Hell of a Fun Weekend!

Another jolly good weekend is in the books! Dinner at Grimaldi's on Fri. was So. Fucking. Goooooood!!! Mr. Wonderful Stefano and I sat outside on the patio--it was a little chilly but once we got our wine and pizza we were fine. We shared a small (which is PLENTY) salad, and a small mushroom w/Italian sausage pizza. Oh my God. I ate 2 slices and Stefano ate the rest. Then we went home and had a romantic evening together!

Before I met Stefano for dinner I'd run over to a house in my neighborhood where they were selling a Kenwood stereo system. I NEED a good stereo system, it's embarrassing having only a boombox to listen to music to at my house and being a professional musician, shameful! So I've been looking on Craigslist for a few months now and budgeted some $ for such a purchase. I liked what they had but we didn't have an LP to test the turntable so I said I'd be back this weekend w/a record of my own. I was going to go back on Sat. afternoon but I was too lazy and didn't want to rush around so I said I'd go on Sunday instead.

After sleeping innnnnnnnn on Sat.... ahhhh... I went to my house and relaxed before having to head to the rodeo to work at the recruiting booth in the Reliant Center. I had a bad banana so I decided to make banana bread and had to run back to Stefano's to borrow an egg! It came out ok. I think I need to start pulling out my baking stuff before it's done as it continues to bake in its hot dish!!! That's why my baking (cookies, banana bread) is never moist and is always too brown and dry. I need more practice, obviously.

Poor Stefano's evening gig was cancelled due to the day's nasty rain and cold and wind so he was all bummed out. I still had to head to the rodeo though and got stuck in mad rodeo traffic; however I did get to park on the grounds which was awesome! I had 2 coworkers, 2 regular deputies who work desk jobs (ID and Background). They were cool, especially the guy who was older and old school and totally fun! We yukked it up all day. The chick kept leaving the booth to go shop and schmooze and God knows what. I had a good time though, giving out trinkets to kids and I even discussed the Reserve program w/a couple of people. This drunk guy and his friends kept coming by and bugging us and he told me that I'm a "good-looking cop" and later on he asked for a hug, which I gave him. I was a little excited about the rodeo food and decided to eat a baked potato covered w/chopped beef and it was sooooooo yummy!!! I was just disappointed it didn't come on a stick, but oh well. Later on another deputy came by and he had a fried Snicker's bar!

At least w/Stefano not doing his gig he was at home by the time I was done w/my rodeo shift and so I just raced home to change clothes and then got to his house with plenty of time to begin drinking my beloved coconut rum. On the rocks! Sunday I slept waaaaayyy in, and b/c it was a sunny day (though still cold and windy out) and it was my li'l bro's birthday and we had a big family meal and dessert planned for later on, I decided I needed to go on a run. Instead of driving down the street to the park though I figured I'd just run around my block/neighborhood, which was ok. I'll probably start doing that more when I run in the daytime. I listened to this INCREDIBLE podcast (Act one) of This American Life while running--usually I listen to my music so I have rhythm for running but this podcast was so fascinating I even continued to listen to it when I got home.

After that I went back to the stereo-selling house armed w/an LP which played just fine. I gave them an offer, they countered, and I accepted. We loaded up the turntable, receiver, subwoofer, dual cassette player, 5-CD changer, and 5 speakers into my car and I called Stefano who'd offered to help me hook it all up. He came over but it turns out I really need to buy a stereo cabinet for the whole operation, so we put off the hookup until I can find one. We hung out at my place 'til it was time to go pick up li'l bro for his b-day meal w/my mom and stepdad.

We met at a family fave, the Bibas where I'd had that Mardi Gras party a couple years ago. This was Stefano's 1st time to meet my mom and stepdad, although he and my mom are already Facebook friends, chuckle! It was a good, relaxed time and we grubbed seriously. My bro got the tastiest calamari I have EVER had--you have to be careful w/calamari b/c sometimes it is too rubbery but this was absolutely perfect! Light and crispy on the outside, just chewy enough on the inside! I STILL can't believe I am bothering to blog about food, yet another testament to how happy Stefano makes me! Anyway... soon my li'l bro's li'l gal pal/family friend of all of ours showed up too. After the meal we headed to the House of Guys for dessert as planned. I had the Banana Cream Pie! Banana chunks in the filling! Oh hell yeah!!! Stefano picked up the tab there for our dessert, as he is the sweetest most wonderful man!

Unfortunately then I had to bid goodbye to everyone, drop off Stefano, and get my buns down to Leo's for rehearsal. Our CD release is of course coming up and we also have a gig next Sat. in Austin so we've got to pad our setlist for sure. We worked up 10 new songs last night, though some were songs we've jammed around on before. Leo gave us the new final mastered CD and it sounds really good. I even amaze myself on a few tracks!

So now I'm at Job #1 and the boss will be back in the office tomorrow (she's been out the past 2 days--nice!). I'm going to donate blood at the hospital across the street in just a bit, which is another reason I made sure to grub yesterday; also I'll enjoy a huge ice cream sundae that they always have ready for all donors. I took yesterday's meal leftovers home too so I can have that tonight for dinner b/c blood donation instructions state clearly to eat a "hearty" meal after donating. I even grabbed my bro's leftover calamari!