Ketchup

Today's title is a bit of a play on phonetics charades style.  One word, sounds like... you guessed it:  Catch Up.  Get it?  Ketchup = Catch up...

Anywho, this weekend was jam packed full of good things: friends, food, shoes and snowmobiles.  Not necessarily in that order but it sounded better that way.  Friday night the hubby and I had an excellent dinner out at the Reel Seafood Company.  We'd never been before and even without a reservation we had  absolutely no wait.  Unheard of in Albany, NY!  We should have bought a lotto ticket.  We enjoyed some fresh bread, adult beverages, fried calamari, stuffed shrimp and Alaskan Chicken (crab meat in a cheesy white garlic sauce over chicken). Delicious.  A little pricey though, so this will have to be something we do sparingly.

Saturday was the Big East Powersports Show in Syracuse, NY.  We went with friends of ours who share our affinity for snowmobiling.  This event features vendors from across the US who bring a butt-load of product with them at deeply discounted prices.  Deeply discounted must mean "jam packed convention center" in another language so I had to pretend not to be claustrophobic long enough to buy stuff.  I'm a bargain shopper and let me tell you...I was successful.  I got an entire outfit (Jacket and bibs) for $179.  Jackets alone normally retail over $300.  I also found Itasca snowmobile boots for $49.  At one point, though, I was trying on a modular helmet (since my current helmet is a hand-me-down that fogs up terrible) and was bumped from behind causing the face shield to slam down on the bridge of my nose.  I could have cried but I reminded myself this would all be worth it since we were going to Delmonico's for dinner afterward.  Delmonico's features their very own "Delmonico's Steak" which is a 24 ounce center cut seasoned angus rib-eye steak. This of course was the entree I ordered and subsequently ate the other half of for lunch today.

Sunday was a day of shoe shopping with my mom and sisters.  We have an upcoming wedding to look spiffy for, so we headed out to one of the malls closest to my house.  A new store had opened called Shoe Dept. Encore.  This store is like heaven for shoe addicts.  An entire room dedicated to clearance.  A tv and chairs over by the kid section.  Rows and rows of beautifully organized name-brand shoes with bargain prices.  Plenty of space so that you didn't feel overcrowded by other shoppers.  Plus the store was cooler on the temperature side of things, so that made it all that much better to shop there.  I despise shopping in a hot over-crowded store.  It makes me grumpy.  At the Shoe Dept Encore, I was far from grumpy.  I had more shoe selection than I could have asked for.  I probably tried on ten or so shoes that all could have been contenders for my dress.  I ended up with the black shoe pictured.

What did you do this weekend?  How do you feel about crowds?