The Easter Bunny Visits

On Friday, my parents came into town to bring me some things for my new apartment (moving in t-minus 4 days!!!) and to pick up my kayak. I had thought that my dad had just found someone to buy the kayak, but turned out my dad actually wanted it, so he bought it from me. Funny stuff. Anyways, we just took it easy Friday night and went out for dinner at Tuk Tuk, my favorite Thai place, and then out for some ice cream (coffee with chocolate jimmies- yum!).

Saturday we went on a little sightseeing trip. First, Coors Brewery, followed by Buffalo Bill's Grave, and then a little drive up to Idaho Springs for a late lunch. Later in the evening, I hosted an elegant wine and cheese party at my place complete with paper and plastic plates, moving boxes strewn all over the floor, and even my laundry sitting out. It was a vision of pure sophistication. Brian and Danielle came over and we had an evening filled with intriguing conversation regarding our favorite kind of jelly beans, pie, cookies, cake, and an especially long discussion on our favorite and least favorite cheeses. At first, I determined that there hasn't ever been a cheese I met that I disliked, until my mom brought up that evil Munster Cheese. Not that it tastes bad, but I just don't like it because of that orange crap that's around the edge of it. Thought everyone should know that little tid bit about me, so next time you bring me cheese, make sure it is NOT Munster. ;)

Sunday we went to church in the morning and then had a lovely champagne brunch at the Brown Palace Hotel downtown. It was incredibly yummy and delicious; lots of options and choices and different foods. We sat on the 2nd floor overlooking the lobby where there was a small jazz band playing and little kids dancing to the music- absolutely adorable. The rest of the day was spent napping and then my parents left to drive home that evening and to top off my Easter, the Easter Bunny brought me a basket full of yummy Frango chocolates and jelly bellies.

Confession

I garbage picked. On trash day, I was driving back to my house and saw these two awesome looking end tables (which I have no end tables) in someone's trash. More specifically, a neighbor's trash. I park my car in the driveway and decide to walk over to check them out, thinking it is just too good to be true, there must be something terribly wrong with them. I walk over, and am thinking these are some damn fine tables to be in someone's trash. They are far too nice to go to the dump. They deserve a loving home. MY home. So, I grab one of the tables and hike it back to my house. The hike to my garage being not just a couple doors down, but more like 100 feet away. I briefly look around to see if anyone is watching me... Decide that I'm moving in less than two weeks, so who the heck cares. Of course after I get the first table in the garage, I have to go back to get the 2nd table. So I repeat the walk back over the person's trash, and then the walk of shame back to my garage. I quickly close the garage door and run upstairs to look out the window to see if anyone was around that might have seen me do this. Not a person in sight; the neighborhood is dead and desolate. Sweet. I got away with it without anyone knowing. One might think I would not share this story with anyone, but I was seriously so excited about the tables (both because I actually needed them and because they are some damn fine looking tables) that I told several people merely minutes after the acquisition. Yes, it's official, I am a garbage picker.

Grilled Cheese is good.

I think if I had to choose one food to eat for lunch every day of the rest of my life, it would be grilled cheese. End of story.

V for Very good weekend.

Again, the weather this weekend was absolutely beautiful. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping it continues to be this amazingly gorgeous through next weekend, as my parents are coming in town. Over the weekend, I saw V for Vendetta. Quite a good little flick despite containing some cheesy moments. On the other end of the spectrum, King Kong... Oh, where to begin. Let's just say I'm very sad I'll never get those 3 hours of my life back. Okay, it really wasn't THAT bad... Wait, it really was. Aside from movie watching, I had some delicious margs at Que Bueno, a Mexican restaurant at the Promenade that I had never tried before. With the weather being as great as it was, we ate outside and feasted on some good Mexican food and a pitcher of margs. Life just doesn't get any better than that. ;) Oh, and they even had this fantastic chip and salsa contraption. A plate fits on the bottom that holds the chips, then this thing protrudes up from one side and over the plate, holding three different salsas. That's a terrible description, but trust me, it's wicked cool.

The Next Food Network Star Update: Much to my chagrin, Carissa, the yummy chef, has made the cut again, and is continuing on in the competition. This week, Andy got cut. He definitely isn't my favorite, but I sure did like him more than Carissa. Thank goodness Reggie is still going strong.

With less than two weeks until my big move, I have been feverishly packing and painting and organizing. I feel like I already have a ton packed, but it seems like the house is still pretty full. My parents are coming out this weekend for Easter and to bring a few of my things to me, so I'm really trying to have the majority of my packing done before then. I don't have too many things planned for the weekend, but we will be having Easter brunch at the Brown Palace Hotel. I'm very excited about that, as it's a champagne brunch and there is a chocolate fountain. Well, as I'm writing this, I'm thinking about how it's already Monday night, and my guests will be arriving in 4 short days, so I must get back to work...

If you don't catch the ball, stop it!

Wise words from Bill at our first kickball game of the season last night. Despite crazily fast winds and threatening storms in the not-so-far distance, we played a good game. Lost, but it was still fun. The first inning was a little rough, but I think we got back into the swing of things, after having too many months without practice. Rich had a couple fantasticly glorious plays including a dive-catch and winning the beer chug-off before the game (in lieu of a coin toss, a member from each team chugs a beer, and whoever finishes first gets to be the home team). I even had a couple plays that contributed to outs. They should have been easy catches, but with the sun in my eyes and just being a spaz in general, I didn't get a full grasp on the ball, BUT... I did stop the balls and managed to throw them to base.

Death to Sofrito!

Yes! Finally! Evette got kicked off of The Next Food Network Star! I must say, though, that this week I had just about enough of Carissa, and when it came down to the end of the show with Carissa and Evette left, I was secretly hoping Evette might stay another week. I was thinking, perhaps Evette could teach me one additional dish that I could add sofrito to... Or maybe I wouldn't mind looking at her adorable brace-filled smile for one more episode. And I really did like her cute accent and the way she rolled her r's so elegantly... Carissa, aka "the yummy chef", really annoys me because when she's giving her demos she doesn't know what to say and just talks in circles about pointless things using adjectives that are inappropriate and little sayings that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. It truly is painful watching her do her demos. I guess I just have to hope Carissa gets sent home next week. Now, I have to say I DO actually like some of the contestants, though you might not know about that due to the amount of bitching I do about the ones I hate. First of all, Andy... He's quiet but not too quiet, a really good chef, and you can tell he's just a really good guy. Then there is Reggie. Reggie is just a big teddy bear and has such a great sense of humor. I hope he goes all the way.

More reality tv news... The Amazing Race has moved to Wednesdays. I am quite disappointed with this, as this change occurs the first week of the season for Kickball, which I also have on Wednesdays. Damn those CBS decision makers. They have ruined my weekly tv-watching plans.

The weekend

I was able to cross off quite a few things on my Colorado To-Do list this weekend and had quite a good time doing so. I finally, finally, finally got to experience all that is el chapultepec. Picture an old bar- like half-dive/half-retro, vinyl upholstered bar, eclectic mix of people, burritos and tacos being served, and a live jazz band playing, tucked away in the corner. The jazz band was quite good and was led by an old man on the drums, Gene Bass. He was absolutely adorable.

On Saturday, I went down to Colorado Springs with Brian on a tourist day. First we stopped at the Air Force Academy, but I was quite disappointed because Brian got me all psyched up because when you enter there is someone there that salutes you and I really wanted to be saluted, but we arrived at the academy and the entrance gate was empty. No salutes or salutations. :(

After the Air Force Academy, we went to Garden of the Gods- absolutely beautiful and awesome, in the true sense and meaning of the word awesome... It's incredible that this place is a free park. Before heading back home, we went to Old Colorado City, the first territorial capital of Colorado. It's a nice little downtown with little shops and restaurants and even a French bakery. So, about this bakery... Needing a little caffeine and without a starbucks in sight, we decided to get some coffee at this bakery. I try ordering a double shot of espresso with whipped cream. Much to my dismay, I was informed, rather rudely, that they didn't have whipped cream. So then I just ordered a latte. Thinking this was a fairly easy request, I was suprised by the slew of questions that proceeded, again with the rude tone. After seeing my ordering experience, I think Brian gave up on ordering anything coffee or espresso related, so he ordered a chai, thinking that was a rather easy order. But, no... mr. rude bakery worker then attacked Brian with a bunch of questions- hot/cold, latte/non latte, etc. And I thought ordering coffee at Starbucks could be a daunting task...

Sunday: mostly took it easy, did a little work, did a little sodoku and crossword puzzling. I was both happy and sad that the clocks changed. Happy because it was light out later, sad because I lost an hour....