Weekend in Review

Since my post yesterday focused on my dissatisfaction with Christopher Columbus having a holiday dedicated to himself for "discovering America," I will do my weekend review today.

Snifter

Carafe

M bought a Groupon for Amerigo, so we decided to have date night on Friday.  We left for dinner after Jeopardy, of course.  When we got there, the hostess told us it'd be around a 45 minute wait.  No biggie.  We found seats at the bar while we waited.  We ordered martinis (I <3 dirty martinis!)  The bartender shook them up and poured our glasses, and with the leftovers, he filled two small carafes and put them down in snifter glasses with water and ice to keep them chilled.  It was a really cool idea, but when M and I went to pour our refills, the ice had frozen to the side of the carafe making it nearly impossible to get it past the rim of the snifter.

It definitely did not take 45 minutes, and before we knew it, the hostess was ushering us to our table.  I barely had time to gather my purse, sweater, and martini glass from the bar before a rude woman was swooping in, claiming the seat that was occupied by my butt merely a nanosecond before.  It kinda irritated me how rude she was, can you tell?

M and I ordered a bottle of wine.  Amerigo has this list of great $20 wines (by the bottle. I highly recommend checking it out!)  We had Coppola Rosso.  Delish.  We ordered a calamari appetizer, caesar salads (which were the perfect portion size), and they brought bread with olive oil dipping sauce (M and I's favorite thing.)  M ordered the seafood special which was some sort of pasta with clams and mussels.  I ordered the three-cheese tortellini, which was delicious!  For dessert, we split the tiramisu.  It was divine.  Our waiter was excellent.  The perfect balance of attention without hovering.  He had great recommendations.  

On our way to dinner, I mentioned in the car that I would like M to give me a tour of Vanderbilt so I can see his old stomping grounds, and because I've never really seen any of Vandy's campus besides the outskirts and stadium.  So after dinner, we drove to campus, and he showed me where he used to live and learn.  He showed me the DG house upon my request.  It was awkward because we walked around the front and there was a group of people sitting on the front patio.  M goes, "Are you going to talk to them." But as the awkward turtle that I am, I didn't want to.  So they stared at us. 

He also showed me the quad.  It was beautiful and quite romantic.  Here we stood, surrounded by beautiful buildings and the city just beyond their walls, but you could see the sky and all was serene.  Then we walked back to the car and drove home.

Saturday morning we woke up ungodly early since I can no longer sleep in.  We had limited groceries since we hadn't been to the store in forever, so we made bacon and cinnamon toast.  Yum.  After breakfast, I showered and sat down to watch my Vols beat the Dawgs.  I didn't even watch the game past the 1st quarter.  They were playing too horribly, it wasn't worth it.  It was getting warm out (with a projected high of 90, hello October) so M and I decided to go ahead and head to Oktoberfest.

I drove because I figured M would want to drink a few more brewskies than I.  Parking was a fiasco.  Because I'm an awkward turtle (see above), I drove down the vendor parking row.  Well, it was a narrow street already lined on both sides with cars.  Other people made the same stoopid decision that I did, so we waited for them to turn around so we could take our turn to turn around.  I pulled in the nearest drive to back up and turn around and decided M would be better at this task, plus he handles crowded, trafficky driving much better than I do.  So we get out to switch sides.  The girl who was walking near my car when we got out goes, "Are they just gonna park their car right there?!?"  No stoopid woman.  I am not going to park my car where it would block a driveway.  So M and I got back in the car.  When he started to back up, the stoopid woman and her other drunk friend were just standing there behind my trunk with a three year old girl.  So M slowly backs up, and they just stare.at.my.car.  They don't move, or act like they're going to move.  Now granted, they're in the middle of the road.  So we glare at them, which is totally legit since they're in the middle.of.the.road instead of on a sidewalk, and they finally move.

We find parking and head to the festival.  Now, I went to Oktoberfest last year, but it was like 55 and cloudy.  I wore a sweatshirt, and Katie and I only stayed about and hour because it was cold.  This year was completely opposite.  It was hot, sunny, and suuuuper crowded.  We wandered from the place we entered to one side looking for beer.  We found the tent, but the line was so long.  So we headed toward the other side of the festivities where we found a much shorter line.  We bought the half-litre glasses because they were Yazoo...and awesome.  We each got a pint of the Yazoo seasonal ale and found a couple chairs.  We sat and listened to some oomp-pah-pah type music and then a rock cover band started.  We listened for a bit, but it was loud, so we got back in line for more beer.  This time M switched to Yazoo's Pale Ale.  We wandered to find food.  After standing in line for an eternity, we got some brats (M's had sauerkraut, blech.)  After we ate, we wandered a bit more, decided it was too hot and crowded, and peaced out.

On our way home we stopped at the grocery and shopped while trying to remember our list that was sitting on the kitchen counter.  We did pretty well, we only forgot eggs and napkins.  We went home and grilled pork chops and peppers and then watched The Departed, which wasn't really what I expected it to be.  I gave it three stars on Netflix.  Didn't love it, but I didn't hate it.

 Sunday we woke up, made muffins and bacon (since we now had milk but no eggs.)  We got ready and drove to Bellevue where we met one of M's new coworkers and his 3-year-old for lunch at AJ's Ale House (formerly Jonathan's.)  After lunch and a couple beers, we went to the Red Caboose Park for Zoe to play.  When we were done there, we headed to Brittany and Jimmy's to see Louis.  Brittany was at lunch with some friends, but we watched football for a bit with Jimmy while Louis napped.  After a while, M and I decided to go wake him.  As soon as he opened his eyes, his face lit up and he said "hi!"  We spent a couple hours playing, reading, and hearing Louis say "stop it now!" and "hi," and then headed home.  If I had a dollar for every time Louis said "hi" on Sunday, I'd probably have at least $100. 

When we got home, I wasn't feeling very well (after we'd stopped to buy steaks for dinner.)  Instead I ran to Panera, and we had soup and salad followed by some Big Bang Theory and Lie to Me.

I woke up about 4 in the morning with another gallstone attack.  So that part of the weekend sucked, but over-all, a great, stress-free weekend with my favorite!