Reno Weekend

[kevin_standlee]

We went in to Reno/Sparks both days this weekend because there were some things that couldn't be done on Sunday and one thing that could only be done on Sunday. In retrospect, we should have packed our overnight bags and stayed at the Sparks Holiday Inn, which would have saved us a 60-mile round trip home and also checked off two of the goals on the promotion I'm working my way through for what used to be called Priority Club. (I could end up with as much as a week's worth of free hotel nights in London if I can finish all of the goals by the end of April.)

Saturday we went to Big O Tires to have the tires on my van rotated and to ask them to check what looked like a screw that had embedded itself in the right rear tire. They repaired the tire, which had not gone flat until they took the embedded screw out. We also did a bit of hardware shopping for things that can't be had in Fernley, and went by Whole Foods Market where they finally had lamb stewing meat again. (Stewing lamb is apparently difficult to get here, and Lisa has a mix to make a nice lamb stew; she made it that night.) We also stopped by Cost Plus World Market to take advantage of a 15% off offer they were running.

Sunday morning we were back into Reno for the Atlantis Sunday Brunch, for which I had a two-for-one coupon. The queue wasn't too awful when we got there, but something was holding things up for a while, and by the time it started moving again, people were stacked up behind us so deeply that I observed that if it had been that bad when we initially showed up, we would have balked.

The Atlantis brunch is very good, and we took excessive advantage of it. We tried to walk some of it off, hanging around for the $1000 drawing for which I had an entry at 1 PM, then headed off for what was supposed to be another round of grocery shopping including our big weekly trip to Winco. But our usual strategy of having a good meal before shopping backfired. At the second stop — another trip to Cost Plus because of a one-shot, one-day half-off-any-non-sale item coupon that turned up Saturday night — I concluded that I was so tired that I wasn't up to any more shopping. Lisa allowed that we could get by until next weekend and drove us home.

This evening, I watched the Australian Open men's tennis final on WatchESPN. I somehow had managed to evade the results (unlike the women's results, which a stray Tweet let out of the bag before the replay was available to watch). As I wrote a couple of days ago, they play the matches because the rankings aren't always enough. Wow, what a tournament for upsets this year.

Now I have to buckle down for what looks to be another very intense week at Day Jobbe.

Comments

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

Could you ask Lisa if she is willing to share her recipe for lamb stew? We occasionally make lamb, and generally use the leftovers to make lamb stew, but haven't found a recipe for the stew we really like yet.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

It's not a secret, but a commercial mix: Coleman's Lamb hot pot, which we first picked up at a Cornish pasty shop in Grass Valley but now buy from Cost Plus World Market.

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And luckily, it appears to be something that Shirt can eat (he has a severe intolerance to anything in the capsicum family - which sometimes makes spice mixes difficult).