I don’t think I could of chosen a better day to be off than Friday. Beautiful sunny day, and it was a holiday, as well. I got up somewhat early to finish cleaning and vacuuming before the carpet cleaners arrived. I took Illa for a long walk, returning right before they packed up. Since they’d done both the middle and upper floors and we couldn’t be on them, we stayed outside. I raked the front and swept the back, then sat on the front stoops and read the paper with Illa on a lead until Jill got home. Then Illa and I switched to the back porch, and I switched to reading comics. Jill went to her massage, and when she got back took a nap. Around 4, she got up and I showered, and we left a little before 5.
We swung by Storehouse to see if there was anything interesting at the store closing. We passed, and headed over to Don Pablo’s because Jill had a craving. We started with our normal bowl of queso, then she had the steak and chicken fajitas and I tried the new chorizo sausage with jalapeno hollandaise fajita. Not bad, but you could hardly taste the jalapeno hollandaise. We had dinner there partly because we like it, but also to avoid the Birchmere’s food. We headed to the Birchmere and found they still offered the same food, but now they’ve raised their prices, about $2 across the board – $9.50 for a burger and $12 for a pizza. Now I know why there’s been an ongoing joke in the 9:30 club forum that “I only go to Birchmere for the food”. Thank goodness the beer hasn’t changed, as that was all we had. Don’t know what we’ll do when we go back for Aimee Mann in December and efo in January.
Anyway, we were there to see the opening act, Crooked Still. Their new CD, Shaken By A Low Sound, is Jill’s favorite new CD, and she was jonesing to see them since we hadn’t seen them since Falcon Ridge. Their set was great, and the crowd really got into it. I always enjoy “Orphan Girl”, but Jill was hoping for “Come On In My Kitchen” and I wanted “Ain’t No Grave”, but it was worth it. I’d seen Chris Smither at last year’s Falcon Ridge and thought he was ok, had gotten his new CD too. Jill shared my opinion, and we left about halfway through his set. I also snagged a copy of the new CD from The Wild Band Of Snee, the side project from Rushad, the incredible cello player (Meg, do you have a track list for their first CD?). We came home and played with Illa for a bit, then went to sleep.
Saturday morning I got up early for a HOA inspection, then came home and made schmorgles. Jill went out for breakfast and ran errands. She went upstairs to study when she got back, and I caught up on TV while I organized comics. Later on I decided I wanted to do cook the asparagus, and wanted something to go with it. I thought chicken kiev would go well, but it’d been a while since I’d made it and I needed to look up a recipe. I had everything but bread crumbs, and I improvised by crushing soy & flaxseed tortilla chips. It came out very nice, and the asparagus went nicely with the hollandaise. Later, I made a crisp with some Asian Pears, and we watched SNL while we ate. Lotsa guest stars last night – best moment was when Paul McCartney surprised Alec Baldwin during a sketch, that show was one of the best in a while.
Today we slept in some, Jill went out for a bagel and stopped by Trader Joe’s while I made eggs benedict and walked the dog. She left to go work on a presentation and I watched a miserable Skins performance while I read the paper. I went in the basement after the game to rustle up comics for an eBay auction, took pictures and started it. Now I’m surfing a little and Jill’s back, will do Mexican or chili leftovers next (I made a whiskey chili for a chili cookoff at work, but didn’t place).