The Best. Monday. Ever.

I think I just had the best Monday ever. I know. Sounds like an oxymoron huh?

This morning was tough. I was exhausted from the weekend. Lot's of family fun, but can you say wiped out. When I went out to my car, a sheet of ice fought to cling to the window as I worked my bootie off to scrape it away - only to find it also iced over on the inside! What the?! At work, as I sat at my desk I thought to myself...Do I really need to be here? I had planned on leaving early, but I was kicking myself for not just taking the whole day off. And since I was so tired, I was worried I might make a bad impression at the lunch. I know, doesn't sound like a great day so far does it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's that time of the year when the Board of Trustees for my son's school interviews potential Board Candidates. This is when the day started to look up. We met at a local restaurant just down the street from the school. As a board member, this is still new territory to me. As a parent, I couldn't help but be moved at the level of passion this amazing group of people have for these kids. I continue to be overwhelmed by their true caring.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few years ago, our friend Eden gifted my brother with a copy of Honeymoon with my Brother, and then he recommended it to me. Mondo and Eden have traveled the world, so I know that they were able to relate to it in a way that I probably couldn't, but I still loved the book. I was excited when Kurt & Franz came to Denver in October 2006 and invited a group of friends to the signing they held at the Tattered Cover downtown. When I got an email from them saying they were coming back to promote their new book I couldn't wait to attend.

So, this evening, my bookclub did something a little different. We met up at the Tattered Cover on east Colfax to have a bite at Chipotle and then attend a book signing by the authors of our next selection.

The brothers have just released a new book called How the World Makes Love and that is our next read. We had a great time at the book signing. Franz was really funny and picked out some great selections as teasers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After the signing, we (Mondo & I) had already agreed to stop for dessert. Mondo remembered me mentioning D bar and he wanted to try it out - I was definitely game for that. The group wanted to go somewhere to finish our discussion on our current read, so they joined us.

We walked in to the small venue and tried to work out between us if we could fit. As we did, I noticed that Keegan Gerhard was behind the counter and I tap tap tapped on my sister's shoulder - Hey, look. It's the guy from Food Network. From the Food Network Challenge show. Cakes cakes cakes! Candy candy candy! Okay, if I was being honest, I would have mentioned in my entry, In response to Audrey's Enquiring Mind, that another obsession of mine is the Food Network. I could watch that channel all day long. It's horrible. And wonderful. The first step is admitting you have a problem right? Well there ya go. Anyway, my total dorkdom became apparent as I walked up to the counter and said "I just wanted to say hi and tell you that I am a complete Food Network junkie. I watch your show all the time. Can I take a photo of you?" He was so nice - he said "sure, why don't you come back and take one with me?" I had no idea it was his shop, I guess I thought maybe he was visiting or something.

Anyway, the staff there was great too. They kindly asked a few customers who had just been seated if they would mind scooting over to the next table so that we could all sit together. They kindly did (thank you!).
We ordered cappucinos, espresso, crème brûlée (wow. creamy. buttery. mmmm.), cake (triple layer - yikes!) and shake (with little chocolate covered crunchy pieces) and p.b. d bar. I can't wait to go back. Mondo mentioned doing a progressive dinner and it will be the perfect place to stop for the dessert portion. But - they also serve lunch, dinner and WINE! So heck yeah, I will be back.
If you visit, you should let me know what order and what you think! I'd love to know :)

http://www.dbardesserts.com/
1475 E 17th Ave
Denver, CO 80218
(303) 861-4710
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh yeah - the conversation on Breakfast with Buddha . Almost forgot. Good one. The more I think about it, the more I liked the book. In fact, I am going to take my 30% Borders Coupon and go buy it and re-read it.

You hear people say all the time, I'm spiritual, not religious and I guess this sort of captures a little bit of maybe what a true meaning of that statement might be. I don't think you have to betray yourself or betray your beliefs by opening up your mind to some of the thoughts that are released in the fictional writing. Might even inspire you - if that's the right word.

I don't know, maybe some people might be scared to read something like this. Either they might be the defensive non-practicing (insert religion here) or they might be the opposite - I am a firm (insert religion here) and I don't believe in blah blah blah. But if you open up your mind and see (lalala, thanks Jason Mraz) - then you might get something more out of it. You might find some good stuff. I think we all did.

Darren's Faves....

I was out of the house bright and early yesterday to take Mondo to the airport. The snow was coming in fast and thick, so I made a quick stop at the grocery store on my way home. Darren has been asking me to make potstickers and coconut shrimp (from my cooking class) for a while now and I thought, what the heck. So when I got home, I made the potsticker filling (which was a whole lot of filling) and used up all the wrappers I had bought. I made some right then and froze the rest (they freeze quite nicely). I told Darren he could have potstickers and coconut shrimp for lunch today.

It was a beautiful day today - the sun shining bright and the roads were nice and clear. But there was a blizzard just yesterday (welcome to Colorado) and I guess I kind of acted like I was still snowed in. I didn't mind cooking all day at all.

Anyway, Darren held me to it too. It was the first thing he asked me for this morning. But before anything, I made a batch of dough for pizza for dinner this evening. It came out really nice and I even added some herbs to the mix. The coconut shrimp was great - but I want to find a good dipping sauce to make with it next time. We had the pizza for dinner. Darren was in heaven and told me "I can't wait until you take your next cooking class!"

Whirlwind trip

Friday - Got off of work early to catch my flight at 3'ish. Yvette picked me up at the airport and we headed straight to a retirement party for one of her friends. Kinda crazy because I had actually met a few of the people that were there for the celebration... they had attended a convention in Denver a few years back. We had a late dinner at a Mexican restaurant and I was pleasantly surprised. You might not know this about me, but I don't usually choose to go out for Mexican food.

Saturday - Stopped for coffee at Starbucks on the way to a movie. Yes, we went to a movie and I am totally okay with that! It was a no pressure weekend and this fit in perfectly! We saw "Slumdog Millionaire", a movie we had both been wanting to see. I highly recommend it by the way. The weather was beautiful. Way nicer than I had been planning on. Then it was time for lunch at Gino's East. Okay, if I had anything on my list - it as deep dish pizza. I introduced Yvette, and the bartender to an "Italian Margarita" - yummmm. Afterwards, we walked around the Magnificent Mile area, shopping til we were dropping. We headed back to the hotel for just a minute before we decided to visit the Sears Tower. The view at night from the Skydeck was beautiful - all lit up. We started walking back to the hotel and I'm not gonna lie, here's where the weather I had anticipated kicked in. I fell down at some point as we were crossing the street. Limping a little bit, we found a bar on the corner (Boss) and stopped in for a drink - and an appetizer (it was dinner time and we hadn't eaten yet). By the time we left, I felt fine and we walked back to the hotel - where we stopped in to the lobby bar for dessert... and a drink.

Sunday - Carlos, a friend of Yvette's picked us up and took us for lunch in a Puerto Rican neighborhood. We had a sandwich made with plantains as the 'bread'. It was delicious. Really, one of the highlights to my trip to try something new like this. After lunch - he took us on a tour of Chicago pointing out all the highlights I probably would have known to look for if I had planned this trip at all :) He dropped us back at the hotel in the late afternoon. We had to stop by a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins. They were on every block, I swear. And then we thought about getting tickets to a show, but on a stop before the ticket booth, the car got towed! Can you believe it? I still can't. Yvette didn't let it ruin the day - we got the car out of impound and continued to look for Oprah's studio and then drove out to Barack Obama's home. It was dark and the street was policed off, so we didn't see much - but hey, we can still say we went. We stopped by China town on the way back and then back to the hotel before going out for dinner. We planned to go to La Frontera (a restaurant by Rick Bayless) - but it was closed! Biscuits!! so we went back to the hotel and ate at the Weber Grill, and watched the end of the Super Bowl. Even though it wasn't what we had planned, it was still really good.

Monday - Up at 3:30am. Dropped Yvette off at home and then off to work. Boy, that was a long day... Totally worth it though.