Progressive Dinners

I was recently reminded that I talk about food a lot. I guess it's true. Here goes again...

Thursday night when I got home Matt was ready to be out of the apartment away from his papers so we headed to BU's campus to exercise and then had a little progressive dinner. There are two small downtown places we enjoy eating in, but always have a hard time deciding where to go. Don't know why we hadn't thought of it before, but this time we stopped in Terriyaki Park for our appetizer of edimamme and sushi rolls. Then headed nextdoor to Wing Stop for terriyaki flavored wings and french fries. Yum!

We had no intention of doing it again the next night, but... I've been having a hard time finding a place to have Matt's graduation party (Lord willing 10 months away) so we figured the best way to do research was to be restaurant patrons. Friday night we started off at Gratziano's Italian restaurant downtown for Cajun Chicken Pasta & Portobello Raviolli. They were a no-go for the party, so we moved on. Dessert was at the Elite Grill on the Circle and my satisfied comment is that I've never had to take my shared dessert home in a to-go box. Their chocolate cake was scrumptious & HUGE! They too were a no-go for the party. Darn. Though we knew it wouldn't hold potential for a graduation luncheon, we were having a ball so we headed back downtown to Crickett's for a little night-cap. There we had a surprisingly enjoyable conversation about the election, politics, and weaning ourselves off foreign oil dependancy. It was a fun splurge, but it's back to Bagel Bites & canned soup for the rest of the weekend :o)

The Past Month

Hummm... what's been going on... let's backtrack a bit...

(Apologies for any excessive story telling or untamed jibber-jabber and that there are no pictures to hold your interest.)

June 14-23 my Mom drove out for a good long visit. Her being here over two weekends made a big difference in not having to schedule as much around my work hours. Also, it gave Matt good uninterrupted time to do dissertation work while I had someone else around to entertain me. We wandered around town a lot just browsing in stores and spent a LOT of time eating out and trying new restaurants. I've always been aware of it, but now I KNOW that a good trip for Mom means lots of fun food experiences! Some places we went were old favorites, but most were new to her and I'm proud to say that our restaurant tally came to a whopping 15 by the end of her stay! Three meals a day over 9 days makes for a lot of opportunities.

For all you TLC fans, we also had fun playing "What Not to Wear." Before leaving Dothan, Mom loaded the car with most of the contents from her closet so I could help her take out things Stacy & Clinton would not approve of. It's amazing how many memories an article of clothing can hold. Even so, she drove back to Dothan with an empty trunk!

Mom was also here over the Saturday Spenco scheduled a company picnic to Sea World in San Antonio! Sadly, at the last minute Matt decided it would be wisest for him to stay at home to work, but thankfully I still had a buddy to go with me. (I didn't go last year because Matt was in Philadelphia for a conference.) Spenco rented busses & provided lunch so it was an easy & inexpensive trip down. We saw Shamu & all the typical Sea World animals. Despite the quick thunderstorm it was a lovely casual day just strolling around the park watching the shows & of course, sampling some park food.

Oh yeah, one night we had 4 people ask if they could stay with us... in addition to Mom being here. Normally I LOVE running Robinson Room & Board, but we can only do so much sometimes. Mom already in the spare room, our friend Jason (from Austin) got to stay on the couch, but we sadly had to turn down lodging for Doug & Natalie (who now live in Chicago) and Stefanie (from Houston). We did squeeze in a quick hug & chat with the Chicagoans though!

July 3-6 we flew to Cincinnati, OH with our buddies Brock & Stefanie. Matt & Brock were groomsmen in Brian's holiday wedding. We drove up from the Louisville airport & after that little drive I fell in love with the area - it was beautiful, rolling & lush! It even smelled good. Because of the holiday Thursday evening was the Rehearsal & Rehearsal Dinner. Friday we took a big bus downtown with the entire bridal party & both families to the Reds 4th of July baseball game! Despite the 2 hour rain delay we had a really good time watching and of course eating ball park food. (Skyline Chili-dogs are YUMMY!) That night the bride's parents hosted a BBQ dinner at their house. Their son recently decided to start college at Auburn in the fall so Matt had a BLAST talking to him about anything and everything Auburn related. Saturday Matt worked downstairs in the lobby while Stef, Brock & I watched movies in our hotel room until it was time to go. The wedding was a success & reception lovely! We ate, danced and sent them off with sparklers. It was fun traveling to a new state with good friends and being part of such a wonderful celebration.

July 12, last Saturday, we drove out to McGregor to eat at the Coffee Shop Cafe with our new good buddies Jacob & Mandy. (They both went to Auburn & are now temporarily in Waco with his work. I did not know either beforehand, but Matt knew Jacob through their fraternity. We're so thankful to have crossed paths with them! It's nice to have someone around who can relate to where you came from.) From supper we drove a bit further out to Gatesville to go to a drive-in movie!!! The double feature was Wall-E and Hancock. We took their truck, lawn chairs, a cooler and a boom box and had a blast. Concessions were cheap, the weather was perfect and we all saw multiple shooting stars.

Monday Night Jacob & Mandy came over to eat dinner and watch Lost with us. We're getting them hooked on season one so they can be obsessive fans with us once the show starts back up :o)

Yesterday we met Brock up at Ma's Suds for laundry night. Whoop whoop. It actually is kinda fun. We usually pick up some food (last night was Arby's b/c I had a coupon) and then knock out 4 or 5 loads in an hour and a half. I read magazines while Matt does physics work. He comes up for air when the folding begins.

This evening we went to exercise at BU and kinda grazed for supper. I'll probably get up and watch HGTV in a bit and Matt has been and will continue to work into the wee hours of the morning (notice a trend here?). Thanks for reading; this journal of an entry is finished!