A big weekend

So after a crazy week-

• I had the joy of finding out that I am allergic to a certain brand of ginger snaps (cookies make migraines?!);
  
• I learned that puppies don't sleep through the night -I now have a whole new-found respect for pet-owners (and parents!) and I may just think twice before agreeing to pet-sit; and
  
• I learned that the fires that happen at work don't stop because I happen to be suffering from migraines or sleep deprivation.

To make up for it, I had an outstanding weekend (in between putting in those extra hours at work).

The weekend started with happy hour at Vinny's bar in Morrison. This week's pick is as close as you can get to a speak-easy and be in a "modern" mountain town. The bar has a back entrance above a restaurant, has low lights, cheap drinks, and a strange fondness for Robert DeNiro posters. Everything you could possibly want from a happy hour venue.

We ended up having a pretty good turn-out and even had something that Ivon had never seen before- a woman alone at a bar.



I took this photo (I have no idea what David is talking about, but Sarah seems to be captivated) just to commemorate the occasion. That's the random woman alone in the background.

Apparently in Peru, women don't go out alone and people over a certain age don't go out at all. (But if you are under a certain age, everyone goes out, no matter what you have waiting at home.) Ivon's been in the states for a few years already, but it was great to share in her cultural learning experience. And any time you can have cultural learning experiences while sharing drinks is a plus!



Here's Ivon and the rest of the gang-(I had to take this photo to make the previous one less obvious!) I have no idea what they were talking about either, but I have a feeling that it was rock-climbing. Or the basketball tournament. Or beer.



Later we headed down the road (literally- just two blocks away) to the other bar in Morrison where my friend Scott's surprise birthday party was taking place. While Scott's handlers where trying to get him to the right place, we entertained ourselves with the timer on my camera. Turns out napkins don't work so well as tripods. Go figure.


The good news is that we found Scott and were able to wish him a happy birthday before the terrible band in the back got too far into their set. It was still a good night though and I got to introduce more Golderites to the funky Morrison night-life.



Saturday after a hard day at the office (yuck!) I headed to Lucinda's for a raging Saint Pat's party. OK, well raging probably isn't the word, but Lucinda and Jason have been big fans of Saint Patrick's day ever since they went to college at University of Missouri-Rolla, where the celebration of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of engineering (I had no idea- I think they're making it all up!) is quite the annual festival.



The party was good though, and we had a great turnout. Here's Denielle and Jason stealing cupcakes on their way out,






the ever-present crowd in the kitchen,












boys playing with records in the basement,






the crowd in the laundry room- next to the beer fridge (duh!),













more laundry room,

and the rest of the girls in the laundry room. Turns out we all really kind of liked hanging out in the laundry room! Lucinda was not as excited about us hanging out there since she spent time fixing up every other room in the house, but we decided it was meant to be. It was green after all!

The long night socializing more than made up for my day at work. All I wanted to do though was fall into bed. The problem- take 2 of puppy sitting. Heisman (the only Heisman on earth that cannot catch) is Sara and Mike's puppy Italian greyhound. The Italian greyhound looks just like the the racing greyhound, but smaller. and way high-maintenance. Luckily (after some quality play time) I was able to convince Heisman that sleeping was good and I was able to get some rest.

Next up, brunch with the girls. Five of us ventured downtown to Snooze, a new breakfast-only restaurant near the ball park. It was a good thing that Leah is a good planner and got us reservations- it was packed! There was a crowd of about 30 people waiting outside- for breakfast! (I had french toast- surprise!) We were seated and shortly began the ritual gossip and catching up. Two of the girls had just finished some grad school mid-terms and another is planning her annual trip to Hawaii, so we had lots to talk about.

After brunch, it was back to work for me. It was really tough to go back to the office instead of playing outside in the beautiful spring weather, but the good news is that I was able to get the report out today. On to the next fire!