New Year's Day

I woke up at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, New Year's Day. I grabbed a cup of coffee and finished the Blog. Then I ran through my routine. I ate oatmeal for breakfast.

Sidebar: My father always claimed that it was a German tradition to eat some kind of fish as your first meal of the New Year. It was supposed to bring good luck. But, I am not sure a tuna fish sandwich would go well with my pills...

I watched some morning TV (there was no rush today).  Finally, I shaved, showered and got dressed for town.

Then I headed out. My goal was Leda's Coney Island.

If you are not familiar with the area, Leda's is in a strip mall at Five Mile and Middle Belt. It's just west of the old Outback which is now another Los Tres Amigo's Mexican restaurant.

Sidebar: Outback moved in front of Home Depot. As far as I'm concerned Outback could have and should have moved back to Australia. I really dislike that place: Over-priced, mediocre food, poor service, etc. Unfortunately, Amanda's parents love the place, so I end up eating there at times...

Back to Leda's, I have been jonesing for their corned beef hash with two over-easy eggs on top. They actually make the corned beef hash on site. And, I don't mean they buy the corned beef and then turn it into hash. They corn the beef in the restaurant! It is, literally, to die for.

But, when I got there, it was closed!!!

Time to regroup. The focus of the trip was Home Depot and Petsmart. So, I went to Leo's Coney Island (in the Home Depot complex) instead.

The place was packed. My poor  (but really cute) waitress was overworked. Against my better judgement, I ordered a coffee (I never do that, but the wind chill was ferocious and I was freezing).

Sidebar: I decided years ago not to order coffee in a restaurant. I don't care how many refills you get, it's over-priced.

Then I ordered two eggs over easy, hash browns, link sausage and rye toast. It took forever to get to me and I had to hunt the waitress down for my bill. She apologized repeatedly, but I told her not to worry, I could see she was was pretty busy. The food was excellent, BTW. I over-tipped her. The service sucked but she deserved it.

Then I went to Home Depot. I had three items to get there. A new Swiffer WetJet (my old one finally quit on me and, no, not the batteries), more Swiffer juice and a flag. The first two were easy. But, they don't sell just a flag. So, I bought the cheapest 3' x 5' one with a lame metal flag pole.

Sidebar: My current flag is faded and ripped where its been caught on the roof.

Last, I went to Pet Smart and got this month's supply of the kitty litter pellets.

I was back in time to watch Michigan's loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks. If Jake and Carla followed football, they would have been jumping up and down!

I took advantage of the cold outside to clean out my freezer. I threw away half filled bags of french fries, calamari, tater tots and assorted vegetables. I put them all outside in the trash container, knowing they won't thaw and stink this time  of year.

Then I put the rest of the beef stew in containers, labeled them and stuck them in the half empty freezer.

I had to cut about an inch of wood off the flag poll (it was chewed up) then I replaced the flag.

I am missing the Brother's Night dinner (always excellent), so decided to make Shrimp scampi with linguine I dug out my recipe and found it has been adjusted by Carla, lol! So, I am using Carla's recipe.


But, I had no lemons!!! So, I went back out in the cold for a quick trip to the little store on Beech Daly and Joy. Back home, I had a cup of coffee to warm up and settled in for more college football games.

Unfortunately, it was warm and cozy and I fell asleep! I woke up at 7:30 p.m. I decided I'd be eating way too late (and messing up my blood sugar) so I decided the shrimp scampi could wait for tomorrow and I ate a hot bologna sandwich with cheese and mayo, instead. Sigh...

My brother Carl was kind enough (or maybe mean enough) to send me a picture and the menu of the dinner I missed.

Sidebar: Mark and Anna took my spot and I couldn't have asked for better replacements!

Here's what I didn't get to eat:

Roast pork with chutney, served with sliced and baked potatoes and fresh green beans with almonds, after a delicious salad. Dessert was either cream de menthe, cream de almond or chocolate sundays with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

I read until bedtime.