Monument Showroom

*Hasn't really set in yet that in just a couple of days I'll be on my way back down to Peoria. About the most I've done in the area of preparations thus far is to pull out some of the games I'm thinking about taking down. Still have a present to wrap, not to mention a fridge to test. And I have no idea when the furbeasts are going over to the folks. All of that makes it sound like Friday morning is going to be pretty busy. But I'm betting Saturday is going to be worse. Nothing like starting a road trip with a morning full of stress. I was also thinking about taking down the collage Sheri had made so I could show it to everyone, but I don't want to end up damaging it in transit. Oh, yeah, and then there's the whole maybe meeting my brother part of things.

*Things are starting to line up for next month's gathering, but it does mean that I will be skipping yet another 3rd Saturday at the Chef. I don't actually remember when the last time I made it out there was. Definitely before Pete became an initiate. Shit. That reminds me that I have yet to transcribe last month's meeting minutes. I also haven't posted a thread about Hawaii, either. But I did manage to grab the top spot on the boards again with my comment about Kona Brewing Company. And I am really digging bargoyle's new avatar.



{{I didn't manage to get this top part posted before I left for the weekend, so I figured I'd just add to it, continuity be damned.}}



*Yup, El Paso antique mall is, at least for the moment, a completely dry hole as far as tiki goes. On the flip side, I have managed to walk out of that mall with two very nice vintage medical books. The one I found this time was a great atlas of anatomy from 1943-1945. It's in pretty darn good condition, and is chock full of excellent plates. Even has this cool stamp on the frontspiece that states how the book was made in accordance with the wartime materials act. Doubt we'll ever see anything like that again. Can you imagine how apeshit people would go if the government even suggested rationing in this day and age? Even if it was in the context of feeding and providing materials for our troops. It just wouldn't be allowed to happen.

*Went back to Granite City in the hopes that their house brewed beer would have improved. It has not. At all. And it's not even the selections they have. It's just that the beer itself is very, very, very blah. Makes me wonder about the competitions they were in to win the awards they say they did. I won't be going there for the house brews anymore, but the food is quite tasty, so I might go back for that. So I guess I'll just be taking my fancy schmancy growler and getting it filled elsewhere. After I do some engraving on the handle, that is.

*Never thought I'd ever walk out of any hotel and encounter a Weinermobile, but that's exactly what happened.

*I do believe that for all the hours that I spent antiquing over this past weekend, I found exactly one tiki item. A most disappointing average, by any account.

*After 4+ sleepless nights in a row, it was good to hit the sack and be able to just conk out. I actually feel pretty rested today. I don't remember what dreams I had, but I get the feeling that they were rather bizarre.

*I met my mom's husband this weekend. I also sorta met my brother. And I got to see where they all live. Dave, the husband, is a big bear of a guy. From what little time I spent with him, get the impression that he's a nice enough guy. Matt, my brother, I only kinda encountered from across the room. There's still something going on there that I don't know about, and I'm not sure I will anytime soon. Sheri and I spent most of our time over the weekend hanging out with mom and Dave. We went out to eat, played some games, and even did some antiquing. My impression was that it all went well, even thought the initial dinner had a few awkward pauses in it. Sheri also got to meet grandma, which was nice. As long as things don't get too crazy the next time I'm down to hang out with Steve, I'll swing by and say hi to everyone befoer I head home. Hopefully mom will have recovered from her cataract surgery by that time, and maybe I'll get to see a little bit more of Matt as well.

*It's never a good thing when you hear someone you know has been delivered a ridiculous ultimatum by their soon-to-be-ex.

*****