Yum & Yay

It's been a pretty magnificent couple of days.

Wednesday, we (read: me, Todd & Erin) went over to the Fabulous Fox Theatre to try and win tickets to Wicked. They were running a lottery and if your name got pulled, you got to buy 2 tickets for $25 each on the second row of the theatre (partial view, but still excellent seats).

Todd's name got pulled! We got buttons, and Todd went to the box office to buy the tickets. But we still needed to buy one more seat, so I go to the box office window two down from him and just as we're about to drop another $45 for a seat in the first balcony, a lady comes by and says that since I didn't win the lottery, I can buy a ticket anywhere in the house for $40 bucks. So the box office lady quickly does another scan and finds me a ticket in the orchestra section! Forty bucks! I paid her and walked outta there grinning like a fool.

We get in the car and realize our seats are actually really close together! Row B, seats 10, 12, & 14. I didn't quite understand where row B was (that chart thing is kind of confusing). An hour and a half later, after a marvelous homemade spaghetti extravaganza, we get back to the theatre for the show and realize that for some reason, all the seats in our row are numbered evenly. So 10, 12, & 14 are all in a row.

In short, I got to experience one of my favorite musicals for the second time (and it was better the second time!), sandwiched between my husband and lil sis. AND I got to see both of them experience it for the first time (they both thought it was magnificent), all from the second row of the orchestra section. It was fantastic. I laughed out loud at Galinda's antics and shed a tear during "For Good" thinking of my beloved roommates. It was such an excellent night.

Thursday night, we attended our Financial Peace class and Todd's mom had us over for dinner afterwards. Free food and family is a great combination.

Friday afternoon, we sold one of our vehicles. For more on that, see the post below this one. It's a very good thing. And on Friday night? We celebrated. Our friend Joel turned 30 and Todd and I went out with him and his wife and our friends Josh and Kim to celebrate. There were mojitos and there were tapas. Lots of tapas. Braised short ribs with cherry reduction on green apple smashed potatoes, lobster/crawfish risotto, tilapia spring rolls, short ribs mini burgers with potato cakes and smoked ketchup, herbed gnocchi with asparagus sauce, flash-fried baby artichoke hearts with sweet chili sauce, pot stickers with peanut sauce and petite beef tenderloin with wilted spinach and blue cheese butter. Holy palate extravaganza, Batman. It was unbelievably delicious.

After dinner we indulged in some heavenly homemade ice cream desserts at the Fountain on Locust, and capped the evening at iTap, Soulard's newest, hippest brewpub, with 50 beers on tap and 450 in bottles. I had Bells Oberon Summer Ale, it was lovely.

There's not a whole lot of things better than good food and good beer at a cool place with good people. It's been a wonderful week/end. :)