A Big Change

Hello blogosphere! Just thought you should know I chopped off all my hair.

Actually, that's a lie. I had someone else chop off all my hair.

You'll see it soon enough.

Tenacious Eats

Let's return to that crazy fun week that I'm still not finished telling you about!

It's E's birthday (sorry I forgot to post on my blog!  Here's a belated post for you!)...

...and I had just found out about the strangest thing I've done in a long time.  It's a movie-and-dining program called Tenacious Eats, and it's a little hard to explain coherently. It's described on the website as "full contact eating," but that's not quite right.

This is my clearest and most cogent explanation of it: it's a five-course tasting menu with cocktails, and those are themed around the movie of choice for the evening.  That evening, it was The Princess Bride (no, that website is not a joke).  Seating began at 7:00, but upon my arrival about an hour earlier (at Meyer's Grove in the Grove, just so you're prepared if you choose to go), imagine my surprise to find two people dressed as Wesley and Buttercup rubbing elbows with the early-arriving patrons in the bar.  And there were wooden swords if you felt the need to pseudo-stab someone.  And also medieval dancing.

Eventually we were seated, and boy was it cozy.  They really could use a larger venue.  Or better yet, sell fewer tickets.  You'll keep demand high, and your guests will be much more comfortable.  Oh, another thing to be prepared for: there's a good chance you'll be at a table with people you don't know, so come prepared to chat.

Before the movie started, we met our emcee.  Actually, he was the guy in charge of the seating, so we had met him before, but not in that capacity.  He was certainly amusing, but you have to be able to laugh at a gay guy making mostly inappropriate jokes or you'll want to hide under your very small table.

But then the movie starts.  And the food.  Creative and delicious!  Here's what we had:

There's an intermission mid-movie to allow them to reset the tables and give everyone a bathroom break, and on we went with the show.  At the end was the audience participation section.  It was amusing to view, but I would have died if I had been on stage.  I won't even tell you what they had their four contestants competing to do.  We we at a gay bar.  There were wooden swords.  Use your imagination.

All in all, a very strange and memorable experience.  There's a pretty good chance I'll go back for another one.  Anyone interested?

Goal #8

Goal #8: run errands.

I sequestered myself in my apartment for most of the weekend.  I had a lot of stuff that needed to get done.  Some of it did.  The truth is, just looking at it, it's a little disappointing.  I was hoping it would be visibly different, visually shocking, by the end of the weekend.  It's not.

What I did put together was a huge list of errands to run.  I have a whole pile of things that need to be donated, dropped off, repaired, replaced, delivered, etc.  Hopefully this week I can get a lot of that stuff out of my trunk and to its proper destination.

Recap of goal #7: I survived the week mostly uninjured!  A little scrape on the finger when I got a fraction of an inch too close to a concrete wall in the parking garage at my office, but that hardly counts.  There were no more severed fingers, so I count that as a win!

St. Louis's Best Bread Puddings

A while back, on the Tuesday of my week of spectacular fun, I went to dinner with P at Jimmy's.

We had planned on getting together to catch up, and it had to be Jimmy's because of a couple of things that had happened on evenings just prior to that.  Saturday night, after The Other Place, a few members of our crew headed over to Cyrano's for some post-show drinks (a New Fashioned for me) and dessert.  I tasted lots of different desserts, but the one I ordered for myself (actually to share with C) was the caramel brioche bread pudding.  An excellent choice!

The following night, Uncle J was in town and he took G&G, A, and me out to dinner at Harvest. Everything was delicious and I managed to save some room for dessert.  As I was perusing the menu and considering something chocolatey, the waiter said, "you have to try our bread pudding - we're famous for it!"  Okay then.  It was also a caramel bread pudding, and very similar to what I had the night before, and just as delicious.

So, this brings me back to Jimmy's.  The reason I needed to go there was to complete the trifecta of the town's best bread puddings.  Jimmy's wins the award for thinking out of the box.  Their pudding is a croissant bread pudding with chocolate and some type of fruit in it.  And rather than the caramel sauce, they opt for a creme anglaise.  A very different flavor, but I think it might be my favorite.

Try them for yourself and see what you think!

Oscar-Nominated Short Films

Saturday was The Other Place.  Sunday was The Monuments Men.

Monday I went to a screening of all the Oscar-nominated animated and live action short films.  The shortest summary I can give you is that it was a great way to spend an evening, and I definitely got bang for the buck.  For the price of a regular movie ticket, I left feeling like I had seen a half dozen animated movies.  And then I did it again an hour later for the live action shorts.

I'll give you a brief thought or two on each of the films, but I highly recommend checking theaters around where you are to see if there are any screenings coming up!  (Links are to websites and/or trailers.)

Animated

Feral: A well-told tale, but definitely the darkest of the five.

Room on the Broom: A cute adaptation of a children's book, but a bit longer than seemed necessary.

Mr. Hublot: my favorite - a tale of a lonely man and his new pal.  Simply adorable.

Possessions: my friend M, who knows much more about Shitoism than I do, appreciated this one more than I did.  Even without that background knowledge, it was still an enjoyable tale.

Get a Horse!: classic Mickey, re-imagined.

Live Action

That Wasn't Me: the cringe-worthy tale of a child soldier in Africa.  I watched much of this one through one closed eye.  Part of it I could only listen to.

Just Before Losing Everything: I was surprised by how involved I got in the plight of a woman trying to escape her abusive husband. 

Helium: heart-wrenching.  Great.

Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?: an amusing peek into life with kids.

The Voorman Problem: exactly what you want from a short film.  Tells a story, makes you think, ends.

What I Watched -- The Monuments Men

My boyfriend Matt Damon is in a new movie, so of course I had to go pay him a visit!  (You can see his latest wacky bromance publicity stunt with Ben Affleck here.)

The Monuments Men - which is a weird-sounding name, but makes sense when you know what the movie is about - tells the adventurous true tale of a past-their-prime band of artists, architects, professors, and the like, who wade into a war where they kinda don't belong to complete a task that most higher-ups kinda don't care about.

Their job is to track down all the art - paintings, sculptures, and most famously the Ghent Altarpiece - which were stolen by the Nazis as they marched across and raided western Europe.

As a war movie, The Monuments Men leaves a lot to be desired.  It skips over the strategy, the battles, and really most of the stuff that makes a war movie a war movie.  But as a sometimes comedic, almost family-friendly, mostly historically accurate story that happens to have war as a backdrop, it's pretty entertaining.  And it has quite a cast!  My boyfriend Matt is the baby of the group.  He is led by silver-haired George Clooney, and joined by the likes of Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, John Goodman, and Jean Dujardin (who is actually the baby, 2 years younger than Matt).

Bottom line: don't expect Saving Private Ryan or Glory.  Expect goofy guys chasing art and trying to learn how firearms work.  If you're okay with that, you'll be okay with the movie.

The Other Place

Soemtimes when I don't write on my blog for a while, it's because I'm busy with the boring parts of life - not stuff really worth writing or reading about.  Other times, it's because I'm doing so much great stuff that there's not even time to take a break and write it down.

Last week was the latter, so I'll do my best to recap and relate the complete awesomeness that happened.

It started out two Saturdays ago.  My alumni group planned an event at The Rep, to go see a show called The Other Place.  When I realized that, despite the fact that I'd just bought a ticket to this show, I knew absolutely nothing about it, I actually made a point to keep it that way.  It's not often these days, with the proliferation of information swirling around us at warp speed, that we can be completely surprised by something.

This show was in the black box theater at the Rep.  The lights went down, the stage lights came on, and I was completely blown away.  It's a very simple story with a cast of only four people (although a couple of them play more than one character).  The writing is carries the show, and the unreliability of the narrator really held my attention.

I'm not sure when it will be back in town, but I highly recommend it!

Game of Thrones

Good news: I'm caught up on Game of Thrones!

Bad news: I can't binge-watch anymore!  It'll have to be one episode at a time, just like everybody else.

Goal #7

Goal #7: try to get through the week without injuring myself.

What is my deal lately?  In early December, I busted my ankle climbing.  As a consequence of gimping around and favoring that foot, my other knee started acting up.  Now that's mostly recovered, and I sliced my finger open with a surprisingly sharp knife.  I am an accident waiting to happen!

Recap of goal #6: taxes are the worst.  Just thinking about them stresses me out.  This is why I have someone else do them for me.  But even making sure I have everything I need before I send my stuff over to him is a pain in the butt.

But I went through my checklist and have most of what I need.  I'll have to follow up on the missing items this week.

Quote of the Day

I've been watching a bit more Downton Abbey lately, and I came across a quote that is so me I just had to share it.  The whole crew of servants is pretty sullen at breakfast, and Thomas, everyone's least favorite, comments on the attitude.  Mr. Carson educates him.

"What's the matter with everyone this merry morn?" -- Thomas
"I always think there's something rather foreign about high spirits at breakfast." -- Mr. Carson

Goal #6

Goal #6: taxes.

It's time for me to start getting my paperwork in order for my taxes.  I think I have most of what I need, but I have to double check it and give my accountant a call with some questions.  This week, I will prepare to fork over my hard-earned dough.

Recap of goal #5: I did pretty well with this!  I read some magazines, a bit of Hyperbole, and a bit about staying ...Alive in the Woods. I missed one day where I read nothing other than work stuff.  Let's hope I can keep it up!

Breckenridge, Day 4

The snow stopped, the sun shone brightly, it was Super Bowl Sunday, so there was no more logical thing for me to do than go skiing.

D worked a bit with Letter J on his weight transfer, and Dad and I skied around on Peaks 8 and 9.  We gathered for a quick lunch with overly large beers (bartender's mistake) at CopperTop before going our own separate ways.  Dad and D headed home to get the food ready for the game.  Letter J stayed on 9 to work on the weight transfer, and I headed off for the long trek up to the highest lift in North America.

That required a ride up the Peak 8 SuperConnect, a short trip over on Frosty's Freeway, a ride up on the 6 Chair, another short ride down across the tops of a bunch of runs, and the final ride up Imperial.

Good lord, what a view!

There's one groomed run that runs off the top, and I did that one first (George's, on the map).  The second run was Alpine Alley, and the third and final run (they shut down the lift - I wasn't finished!) was over into Imperial Bowl.  And then, let's not forget, the rest of the way back down, because there's still a looooong way to go before you get back to the base.

I hit a few more runs after that before heading home for some incredibly unhealthy food and to "watch" the Broncos get their clocks cleaned.  Mostly I was reading, but I saw enough of that pathetic performance to be glad I didn't care.

Breckenridge, Day 3

Saturday is generally a busy day on the slopes, and after all the great snow of the last few days, we collectively decided - mostly by complete indecision - to forgo skiing in favor of a snowshoe excursion up French Gulch Road.  Unfortunately due to the snow, the picture-taking opportunities were not great, so instead here's a picture of the puzzle we finished after we got back.

Dad and D had dinner plans, so Letter J and I headed down to town on our own.  We checked out the snow sculptures (and just in the nick of time), then headed off for dinner at Le Petit Paris.  I started out with their famous soupe a l'oignon, and had the salade de chevre for my main.  Letter J went for the classic steak with frites, and although I would have picked a different sauce, it was quite delicious.

We skipped dessert in favor of some ice cream at home, once we made the long hike back up the hill.  The night was capped off by two episodes of Game of Thrones, and I'm about ready to quit watching!

Breckenridge, Day 2

Another night of snow made for another great day of skiing.  By the time I got up on Day 2, Breck had had 26 inches of snow in 24 hours!

 Can you find the Suburban?

I spent the morning teaching Letter J some of the basics, and he made lots of progress.  We broke for lunch, and I finished out the afternoon skiing a handful of great runs on Peak 9.

While I was out bombing nearly blindly down mogul runs in the white-out snow, Dad and D were running errands and getting dinner ready - a Cajun feast of andouille gumbo with Anasazi beans and some hearty slices of cornbread.

So unfortunately for you, dear readers, my many hours on the slopes leave not a lot to write about.

Goal #5

Goal #5: read.

I miss reading.  I need to do more of it.  At least a little bit each day.  Something on paper.

Recap of goal #4: piece of cake.  Turns out that, when I'm busy enough, I don't need to drink that much coffee.  Here's the rundown of my week:

Sunday: 1 cup
Monday: 1.5 cup
Tuesday: 1 cup
Wednesday: 1 cup

Thursday: 1 cup

Friday: 1 cup
Saturday: 1 cup, plus 1 cup of Earl Gray

Breckenridge, Day 1

What perfect timing!  Letter J and I got up to Breck last night, and awoke this morning to find that about 14 inches of fresh powder had fallen overnight.

First things first, though.  Last night, due to our somewhat late arrival, we skipped any actual food prep and headed out to Fatty's for some delicious pizza.  Between the four of us, we put away a fair amount of pizza - meatball, veggie, and a sausage/pepperoni/mushroom/green olive combo, but not quite enough to all fit into the to-go box.  Letter J helped us all out by eating the one spare piece.  He insists he doesn't regret that decision.  I'm not so sure.

Then.  Snow.  Lots of snow.  I got to get all decked out in my almost-new gear, which I love, and D and I headed out to the slopes to enjoy the powder.  We had one or two tough runs that were pretty cut up, but also a couple that were really awesome.  It snowed the whole time we skied, and the whole rest of the day.

But that was it for the downhill.  Instead of enjoying the great powder like people with brains might do, the four of us instead decided to head out and cross-country ski.  Did I mention there was a lot of fresh snow?  Cross country is not the way to get through it.

That is not to say that it wasn't absolutely lovely.  It was just a bit tougher going than was practicable, once we got past the point in the road where the truck that passed us stopped.  Having those tire tracks really helped a lot.  But we had a good time!

We bummed around for the afternoon, basked in the steamy heat of the hot tub, and cooked a delicious dinner of leg of lamb, Brussels sprouts, new potatoes, and of course wine!  And by "cooked," I mean that I sat at the counter and blogged while Dad cooked.  But it worked out for me!