Is it Saturday yet?

Thanks to Beverly for the horseback riding photos! Now the rest of you can see what a beautiful day it was!!!

Well...made it back home after (of course) the typical travel delays last night. But since I was just going to be in the "office" today I decided to sleep in a little bit. Now that I've gotten a little bit caught up on stuff since I've been out all week I think I'll run out for a haircut (noticed a lot of split ends this week), stop at UPS (damn UPS man came three times this week - after 8pm when the office was closed so no one could accept my package and now I have to go there to pick it up before they send it back!) and eat something!

By the way, if any of you need a romantic getaway. We stayed this week at the Inn at Langley in Langley, WA. It was amazing. And probably the best part was the food. The chef is also the general manager - and not only did he make us amazing lunches (and have phenominal breakfasts brought in - we're all dying to know where the bacon came from), but in the afternoon one day we got a tour of the wine cellar, his garden, AND we made dessert with him (I've got a mean chocolate mouse recipe I may prepare for this weekend!). Then we had a Chef's Table dinner. Now I don't know if anyone has done this before...but its when you sit right along the kitchen and the chef just whips up all kinds of great stuff for you. I've always been intrigued by the idea - but never participated because of how picky I am about food. I was a little more confident than usual going into it because they'd already been told I didn't eat seafood and they'd done a great job preparing me alternatives and getting Michelle vegetarian items. I got MORE nervous when the menu's were placed in front of us on what he was making. But you'd all be SO proud of me for actually eating what I was given!

First course was a tiny (I mean like half dollar sized) waldorf salad. You all know I'm not crazy about nuts - but they were crushed up so small I did okay (remember its the texture I don't like).

Second course was sweet potatoes with scallops (I'll admit here - I did not have a scallop but an additional sweet potato) with some kind of potato sauce and crumbled bacon. Now I'm not really a fan of sweet potatoes - but this was okay.

Third course was venison. This REALLY freaked me out as I've never had it. But as amazing as all the food was I figured what better place to have it than there. Now - the rarer parts of it were okay (but I don't think it tasted like filet mignon as some suggested) but overall I was not a fan. Too dry for me. But it was in an amazing sauce and had yummy mashed potatoes with it.

Fourth course was a cheese course. Triple Cream Cheese with crostini, vanilla bean jam, and vanilla poached pear. And did you know - triple cream is not a brie (despite the fact that the brie I buy at V Sattui says its triple cream) its its own type of cheese. But AMAZING.

Fifth course was our desert we helped with. A thin layer of pumpkin spongecake with a THICK layer of our chocolate mousse topped with some vanilla bean sour cream. (we made the mousse and sour cream). I'm not a fan of the pumpkin but the mousse and cream were amazing! And so easy to make!

We also had 4 wine pairs along with our dinner that really accented the entire meal! Just amazing.

Then I kicked all the guys butts at poker (ladies I think its time for us to play again - after a night playing with 8 boys I've got Texas Hold-em down. I was kinda mad because I didn't sleep so well the first night there. Came to find out all the noises I was hearing were the boys upstairs playing poker (we were the only ones at the inn). And I was mad that they didn't even invite me. So the second night they did...and it was a three dollar buy in. They gave us all lots of quarters nickels and dimes. And while I did lose all but 40cents my first hand. I borrowed $1 from my one co-worker and proceeded to take 4 hands in a row. And several after that as well. I ended up paying him back the dollar I owed, recouping my $3 buy in, and making $6 on top of that! I don't think the boys are going to invite me to poker anymore!


For those of you who have heard some rumblings about me moving - I still have not heard my OFFICIAL word as of yet. The person I'm replacing in Harrisburg has been ironing out some details on HIS next move. Although it seems that he's starting it the last week of January so its looking like I'll have a Feb 1 start date in Harrisburg (plus probably a week there earlier in January some time to meet everyone and look for housing). Anyway, I just hope I hear soon so I can really start full force at all the stuff I need to do since I want to BUY a place! And at the same time of course I'm so sad to leave all of you - but everyone is always welcome to come visit me in Harrisburg (for your shoppers its like a 1.5 hour drive to Philadelphia and a 4 hour train ride to NYC) and wherever my job takes me after that! And I of course will be VERY excited to come back and visit!