Terry Loves Gas!!

I laughed.  A lot.  I'm so witty with my post titles. 

I digress.

Terry has been itching to get our electric stove out of the kitchen, well, since the day we were thinking that our house was "the one".  It was actually a conversation with our real estate agent as to wondering how expensive it would be to run a gas line into the kitchen from the heater in our garage. 

Meanwhile, since March of last year (!!!), we have had our scratched-n-dented (which was neither scratched nor dented where anyone could notice) new gas stove waiting diligently in the garage. 
Funny side story: The gas stove was actually where Terry hid my Christmas presents this year.....and I did NOT go snooping for gifts....I was going to hide some of HIS presents in there and came across that he had already nabbed that hiding spot first!! I completely confessed to him that night that I was on to him, but I didn't peak!!

He had the day off from work on Monday, so we had our first contractors come to the house.  They ran the gas line and hooked up the stove, as well as did some work on the shower drain in our master bathroom project.  Monday was my long day with being at work for 9 hours, and then going to class for 5 hours.  He sent me these pictures throughout the day. 

Just for reference: Old Stove - No backsplash

 Old Stove - backsplash

 New Stove!!  It's so sleek and pretty.  I love her knobs on the front (PG PEOPLE!!)

Also love the fact that she has an oval burner in the middle.

Terry's message in the text: "You don't get color like that from Electric."  Got this just as I was biting into my raggedy little 6 inch ham and cheese Subway sub.  Words can't express how badly I wanted to be home.

Terry is thrilled! I am nervous I'm going to burn a lot things in getting used to the change. Pancakes will be my first test this weekend on the griddle insert for the center burner.  I'll provide a laugh post on Monday if I char them.  :-)

Night out on the town: 4 1/2 year style

Cue cheesy music here.
I do promise however that we did not go out to dinner with the intentions of celebrating any "half-iversary".  I had a Groupon (has anyone caught on to my addiction yet) that was due to expire, so we had to go use it!

We had an amazing dinner at Jim Edmonds Steakhouse. (funny side-note, Jim Edmonds was a baseball player for the Cardinals, and he is throwing the opening pitch today at the home opener Cardinals game).   The atmosphere was very mellow; low lighting, very intimate dining space, I would categorize it as romantic.  Well...there were two TV's over the bar that had cage-fighting on....but we were staring outside at all the snow falling down.  Oh, and also drooling at the wine menu.  SO many choices!
We started with the appetizer special, which was pork medallions over creamy polenta with an arugula, onion, bacon, and walnut salad with honey Dijon vinaigrette.

 As you can tell......we really didn't like it.  Jokes.

We ended up selecting Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon.  This is where it got me thinking about Napa and how we loved our visit at Cakebread, and as I was writing the date, it dawned on me that it was 4 1/2 years since our first date.  Of course I got all schmoopey about it....and of course Terry outwardly rolled his eyes at me and inwardly laughed at my ridiculousness.  Love that man!

 The wine was everything we expected; think of every synonym to the word "perfect" and there's this wine description.
Then dinner showed up and we started drooling (from the smell and from the view).

Terry got a filet with an herb butter sauce and green beans.

I had Steelhead Trout....never had it before so thought I would be adventurous. Texturally it reminded me of Salmon.  It was topped with crab and a creamy hollaindaise sauce, and asparagus.  Really hard to say who had the better plate.  Everything that we ordered was excellent.

 Obligatory photo.  It looks like Terry has a halo on his head.  Funny considering that he acted like I was Satan for asking the waitress to snap our photo. :-)

When we were leaving we noticed a little hole in the wall bar across the street called Tin Can Tavern.  Fun concept for a bar; everything from the bar comes in a can.  Their menu was on the wall.

We stayed just for a little while listening to the band, then we headed across town to our current fave spot, Venice Cafe. We were upstairs most of the evening staring down at the band.  Always a good time in that place!

Very fun night, getting to explore new places in the city, and getting to enjoy the old places, and always a fun night with T.

Happy Hour and Dinner with Irma

It's always nice to have a girls night once in a while, and Irma and I were having one of those weeks at work, so it was the perfect reason to go out to a restaurant we both had never tried before.  We ended up at Boogaloo in a western section of St Louis called Maplewood.  The food style was "CUBAN/CARIBBEAN/CREOLE TWIST", and it was unique and wonderful!

Surprisingly enough, I didn't take any pictures that night, but the food was delicious! 

We split a Calamari appetizer, then she had a Shrimp Po' Boy Sandwich while I had the Blackened Grouper Sandwich, and we split our sides of Sweet Potatoe Fries, and Cornbread.  

It must be a trend when I got out with Irma, but the best part of the meal was the dessert.  We split a piece of Tres Leches Cake and it was sinful. Automatically made me want to go home and find a recipe except that I'd need to find a way to make it healthy.....yah, probably impossible.  But if you know of a good recipe, send it my way!!!

Best part of the entire meal though (other than the wonderful company) was with using the Groupon, the total bill for our girls evening came to $15.30.  Gotta love a deal!!!

We had a great time and definitely needed the venting/laughing/enjoyment together.  Can't wait to do it again!

Mother Nature is a Jokester

Saturday we were hearing buzz about snow flurries coming through the city.  We didn't think anything of it or assume it would amount to anything.

Boy were we wrong  We ended up with 3-4 inches on the ground!

View of our former beautiful flowers.  Poor things

Terry keeps somehow bringing this plant back to life.  We better ALL wish him luck this time.

I loved the trees...it looked like there were enormous cotton balls on the ends.

It all melted away by Sunday evening, and it was definitely beautiful, but after having the 78 degree beautifully sunny weekend before, I am VERY ready for spring and the outdoors. 

There is nothing wrong with Chunky Legs!

And no, I'm not referring to my own insecurities right now.....I promise to explain in the post what I'm referring to. :-) 

After much deliberation on whether to let you in on our bathroom vanity plans or wait for a big reveal...well Of Course I decided to let you in on it!  

Terry and I have been racking our brains over our master bathroom vanity long before this project got underway.  We were searching everyday on craigslist for dining room hutches, dinner servers, vanities, and tables trying to find our perfect fit. 

We started with our likes in this arena, thinking that we could still put in undermount sinks and have storage.  (These first 4 pictures are just to give you an idea of the style we were liking, they aren't the actual pieces we found on craigslist)

Then we liked this type of feel, giving more openness to the small space in that bathroom but still having storage. We just kept running into the problem of the depth of the table and it not being able to fit a sink (undermount or vessel).

Around the same time, we started drifting towards the "lets think outside the box a little bit" approach to our vanity.  Terry started sending more and more table options, and I came across something I had never seen before....floating vanities

T was drawn more to the table affect:

I was drawn more to the floating sink affect.  Drooling actually.

We kept looking around and looking around online, and Terry sent me an email that ended up being "our" table.  (are you dying to see it?  Or did you cheat and scroll down already? ...You can scroll down and ::Peak:: at this point I suppose, since it will make the email convo between Terry and I all the more funny)

Our email chain went as follows:

T: Dang, this is what I had in mind.  Stout, with the drawers.

L: Not really a fan of the chunky leg.

follow-up email from T: Really?  I just figure since you are eliminating the whole box vanity, that the thick legs are still less than what it would normally be yet still make a “substantial" piece.

What is it with me and having to mull things over for a while and let it grow on me??!!  Something I admire in him so much....he knows a good thing when he see it! (nudge-nudge, wink wink, ha)

So Chunky Legs ended up being our winner.  I went and checked it out at the antique gallery the owners had it displayed in after work one day, and right when I saw it, I texted Terry with, "ohhhh we are buying it!"

TA-DA!!!


It just has such character. And Terry found out from the owners that they had it made for them in Virginia (!!!) while they were living there, but when they moved out here, it just didn't fit their space anymore. 

As we work on its dimensions and make the cut down the center and get it harnessed up to the wall and pick out vessel sinks and fixtures, I will be sure to post updates.  Super Super excitement in our house about Chunky!