Monday, July 14, 2008

Monday Monday. Can't Trust That Day. Or Can You?



Another great ride with Tri-Brother yesterday, 41 windy miles along Lake Michigan, from northwest Indiana to New Buffalo, MI and back. 104 average wind-aided watts at the turn-around, 135 wind-battling watts on the return and 119 average for the entire ride. Bright sunshine, cool temps, lotsa smooth, re-paved roads and a friend as a tour guide for the day. She's mapping even more lightly-trafficked, lakeside streets to extend the route to 100 miles or so. Let the games begin!

I dropped Tri-Brother at his Chicago hotel for a few days of big important business meetings and headed to Tri-Daughter #3/#4's Bucktown apartment for a nap...except no nap ensued. Camden the Wonder Dog looked bored, so off to the local doggy park we went. Characteristic of his Golden Retriever breed, CtWD is good-natured to a fault. Chicago is just 6 million people he's yet to meet and he can't wait.

He's also a clumsy moose - a furry, 75 lb. poorly-guided missile. Other dogs soon learned not to mess with his missile-ness, especially one mangy hound-dog-looking cur who found that, as a straight boy dog, CtWD doesn't appreciate being mounted.



The real purpose of the evening was T-D #3's birthday celebration dinner at Spring, a fantastic restaurant that's rapidly becoming my favorite EVAH! (Here's a review from a few years ago...) I've now had two dinners at Spring; both rank among my mis-begotten, captious life's most memorable.

T-D #3 knows how to pick 'em.
She's working at Spring for the summer, so we were escorted to a primo table and treated exceptionally well. Unexpected appetizer courses, extra amuse bouches just 'cuz the chef thought we'd like 'em. We did. And though we ordered three desserts for the table, I think we received twice that many. Yum.

Oh yeah, the wine. Let's see...an Albarino from northwestern Spain, a Sancerre from France's Loire Valley and a Washington State late harvest Gewurztraminer. All terrific, crisp, summer-y, food-friendly wines...good values, too, from a well-conceived wine list.

And now it's Monday. Blech. I need more weekends and fewer Mondays. Anybody figure out how to do that?

(UPDATE: Someone else rode along the shore.)

No comments: