This Week’s Winners: First Place-TNT’s
2nd Place Tie- Kelleher’s & Firehouse
Wild Card-Diggers
Competing Next Week For the Championship: Martini’s on Water, Whitey’s, Hammer’s, Richard’s, NV Ultra Lounge, Bar Louie, BG’s Karokee, TNT’s, Kelleher’s, Firehouse and Digger’s.
Since I tend to bitch and complain on a regular basis-I also feel it necessary to count thine’s own blessings once in a while.
1. Thank God we feed all our dogs Pedigree.
2. We booked our trip to Jamaica for the big weddin’
3. We got a flight out of Peoria for said big weddin’
4. The cold and flu bug didn’t do more damage this week in our household
5. It’s time to start planning the garden
6. Even though I tend to bitch and complain quite often, people still find me a joy to be around. Right?
Feeling slightly pessimistic.
1) McDonald’s “We’ll even pour your cream and sugar for you” lame ass attempt at making the public think their budget restriction is actually working in our favor. I like to add my own cream and sweetener. I can see what is being put in my coffee. I don’t like having to tell someone how many creams and sweeteners I need. I don’t like having to explain to someone what sweetener is and I’m sick of being asked blue or yellow? It’s Extra and Splenda people. And before you ask, the pink is Sweet & Low. So they’re saving money by not wasting all the cream and sugar yet, everytime I order a breakfast burrito, it comes with a pack of salsa even though I specifically state-no salsa please.
2) Spencer from The Hills-what a tool.
3) Any episode of My Sweet Sixteen
4) The crying girl-I know she has a name, but I refuse to make her a national celebrity-on American Idol.
5) The fact that I watched American Idol this week. (Disclaimer: I’ve met Peter Noone three times)
6) I find myself liking Dancing With the Stars (hello? must root for 90210 alum)
7) My house needs serious cleaning
The lady that glared at me while SHE was jaywalking. I know. I had no right to think I could proceed through a green light. What was I thinking?
9) The lady that glared at me while she was jaywalking is being mentioned in this blog.
10) I hate flood watches/warnings. Living next to a creek sucks-constant trepidation.
Advancing to the next round: BG’s Karokee Saloon
Absent the day after Patty’s Day: Both Old Chicago locations, JJ Ryan’s and The Dormitory
Next Week’s Challengers: The Firehouse (reigning champs) TNT’s, Kelleher’s and one of the Old Chicago’s.
I’m secretly (not really) rooting for TNT’s to bring it on Sunday. Good thing Rob is extremely non-partisian. It makes him a good judge-boy.
SOMEONE ELSE
Saturday, March 17th, 7:30pm
Angie walks into her bedroom to see her husband peacefully napping after a long day of celebrating the Irish way, everywhere she wanted to be and seeing almost everyone she had planned on seeing. FYI, Angie told him he did not have to bring her corned beef from Sullivan’s during the parade route even though she had been craving it since 7:30am.
Rob: “Hmmmm, are you coming to bed?”
Angie: “Rob Walker…it is 7:30pm on St. Patrick’s Day. Get your ass out of bed, we’re going to the bar.”
Rob: “I’m up!”
And we were out the door in thirty seconds.
I’m noticing there’s not quite the big Patty’s Day buzz this year. Maybe because it’s on a Saturday and I along with 90% of the people I know have to work all day. Maybe it’s because people want to watch Bradley in the NIT and the NCAA Tournament. It’s the first year I won’t be hanging out with Colleen and her family at some point in fifteen years. Her family officially adopted me-the greek/german chick-for the holiday and taught me all the innerworkings of a 100% Irish family. Oh well. I’ll get over it, I’m just dissapointed. I hope everyone has a fun weekend!
Rob and I live and die by our digital cable remote controls. Ridiculously so. Have to know what’s on so we can plan around it. The upstairs box remote finally died on us. Poor thing had fallen off the bed so many times, I can’t believe it lasted as long as it did. Even if Sophie knocked the thing off the bed, Rob would say, “Mommy never drops the remote control.” Insinuating that since he put it near me, I dropped it. FYI, wouldn’t be dropped half as often if he let me know he put it there in the first place. The second remote has it’s own issue because the numbers don’t work. That’s right. In order to get to a channel, we have to scroll to the channel and then press enter. I also can’t get the higher channels that we’re paying for in the bedroom. No on-demand for me. That’s right again. I’m paying for two boxes and premium channels that I can’t view on one television. I’ve called and called but no one understands the issue so, I’ve resigned that it’s finally time to trade in the boxes and get the fancy schmancy DVR ones. Plus, we’ll get new remotes. BONUS. Remember when the digital music channels first came out? I’m guessing it was ‘95ish. It was soooo cool to be able to press info and find out the title of the song, the artist, the album, producer and year it came out-whenever you wanted. You could even go back a song or forward a song. I feel so old-but back when MTV played nothing but videos, remember how you’d wait and wait and wait for the end of the video to get all the info? No more. Instant gratification. Then came the digital cable remotes and it was information overload. Holy crap. Entire screens of channel listings without having to wait for the tv guide channel to get back to the stations you were interested in. The info button. The most well-used button of all. It tells you all about the episode or the movie. Genius. You can also scroll ahead a few hours to see what’s on that channel next. Never good when you a) know you’re not going to be around to watch anything or b) when you know you’re going to be asleep long before the show is going to come on. Case in point-Tuesday evening, I crawled into bed around 8:30pm and knew I’d be asleep well before 10pm. It was one of those days. I just happened to look at the STARZ channels. For some reason, we can get the lower number premium channels upstairs. It’s weird. Anyway, on one station at 1am was High Anxiety and on another at 1am, Foul Play. Two of my favorite movies of ALL time. Immediately, I started freaking out about which one I would watch and which I would flip too during the lulls. Then I started thinking about each movie and their separate lulls. Then I realized, “Ding-Dong! You’ll be asleep in less than twenty minutes. No movies for you.” So, I fully blame overusing the info button for getting my hopes. As I drifted off to sleep, my last thought was “If only Jaws 3 were to have been on, Trifecta!”
Ummmmm, I specifically recall you said you’d be at Hammer’s for the Bloody Mary Competition. Didn’t see ya…
Maybe next week. FYI, they raised over $1,000 for the Children’s Hospital of Illinois TODAY!
This week’s qualifiers:
2nd Place: Bar Louie’s
1st Place Tie: Richard’s and NV Ultra Lounge-Bloomington
Once again, Rob had a great time being judge-boy. On a personal note, knowing Jay and Dawn from Bar Louie, I was rooting for them to carry it home but DAMN, Richard’s makes an AWESOME bloody mary. Also, with it being Hammer’s last night of ownership-the place was packed so I missed the NV’s perfomance and taster. I got a little too claustrophobic and had to step outside or go to the front of the bar.
There’s nothing better than a bar full of restaruant/bar workers on a Sunday! No one can party like that industry! If you’re not doing anything next Sunday, I invite everyone to join in the festivities! Remember, every Sunday in March and the finals are April 1st!
Having known Brad and JoAnne for years, I have no doubt that they will do a terrific job taking over and I wish them the best of luck. We now have a new home in Bartonville. Go Hammers!
Growing up with a father working for a local school district, I was constantly told that I should become a teacher because it was a stable job with good benefits. Not sure how much I agree with that now knowing about 15 current and former teachers. I took one education class and while I enjoyed it, I knew deep down it was not the career path for me. I’m not that great at interacting with kids. Relatives? Yes. Friends’ children? Yes. Children of complete strangers? Not so much. Of course, throw a dog into the mix and I can bond in a heart beat. I know, I have problems and I’ve accepted them. With that knowledge, the number one reason I did not become a teacher was the simple fact that I did not want to put up with parents screaming and yelling how their child could do no wrong. I’m relatively young, in my early thirties and I wonder exactly when things changed? Granted, I went to a Catholic grade school and high school were there was a bit more discipline and more rules to follow but, I could argue till the cows came home and my parents would always side with a teacher-except in extreme instances. I was expected to always follow my teachers instructions and I was held accountable if I failed to do so. My parents never blamed my teachers for anything. It was my responsibility to understand assignments, ask questions or ask for help. I’m not saying the way I was raised was the right way (I did get grounded for semesters at a time if I got anything below a B), but for the most part, parents didn’t step in and tell a teacher how to run their classroom, let alone physically attack them. If something went wrong with my assignments or projects, my parents were mad at me-not the teacher. When did that change?
