weekend

we started off the weekend at the big shot design groundhog day party (on friday the 13th) at the westport flea market. the festivities included a 'guitar hero' competition so while i can't say i was in contention, i did experience this phenomenon first hand (mike assisted by holding my drink and helping choose the songs!)

after our saturday morning run we enjoyed a fantastic post-run brunch hosted by our friends jay and karen. we then headed over to spend the day with marc and rachel mckay. while rachel and heidi cooked, mike and marc enjoyed several basketball games (although ISU lost. again (as did KSU)). our valentines day dinner menu featured:

salmon with puff pastry and pesto

twice baked potatoes

asparagus

spinach salad

cheese straws

chocolate pots de creme

the wright stuff

Mike came to pick me up on Thursday and surprised me with an early valentines day arrangement of gerber daisies and equisetum from our favorite florist, Studio Dan Meiners!

Our destination that evening was an AIA/Women in Design event at the Sondern-Adler House, one of the 2 Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses here in Kansas City. The week prior I was at an architect's office for a meeting and got to see the original drawings for the Bott House.

favorites

It's been over a month since we've had a quiet weekend at home. We've enjoyed our recents trips and visits with friends and family but sometimes it is nice to just stay put. We picked a great weekend to be in KC--it was in the 70s on both Friday and Saturday and we took full advantage of the great weather! We headed down to the Crossroads on Friday night with Terry + Shannan for dinner at Pizza Bella and the First Friday gallery walk.

Donning shorts, we ran 8 miles (our longest run for quite some time!) on Saturday morning before enjoying breakfast at First Watch. We headed home for a walk with Vokey before yard work and catching up with several neighbors also out of hibernation! The warm weather inspired us to try something new for dinner (and our tired runners bodies required something easy!) and we've found a new favorite: Crispy Black Bean Tacos with Feta and Cabbage (but we used broccoli) Slaw.

We hope your weekend was as enjoyable!

LA LA land

On Friday we jetted off again, this time to Los Angeles to visit our friends the Gehles. It had been way too long since we last saw Shawn, Erin and Stella and we had a great time catching up and exploring the city they now call home. Here are just a few highlights:
sushi dinner followed by cream puffs and eclairs at Beard Papas
mediocre coffee, good design and fresh, warm donuts at lamillcoffee
tour of downtown (including 'shawn's tower') followed by a trip to the Getty
cupcakes at Sprinkles
dinner at Pizzeria Mozza
delicious coffee and crossiants at Caffe Luxxe
walk on the beach and lunch at Malibu Seafood
viewing good architecture and fast, expensive cars

DSM

mike, heidi, joanna and chad at the holiday party
congratulations, gary!

No sooner had we recovered from the car trip from Colorado to Missouri, we got back in the car and headed to Iowa for the annual Confluence holiday party/staff retreat. The staff met in the office for an afternoon of updates and training before the spouses joined us for a 'murder mystery dinner'. The mystery had a Charles Dickens theme and everyone played a part in the production.

We stayed in town long enough to celebrate brother-in-law Gary's recent promotion with the rest of the family!