Another great weekend

Friday was all preparation for the Saturday surprise party. Menu planning, surprise itinerary planning, food prep, and rest. As requested by the birthday boy, bleu cheeseburgers were on the menu, along with jalapeno burgers and cheddarwurst. It may have snowed this weekend, but if I can stand outside with a t-shirt on, I'm a goin' to grill. That's just what I did.

Apparently the b-day boy had some idea that something was up, but what can you expect when you try to get 25 excited people to keep a secret for a month? While I do wish he would have been COMPLETELY surprised, he didn't know exactly what was going to happen so I'll have to live with that. An early birthday grill-out followed with some bowling at Gameworks and other downtown fun.

And... while hosting a party results in an unfair amount of clean-up, one does retain the rewards of leftover food... and so on Sunday I continued the grilling with an encore to go along with opening day of baseball. Having a bye on Sunday for hockey actually was a bit of a relief, not having to prepare for a late and physical activity to end the weekend. The long day of on-and-off cooking included making caramelized onions for the burgers... it's nearly a two-hour process, but they're SO DAMN GOOD. I also love how much they reduce down. I cooked four large sweet yellow onions down to... well I took pictures. Here are the before and after:




This week is prep for several weeks of traveling. I already took a two-week trip earlier this year, which I loved, but that is nothing close to what I have upcoming. I'm excited and am ready to meet challenges, let loose, see old friends, meet new people, and finally use my passport! The tentative schedule:

April 13-16 San Francisco, work
April 16-19 Las Vegas, leisure
April 19-22 Las Vegas, work
April 22-25 San Antonio, work
April 25-27 Houston, leisure
April 28-30 MN
May 1-3 Madison, leisure
May 3-7 Las Vegas, work (seriously!)
May 8-9 MN
May 10-22 Brazil, Argentina, Chile, work
May 23-25 Madison, leisure

I should start packing like right now... :)