Another Fun Three Day Weekend

It’s back to work today as a three-day weekend closed. Here is a look at how I spent it.

Friday – I got out of work a little early and I cut the lawn. I must say since I started mulching I will never go back to bagging my grass. As I knew the weekend had a lot in store I purposely scheduled very little. Joyce and I ate at the Patio of all places and then sat down to watch some videos.

We caught the Assassination of Richard Nixon, which was good, if not great. Then popped in some Denis Leary standup, which was pretty good as well.

Saturday – The day started off with a bang, as Joyce could not find her purse. She swore she had left in the car but it was not there. So, I calmly asked if she might have left it at work? After debating the issue we decided to go to her office downtown to see if it was there. I knew this was going to be difficult, since there was a parade downtown. So, I took as many back roads as I could. Also, since parking in the loop is a joke, once we got there, I had Joyce go up to her desk while I continued to circle her block. Luckily, her purse was indeed at her desk, so that catastrophe was avoided.

Next, we headed back to the burbs and went to Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s is a yuppie grocery store that sells a bunch of bad tasting, bland, organic, food. Joyce likes the place, personally I hate it. However, there is a disc re-play store next to it so while she was in there I went to the used CD store.

They have a great deal where if you buy 3 discs you get the 4^th free. So, I came home with, Billy Idol, Rebel Yell, The best of Judas Priest, A best of Toto disc and a Cat Stephens CD. All of which I did not need yet for the four of them it was less than twenty bucks. After spending what I thought was a lot of time in the CD store, I went to Trader Joe’s only to find that Joyce was not even at her mid-point of shopping. So, I joined her and cracked jokes at all the lame products that they have there. (Like the chocolate beer.)

We got home and I caught the end of the Cubs game, as I had to hit a graduation party later in the afternoon. I hit the party to find that there is a beanbag tournament taking place. Basically, it was a blind draw and you would be partnered up with which ever name was drawn. I was paired with a guy I had never met named Bill. Fortunately, he was a pretty god bag thrower. There were 32 people in the tourney, meaning that there were 16 teams. We won our first two games rather easily to make it to the “Final Four” however, there we lost and eventually Mike (who’s house we were at) and my friend Chris won the thing.

After the bean bagging, I sat down and chowed a burger and some chicken and had a couple of Old Style’s. I yucked it up with the boys and eventually headed home.

Sunday – I had to hit a softball practice. We had been trying to all get together to hit some balls all year and finally on Sunday we were at least able to get enough people together to do so. I was out in the outfield shagging balls and realized just how out of shape I really am. When we were finally finished I was done. I went home and hit the couch and watched the end of the Cubs game. Joyce came home and we decided to skip the cookouts and grab some Mexican food.

So, we venture to Café Salsa’ in La Grange which is one of my favorite Mexican places. We get a table and we wait for the waiter to come over. We wait and wait and wait. Finally, I declare enough is enough and I suggest to Joyce that we leave, which we do. We than head down the road to another Mexican joint, whose name escapes me. I wanted to really like the place to stick it to Café Salsa’ but I must admit I didn’t care for it.

We got home, relaxed and I caught the end of the Red Sox – Yankee game and than found Boogie Nights on cable.

Monday- Somehow I let Joyce talk me into going to Michigan City, Indiana to accompany her to the outlet mall that they have there. It is about an hour drive from our house. We headed out in the morning and got there both pretty hungry. I figured there would be an eatery or something like that but I would be mistaken. Our choices of food were a hot dog stand, a crappy coffee house or a Subway. So, we went with the Subway. Of course since the mall had a limited number of eating establishments every other backward ass Hoosier in the area also decided to eat there.

The line started some where near South Bend and ended in Terre Haute. Joyce got a table while I braved the line. In front of me was a man with few teeth, a bad stench and he looked as if his last bath was sometime during the Clinton administration. He than scratched his head and about a foot of dandruff flew out from his hair and onto the ground. Any sense of appetite I had was quickly dissipating and at that point I just wanted to leave. I hung in there and got to the counter to get my BMT and Joyce her turkey sub and we ate.

I quickly than realized I was doomed to die a slow and painful death. Every store had to many people and not enough workers. As Joyce went from store to store my main goal was to find an open bench seat close enough to whatever store she went in. I also learned that these outlet stores are a sham. I didn’t find the prices to be any better than at a Kohl’s or Sears. So, as Joyce went in a Coach, or Gap outlet I basically people watched.

And, let me tell you if you want to watch a bunch of mullets and kids named Marlinda the Michigan City outlet mall is for you. If I needed any re-assurance that I could never service outside of Chicago yesterday was all the proof I needed. To say the service people were slow is like saying Kristine Alley likes Chinese food. I bought one thing the whole day other than the Subway. I grabbed a pair of shorts and some shirts at the Levi’s outlet where they had a whole one-counter open. The lady running the register was just a little older than Jessica Tandy would have been. Sadly, I think even in her current condition Mrs. Tandy would have operated a register quicker.

After finally getting out of the store I had seen enough. Joyce hit a couple more stores and at long last we left, only to hit that famous Chicago traffic on the way home. Once home Joyce made some of the Trader Joe’s grub. As a thanks for me going with her to the malls Joyce cut my hair and I settled down to watch the Cubs game and wonder just what happened to my three-day weekend.