we’re spending the weekend here at amy and jim’s lovely home, with their three dogs and four cats, plus mollie, making a total of eight animals. none of the dogs slept in our bed with us last night, but at six a.m., noodle wanted OUT. one by one, they each catapulted themselves onto the bed. soon i heard noodle whining plaintively downstairs, so i took them all outside.
i have to admit that the sky is very pretty at six a.m., not that i’ve seen it that many times at that hour. luckily the wind that blew fiercely all day yesterday is gone. it didn’t feel so bad outside, even though right now the temperature is ZERO, which i assume is warmer than it was at six.
after they all went out, all the dogs then piled into bed with us and miraculously fell asleep again. mollie was the one to finally wake everybody up, because she felt the need to bark.
the weekend – well, there was the sushi-making class on friday night, and then last night we went to KICKS because it was jason goodreau’s birthday and he thought it would be fun if a bunch of people went there.
it would be interesting to compare and contrast the two experiences.
the first thing that comes to mind is that everybody at the sushi-making class had all their teeth. and none of them had tattoos on the backs of their necks, at least not any that were visible. a woman physician sat across from us at sushi-making and she might have had a tattoo, but i’m sure it was something tasteul, like maybe that sign of a doctor, the staff with the intertwined snakes. or at least that’s what kevin says the sign of the doctor is, i can’t remember exactly if that’s right and i’m too not awake right now to look it up.
there were 12 of us at sushi-making at the pasfield house, and it was entertaining and tasty as well. i didn’t learn a huge amount of new techniques, but the instructor, named denise, said she got most of the ingredients at the little world market and i’m excited about going there. she made us miso soup which was quite delicious and even more so because it was a little chilly down there in the basement of the pasfield house. it’s a great space, but somewhat drafty.
the best things she showed us was unagi, which is eel, but it’s NOT GROSS AT ALL, believe me, if you’ve never had it i’m sure you’d think it was, but it’s actually one of the more tame sushis because it’s actually cooked. you can get it at the little world market, frozen, with the sauce already on it, and you just have to broil it for a few minutes. unagi always has a lovely barbeque-kind of sauce on the top, and although i’d had better stuff, i didn’t even think you could get it here in splfd, much less eel that was so easy to prepare.
she cut up stuff for california rolls and we each got to make our own, and i’ve done that a few times so i didn’t learn that much, except it was fun to do it in a group, plus she mixed vinegar with water and rubbed it on her hands before spreading the sticky rice on the nori sheet, so it didn’t stick. this was a very great hint (one i’ve never seen in heloise) because whenever i’ve made rolls i get lots and lots of rice stuck to my hands.
after the sushi making, accompanied by some very fine saki, the owner of the pasfield house, tony leone, took some of us on a tour. tony used to be a lobbyist here in spfld, and boy, that man can talk. he’s interesting and funny, and when he first walked into the sushi class, he looked at me and said “wow, there’s a celebrity here!” and of course nobody else knew who i was so i tried to give the all looks like “he’s a crazy man, pay no attention,” but he did say he saw my show at first night, which was nice.
the pasfield house is now becoming a b&b, and he’s done a great job of restoring it. you can look at the website, it’s the pasfield house.
the rooms are big and lovely with huge whirlpool baths in each room. the biggest suite has a huge living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bath. i mean, very large and impressive. i told him he should have an open house sometime, but he says that plenty of people have been there, because he’s held “presidential dinners” there, where they’ve served food that different presidents ate, and they’ve had wedding receptions and stuff like that there.
anyway, it was an interesting and different night, and it really is good to get out in the cold because otherwise i’d stay inside all the time under the covers.
now, as for “kicks” – i guess it’s called that from the song “get your kicks on route 66,” but i don’t know.
they have an all you can eat bufft, plus go kart racing, plus a room with lots of video games and other kinds of games like skee ball, which is something i don’t totally suck at.
there were many people there, and many didn’t have all their teeth. there was also a sheriff there by the cash register, i guess in case any fights broke out. luckily there were none last night. i certainly wasn’t involved in any, anyway.
the buffet was…large. i found it interesting that at the end of every station was a big vat of pudding. one station had all kinds of stuff for making nachos and tacos and burritos, and then there was a big thing of vanilla pudding. to put on top, maybe? another one had pasta-making stuff, and also a big thing of chocolate pudding. another one, all things fried, like chicken and fish and other questionable fried things, and at the end, more pudding. PLUS, as an added bonus, pickles, and red onions.
the food wasn’t terrible, and i haven’t been to an all you can eat place in quite a while, so i don’t know if it’s any worse than anything else out there. i had a couple pieces of pizza that were ok, as was some bowtie pasta that i put some red sauce on.
we didn’t ride go karts, but it was a very popular attraction. we went into the game room which seemed a lot like chucky cheese to me, except i haven’t been there in at least 10 years. it was much too crowded. we played a trivia game that had a large screen you sat in front of, and then answered questions, and you had to be the first one to get the correct answer, and that was kind of entertaining.
we didn’t see jason after a while, and i assume he was off racing around the go-kart track. i hope his birthday was everything he’d hoped for. i got him a winnie the pooh balloon even though we weren’t supposed to bring presents, but i figured that if you’re going to be in a place with games and go-karts, you need a balloon.
we’re going to a fencing tournament in peoria very soon, so i’d better go get ready.
stay warm.
ok then,
sunday grace.