Back in action

I'm BAACCK!

Whew, been very busy the last few days.  Tonight I'll do a quick recap so I can justify my absence, and tomorrow I will write some more reviews.  My friend is coming to town this weekend, so there should be pleny of fun activities to come. 

Wednesday
I went to see The Princess Bridge in the Idaho Botanical Gardens.  I have talked about this movie series before -- it costs $5/movie, you can bring your own food/drink (even alcohol) and it is outside.  It is sooo much fun.  The next movie, Grease showing on a Friday night.  I am working on getting the crew to dress up, so we will see how successful that ends up being.

Anyway, as my contribution to the group feast, I made roasted red pepper hummus and brought a variety of vegetables.  I also brought a bottle of white wine which I got to trade my buddies for in order to have some of their even TASTIER red wine.  The reds were both sparkly (one was called New Age if you have heard of that) and SO GOOD.

Thursday
Thursday I went to volunteer at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.  The night was sponsored by my work, so all of the volunteers were affiliated with my company.   Normal tickets start out around $30 and I got to watch the entire play (Taming of the Shrew) for free.

I thought when I signed up I was going to have to help clean up some gigantic stadium, but the venue is fairly small and intimate.  My seat was on the hillside, which is the general admission section of the amphitheater.  This area is first come, first serve and you stake out your spot by spreading out blankets.  I had to get there before the house even opened (at 5:30) so I got prime seating.

For snacks, I brought a quiznos sandwich (chicken harvest - so yummy) and apple slices with a yogurt dip.  I tried to make a tasty dip, but to be honest, it wasn't very good. I have yet to master the art of toasting nuts, so my walnuts made the entire dip taste a bit burnt. 

All I had to do in order to enjoy a wonderful evening was spend 1.5 hours ushering people, clean up trash during intermission, and about fifteen minutes picking up trash at the end.

Totally worth it and totally amazing.  I LOVED Taming of the Shrew!  The temperature was also perfect and the venue was gorgeous. 

Friday
A few coworkers and I went to a work gathering to start the night off.  As my contribution, I brought Doughnut Muffins (discovery: they taste better the second day).  We arrived fashionably late, when most of the food was already nibbled on, so I didn't think there was much hope for the muffins to get eaten.  However, about half were eaten and I considered that a success.

There were deep-fried oreos there, and it was awesome to finally try those...I think they would be better fresh though.  I have to say based on what I had, I prefer normal oreos!  One thing I can't stop thinking about was this phenomenal dip.  From first impressions it didn't look like anything fancy but the ranch concoction was the best ranch I have ever had.  Even the bread tasted like some sort of homemade rosemary bread.  SO FANTASTIC.

The person I went with brought Chocowine as her contribution, and I was thrilled when we picked it out at the store.  I have always wanted to try this stuff -- it is supposedly chocolate mixed with red wine.  I loved it (over ice!) but it doesn't taste like wine at all.  It tastes more like a Bailey's type drink, but I would totally get it again and it is 14% alcohol.

Friday night was also the night I got some weird allergic reaction (different than the one on Saturday night) and my forehead/chin/chest/hands all have weird little bumps on them.  Yes, they are still there.  Ugh.

Saturday
Friday night I spent the night at a friends house and got to wake up next to their lovely cat.  I haven't been around a cat in awhile, and I love cats, so I was happy when I got to cuddle up with it.

Our host made us a delicious breakast of banana pancakes, bacon, eggs and watermelon. We layed around for quite some time, and eventually I went home and layed around some more :)  Once I gathered the energy, gossiped with a middle school friend (thanks for the intel, Anna :), and finally showered by 6:00 pm, I was ready to drive up to Garden Valley and meet my boyfriend.

It was fun up there, like it always is.  We watched Hall Pass, which is a hilarious movie (a bit raunchy though).  I drank dark rum and figured out that can be added to the list of alcohol I am absolutely allergic to.  Last time I had a rum drink at their house, I got the allergic reaction, but it can happen a lot so I wasn't confident it was the rum.  This time, it happened IMMEDIATELY and I have no doubts that is what caused it.  However, I have drank Bacardi many times before, so I think it was the float of Myer's Dark Rum on the top. 

This allergic reaction was swift and a bit more intense than usual.  I might have imagined it, but I swear it was a bit hard for me to breathe.

Sunday
My boyfriend and I headed down to Boise and had an awesome day.  We didn't leave Garden Valley until around 2:30, so it wasn't until 4:00ish that we made it to the apartment.  We went to the Boise Coop, where I picked up Stroopwaffels.  I am REGRETTING that decision.  They are these delicious little waffle-looking things filled with a caramel-y type inside.  I was hoping he would devour them, but that wasn't the case and now I have been getting ill off of too much Stroopwaffel consumption.

We went to dinner at McGrath's Fish House, which was fun because I had never been there before.  The place had a great vibe, and my boyfriend's food was fantastic.  He had the Bay City Salmon which is salmon, stuffed with crab, covered in lobster sauce. TO DIE FOR! We also both got amazing clam chowder with sourdough bread.  I had the Macadamia Basa and it was okay...it was honestly a bit plain.  I would totally go back, but I wouldn't get what I had.  It was supposed to come with a pineapple sauce, and our waitress almost dropped our meal off the tray, so I think the sauce might have flung off, making it a bitless flavorful.

After that, we went to Final Destination Five.  If you like the Final Destination movies, go see it! I thought it was perfect.  Pretty gross and kept me guessing the entire time.

After that, we loaded up on pickled asparagus, ate our stroopwaffels, and watched Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares for the perfect end to the night.


So there you have it -- my excuses for why I haven't written in awhile.  I know most people interested in this would likely only be stalkers, so apologies if you didn't want to know every single detail of my weekend :) Back to regular programming tomorrow!