I know, we’ve been married for eight years and you’re probably thinking that we go out on lots of dates. I hate to burst your bubble, people, we actually don’t. We are the type to make plans to do something date-like and when that time comes, we punk out because we’re too lazy. No, we never punk out on our friends, just each other. On the rare occasions that we can’t punk out, we go out, realize how nice it is, vow to make it happen more often, and then punk out on the vow. See the trend here?

Okay, last Friday, We actually left the house and went to dinner and a show. That’s right, apparently Bob loves me so much and wanted to impress me, he took me to Red Lobster for dinner. Classy, eh? Okay, so we had a $50 gift card and couldn’t let that go to waste. We then headed over to the Muny where we saw Showboat.

I have only seen the movie once and all I remembered from that was “Old Man River.” Now the gentleman who sang it in the show was amazing. It brought tears to my eyes. Although it was hotter than hell that night, I did enjoy the show and music. I do have to say, it’s not one of my favorite musicals but I was glad to have the opportunity to see this classic on stage. And now with Bob’s family connections to awesome seats, I don’t think I could ever sit anywhere but the front boxes. I really am spoiled.

Appetizer: Pistachio and Goat Cheese Grapes. Sounds bizarre, looks bizarre, but tastes great! These are very addicting, I couldn’t stop eating them. This is why you bring grapes and goat cheese when going to the wineries. A fantastic pairing.

Entree: Baked Falafel Sandwich. If you try this recipe, stay away from the tahini sauce, I was not a fan of that. The baked falafel was okay, but I do have to say the fried version is so much better.

Side Dishes: Mozzarella and Nectarine Skewers with Pesto and Greek Orzo Salad. Skip the pesto on the skewers. I don’t know why it was included in the recipe, it just made my nectarines taste weird. The Greek orzo salad was light, a good choice for the heat of the summer.

Dessert: Nutella Cheesecake Brownies. I was a bit disappointed that you didn’t taste as much of the nutella as expected but it was delicious, nonetheless. My brownies came out more fudge-like because I didn’t bake them as long. So, make sure you watch your brownie layer, even though your cheesecake may be set, the brownie may not be. I do have to say, they taste even better when chilled overnight.

Phoenix is a rock band from France. Still here? OK.

Their bright, dancey pop rock has almost repaid the debt incurred by Johnny Hallyday. Plus, their lyrics are in English, which is pretty much required for becoming huge in America. I’ve been a fan for a while and when I heard they were coming to town, I jumped at the opportunity. Jen, Chris and Rob joined my in my quest to take in the best music that the French have to offer.

One thing I was not prepared for, was the awesome light show. I never really associated Phoenix with trippy, awesome light displays, but that just goes to show that I can be wrong about things from time to time. The lights were awesome, and it gave an extra element to a surprisingly energetic show. While their records are tight and nuanced, their live performance is much more powerful. They even made me like “Fences,” a song that I think is out of place on their most recent album.

One of the neatest moments was at the end of an extended instrumental jam, a white curtain came down in front of the stage and the guitarists were projected as 20-foot shadow puppets. It was surreal and fantastic.

Openers Toro y Moi were also really good. I don’t know a single thing about them except that they are an American band with a French name (as opposed to Phoenix, which is the opposite), but after seeing their set, I’m interested in finding out more.

Thanks to a Groupon, some of us went out to GCS Ballpark in beautiful Sauget, Illinois to take in a Gateway Grizzlies game a couple weeks back. The deal was such that the ticket was basically free after you throw in the concessions so we figured, why not? We were joined by Matt and Amanda:

And Brandon & Sarah:

The game was a little one-sided (Grizzlies lost to the Normal CornBelters 6-0), but the seats were great — right behind the dugout — and the Zooperstars were awesome. You may be asking, “What are the Zooperstars?” Well, they are inflatable characters with punny names that put on exhibitions of hilarity at minor league baseball stadiums and state fairs across the country. To give you an idea, the creature on the right below is named “Manatee Ramirez.”

In between innings, they’d ride in on the back of a souped up golf cart and perform a little dance routine for the enjoyment of the audience. Probably the best show of the night was when Mackerel Jordan ate a batboy. Just before the 7th inning stretch, the girls saw Harry Canary walking through the crowd and wanted to get a picture:

I guess that signaled to Harry that these girls were up for pretty much anything. First, Harry sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” as he loomed over us from on top of the dugout.

Then, he snatched Amanda’s purse!

Then, he doused Jen and Amanda with silly string!

It was pretty awesome to be in the middle of all the action, especially since I managed not to get silly strung. The game was a lot of fun, and we’ll definitely be going back sometime in the future. Click here for all the pictures.

Appetizer: Jalapeno Snacks. Right off I’m going to tell you: wear latex gloves. Your eyes will thank you later when you rub them. These were an easy, great dish to make. Who doesn’t love bacon-wrapped appetizers? I do have to warn you, for some reason, some are a whole lot spicier than others. Maybe I didn’t clean out some of the pepper seeds. The cheese does ooze out of the jalapenos but it’s not a problem at all.

Entree: Southern Fried Eggs Benny. A different twist on the classic Eggs Benedict. Kim tried poaching the eggs via the “Goldfish” method (wrap the eggs individually in saran wrap and drop in boiling water). Well, it didn’t really come out of the saran wrap very cleanly and the eggs were a bit overcooked. It was pretty straightforward, nothing exciting about this dish.

Side Dish: Fruit Salad. Summer is the best time for fruit and we took advantage of the beautiful choices out there.

Dessert: FroYo run. That’s right, it was so bloody hot outside that Kate decided frozen yogurt would be her dessert choice. Hey, no complaints here! I love me some FroYo!

Ah, summers in St. Louis. Do you know what that means? Going floating! Third year in a row for this group of friends and so far, this year has been the biggest group yet. Of course, we followed last year’s act and had the boys head down there Friday night, their cars stuffed to the gills. Really, the main purpose was for them to set up the tents for us so we didn’t have to participate in that and no sleeping outside for two nights, one night is my limit.

Bright and early Saturday morning, five girls crammed into Stephanie’s car and drove the two hours down to Lesterville to Parks Bluff. Don’t worry, we did not get pulled over for tinted windows again (we actually drove with the windows down when we were going through the small towns – we were smarter this time). Funny car trip story: my sister drove down separately from Arnold and we were texting back and forth while on the highway. She called me to say that she was passing by the Harley store, I told her no, that we were driving by the Harley store. I turned around and there she was, right behind us! Perfect timing!

We got down there and launched around 9:45am. I was a bit worried that the weather wasn’t going to cooperate but it was absolutely beautiful! The sun was shining, it was hot and the river was cool. Great conditions for a 6 hour float trip. We ended up with three rafts and one canoe and we pretty much stayed that way throughout the trip. Let me introduce the players:

Team Drunk:

Team Drunk was the raft of drunks and spent more time drinking, going around in circles and pushing each other off the rafts. I wished I had pictures of that but unfortunately they were too far behind for the camera to capture these moments.

Team GAR (Good at Rafting):

Apparently this raft dubbed themselves Team GAR probably due to Matt aka “Rower Joe” at the head of the raft, directing and rowing their raft down the river. But really, I think Matt’s rowing skills were more of a detriment to the raft and Andrew spent more time correcting that. But Matt sure did look like the captain.

Team Chose Poorly:

Team Chose Poorly was named only because we chose the wrong side of the river when going through some rapids. I mean, it wasn’t that bad. Kari got dragged underneath the raft, Chris fell face-first into the water (she seriously fell like a board, smack) and I, while laughing at my sister’s fall, proceeded to fall ass-first into the water. This all happened in the matter of seconds. The only person left in the raft was Bob. It was a comedy of errors, wish I had gotten that on video, it probably could have won “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” Besides choosing poorly on the river, this raft as aptly named when I chose poorly and wore my rings. Wrong move, especially when I tried to pull Paul from his raft and my engagement ring slipped off into the river. Well, that was a scary moment until Doug, sweet, drunk Doug, found it and grabbed it from the bottom of the river.

Then you had the canoe with Rob and his brother, Ryan. I’m going to include them on Team Chose Poorly because they chose to let Kari onto their canoe and this is what happened:

As you can see, those who are supposed to be in the canoe ended up out of the canoe.

We did choose wisely with the Black River, though. The water was crystal clear (hence, being able to find my ring), there was a nice current and the river was deep. We spent more time swimming and floating and NOT dragging the rafts across the river beds. There was even some rope swingin’ at one of the banks and three of our guys went up to try it out:

After coming off of the river, we headed back to the campsite and proceeded to clean up. Now, I will have to say, the amenities were not as nice as the Bass River Resort. There was absolutely NO hot water and the showers and bathrooms were disgusting. It was so bad that as soon as I was done showering, I walked outside in only my towel and proceeded to put my clothes on out there. I had no shame when it came to that. Even Bob went around to the back of the facility and changed there.

As for the evening, it was a night sitting by the fire, enjoying the stars and contemplating life as we know it. Actually, it was really time for people to pass out:

We all went to bed fairly early that night and I slept better this year than last year. Oh, but it’s not like I slept in, I was up at 6am because it sounded like someone was peeing on our tent (it was really condensation dripping from the trees). I do have to say, I really enjoyed waking up to the quiet morning and looking out my tent to see this:

As always, it was a fabulous trip with a great group of friends! We will definitely be coming down to the Black River again!

Here are the rest of the pictures from the trip.

Now, an exhibit like this costs a pretty penny ($25) so I was a bit hesitant about paying that price but along comes Groupon which offered a buy-one-get-one free ticket, including an audio tour! Heck yeah! We jumped on that and headed on down to the History Museum.

Quite a few people have told us that it would be hard to obtain tickets: not true. We walked up to the ticket booth, redeemed our tickets and were even able to jump in line for showing at 12:30 (it was almost 1:00).

The exhibit takes you through the years of Catholicism, artistically and historically. The artwork is exquisite, I was just blown away with Michelangelo’s Pieta, the beautiful, intricate gold objects, and the old frescos depicting St. Paul and St. Peter. I think the most fascinating gallery was “Dialogue with the World.” It showed Catholicism throughout the rest of the world.

I don’t care if you’re Catholic or not, you believe or not, I think that you should take advantage of this opportunity to see this exhibition. It impressed me and educated me. I do have one complaint: there were definitely not enough reliquaries. Oh well.

Entree: Quick Barbecue Chicken. An excellent grilled chicken dish, flavorful and succulent.

Side Dishes: Corn on the Cob and Green Beans with Red Pepper and Garlic. Corn is always a perfect side dish for a summer dinner. I’ve made this green bean recipe before and was reminded to lessen the red pepper flakes. I threw in half of what it required and it still packs a punch. It’s a great recipe, just tweak it how you would like it.

Dessert: Mango-Coconut Bread Pudding. Finally, I think we’ve figured out how to make bread pudding without it being too soggy! Kim didn’t have day old bread so she toasted it instead, I wonder if that is the secret to having bread pudding that wasn’t mush. I very much enjoyed this recipe, loved the sauce that was poured over the dish.

Entree: Lighter Baked Ziti with Sausage. A real quick, simple baked pasta dish. It was easy and delicious. Now, I do have to say, I’m a fan of more sauce so if you’re like me, go ahead with more sauce in the dish. And next time, I’m going to try and find a spicier version of the turkey sausage for more heat.

Side Dish: Mixed Salad Green with Pears and Toasted Almonds. A nice, summer salad with the taste of oranges.

Dessert: Root Beer Float Cupcakes. These cupcakes are adorable and are delicious! Okay, so it’s only a hint of root beer but I’m okay with the dark chocolate flavor. Just make sure you eat it quickly, the ice cream does melt fast.

We started our evening at Kota Wood Fire Grill. We had heard that it had good food, it was right across the street from the Fox and we had a couple of coupons. I was a bit disappointed with the experience. Something in the kitchen prohibited any dishes to be sauteed so half of the menu was off-limits. We also weren’t really that impressed with the service. Our waiter seemed to disappear for long stretches at a time. I do have to say, my food was cooked well (Espresso Rubbed Beef Filet Medallions) so at least I had that. Let’s just say, sometimes the service really overshadows that quality of food.

On to the show! I had already seen Wicked so I decided to go for the cheap seats. Some of us had never seen it and I love going with first-timers, they are just awed and entranced by the story. I recommend seeing this show, it’s an interesting twist on the classic Wizard of Oz.

On to the second show! Afterwards, we headed down to 2720 to check out Kate’s artwork on display for one night only put on by Drawgasmic. It was a pretty neat show and an interesting environment. Let’s just say that we were a bit overdressed at this event. But it was fun and we were exposed to a wide array of artistic works from across the globe. I know it’s a bit late, but Kate, congrats on your piece!