First, check out this coolness from Thwart Design:

A bacon freaking bracelet? (Plus it's made out of leather) Seriously....
There are a couple of bacon-obsessed food bloggers on my daily read list that I know would LOVE such an item.

Second...I have a dining adventure to report on. Boy came home early on Friday to take me out for ExtraSpecialSuperFabulousFun Friday, and we decided to hit a local brewpub/restaurant we heard about from our friends last weekend. Barley John's Brewpub is locally owned and something of a hole in the wall in an odd location. Nevertheless, we just had to try it after wondering about it for some time and then hearing the rave review.
They brew all their own beer, and also serve a few "guest beers" of the commercially avaliable variety (including Ace Pear Cider, which Carrie loves). They had about eight homebrews on tap for our visit including a special Anniversary Ale that our waitress informed us was a "Red" beer. Although I was hoping he'd go for the Dark Knight (13%alcohol!) Boy ordered the Old Eight Porter and I had what amounted to beer dim-sum, the Featured Four sampler.

That's the beers in a nifty little beer holder and shown with the Artichoke dip appetizer we had. It came out with slices of good bread and was delicious; made unique with the addition of wild rice. Definitely one of the better Artichoke dips I've had. I also had a field green salad with a lovely homeade vinagrette that contained an herb I just couldn't place...delicious, fresh and unique.
For our entrees, we both ordered one of their grilled pizzas.
Mine, the pizza O, with roasted peppers and portobella mushrooms, and Boy the Pizza J, with Canadian bacon, pineapple and aged cheddar. His won by a landslide but both were lovingly handmade and yummy.

Honestly, the whole beer thing was pretty much lost on us, as we are not exactly conniseurs of beer, but it's a cool endeavour and I'd go back just for the artichoke dip any day. Of the four beers in my sampler, I liked the Old Eight Porter the best. It tasted like chocolate and coffee which I presume are desirable characteristics in a thick, dark beer, but to me, there's just something off-putting about drinking dark brown, almost syrupy stuff and thinking "beer". The Little Barley Bitter was also decent, with the Stockyard IPA coming in third and the Wild Brunette absolutely undrinkable due to the extremely bitter finish. I guess I must have an accute sense of bitter, because Boy liked the Wild Brunette and said it tasted like strawberry. It seriously made me want to retch.
Anyway, it was a fun adventure and worth a visit.

We finally got to our bikes out yesterday. It was a beautiful day and just perfect for a ride so we geared up and headed north to a family gathering. I love the first few rides of spring because I've always managed to forget over the winter how much I love my bike and riding.
I made a batch of iced sugar cookie cutouts to take with but I forgot to take a picture of them. I named them "Your 70's Kitchen Wallpaper Cookies", and they were yummy, made better by the fact that I managed to get them 70 miles north by motorcycle and not break a single one.

An then...
Guess what showed up on my doorstep while I was away yesterday?
A CHIBI!!!!! all wrapped up in a cute little suprise box.
My pal Carrie is just the best! She really knows how to make people feel special and it's one of the things I love about her. Thanks to her I'm now a Chibi owner...
And we all know I'll put those darning needles to good use. If only I had three hands to use them all at once.