Second Leg: (Almost) Best Week Ever.

The second leg of the Best Week Ever was not quite as epic as the first - Mark's parents didn't get to come this weekend, and work was bad one day, and Mark's birthday dinner was a near-fiasco - but Elissa still got to come, and we have made plans for me to visit Nashville in the next week or two, and Mark and Andy's continued birthday celebrations were still lots of fun, so all was not lost :)

What was good, in pictures:

We came back on Sunday night from my parents' house, and Elissa came on Monday, mid-day. She needed some new work clothes, and so we went shopping. Oh, how I love to shop. It was lots of fun :)

Lissa and me and the little black dress

That night, we were going to meet Andy and Suzie and Mark for dinner at Rojo - only to find out that it was closed :( So sad! So we went to this little Mexican place in 5 Points instead.

Andy (the birthday boy) and Suzie :)

I learned that I do not like Blue Moon beer, even with orange, after the first 2 or 3 sips of it. I also learned that green rice is just rice with cilantro in it (much better than my first thought that it was rice and guacamole - eww.)

Me, Lissa, and Mark (the other birthday boy!)

It always looks like Lissa and I are up to something ... but we're not. Maybe that's just the Lucy and Ethel in us both (though I'm not sure which of us is Ethel...)

After dinner we went to the Break to play pool (per Andy's request.) We discovered that aside from Andy, who is fairly mediocre, we all are ABYSMAL at pool/billiards/whatever you want to call it. Seriously abysmal. Lissa was bringing dinner to Matthew while we were there, and she said it was perfectly fine because she'd just be a handicap - but all three of us ended up being that.. basically, Mark and I just hit the balls around the table. I think I might have hit 3 balls actually in a pocket, and most of those were corner shots. Not counting the balls I hit in that were actually Andy and Suzie's...

Andy, the only one of us who sort of knew what he was doing :)

After we left the Break, we headed back to our house. Suzie baked a cake, and brought it and the puppy over. We did the whole candle/cake thing, they left, and I went to bed so I could get up for work in the morning.

Mark and Andy with their yummy strawberry cake

Kisses for Emma

I worked Tuesday and Wednesday, which was a drag. Then Thursday, Elissa and I went shopping again, and then she had to leave :( Saddest part of my week. Suzie brought Emma by in her Godzilla halloween costume before Lissa headed out...

Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

After that comes the not-so-amazing...

Mark's parents were supposed to come this weekend, but because of Mark's presentation being due on Monday and the traffic due to race weekend, they decided not to. So I had planned to do a nice, pretty, yummy dinner for Mark on Saturday night (amidst the trick-or-treaters). I went to the store and got all the food ... the menu was going to be Stuffed Cornish Hens, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Candied Carrots, and Apple Pecan Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream for dessert. Yum, right? Well, I made the apple pecan cobbler and roasted the garlic with no problem, and while they were cooking, I put the hens in a sink of cold water to thaw. (All they had was frozen at Publix, and the nice Publix meat man said they'd take about an hour to thaw.) So the cobbler was done, and the birds were ready to be stuffed and put in the oven - so I thought. I opened them up and everything was thawed but the inside - I think it might have been the gibblets? I couldn't tell. But they were frozen SOLID. Now, I've never actually made cornish hens before, which might have been my first mistake, making something new for a special occasion. But I didn't think it would be that difficult. It was already like 6:30 at that point, and the hens would need to bake for an hour, and add the extra thawing time, and considering I hadn't made any other part of the meal yet - it wasn't good. Plus I was already hungry, which made it worse. My blood pressure rose, my blood sugar dropped, and I was just not happy. So I ditched my brilliant plan, ate some chips and salsa, stuck the birds back in the fridge to (hopefully) thaw overnight, and started over. We ended up having salmon Caesar salad that turned out splendidly, and I just rearranged my little menu plan for the week, and we had some good wine and watched a movie, so crisis was averted. But I'm still a bit upset about the lack of sweet little browned cornish hens on Mark's birthday. Oh well... c'est la vie, right?

So now it's Sunday, and I forgot all about Daylight Savings Time, so I have a bit before I need to get ready for church. And rather than doing anything productive, I'm posting pictures and talking about frozen birds. Lovely :)