Jet-setting

From time to time in anyone's business they've got to embark on something called the "business trip". This is an exciting time in any business-person's life, given that they get to do all the ridiculous things that you do on trips (like order room service for breakfast and eat expensive and silly meals) without having to incur any of the costs for these things. On business trips there is something called a "Per Diem", which translates roughly to "I'm pretty sure no reasonable person would spend this much eating in a single day, but hey, you're in a different city so order the steak AND the lobster - it's on us". It's all lovely, which is why I only felt a small twinge of guilt when ordering my $20 breakfast of cereal and fruit (With juice! Only $4 more!) at the hotel on Tuesday morning in DC.

There are downsides to business travel, however. These include not being able to see your family (mine being E and the dog), having to pack nice clothes in a suitcase and looking neatly pressed the next day, and having to take off your shoes in the airport in front of your coworkers. Or worse yet, be examined by airport security in front of said coworkers. It is imperative to wear your nicest socks on these business travel days, in order to avoid embarrassing missteps involving holes around toes.

Regardless, I took one of these illustrious trips this past Monday and returned on Tuesday. I jetted off to DC, where we have a number of friends who I would have liked to have seen, but because of the pace of the trip was able to only eat food in the hotel or airport and sit in a small office where I was the only woman present for six hours. In all I believe I was in DC for 18 hours, 6 of which were spent sleeping. This explains why I'm so pooped today, as my rest time was drastically reduced.

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Another first on this trip - the first time a total stranger realized I was pregnant and attempted to touch the belly. She did, however, seem perfectly nice and did not end up touching me, so it was okay. I guess there's no hiding this guy now. We went to the doctor today and he's measuring great - one more visit in three weeks to check my glucose levels. I got an interesting looking orange drink to consume before the next visit. Supposed to taste like orange soda - we'll see.

Luca di Italia, I love you.

While we were in Denver, we visited our favorite of favorite restaurants, Luca di Italia with our friends D and R. We happened upon Luca for our first anniversary, when we decided to go to Italy. No one wants to go to Italy in January, so we decided to have a nice Italian dinner and postpone our trip until May. In doing so, we discovered Luca.

At Luca they have this amazing menu of fabulous and wonderful dishes you can try, but we have never bothered ordering from the menu. We always always order the chef's tasting menu (Menu Degustazione) and let the chef come up with an assortment of things for us to try. The tasting menu can be paired with wine, and typically we'd do this, but this year we opted for a single glass of wine for Erich and the excitement of San Pellegrino for me. The menu (which they give you a copy of after the meal is over, along with a slice of heavenly Italian sweetbread) consisted of the following joys:

• Antipasta Freddo (Cold Antipasta) - Bresaola & Robiola Bruschetta with Arugula & Pickled Carrot Salad
• Antipasta Caldo (Warm Antipasta) - Crispy Bass & Celery Root Risotto with Meye Lemon & Salsa Verde
  
• Primo (First Course) - Herbed Ricotta Tortellini with Porcini Brodo & Spinich Puree
• Secondi (Second Course) - Roasted Quail with Pancetta Fregola, Confit & Spinach Salad, Marcona Almonds and Dates
• Dolce (Dessert) - Raspberry & Chocolate Torta with Vanilla Crema
  

All of these have equally delicious wines paired with them, but I can't comment on those this year. If this reads like a menu or an advertizement, I'm sorry. It's worth it. I like to gush from time to time. I can tell you how much fun we always have going here. Always. Even when I'm pregnant and really don't enjoy poultry and the main course is quail, it's all still delicious. The food is fantastic and you never have to be convinced to try something different. They bring it right to you. Go. I'm telling you. Go.

Back from the other big D

We're back from Denver and have lots of good stories, but I'll not be posting them today because I'm pooped. I did want to share one thing though. We got to see all the people we love and miss up there, and they decided to do something special for baby H. One night when we all got together, they had a onesie painting party, and made custom onesies for Nate. They're fantastic - and like no others in the world. These are perhaps some of the most amazing people in the world.

Just to remind us that we are always welcome to come back to Colorado, they made a number of onesies with Colorado themes. This one in particular is impressive, particularly because it's freehand and there was no purple (without a lot of mixing) to create those purple mountains of majesty.

More stories to come - but I couldn't wait to share the onesies. We love them and we're sure Nathan will too.

Mr. and Mrs. Hefner go to Washington

This past weekend E and I had the exciting adventure of going to Washington DC for the wedding of a friend of ours. In addition to the wedding, this was also our vacation, along with a makeshift reunion of sorts for a bunch of our college and graduate school friends. We were REALLY looking forward to it.

We arrived on Wednesday and spend almost all of Thursday doing the tourist-y activities that DC is known for. We headed down to the mall with a group of our friends and visited the memorials. Just below E and I are standing inside the WWII memorial looking at the Lincoln memorial. You can see the Washington monument from there too, if you're looking the direction we're facing in the picture. After a bit of monument looking, we headed to some of the Smithsonian museums for some edu-tainment. It was great!
On Friday we headed to Georgetown to have breakfast with a friend of a friend, which was really fun and allowed us to see those stairs from the movie the Exorcist. Oh, and Georgetown too. After breakfast we headed out towards Dulles to the Air and Space Museum annex, where we got to see all kinds of amazing things, including this SR-71 Blackbird that J and I are standing in front of. It was HUGE!
Of course, we were there for a wedding, so here are all the guys at the rehearsal dinner. We're really happy for J and B, they seem really thrilled to be together and just a great couple. Words of wisdom offered to J at the rehearsal - Just smile and nod, she'll like you more.
Finally, we made it to the wedding. E was a groomsman, so here he is looking sharp in his tux between the ceremony and the reception. Congrats J and B! You guys looked great and we had a fantastic time too!

Austin and San Antonio...

If there's one tree that I love, it's the Live Oak. Much more than that, I love the Live Oaks at Shady Grove in Austin. So when we got together for our annual Denver Girls Trip, I was more than happy to show my foreign (Coloradoan) friends around this great state of mine. Of course we had to have lunch at the Grove. I can tell you that there are pieces of my life that I have compartmentalized from each other... I never expect that my family and friends from what I consider home would cross over with all of my friends and mentors from my life in Denver. It was an odd feeling, but it was wonderful to share with my friends what created me during my formative years.
We also visited the ever so fabulous Riverwalk, home of twinkly Christmas lights in the winter and green green green trees in the summertime. The Riverwalk always makes me nostalgic and schmoopy, as this is the location where my husband and I spent many a night falling in love. We walked past many of our first date-y locations and I couldn't help but throw a penny in the river for him, just like we did when we were in college. I'm not sure anyone I was with noticed, which is probably for the best. No need to be teased about one of my favorite memories of college.
Along those lines, my grandmother lives in Austin. She's adorable and fun and loves to entertain, so when she found out that we were staying just a few miles from her house, she insisted we come by for a visit. She made us a fabulous brunch and I really loved that I got to spend some time with her. I'm so glad that I've been able to see her more than ever. And I've got to say, the woman looks fantastic for anyone half her age. I hope that my future holds that!

The whole trip wasn't thoughtful introspection and deep discussion. We went to the Riverwalk, we saw the dinky (although tremendously important) Alamo, we listened to live music on the lake, we went on a tour in an amphibious vehicle, we saw Ester's Follies, and we wandered around on 6th after dark. It was a great trip. We also won free visors, which D and I are showing off.