Sunday morning laziness and steak grilled rare

Yesterday was another enjoyable Sunday morning at the Stump. Sundays are generally that way. Most everyone is in a good mood, is relaxed and not in a big hurry, and there's lots of banter back and forth between both friends and strangers. Plus, the pace of the morning is nice for me, by which I mean that it is lazy. I'm basically a lazy person by nature, even though I work 80+ hours a week and even my "time off" always seems to have some work-related component to it. But all in all I much prefer field testing cigars and craft beer while swinging in a hammock, whittling a tree branch or drowning worms at the end of a fishing line.

Sunday mornings at Stumpjack are about as close as I seem to get to embracing my true lazy self each week. I sat around and chatted with Bill and Pat, Jessica and Pat, Larry and Pat, and Pat and a host of other pals of the shop. Pat was on the money yesterday, quick with the one-liner comeback and ridiculous yet timely quips that might be described as Patisms.

Patisms:
Me, experiencing a brain-fart where for no particular reason I call someone by a different name: Mary, I mean Pat... I just called you Mary? That's odd.
Pat: Maybe because I'm wearing her underwear.

Pat, knowing that Larry's guilty pleasure is Kentucky Fried Chicken, inserts "Kentucky Fried Chicken" into any conversational opening that Larry presents.
Jessica: I took a yoga and meditation class in Kohler the other day.
Larry: Oh, I think I know where you mean. It's in that little shopping area, next to...
Pat: Kentucky Fried Chicken?!

Me: What are you reading there, Larry?
Larry: [gives book title] It's about a guy who discovers...
Pat: Kentucky Fried Chicken?!

Me to Pat: I'm doing a series of paintings on Stumpjack peeps. Including one of you, Pat.
Pat: Am I naked in it?
Me: No, I don't think so.
Pat: Paint me wearing Mary's underwear.

(for the record, Pat doesn't wear Mary's underwear, he was just being silly)

Jessica may conduct a yoga, meditation and chocolate class at the Stump. She's someone I might decribe as one of those lighter than air people, who is into poetry and wine tastings, rafia handbags and organic foods, vegetarianism, incense and practical yet stylish shoes. After I wrote that previous sentence I thought I should probably check out her blog profile to make sure I wasn't saying anything so off the mark that she might find it offensive (Raffia handbags?! My mexican hairless was killed in a raffia incident. I hate raffia, you jerk!). I am happy to report that I am pretty close in my description of Jessica, although I do not think Jess is a vegetarian (did a quick blog search for the word "meat" and found that she does indeed eat meat, which gives her another thumbs up in my book).

Anyway, sometime today or tomorrow I'll be shooting out an email to everyone on the mailing list to see how many folks might want to participate in Jessica's yoga, meditation & chocolate class. Watch for it.

We capped our Sunday off by driving up to Green Bay so that Cheyenne, Jesse and Courtney could go mall shopping while Kim and I hung out at Barnes & Nobles for a couple hours. I purchased a CD by Lightin' Hopkins out of the discount bin (what a great find!) and the latest issue of Draft, a beer mag.

Then we went to Prime Quarter for steaks and kitty cocktails. I "earned" my third medal for eating their Beefeater Special. Truthfully, I'm an anti-large-quantities-of-food guy (don't care for smorgasbords or all-you-can-eat dinners, or the "supersize me" mentality). I just think it's a bit crass and the quality of food in those things is almost always pretty lame. But I love a good steak. And Prime Quarter sets the bar pretty low as far as quantity goes...it's only 40 ounces. 40 ounces of steak with salad, bread, spud and drinks is about as daunting as eating a small box of popcorn at the movie theatre. I'm thinking they need to set it up as a legitimate challenge, or at least make it interesting; something like "The Old 96er" in that John Candy movie "The Great Outdoors," where he has to eat 96 ounces of steak, including all the gristle and fat to get everyone a free meal. Something that looks like it would take a couple of guys to carry the plate to your table. Now for that I might have to do a little stretching and limbering up for. Anyway, I get my next steak free for polishing off the 40 ounce Beefeater. I didn't order dessert because that might have been rubbing it in a bit.