As another Sunday brings the weekend to an end, it is also a good time to recap and ease into the work week. This past weekend was an interesting one to say the least....
Most of Friday was spent between Body Beast and deck building (Magic). Around 6 or so people started to show up at my place to play a few rounds. We played our EDH decks and the one I spent all day constructing prevailed (game 1, anyways). I lucked out by topdecking a Luminarch Ascension on turn 2, as the rest of my hand was solid but higher casting costs that I just was not able to hit (maybe needing to adjust my mana a bit. Hm…). We played a few games, I went 1-2, and I crashed around midnight. Good times.
Body Beast kicked my ass. Body = sore (in a good way). Before and after pics will come down the road yet, but I’m OH! I ordered some bitchin adjustable dumbbells off of Amazon (Bowflex Smarttech 552) which arrived on Thursday. As I don’t have a ton of space for individual weights, and Body Beast calls for a bunch of different weight increments, these looked to be a great option. I would recommend these, but you may also want to have another pair of ‘basic’ dumbbells/weights around as the Beast has you change the weights often (and mid-workout), so it’s nice to be able to keep powering through. My ‘spares’ ran ~$40 at Dick’s Sporting Goods. In my (delusional?) mind, i see it going something like this:
Also on Friday, the mailman was very good to me. New shirt from http://www.6dollarshirts.com came (yay party shirt), as did my tickets for both Rockfest and EDC Chicago. The EDC Chicago ticket is boss as can be, as it is not paper as one would expect but instead a card that can be swiped and scanned. Epic.
Cmonnnn Memorial Day weekend…
Saturday was a bit more on the busy side. After getting ready for the day, a friend came over to help me Plastidip my wheels. It didn't take too long at all (roughly an hour and a half, most of which time was waiting for each coat to dry) and the results turned out great. We did 4 coats, but held off on the clear layer. I want to give it a few more days to see how I like the matte black, but may end up putting it on down the road. I also need to do a little bit of touch-up on some spots, but overall I am very pleased with the results. Yes, I know it needs a drop.
After wrapping up the Plastidip project, I met up with the rest of my family for a big birthday lunch for my step-grandma’s sister (no idea what that makes her to me, though she is a very nice lady) at Mimi’s Café. Unimpressed by my first visit, I was not the most optimistic however was pleasantly surprised. Playing it safe, I went with some breakfast food and ordered the Cinnamon Brioche French Toast. Holy. Shitballs. Mimi’s menu describes it as
“Cinnamon swirled brioche slices dipped in a rich egg batter flavored with nutmeg and freshly grated orange zest. Griddled to perfection and topped with powdered sugar.”
They very well could have just put:
“This is delicious, order me. Don't mind my billion calories. And yes, you can get your bacon extra crispy.”
I also ordered a plate of crab cakes. I was not too impressed with these. They were a bit soggers, fell apart really easy, and had diced peppers (which wasn't bad, just different). I did like, however, that there were three of them, as most places I've ordered crab cakes from typically serve one or two. Related but unrelated, I love crab cakes and like that on Kitchen Nightmares, Chef Ramsay always orders them if they are on the menu (which I've recently started watching).
After lunch, I decided that I needed a little retail therapy in preparation for a night out. I lucked out by finding some dressier shoes (mine desperately needed to be replaced) as well as a pair of black Supra Vaider Lows both on sale. Two pairs of shoes and three pairs of awesome socks later, I am a happy camper. A little bit later, I met up with my partner in crime to head to Power and Light.
Once at P&L, we met up with some other friends for drinks and snacking at Gordon Biersch. (sorry about the picture quality/lighting...didn't wanna have the flash going all crazy and it was low lighting).
I ordered some chicken strip deals, which weren't strips at all and in fact incredibly messy wings with some kind of Asian zesty sauce on them. Tasty, but not what I expected. Also, if you don’t already know, I don’t really do the whole eating-meat-off-of-any-kind-of-bone thing. Gives me the willies. Their seasonal “Maibock” brew was uncanny, however. I had two tall glasses and was feeling pretty tipsy.
We proceeded next door to The Dubliner, which was a pretty nice setup. Lots of space, good service, and the drinks kept on coming. Yeah buddy.
“FlipSide,” a Filipino entourage that covers pop/alternative songs, set up and played live music all night long. They did some good covers of bands like Maroon 5, Rob Thomas, and Katy Perry. The lead singer had a pretty solid voice and sounded spot on with the Maroon 5 covers.
After partying at the Dubliner, we made our way to Chubby’s for some late night eats. I was still full from Mimi’s earlier in the day (plus drinks) so I wasn’t all that hungry. I decided, “what the hell? Might as well try somewhere new and get some food in my system to soak these drinks up…” and ate half of a blueberry muffin. I’m not saying it was the best muffin of all time, but it was pretty damn tasty. I look forward to going back to Chubby’s eventually.
Today was a recovery day for the most part. I woke up around 7am with a crazy case of the spins that I couldn't shake. Eventually I passed out just from pure exhaustion, but ughhh hate that feeling. I finally woke up and it was time to get some food. My parents were in town this weekend, so we all went to Freebirds. CHYEEEAH. I can get down on some Freebirds. This was the first time I had been to their location on 119th and Metcalf, which opened up not too long ago. It was not terribly busy, and the food was on point as it is at Freebirds. We all got crazy full, and I headed to work.
All things considered, I’d say it was a pretty boss weekend. I got to spend time with some of the people most special to me (both family and friends), made headway on the Integra, and partied heartily. If it were any better, I’d be guilty.
