week in review

So, all the houseguests are departed, and we did all have a very nice time together. I may have thought a few silent "arrrgh"s, but none of them came out and I wasn't too cranky, overall, due to the total lack of 6am showers - which let me get enough sleep. Hallelujah. Highlights of the week included: Dinner at Zia's on The Hill (the Italian neighborhood of St. Louis). Zia's has a reputation for being one of the best restaurants there, and it was DELICIOUS. Meeting one of D.'s best friends from elementary school - she's really nice and has a great sense of humor and we had a fun time hanging out with her. Spending an afternoon at the Missouri Botanical Garden - tons of plants and bushes were flowering and we just strolled around enjoying a beautiful day. Everyone else would vote for a Cardinals game where one pitcher pitched 10 innings, but not me. I was too cold. Where'd that 80 degree weather go again? Spending an afternoon scenic driving through the rolling hills west of the city out to Hermann, MO. Settled entirely by German immigrants in 1800something, it's the center of Missouri's wine producing region. I didn't know they made wine in MO until we moved here, but we did wine tasting and tours at a couple wineries there and now have about 10 bottles of wine in our liquor cabinet. Again, DELICIOUS. P.S., D. got drunk, because his dad doesn't like wine very much and kept giving his samples to D. So in effect, D. had a double wine tasting, which he very much enjoyed in an inebriated fashion. Yep, those were the highlights. And I am feeling so kindly towards the past week that I won't even bother with lowlights. Actually, I can't really think of any lowlights, unlike when my family was here. Oh yeah. It rained a lot. And it was unseasonably cold. There could be far worse things.