Angie’s Drama

…that Rob and I had just talked over the weekend about trying to get to New Orleans this fall. Rob’s been a million times and as usual, I haven’t. It seems that everyone we know has been there so often that I can pretty much list an itinerary of places we’d go. Okay, maybe places we’d eat and drink and where we’d have a late night hot dog on the street or a Crystal burger.

The fact that so many people are looting, just to obtain “stuff” makes me ill. I think everyone can agree upon taking food, water and medical supplies-but televisions, jewelry and silk flowers? As a country, and even here locally, we’re raising money without question, because that’s how we support one another. I’m guessing that the people looting the stores would not be a part of that giving, if the roles were reversed. They will, however, be relying on the kindness of strangers and they will get relief-whether it be food, water, housing or cash. I really hope that some of the people realize how lucky they are to be alive.

Our Dear Friend lost his mother this week. While Rob and I have been in a fog-I guess the world still revolves. It takes something like that to almost lift the fog and get you straight again. It’s really easy to let that fog overcome you…but when your friend is hurting, you are too. It’s time to snap back to who you are and that self that the other person needs.

Rob and Gary are away this weekend at the Duck’s Unlimited Festival in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Of course, I only spelled it because I can’t remember the postal abbreviation. That’s so wrong…

Since I’m Angie, of course I’ve had some drama lately. Try ordering flowers for a visitation, only to be told that since they had to be teleflorist (a Washburn funeral home or, the only funeral home in Washburn, who knows?) that particular florist didn’t have what you wanted. Not only was my arrangement one shot away from red and white carnations, they were seriously lacking in the height that I asked for AND they were in the cardpaper funeral arrangement vase instead of the colored glass vase I requested. I swear, it only happens to me. Colleen and Jim’s arrangement was beautiful and flowery, for the same price. I just can’t win. And, on top of all that, when we stopped at Kouri’s in Germantown Hills, the order of cheeseballs sucked!!!!! Exactly 15 cheeseballs, that were burnt, for $5.25! What the hell is that? Colleen couldn’t get over that the Kouri’s in Peoria was cheaper, had more balls and have never been burnt. Trust me, I can’t believe I wrote that sentence either.

Anyone can now post a comment.
Took me awhile, but I rectified the situation.
Next up, how the hell do I get links on my blog?

Last night, Melissa and Kevin invited me to dinner with them at F.Scott’s. Since Rob was working, I jumped at the chance. Yesterday was Melissa’s last day of taking Tamoxifen for the past 5 years. A little celebration was in order. After much haggling, we decided to have Rob wait on our table. I was opting for Sue, but KP and Mel convinced me that Rob was indeed a fine server. Someone gets voted Best Server in Peoria by the River City Times and their head just swells.

Dinner was fabulous-I’m seriously endorsing the pork fillet-and KP and Mel picked up the tab. How nice!!! What a great start to the birthday weekend. While waiting for Rob to get finished, I kind of got sucked into the weekly Trivial Pursuit game. It’s always girls against boys. Not too shabby on the trivia. One day, my inane pop culture knowledge will make me millions. Until then…

Yesterday, we went out to Tanners Orchard. It always seems like a pain because it’s a little out there, but then you get there and you remember why you make the drive. This weekend is their peach festival and let me just say…yum! So fresh!

So, in honor of my upcoming 31st birthday (Saturday…for anyone who forgot….or would like to extend birthday wishes, which I will graciously accept) I thought I would share some personal info read: it’s all about me.

Plans for the weekend:

Friday: Attend Past President’s Party of the Peoria Jaycees featuring a roast for COB Roxy Baker (hey, I just watched the Pam Anderson roast-wonder if it will be similar? I will not be reprising the Courtney Love role-sorry) and then attend pre-birthday bash at the Recovery Room to celebrate John’s birthday. Firehouse Pizza will probably be in demand. It’s going to be a tie between BBQ chicken pizza or Cheeseburger pizza. Hmmm… Parrothead’s birthday, I’m thinking Cheeseburger (in Paradise)-it’s so wrong that I seriously spelled it Paradice. Good gravy.

Saturday: Attend bridal shower for Renee-dinner with Dad, Aunt Caroline, Colleen, Jim and Rob at the Fish House-birthday bash at the Recovery Room. Not necessarily a bash so much as a two day celebration. Note: Did someone say shots? At least they don’t charge for ice, no worries there.

Sunday: Maybe Walker family get-together?

Favorite Saying: What’s good for the goose is always good for the gander, Irish sailor.
Least Favorite Saying: Fool, Shut Your…

Favorite Restaurant: F. Scott’s Whiskey Bar
Least Favorite Restaurant: Childers

Favorite Thing to Do: Hang out at the Walker Family pool
Least Favorite Thing to Do: Paying bills

Favorite Song: Upstairs, Downtown, You Spin Me Round, Summer of ‘69
Least Favorite Song: Crazy, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Favorite Song to Sing at Karoke: Copacabana-You’re So Vain-It’s Raining Men
Least Favorite Song to Sing at Karoke: Cecilia (thank you Roxy and Colleen)

Favorite Song to Hear at Karoke: Katie singing City of New Orleans and Tom/Brian singing Blue Moon
Least favorite Song to Hear at Karoke: Fancy-just don’t do it

Favorite Tradition: Pre-Xmas dinner at Red Lobster with the family, Dog Biscuit Hunt Easter morning and Fairview Farms
Least Favorite Tradition: Buffets and more buffets

Celebrity I Just Don’t Get: Janice Dickerson-world’s first supermodel? Wasn’t that Twiggy?
Celebrity That Shouldn’t Be a Celebrity: Omarosa, she was fired for God’s sake.

Best Thing I Can Cook: Tortellini Michelangelo
What I Should Never Cook Again: Bread Pudding

Favorite Robism: “You Must Not Have Been Holding Your Mouth Right”
Least Favorite Robism: “They can have my guns when they pry them from my cold dead hands”

Nobody That Knows Me Will Believe: My brother got me into playing the Magic card game for a few years.

Moment I Knew I Loved Radio: Calling into the John Williams show on WMBD every Friday night for the Trivia Game and solving the Ellery Queen Mystery Minute every morning.

Age I had my First Public Relations Moment: Six, I called the Journal Star to tell them they had to come take a picture of my brother’s snowman, the Hawaiin Punch guy.

Believe it Or Not: I’m really good at card games when my opponents don’t cheat.

I was reading CJ’s post over at Summers in Peoria http://peoriasummers.blogspot.com/ and I can’t help but have my own opinions on the closing of VOP’s and the opening of Bud’s Aged Steaks.

Vonachen’s Old Place (owned by Mercedes Restaurants) was a moderately priced restaurant with a great atmosphere and for the most part, a good team of servers, bartenders, cooks and hosts. Whether your family went there after church for breakfast or you were meeting friends for Happy Hour on Friday, everything was always the same. To be honest, I probably hadn’t eaten there since my friend Jaime’s wedding two years ago-but, I had met plenty of groups up for cocktails at the bar.

I don’t really know much about the restaurant closing or how the employees were notified or what they were told. I can only surmise that if they were told anything, it was at the last minute. Most restaurants tend to pull the plug at the very last possible second so that employees don’t have a chance to not show up or help with final clean-up (once again, going by my experiences only).

Let’s talk about that other fine Mercedes restaurant, The Grill. Also a Peoria staple for years and years until Mercedes management decided that Sonoma Cucina would be a better fit for downtown Peoria. The restaurant served more Italian food and still had some of The Grill’s menu items. When S.C. didn’t flourish, the restaurant was switched back to The Grill. Whooaaa. Talk about confusing anyone and everyone. One day we’re going to a Bradley game and it’s SC, then, we’re going to a Pirate’s game and it’s The Grill. So, once everyone was inevitably confused, the restaurant closed for good.

So, they were saying that Bud’s will be a higher-end steakhouse. Compared to??? Maybe I’m a little cheap, but I don’t consider Alexander’s (Mercedes Restaurants’ only current steakhouse) to be even moderately priced. The atmosphere is very casual and the average bill for two is probably $45-$60.

Maybe the Peoria area needs more higher-end restaurants. Jim’s Steakhouse, F.Scott’s Bar, The Bistro, Red Zin, Carnegie’s, The Fish House, Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse, Two Chez, Jonah’s, Seven on Prospect and Jill’s may not be taking up the entire market share.

I don’t even want to get started on the moderately priced steakhouses that seem to be all the rage. Every single weekend, Ned Kelly’s and Texas Roadhouse are packed and I guarantee you people are ordering steak at Chili’s, Applebee’s and Cheddar’s, just as well. Yet, The Outback, a chain restaurant with almost constant higher-quality closed.

There seems to be a serious lack of moderately priced restaurants with good atmospheres. I don’t want to have to spend over $100 every time we want to go out.

Casual Observations…

I’ve never seen so many people actually watching Anaconda. Alex and I totally forgot that Owen Wilson was in it. And Ice Cube. And J Lo. And Eric Stoltz. And Jon Voight. What happened?

I soooo have to watch the Poseidon Adventure.

Blogger…..Non-Blogger—ha ha ha

Hey Pammy, thanks for the beer!

CJ, we called our friend in Colorado, he said he’ll move back if they build the trail.

What the hell was going on with that circumcision discussion? Good gravy.

Saturday, we were all hanging out at the pool. I kept seeing hornets flying around so I brought out the big spray can of hornet and wasp killer. Being scared to death of anything which flies and has a stinger-I thought Donny should take on the task. He was on a rampage, killing a bunch here and there and then we noticed they were all flying out of a particular area. He and Rob start spraying and all of a sudden, I hear, “Get in the pool, now!” I’m the kind of person that doesn’t really need to know why because it obviously can’t be good. So, I jumped in the pool fully clothed. Gary said he turned around and saw all of us jumping in the pool and thought, “What the hell?” It had to be pretty funny.

Lately, Rob and I have come across some great television shows. We all know that I consider myself a huge pop culture junkie, thus I was ashamed to admit one of our new favorite shows is entering its second season. (Bad Angie-Bad Angie)

I have to admit that Monday evenings won’t be the same without Hell’s Kitchen. I swear, Rob would get downright giddy about it being on. Or was that the wine we were required to have on hand? Either way-Michael won and even though he did get all creepy when he was talking to the Chef Ramsay billboard-we were rooting for him. I didn’t really understand if he turned down the restaurant to train with Chef Ramsay in Europe or what the final deal was? Speaking of Hell’s Kitchen, I was watching Kathy Griffin on Bravo and spotted Jessica (short, blonde with a girlfriend) sitting in the front. Weird.

The Takedown: Court TV Tues and Wed nights.
This guy who apparently used to be a big cheat has gone legit and now tests out security for various businesses like casinos, galleries and retail stores. It’s craaazzzy to see the way these people can scam casinos. It’s almost like when you’re watching a suspenseful episode of Dukes of Hazzard that has the boys snooping around Boss Hogg’s office and you know he’s coming and they’re still opening drawers and file cabinets and you see Boss Hogg’s hand on the door knob, turning it…That’s what it’s like.

Ghosthunters: Sci Fi Channel, Wed
Since I’m not a Trekkie (sorry, Mark) and have never seen Battle Star Galactica-I’ve never had a reason to stop on this channel, thus season two has already started. Until there was a Ghosthunters marathon!! Roto-Rooter plumbers by day-crack paranormal team by night. They use a scientific approach to prove or disprove paranormal activity. I was getting a little jaded (i.e. no proof) until one particular episode featuring a military armory. Holy Crap! A cameraman got knocked down-by no one. He eventually quit the show. What’s really cool is that they record while they’re investigating and sometimes when they play back the audio you can hear specific things being said.

Kill Reality: E! Thurs.
This show sucks. I really thought it might be decent(Donny) -but I couldn’t even watch the first episode all the way through. I did watch last night as I was doing crosswords, but I don’t think that counts.

Being Bobby Brown: Bravo Thurs.
Let’s just say that while I happen to like watching what is definately a train running off its tracks-Rob likens it to him making me watch Bow Hunting with Mac and Earl.

Hogan Knows Best: VH1
Hulk Hogan rocks! Not just saying that because I was addicted to wrestling when I was in grade school. Yes, I believed it was real. I did however get to ride an elevator with the British Bulldogs and the Junkyard Dog. JYD! When I heard them chit-chatting about what they were doing that night, the illusion was over.

Big Brother 6: CBS everyday
I thought this would be boring but it’s getting really good. The so called “good guys” are a group that think they’re being America’s favorites but I think everyone hates them. Gotta be rooting for Kaiser. My favorite part has to be the Live Thursday Show-Chenbot(I wish I could take credit, but I can’t) is so stiff and her interactions with the houseguests are so awkward that it’s hilarous. I really love when she gets to reveal “One More Part…of the Summer of Secrets.” (Cue: Dunt Dunt Dunt music)

Entourage: HBO Sundays
Absolutely the best reason to have HBO On Demand. Soooooo funny.

We feel truly blessed by the outpouring of support we’ve received from everyone during the past few weeks. Rob is especially appreciative of all the firemen, current and retired, that came to show their support for Mama Walker. The funeral director estimated anywhere between 600 and 800 people attended the visitation-and she only wanted 1 hour prior to the services. That’s definitely a testament to how many people she affected.