Oh, let me tell you about my fantastic weekend. It really was fabulous.

I had an early rehearsal yesterday for the show that everyone should come see, The Last 5 Years, and that was productive. It ran a tad longer than anyone had really bargained for, but like I said, it really was a useful rehearsal and we all had a fun time. I can’t wait to see this show come to fruition; with such a massively talented cast and crew, great things will come of it. It’s one of those shows that’s so emotionally cleansing to sit through.

I went home and played with the Binja while his daddy ran some errands.

OH! And when Bryan got home, our neighbor came over and said, “I don’t know how to say this.. but we’ve got a very bad smell coming from under our house. Are you guys.. missing.. a cat?”

Anyway, so Bryan went about retiling some of our kitchen and I got Binja ready to go visit his grandmommy. He was set to spend the night while Bryan and I (gasp!) went out like grown-ups. I threw on some fancy.. (er) .. looking clothes and Bryan put on a long-sleeve button up. Seriously. We were styling.

We dropped the kid off with the grandparents and headed to Bridge Street Towne Centre. I haven’t been over there since all of the stuff opened up! We visited the new Anthropologie, which is a very cool store, but it’s one of those store that I feel sucks my wallet dry just by window shopping. ($69 for a shrug? REALLY? Cause Nina found a VERY cute shrug at WalMart.) But they do have.. get this!.. astroturf! On the outside of the building! Isn’t that trendy? We also browsed through the Swarovski, Kate Spade, and BeBe windows. Then we met our party at the newest restaurant: Dolce.

Now, I will say that I’ve eaten at most of the fine restaurants in our tiny little city, and this was BY FAR the coolest place I’ve been to. It tries mightily hard to borrow the West Hollywood ambiance of the dimly lit, technologically advanced bar, and as far as I can tell, it succeeds. The place is just SO COOL. You sit on velvet banquets that are covered with various throw pillows. Giant LCD screens have hearth-side fires that lick the screen.. without the oppressive heat. I ordered a Sweet Italian while we waited for the rest of our party, and just drank it in. (The place, not the drink. This is also where Bryan got REALLY annoyed with me, because I insisted on taking pictures of EVERYTHING.)(Most of the pictures didn’t come out because of the “ambiance”, though.)

My drink was FABULOUS, generously sized and not too overwhelming. Our party arrived not long after we did and we were escorted to the balcony seating, which is obviously where they sit parties. Because of this, we could lord over our minions, and Ra and I found this especially fitting.

We had appetizers of bruschetta and antipaste, both of which I skipped. (Okay, I had two olives off the antipaste, but I’m on a diet, people!)(And no, alcoholic drinks DON’T COUNT ON A DIET.) We all ordered different dishes, mine being the jumbo seared scallops. OHMYFREAKINGOD. They came with a butternut squash puree and lobster arugula pinenut salad.. all of which sat in a reduced truffle brown butter sauce. OHMYFREAKINGOD. Seriously, people. I would’ve licked the plate clean if we had been at a slighly less swanky place. And unlike a lot of the fancier places I’ve been to, the food was so well-portioned. I had three jumbo scallops, a large dollop of the puree, and enough salad that I didn’t feel I’d missed anything by not ordering a salad before dinner. SO AMAZINGLY GOOD. Bryan had the pork tenderloin and he also cleaned his plate. Come to think of it, I don’t think there was any food left around the table.

We all ordered dessert as well. I had the tiramisu and Bryan the chocolate lava cake, and while it was a nice way to end the meal, I wasn’t happy with the tiramisu. (It was FAR too heavy, and not enough espresso was evident.) But the best part of the evening was being with grown-ups in such a nice place, having conversation that ventured beyond pregnancy, children, and cervixes.  Many thanks to Ra and Steve for having us out, and MAN, that was just what I needed.

Today, we’re heading to Costco (so Bryan can buy me my Valentine’s Day present) and then picking up Binja. It IS Superbowl Sunday, and we’re not sure what we’re doing for that. Many gracious households have offered us refuge. Is it wrong that I’m all like “I need to do laundry?”. Cause I am. And this next week will likely kill me. Besides, I’m already rooting for the Pats, I can see the commercials tomorrow on YouTube, and the halftime show sounds like it will suck (Paula Abdul and Tom Petty?! Did I just make myself reappear in ‘91?). We’ll see what today brings.

But man.. about that food.. did I mention OHMYFREAKINGOD?!