The one where we learn how to cook

Oh, a Coke Zero tastes so good early in the morning...

For those of you keeping track, so far I have received from my work Secret Santa...a day planner, an apple, a coffee cup, a candle, a flashlight, a scarf, a food container (really awesome!), earrings, and a nail file. Thank God only three more days left.

Rindy and I ran three miles this morning. We were supposed to run 4.5 but we didn't have time. I got to work right at 8 a.m. Plus, we were huffing and puffing like this was our first time running, so it's probably good that we ran only three miles (in less than 35 minutes, so that wasn't TOO bad...).

But that's not the exciting part. We had our weekend getaway to the Alluvian this weekend and the Viking Cooking School!!!




The Alluvian hotel itself was AAAWWWEEESSSOOOMMMEE. Okay, truth be told, Superman and I usually stay in rinky dink hotels when we vacation because we would rather spend our money on cooler things like Red Sox tickets or to see a museum. However, during our Boston trip (which, really, was our last big trip together), we decided that we were going to start splurging on our hotel more. This was the first example of that.

Truffles on the bed during turndown (there were also chocolates and a happy anniversary card waiting for us on arrival)...

(BTW, our anniversary was in September...we've had to reschedule this trip at least twice, but it was well worth the wait.)

I don't have the picture of me devouring the truffle in the guest robe (which I wore practically the entire time we were in the hotel room), but I did decide that the robe wasn't nearly as nice as the one I have at the house, courtesy of Bath and Body Works. Yes, the Alluvian robe was warm, but the BBW one is so, so soft.


And, of course, the Viking Cooking School!!! Crabcakes, fantail shrimp, avacado sauce, beef tenderloin, creme brulee, oh my!!







Sigh. My stomach is already growling.

Oh, and it almost got renamed the Superman Cooking School, haha!! So Superman was cooking the beef tenderloin, and my husband is a tall guy. He leaned up from the stove and slammed his head on the stove vent. A huge tuft of his hair was hanging from the stove vent, and he jerked it down quickly, mortified. I was laughing (sorry, couldn't help it!) and I joked that I hoped it was those gray hairs he pulled out and not the brown ones. Well, he was being all manly and not saying how bad it hurt (though with more than 100 hairs being yanked out, you KNOW that hurt like a mug. I would have been bawling my eyes out.). When we sat down to dinner with the rest of the nine people in our group, he put his hands up to his head and whispered to me, "I think I'm bleeding."

Well, of course, I had to look. I'm sure we looked like monkeys picking ticks off of each other as I scanned his head...and found a HUGE cut.



Of course, after I gasped from shock, everyone else had to look, too...

He still has a nice little nick in his head. And it probably didn't help that he knocked his head on something AGAIN at the Indianola Pecan Factory the next day.

But it was still a fantastic weekend.



(view from the cooking school area into the store)


Ten more days til Christmas!!!!