Month: June 2015

Weekend Things

Lauren7 Comments

I’m finding adulthood to be so interesting and surprising!  In a “oh I guess I’m passionate about cleaning my sink!” kind of way.  Or in a “whoa, I thought gardening was boring but turns out watering flowers gives me great happiness!” way.  I mean, I still don’t know how to check the oil in my car and I’m a lost cause when it comes to putting Ikea furniture together, but all that other “boring adult stuff,” I am totally embracing it.

I asked Joey if he was as surprised by his new adult interests and he said he’s always liked yard work and manual labor.  HE’S A FREAK!

IMG_8219

We took off from work early on Friday to… work in our yard.  Please, no more!  Mostly we kind of had to work in our yard because we were having sod delivered bright and early Saturday morning.  I behaved for an hour then decided I was so over it and then Joey suggested walking to dinner and I was done for.  Does a salad with a bacon vinaigrette still count as a salad?

IMG_8226

There’s a place down the street called Lou’s that we’ve driven by a million times but had never been to.  It was on the Denver Passport, so we finally decided to check it out.  We sat out on the patio and sipped Moscow Mules while listening to a guy at another table NEVER STOP LOUDLY TALKING and another guy who kept ordering off-menu items and took two long phones calls while his date sat at the table by herself.  Some people are insufferable!

IMG_8220

The sod showed up, as promised, bright and early on Saturday, so we spent from 7:30 to 4 digging, shoveling, tilling and sodding.  Per usual, Joey was about three hours off on his estimate of how long it would take us 🙂  But!  When all was said and done, it looked GREAT!  And now I’ve discovered another thing about adulthood and that’s that watering your lawn is incredibly boring.  Especially when you have to do it 3-4x a day…

IMG_8222

A new drive-in movie theater just opened in Denver so Hannah and Josh came over and we all drove over together.  A Jurassic World/Pitch Perfect 2 double feature for $10 each?!  Yes please!  It ended up raining through the first movie but we were able to move out of the car for the second one.  I actually liked both movies!  I mean, I still wish there had been a Jeff Goldblum cameo, but whatever.  We didn’t get home until 1:30 AM and I wasn’t even tired.  Who am I?!

IMG_8213

Joey and I had breakfast plans with my mom on Sunday.  She came bearing gifts!  She and my sister picked out the cutest bucket flower planters and they are PERFECT.  Also, I hadn’t seen my mom for something like three weeks and it was starting to feel like three months.  I missed her so much!

IMG_8223

We took her to Onefold because it’s my new favorite place and because the combo of breakfast burrito and Vietnamese Iced Coffee is life changing.  I (kind of) shared my coffee with Joey because I know my limits, but my mom, who is usually a decaf-half caf drinker had one all to herself then reported back to me that she spent the day cleaning the house and was probably never sleeping again.  Ha!

IMG_8224

After breakfast, my mom helped me plant my flowers and I cannot get over how perfect they are!  I need a cute watering can now.  We definitely have the best looking house on the block 🙂  Joey told me “I’m giving you the day off today,” so while he continued to work in our yard (I told you he was a freak!) I chitchatted with Mom, went to the grocery store, read on the porch and yes, watered the lawn again.

IMG_8217

We ended the night with dinner, a brief walk through the neighborhood and Food Network Star.  Giada rubs me the wrong way but I liked her so much last night when mid-elimination speech, she asked if she could change her mind about who they were sending home.  Mostly, I’m just thinking that summer is so sweet right now and I couldn’t be happier!

P.S. I am so sore in the weirdest places right now.  Like my right bicep and both forearms and my upper back and the sides of my neck…

Denver Passport Part I

Lauren1 Comment

I’ve mentioned this before, but I take these little work break walks a couple of times a day (weather-permitting*).  Most of my co-workers give me this look when they see me leave the office to take those walks.  This look is the same look they give me when they see me eating a salad for lunch.  Like “how dare you invest in your own health, you deranged maniac.”  Or possibly I’m just projecting.  Because I’m a deranged maniac.  So off topic right now.

Anyway, the other day, Joey offered to join me on one such walk (the perks of working with your spouse!) and I forced him into a serious discussion of how I should go about writing about our Denver Passport experiences.  Do I do one post per restaurant/brewery/bar?  Do I do a whole months worth at once?  Do I just do one long recap at the end of the summer?  This is serious!  We settled on five per post, so here’s the first installment!

* This is the new way we end every single sentence here in Second Seattle** where it rains EVERY SINGLE DAY

** Second Seattle is the new way we refer to Colorado

Humboldt :: Farm Fish Wine

Humboldt

We’d been here before for Valentine’s Day but never for Happy Hour and it turns out their HH is AWESOME.  Which is great because their regular dinner menu is way too expensive to justify coming for anything other than a special occasion.  They have this famous burger and it happens to be on the HH menu + fries for $9.  We ordered it and they brought half of it out and we thought “oh, so that’s the catch” then they brought out the other half and our brains exploded.  Add smoked trout dip in a tiny mason jar, mussels accompanied by the most amazing thick-cut garlic bread for dipping in all that extra broth and a peppery cucumber cocktail and I’m dead.  Joey put it best when he exclaimed “I wanna double high five you!”

Jezebel’s Southern Bistro + Bar

Jezebel's

I already talked about this one in a “Weekend Things” post, plus this is already wordy enough so I’ll just say more of their shrimp and grits, please!

Wurstküche Sausage Bar

WurstkucheWe walked here last Monday for a pre-Rockies game dinner and I totally felt like I was cheating on Biker Jim’s.  The good news is, after eating and drinking at Wurstküche, BJ’s remains my favorite dog house (<– see what I did there?).  I had a jalapeño mango sausage and the flavor was on point!  Plus they have something like ten different mustards to choose from and thick cut French fries that was turning me into that hearts-for-eyes emoji.  But our bartender was also super awkward so that was weird.

Park & Co.

Park & Co.

This place can do no wrong, if you ask me.  Little and I got matching Strawberry Rhubarb Mules for our sister date last week and all was right in the world.  Then we had deep philosophical conversations that I sometimes try to have with Joey and he just gives me this look like “go have this weird conversation with your sister, please.”

Cart-Driver

IMG_8188

Ugh, it’s a toss up between this and Humboldt for best passport experience so far.  Another Monday, another pre-Rockies walk to dinner.  This place is teeny tiny so it worked out to go early on a Monday when it wasn’t jam-packed.  We got bellinis, bar nuts and a clam pizza and OH MY GOD, that pizza was life-changingly good.  Decadent white sauce, crispy salty prosciutto and fresh herbs galore.  Plus the staff was so dang nice and genuine.  They have a “Four Seasons” pizza that I cannot wait to go back and try.

Dying to go to next:

Colt & Gray // Two words: TIKI. DRINKS.

Gozo // Been there, wanna go back!

Goldspot Brewing // How have we not been to one of the breweries yet??

Lou’s // But only if we can sit on the patio and only if “hot chicken” means fried chicken.

Freshcraft // Their drink offering is called “Afternoon Delight”…