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.

Anniversary celebrating

E and I have an anniversary coming up. For our half-year anniversary we took a trip to a fancy steakhouse in Dallas, so we figured for our full-year actual anniversary we ought to at least do the same. This past Friday we visited yet a different steakhouse in the Dallas metro, The Silver Fox. The Silver Fox is owned by the same people who own III Forks, which we visited this summer, so there is a distinct similarity between the two restaurants. Most notably, the use of truffle oil in almost all of the sides. Yum yum yum.

I've noticed as of late that when I'm hungry, I'm VERY hungry. I feel as if I might resort to eating anything at all if I don't get food - NOW. In contrast, I get full almost instantaneously. Even though I'm starving as if I've not eaten for three days, after a few bites I'm feeling full and happy. I think it has something to do with some kiddo squishing my stomach to a less than normal size. So the plus side of this is that I have almost an entire steak dinner* to enjoy tonight. Complete with truffle oil drizzled creamed corn and asparagus.

The neat part of this anniversary celebrating is that it's not over yet. This weekend we're headed to Denver to visit friends we love. While we're there we're going to have dinner at our traditional anniversary dinner spot - Luca di Italia. For those who live in Denver (and especially those who are not pregnant) - go to Luca. Have the chef's tasting menu with wine pairing. It is a three hour taste explosion that I cannot begin to describe here. I'm telling you, E and I get it every time, and every time I have been surprised and enchanted by delicious dinner and the magical way it pairs with the wine. Even if you aren't from Denver, this spot is worth visiting.

* Yes, I know reheated steak is not nearly as good as original steak. But people, it's steak!

Good news!

The placenta previa I wrote about a few weeks ago has completely resolved itself. I'm off of all the no lifting no running business, which is great. We're super excited. Okay, I'm excited. E still wants me to take it easy. Regardless, it's a positive thing for me and the baby, so we're all happy about it.

Little boy blue

We successfully painted our little guy's room. It's light blue, with a light blue ceiling and chocolate brown stripes on the wall. We think it looks fabulous for a little boy, and hopefully when he gets here he agrees.
It turns out that putting stripes on a wall is not, in fact, the easiest task in the world. Our walls are textured, so even with the help of painter's tape, a laser level, and a tape measure, the stripes aren't perfect. There are small places where the brown paint was able to seep through and make the lines fuzzy. Somehow, I've grown to like it. There's something nice about the imperfections, something soft about the lines. I thought it would make me crazy, but I think now it's - what's the word - character.

This room's got character.

Getting industrious

E and I decided to get industrious this last weekend of the holidays. We have removed all plates from all light switches in the future nursery in preparation for painting. Now E is something of a pro at painting, as he worked as a painter to sustain himself throughout high school, but I am what you might call a novice. Okay, I'm terrible. I don't know anything about the finer points of putting paint on the walls. Thankfully, I'm married to a very patient man who understands that I like to "help". This mainly consists of me slapping paint in the safe regions using a roller while E does all the fine work like around the trim. This is okay with me, as I know I would be terrible at this anyway.
In addition to the removal of plates, we purchased many miniature cans of paint. These are testers, E has told me, though all of my previous tests have simply involved me buying gallons of paint, coming home, painting the entire room, and realizing I hated it. I can see that this a much better plan. Above are the three testers that we finally settled on for painting the nursery. Only two trips to Lowes were necessary. (Well, plus one more this week to actually buy the rest of the paint to cover the walls.)
Okay, after buying the testers, it's apparently customary to paint different areas of the room different colors and then look at them in various lights. Who knew? We had originally thought that we'd go with green, but after some looking, we decided to move forward with blue with brown stripes. Hopefully this looks as good as I have imagined it in my head. If nothing else - I'll get some practice for when we repaint! More to come as we complete this project. To be done next weekend...

Lazy afternoon

Our friends J and G came to visit this weekend. We all had a great time catching up and we even visited the Dallas World Aquarium downtown. That place is amazing! Our dogs fell in love with each other while we did all this. Zoee loves other dogs, and apparently their dog Oreo does too. It was a match made in heaven. J has all of the great pictures of them playing on her camera, but I thought I'd share what happened to Zoee after they left. All she wants to do is lay on her bed and listen to E play the blues.

She misses her new buddy. That, and she's exhausted.