Food

Temporarily single

July 15, 2011 hannahviolin

No, no, I’m still engaged. It’s just that Chris is at a music festival for a few weeks so I’m on my own here.

And…I am definitely not on my own. I’ve been busy every night with friends! In fact, I think my friends are asking me to hang out much more since they know I’m on my own. I’m a lucky lady 🙂

Last night I met up with friends at Ernesto’s Wine Bar in Benton Park. I’m learning that Benton Park is packed with little hidden places. We were there to partake in the Yelp eats week.

Everything on this menu was 50% off regular price. I had the shrimp, the flatbread, and the chocolate cake. We also split a couple bottles of wine.

Adrianne and Kim

Me and Jen

Another woman, Katie, met us, but the picture I took of her didn’t turn out very well. Next time!

Our wine, very tasty! The wine was on special as well. Overall the meal was great. The restaurant was pretty empty though things were picking up more by the time we left. I also hear there is a patio, but we sat inside.

So then today: a day off from work (yes, most days seem to be that lately, don’t hate me.). Mike wanted to do a workout outside, so we met up at Tilles Park. He’s been itching to wear his 80’s costume again, and I would totally have done so, but that major parts of my costume were borrowed.

So…today he wore the costume. At the playground. There were some children around. It was only a little awkward. He also brought a variety of weights, a mat, and a boombox. Okay, I made that up. He did bring an ipod speaker system so we’d have music during the workout. I meant to take a picture, but I completely forgot. *recycled pictures ahead*

He wore those shorts and that top, a different headband, and chuck taylors, or converse all-stars as many call them. It was delightful. I simply wore the same outfit I had last time I saw him, which is something I plan to keep up as long as possible. Or not. Maybe I’ll see if I can find some leg warmers to keep…anybody have any to donate to the cause?

Random thoughts

Jon Hamm sighting

July 15, 2011 hannahviolin

Well, I didn’t see him. But evidently he was at Bar Louie in the CWE on Sunday. Ironically, he was there to watch the Cardinals game…that I was AT. I presume he was hoping to see me!

Hello!

From the article on stltoday.com:

Handsome Jon Hamm from "Mad Men" was spotted lunching on Sunday at Bar Louie in the Central West End. Polite and congenial as could be, Hamm had only one request — could you please turn on the Cards game?

Hamm came in by himself shortly before the game started at 1:15 and sat down at the bar. He was talking to manager Andrew Ahr, who recognized him but didn’t acknowledge he knew who it was, and asked Ahr if he would turn on the game.

Ahr said Hamm proceeded to sit there and watch the entire game.

"The guy was just delightful to have in there," Ahr said today. "He was by himself and no one recognized him. He had a full beard — this guy was going Grizzly Adams."

Ahr is a Mizzou grad, class of ’94, and Hamm is class of ’93, so the two chatted about their alma mater. Hamm told Ahr he was in town for a niece’s wedding and was headed to Mizzou to participate in a golf tournament on Monday being hosted by John Anderson of ESPN.

Ahr couldn’t get over how low-key and polite Hamm was.

"When he was ready to leave he waited for the bartender to finish helping someone else so he could thank her personally for her service," Ahr said. "Then he crossed the entire restaurant to shake my hand, thanked me and said goodbye. He is such a gracious guy."

I forgot to ask my friend Jen if she saw Jon at her gym (she once saw George Clooney there! She belongs to a fancy celebrity gym). Then again, he is from here, so he might not be staying in a hotel. Yet, he WAS in the central west end. Hmm. JEN DID YOU SEE JON HAMM AND IF SO DID YOU GIVE HIM MY NUMBER? (Chris, he’s on my list of five, it’s totally cool.)

Running

Missouri River 8k Race Recap

July 14, 2011 hannahviolin 1 Comment

This was a funny race. An 8k! How long IS that even (around 5 miles)? It was a small race, and I signed up for a couple reasons. One, I hadn’t done a race alone in awhile, and I like to push myself to do things alone. Second, my folks were visiting, and there was no way I was going to get up early to run unless I had put money down. Third, it’s an 8k. Automatic PR. Fourth, free shorts!

Before the race, looking GOOD. And by good, of course I mean tired. Did I mention the race started at 7 am? In Chesterfield? I had to get up around 5 am. Yet another example of my extreme hard-core-ness.

The weather was nice. It was hot and humid, of course, but nothing worse than I expected. I got to the store to pick up my number, and then hung out in my car listening to NPR and waiting until I wanted to use the toilet again. (Porta-potties, unfortunately.)

The race was pretty small, around 200 people, and it wasn’t chip timed, which was not a problem, in my opinion. We all lined up and off we went.

The roads weren’t closed for the course, but the traffic was pretty non-existent at that hour on a Sunday. The only thing that concerned me was I had heard talk of a hill. The course was an out and back, which means that we ran one way, and then at some point would simply turn around and head back.

Everybody seemed really fast and it seemed that absolutely everybody was passing me at first. Finally things started to settle down a bit, and I was able to "settle" into a pace that left me JUST short of breath but able to carry on.

So…that hill. I realized I knew the route. And it was coming up. An incredibly steep downhill. The sort of hill that would terrify me to drive on in inclement weather. Basically straight down. And you know what that means. We’d have to run back UP the hill in a couple of miles.

I ran SLOWLY down the hill. I was afraid I would lose my footing and break my legs. Or my head. I got to the bottom and there was a water stop. The volunteers promised it was flat for awhile, and they were correct. In fact it was flat until we got BACK to the hill and had to go up it. I decided in advance I was going to walk the hill because I figured I would just die otherwise. It was hard enough walking it! I was huffing and puffing, but I did actually pass a few people. Pretty much everybody was walking the hill.

Finally I got to the top and was ready to push forward for the home stretch. Whoo!

I kicked it to the end and passed a couple of people. I felt pretty good as I’d only taken the one walk break.

I finished in 52:33. Not bad, and especially not bad for the pretty extreme humidity and heat (though I’d been training in it, it was over 85 by the finish) and with that ridiculous hill. Literally I felt like I was hiking.

I was 10th out of 14th in my age group (30 to 34). Not bad! (Remember, I’m still new to running, so beating anybody at all is still a victory for me 😉 )

A bit sweatier afterwards…

They had water and gatorade, bananas and bread afterwards. A nice spread really. As usual I had to sit down after the race, but I guess I didn’t push it as much as sometimes because it didn’t take long until I was ready to get going. I sat in my car a bit and let the a/c cool me off before heading off.

Schwag! Shorts and a "finishers award" of an insulated water bottle filled with gatorade.

I’d run it again. I like the smaller races sometimes…parking is easy, packet pickup is easy, and you really feel like part of a tiny community. I love that feeling of superiority over people who are sleeping… 😉

Food

Will write for wine

July 14, 2011 hannahviolin 3 Comments

I feel like so much has been happening in my life and I am QUITE behind on blogging. I’ll catch up eventually, I’m sure.

I’ve been trying to promote my blog more using twitter, facebook, and also real conversations. One of the ways to do this is to make connections with other people who have blogs. Which honestly makes the whole thing just seem like a giant pyramid scheme.

Social media = giant pyramid scheme. Food for thought?

Maybe a pyramid scheme isn’t the exact way to describe it, but sometimes twitter feels like a playground where some kids belong and others just watch, but we forget that there is a whole group of people out there who are NOT tweeting, NOT on facebook, and still are having great, fun, fulfilling lives. They aren’t taking pictures of everything, or maybe they are but are having those photos simply put into albums on their computers or (crazy!) actually photo albums to display in their homes.

Which brings us to back to the age old question, if something happens and it isn’t posted on the internet, did it really happen?

That’s a rhetorical question. Don’t strain yourself thinking about it too much.

Why do I blog? I like to share. I like to tell people about my life. There’s a large amount of narcissism involved. I also like to write and it’s a great outlet for that. I’m delighted when people read it. I’m delighted when people comment. It’s a fun hobby for me.

And yes, it’s a little hypocritical of me to ponder these things while wanting people to read my blog and using twitter to promote it. Sue me 😉

Which brings us to last night. I had the opportunity to attend “will write for wine” which was an event hosted by Angela, also known as stlwinegirl on twitter. It was an event for food bloggers to learn about wine. I am not a food blogger, if I had to categorize myself I think of myself MORE as a healthy living blogger, but I think my blog is really beyond categorizing (considered bad by social media standards, but I think good by my standards).

The social media ridiculous came in because everybody (myself included, yes) was tweeting and such from the meeting using the hashtag #willwriteforwine. That’s right. While we were all in one room we continued to tweet to one another. Ridiculous? A little. Fun? YES.

These were people I had never met, but several I follow on twitter so it was fun to meet them in person. SUCH a blogger thing to do, just so you know. If you recall, this was my second blogger event. The first was a healthy living blogger meet up at the yogurt place. Wine…yogurt…hmm…I think we know which I prefer!

Basically Angela talked about wines, how they are made, what they are, etc, and we tasted 6 different kinds of wine. I learned (which I already knew) that I prefer cabernets and sparkling wines, and I learned how to describe different kinds of wine. I’m really not going to go into details, because 1) I don’t remember offhand and don’t want to get my notes and 2) I’m not a food blogger. I’m sure some of the other attendees will do a far better job recapping the event!

One thing she said was NOT to store your wine in the kitchen and also to avoid moving it. Heat and movement can make wine worse. The other important thing is to swirl your wine in the glass to open up the flavors (flavours?).

And no, I didn’t drink all of that wine. The purple vase was for dumping. I loved the sparkling wine and the cab, and the rest I sipped and then dumped out. Besides, I had to drive home!

All in all it was a great time! It’s great to meet new people with similar interests (and outside the music world, no less) and hopefully I will get to attend more events like this. We talked of a cheese tasting, or perhaps a wine and cheese tasting.

Some of the attendees included authors of the following blogs:

www.stlsouptonuts.blogspot.com

http://rhubarbandhoney.com/

http://michelleamarcus.blogspot.com/

www.everylittlethingblog.com

www.eatitstl.com

www.cityinajar.com

www.chairmanstef.blogspot.com

http://www.inebriatedepicurean.com

http://eatlocal52.com

http://www.katiesfeast.com

http://thisishowmomrolls.wordpress.com

http://tonylovesfood.com

http://girlsguidetothegalaxy.com

http://www.bridgetmcguiresfillingstation.blogspot.com

Random thoughts

Another engagement!

July 13, 2011 hannahviolin

Weddings are in the air! In June my sister Leslie attended her boyfriend’s sister’s wedding…and caught the bouquet.

And…I guess it works, because her boyfriend proposed yesterday. (I actually caught the bouquet at a wedding in 2003, so I will say the method is not foolproof.)

It all started (for me, and this blog IS about me) on Friday with a cryptic phone call from Peter. He wanted me to call him back about something, and I assumed it was regarding Leslie’s upcoming 30th birthday in some manner. I called back on Saturday, and he told me he had an engagement ring. He wondered if he should propose before or after my parents visited Boulder (they planned to head there after St Louis) or should he call them, and how to call as they were on the road. I was of little help, as I am not the proposal expert…I have never proposed to someone, and only been proposed to once! I have witnessed one proposal (I was hired to play violin during it!) and of course seen them on television and in the movies. However, we settled that he would call my phone the following day to speak with my parents. I like to think that Peter asked me for Leslie’s hand in marriage. I presume I will be walking her down the aisle as my dad is really more of a biker than a walker.

Peter said of course not to tell Leslie but I did tell my folks. The next day he talked with them (or at least my mother, I think my dad might have missed the call) and told them his plan to propose whilst on a hike.

This happened on Tuesday. Evidently she said yes to his proposal. So, my only hope is that she waits long enough after my wedding that I am able to help out with the planning enough! A fall wedding next year could be lovely and that way I would definitely be able to give helpful advice from my experience. Perhaps October?

I have already learned so much in my own planning and could probably have used more advice, but I am a bit proud that way…

Leslie is also good at creepy poses. Must run in the family. Also she definitely needs to start her own blog now.

So, a hearty congratulations to Leslie and Peter! I guess a picture of the couple is in order…

Random thoughts

Groom’s Cake

July 12, 2011 hannahviolin 3 Comments

Okay, what do you guys think? Should we get a groom’s cake also? I think Chris really wants one but feels bad about the money…but I just got a gigantic white dress that is definitely more expensive than a cake.

That’s the one 😉

My thought is the groom’s cake would be more whimsical (and we all know that I love whimsy!) and would of course only be eaten by people who could answer a series of trivia questions about Chris.

Did you have a groom’s cake at your wedding? Or, have you been to weddings with a groom’s cake? Thoughts?