Friday, August 6, 2010

Adventures with Alex

We only get to see E's best friend Alex a couple of times a year, so it was really fun to hang out again.  When we were all in college E and Alex were roommates and I lived on the floor below them.

I recorded every day from what we ate that day, so I'm sorry if you're reading this post hungry!

 Tuesday we went to Claim Jumper (I used MyPoints to earn a $25 gift certificate).  I think this may just be a California thing--but we LOVE this restaurant. great food, and always great service.

We started with potato skins--I've never had better than these:

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The boys ordered the Widowmaker burger (thankfully, no widows were made :-) and I had Gold Miners Chicken (similar to a chicken marsala?) with cheesy potatoes, garlic bread and roasted vegetables.

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and you can't forget about the sugar-rimmed strawberry lemondade.

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After stuffing our selves, we headed down to The Old Globe in Balboa Park to see The Taming of the Shrew


I wondered how a modern crowd would take to Petruchio's masochistic, manipulative treatment of his wife so she would be compliant. Thankfully its a comedy and I think people could appreciate the exaggeration and comicality.  The acting was really great, and we got a funny surprise.  The actor who plays Gremio was Jeffrey the Butler on The Fresh Prince of BelAir!



Wednesday I made Pastor Ryan's Pasta Carbonara, which is weirdly my husband's favorite meal of all time.



The boys went the Wild Animal Park on Thursday and saw Ryan's (E's brother) show.  He is the main actor in a daily show called The Wild Animal Misadventure --his character is a guy named Lloyd who is kind of a dimwit.  It was pretty entertaining.  I was really surprised at the animals they brought out: camel, warthog, kangaroo, and even a cheetah!

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The only animals Ryan handles are the dog and a cockatoo
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WAP

The night we headed to Pizza Port in Carlsbad for dinner with more college friends.  It's a really fun place with open seating, a brewery and good pizza (and that's saying something for this Chicago girl).
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Beer Buddies (breadsticks)
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Pizzas Carlsbad and Roma
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Friday was a wine and cheese party turned game night.  We're amateur wine drinkers and this was a really informal get together with a few friends

Wine/Cheese night

The game we played is called "Bang" and it's a spaghetti western, which means everything is in Italian.
After a couple of glasses of wine it opens itself up to plenty of inappropriate jokes and references

bang collage


Saturday took us back to one of our favorite hiking places (which will now always remind me of Hot Wings)

But not before a stop at Juanitas in Encintas for Carnitas ;-)
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Saturday night we had a birthday party for E and Alex's other college roommate.
They made some AMAZING food!
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the stuff in that pitcher is blueberry vodka limeade. it. was. heavenly.

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creamed corn, stuffed chicken, tri tip? fruit salad, orange rosemary biscuit


Doesn't this plant look right out of Dr. Suess?
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And then Alex had to leave.
I had a great time having house guests and I'm all the more excited for my entire family to come out and visit us over Thanksgiving!

5 comments:

Ali @ His Birdie's Nest said...

Your blog wasn't updating in my reader, but I just fixed it. YAY!

It looks like Alex had a fun trip! and it looks like your wine & cheese party turned out great too :)

I have never been to Pizza Port, but I've been told I need to go. Should we do a bee meet-up there?

Caitlin said...

Bah! Wish I was there. Looks like you guys had tons of fun.
Plotting and planning a trip to visit. I miss you guys!
Catching up soon? Mkay, love you!

Kimberly Michelle said...

Taking note... I'm never reading your food entries at 10:30pm again! I'm like running to the fridge to find something to nosh on just to get the image of those potato skins out of my brain!!!!

beka said...

Blueberry vodka limeade- PLEASE share the recipe for that! It sounds divine

Pretty in Purple said...

You are such a great hostess (from what I can tell) I can't wait to come out and visit you for Thanksgiving! I hope you have plans to do things with us too! =D

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