SPA, Art, and BBs Burgers

Not to be outdone by the other busy weekends this month... Last weekend was no exception.
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Friday we celebrated 2 co-worker's birthdays with lunch at BB's Burgers. I had the Bison Burger with PepperJack Cheese, and a few onion rings/sweet potato fries.
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Later that evening Matt and I drove down to Castleberry Hill for the Art Stroll. We went early so we could visit one of our favorite galleries. Of the entire stroll, our favorite pieces could be seen at the Besharat Gallery Exhibition for Merab Gagiladze. Then we went over to No Mas for dinner with friends. As seems to be the recent case with every Tequila Bar I hit, they were out of the Centenario Roseangel, so we each had a sipping shotglass of the Centenario Anejo. Later I switched over to the Asombroso La Rosa Reposado (my 2nd fave tequila) and Matt decided he wanted the Cabo Wabo Anejo. We had a lovely dinner with friends, and then we went over to Elliott Street Pub to see what was going on. You may or may not know, the APG or Atlanta Photographer's Guild meets every other week at the Elliott St. Pub, and it is (in and of itself as well as nearby several) prime photography location(s). Although, we weren't there on an APG meet night, we were able to show our friends, the lovely view of the city from an old abandoned bridge. Trains still go under the bridge, and it appears to be in stable condition (for walking), not so sure if I'd ever drive on it. The moon was shining down on us all, and (although it may be a local secret), they do let you carry your drinks with you while you are near the pub (on the bridge, etc). I was at least somewhat smart enough to have switched to water by this hour of the evening, but it was still a lovely night to be outside. It is just now starting to cool off a little bit in ATL.
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Saturday was the Taste of Chamblee and the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival. Matthew surprised me this week by buying himself a bicycle, and has actually been riding it nearly every morning. Saturday morning, he even got up EARLY to meet a friend and go riding on a local biking trail. I was shocked albeit pleased to see him working out again. Not to be outdone, I walked the dog down to the lake and back. YAY for health! After he returned home, I made him some breakfast with Kona Coffee (thank you Erika and Ben!), and then we ran some errands, etc.
Saturday evening, we couldn't decide what to do, and very late in the dinner hour, I finally decided to whisk Matt off in the car to a new restaurant as a surprise. We went to Aomi in the Forum. Aomi is supposedly Japanese for Blue Ocean and YES you guessed it, they serve SUSHI! We had a lovely dinner, and then back home for movie night. We rented I Love You Man, and laughed our way to bedtime. In hindsight, yes we missed the festivals, but we also had a lovely day together.
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Sunday was the big day for Formula 1 SPA-Francorchamps (or as I like to say "Frank-uh-shauuuun"). Everyone was very surprised that the Force India guy (whose name I will not even attempt to spell) got Pole in Qualifying on Saturday, so it was a "drama" filled race. As I was hosting a Belgian themed party in honor of the race, we did Belgian "burgers" (yeah like I'm going to serve Belgian mussels when 14 people are coming over. hee hee), Belgian Fries (french cut, thus they claim they created the "French Fry"), Godiva Belgian Chocolates (thank you Perimeter Mall!), and a smattering of Belgian "heavyweight" beers to sample. We decided since the beers themselves were each unique and expensive, we'd set them out with tasting cups, and let people try a bit of each. And then of course we had some "Hoegaarden" on hand. Silly us, we forgot Stella is also a Belgian beer. DOH! Anyhoo it was fun. In all the comraderie, I jokingly suggested we get that sparkling jello stuff to make "Fizzy Jello" in the shape of a "pole" for the Force India guy, but thankfully that was just an idea. I seriously don't own a jello mold, not to mention a POLE shaped one. ha ha ha ha. Anyway I digress. Lots of jokes when you have funny-named drivers and Belgian food. I think the naughty joke of the day was "honey can you put your Francorchamps in my Belgian Mussell?" yeah yeah yeah.
I also made a side salad of mixed greens, strawberries, and balsalmic vinegar dressing. For the ladies who did not drink beer, I made the "St. Hillaire-ious" (aka: Prosecco with a few drops of St. Germain liqueur, garnished with a strawberry.)
As so many of our parties often do, an afternoon lunch party turned into an evening party, and by the time all the Prosecco was gone, we ended up ordering pizza, playing Apples-to-Apples, and then watching Duplicity just before bedtime. Cute movie, but it was sort of missing something. hmm. Francorchamps? hahahahaha!
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Monday it was back to the grindstone.
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Tuesday, my dear friend Lee told me where she FINALLY found a place that sells Centenario Roseangel. So I went out on my lunch break and got me some!
Also, Tuesday I woke up with that very tired, achy, blah feeling, and was worried I was coming down with something. Nothing a little Airborn fizziness, echinacea, and liquids cannot fix. I promptly nipped that little bug in the bud. By evening-time I was feeling right as rain.
Alex made us dinner (Gorkem says this is now the 2nd time he has ever cooked for her). He is actually a very good cook, he just says he doesn't enjoy cooking, thus he does it rarely. He made us ground turkey spaghetti. It was spicier than most Spaghetti's I've had, but SUPER yummy. And then we had some Ferrer Roche (those Italian chocolate thingies) for dessert.
And to end the perfect evening - we watched another movie (of course). Have to use up my NetFlix right? We watched Taken with Liam Neeson. I am usually tense when I watch these kind of movies, but with Alex and Matt joking about the plot and how "lucky" Liam Neeson's character always seems to be, it helped me enjoy the movie without getting too involved in it.
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I bet it was the spicy spaghetti, the small nip of tequila, and the wonderful Airborne/Echinacea that fixed my bug. I was feeling GREAT on Wednesday!

The Week of Insanity

Last week was nutso.
Absolutely nutso.
I am seriously wondering what's in the water these days! LOL.
I was oncall last week (aka getting paged at all hours of the day or night). Every workday last week I worked through lunch and stayed over 1-2 hours to help keep the work caught up before the next day. Sheesh!
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However, the weekend was more relaxed thank goodness.
Friday, we stayed home and had an impromptu screenporchparty with friends. Saturday, Matt and I went to Get Coffee for breakfast (my fave), and we watched Multiplicity with Alex & Gorkem (one of Alex's fave movies). Saturday night, Matt took me out on a "date" and we went to WASABi for some excellent Sushi, and then later an impromptu dessert over at Apres Diem. The Espresso Martini is just delicious.
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Later on, I couldn't sleep due to upset tummy (later found to be result of the St Germain), so we stayed up until 4am watching Groundhog Day (one of my favorite movies), and then slept in very late on Sunday. Sunday, we relaxed, played some Wii Sports (I beat Matt at Tennis again!), had a nap, and then watched Thomas Crown Affair 1999- one of my favorite movies. Gorkem hadn't seen it yet, but she enjoyed it. YAY! I also have the 1968 original movie, but have not watched it yet.
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Matt's off to a VIP suite to see the Tool Concert tonight. I was the backup person if they couldn't get all the spots filled. VIP suite includes the concert, food, and drinks. Hmm. Should be fun. At the last minute another guy wanted to go, so I am off the hook. Not that I don't want to go, but it's a "school night" and my boss is in town this week (which means I usually have to work later hours), and it sounds like they won't get home until 1-2am (which means less than 5 hrs of sleep for me) and I prefer not to have the hassle. Anyhoo, I hope the gentlemen have a GREAT time! :-D
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Finally tracked down a bottle of St. Germain Elderflower Vodka (well I thought it was vodka, but actually it's more like a liquer), and some champagne to make myself a St. Hillaire beverage. It's very tasty and summery. Garnish with strawberry. mmm. However, I soon learned that for some odd reason, this St. Germain stuff totally wipes me out. I feel like I'm having a total sugar crash right after I have any of the stuff. So, I am guessing that means it will be something we go through very slowly.
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This week is going to be hectic, and next week I'm off to Philly for work, so I may not be updating the blog for a while.
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Have a great rest of July & start of August!