Thank you Denver Restaurant Week 2009!

I am so excited about my date night next Friday! Denver has an annual Denver Restaurant Week where you can choose from over 200 restaurants serving a 3 course dinner for $52.80 per couple! Incase you are not familiar,Denver is one mile above sea level, which is 5280 feet, so that's why the meals are $52.80. Anyways, I made a reservation at Bistro Vendome and booked the night at The Curtis, which coincidentally happens to be $52.80 for the night! I am so excited! Have I mentioned that already?

A bit about each place:

Bistro Vendome, designed to evoke the look and feel of a long-established, family-owned bistro plucked from a Parisian street corner, features a carefully crafted menu that contains a wealth of French flavors served in a comfortable and charming environment.

The Curtis: You don’t just stay at The Curtis, you experience it! We are committed to good old-fashioned fun. From the minute you walk through our lobby doors, you are immersed in the best of pop-culture. You’ll find cartoons playing in our lobby. Each of our guest room floors has a personality all its own. Every detail has been revved up to create a boutique, one of a kind Denver Colorado hotel experience. You can even get a wake-up call from Elvis or Austin Powers!

Valentines weekend

This past weekend was Valentines Day, which actually slipped my mind completely. It’s a cute holiday, and I love the colors, but it really doesn’t hold too much weight in our house. People should be nice to their loved ones every day, not one day a year! Kenny mentioned that he thought we should make a nice dinner on Saturday night and I asked him why. Oh, yeah. It’s a holiday.

We decided on mussels and scallops, so onto www.Foodnetwork.com I went. I found a basic white wine and garlic mussel recipe and looked for something a bit different to try with the scallops. Success! The scallops were amazing. I would even go as far as to say they were fancy restaurant quality! Kenny and I really enjoy cooking, and we are even getting better at doing it together.

Sunday, we headed up to Breckenridge to go snowshoeing. It was fun and exhausting. After about 2 ½ hours of that, we headed to lunch in Breck and then home.

Monday, we met Bonnie at Starbucks for a drink before she headed back to NYC. It was a gorgeous day so we took the girls down to the dog park to play for a while. I love Bear Creek dog park. They have a separate area for small dogs that is completely fenced off. It’s a huge area with trees and bushes where the girls can just run wild!

Kenny doesn’t get too many weekends off anymore, so I really enjoyed being able to spend time with him. We have a lot of fun and I never take advantage of our time together.

There are a few pictures from the weekend on our page -------->

FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

FACEinHOLE #2

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Braciole

We had a spare london broil steak in the freezer and couldn't decide what to do with it. Kenny found this recipe for Braciole (bra-shol). It was easy and fantastic. He also made fettuccine and we had broccoli as well. The perfect dinner!

Aussies find symbols of hope in two koalas

This has to be one of cutest and saddest articles I have ever read. If you haven't heard about this you have to read it. The video is great too.

SYDNEY - A bond between two burned koalas rescued from Australia's deadliest bushfires has provided some heart-warming relief after days of devastation and the loss of more than 180 lives.

The story of Sam and Bob emerged after volunteer firefighter David Tree used a mobile phone to photograph and film the rescue of the bewildered female, since nicknamed Sam, that was found cowering in a burned-out forest at Mirboo North, 90 miles southeast of Melbourne.

Photos and a video of Tree, 44, approaching Sam while talking gently to her, and feeding her water from a plastic bottle as she put her burned claw in his cold, wet hand quickly hit video sharing Web site YouTube, making her an Internet sensation.

But it was after reaching a wildlife shelter that Sam met and befriended Bob, who was saved by wildlife workers on Friday, two days before Sam, in Boolarra, about 110 miles from Melbourne.

Tree, who has been a volunteer firefighter for 26 years, said it was extremely rare to get so close to a koala so he asked his colleague Brayden Groen to film him.

"You can see how she stops and moves forward and looks at me. It was like a look saying, 'I can't run, I'm weak and sore, put me out of my misery,'" Tree told Reuters.

"I yelled out for some water and I sat down with her and tipped the water up. It was in my hand and she reached for the bottle then put her right claw into my left hand which was cold so it must have given her some pain relief and she just left it there. It was just amazing."

Sam was taken to the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter in Rawson. Her story was reminiscent of a koala named Lucky who survived the 2003 bushfires that destroyed about 500 homes and killed four people in the capital of Canberra. Lucky became a symbol of hope.

Colleen Wood from the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter that is caring for Sam and Bob said both koalas were doing well while other animals like possums, kangaroos, and wallabies were also starting to emerge from the debris.

Koalas are especially vulnerable to wildfires because they move slowly on the ground.

Often mistakenly called koala bears because they resemble a child's teddy bear, the marsupial is actually a rather grumpy creature with a loud growl and sharp claws. It rarely comes down from the trees and doesn't like walking.

The wildfires cut through parks and forests and sent countless wombats and other native species fleeing. One resident reported seeing kangaroos bouncing down the road with flames at their backs.

The fires also razed farmland, killing or panicking sheep and cattle. Television footage showed cows running down the main street of a smoke-filled town.

A count of the animals killed has not been made.

She said Sam had suffered second degree burns to her paws and would take seven to eight months to recover while Bob had three burned paws with third degree burns and should be well enough to return to the bush in about four months.

"They keep putting their arms around each other and giving each other hugs. They really have made friends and it is quite beautiful to see after all this. It's been horrific," said Wood.

"Sam is probably aged between two to four going by her teeth and Bob is about four so they have a muchness with each other."

Wood said about 20 koalas had been brought into her shelter in recent days, several of whom had bonded as koalas are known to clump together, but none had garnered the same attention as the new Internet star Sam.

Tree, a volunteer with the Country Fire Authority Victoria, has visited Sam since her rescue and was delighted to see she had found a boyfriend in Bob.

"They've really taken a shine to each other as they are both burned and share the same burned smell," he said.

"My heart goes out to the people in these fires and this was so innocent so people have used this to distract them from all the sad stuff that has gone on. It gives people a bit of hope."

Wood said there was no doubt the animal was wild, not domesticated, and that it would be released back into nature once a suitable habitat is found — the foliage in Sam's forest was all but destroyed.

"The hardest part is going to be trying to find enough habitat to support these guys," Wood said.

Your blog name is Chinese, right?

While playing a game, Jeff asked Kenny the following question:

Jeff: Oy Vey! This Broadway show.........(frankly, I don't remember the rest of the question)

Kenny: (With a puzzled look)

Me: Seriously? So easy! (Fiddler on the Roof for those that aren't catching on)

Kenny: (Still with puzzled look)

Me: Oy vey! What would that be? What is the only thing that could be?

Kenny: (Puzzled look still present) I can't think of any Spanish Broadways plays, Lauren!

(Gut busting laughter)

Me: (Barely able to speak, laughing so hard) Spanish? Oy Vey is Spanish?

Kenny: Yes! I don't know the answer.

Woooooooooooooow.......

Wrap-n-mat

Alanna has one of these and they are fantastic! If you go to their site to order any, make sure you pick the one that says, made in USA LDPE lining. Some of the fabrics are hideous, but there are a few cute ones in there as well.