Weekending- For the love...

 All the love... for all the love 😘

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday

Friday, our school district didn't have school. The teachers came to the school for a teacher work day but students didn't attend school. That means that had I wanted to cajole students who lack both the physical desire to sit still and the mental/ emotional wherewithal to learn with a sub in the classroom, play a small role in the educational experience of students in our district for the school day, I couldn't have.  Fortunately, I didn't so it was all good on my end 😃.

I had plans to meet my older brother John in the town of Wapakoneta. It's about an hour and a half north of us and about an hour and a half south of my brother making it an ideal half way point to meet. We planned to meet for lunch.

Wapo is a small town with just under 10,000 residents. As such our eating options were limited. A quick perusal of the town's website indicted several non-chain places and we chose one on Main Street to try- J. Marie's Wood-Fired Kitchen.  It was located in one of the old buildings that dotted Main Street. The inside of the restaurant oozed character (no photos of the inside- it was crowded and small and I felt self-conscious taking photos) that are prone to aged buildings that have been lovingly restored. 

My brother arrived shortly after I did at the restaurant and we, for the most part, enjoyed our lunch. The food was good- I don't think the restaurant had a fryer which represents quite a departure from most restaurants in the Midwest... 😆 I didn't see a single fried anything option on the menu...There were several burger options but none came with French fries. My grilled chicken sandwich came with a choice of red potatoes or a sweet potato or veggies. 

appetizer

my lunch

What was not good was where we sat vis a vis the door to the restaurant. To wit, we were way too close to it. Anytime someone opened the door to enter or exit, a blast of cold air filled the space near the door, which was, unfortunately, where our table happened to be. My brother and I both kept our coats on the entire meal and were still often cold! I found myself fighting the urge to glare at every newcomer who stood in the restaurant's entrance (my seat faced the door so I was in a good vantage point to reveal my emotion to anyone who came through the door (should I wish to!)). I think I didn't glare at anyone? I realized that my entrance, too, had unleashed a barrage of frigid air into the restaurant when I had entered it as well. I was as guilty as anyone in lowering the air temperature of the restaurant...

Incidentally, when I walked to the back of the restaurant to use the restroom, I couldn't help but feel the warmth of the wood fire pizza oven near some of the tables. (Wah, why weren't any of those tables available when we arrived??) It's possible that those sitting near the pizza oven were too warm during their time at the restaurant (the footprint of the restaurant was a narrow rectangle. All of the tables were on one side of the room while the other side had a large bar area and then the kitchen (which was open) was right behind the bar on the same side. Then there was a fairly narrow aisle that divided the two sides. The pizza oven was on the edge of the kitchen area, in what seemed like mere feet from the edge of the table closest to it).

I think that my brother and I will check out this restaurant again when we meet in Wapo. (Seeing the wood fire pizza grill has me wanting to try their pizza!) However, I will want to meet there only when the temperature outside is moderate in case the only table available is close to the door and our enjoyment of the time there is subject to the capriciousness of the weather. One can imagine the issue that we had in reverse on a languid hot summer day in July or August where the building's air conditioner can't keep up with torrents of hot air entering the restaurant when patrons opened the door. 

After eating, I would have liked to walk up and down Main Street to check out the shops there. However, since I never really warmed up in the restaurant (save the few seconds when I was near the pizza oven!) and the outside was freezing cold, the only thing I wanted to do after lunch was get in my car, blast the heat in my car and head home. So that's what I did!

A darling Main Street 

Wapakoneta is hometown of Neil Armstrong, the first man who (purportedly) walked on the moon. 

The town has a museum as well as numerous spots around town that pay homage to Armstrong and the moon mission.

This was the temp shortly before I left for Wapo- see how sitting next to a door that opens frequently could be less than ideal?

Donnie came home from work bearing gifts of chocolate(!) and Jacob even made a surprise appearance and brought me flowers!

Friday evening, the mild cold that I'd had for the past few days got worse and I started feeling badly. Saturday, I felt poorly all day and didn't go anywhere. It was just a cold (I think- no fever or anything) but I was very congested and was sneezing a lot. Donnie went out to run some errands for us. I took a Nyquil early and slept for at least ten hours. That was a win!

Another win was feeling much better on Sunday. I don't know as I would have gone to church, though, just because I definitely have something... Church, however, was canceled due to bad weather so I didn't have to make a choice. We only got about three inches of snow overnight- hardly a storm. But more was predicted in the morning and we are definitely not a hearty bunch in southwest Ohio!! 

Jacob was home for dinner so he and Donnie grilled outside in the freezing cold!

   

My two best guys 💕