Chicken Vegetable Soup, Reel Big Fish, Dogs I Saw

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Winter hit Des Moines this week with a vengeance. Last Friday schools were closing early because of the on coming snow and the temperature was going to dip down to the negatives.

My game plan for the weekend was to watch movies and make a new meal I got from a cookbook I picked up.

https://amzn.to/2WeeGxU

Saturday, after shoveling the snow off the deck, I began to dice the vegetables and saute them.

I'm not in shape by any means but this was hard work. I find it hard to believe that Olympic Athlete's wouldn't work up a sweat. Getting everything diced and tossed into the pot in time. I was sweating like I ran a marathon...or walked up some stairs.

I also made a side of Banana nut muffins. Guess which one I overfilled?

I got to be honest with you, this was easily the best meal I have made so far! I ate the entire thing over the course of the weekend. Perfect for these cold winter days.

Reel Big Fish

Des Moines had it's annual Reel Big Fish show this week. I don't know what it is about Reel Big Fish and Des Moines but it seems like they're in town so often it almost feels like they are almost a local attraction. Every few months a Reel Big Fish show is announced. But the people of Des Moines don't seem to mind seeing that yesterday I read that the show had sold out.

I should have taken a Lyft because parking was a real pain, Des Moines is starting to grow and all my secret free parking spaces are disappearing. I found a meter and inserted my card and it was declined. (?) It turns out that our meters don't take my type of credit card. I began scouring my car in an attempt to find any change I could but no dice!

I began messaging my friends inside saying I would buy them a beer if one of them ran out a couple bucks to me. Luckily for me I had a guardian angel in the form of my friend Felicia. She got me some quarters and then judged me harshly "why wouldn't you bring change for the meter?"

"DON'T JUDGE ME." I cried!

We got inside and went to the bar and ordered her a drink. I said beer and she ordered a super expansive mixed drink. Now you're taking advantage lady. :)

I found Brooke and Jill in the back, we didn't get into the pit because we are old, between bands Brooke would yell "Get set up faster! I have to get to bed." And then Jill would complain about her back or something. We are so old.

The first band I really got to pay attention to was Mest. I had gotten into Mest a little bit when they first appeared in the early 2000s, not to huge but enough to know some of their songs.

https://amzn.to/2TaMMRj

When they hit the stage the conversation between my group was, yeah I remember these guys. I don't know what they sing though. Or I didn't know they were still around. That was until Felicia dropped this bombshell, "Did you know the lead singer killed a guy. I guess he stabbed him over a woman." Jill and Brooke broke out their phones to do some research and confirmed it

http://www.mtv.com/news/1555497/former-mest-singer-jailed-for-fatal-stabbing/

"That's insane. I could never kill a person over a woman," I informed them. "But I could see women killing someone over me." Jill, Brooke and Felicia began laughing, maybe a little to hard. It kind of hut my feelings ladies. In fact, I tried to get a picture of Brooke's face. It was a mixture of "Oh my God that's funny." to "There is no way that could be true and I am kind of embarrassed for him for even making a joke like that."

Mest was pretty good, there was a couple times where I said "Oh yeah. I remember this song." They were a bit unrefined, they would talk way to much before their songs, which I think is a stable of a young band that is nervous, trying desperately to entertain the crowd.

While RBF set up I hung with Max at the merch tables.

I had to talk myself out of buying a $50 Reel Big Fish Hawaiian Shirt, or tiki drink, or Baseketball Jersey. Or all the of the above.

Max told the guy running the table about my award winning, I gave it an award so that counts, comic book about a vampire shark and told him to cut me a deal. He said he couldn't but at least he tried.

Before they started Max and I were trying to figure out how many times we had seen Reel Big Fish. If it's not in double digits for us it has to be close.

I have seen them a lot and probably will every time they return to Des Moines. They're such a fun band. I like the contradiction between listening to the happiest peppiest music with most angry, frustrated and down right spiteful lyrics I have heard. There's something really funny about that to me.

They were pushing a new album, which I new nothing about (where have I been?), Life Sucks... Lets Dance.

https://amzn.to/2FPn8i6

They peppered in a few new songs between their classic hits. It was a great show. The highlight of the night was when Aaron Barrett, the singer, announced to the crowd "alright. here is our big hit from the 90s!" Of course the crowd erupted in cheers and then laughter as they begin to play All-Star by Smash Mouth. He stops everything and explains that wasn't his song. Then they played Closing Time by Semisonic! Again laughter and finally the played Sell Out.

Once again, another killer show and I was pleased by the fact that they snuck Brown Eyed Girl into the line up.