Thursday, April 29, 2010

Kicker dancing is finer than frog's hair!

Found this is a magazine today -- although I don't know why the web version of the article doesn't have this part (unless it's a link...I didn't follow the links).

Texas-isms:
  • Y'all: You all. "All y'all" is even more y'alls
  • All git out: Exceedingly
  • Dag nab it: Exclamation in lieu of honking the horn
  • Fixin' to: Planning to
  • Fair to middlin': Just okay
  • Hissy fit: Temper tantrum
  • Conniptions: A huge hissy fit
  • Scooch over: Move over a bit. [I always thought this was spelled "skootch" -- glad to get that straightened out!]
  • Coke: Any carbonated beverage:
Patron: I'd like a Coke.


Waiter: What kind of Coke would you like?


Patron: I'll have a Dr. Pepper.
  • Kicker dancing: Boogying to country music
  • Finer than frog's hair: Superlative for pretty, etc. A possible pick-up line.
I had a neighbor at my old condo's that responded with "fair to middlin'" every time I asked him how he was. I mostly saw him at the garages. He was an elderly gentleman (apparently with Texas roots).

My folks live in the Texas now and my dad used to teach an ESL (English as a 2nd language) class for a while. He has a funny story about a shy, quiet Korean woman pulling him aside after class one day to ask him what "fixin' to" meant. She thought it was a naughty word -- but was confused because all these super-polite and mostly helpful people kept saying it to her right in the middle of conversations.

I challenge you to write a me a short paragraph using all these words! I'm working on my own mini-story too...

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

How 'bout them cupcakes?

My friend, Antonia, read about The Shoppe in Denver in a magazine. I was intrigued by their website and we set up an evening to meet there for dessert.

They are located on Colfax -- and if you're at all familiar with that street you'll be curious about which section. When I first moved to Denver Colfax was known as a street where you could buy *anything* and supposedly you could see "working girls" if you were to drive down it for a couple miles. I have no idea -- we never went back then (I was in Jr. High). About 10 years ago when I was learning to play hockey -- and starting with roller hockey -- we used to go to Pete's Kitchen afterwords for breakfast or gyros. This was back when they were winning awards for "best late night eats". Man -- I should go back. A gyro sounds pretty tasty. If our game was late enough, we could see the drag queens since they tended to congregate there after midnight. I always loved that because even if I shower after hockey (fairly big *if*) there's no way I am going to look put together at 2am -- and there were people there that looked like they stepped out of a fashion magazine. Another thing I enjoyed was that a few blocks from this night life type area was a really upscale French restaurant that there was no way I could afford at that time. I love juxtapositions like that. (Although that's probably not the right word.)

Anyways, back to the present... Recently they've done a whole "revitalization" project and moved one of the most popular independent book stores in Denver there (The Tattered Cover) as well as some trendy new restaurants. Well, we weren't headed to that new, trendy part. But a few blocks away sorta sandwiched between a liquor store, a closed retail store and some other off-beat stores is The Shoppe. The specialize in cupcakes -- and have menu of a few dozen different kinds. While waiting in line we saw a little boy carrying his cupcake back to his table. His eyes are so wide -- and he was taking every step very gingerly so as not to hurt the cupcake. Very cute. My eyes might've been just as wide when I got my order!

I tried a latte (yum!), the Lavendar Lemon Cupcake special, a
sample-size peanut butter cookie sandwich and a sample-size carrot cake cupcake. I would recommend the sample-size items -- you get to try more flavors that way. The Lavender Lemon smelled like lavender and tasted like lemon. Strange separation of the senses, but wonderful!

The woman who rang me up said "now if you can't finish that all, we will give you a box". Very thoughtful of her to assume I'm not a glutton... I responded that I would give it my best shot since their website does recommend that you eat the item on the day of purchase. And if, due to extenuating circumstances, you do have to wait until the next day they seem to begrudgingly acknowledge that you could store it overnight in an airtight container.

I had no issue finishing mine...

I loved the ambiance of the place too. The dining room is probably the size of my office (then 2nd bedroom in my house). They have lots of art on the wall -- a couple walls of art on display by artists that's also for sale. It looked like those rotate periodically because I saw something announcing the next artist. They have another wall that's all paintings/decoupage/collage type stuff of cupcakes. A couple of the walls are built at angles and I love the lights. I would hang these in my house if they wouldn't look out of place.



They have a book nook and t-shirts for sale. It *is* a lot of stuff crammed into a small little space, but I didn't feel crowded. The best part might've been the turning spice rack next to the napkins filled with jars of every kind of sprinkle, decoration, red hot, candy, etc. imaginable for topping off your cupcake.

I hear they do wedding cupcakes too...

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Jing!

Before I knew I was getting a restaurant diary for my birthday, we went to Jing and I decided to keep track of places we ate that I liked (apparently if you say something once and embarrass Iggy by taking pictures he will remember this behavior -- and even encourage it!).


I have a soft spot for Jing. It's one of the first places Iggy and I went. We went there on what I didn't consider a date. It was February 15th. I purposely asked him out the day after Valentine's Day so that he wouldn't think it was a date. (After the fact I learned that his friends considered it a date since it was on Valentine's weekend.) We went to a movie first (Frost/Nixon) and then went to dinner afterwords to discuss the movie. When we were all done with dinner and standing up to leave, I said sorta offhandedly "Funny - we never even got around to discussing the movie." Iggy sat back down and said he really did want to talk about the movie. (Big points -- I was impressed!)


Besides that association, I love the atmosphere. There are circular booths done in white suede. There's a waterfall. And all the art and is minimal and striking. But I especially love the ceiling. There's this curtain-type thing that spirals around is a double curlicue. It has beads on the end and it must've taken several bolts of fabric to make. It starts short and gradually gets longer as it spirals toward the center. The picture below is only of half of it, and doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea. It's really cool. I would totally do that in my living room if it wouldn't look weird.






This time we went for Denver Restaurant Week. There's a Pris fix menu for $26.40 each (or $52.80 per couple -- gotta love the Denver Mile High theme -- even though I forget which step of the Capital building is actually 5,280 feet high).


We sat in the bar for a bit since we were uncharacteristically early. I ordered a mojito of the specials menu made with Thai Basil instead of Mint, but I think I ended up getting the Strawberry Mojito. That was pretty good. Iggy tried the Ginger Limeade (vodka, Canton Cognac, fresh ginger) -- that was better.


When we sat down at our table we ordered Buddha Drops. These are drinks that come with a little flower in it (the "Buddha Drop") and eating the flower will make your mouth and tongue tingle for a while. Kinda fun. Supposedly it enhances the taste of the food and the drink. Maybe...but all I could focus on was the tingly sensation. It was fun (but distracted me from the food rather than enhanced it)! I got my Buddha Drop in a Love Potion No. 8. (Thought it was supposed to be #9? Maybe that's too risky for being in public? Maybe something got lost in translation? Maybe it's an elaborate joke on people like me who are easily confused?) That is made of vodka, Hypnotiq and grenadine. It's a pleasing lime green color. I quite enjoyed it. Iggy got the "traditional" Buddha Drop drink which probably tasted better, but wasn't lime green and didn't have a catchy name. His loss.

Clockwise below: Buddha Drop, Ginger Limeade, Strawberry Mojito?, Love Potion No. 8
I am not really a sushi fan. Or even a fan of fish in general. I say it's because I'm a Pisces and I don't eat anything that swims in solidarity. That includes alligator. It's not that I have tried most of it...it's just that it all seems to taste ... well, fishy or be chewy. On the Montana trip CuervHo ordered some sushi and sashimi and let EZ-Ho and me try some. I did like some of that but I'm not sure I could make a whole meal of it. Luckily cows and chickens don't swim or I would be a vegetarian. (haha) And honestly, it probably goes back to a childhood experience with trout. Having never seen it before we came back to the States between stays in Greece, that's what was for dinner on the farm -- the guys had spent the day checking the trout lines and we were having the rewards of their efforts. I dug right in only to have a caring aunt explain that "you have to be careful of bones". I looked all over that dumb thing and didn't see any bones. I was expecting something ... well, bone-shaped. Like the ones you see on the Flintstones. I asked for some clarification and found out that the bones were these super-fine clear things all throughout the fish. That is just way too darn much effort. I asked for a hot dog instead.


Anyways, I convinced Iggy (also not a fish fan) to try the sushi that was on the 5280 appetizer menu -- along with some reliable sliders. Not bad. Even for a non-sushi person. Iggy didn't finish his and I didn't help him out though, so maybe not something I will order next time.


The sliders were great though -- the hot jalapeno was a nice touch with the cucumber. And you gotta love a burger served on that puffy dough thing that you usually get with the duck at Chinese restaurants. Yum!


In the picture below:

Four Sauces for dipping: red wine, teriayki, wasabi, pepper; Kobe Beef Sliders: little burgers served on Shanghai buns with a cucumber strips and a jalapeno on top; California Rolls


I didn't take pictures of our dinners, but they were quite good and the presentation was cool. I had the most fun with the drinks and the appetizers...so that's what you got above.

You should go -- let me know what you think!

Friday, April 2, 2010

You Know You're High Maintenance When... (or Tales of Bridezilla, Part 1)

... you take 3 salespeople to help you pick out a ring.

I'll get back to that. It's been a busy few months:
  • My boyfriend's family came to visit in December for Christmas (the first time I've met his mom/sister).
  • I went to TX on Christmas day (and stayed a week) to see my mom, dad, grandmas, brother, sister-in-law and niece.
  • Had a quiet New Year's by going out to dinner and watching a movie in. (Yeah, I know, I'm old and boring -- I'll get to that too.)
  • Went to Montana with the ColoradHos (playing as the Denver BroncHos) for a tournament in January.
  • One of my good friends on the hockey team had 4 brain aneurysms not long after we got back -- that was super scary, but amazingly and miraculously she's made so much progress in her recovery that they're expecting her to play hockey again in the future!!!
  • Went to St. Paul, MN to visit a client for a week in early February.
  • Got an unexpected offer on my condo in mid-February (I hadn't listed it yet, just had asked a friend what I needed to do to fix it up in order to list it).
  • I went to Warren, NJ the 3rd week in February to visit a different client.
  • The last week of February I rented a storage place, donated 75% of my furniture, moved the rest of my stuff, cleaned my soon-to-be-ex-condo, had it's furnace fixed, had it's carpets cleaned and closed on the place (a shout out to Becca and Iggy for all the moving labor and for putting up with my stress-monster ways during that time!).
  • We found out my grandma had 2 weeks to live, so I booked a ticket out there toward the end of that time to see her and help my mom who took FMLA leave to do the hospice care.
  • Got engaged.
  • Turned 40 (told you I was old and boring).
  • Actually went on the trip to TX to visit my grandma one last time.
  • Had an "intervention" at work to remove all other clients from my plate for one week so that I could concentrate on one that's in danger of missing a go-live in September.
  • And since then I have been playing catch-up from that crazy week -- it wasn't worth it, by the way, because we couldn't agree on the specs and they're still in danger of missing September and now all my other deadlines for my other clients are closer and need attention. (For the record I said I didn't like the idea, so perhaps I'm guilty of not putting in the 150% effort needed to make it work. Most likely, yes.)
  • I think that's it. We've now arrived at April 2nd and Easter weekend. Holy moly, where does the time go? (See? I even sound old and boring. ha!)
I was completely surprised by the proposal. We went to dinner and a play the day before my birthday because I was planning to work on my birthday (a Saturday), then play hockey, then go out with the team for dinner/drinks. Iggy and I had a lovely dinner Friday night at Limon (planning to blog that later) and the play (The Goodbye People) was good. When we got home I said I wanted to open my presents.

I should pause here to say that I am terrible with presents. If I buy you one, and I see you, I will give it to you. I can rarely wait for the day that occasions the present. I should probably become a last minute shopper -- it might be cheaper because after I give you the first one I tend to have to go and buy one so I have something on the right day. And...I'm just as bad at getting them. My mom/dad shipped me some presents, and my mom always wraps lots of stuff individually. I opened present per day until they ran out.

Iggy has strict rules about waiting until the day for presents. But I think I'd worn him down because he said OK this time. I opened some fun stuff - a restaurant diary, a wine label preserver and diary, a subscription to 5280 magazine (a Denver/Colorado magazine), a vodka infuser (so much fun! -- have had one OK batch so far and one pretty good one -- the good news is that it's fun to test!). After all that he said "I have one more present" and that's when he asked me if I would marry him. I was so surprised! And I'm a good guesser! (Hey - this is my blog - I can spin my abilities any way I want!) He said he struggled with what to buy because he's not sure how I *really* feel about diamonds.

After I got back from TX and Iggy got back from the guys' trip to Las Vegas for the opening weekend of the college hoops tournament, we went to the store to trade in the solitaire ring for a different ring. Normally I wouldn't probably have done that -- because I like keeping the gift itself. But he said that was the plan, so I figured it must be a good one. Now, I am not a very good shopper. I like having a list and a plan and getting in and out as quickly as possible. So I looked at the website over the course of the time he was in LVNV. I picked out a few, printed out the pages and took them to the store. I even said on the way there "hopefully this will take like 30 minutes and then we can go to lunch". Iggy, in his wise ways, said "maybe we should have lunch first". That was a good call. At the store I showed the salesperson my list. She said she'd look them up and to browse for a minute.

?!?!

I didn't want to browse randomly. I wanted to see my list. And I was tired of all the random salespeople gushing "Oh congratulations!" And I was not pleased that there was a crowd of people to wade through. Eventually she gave the list to someone else to look up -- apparently there were easier customers to wait on that actually liked browsing and wanted to make an afternoon of it. Salesperson 1 down.

The only part of browsing I enjoyed was watching the other people. Luckily there were lots of those. There was a knot of girls (women in their early 20s) picking out an engagement ring. There was a woman there older than me. She and her future husband seemed to be beaming as brightly as the 20-year-olds. I know have a little hang-up currently about being 40 and being a bride -- I seem too old to be all giddy and gushing, don't I? Not that I was ever that way, I guess. I'm also a little hesitant because I was married once before and I feel a little guilty at going through this "once-in-a-lifetime" process for the second time. Not that any part of it's really been the same -- including my feelings. I think when I was 24 I figured it "made sense" and was the "next step" after dating for 5 years... Anyways. Back to Bridezilla and the ring selection!

Salesperson 2 was a guy -- I hoped that would be better and he'd be more no-nonsense about the whole thing. He looked at their inventory on the computer in the back room (after inviting us to browse and get ideas while he was occupied). When he came back he said "we have 2 of your top 3, so let's go find them." Ok, better. But we couldn't find either of them. Apparently they have no organizational system at all. I picked some randomly after that. The "rules" only allow you to keep 3 rings out at a time, so I kept having to choose one to give back. Sometimes he'd put it in the case and sometimes in his pocket. (Does that seem fishy to you?) Usually that was really easy, but at one point I had to randomly pick. And I kept holding my solitaire up to the ring in question to try and imagine the diamond in there... Eventually he offered to get a loose stone to let me see how it might look. That was good. A couple of the settings that seemed cool looked overpowering (to me) with an actual diamond as the featured attraction. Then I thought I'd like to look at the one I randomly selected to give back. Of course we couldn't find it again. (I wonder how many rings they lose even with the "only 3" rule.) Eventually Salesperson 2 said "I have an idea -- I will be right back."

His idea was to bring in Salesperson 3. Apparently each time we got a new salesperson we went up the foodchain of salesperson hierarchy. I was thinking at some point we might actually get to talk to Tom Shane himself. This guy said "let me double-check the inventory and see if I can find your #1 choice." He also invited us to browse while we waited.

(sigh)

The good news is that he did come back with the ring I wanted to see! It had been ordered off the web and was going to be shipped out at the end of the day. So I felt a little guilty about choosing someone else's ring, but he assured me that he'd changed it so that the Kansas City store would be fulfilling that order now.

I really tried not be be a Bridezilla, but I think I turned out worse than all the other brides-to-be there. Most of them were excited to tell their story to the salesperson and seemed to love hearing "congrats" from people whose job it was to sell them a ring (granted one of the Tom Shane commercials says they don't pay their sales staff on commission -- cynical me thinks that instead they probably use a bonus system).