clinched their playoff spot as the conference winner.

The way the season has been going Bills fans will be satisfied with nothing less than a trip to the Super Bowl. For me I just want entertaining games.

Christmas Lights Up

I put the Christmas lights up on the porch this afternoon. I figured this was a good time to do it because it snowed yesterday and tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day. Today was cold and my fingers got numb out on the porch but I got it done.

A lot of the neighbors have their lights up especially directly across the street so now we've joined in. The kids will be happy.

Blue again.

Update 12/16/24: I added a string of blinking mixed color lights on the bush to the right. Becky accidently bought them for our tree as a backup but we don't want blinking lights in the house.

Sunday Dinner during Bills Game

Becky made a very nice dinner tonight using some chicken cutlets with delicious sweet potato home fries. Enough for some leftovers too although we did eat all of the salad. We were watching the Bills game and sat down with this dinner at halftime. 

Too bad about that Bills game.

Birthday Dinner @ JT's

We had a wonderful dinner tonight at JT's on Elmwood. This was actually the third time we went to this restaurant over the past several months and we enjoyed each experience. Tonight was special because it was my birthday. We had planned on some other restaurants but in the end decided to go back to JT's.

First we parked over on Bidwell and walked down to Talking Leaves book store where we bought some books for our grandkids. It is so nice to browse around in that book store. Then we took the bag of books and walked down another block to the restaurant. It was cold but not snowing although there was a lot of ice and snow on the ground so we had to be careful walking.

Our reservation was for 5:45 and we got there right on time. There were no reservations available after 6 pm. It wasn't very crowded when we arrived but there was soon a steady flow of people getting tables.

We decided to once again split a dinner of pasta and pizza. This time we got a Sicilian White pizza with sliced tomatoes, fontinella, oregano, romano and some amazingly delicious onions. I really loved the Rigatoni Bolognese we had the last time and I wanted it again. I was curious to see if they were consistent with that wonderful flavor and texture. We got it again and it was just as good this second time... maybe even better because this time I had some of their homemade Italian bread with it. Becky had  some olive loaf bread.

With that Bolognese I really needed a glass of Tuscan Blend Antinori Italian wine. Becky had a glass of Pinot Grigio. I ordered another glass of wine and this time I got a Malbec. When the waitress came back with the wine she had a large quartino instead of the regular glass. She said the bartender poured the larger container but we would be charged for the regular glass as I ordered. It was like having another glass and a half. I remarked that it must be my "birthday special". She got a kick out of that it was my birthday dinner. A little later she offered us the desert menu. We had some cake waiting for us at home but I really liked that they had a gelato desert which I saw at another table. So I ordered it for us to share since it was my birthday. The gelato desert had three scoops along with a chocolate biscotti... like in the photo.

She brought out the gelato with a sparkling candle and exclaimed a happy birthday.  The restaurant was very crowded and everyone saw the large display of sparkles coming from our table. We had seen this display at another table the last time we were here and it was impressive. I was surprised and somewhat embarrassed about all the clapping of other folks at their tables. I should have got a photo of that candle.

We had a very efficient and entertaining waitress. We had a good time talking with her and joking around about various things. The entire staff was good and the service was outstanding.

At one point we saw a guy walking down the street by himself and then entered the restaurant. We'll refer to him as The Silver Fox. He was tall, thin and a shock of white hair combed back into a high pompadour and wearing a Bills jacket. He was obviously looking for action as he came in and went straight for the bar which was very crowded. He squeezed himself into a solo seat. Last time we were there on a Saturday evening and there was a lot of action at the bar that included a significant number of blonde women drinking cocktails. So we weren't surprised to see the Silver Fox. Then our food came and we were busy. It was a while later when we looked up at the bar and noticed the Silver Fox sitting there with a blonde woman. He was still with her an hour or so later when we left the restaurant.

Overall we had a very good entertaining time at JT's.

Notre Dame Renovations

Today the French government unveiled the completed renovations to the Notre Dame Cathedral after five years of work and in a couple of days there will be a reopening ceremony attended by world leaders. The devastating and heartbreaking fire in the cathedral happened in April of 2019. I wrote about the Notre Dame fire here.

It's amazing that the French were able to restore the cathedral to it's pre-fire grandeur. 

Cream of Potato Soup

Tonight Becky made us some of her wonderful cream of potato soup which she said was the perfect dinner for me after shoveling snow so much today. I agree. A delicious winter soup indeed.

It was also very tasty with some nice hot sauce added and dipping into with some of our favorite bread from the co-op.

First Snow This Year

We woke up to our first snowfall of Winter 2024 and it continued throughout the early part of the morning. I went out and shoveled around 10:30 am. It was cold and icy but the snow was not deep... maybe a couple of inches. The birds were swarming our bird feeder all morning.

They are calling for more snow tonight and into tomorrow but not saying how much accumulation because of course they don't know because of the lake effect snows and changing winds coming off the lake.

Last weekend there was 2 to 3 feet of snow south of the city as usual but we got nothing. The south part of the city had some snow but here in North Buffalo there was no snow whatsoever.

I took this second picture early this morning when I first woke up.

Hermitage Piano Trio Again

Last night we went down to Kleinhans Music Hall for another concert in our Buffalo Chamber Music Society season. This was the third concert of the season and it was interesting seeing the Hermitage Piano Trio again. Last April they were a last minute replacement for another group that had suffered some illness and could perform. They were wonderful then and again this time. One thing different, besides the pieces being performed, they added a guest viola player so it was really a quartet although they were billed as the Hermitage Piano Trio with Jordan Bak, vilola.

The concert was spectacular and we enjoyed it very much. Most of the five pieces they performed with 20th century romantic and two by American women composers.

The only problem I had with it was that the length of the first "half" of the concert went much longer than usual. I had PT this morning and had trouble sitting through the entire first set without a little squirming in my sight and having the need to stretch my leg. The break did not happen until around 9 pm. We got out of the concert a little before 10. 

The members of the Trio are all Russian instrumentalists based in the US and have been playing together since 2011. They have released a lot of albums that I should check out in Spotify.

PT 3

Another PT session. This is the fourth one and I'm feeling better. Matt is adding more exercises that are helping me stretch my spinal column where that protruding disc is causing problems.

I've been parking a couple of blocks away from the center. It helps for me to walk a little before the sessions and then afterwards. I could park closer but this does make me feel better.

I ran into Bob again and this time he was talking nonstop. He explained more about his stroke and what he needed to do to recover. The stroke caused a lot of problems with his sensory capabilities including visual and hearing. I noticed he was wearing hearing aids now. He showed me the scar where he had the brain surgery. I will need to get over to see him at home and give him some support. Next week I'll get his phone number again. It would be nice to see Desty too.

And then there was another conversation with my new Philly friend. I thought I'd bring up something that only Philly people liked to talk about and that was the Mummer's Parade. I mentioned that as a kid I played sax in a string band. Well, that got him excited because it turns out he is a Mummer too and marches in a Fancy Division group. His father and grandfather are also Mummers who were in the Quaker City String Band. One of them, I'm not sure which, is in the Mummer's Hall of Fame. Matt was wondering what we were talking about.

Biden Pardons Hunter

President Biden gave his son Hunter Biden a "full and unconditional pardon" today and I am very happy about it. The only reason anyone ever went after Hunter Biden on Fox and other right wing media was because he was the president's son. It was always about going after the President.

The magats are all in an uproar over this pardon but they loudly cheered when trump pardoned the many traitors, criminals and family members. And now how many more scumbags will trump pardon in the coming term as president including the insurrectionist currently in prison for their traitorous activities.  Makes me sick.

Marisol @ The Albright Knox

This morning Becky and I went over to the Albright Knox Art Museum to see the Marisol exhibition. Becky had already gone once already with her sister but this was my first time seeing the exhibit. The artist had donated a significant amount of her work to the Albright Knox because they were the first gallery to show her work.

It was a very large show of her amazing work. I was totally impressed and fascinated with her work that included sculptures, paintings, drawings, videos, dance and set designs.

It's nice being members of the AKG because we can go over there any time for whatever amount of time and check out show or exhibit. Today we went when the museum just opened at 10 am. Even though it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend it was not crowded at all and we enjoyed going through the museum. We left a little before noon and the place was quickly filling up. We did have a great time and I look forward to going over and seeing the Marisol exhibition one more time before the show closes in early January. Almost all of the work in the show is now owned by the AKG but it will not be shown in this large retrospective exhibit but rather in smaller groups of her art.

Maybe we can go again with Katie and the kids over their Christmas visit. I know Clara would really love this work.

Snow Clouds South

Last night Becky and I both got severe weather warnings on our phones that were focused on heavy snow in the Southtowns. Also the thruway was closing to truck traffic between Rochester and Erie. 

But here in Buffalo it turned out to be a beautiful morning and Becky and I went over to the Albright Knox Art Museum. From the ramp between buildings I snapped a couple of photos of the clouds that were dumping all of the snow south of us. We have a beautiful blue sky. It's cold but no snow.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2024

Last night we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Dave and Donna's house. The food was all very good as usual especially Dave's smoked turkey.

The regular Thanksgiving crowd was there and we were happy to see Jimmy and his little guy Sonny who is now 3. Cassie was her usual self.

We were sad that Katie and the kids did not come to Buffalo this year and we missed having them staying at our house this Thanksgiving. We did do a video chat with them during our time at Dave's and everyone enjoyed seeing the kids on the phone.

One thing that was a little different this year was not getting the take-out pack of leftovers that D&D usually give all of their guests each year. Now they didn't to Thanksgiving last year because they went to NYC for the holiday with Jimmy so maybe they forgot but in years past it was always nice to get some of those leftovers for a snack the next day and especially a little of those so many deserts. Oh well. 

We were the last ones to leave at about 10:00 pm.

Making Cranberry Sauce

Becky makes cranberry sauce every year for Thanksgiving dinner. It's always the real thing. She follows the same recipe each year which includes sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon stick and cranberries of course. Boil it all together and let it simmer for ten minutes to thicken. Then it's ready to refrigerate for tomorrow. She made this after our dinner at Coles tonight.

Coles for Dinner

We had a busy day getting ready for Thanksgiving although it was different for us without a house full of kids for the holiday. We really miss not having Katie and our grandkids here this year.

So we went out for some dinner at Coles tonight and had a wonderful meal as usual. I had their roast beef Clancy sandwich with their amazing fries and Becky had their Chicken Milanese. I had a couple of beers on tap... my first Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale of the season and also a nice Guinness Stout. 

Making Pumpkin Pies

For many years Becky has made a couple of pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving dinner. However, lately over the past few years Katie has wanted to make the pies. They were staying with us for the holiday weekend so it was easy for her to go ahead and bake the pies here in our house for the dinner at Dave and Donna's. This year is different because Katie isn't here and Becky wanted to make her pumpkin pies for dinner at Dave's house.

So for the first time in about five years Becky made her pumpkin pies.

Buffalo Rehab Again

Today I had my third visit of this physical therapy series that is focused on my lower back and left leg. Matt gave me more exercises which is the primary reason for doing these sessions. I'm doing my sessions in the morning now instead of the afternoon. My sessions begin at 10:45 am and it's a lot more crowded in the gym than it was at 2 in the afternoon. Lots of old folks too.

I start of with a heating pad and then Matt does some stretching exercises with me. Then I go over the exercises he had previously given me and then he shows me one or two new ones. One of the things I like about Buffalo Rehab is their online videos of my exercises where I can look at them anytime to make sure I'm doing everything right.

I also ran into an old friend... Bob Jones. It turns out that he is doing physical therapy as part of his recovery from a recent stroke. I had heard about his stroke a week or so ago from Dave so I wasn't surprised to find him there although it was interesting that he is there from 10:00 to 10:45 and is working with Matt too. So we had a brief exchange before he was out the door and I was starting my first exercises. I'm sure I'll see more of him over the next few weeks.

More Comfort Food

Tonight we had more comfort food. Becky put together some burgers from Dash's. The ground round that we like. She also made some home fried potatoes which is a specialty but this time she used some regular big potatoes that had a slightly different tasted and texture than her usual small multi-colored potatoes but still very good. I love putting that great Trader Joe's sriracha roasted BBQ sauce on the burger and potatoes.

And some great fresh salad of course.

Comfort Food

Becky made some nice comfort food for dinner after a long day on the road coming back from Sean and Ashley's house and visiting the grandchildren.

She made chicken cutlets and a slightly spicy rice package along with a salad with some very good tomatoes.

This hit the spot after driving for a few hours and then relaxing at home.

Autumn's First Birthday

Becky and I drove over to Sean & Ashley's house for Autumn's first birthday party. It was a lot of fun and she was just the perfect little one year old for the event. Her brother was a little more wild but that is expected with a three year old at a birthday party. He wanted to open up all of her gifts. She'll know better next year. Her birthday was actually yesterday.

There were a few more three year old kids at this party who were Andrew's friends and the children of people Ashley worked with. Everyone at the party was nice, friendly and interesting to talk with. Well, except for Ashley's mother who was her usual weird grumpy self. It's amazing to see how she didn't interact with her grandchildren except for the 13 year old a little bit. Her and Morgan do like buying gifts for the kids though. 

Overall we had a great time. We drove back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We were very tired.

Back to PT

It took a while but I finally got scheduled and actually went to my first physical therapy session in ten months and this time finally to focus on my back and left leg. The last time I was going to Buffalo Rehab was for my dislocated shoulder from last Christmas. Then I had to end the sessions because of my scheduled eye surgery last March.

Last week I was back on Hertel Avenue with the same PT person from before... Matt. This time we are focused on relieving the pain and discomfort in my leg and back that has been happening because of the protruding disc in my spine that is pressing on the nerves in my back and leg. I'm also having a lot of pain in my left foot.

I've been to see Dr. Daye again. I initially saw her for my dislocated shoulder and then later made an appointment to check out my back and leg. I had scans done of my leg, hip, foot and spine. She saw no real problems that would require surgery but recommended shoe supports for my feet and to get some PT to stretch my back.

So today I am again at PT on Hertel. I'm scheduled for Tuesday mornings for the next four weeks with Matt.

Matt has a PT student intern working with him from Canisius who turns out to be from Philadelphia. So we had a conversation while I was working on my stretches and it turns out he is from the Mayfair section of the city and he went to Father Judge High School. We had a laugh when I told him I went to their arch-rival North Catholic High School and I was from the Germantown section of the city. And I was also a graduate of Temple University. He was also surprised to hear that I was a retired librarian from Canisius College. Small world.

Vinyl Spins on BlueSky

I discovered that there is a lot of activity on BlueSky concerning vinyl records. I have a lot of photos of records spinning on my turntable that I posted over the years in my Vinyl Spins series. Now I'm putting some of them on BlueSky.

I started out with Bruce Springsteen and described the album along with some of my experiences seeing him perform live around the time the album was released. I followed that with Joni Mitchell and then with that first Velvet Underground album with the peeled banana. People liked that story. I've got many more to share.

Saturday Night Adventure

With restaurants that is... it was only 5:30 and first we tried Coles. No go. 45 minute wait for a table for two. Then we walked down to Jack Rabbit which used to be one of our favorite places Bull Feathers. Too crowded. No table for two. Then back to the car and we drove over to Main Street and found some success at 6 pm with The Steer.

Now that was crazy busy too but we were able to get a table and we had a nice dinner. The kitchen was swamped and there were an awful lot of people that came in a little before we did and they got our order a little mixed up. The food we did get was delicious but not exactly what we ordered. It also took a lot longer than usual to get to our table.

This was probably the first time we were there on a Saturday night in decades. We go there a lot but usually on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Very occasionally on a Friday. Never on Saturdays.

It was funny that this was the second Saturday evening in a row that we went out for dinner. However, last week we went to JT's on Elmwood and first got reservations that afternoon. We didn't think we would need reservations for Coles at 5:30 but we were very wrong.

So we ended up having a nice dinner at the Steer and we were there until about 7:30. Becky had a Bruschetta Chicken Sandwich and I had a BBQ Fried Chicken Sandwich. Lots of fries too. I also had a couple of draft beers... a Harp Lager and a Peroni while Becky had a Stella.

Rigatoni & Sausage Soup

Becky made some really good rigatoni and sausage soup. We had some leftover sausage and it was perfect for a Fall soup.