a productive weekend indeed
this weekend was a really good weekend. actually, it was one of the most enjoyable weekends i've had recently, which made it even better.
we hosted the breakfast club on saturday morning. marshall and i woke up early to put the fresh currant scones in the oven and then to prep for the egg-stuffed biscuits, sausage, and tomato and avocado salad. friday afternoon i broke down the rest of the 23lb watermelon i bought the previous weekend and made fresh watermelon lemonade. it didn't take much, but it was a very tedious and messy project. luckily, the end result was tasty and turned out to be a hit at breakfast. everything else went well, too. everyone liked the egg-stuffed biscuits and the scones. we had a wonderful time sitting around and chatting, too. so, chalk that up to a pretty solid success for breakfast. :) after breakfast, marshall and i headed out into the 100F heat to morgan hill to order our invitations. since we don't have a final guest list, menu, or anything related to either of these, we couldn't finalize much. we did, however, put in an immediate order for the save-the-dates. once we get those, we should have the guest list pretty much decided upon and can send those out. they'll end up being sent out a month late, but with everyone asking, "what's your date, again?", they won't be unnecessary. :) it ended up being a longer process than we thought, but we finally left morgan hill and called gayle's to tell them we'd be late. we ended up being about 30 minutes, late, but since we were the only appointment in the afternoon, we had time. we talked with the manager about what we were looking for. she was very helpful and provided us with a wide variety of cake options. we found a design we liked and even figured out they would be able to provide the kind of banana slug cake-toppers we had in mind. the only draw-back is that if we go with gayle's, i won't get my olalliberry cake that i was hoping for. the cakes at gayle's were delicious, though, so i don't think we can go wrong with either. things are looking more in favor of gayle's. i think marshall and i will be able to decide on that this week, as well.
we had some time to kill before heading to dinner, so we went to the verizon store to look at phones. marshall had been leaning towards the blackberry storm. we spent about a half hour playing and looking at all the different phones they had available. verizon has been having a BOGO-free special on blackberries, so i figured if marshall got a blackberry, i would get one, too. i was looking at the curve, which is pretty popular. the verizon data plan for blackberries ended up being more expensive than we originally thought and we both agreed that we wouldn't use it enough to justify the added expense. so, we found different phones. marshall went with the samsung alias 2 and i went with my original favorite: the lg env touch. we each got the car bundle, which included a bluetooth headset, car charger and case. i'm really happy i got a new bluetooth, since i haven't been able to locate my old one and whenever i answer the phone, i get nervous i'll be pulled over. being the nerds we are, we were really excited about our new phones. i even had my new ringtone in mind: the i dream of genie theme song! :P
i surprised marshall by getting reservations at bonny doon vineyard's cellar door cafe. it recently opened a few months ago and i've been wanting to try it out. they have a prix fixe menu that changes daily and developed by a ***-star michelin chef. saturday's menu started with an early girl tomato soup, which was velvety smooth and delicious, followed by cider-braised veal cheek and cabbage with smoked fingerling potatoes, all of which resulted in a party in both our mouths. as marshall said, we merely used our forks and knives simply out of habit. the meat was extremely tender and perfectly cooked. chewing was out of habit as well, since the meat melted in your mouth. oh my god, it was delicious. for dessert, we enjoyed the pluot and blueberry crisp, served with vanilla cream. to accompany each course, we decided to do the flight tasting of each of the suggested wine pairings. everything was so incredibly good and a REALLY good price. for that 3-course meal, even WITH wine, came to only $50/each. you simply cannot get that much food anywhere else for that price. i told marshall while we were there, that if we could both find jobs within santa cruz, i would TOTALLY live there. i also told him i could totally see myself working at a cafe like that. it's a really small cafe and you have a set menu, with a handful of other items, which i didn't see very many people order from. anyway, it was a great experience and i think i've developed a personal goal to try each of their set menus at least once. seems reasonable, right? :D
sunday started early. we got up and went to breakfast and headed to one of the local bike shops to pick up some supplies for our bike ride that day. our plan was to right the length of the coyote creek trail. in total, it's about 30 miles round-trip. i was super psyched about it. so, we picked up some "gu" packets and i also tried out some powder drink for my water. once we were all stocked and packed, we headed for the trail head at hellyer park. we got going around noon and although there were people on the trail, they were in small numbers. it wasn't until we were coming back later in the afternoon that we started to see more people. the entire ride, though, went smoothly. we had one place where we got lost and kept having to figure out where the trail continued and then coming back that same place caused some trouble and i nearly wiped out. i caught myself, but in doing so my calf seized up and i had to rest for a few minutes, while it relaxed. it was the worst cramp i've ever had. it sucked. other than that, i had a wonderful time. my legs aren't sore today, but my upper body is sore from having to hold myself up the entire time. still, though, when we got back to the car, a little voice in my head started saying "again, again, again!!" :P so yeah, i enjoyed myself.
for dinner, we headed to my mom's for a birthday bbq. it was lovely and the food was delicious. in my dad's absence, bff-sarah's husband, mike, took over the grill and did a great job on the chicken and tri-tip. the chicken was juicy and perfectly cooked. everything else was good, too. i had a lot of fun catching up with sarah and mike, since i hadn't seen them since they got back from their honeymoon. i also caught up with bff-sarah's mom, whose birthday we were celebrating. my sister and sarah even got a few things planned for my bridal shower and bachelorette party. so yeah, it was a fun night. :)
i tried making next weekend (labor day weekend) a wedding-free weekend, but i don't think that will be possible. my sister hasn't tried on any bridesmaid dresses and we need to make a decision on those soon (if we order from where i got my dress, they need 4 months to order). it looks like monday will be the best day for her, but we've got tentative bbq plans with celtcub, norcalpaco, and damneddonkey. i figure i can go with my sister at noon and be done by 1, giving enough time for bbq activities for the rest of the afternoon/evening. maybe i can designate the following weekend to be wedding-free. i need to get in a wedding-free weekend soon, before i go nuts.
we hosted the breakfast club on saturday morning. marshall and i woke up early to put the fresh currant scones in the oven and then to prep for the egg-stuffed biscuits, sausage, and tomato and avocado salad. friday afternoon i broke down the rest of the 23lb watermelon i bought the previous weekend and made fresh watermelon lemonade. it didn't take much, but it was a very tedious and messy project. luckily, the end result was tasty and turned out to be a hit at breakfast. everything else went well, too. everyone liked the egg-stuffed biscuits and the scones. we had a wonderful time sitting around and chatting, too. so, chalk that up to a pretty solid success for breakfast. :) after breakfast, marshall and i headed out into the 100F heat to morgan hill to order our invitations. since we don't have a final guest list, menu, or anything related to either of these, we couldn't finalize much. we did, however, put in an immediate order for the save-the-dates. once we get those, we should have the guest list pretty much decided upon and can send those out. they'll end up being sent out a month late, but with everyone asking, "what's your date, again?", they won't be unnecessary. :) it ended up being a longer process than we thought, but we finally left morgan hill and called gayle's to tell them we'd be late. we ended up being about 30 minutes, late, but since we were the only appointment in the afternoon, we had time. we talked with the manager about what we were looking for. she was very helpful and provided us with a wide variety of cake options. we found a design we liked and even figured out they would be able to provide the kind of banana slug cake-toppers we had in mind. the only draw-back is that if we go with gayle's, i won't get my olalliberry cake that i was hoping for. the cakes at gayle's were delicious, though, so i don't think we can go wrong with either. things are looking more in favor of gayle's. i think marshall and i will be able to decide on that this week, as well.
we had some time to kill before heading to dinner, so we went to the verizon store to look at phones. marshall had been leaning towards the blackberry storm. we spent about a half hour playing and looking at all the different phones they had available. verizon has been having a BOGO-free special on blackberries, so i figured if marshall got a blackberry, i would get one, too. i was looking at the curve, which is pretty popular. the verizon data plan for blackberries ended up being more expensive than we originally thought and we both agreed that we wouldn't use it enough to justify the added expense. so, we found different phones. marshall went with the samsung alias 2 and i went with my original favorite: the lg env touch. we each got the car bundle, which included a bluetooth headset, car charger and case. i'm really happy i got a new bluetooth, since i haven't been able to locate my old one and whenever i answer the phone, i get nervous i'll be pulled over. being the nerds we are, we were really excited about our new phones. i even had my new ringtone in mind: the i dream of genie theme song! :P
i surprised marshall by getting reservations at bonny doon vineyard's cellar door cafe. it recently opened a few months ago and i've been wanting to try it out. they have a prix fixe menu that changes daily and developed by a ***-star michelin chef. saturday's menu started with an early girl tomato soup, which was velvety smooth and delicious, followed by cider-braised veal cheek and cabbage with smoked fingerling potatoes, all of which resulted in a party in both our mouths. as marshall said, we merely used our forks and knives simply out of habit. the meat was extremely tender and perfectly cooked. chewing was out of habit as well, since the meat melted in your mouth. oh my god, it was delicious. for dessert, we enjoyed the pluot and blueberry crisp, served with vanilla cream. to accompany each course, we decided to do the flight tasting of each of the suggested wine pairings. everything was so incredibly good and a REALLY good price. for that 3-course meal, even WITH wine, came to only $50/each. you simply cannot get that much food anywhere else for that price. i told marshall while we were there, that if we could both find jobs within santa cruz, i would TOTALLY live there. i also told him i could totally see myself working at a cafe like that. it's a really small cafe and you have a set menu, with a handful of other items, which i didn't see very many people order from. anyway, it was a great experience and i think i've developed a personal goal to try each of their set menus at least once. seems reasonable, right? :D
sunday started early. we got up and went to breakfast and headed to one of the local bike shops to pick up some supplies for our bike ride that day. our plan was to right the length of the coyote creek trail. in total, it's about 30 miles round-trip. i was super psyched about it. so, we picked up some "gu" packets and i also tried out some powder drink for my water. once we were all stocked and packed, we headed for the trail head at hellyer park. we got going around noon and although there were people on the trail, they were in small numbers. it wasn't until we were coming back later in the afternoon that we started to see more people. the entire ride, though, went smoothly. we had one place where we got lost and kept having to figure out where the trail continued and then coming back that same place caused some trouble and i nearly wiped out. i caught myself, but in doing so my calf seized up and i had to rest for a few minutes, while it relaxed. it was the worst cramp i've ever had. it sucked. other than that, i had a wonderful time. my legs aren't sore today, but my upper body is sore from having to hold myself up the entire time. still, though, when we got back to the car, a little voice in my head started saying "again, again, again!!" :P so yeah, i enjoyed myself.
for dinner, we headed to my mom's for a birthday bbq. it was lovely and the food was delicious. in my dad's absence, bff-sarah's husband, mike, took over the grill and did a great job on the chicken and tri-tip. the chicken was juicy and perfectly cooked. everything else was good, too. i had a lot of fun catching up with sarah and mike, since i hadn't seen them since they got back from their honeymoon. i also caught up with bff-sarah's mom, whose birthday we were celebrating. my sister and sarah even got a few things planned for my bridal shower and bachelorette party. so yeah, it was a fun night. :)
i tried making next weekend (labor day weekend) a wedding-free weekend, but i don't think that will be possible. my sister hasn't tried on any bridesmaid dresses and we need to make a decision on those soon (if we order from where i got my dress, they need 4 months to order). it looks like monday will be the best day for her, but we've got tentative bbq plans with celtcub, norcalpaco, and damneddonkey. i figure i can go with my sister at noon and be done by 1, giving enough time for bbq activities for the rest of the afternoon/evening. maybe i can designate the following weekend to be wedding-free. i need to get in a wedding-free weekend soon, before i go nuts.