2008 So Far

Geaux Tigers!
I hope everyone’s having a good new year. Mine’s going well, and it’s gotten even better now that LSU has won the national championship against Ohio State!!

The New Years story—Friday
Like I said, we went to Ohio to visit Dev for New Year’s and that was a lot of fun. Bill and I bought each other a GPS for Christmas and nobody around here was up for planning anything, and Dev was all for it, so we just said “why not?” We left Friday night, drove halfway and spent the night in Mifflinville, Pennsylvania. Well, not really the night. Bill drove until he got tired and we stopped around 2 in the morning, then got up at 7 to hit the road again at 8. We got to Dev’s around 1:00 on Saturday afternoon.

The New Years story—Saturday
Dev announced that he was going to the Youngstown Steelhounds hockey game that night, and normally, Bill and I would have been right along there with him. But that happened to be the same night the Patriots were playing the Giants to go undefeated for the season so no way were we missing that one! We went to eat at Tokyo House, a great little Japanese restaurant where Dev knows the owner/chef, Ken.

The Tokyo House is great, although Bill’s not too wild about it. Ken talks a lot while he’s cooking the food in front of you. The first time I went was one time with Dev when Bill wasn’t with us. When Ken found out I was from New Orleans, he told me a heartbreaking story about several members of his family that were victims of a vicious crime at their restaurant on Bullard, the Kim Anh. As he was telling the story, I remembered the story. It was the Murdering Cop Bitch Antoinette Frank who shot her partner, who was working a detail at the restaurant, and two of the four siblings who were working at the restaurant that night. Everyone who was living in New Orleans in 1995 has to remember this; it was all over the news and shocked even murder capital New Orleans that a cop could shoot her own partner, Ronald Williams. Anyhow, the Vu family owned and ran the restaurant, and Ha and Cuong Vu were murdered along with Williams. The Vu’s are Ken’s extended family. That conversation definitely brought back memories of the news reports. I actually met Ronald Williams’ widow a couple of years after the murders. She was a pleasant person but you could tell still very troubled. I hope she and the Vu family have found peace. Ms. Frank is on death row in Louisiana. I hope she rots in hell.

The New Years story—Sunday
So we went there for dinner then dropped Dev off at the game because he could get a ride back home. Bill and I went back to Dev’s and watched the heart-stopping game that gave the Patriots the first 16-0 record in NFL history. Then the next day we went shopping for Jessi’s birthday present but couldn’t find the kind of shoes she wanted so we ended up giving her money to buy them with lol! I got totally screwed trying to watch the Saints game on the computer through the DirecTV thing. Since the account is located in Stoneham, and the Saints game was the game being broadcast on local TV in Stoneham, I couldn’t watch the game on my laptop in Boardman, Ohio! Unfortunately, the broadcast game in Boardman, Ohio was the Browns-49ers game. Yeah, like that game even mattered. But, the Saints lost anyway so I ended up not being too upset.

We went to a barbecue place called Smokey Bones near Dev’s house for dinner Sunday night. It was good. Dev and Bill both got the full racks of ribs with the brown sugar sauce and I got a combo pulled pork and ½ rack of ribs with the regular sauce. I loved the pulled pork and didn’t think too much of the ribs, although Dev and Bill both praised the brown sugar ribs. I should have gotten that, or gotten a full plate of the pulled pork and not even done ribs.

The New Years story—Monday
Monday, Bill & I slept in while Dev went to work. He came home mid-day and we went to Bob Evans for lunch. Bill’s a big fan of the turkey dinner at Bob Evans. It is a good place, and we only get to go there in Ohio since there are none in Massachusetts. After lunch we farted around for awhile and then took off around 7 to pick up Kathy and head to Steamer’s Stonewall Tavern, a great little restaurant where Kathy knows the owners. We’ve been there a few times with them and they had a new year’s eve party with a DJ and all. We had 8:00 dinner reservations and then we just kept our table for the rest of the night. We ate, we danced, we drank, we celebrated. We met a lady named Ro and danced with her and Kathy for awhile. Ro was a big kick. Even Dev was in a good mood!

Bill got some pictures so I’ll post them as soon as I can get the camera from him and upload them.

The New Years story—Tuesday
Tuesday we drove home. 10 hours. It’s a nice drive through the mountains in Pennsylvania, but jeez!

Groan
Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.
A dyslexic man walks into a bra.