weekend recap

Friday I had the day off for "tri college day" - a day when the three local colleges - Loras, Clarke, and UD, in a rare demonstration of unity - decide to cancel classes (why, I'm not sure...but I'm not complaining!) As it turned out, Friday was a glorious autumn day - blue skies galore. Nicky and I spent the better part of the afternoon outside shooting the fall colors, first at the arboretum, then at the Swiss Valley Nature Preserve. At Swiss Valley, I ran into Gerry Zuercher, an environmental science instructor at school. He and a student were trout fishing, and as I walked up to chat I noticed Gerry was gutting a small trout. Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a few shots...this was much more interesting than a bunch of old trees! Nicky, on the other hand, kept her distance!

After the hike I met LeAnn at my place, and we drove to Galena to visit the Galena Cellars. Tucked inside the massive flood walls that stand at the entrance to Main Street, this was one of the few shops I had never set foot in. The shop sells wines made locally. As you might guess, a great number are of the sweet variety, although they also had a good number of dry and semi-dry reds and whites. These are made from grapes and juice from across the US, although there is a vineyard near Galena that also grows grapes. LeAnn had regaled me with tales of generous samples - half a glassful, six for 2 dollars! - but once we bellied up to the bar, the reality was more quotidian. Even so, I had a blast selecting six wines to sample from the list of two or three dozen varieties. We eventually took home a bottle of dry white wine that was quite tasty - not too sweet or cloying.

For dinner we walked down the street to Cannova's, which is hands-down my favorite restaurant in Galena. It's a charming little pizzeria - there was a group of people standing outside the doors at 5 pm waiting for it to open. What's funny about Cannova's is that I grew up on it - there was a Cannova's in Freeport in the late seventies (still there for all I know), and my father - a lover of pizza and passionate about places he thought did it right - would take my Mom and I there often. I don't remember much about the place in Freeport, other than it lacked the linen tablecloths and candles that the Cannova's in Galena currently sports.

On Saturday my friends Maureen and Joe and their son Killian came by to visit. I had a mortifying moment when, while introducing LeAnn to Mo and Joe, I managed to temporarily forget her name! And as scary as that sounds, this also happened one other time with someone else I was dating for six months. I have no good reason to explain this (and yes, I did mention this after the fact to LeAnn...she was very gracious!). Someone - anyone - please shoot me if it happens again.

Later that night LeAnn and I went to see A History of Violence. I thought it was ok - good if you're looking for an entertaining thriller, but not as innovative as I thought it was going to be. The acting was great - William Hurt and Ed Harris were terrific bad guys (for some reason I confuse Ed Harris with Jon McCain - why?), and Viggo Mortensen did a great job shedding his image as a Lord of the Rings prince-geek. But I have high expectations of director David Cronenberg. His remake of The Fly is still one of my favorite horror movies, primarily for the utterly bleak and unsentimental ending - one of the best of all time, right up there with Vertigo, Chinatown, and Menace II Society (that would be a great discussion thread sometime...best movie endings of all time!)