some activity...

Quite a lot has happened in the past couple of days and there's much more to come - activity on the radar of our lives has increased significantly. First me, and this past weekend. I wrote my exam on Friday and think that it went well, but after writing for almost three hours my hand felt like a frozen, gnarled claw - uncomfortable. The weather was beautiful here so we played a bit of beach volleyball, enjoyed a beer in the sunshine and then Steve drove me out to the airport. The plan was to meet my parents in Denver to visit my sister and spend a few days in Moab. Hint: since I'm writing from Winnipeg, all did not proceed as planned. While we we sitting at the Tim Horton's in the Winnipeg airport on Friday night, enjoying some sugary donuts and weak coffee, Steve's people called with a job in Romania and a mandate: leave as soon as possible. So! I carried on to Denver, was hassled on the way from an old frumpy and completely unwelcoming man in US Customs, with a wait-and-see outlook on the whole Romania thing. We had a great weekend - Denver seems like a beautiful city and is beautifully planned: great architecture, lots of parks and it seemed super clean. There also seemed to be loads of public transit and bike and pedestrian paths all over the place - love it. It was great to see Karin and my parents, even though it seems like were were all in Vancouver visiting just a few weeks ago. Saturday we were on the bridal hunt: we had appointments at three bridal salons (so cheesy that they're called salons) and I must have tried on close to 100 dresses. Crazy. Anyways, it was super fun and of the masses there ended up being four that I liked (that we all liked) but ... I didn't buy anything. I mean, it doesn't help (or maybe, actually it does) that one of them was $6000 (it was my favourite one - eek), and of the four, the "cheapest" was just under $2000. Yikes... so! If I'm ever going to spend anything close to that much money on an article of clothing I need time to digest. So - digesting. I haven't looked here yet, but plan to do so this week, as the prospect of finding something in Romania is - scary? I'm aware that this is totally naive of me, but somehow I imagine a cross between the curtains (but ivory) and an old, lacy tea doilie as the typical, traditional bridal gown that I might come across in Romania.
Shopping...
At dinner - great company... and did I mention the food?



Anyways.... we had the most amazing dinner on Saturday night; this meal ranks as one of the best restaurant meals I've ever had, so check out the menu and salivate. There was great atmosphere, fabulous drinks and, well, the food was just so amazing that I have to tell you what we ate and what we drank. There was wine and there were martinis - my dirty gin martini (with extra olives: stuffed in house with a melt in your mouth blue cheese) was one of the best I've ever had. So good. As far as food goes, this is it, in order of unbelievable true and authentic flavour: grilled artichoke with aioli, home made cheese, home made sausage bruschetta, prosciutto di Parma, a pizza, two salads (the chop and the caprese) and roasted lamb. It was all just incredibly delicious. SO! When in Denver, or when close to Denver, head to Osteria Marco for a meal that's out of this world. The service was great and so was the atmosphere. So so so good. Anyways! I decided on Saturday night to head back to Winnipeg, as the Romania deal was really going to go down (you never really know): the team wanted Steve to leave on Tuesday and, though I plan on going too, it might not be such an immediate thing. So I made my way back here on Sunday, and Steve is on his way out of here on Wednesday. Romania is a new place to us both, so it will be fun learning about it and blogging about it too. There will be some familiar faces in town: the former head coach of the National Team, Stelio DeRocco, is the coach there, and Tammy Mahon, a Canadian athlete, is on the women's team in town, so it should be fun, and life should be a bit more social than good old Yaroslavl. More on Romania, location etc. to come, but I should be out enjoying the last day of summer (?) or is it officially the first day of fall... not too sure but it is one or the other or a combination. The leaves have all started to turn and though it's a bit of a grey day, it's warm and beautiful. Outside I go; stay tuned for more...