My Weekend

OK, now that I got the venom out of my system in the previous post, let's get onto happier things, namely, my weekend.

Friday
University night and there was a pretty good sized crowd. The Thunder even wore Rachel took Friday off for mental health and because she's jealous that I get payday Fridays off. Can't say I blame her for being jealous and I was happy she had the day off with me. We spent the day taking down the rest of the Christmas decorations, picking up, and watching movies/TV. Later that evening we met my Dad and Mark at El Porton (best Mexican restaurant in town). We then went to the Prairie Thunder hockey game. Friday night was Illinois WesleyanIWU green sweaters that they auctioned off after the game for charity.

The game was great as we won 5-3 with new player Jars getting a hat trick and Standish almost getting one himself (his shot on the open goal hit the pipe, oooh, two hockey lingos in one post). We all had a good time and Dad enjoyed his first visit to the Coliseum.

Speaking of Standish, the guy is maybe 5'6" on skates but is faaast. He has great passing skills and has a nose for creating plays. I don't expect he or Jars will be around for too long. Let's enjoy them while they're here.

Saturday
Saturday we decided it was time for a trip to Peoria. Why would we go to Peoria? We wanted to visit Big Lots (ours closed down last year) and Burlington Coat Factory, and to see if the Bennigan's there was still open. Since I didn't print out a map we of course got lost. I drove all the way around Peoria and finally called Burlington for directions. Once there Rachel found a jacket and I found that I was not the target demographic for this particular store. Unless of course I was looking for a fake Chinchilla coat or a derby hat to match my suit.

From Burlington we traveled to downtown in search of a Monte Cristo. No luck though, the Bennigan's was closed. I truly hope some chain buys the recipe. Oh well. We had a good backup though, Joe's Crab Shack. Joe's was very delicious. We had a pot with Chesapeake seasoning and an appetizer platter with crab dip (I highly recommend), some jalapeno crab balls (that's what she said), and popcorn shrimp. All washed down with some Blue Moon.

After Joe's we didn't want to truck all the way back to the North side of town for Big Lots so we decided to try and find the one in East Peoria. Well, we got a nice tour of East Peoria and Germantown Hills (recently expanded into Polandtown). I stopped at a convenience store and naturally the lady was new and hadn't heard of Big Lots. I looked it up in the phone book and saw it was on E Washington street. The lady said the street was on the other side of the highway. Away we drove in search of bargain prices only to discover the street was W. Washington. Dejected, we gave up and decided to head home. We got on the highway and, lo and behold, what do we find but an exit for E. Washington st. Deliverance at last. We found the promise land and then spent an hour and a half perusing their wares. Actually, I spent the last half hour laying in a recliner but that's beside the point. Oh, and some of you are wondering why if I looked in the phone book, I didn't call the store for directions. Exactly.

When we arrived back in Bloomington we stopped at McDonald's for our free Big Macs. Yes, we got free Big Macs. If the Thunder score 4 or more goals in a game everyone in attendance gets a free Big Mac the next day. Victory was delicious.

Once we arrived back to our humble abode we played some Rock Band 2 on the Wii.

Sunday
Super Bowl Sunday was spent cleaning and watching TV. Included in the viewing was Puppy Bowl V on Animal Planet. A very enjoyable two hours. Late we went over to our friends Amy and Scott's house to watch the game. The game was pretty boring (save the 100 yard Int TD) for the first three quarters. Luckily the fourth quarter was great.