Wide Right Hall of Fame – Inaugural Class

So I thought about doing this for a while, and did it back like a long time ago when no one ever looked at a website hardly or blog.  Figured I’d revive it here, the Wide Right Hall of Fame.  Something I’d probably do every quarter or 3 times a year.  Some of the options I may create a poll as to who/what gets to get more interaction and stuff of the blog.  I’ll probably also stick to a Place, Movie, Song, Person, and an “other”  or 2 that gets in every class.  There’s no plaque or bust or even certificate, just the honor of being in the WIDE RIGHT HALL OF FAME on the internet.  Hope y’all like the idea.

So with that, here is the prestigious and infamous inaugural class.

Wrigley Field -- Shawshank Redemption -- Harry Carey -- Born In The USA -- The General Lee -- Grainbelt

Wrigley Field - One of my 2 favorite places in the world.  I’ve only been there 4 times and have great memories of all the trips (though not all wins)  heck, I got my daughter’s name from the street it sits on (Addison) and when the ivy is in bloom you can’t go wrong with a day game there.

Shawshank Redemption  - Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying….the movie may be 3 hours or so but it hooks me every time I flip past it no matter where it is in the movie. 

Harry Carey – Getting the nod since it is close to the baseball season’s first pitch.  He (and WGN) are the reason I’m a cubs fan.  I remember running home after school during day games so I could see the 7^th inning stretch.  Got to sing it there in Wrigley with Harry twice.  “You know Steve, Alou spelled backwards is Uola….sounds like a first name”

Born in the USA – Harder to pick the song than I thought.  Went with the one that I first remembered singing the words too.  Even dressed up as the Boss to sing it when I was a kid.

The General Lee – My Dream Car!  A ’69 Dodge Charger.  Damn I loved seeing that thing jump a bridge or creek.  The Dukes is probably my all time favorite tv show.  Watched them a lot with my grandma too every Friday night.  My dream is to own one of these too someday.

Grainbelt – It’s the friendly beer!  Introduced to it by my cousin Ryan during Iowa tailgating in 2002 (BIG TEN CHAMPS!) it’s been my beer of choice since then.  My favorite local establishments in Des Moines carry it too and just got a sweet Grainbelt lid from my buddy Scott. 

Date Night

So last night Shawnna and I finally got our second date night since Ryleigh's been born.  Usually we want to get at least one a month with each other.  Mom came down and stayed with all 3 kids, they had grandma here so they had fun with artwork, or as Brayden called it, "his masterpiece."

We headed out to eat at the Flying Mango in Beaverdale.  It was a really cool little place.  You walk in and you see the chef cooking on the stove there.  Walking up from the back you can smell the grill going.  I looked at the menu a bit before and saw what they had, and I went with the Big Chop along with Southwestern Smashed potatoes and Cowboy beans, along with a Two Hearted Ale.  The chop came out and had a knife stuck in it and was about the size of a softball, and with the homemade bbq sauce it was DAMN GOOD!  We also shared a slice of Chocolate Malt Cake.  It was gone pretty quick.  Overall I liked the Flying Mango, the service was kind of slow and not very responsive, but the food was great.

Then headed to see Bridesmaids.  I've heard really good things about it, some saying it was the female version of the Hangover.  All I have to say is I laughed so hard that I had a headache and had tears later.  Kristen Wig as a lead was really solid and funny, so was Myra Rudolph, but I thought Melissa McCarthy stole the show.  She was fricken hilarious!  Probably in the lead now too for the Best Dudette on my Summer Movie Awards.   Really glad we went to see it over Hangover 2.  I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Afterwards we took the scenic route downtown, drove through downtown and saw what was going on and decided to go get a drink.  We headed to Mullets.  A cool restaurant/bar just on the other side of the river from Sec Taylor Stadium.  Heard from my buddy Quentin that it had good food, and it's owned by the same people who own El Bait Shop, so I figured they had Grainbelt!  Had a couple, Shawnna had a Monkey Tail to drink and we split some deep fried dill pickles.  After about an hour there we headed home and crashed!

It was one of the best date nights we've had since kids arrived in our life 6 years ago!  Had a great time!