Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Back to Work I Go...

I had a really nice two days off.  I worked WAY too hard on Sunday, but then had time to recover.  Sunday started with Chickie bringing her Mom's truck to our old house.  DH had cut down a tree and we had a lot of other brush that needed to be hauled to the Ramsey County composting yard.  The yard is actually quite close to our location (which was very lucky).  We ended up hauling six loads, and they were FULL loads.  I think we're all sporting cuts and bruises from the experience.  As payment, Chickie got my old exercise bike.  She's been wanting that for a couple of years and I gave it to her for sweat equity.  I now have a little more room in my laundry room, she has a little less in her apartment.  All is good. 

After DH mowed the lawn and we dropped off a few more sticks and a couple of bags of small twigs and branches, we went home to shower.  Then we went out for drinks and dinner.  Good idea and bad idea.  I was drinking wine - never a good choice for serious drinking.  It was not a good night, but it could have been worse.  I suspect that I might miss those brain cells that I killed with alcohol poisoning, but it's OK, I survived and DH also survived. 

Our Monday was spent being lazy.  We watched lots of Clint Eastwood movies on the TV - it was Clint Eastwood day on Turner Movie Classics.  It's hard not to get pulled into The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, we were shopping and eating for Hang Them High, and we finished the night with Where Eagles Dare and Heartbreak Ridge.  Fun.  And dinner was awesome - homemade Juicy Lucy hamburgers and potato salad.  I did get my silk glued onto the backing and will start beading it either Tuesday or Wednesday.  We might do a movie on Tuesday - I think DH wants to see Robin Hood (I think it will be awful, but what the hey ). 

Juicy Lucy

Apparently not everyone is aware of what a Juicy Lucy is. As my friend VerLaine loves to say - it is South Minneapolis' contribution to the culinary world. Curious about the history of a Juicy Lucy? Check out the Wikipedia article here. Anyway....last night we celebrated VerLaine's birthday a few days late by going to a local pub offering their own Juicy Lucy burgers. The Blue Door Pub is a local small eatery close to the shop. It used to be called Puerto Azul (blue door in Spanish for whoever doesn't translate that language ), but was rarely open. They recently change their name, their ownership, their menu and their hours. Now they are open 7 days a week, long hours, and seem (if the crowd from last night is any indication) to be doing very well. The waitstaff were friendly and efficient - no grass growing under their feet! The burgers were good - but I think I'll try a different type the next time I go. The tater tots were amazing - a huge portion, perfectly crispy. I brought the remainder of those home and my DH had a snack. The price was reasonable. It was a fun night - one that I will repeat again.

Can't spend a lot of time on the blog today - I want to get to the shop as early as possible to get some more kiln and enamel work done. It was so fun to get back to the kiln yesterday - but not nearly enough time to play with enamel. I'll probably be doing some enamel at home on Wednesday using the small portable ultralite beehive kiln since there is no way I'll have things finished on time if I don't work at home. The problem with the ultralite is the lack of control on the heat, but I think I'll be OK if I'm careful.