This is The Sporting Life’s first Good Weekend column during which we’ll talk about the weekend we - or one of our readers - had. Today we’ll talk about my own good weekend. Want to share your good weekend with us next Monday? Drop us a line at goodweekend at thesportinglife dot net.

I’m in training for a marathon so I’m trying to be good. I ran 7 miles on Saturday and settled in, thinking we’d spend the evening quietly with friends. However, at the last minute I figured I needed to let loose a little so I invited some family friends over — Paul and his wife Petra — and we grilled steaks. I’ve been in a steak frites mode recently so I peeled, cut, and soaked some spuds and them tossed them in oil and baked them for about 40 minutes. The steaks were a few sirloins I had in the freezer. Thawed them out and put them on, rubbing them with garlic salt after I flipped them.

We drank a bottle of Pinot Noir that I made and bottled in January. Homemade wine is an iffy proposition, usually, but this stuff was great. A little bubbly and new, but that was fine. It was homemade, tasted great, and hit the spot. We had a salad, the steaks, and fries. We almost exploded. Add in a fresh loaf of Italian bread and you had a meal.

Paul and I decided to hit the great outdoors and I brought up two Cohiba Cuban Robustos I bought in South Korea - I think. We took them outside with a bottle of Balvenie and two highball glasses. A goblet of the amber nectar and half of the smoke — I was a damn fool and stubbed it out, thinking I’d save my lungs — and we were ready to be rolled into the Hudson River.

Asia, my wife, made some cookies and we drank a little more whiskey before my wife opened a bottle of Friexenet cava that we started drinking in Barcelona a few weeks ago. The cava in Barcelona was much better than standard black bottle Friexenet, but whatever. It was good. Stop me if I’m starting to sound like a product placement whore, but I wanted to get all the details in.

Paul and Petra went home and the wife and I surveyed the damage, threw up our hands, and went to bed. All-in-all, a good weekend. - John Biggs