Italian x2

Happy Monday, peeps. I hope it's not 102 degrees wherever you are...

The weekend went by so...slowly, didn't it!? Anybody? It was a good weekend, but it was slow in the sense all weekend I seemed to notice what day/time it was, thus allowing me to savor the time passing by rather than noticing it when it's gone.

In other breaking news, David and I dined out again this weekend--at another Italian-esque restaurant. This time we hit up Pasta Vino, a new place on Pearl Street (where Juanita's Mexican Restraurant used to be). Our friends Chris and Nicki treated us to dinner for David's birthday, and for that reason I won't post the picture of them that David surreptitiously took:-)

Dinner was another first for me, though not in the food department but in the beverage department. I ordered white wine!!! Instead of beer!!! It is really that hot here in Colorado!!! And it was refreshing and light and yummy!

Food wise, we ate a boatload of food. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take pictures until I'd eaten most of my food.

I started with the Insalata Pasta Vino, which had romaine lettuce, cucumbers, apples, tomato, garbanzo beans, black olives, gruyere swiss cheese, sunflower seeds, and red wine vinegar dressing. It was yummy--especially the nice treat of having real cheese and the sunflower seeds.

Sidenote: Does anyone else feel a little out of place when ordering something "to start" at a moderately priced restaurant? I mean, I know we need our veggies and such, but it's essentially adding ~8-10 more dollars per person onto the check. When I was growing up my parents would've laughed at me if I'd ordered the equivalent of two things for dinner--veggies or not.

For my "main"--haha I'm so rich and famous-- I had a surprising entree of gnocchi, with mozzarella cheese and some tomato sauces.

This was so-so. Chris had warned me that it wasn't his favorite, but insisted because the potato pillows were calling my name. They were tasty, though a bit big and not quite as melty as I'd like. (Yah, melty means what you think it means.)

Overall, I liked Pasta Vino, and even more I enjoyed a night out with our friends and getting a chance to catch up!

Unfortunately, when we got home we found a rather large bug outside on our deck:

I wanted to let Haruki "play" with that beetle, but I'm a good person now and instead we let it free:-(

Good thing my Mom doesn't read my blog, else she'd force me to move because that beetle is horrifying. Like horror movie quality, right?

*What would you do if you found that bug near your house? Is it wrong that I enjoy watching Haruki "play" with the grasshoppers around our house? (Assuming that "play" is a euphemism for excitedly torture with flicks of the nose and tongue?)