Angie’s Drama

Wow…we had a huge weekend capped off by Christmas and now we’re headed into another huge weekend capped off by New Year’s Day. Not to go into too many details but the weekend included: The Great Reefer Reunion Show at Expo Gardens on Saturday, dinner at The Bistro on Sunday (followed by Rob and I exchanging gifts), Christmas Eve morning spent at Rob’s brother’s in-laws since Rob’s brother had to work on Christmas, Christmas Eve dinner with the in-laws followed by dinner at Jim’s Steakhouse with friends, Christmas morning with Rob’s dad and Christmas evening with family and friends at our house. My brother, my sister-in-law and two neices are in town until Monday so we’ll try and spend as much time with them as possible. Our plans for New Year’s Eve are completely up in the air due to it being Sullivan’s last night open and the smoking ban taking effect at 12:01am. We may go there first and then head uptown. Who knows though since it’s been three days since I’ve had a cigarette. I hope this weekend is just as merry as last week.

The other night, Rob and I baked cookies. Yep, believe it or not, cookies were baked in our kitchen. I imagine our oven was freaking out. Better yet, the microwave was surely befuddled. Don’t get me wrong, nothing was made from scratch. We simply punched out the pre made shapes of dough and placed them on cookie sheets. I guess Rob did make regular cookies out of the leftover dough so maybe that counts? That’s about where my duty ended since I’m probably one of the few people to almost flunk art. Rob, of course, excells at art (we still have the paintings he did in high school that were on display at The White House, thankyouverymuch) so he decorated the cookies the best he could. Next on the list…wrapping the presents. I know it’s convenient to use gift bags and I do, but the majority of my gifts are always wrapped. I think it’s just something my mom instilled. Every year, I wrap the presents and Rob decorates them. Once again, I almost flunked art. My mom did however teach me to use a yard stick and pencil to cut a straight line, so somewhere along the line I learned to wrap a mean present. So, the last two presents I had to wrap were American Girl dolls for my nieces. I carefully inspected the boxes for any price tags or stickers and what did I find? Two stickers that said…made in China.

Since all my shopping is finished, the only thing we really have left to do is wrap and wrap all the presents. Of course, our puppy dogs treat wrapped presents under the tree like pillows, so we can’t put anything out until Christmas. Vito is not a fan of anything that gets in the way of him and the picture window, so he’s not even happy with the tree, let alone the presents. I’m thinking we might have to pull out A Christmas Story while we wrap tonight. I also have Christmas cookies to bake but in all actuality, I may have been overestimating my free time.
Yesterday, I had the migraine from hell. When I woke up from my drug induced coma, I watched a couple movies from On Demand. For Your Consideration (Christopher Guest and that crew) was good, just not laugh-out-loud funny like most of those movies have been. Then, I watched Infamous since it’s based on Truman Capote’s time while writing “In Cold Blood.” That, was a great movie. And then, to top of the evening, Rob and I watched 16 Blocks with Bruce Willis and Mos Def. It was pretty interesting but I’d really like to see a movie where David Morse didn’t play the bad guy. It’s just a given that when he shows up on screen, he’s the bad guy or at least, the corrupt policeman. Merry Christmas!!

Last night, Rob and I finished up the majority of our Christmas shopping since I had the evening off work. I suggested maybe going to Hi Ho Mongolian Grill afterwards. I’ve never been but I know Rob and Jim really like it, and it was close to where we were shopping. We pulled in and started walking towards the building and the first thing I noticed was that the lights were really bright. Rob then told me not to expect a server, since it’s more of a buffett type place. Well, nothing against that, but on one of our free nights together, I was in the mood for something a little more intimate. We ended up at The Bistro which was just a perfect decision all around. We had cocktail at the bar and then noticed one of our former co-workers was serving that night. Sweeeet. Rob went with the steak Diane special and I chose the salmon, red bell pepper dijon special. Oh. And we started with the crab cakes which were slammmin. It was such a great dinner and just a great night all around. I do promise to make it to Hi Ho sometime soon, maybe for lunch.
And speaking of fabulous dinners, we had another great one last Friday night. We decided it was time for The Fish House dinner I’d been thinking about since having the jaw wired. It was kind of similar because we were having a drink at the bar, waiting for a table and noticed another former co-worker was serving. Rob loves any excuse to order seared tuna with extra wasabi, so he was pretty thrilled with his order. Instead of the crab legs and prawn I’d been craving, I opted for the swordfish in a red pepper, merlot reduction. Wow. It was fantastic. Then, after dinner, we ran into some friends we haven’t seen in quite a while and got to play catch up. The only drawbacks to the two dinners is the fact that my stomach has shrunk so much so it only takes a few bites to get full. Rob, however, is loving it since he’s been eating like a king for lunch lately.

Every year, I add to my collection of Christmas music. Sometimes it’s impulse shopping at its best and sometimes the cds end up being my very favorites. I absolutely love my Rosie O’Donnell Christmas cds for two reasons. One, “Do You Hear What I Hear” with Elmo and two, “Merry Christmas From the Family” with the Dixie Chicks. I’ve worn them out and am now on my third copies. Two years ago, I bought A Christmas Together with The Muppets and John Denver. I’m constantly playing “The Twelve Days of Christmas” specifically to hear the Badadumdum and Miss Piggy wailing away Five Gold Rings. Pathetic, yes. Make me happy, even more. Last year I bought James Taylor’s christmas cd which is awesome, just not as fun. This year, by far, the best purchase has been Dean Martin’s Christmas. “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is probably my favorite song this year. I can’t tell you how many times Rob and I have sat in front of the tree with two thousand lights and tried to sing it. By St. Patrick’s Day, when Rob will finally get around to taking the tree down, we’ll probably have it and then I’ll have to go through the same thing with “The Unicorn Song.” What’s your favorite Christmas song this year?

Our friend in Birmingham just sent us a package from here. We got three slabs of ribs, sauce, an entire loaf of Butternut white bread, bibs and (Rob’s personal favorite) toothpicks. It might be awhile before I can actually eat them, but she absolutely made Rob’s day. We are talking about the same friend that gave up posession of a lighter to Rob because it also doubled as a toothpick holder. (how white trash is that?)

And, speaking of Christmas presents, I’m about 95% finished. As utterly opposed as I am to giving gift cards for Christmas, there are a few people on my list that absolutely require them. I’m just not a fan of showing someone how much I care about them in the form of dollar amounts. Let’s face it, most relationships are priceless but we do have budgets to stick with. The only reason I put them on my list is because I’m an extremely difficult person to shop for. If I want something, I just go out and buy it. I guess it’s one of the perks of having dogs instead of children. Plus, alot of things that I would want are way more pricey than I would ever expect anyone except our parents to buy.

Rob and I decided to check out Granite City Food and Brewery for lunch today. We pulled in and immediately noticed parking was at a minimum. I saw a few empty spots, but, alas, each spot was taken by a driver that didn’t understand the concept of parking BETWEEN the lines. I pulled up in front to try along the building, only to find out the road ends pretty much without warning. That meant I had to employ the 4-point turnaround which irritated the crap out of me. At that point, Rob knew we wouldn’t be dining at Granite City since I had now been irritated three times-before even parking. So, I pulled out along the access road which goes back to Caterpillar and had no idea if it was clear or not. There’s a complete blind spot due to the cement guardrail. I mean really. Two new restaurants and they couldn’t build it up a tad? So, we went to Rizzi’s on State and had a FABULOUS lunch.

Yesterday, we were excited to see The New Peorians show on WTVP. The only downfall was that at the time the programs were scheduled to start, The Three Tenors Christmas was still going on so we missed most of the Lebanese program and then saw maybe 1/2 of the Irish program. I absolutely love the local programming the station provides. I probably watched the series on Grandview Drive and Springdale Cemetary a couple times each. The next segment coming up (if the station can be saved) is about the Germans coming to Peoria. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hope my contribution will help in the long run.

(The first part is for us as consumers/patrons and the second part will be for service providers)

For Consumers/Patrons:

*Please don’t get indignant when someone says to you, “Have a Merry Christmas.” That’s the holiday we’re celebrating and if you’re not celebrating it, fake it and pretend like you are. Please don’t go on a tirade about the technicality of calling it Christmas as opposed to Hannukah, Ramadan or whatever else you’re indignant about. I’m sick of saying Happy Holidays. Let’s get back to the real spirit of the season.

*We need to just assume that if something we want is listed in a flyer on sale, it will be out of stock. We’ve all been there. It’s time to move on to plan b.

*During the holidays, whenever we go out to eat, I try to remember that not everyone goes out as much as we do. Some people only dine out during the holidays or while shopping. Thus, the entire process takes way to long and hinders the service I would normally expect. For example: 1st time outer: “I’ll have an iced tea” Server, “I’ll be right back with that” back with the iced tea…1st time outer:”I don’t have any silverware.” Server, completely aware that nothing has been ordered and thus silverware is not required at this moment realizes that nothing will progress until the silver is brought to the table. And so on…and so on…This is really hard for me especially because I’m irritated at someone monopolizing my server knowing full well that first time outer will tip 10% especially for the holidays.

The tree and all gazillion lights are shining brightly in the window. Some rather large ornaments are hanging from an outdoor tree. The basement is decked out in holiday lights and thus we’re getting pretty into the spirit of things. What would it be if Rob didn’t catch the flu and I didn’t have some asthma issues? Granted, I probably caught a little of his bug and it just flew into my chest but it’s not Rob’s fault. Where he tends to vomit, I loose my breath. Of course, the fact that he decided to be on the roof to clean gutters yesterday probably didn’t help much because he’s back home in bed. I’m on a healthy dose of prednisone and feeling pretty good. Wisely, I decided to bypass the most anticipated Bradley home game of the year in lieu of bed and breathing capabilities. Unwisely, he decided to be a manly-man and not miss the game. I think that came back to bite him, but I could be wrong. Oh well. I’m sorry I missed the game, but I’m happy that I’m healthy enough to work the rest of the week(end).