Weekend at Nicky's

It was a busy weekend that started with dinner at my parents'. Yummy Thai food -- my weekly fix. Next weekend, my folks are heading to NC with some friends to go golfing. One of their golfing buddies is treating my dad for his birthday, which is on the 13th. I hope the weather is nice for their trip!

After Friday night dinner, John and I were going to meet up with our pals at the Corner Pub, but there wasn't much parking. I found a prime spot and went past it to make a u-turn (avoiding 3-point turns at all costs!). Well, next time I'll know better! Hmmm... it's Sunday and I'm still peeved about this... anyway, as I was making my mid-street u-turn, some blonde bi-otch in a white SUV turned the corner off the boulevard and so I had to stop for her and the bi-otch took my spot!!!! I should have pulled the old "head in" parking move, as she was backing into MY spot. You ever wish you kept old eggs in the car for these types of circumstances?

I went down the side street where we normally have to park, but there were few places close by. It was COLD that night and I didn't want to walk a mile. The one spot I saw was too small for Jackass. I saw another spot, and started driving towards it but had to wait for this dude to back out of his corner parking spot. He looked like he was leaving... could ya guess WTF he did? YES! He took the spot I was eyeing.

So, we (I) decided to go home. I think I scared Johnny a little... it was a case of road rage as I merged onto the Beltway and the person in front of me wasn't accelerating fast enough. HELLO! It's the Beltway! Everyone else is already driving 70! You can't merge on going 35 and not expect to be cursed at!

I woke up Saturday morning and declared I was still mad. Part PMS too, I guess. We headed out to the MD Home & Garden / Craft show in Timonium. My friend, Kara, has a side job with Anderson windows and was working the show this weekend. I wanted to see if they had tile and flooring displays so I could get some ideas for our renovation. We ended up buying some lemon pound cake, a jar of apple butter, candied almonds and 2 cans of cream of crab soup mix. Nothing to do with "home & garden"....

Saturday night, after looking around The Great Indoors for more tile and flooring, we met up with our friends at Nick's Chophouse. For Christmas 2005, we gave our best buds gift certificates to this restaurant. It started a few years ago when Val gave us all gc's to Maggiano's and she's been doing this for us since. John and I ate at Nick's in October when we had family friends in from Thailand and were treated to a fabulous dinner by my Auntie Wirajit.

Anyway, we wanted to introduce our friends to this place. It was so nice to be able to get everyone together for a fabulous meal and good times. It's been quite a while since all of us have gotten together like this. We used to hang out more -- whether at someone's house watching a sporting event or at a bar -- but these days I think everyone is busy with other things. The cycle of changing relationships and coupledom, I suppose. Look at John's yummy NY Strip:



I had the prime rib... I have enough left over for 2 more meals! I meant to ask Nate how his lobster tail was. It looked luscious! I also had some of William's calamari appetizer. They make it so tender and tasty. Good times!

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a project that is my first attempt at felting. Basically, if you knit something made of wool, throw it in a washer with hot water and let it agitate with jeans and towels, it turns into felt. So, I made this:



It's the B4 Bag from the Bloomin' Knitiot. Very easy pattern and fun to make. I expected it to shrink a lot more than it did. I probably should have let it run a 3rd cycle of hot water and agitation. It will probably take 3 days or so to dry, as it's stuffed with plastic bags and jars of salsa, queso dip and canned soup to shape it. My next one will be made with smaller needles and single strand of yarn instead of the double. This will produce a thinner fabric, and I'm hoping a cuter, smaller bag. The pic doesn't show all the detail very clearly, but it's got bobbles, beads and bumps. I need to sew some buttons on it too (hence the B4 name of the bag). I'm still on the lookout for some cool metal ones. Maybe hammered metal.

A fun but busy weekend comes to a close.