This weekend was definitely full of Fall fun with delicious food along the way. Friday night we started our weekend off with Guest Appreciation Hour at Industry Kitchen & Bar in Sparta. Girlfriend Brooks loved her Chicken BLT, and I enjoyed my Industry Double Down burger. Brooks bashed me saying my pictures don't do them justice, because I get this burger without the cheese, onions and pickles that are offered on the menu. I respectfully disagree with her, because this shows you can order things custom when possible. Just because I don't like cheese and onions doesn't mean we should penalize me for not liking those toppings. I'm a plain Jane. Picky, yes, I know. We had a great meal. We then ventured up 15 in Lafayette, for our second meeting with the Seeing Eye Puppy Club, Love On A Leash. Another fun Friday night with gorgeous, sweet, loving puppies everywhere! Brooks and I took Gumbo for a walk around the basketball gymnasium court and she did great. We then walked Lucy who is already pro ready basically. She was so smart, well behaved and chill. I think she's going to make a fantastic Seeing Eye Dog someday. There were emotional times, such as when we all clapped for Navajo who will be leaving soon to go to puppy college in Morristown. We had a great time learning how to start training Seeing Eye Dogs, which sometimes can be very different from basic puppy obedient training. Even if some of these puppies don't graduate college in Morristown, I know they'll still be absolutely amazing pets. Being surrounded by so many sweet and loving puppies is not a bad way to spend a Friday night at all!
Friday night by 8pm I was more than ready to go home. I was tired from a long day, and allergies were starting to kick my caboose. I found out Saturday morning that I was apparently snoring really loudly, which does happen sometimes when I'm really overtired. Fortunately Brooks was a trooper putting up with me. We were more than happy to have a quiet Friday night in watching Big Bang Theory reruns. Talk about a nice Friday night. Playing with puppies, hopefully someday helping make a positive difference, then relaxing watching Big Bang Theory reruns. Overall success! Saturday morning Brooks made the executive decision / strong recommendation that I clean my floors. This past week with leaves falling, Fall definitely started to catch up on my floor. I wasn't really home that much, just basically at night watching The Boston Red Sox in the playoffs. After their season ending loss to the New York Yankees, at least I don't have that problem anymore. It was fun even though we were losing seeing Cam Schlittler their rookie pitch one of the best pitching postseason performances in history. Cam grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts just 20 minutes away from my hometown of Mansfield, Massachusetts! It was really cool watching this on ESPN, as the commentators gave a shout out to Walpole State Prison, MCI Cedar Junction. Padre worked there for over 25 years! It was really cool hearing his old prison get a shout out on ESPN, even a little surreal. I definitely didn't have that on my Bingo card!
After a little bit of Swiffing, my floors were clean. It is nice when you go home to a clean place, that is for sure even I'll admit that.
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Saturday we made our way to Hackettstown, to return at Donaldson Farms. They didn't have a huge event happening like a few weekends ago with the Garlic & Corn Festival, but we knew James On Main in Hackettstown was going to be there representing. Their BBQ brisket a few weekends ago was tremendous. Brooks was hoping to try their pulled pork, since her Dad recently had it exclaiming that this was the best pulled pork he ever had. Brooks had her heart set on it. When I was getting out of the shower she chirped happily "their site says they'll have pulled pork there today!" We looked at the menu and were sad to not see it. Everything looked great, but our heart was set on the pulled pork. We enjoyed a Czig Meister beer, in the gorgeous weather. I then told Brooks I was going to ask James On Main when would they have pulled pork available again. Much to my pleasant surprise, they said that it was available after all! I treated us to the pulled pork, and it was quite possibly the best pulled pork I have ever had. I mentioned to Brooks it tasted like candy. She joked that it was basically meat candy! I just want to remind you that this food was actual Barbecue food. It's always a huge pet peeve of mine when folks refer to cookouts as "barbecues," or even as a verb "we'll barbecue." NO. Barbecue is a type of food, like Italian food, etc. If you're grilling some ribs, or pulled pork, then yes you can call it barbecue. If it's just burgers and dogs (which you know I love,) it is not barbecue. That's a cookout!
We had dinner plans but then scrapped them because we were nice and full from the pulled pork. We then ventured over to Target because I'm due for a new electric razor. They basically tend to last only 2-3 years when you're using it almost everyday. I bought a new Norelco Phillips one that looks to be pretty decent. We brought it home to charge and I was livid. Of course this doesn't charge like a normal electric razor, it has be charged with a USB charger. Talk about annoying. Now I need to go home and make sure that my iPhone charger will work with it. Why couldn't they just make it normal instead of smart?
Brooks was invited by her neighbors to join them for a cookout, and it's only 3 doors down from us basically. They're a really fun bunch. Bill, Billy, their beautiful wives, and several other neighbor friends were so sweet and fun. Brooks and I also had fun hanging out with our new little friend Declan, who is a proud lifeguard. Our friends then invited us over for football Sunday with them. They have a nice TV screen right out on their deck. Perfect on a beautiful Sunday afternoon! I went over and enjoyed the first half of the 1pm games with them while Brooks was getting ready.
Sunday afternoon we were able to visit our friend Kiersten, who we haven't seen since mid August. It was great to see her home, and enjoy family Sunday dinner with meatballs. Everything was great and fun!
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Sunday night we ended up our weekend watching the New England Patriots with their thrilling win over The Buffalo Bills! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend, and this will be Epic. My first time every visiting Syracuse, New York!