I’m afraid so. Where did the weekend go?

Maybe some of you have today off work, it being Columbus Day & all. There’s no school today for us, but all the teachers have a big inservice to attend at a neighboring district. Too bad, though: I won’t be there. I have two appointments this morning. Rats.

Had rehearsal all afternoon on Saturday. Driving through the wilderness on my way to school, I noticed that the leaves are starting to turn. Fall has arrived in Ohio. Pretty. (Clicky)

My phone-studded piano during rehearsal.

Saturday night was Rockband 2 at #1 Son’s house. A lovely time was had by all, and I scored my very first 100%. The Rat rocked. So did Seamus, especially on the drums. And Lars “Testify”-ed to the amazement of all. Being a musician is fun; having sons who are also musicians is really fun. That they will invite their mama to make music with them is truly awesome icing. Sorry about the blurry photo…some of you will recognize the little girl to my left. Great fun.

Jake also had his turn beforehand:

And last night, RD and Bonnie took the Thriller and me to the Barn Restaurant for a belated birthday dinner. It was a fantastic time. Lots of laughing, talking, eating. And eating and more eating. It was great. I walked out with a box of their to-die-for cornbread mix, too, which I haven’t had for about 20 years. Yummy! Our fiends are awesome indeed.

And that was my weekend. Went by all too fast. But alas, now I must start working before my first appointment. A paper due tomorrow, and I haven’t even started. This is all getting really, really old…

Happy Monday!

Fink in jammies

Yep, I’m going to throw all caution (and diet restrictions) to the wind tonight at my feast. Fun is the destination, and calories will be along for the ride. I’ll deal with the fallout tomorrow, if there is any. All I know is I am going to enjoy the menu I requested (everyone gets their choice of dinner for their birthday in our family): Chili/chips/cheese, corn bread, five-cup salad, and chock-lick cake. Yummy.

Now I suppose I could have done worse (refer to my “comfort food” reference from yesterday). Lots worse, to wit:

Behold the “Worst Food in America,” according to Men’s Health magazine. The Baskin-Robbins Oreo Shake. According to the Boston Globe report on it, this 2600-calorie monster contains “more calories than 49 Oreo cookies, more sugar than 20 bowls of Froot Loops cereal and the saturated fat equivalent of 59 strips of bacon.”

[In their defense, and probably because of massive negative press, they’re now hawking a reduced fat version on their website.]

Nice calorie/fat count there. But there are awesome runners-up.

How about a 7-lb. burrito at Jack-n-Grill? Clicky:

~

Or a 72-ounce steak at the Big Texan Steak Ranch? Only 5,760 calories and 480 grams of fat. And free, if you can choke down all four-and-a-half pounds of it.

Then there’s the pièce de résistance in my book for eye appeal. Click on the photo for the full effect. Maybe I should have asked for Peach Glazed Pig Cheeks from the Minnesota State Fair for my feast tonight. Mmm, now them’s good eats.

Happy Faturday, fiends!

GastroFink

I admit it. I love that opening line, tired and dragged out and rode-to-death as it is. Sue me, sue me, shoot arrows through me. But it’s also the first line of the round robin (very) short story we’re going to write; me, and yous — you game? Aw, come on.

There are several – many, actually – fine writers who read RtB on a (hopefully) somewhat regular basis. Ross has already guest-posted for us (any other takers?), and I know other good writers on a personal, face-to-face basis. You know who you are. Don’t make me name you.

Anyway, I’m interested to see what direction our little tale would go (although, knowing most of you, I have a clue). So let’s do it.

Rules of the Game

1. Only add a few sentences at a time — but you can add on to the story as many different times as you like.
2. Don’t click the “Reply” link. Just start a new comment altogether. That way, the story will read down the page, and we won’t nest ourselves into a 1-centimeter-wide column.
3. The Fink gets the last line of the story. Because Kody will simply write, “Everyone died. The End.”

When the tale is told, I’ll write The End and close the comments. Ready? I’ll start.

It was a dark and stormy night.

So this is the view from my dorm room window:

Tough, eh? Staying on campus at a small college in the middle of miles and miles of corn and bean fields is way more pleasant than I originally expected. Admittedly, it’s been awhile since I’ve been in a dorm. But these are really nice by any standards — air conditioned, even! Good thing too, since it was 91 degrees here yesterday afternoon.

Only bad thing: as is customary when students walk on carpet in bare feet for months at a time, the place smells a little like, well…like people walked on the carpet in bare, stinky feet. Not pleasant. So I made a quick trip to Wally and bought some Febreze. Covers it up just fine. My guess is the carpet shampooing hasn’t happened yet.

So here’s the layout, especially for the benefit of those of us for whom “suites” were not an option in college, heh:

So far, I’m by myself in this little paradise. Another clinician arrives today to occupy one of the other bedrooms. I guess that’s one of the perks: suite mates, but no roommates. That’s a good thing all around.

All right. Enough slide show fun. Time for showers, coffee, and final prep for today’s session (12:30 Eastern, in case you wanted to know).

The Thriller calls this trip my “adventure.” So far, it’s been a great one! I needed this. More photos & stuff tomorrow. Have a great Monday.

Fink out (on the lone prairie).