Grease, Gears & Grooves at the Deluxe: bike parts

Grease, Gears & Grooves at the Deluxe: cars & trucks

After rain ended our surprisingly lucrative yard sale early, Julie and I motored over to Maplewood for lunch at the Deluxe. We had no idea we would run into Full Throttle Midwest and their gearheads.









Next up: the bikes

"MacArthur Park" in Midtown?

Garage Sale Time - July 11

JD and I are hosting a happy little garage sale this Saturday morning. I'm sure it will burn me out on being sociable for the rest of the weekend. Maybe if I'm ambitious I'll get up early Sunday morning and visit the new City Garden downtown, but I'm not holding my breath. So far the only activity I'm sure of for this weekend is sitting around outside, trying to sell off some desks, a sofa, some spare computer parts, a bunch of dishes, and a friend's kids clothes.







This will be my second and last garage sale of the year (possibly decade).

Wandering around Cherokee

Pizza from the Blackthorn

Okay, while I'm on this decadence kick, let's talk about pizza. We stopped in for some deep dish last week. Luckily we'd called ahead an hour earlier, so it was ready when we got there.

Quiet Summer Night at Ted Drew's

Summer + St. Louis = Crowds of people spilling onto Chippewa Street, waiting for their frozen custard fix.

A Delicious Dinner of Appetizers @ Riddle's Penultimate

When were feeling decadent, Julie & head to Riddle's in the Loop. Usually nothing can distract JD from their Cajun Cavatelli, but last week we decided we wanted a selection of little plates. The descriptions are straight from Riddle's ever-changing menu.



Shrimp Cocktail – Big wild, Gulf Shrimps served with the traditional American tomato cocktail sauce, this one made with fresh Southern Illinois Horseradish ground fresh for us at Rothman’s Deli, 4720 Delmar.



Smoked Copper River Salmon - This is not lazy slacker farm-raised Salmon. No. This is beautiful, wild, swim-for-your-life Salmon harvested sustainably from the cold,
clean waters of the Copper River in Alaska, smoked in our own kitchen, and served chilled, with pumpernickel toast points, capers, onions, and cucumber.

Crostini Harrisburg - Crostini (“little toast” in Italy) made with crusty, just- baked Breadsmith Baguette spread with Fresh Herb-enhanced Chèvre-style Goat Cheese from Harrisburg, Missouri and an excellent Italian Sun-Dried Tomato on top.



Crab Stuffed Artichoke Bottoms - Crab is the operative word here, held together only with Homemade Cornbread Stuffing and a prayer, these are like little Crab Cakes stuffed into the ‘Choke Bottoms.

Crawfish Stuffed Mushroom Caps - Large caps piled high with a rich stuffing of Crawfish Newburg, spiked with dry sherry and a good shot of cayenne pepper.

Blue Cheese Stuffed Mushroom Caps - Big caps stuffed with a mixture of Blue Cheese and quite a good shot of Avery Island, Louisiana Tabasco Sauce.

I'd tell you more about how good these were, but I've made myself hungry. I think it's time for breakfast.

What I did last weekend

So, I've been catching up on photos. Last weekend I pulled apart my computer and replaced some guts. Well, a lot of guts. It's been years since I updated anything, and working with RAW photo files was getting really, really slow. Don't even ask about video.



Here's a peak after the new motherboard, new processor, new video card, new optical drive and new memory went in, but before I plugged in all the power.

Photo and video edits are moving much faster now.