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.