Life Right Now: February 2016

I know that February is the shortest month, but even with the additional day this year it seemed to completely fly by. So, since I wanted to make general life update posts once a month this year, I knew I had to get this one up today!

Right Now in Entertainment:

- I've been slacking on my reading a bit this month, mostly because I've been either really busy, really tired, or really sick. I realized yesterday that I hadn't even picked up the book I was reading in two days because I just didn't have the time. (Well, not until it was so late that I was too tired to hold my eyes open.)

- Although it's been taking me a little longer to get through each book, I've read some really great ones this month. My next Show Us Your Books! post won't be as long as the last one, but at least it won't be full of books I didn't enjoy.

- As some of you may have seen on my Instagram, I went to one of those painting/drinking wine classes with a couple of friends from work on Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun, and it's something I'd definitely do again. And, while my painting wasn't amazing or perfect, I thought it was decent. (Especially considering I'd never done anything like that before!) Plus there were mimosas, and the first one was included in the price of the class!

Right Now in General Life Updates:

- I was sick for the first two weeks of February, so I basically did a whole lot of nothing during that time. Except maybe for this:



- Unfortunately, that means I completely sucked with my goals this month. Whomp whomp. I'm planning to share a goals and results post a little later this week, so you'll see what I mean. 

- Eric and I tried a local Mediterranean place, El Basha, for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it was amazing. The place was really tiny, so it was a little difficult to find a table on a busy Saturday night, but the food more than made up for that. We ordered the mezza plate for our appetizer (which contained hummus, falafel, taboule, and baba ghanuje and came with fresh, warm pita bread). I had a falafel wrap with fries, and Eric got the lamb shish kabob platter with grilled vegetables, rice, and a salad on the side. The fries weren't great (not bad, just not great), but everything else I tried was delicious. I actually think this may have been the best falafel I've ever had!



It's clearly not a fancy place, but we got all of that food (plus two sodas) for a little over $30 ... So we didn't really go in expecting a fancy meal. I have a feeling this will become one of our regular places!

- I had a 9 hour long Skype date with my two friends that I usually Skype and travel with the same evening that Eric and I went out to El Basha. 9 hours. When I finally crawled into bed a little after 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, I accidentally woke Eric up. He said, "Did you fall asleep on the couch after you guys finished talking or something?" and I was like, "No ... We just finished." He looked at his phone to check the time, and his response was, "What the hell did you guys have to talk about for that long???" Haha.

Right Now in Things I'm Looking Forward To:

- Eric and I are going to see The Witch tomorrow night at the Alamo Drafthouse. That place opened a few months ago, and we keep saying we want to go ... So we decided to have a random Tuesday night date night so that we could see this movie before it stops showing there. I hope the movie is as scary as I think it's going to be!



- We also got tickets to see The Spill Canvas in April. We haven't been to a concert in almost a year (which is seriously crazy for me!), and I think this will be a really fun show. They're doing a "Requestour," which basically means you get to vote for the songs you'd most want to hear and they'll play the songs that get the most votes. Hopefully a lot of people going to the show in Omaha will want to hear the same songs I voted for!  

The beginning of February was pretty awful because getting sick guaranteed that I had zero energy and zero motivation to do anything besides sleep as much as possible. By the end of the month, though, the better things like trying a great new restaurant, catching up with friends that live far away, and painting for the first time with friends definitely outweighed the bad.

Now if I can get myself back on track with goals, blogging stuff, and working out in March, I'll be very happy!

A Fabulous 30th Birthday Dinner

Well, I survived turning 30.  Not that I didn't think I would ... It's just still a little hard to wrap my head around the fact that I'm 30 years old.

I typically don't do weekend recaps on this blog (mostly because the majority of my weekends are pretty low-key), but I'm going to make an exception this week and at least offer up a birthday dinner recap.

We didn't go out to celebrate on my actual birthday (Friday).  This was my choice.  By Friday I'm usually pretty exhausted, and reenergizing with a yoga class seemed like a better idea than getting ready and going out for a nice dinner (though, to be fair, that's never a bad idea).  We did end the evening with a treat, though: Talenti gelato.  (And no, this isn't a sponsored post.  I just like sharing products I actually really enjoy.)  Eric picked up two pints at Target as a little surprise for me since I've been going on and on about how much I love gelato.  We tried the Tahitian Vanilla Bean and Sicilian Pistachio, and both were delicious (especially the Sicilian Pistachio ... I just kept saying, "Oh my God, this is amazing!" with every bite).  I now want to try pretty much every other flavor they offer.

Saturday, though, was the main event.  Since I surprised Eric with his birthday dinner and had a lot of fun researching the perfect place and making secret plans, I told him I wanted to be surprised as well.  I had no idea what he'd come up with, but, since he loves trying new restaurants as much as I do, I knew it would be awesome.

He did not disappoint!

We ended up at Dario's Brasserie, a local French and Belgian restaurant.  (This is actually perfect because we'll be heading to France, Belgium, and The Netherlands in a few months to celebrate our 1 year anniversary as a married couple!  I don't think I've shared that on this blog yet, but we're both really excited!)

Eric tried a couple of Belgian beers, including the Delirium Nocturnum featured in this picture.  I had two glasses of delicious sparkling wine (according to the menu, this is made in the Champagne style and it tasted almost exactly like champagne.

We kept our appetizer simple with some Belgian Pommes Frites.  We considered ordering a platter of mussels to split and then an entrée, but I was a little worried that the platter would be huge and  we wouldn't be hungry for our meals (or dessert).  These were really good, though, so I'm glad I decided to order them.

Eric ordered the King Salmon.  Unfortunately, they haven't updated their menu online (the one we ordered from was different than the one posted on their website), so I can't give any additional details about the dish.  I did try a bite, though, and it was amazing!

I decided to be adventurous and ordered the Rabbit Roulade (a sausage made from rabbit loin, according to the menu).  I'd never tried rabbit before, and it was delicious.  I don't know what I could compare it to, but it did have a bit of a gamey flavor sort of like venison or bison (which is actually something I really like).

Of course, no birthday dinner is complete without dessert.  Everything on the dessert menu sounded great, but I couldn't pass up crème brûlée.  And this was amazing!

I couldn't get the best pictures in the restaurant because the lighting wasn't really made for picture taking (not to mention the fact that I was using my iPhone).  It was, however, nice for a romantic ambience.  It was perfect for a date, and I'm so glad Eric chose to have my birthday dinner there!

And finally, no recap post is complete without a picture (or two) of the people involved:

Yeah, yeah ... The car picture probably doesn't reflect super safe driving.  Don't worry, though ... He looked over for just a second while I snapped the picture.

There's a reason I've included a picture of a shoe.  Even though I didn't get a good picture of my outfit, I had to share this: I actually wore a dress and heels!  Now for most women, this isn't a big deal.  In fact, I'm sure someone reading this right now is probably like, "Um okay ... I wear that every day."  But here's the thing ... I don't.  I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl.  While I actually do love fashion, I love being comfortable more.  (It probably also doesn't help that I work in an environment where jeans and t-shirts are the norm.  After all, you just cover up your clothes with a lab coat anyway.)  So it was actually a big deal for me to put on a dress and heels!

Eric seemed to love the look too (I got so many compliments from him that night!), so maybe I'll have to incorporate more dresses and heels into my wardrobe.  I'll definitely have to practice walking in heels a little more, though.  The reason my foot isn't in that shoe is because my feet were killing me by the time we got home (we only had to walk maybe 3 blocks to the restaurant from our parking spot, so it wasn't like we traipsed all over town), and I had to immediately remove my shoes.  I can't imagine wearing heels all the time!  (Though, let's be honest ... It would be pretty awesome to become Carrie Bradshaw fabulous and have the ability to run all over Manhattan in 4" Manolos.  Maybe one day.)

Overall, it was a fantastic and relaxing weekend.  Hopefully this is only the beginning of a wonderful and exciting new decade!

Playlist: June 2014

Has it really been over 2 weeks since I last posted?  That's pretty bad.

Here's a quick recap of the last couple of weeks:

Eric turned 32 and we celebrated with a nice dinner at The Twisted Cork Bistro.

I ordered the halibut with a charred jalapeno honey vinaigrette, black rice, sauteed kale, steamed asparagus, and avocado.  It was delicious!

Eric ordered the macadamia/Panko crusted mahi mahi with coconut buerre blanc, spinach, apple smashed potato cake, and coconut flakes.  I managed to steal a bite and it was so good!

For dessert we had the Vancouver Nanaimo Bar, which is a dark chocolate bar with a walnut crust and coconut custard.  It was so good that I almost wished I'd ordered one for each of us.

And with a name like the Twisted CORK Bistro, you could expect wine.  Lots and lots of delicious white wine.  (Too bad it was like 90+ degrees that day and my hair was disgusting.

We also ordered the Lahvosh appetizer with sun-dried tomato, basil, artichokes, and Havarti and goat cheeses, but I forgot to take a picture of that.  It was just as awesome as everything else, though!

About a week after our dinner, I brought home a small treat for him on his actual birthday: cupcakes from Cold Stone Creamery.  (You didn't know they made cupcakes?  Neither did I until I started searching for a place to order cupcakes.  Since it's been so hot lately and since we have an unhealthy obsession with Cold Stone ice cream and milkshakes, it seemed like the obvious place to get them.)

Eric proudly showing off his treats.

A closer look at the cupcakes.  I ordered a variety pack, which included 3 flavor combinations.  I tried all of them, and they were all as good as I'd hoped they would be.

Oh, and I had to include proof of our unhealthy obsession (see below):

I've been addicted to Cold Stone milkshakes made with red velvet ice cream and brownie bits mixed in.  I would tell you to immediately go try this, but I don't want to be blamed for any addiction that may result.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that we've been going to Cold Stone at least 1-2 times each week for ice cream and milkshakes.  At least we've been working out a lot, right?  RIGHT?!?!

My mom also came to visit us for a while.  She was here for about 2 weeks.  (And no, I didn't take any pictures ... Sorry.)  We spent some time going out to eat (and getting Cold Stone, of course), shopping, and hanging out with Eric's parents.  It was nice to have some time with her, especially since the last time I saw her was when I flew back to my hometown for my grandpa's funeral.  Not exactly the most fun or happy reason for a visit.

So yeah ... Things have been busy but fun.  June kind of flew by for me, and while it definitely had its ups and downs, it was (for the most part) a good month.

And since it's the end of the month, that means another Divulge and Indulge playlist!  (I realize I probably enjoy these much more than anyone else who might come across this blog, but oh well.)

In honor of my mom's visit this month, I've decided to make a "women who rock" themed playlist.  The idea is to simply include a bunch of female artists I've been listening to a lot lately.  Hopefully you'll enjoy these songs as much as I do!

Click on the link below to listen to this playlist.

http://grooveshark.com/playlist/June+2014/99051229