Moving and Game Night

So I headed downtown to Jerry and Renee's Apartment and met up with several people that were already helping them move. I helped as best I could, avoiding really heavy things or long lift times (cause of the foot). It went pretty smoothly, there being carts and elevators and other handy things to make the task pretty easy.

I drove down to the post office, dropped off a netflix rental and headed out to their new place. So during the move out I had heard that it was a 3rd floor apartment, which brought me memories of helping Chris and Kelly move from a 3rd floor apartment, to another 3rd floor apartment...no elevators.

Anyways, lots of stairs walking up one side, down another. Nice looking apartment, cetainly bigger then their old one, which is good, with the baby on the way.

I headed home and on the way picked up a bunch of pasteries and cookies and scones from La Mie for Game night.

Shannon was home and napping...or at least resting, from her long day at work. I showered and starting doing final cleaning touches, bringing the games upstairs and all that.

So around 5 Shannon got up and got dressed and we kind of planted ourselves around 6 on the couch and watched some TV while we waited for people to show up.

A couple of calls and an hour and a half later, our first guests (Chris and Holly) arrive. Then Josh and Lindsay, Then Jen. We sat down and played some Cranium. Which Shannon and I ended up winning. Quite a silly game. Not as silly as the one several years ago when I played over New Years at the Matta's up in Boston, but still quite silly. Dave arrived near the end of the game.

Afterwards, we broke up the groups and Jen Left. Shannon, Dave ,Holly, Josh and Lindsay played Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Edition 2 while Chris and I played Stratego. (which I haven't played since I was a youngster, and was still fun)

Afterwards it was pretty late (around midnight or so) and people quickly finished up the Trivial Pursuit game and wnet home and we went to bed.

Good day over all...

Foot Update

So in going to bed last night I got a nice good snap crackle, pop and my foot felt a lot better.

However, my foot still does hurt, but it is much better then it was. Much more flexable, a lot less pain.

Hurt foot

So Wednesday night I went to bed, everything being fine, and when I woke up yesterday morning, my right foot felt like it had been hit with a hammer.

So yesterday walking was painful, I hoped that it would lessen throughout the day....no such luck.

This morning, it feels pretty much the same...*grumble*

Mars Cafe

So the my boss has been raving about this chocolate torte at the Mars Cafe, so we went there for our team meeting this past Wednesday.

I gotta say that I was impressed. Not only was the chocolate torte amazing, the mocha that I had there was really good too.

So good so, that after Shannon and I got done with dinner we headed down there for dessert.

I had a double chocolate brownie (good) and some hot apple cider, and Shannon had the torte with a hot chocolate. Shannon actually said that she thought she was going into chocolate overload... So that means something.

Salad Explosion

So this morning, I'm making a salad from our salad leftovers from the night before. A mix of lettuces, cheese, bread crumbs, hard boiled egg, and tuna.

So I crack the egg, peel it, and George (the kitty), starts rubbin on my leg, trying to get attention and tuna, since he has now associated peeling an egg with tuna.

So I cut it up, add it to the salad, and get the can of low sodium albacore tuna, open it, drain it, set it down and to prepare to give George and Gracie their tuna treat, but apprently I wasn't fast enough.

We have one rule in the house, all flat surfaces, the cats aren't allowed to be on. Not on the coffee tables, not on the tables, and definately not on my kitchen counter.

George Jumps up on the counter and starts sniffing around (as if I wasn't there), so I grab him, and I think he quickly realized that he was in trouble cause he went wild.

Toaster, in the sink.

Can opener, in the sink.

Salad, cheese, bread crumbs all over the counter, sink, floor, everywhere...

I squirted water in George's face, he claws me (left hand), escapes and runs off.

So I then spent the next 20 minutes or so cleaning up the mess, and remaking my salad and bandage my bleeding hand.

Yeah...fun morning.

The Lion King and Mosaix's Regular Fare

So after offering to help Dave move (and Dave not needing it), we got all prettyed up and headed out west to Mosaix Restaurant & Wine Bar for dinner.

We started off with some crab cakes, which I thought were good, but not to amazing. I had a couple of glasses of Ravenswood Vintners Zinfendel, which I thought was pretty good.

Next up Shannon had a salad with a garlic vinigrette dressing, which was very good. I really liked the dressing, Shannon did too. I had a cup of a carrot based soup. It was a bit spicy and bit gingery and some other spices. Certainly something I want to try for myself. It was pretty and nice and orange...I need a food processer though... Shannon said it was interesting, I don't know if she liked it though. Next I had a rack of lamb, with a mint sauce and potatoes and a vegatable medley. Shannon had Chicken Rigatoni. The rack of lamb was very good, the mint sauce was excellent. Shannon's Rigatoni was very good too. The mint was just really really amazing. I was very happy with it.

For desert Shannon had a Chocolate Mousse Cake, and I had Brown sugar Cake with a small scoop of lemon ice cream. The Mousse Cake was very good, chocolattey and soft.. The Brown sugar cake was denser and flavorful. The lemon ice cream ,was creamy and smooth and had a medium lemon taste to it. It was very good.

We headed downtown. We were running early so we drove through town. A nice leisurely drive.

We parked in a parking ramp, and walked through the Skywalks to the Civic Center. We checked our coats, and whent to figure out how we pick up our premium gift pack, so we asked a lady who was selling collectable programs, and she told us to go to the mechandise counter. She was mistaken, we actually needed to go to the ticket counter, pick up a gift ticket, and then give 'em to the merchandise people. Kind of an obnoxious process, but it wasn't too bad.

We went in to get our seats. It was nice to go in the 1A door...not having to go up any steps. I gotta say that I love being able to look at the stage and actually see the peoples faces. The Civic Center was the fullest that I've seen it. I don't think there was any empty seats. And looking back, there were a whole lotta people behinds us. We were in row F in seats 38 and 39 (so almost dead center). We had paid a heavy penny to get the seats, but it really does prove to be worth it.

They had drums up to the left and the right, elevated above the sides of the stage. There were a lot more children then we had ever seen there before (but considering the subject matter, that wasn't too surprising.

It begain. I gotta say that it was very dreamlike, fog and the lot rolling in, the animals we're very creatively don and even sugh large things as elephants walked through the audience up on the stage. It actually made the stage very crowded.

I gotta say that this has gotta be one of my better theater experiences. I think the only better one that I've had was seeing To Clever by Half in Minneapolis. The sights the sounds the whole package. It was a lot of fun.

People are in for a treat when they go.

Panic! and Gramma

So after work yesterday, I went home, changed, ate some dinner, and headed over to the Val Air Ballroom to see the XBox 360 tour....well ok I went to see Panic! at the Disco. The rest of the bands I didn't really care that much about.

So the first two bands, well...they were ok, I guess. The second band started and I was like hey that's a good intro, then they started singing and then I suddenly didn't care anymore.

Panic! started and it was pretty good. The last time I saw them, the lead singer said that he was a bit sick and having trouble, and it really showed. They were really good live, before, and they were better this time. The second song in I got a call from Shannon (at home, not her style of music), that told me that my dad called about my Gramma.

So I spent most of the set wondering what was going on, is gramma sick, is gramma worse then sick? did she break something?

All these things kept going through my head, it really was terrible.

so when the set was over (since I could barely hear brandon and val and they were yelling right by me), I tried to find a quiet corner to call my dad.

I did get the gist of what was going on, Gramma's got an infection, She's in the hospital, we're hoping for the best. Some of the more finer details I'll leave off, since it's her life, not mine. It was still hard hearing dad, cause even if it was a bit quieter, it was still pretty loud.

After the next band started, I pretty much shrugged at them and headed home.

Cake cake cake...

So, for those of you that didn't want cake...here's a tempting picture. Two layers of devils food cake, chocolately, orangey frosting...mmmm....

To decorate it for Shannon's Birthday, I peeled off a little pieces of orange peel for a 29...

Yeah...you missed out...it was good...I ate the last piece (with Shannon's permission) earlier today.

More Birthday and more

So Eventually Shannon got up from her nap, the cake was frosted and we lounged around for a little bit before I made Lobster Alfredo Pasta (when I say this many people have been surprised that I can do more then bake, but since I bake from scratch, isn't it not much of a leap to be able to cook).

It turned out pretty well, I think, and Shannon liked it too. That, with some bread from Basil Prosperi, made our dinner. It was good. I was satisfied, Shannon was pleased. The cake was good, the frosting was really good. I wasn't as pleased with the cake as some other cakes I've made in the past, but the frosting was chocolate with more then a hint of orange to it. So it kind of made the whole experience better.

We watched a movie, both talked to my parents, and went to bed.

Yesterday was an all IT meeting that went pretty much all day...

That night we went over to Chris' and watched Some Like it Hot. With Chris and Holly. Brought over the leftover cake and shared, and got good reviews. Apprently even with the promise of cake, we can't get more then Chris and Holly to show up...

Oh well, their loss.

I brought a piece to Brandon today and Proctor yesterday, got some very good reviews. I'm pretty happy.

mmmm....cake....

Even with the good reviews, I've been a dreadfully grumpy mood today, I just don't wanna do anything. I'm tired of a bunch of things and just wanna take a break.

Maybe I need a vacation...

Apprently after hosting a message board for 8 months or so, my message board is no longer needed. Maybe I can set something else up for say my CR circle of friends or something...I dunno...maybe I'll just nuke it and be done.

Wedding Reception and Shannon's Birthday (at least the start of)

So yesterday morning, I got up while Shannon was at work and instead of being lazy, like I normally do, I ran a bunch of errends.

I started off at Kitchen Collage and picked up a new flour sifter. The one I have is not only small, but crappy to and doesn't work very well. I got one which looks pretty much like the one that my mom has (used it today, it works much better then the other one). I asked about a spice mill. They didn't have one, or at least not one that was specifically labed a "spice mill", she suggested that I head over to Younkers or Bed Bath and Beyond.

I headed over to the Post Office and dropped off a net flix movie and then headed out to West Des Moines. First stop was bed bath and beyond, where they suggested I use a pepper mill...which I bought, it was pretty nice, stainless steel, ceramic on the inside (it actually worked pretty good too). I was kind of offended when they just assumed that I was running an errend for someone else...but I guess I am a guy so it's not what they are used to.

Then it was off to the Waterfront to buy lobster. They do have lobster that crawl around in pools of water, but I'm not ready for that yet, so I asked and they had freshly frozen lobster in 2 pound packages. I bought, was a little stunned by the price, but headed off.

Next was CostCo. I bought a few things that we needed (Orange Juice, chicken, etc). Lots of free samples to try (which was good since I hadn't eaten yet).

Then I headed to hy-vee to get the rest of the ingrediants that I needed for the cake and pasta I'm making today. (More free samples). I was hungry so I did buy things that I probably shouldn't have (ice cream and chips (new flavors I haven't tried yet).

Then I headed towards home and stopped at a health/organic food store. And then I picked up some lavender blossoms..mmmm...lavender. It was a bit wierd, since they were self service.

I got home and put the grocerys and things away, and when I was about to head out to go to la mie to pick up something for breakfast/lunch (mocha and croissant), Shannon got home. So I said hello, showed her some of the things that I bought (espically the Hershey's Extra Dark) and then headed out to get my breakfast while she headed upstairs to get ready to go to Jerry and Renee's wedding reception.

After I got back and got dressed, she was ready and we headed south...way far south, further south then I thought. It kept going and going...Anyways, we eventually found the place, which was on the top of a hill and had a great view of the Iowa Countryside. There were a large segment of people there I didn't know, but it was shortly supplemented by lots of people I did (which made me more comfortable). It was a lot of fun. Renee's showing quite a bit (they've been married for 3 months). And they both looked happy. Shannon also wore her new earrings for the first time. They look really good, a good balence between size and lack of gaudyness. A nice spread of food, a pretty cake and even some cheese cake and cookies. We left around 6:30 and headed home.

We thought about going up north to Ames to help celebrate in Briana's birthday party, but Shannon was tired, so we stayed home instead.

Shannon's Birthday

So Shannon woke me up this morning when she stirred a bit. So I got up and took a shower and came downstairs and played Civ 4 and listened to my iPod, so I wouldn't disturb her sleep. It was actually kind of nice. Most Sundays, I wait for her to get up before I even think about getting ready for the day, but I was all clean by the time she got up.

She went downstairs to excersize, while I played, and then upstairs to get ready, while I played, and then we headed to La Mie for brunch, when she was ready.

The food, as always was very good. She had a breadcrumb and prochuitto omlette and I had Pain Perdu (a version of french toast). It was very good, as always. We headed to Dahl's and picked up some bread there from Basil Prosperi (Challla), since they didn't really have any at La Mie when we got there.

We headed home, and while Shannon was lounging (since it is her birthday), I started to bake the cake. Shannon eventually headed upstairs to nap.

Right now the cake is done and cooling in the pans.