The rest of the story

Friday morning came lazily after our Turkey Bowl victory and way too much food on Thursday. What's for breakfast after Thanksgiving? Around our house it's potato pancakes made from leftover mashed potatoes from my mom and dad's homemade applesauce. Very good stuff, though not incredibly healthy.

It wasn't long after breakfast that I needed to race to the airport to pick up Joisey Ken. Fortunately he was arriving (and departing) at times of the day where traffic isn't too bad (around noonish both times). But his flight was 30 minutes early and I was barely out of my neighborhood when he said they just landed! Doh!  Isn't that the way?

After we got back home, we gathered ourselves and LL and headed back to Kuma's Corner for another great burger. This time, the waitress said it was a 2 hour wait!! She must REALLY not want me there as the waiting time escalated from 90 minutes, which was really only 45. As it turns out, we were back home in 2 hours, so her time was off again. This time though we snuck into the seats at the bar, so our wait was only about 30 minutes or so.  Even if we wanted a table though, it was nowhere near 2 hours. Anyway, the burgers were delicious again and we were very full...a theme repeated most of the weekend.

Friday night was the Party at the Punke's, the guys who sit next to me at the Bears games. They had their company party and invited us down. It's at a bowling alley and they have music and food as well as a ton of booze. The catch? It's a solid 90 minute drive to get down there to Dwight, IL. Worth the trip though. Not only did I bowl a 204 and 211, but they had the "ring of fire" again!

Here you go! The ring of fire around the horseshoe shaped bar. It really got warm in there!!















And yes, I did indeed try to get a 600 series by throwing a third game even though my thumb was swelling and my elbow hurt (I haven't bowled in a year). I just remembered my grandpap, my mom's dad, bowling well into his 70's and telling us about his most recent 600 series over the phone. This was my first legitimate chance at one (at least I think) and came up well short throwing a 159 in the third game. I missed a 7-pin spare three times, which was brutal.








By the time we got home from the Punke's, it was after midnight and we were beat. We were beat most of Saturday as well, but had to go shopping and start prepping for the Bears tailgate the next morning. But first, more potato pancakes!! Then we had some leftover chili from my last batch and just decided to stay in and have Pequod's pizza for dinner.

Sunday morning we were up at 6:30 and packing up the car to get to Soldier Field by 8 a.m. We were a few minutes late, but not too bad. Mr. Heater was out, but it was borderline whether I needed him there or not. People seemed to appreciate him. Benny Baseball and Sausage were at this game, as they are every time Ken comes to town. Great fun.
I took this panorama shot with my iphone. Not bad.






And here's the four of us in the early morning with Mr. Heater on the left, Sausage, Benny, me and Ken in the Vikings gear. I made cheesy, sausage bread again along with hogs in a blanket. Someone brought donuts and we had bacon wrapped shrimp, dates and a few figs courtesy of LL. She also made the corn muffins to go with the new batch of chili I made on Saturday. We ate it all!!!  I weighed myself when I got home and then the next morning and I lost 4 pounds over night. Ha!

The only dinner we had was leftover pumpkin cheesecake from Thanksgiving. Delicious!

Monday morning, Ken and I went to breakfast at Ann Sather at the end of the block and then I took him out to the airport to catch his noon flight. It was another great visit with Joisey Ken and he again showed up bearing gifts; this time a Bears knit hat, two Bears shirts (actually Decatur Staley shirts, the Bears predecessor) and two boxes of Pro-V1 golf balls. What a guy!!! Thanks Ken!