New Year’s Dinner At Lonesome Dove

Heather and I went out to Lonesome Dove for a New Year’s dinner tonight.  The menu was amazing, with seven courses from appetizers through dessert.  The highlights for me were the lamb bacon BLT in the appetizer course and the butterscotch pudding in the dessert course.  That’s not to say that any of the food was bad, it was all delicious, and the service was perfect.  If you haven’t been out there, it’s well worth the trip.

Shooting With Mike

Mike and I went down to the Dallas Pistol Club for a little target shooting and to get my new-to-me .45 sighted in.  The weather was a little brisk, especially with the wind, but a good time was had by all.  The pistol’s sighted in and shooting well.  Now it needs to be cleaned so that I can do it all over again.

TJ Thermostat Replacement

Mike and I tore into the Jeep a little bit ago and got the thermostat replaced.  It’s been overheating and going through coolant for a while, but since I rarely drive it, I didn’t really worry too much.  But since the weather was nice and I had a willing and able assistant, it was time to get it fixed.  The old one was definitely stuck, considering it didn’t open in boiling water.  We had a little trouble getting the housing reattached, or more precisely keeping the gasket aligned while attaching it, but got through that.  It’s all buttoned up now, no leaks, and is holding temperature where it should.  After a short test drive things seemed good, no overheating or smelling coolant when we got back.  Time will tell if this fixes the problem, but I’m pretty confident it will.

Christmas 2010 – Heading Home

Since my flight was later in the afternoon, Reese and I got a day to hang out.  We went to get him his second flu vaccine, but other than that it was all chill time.  We put together the Lego Darth Vader TIE Fighter he got for Christmas.  I found a piece of software called Gawker that uses the iSight camera on the Mac to create a time lapse movie.  We did one with 1 frame every 5 seconds and it turned out pretty well.  I’ve got a little editing to do to get it cleaned up but then I’ll post.  After that it was time to go, so we headed down to the airport and I got checked in.  Again, no problems checking the pistol (thanks United!), and the flight to Chicago left on time.  The flight to Dallas was delayed though, so I didn’t get home until almost 1:30 AM, but it’s all good…

Christmas 2010 – Driving Back To Peoria

We hit the road early and decided to trust the GPS’s chosen route out of the mountains.  It took us through some really pretty country in northern Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.  Kudos go out to the states of Georgia and Tennessee for their most excellent snow removal efforts.  North Carolina, on the other hand, gets a big fat raspberry.  Seriously.  You could tell where the state line was by the quality of the road.  After we got out of the mountains it was smooth sailing until we were about 20 miles outside of Peoria, where we ran in to frozen fog.  The visibility was terrible and it was more than a little freaky seeing fog outside when the temps were in the single digits.  We arrived safe and sound though, got the car unloaded, and headed to bed at a decent hour.

Christmas 2010 – Christmas Day

Reese, as usual, was up before the sun, ready to open presents.  We waited for the rest of the gang to get up and moving and then started in on the unwrapping.  Reese got a lot of what he’d asked for and seems pretty happy with everything.  I got a few books and the first season of Warehouse 13 on DVD.  And we all got the gift of a white Christmas because it started snowing just after dawn.  We didn’t get a ton of snow, maybe an inch or two, but it was nice.  From there we just kicked back, played with the kids, and watched football.

Christmas 2010 – Heading To The Cabin

We had a short drive, just over an hour, out to the cabin.  It’s up in the mountains in northern Georgia, and is really nice.  Lots of room, a full kitchen, a great view, and a hot tub.  Everyone’s unpacked, we’ve got the tree set up, and the kids are off to bed so that Santa can come…

Christmas 2010 – Driving To Atlanta

We hit the road just about on time, stopping in Champaign for breakfast, and then continuing down to Kentucky.  Once back in a civilized state I could carry again, which was nice.  Lunch in Paducah, followed by more driving, and then some more driving.  We pulled in to Joi’s brother’s house outside of Atlanta at around 10:00 PM local time, got Reese to bed and got settled in ourselves.  Tomorrow we’re heading up to a cabin in the mountains north of Atlanta…

Christmas 2010 – Flying Out To Peoria

Morning came way too soon, but that’s the way it is. I got a lift to the airport and got checked in for my flight. DFW wasn’t busy at 6:30 AM, which was nice since I was checking a firearm on this trip. That was handled professionally and quickly by both United and the TSA. The screening to get through security was fun though, since I decided to fly kilted. The flight was delayed twice and I barely made my connector after a nice run across O’Hare airport. Seriously, I arrived at gate B22 and had to get to F14. Thankfully that flight had also been delayed so I got to the gate just as they were boarding. Picked up Reese and headed out to dinner, then got settled in because we’ve got a long drive to Atlanta tomorrow…