Happy Sunday! Um, wait – it’s Monday!

Gosh I love Monday holidays. Three-day weekends are the best! And best of all, is that we haven’t had anything going on all weekend. No game to get to, no practice to chauffeur to, no meeting to attend, not even an organized party to go to – nothing! We did get to church on Saturday afternoon which was nice because it allows us to be uber-lazy on Sunday morning. On Friday night we hung out with the neighbors at Uncle Bear’s, a dive bar just around the corner from the ‘hood. It was fun – we played billiards (I sucked!) and shuffleboard (I rocked!) and even though we were all home and in bed by 9:30 it was a great time!

Last night Terry and I went to Firebirds to celebrate our 13th anniversary a day early. It’s really a nice atmosphere – woodsy and open, high ceilings, with the feeling of a Colorado mountain lodge. They didn’t have the fireplaces going this time – of course the 115 degree heat had something to do with that. But it’s a really comfy, casual restaurant where you can enjoy a fabulous steak and not feel underdressed. It is pricey though – best saved for special occasions. I had the bleu-cheese crusted filet mignon with port mushroom caps. Fortunately for my waistline, they were out of the creme brulee cheesecake, but it’s just as well since I was so full from dinner anyway.

Today Terry is golfing with the neighbor guys and I’ll probably be going to a movie with my friend Kathy, maybe the Nanny Diaries? Tonight for dinner we’ll have a traditional Labor Day feast of grilled burgers (swiss & mushrooms on mine), corn on the cob, crunchy cole slaw (recipe below) and strawberry shortcake.

Last week, on Wednesday night, Eric had his first game – the Mesquite Wildcats were at home against Desert Ridge (which are a bunch of rich kids from North Scottsdale). Mesquite freshmen kicked some major butt – final score was 26-0. I’ve done a slide show of the team photos that have Eric in them (he’s #61) but you can view all the shots from the game using the link below.

| View Show | Create Your Own

• View the complete game photo gallery
• To follow the Mesquite Wildcats Freshmen Team B visit the MHS Touchdown Club website

Crunchy Cole Slaw TNT

8 Servings

* Salad *
1 Package shredded cabbage
2 Packages Chicken Flavored Ramen
Slivered Almonds, Toasted (about 3/4 cup)
* Dressing *
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
2 Tablespoon sugar
4 Tablespoon white vinegar

Combine dressing ingredients in jar, add chicken seasoning from Ramen packets; shake well and refrigerate until ready to serve.

When ready to serve toss in a medium salad bowl: cabbage, almonds and broken up dry Ramen noodles. Pour dressing over top, toss and serve.

Summer birthday, working like a dog, new restaurant, summer is here

So yesterday we had a birthday party for Justin. The conclusion: It sucks to have a summer birthday. Although he invited about 8 or 9 kids, 6 said they were coming and only 3 showed up. They had fun, I think, though one of the kids is just the brattiest little terd on earth. And it was hotter than hades again – but sticky humid from the rain. Next year, I’m going to let him pick one kid to sleep over and we’ll spoil them with a movie, dinner out and video games. It would have been cheaper and easier to just buy him some new titles for his PS2 than what I ended up doing – planning for 8 kids, baking a bday cake from scratch (will still do that part), researching and running games, getting prizes, making goodie bags and just overall running the show for 3 hours. I’m exhausted and actually Justin is taking a nap right now. Oh, and I truly believe that water balloons are the work of the devil.

Work has been busy as ever. My next big meeting is next week and I feel very unprepared. I’ve got a dozen other projects I’m working on too, which don’t just go away when I’m offsite working on something else. I’ve just been working on birthday and ordinary household stuff all weekend, and have no desire to do anything job-related.

Terry was sweet yesterday though, he recognized how I worked my butt off for that party and treated me to dinner last night, just the two of us. We went exploring a little bit, to an area we don’t normally go, and stumbled upon a restaurant called Bonefish Grill. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The food was excellent and the service was way above average. The atmosphere was elegant but we still felt at ease in our casual shorts and flip flops. The prices were fair, not cheap by any means, but well worth the meal. We enjoyed a light-crusted freshly baked bread dipped in olive oil and pesto. Terry had corn chowder with crabmeat and I opted for the dinner salad – both excellent. For an entree, Terry took the surf & turf and I had the filet mignon – both were fabulous. They had creme brulee on the menu – my favorite – so of course I couldn’t pass that up. We left stuffed and satisfied and made it home in time to batten down the hatches for the upcoming dust storm.

Speaking of dust storms, as of yesterday, our monsoon season has just started. You can really feel the humidity in the air and the cicadas are noisier than ever. Things won’t be getting drier or cooler now til at least the end of September, mid-October. I’m content to just sit and soak up the A/C. I’m paying nearly $200 a month for it (budget plan) so I’d better enjoy it!