Wild To Child

When I arrived home from work yesterday, our babysitter was sitting in our living room. To my surprise, my wonderful husband had arranged for us to go out to dinner sans children, which couldn't have come at a better time. He made reservations at Branzino, a restaurant which previously employed chef Ashley Merriman, a contestant on the most recent season of Top Chef. Once we arrived, we realized that she was no longer employed there, but the food was still amazing and the service was flawless. Proof that the food on Top Chef is every bit as wonderful as it looks!

I had Roasted Cauliflower Soup, Gnocchi (which included rabbit, mushrooms, and ruby chard), and for dessert...cannoli. While the rabbit meat could not hold a candle to the rabbit my grandmother makes, it's safe to say that it was one of the best dinners I have ever had. The only thing I didn't care for was the Heirloom Beet salad that Evan ordered. But to be fair...I never liked beets to begin with. He also had Duck Confit as his main course and Poached Pear Sorbet as dessert...each sample equally delicious.

For all you wine lovers like myself, they have a great selection...even featuring some from my old stomping grounds out in the Walla Walla Valley!

For all of you from and visiting Seattle I completely recommend giving their food a try! Here is their website for more information:

http://www.branzinoseattle.com/

Ahem....can you please pass me the potato chips? I am planning on putting myself into a trans fat carbohydrate coma this evening because I've decided to make the "lifestyle change" and abandon all the junk food that's treated me so well the past few....I dunno...25 years. I've finally become tired of being tired. That's not to say that I won't eat a twinkie or two in the future, I just won't be consuming mass amounts crap and then wonder why I never feel like doing anything super active.

It seems like the perfect time to transition into better eating habits, simply because of all the other changes that are going to take place this week. We are going to finish moving out of our home, I'm going to be on a new shift at work, we'll be across the state, etc.. Might as well rip the band aid off quickly. I wish that there really was a pill that could cause you to lose weight without diet, exercise, and maybe even a clause that encourages stuffed crust pan pizza from pizza hut! I'm just not a big fan of voluntary exercise, it's NOT fun. No. Bueno.

Wish me luck with my journey to getting healthy. It's going to be a long ass trip.

I co-hosted a bridal shower on Sunday for my friend who is getting married next month. Here is a piece of advice for all you bridesmaid-not maid of honors out there: DO NOT offer to help PLAN the bridal events. ASK through EMAIL if 1) the MOH is planning a bachelorette and/or bridal party and 2) if she is say "let me know if there is anything I can do to help". That way, if the MOH wants you to do something, she can give you specific duties. Then you won't have to fumble through the process, not know how much of it is your responsibility and end up doing most of the work when it wasn't your job in the first place. I've had my fair share of parties, but this one was BY FAR the most stressful. It went down in a typical manner and, as usual, I ended up stressing super hard core.

The only thing that really got my panties in a twist while we were there was the other woman who "helped" plan the shower. I use the term loosely because I was told by the MOH (who hardly helped herself) a few weeks before the party that this woman (her daughter was in my graduating class) was going to help with the shower-instead of planning her own. The only contribution I saw was that she brought food and tried to direct the shower events. Once all the guests arrived she told me she wanted everyone (guests and hosts) to stand up and introduce themselves and state how they knew the bride. She worked and continues to work in the office at the high school that I attended. It still feels weird to me to disobey requests from authority figures of my past, I still can't even call my old teachers and parents of my friends by their first names...even now it seems disrespectful. Nonetheless, I basically ignored her "suggestion" and figured...there were 20 some odd people in my graduating class...everybody here knows everybody else and everybody knows how everybody else knows the bride!

Well...Mrs. So-and-So decided that since I wouldn't make that announcement to everyone she went to the MOH and had her do it. Whatever. I'm such a rebel! We all looked silly and felt even sillier as we stated spoke. It looked like an AA meeting! Then I come to find out that nobody wanted to do a toast. The mother of the bride said she was saving hers for the wedding, the MOH didn't have anything to say, and the other bridesmaid is SO afraid of speaking in public that she passed out at our middle school poetry reading. Of course I didn't really want to, because I hadn't prepared anything. I also knew how rude it would look if none of us did and I couldn't let the bride feel bad so I winged it and made a short speech. I'm pretty sure I looked like an idiot.

After everything was over came clean up time. I'm lucky that my sister was there. We showed up at noon to set up and nobody else was there. I had already talked to the other bridesmaid that morning and knew she wasn't going to be able to make it to set up. 12:40 rolls around and the MOH FINALLY shows up (BTW the shower started at 1:00), but my sister and I had basically done everything by then. For clean up, Mrs. So-and-so took her vegetable and fruit tray, did some dishes, and left before most of the other guests. Once we began loading gifts into the brides truck, the MOH was nowhere to be found. She stayed lost until we walked outside to leave and explained that she got caught up in conversation outside. How convenient.

Overall, the party was a lot of fun. After you wade through all the political BS and set up process-everybody had a good time. It was worth all the annoyances that I went through because I know my friend had a great time and that's really all that matters! But that doesn't mean I can't complain about it....