Cinnamon Roll Weekend

This was a crazy weekend. Really busy but I still had a great time.

Friday night we went to the Boise State basketball game vs Albany. The game was really close, I think the lead changed something like 30 times during the game. Just a lot of fun. The crowd at the Pavilion… er… Taco Bell Arena was really into it and making some good noise. That sort of energy hasn’t been in that building much this season. We escaped with a 1 point win in the end. Very thrilling.

Jess and I then headed over to the Tavern at Bown Crossing (from here on out just to be known as “The Tavern”) for a few drinks. Yes, this was the same place as the Bump In-To, but dammit no way in hell she is going to scare me away from this place.

We get there and saw a few friends of Jess’ and then got a couple beers at the bar. That is when old friends from the Ha’ Penny days started pouring in. First, it was Bobby BoSox. A Penny regular whom I’ve not seen in quite some time. He’s married with a kid on the way. Amazing how time flies.

Then came my buddy Adam (who I share my basketball tickets with, but wasn’t at the game). I had sent him a text that we were there, wondering if he was in town. Turns out, he was on his way down there. He had company in from out of town, Coach Riddle who was a Boise State football coach but went to Colorado with Hawk. It was great to see him again… terrific guy.

Even head basketball coach Greg Graham came in with his family. He was nice enough to stop by and chat with me for a few minutes. Talked about how tight the game was and how the outcome was much better. He even gave Jess a little grief for being a Vandal.

There were others around and all in all it was just like old times… specifically the GOOD old times. I had an amazing night. We’re definitely going back there.

Saturday was pretty low key after the crazy night before. I made beef stroganoff that night for dinner. It didn’t turn out great I thought, but Jess said she liked it. Maybe she was just being nice…

Sunday, Jess cracked the whip and got me to completely clean out my closet. I have a walk in closet in my apartment, that had become much of a storage spot. She prodded me to go through that crap and throw/give a bunch away and take the rest to storage. The end result was that my closet hasn’t been that organized since I moved in. She deserves all the credit, cause I would have stopped about a dozen different times, but she wouldn’t let me.

In the midst of all this, I took the time to whip up some of Alton Brown’s Overnight Cinnamon Rolls. I’ve never made them before, but the bread recipe was the same as I used for the super bowl sausage bread. After the dough had finally risen (why it always takes longer in my apartment I’ll never know) I assembled and put in the fridge for Monday morning (since we were both off work for Presidents Day).

I pulled them out first thing and got them preped to bake, threw them in the oven and made up a little cream cheese icing.

They turned out awesome. I highly recommend them. (Update: in fact, they might be better this morning out of the microwave as they were extra gooey!)

Monday afternoon we decided to go for a walk around the MK Nature Center along the river here in Boise. I hadn’t been there for a long time. It was a nice day and I took the camera along to take some snaps…

That evening we caught an early showing of Music and Lyrics (which was amusing, but pretty average) and a late dinner at Cafe’ Ole.

All in all, it was a quality holiday weekend. Just about as good as you can get without actually going out of town.

Now back to the grind.