Tiring but very fun weekend

Boy am I going to sleep well tonight. It's been that kind of weekend.

Friday night the weekend was kicked off with a hockey game at The United Center pitting two original six teams against each other, the Blackhawks and the Canadians from Montreal. The good guys won 3-2 and I belted out the Canadian national anthem as I always do when afforded the opportunity. Good fun! We took the shuttle from The Beer Bistro where we had some dinner and then took the shuttle back after the game. Very nice way to get there and back.

It wasn't the usual rowdiness at The UC though as I had to get up at 6:30 a.m. to get out to Naperville for a golf outing/fundraiser for my softball team which had a shotgun start at 9. After surviving the cold (low 40's), wind 20 mph easily and general dampness on the course (cartpath only because it was so wet) for 4 1/2 hours, we were rewarded with a decent lunch and free booze for an hour. Lunch consisted mainly of the biggest bread bowl I've ever seen and ample amounts of chili. My bad for not taking a picture of the bread bowl. It had to be 8-10 inches high and 6-8 inches wide. Unbelieveable.

When I got home, it was time to shower and warm up, maybe get a little nap in. By the time I was ready to go to the grocery store to buy food for the tailgate the next day, the cops had blocked off my street so cars couldn't get through due to a Halloween parade. So I could either wait until 9 p.m. to get started on cooking, it was about 6, or I could walk and carry my grocerys back home, which I did. Fortunately though I needed a lot of stuff, it wasn't particularly heavy.

The cooking was finally wrapped up around 11:30. The additional hour of sleep because of daylight savings time change couldn't have come at a better time. It was a 6:30 wakeup call again, but this time so I could leave by 8 for tailgating.

Mission accomplished though and LL and I were at Soldier Field with the grill going by 8:30 a.m. We were visited by 17 guests over the course of the morning, the majority not making it in time for breakfast, which I cut off at around 9:45. The breakfast sandwiches were particularly tasty and the maple sausage links were a positive change from the sausage patties I normally cook. They didn't burn as easily and were delicious.

All things bacon wrapped were up next: waterchestnuts and shrimp which both were doused in barbeque sauce and figs. Yum. We ate about a pound of shrimp, two pounds of bacon, one can of whole waterchestnuts and probably half a pound of figs.

The homemade chile came next. The chili is made with a pound and a quarter of ground beef and a tube of spicy breakfast sausage. Combine those with an onion, three peppers, tomatoes and three kinds of beans and you have some damn good chili. It was good by itself, but after the game we put it on cheddar cheese filled brats. Yum again!!

Tomorrow, I have to deal with the clean up!