A little PTO and spontaniety

Nathan and I spent all weekend searching for houses to rent. What a tiring process. This evening we put a deposit down on a place, which I'll share in a future blog, but don't want to share too much in case something falls through.

Anyway, so we were discussing things all weekend, trying to be sure we are getting the most for our money, something that will fit our needs and growing family, etc., etc., etc. Sometimes I think we suffer from analysis paralysis when it comes to these decisions. But then I also think that we can never discuss it too much or be too thorough.

So this morning I was getting ready for work and still wanted to check out a few places today before we had to put down the deposit on the other place. Nathan is pretty much out of school (one lingering independent study project he'll have finished this week), and so of course he had planned on continuing the search, but I had my own qualms. So at the last minute as I was ready to head out the door for the Monday commute, I...wait for it--this is big coming from a workaholic...decided to take the day off.

So we were off on another adventureous day of house hunting. In between all this I decided that, hey, how often do I get a day off "just because" and decided to make the most of it. It was raining all day, but that didn't stop us from getting out. After making a decision on a house, we went baby shopping, got the dogs vaccinations, and then were driving around killing time before we had to meet up with the agent about the house. We were by one of the malls and saw something about a "Top Chef Tour."

Now, ya'll know what foodies Nathan and I have become. Very little excites us as much as food. On the weekends we can usually be found eating at either some favorite restaurant or trying out a new one. That is what constitutes most of our "entertainment." Forget dinner and a movie--how about just a good dinner? To us food is a passion. As such, I devour (pun intended) any TV show dealing with good food, one big one being Bravo's "Top Chef." So when we saw something about Top Chef at the mall, we HAD to check it out, and it totally made my day!

There was a trailer in the parking lot with a little station set up for the chefs to cook at.

Here's what I got to end my fun day off with...


A FREE class/quickfire challenge with Richard Blais (Season 4 runner-up and Atlanta local) and Nikki Cascone (otherwise known as the pasta queen--although she's says she's a victim of editing when it comes to that).

Richard started his own restaurant called Flip here in Atlanta after the Top Chef show. We haven't made it there yet, but now we can't wait! It's an amazing, over-the-top burger and shake place. In the quickfire challenge Richard demonstrated how two of the burgers from his menu are made, and we got to sample one! Oh my. I won't bore you non-foodies with all the gory details, but the ingredients and presentation were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. And then he also made us an Oatmeal cookie milkshake in a Kitchen Aid mixer using liquid nitrogen to freeze it (so Richard).

Nathan had to skip out early to go meet the housing agent, but since it was my day off and he gets like 45 more of them before he starts his new job, he let me stay and enjoy. He missed the whole tasting at the end, and I got to describe every bit of it to him as my mouth watered.

And then to top it all off while I was waiting for Nathan to come back I wandered around the mall and found a great maternity clothing store and bought a bunch of much-needed but cute shirts for work. What a GREAT day!

Stay tuned for pics and more info about the house we'll be renting for the next year, and for this Thursday when we find out the gender of our little bun in the oven. Can't wait!!!