Once you start you can’t stop…

I’m talking about painting trim…not drinking wine or eating buttercream frosting…although the phrase does apply to both!

I broke out some of our house paint to touch up some spots that had been repaired – holes, dings from trying to force our couch into a small door frame. And then I just got carried away. Everything looks so much better now!

Snapple

We picked up our good friend Snakey from the train station at dinnertime. He’s here for a wedding and had the evening to hang out during the rehearsal dinner. We headed downtown for dinner and not 2 seconds after arriving on the downtown mall, Snake yelled “ALBERS!!!” when we totally bumped into two more of their younger fraternity brothers (one just moved here and one is visiting).

3 turned into a fun dinner for 7 at Zocalo, one of my downtown favs!

Snake, Matt and I split a bottle of red [mid pour]

And of course had to get the Corn + Black Bean Relleno pepper. It is INCREDIBLY good!! With a red tortilla chip crust, smoked grits and a killer green sauce that must have cilantro involved. You must go to Zocalo and eat this! 50% of our table ordered it : )

We just drove Snake out to the Clifton Inn and are back and settled for the night at home.

Tomorrow I’m going on a really cool blog event that I’ve been wanting to do for years. It involves a farm. Any guesses!?

Fun times at the bakery today

Lots to do! Including a break for a power walk with a new friend!

Followed by a snack of vanilla soy milk with the crumbles of the Cville Cluster bag

Matt and I charged through our list today and worked right through closing. I realized today that my Great Harvest email address had been frozen since JULY 16!!!!!!!!!! SO many missed emails – the horror. I spent the late afternoon responding and apologizing for the delay.

When I came out of the office, this was waiting for me:

Ladies [and gents], the best pumpkin beer ever. Matt snuck it in this afternoon when he ran an errand! Why do I suspect that he really goes out for a beer when he runs errands!? Just kidding – I told him to! He needed a break.

We shared this monster while he was on a call this evening and I twiddled my thumbs

When he hung up, he declared that he was not doing a single dish tonight and we were going out. I tried to protest and mumbled something about budgets and my LOOT app, but he won. We went out.

Our third restaurant (because the first two we tried were closed) was Fry’s Spring Pizza! Love this place.

And love their hummus plate!!

We shared this to start

And then shared a Hot Pepperoni Pizza for dinner

I had two ooey gooey scrumdiddleyumptious slices.

And now the evening is calming down. Matt’s reading in bed and I’m off to join him.

It’s COLD out there folks. Chilly!

At the airport! Thankful I made it safely and on time. I just hope the next leg of my journey goes the same!

Thanks so much to Sabrina, Trig and the Bambino for their hospitality today – I very much enjoyed my homey afternoon!

We joined Gina and Tom for an early dinner at Parc, a French restaurant at Rittenhouse Square, for a final HLS social event. These two couples are not only both glowing with pregnancy excitement, but they are all such wonderful nice people. The gentlemen – such gentlemen! I very much enjoyed lots of baby talk at the table since our time to begin thinking about all this is not too far away. (!).

Bread basket deliciousness. I think I had 2.5 pieces – small ones! – that helped tide me over to my entree salad

I ordered the famous Warm Shrimp Salad with a bright buree blanc, avocado and tomatoes

It was quite scrumptious!

I said an early farewell to my friends and hopped in a cab to ride to the airport.

Macaroon for dessert!

Sitting in the terminal now, blogging and working, waiting for my flight. Hope Virginia is as fun as I left it!

Another week has come to a close, and that’s cause for celebration!!!

Beer while bookkeeping – assurance there are no pennies double counted!!! [Blame boss Matt!]

Soon enough I was dancing pirouettes in my new dress!

It really did remind me of a ballerina -

Five Bamboo sent me this dress and I love it!! It’s heavy, so it hugs in the right places, and also the V-neck is quite flattering. It’s also super soft!! They’re also a sponsor of the HLS this year!!

Soon enough we met Karen downtown for a delicious diner at Fellini’s! Fellini’s always has live music and it’s one of Karen’s favorite. Ours too now that we’ve actually eaten dinner there!

The bartender, who also happened to be the owners’ daughter and super cool, was lovely to get to know. Jo was awesome!!

She served Matt a beer and served me a super sweet Manhattan, which is right up my alley!

We enjoyed some bar talk – only 10 minutes of Great Harvest and we changed the subject to non-business!!!

With dinner had had an AMAZING ZIN recommended by Jo. Seriously, this was the best red wine I’ve had in a restaurant this year. Go find it now! I know we will! It was soooooooo smooth!! Velvety!

We enjoyed some homemade focaccia – made by the owner of Fellini’s himself we learned. As bread snobs we gave it two thumbs up!

And we tried the calamari at Jo’s recommendation: butter, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and more, it was awesome to taste without fried breading

For dinner I had the portabello salad – complete with cheese and all. The dressing was awesome and the salad was plenty for dinner.

But I still shared the Orecchiette  {“Little Ears” pasta ,Italian sausage and rapini with vodka cream sauce} with Karen

And tried Matt’s ravioli of the day. Both were super rich yet amazing!

We’ve had a heck of a workweek and are SOOOO excited for a day off tomorrow!! Matt is brewing beer and I’m doing absolutely nothing! Except for going to Whole Foods!! FuN!!!

Nite!!

Tonight was an all-American classic summer-in-June outdoor concert awesome evening complete with friends and good food. What is it about June!?

I packed up some rolls at the bakery…

…then ate one and spoiled my dinner!

After we closed we headed downtown on our bikes to meet friends at Cville’s Fridays After Five concert. Awesome.

I just love the festive, family vibe at Fridays After Five!

Matt and I headed to the beer tent where he got a Starr Hill Northern Lights and I had a Shock Top.

[Matt said because his was a craft brew and mine was mainstream. And you know what, we ended up switching because his was better!!]

We missed you Faith!

After a bit, we decided to move our group to dinner at The Local! ‘Twas a short walk across the tracks and over to Belmont

This was our fourth time at The Local and we had just as good a meal as any – outdoor dining at its finest! The weather today was just perfect. Not hot at all!

To start, I had a Bluegrass Brewing Bourbon Barrel Stout – a favorite beer of mine. I shared it with Matt, as I was more interested in the water on the table : )

Last time we were at The Local, we had the Burrata cheese and HAD to have it again!! This is the best cheese ever!

Since I filled up on bread + beer, I decided on a salad for dinner. The Watermelon + Goat Cheese salad was perfect. I was so happy to receive a pile of greens with the main pieces – so appreciative of veggies! The goat cheese was spectacular.

I also stole a few bites of Matt’s Truffle Mac n Cheese

The others at our table offered up their entrees for the camera – meat loaf

And ketchup, which must be local!

We had a grand time getting to know Will and Sarah! Will actually writes a blog about his philosophical musings as a doctor and would love for you all to pay him a visit

The Local somehow got word that KERF was in the house and brought us over two complimentary desserts to share –

An incredible banana split – complete with banana ice cream and lots of whipped cream!!

And my favorite, an adorable jar of lemon curd and a plethora of fresh berries. The lemon curd was outstanding, and of course the fact that it was served in a jar made me love it at first bite!

Thanks, The Local, for making us feel welcome.

We have an early morning tomorrow – we’re slicing bread for a training run for the big women’s 4 miler here in Cville. I’m already past bedtime and need to get there STAT!!

Nite!

I’m still chipping through a massive owner to-do list. Including payroll, Quickbooks, ordering retail and more.

And my gosh, don’t ever count money when you’re cranky and hungry! Especially when you get a negative number where you shouldn’t. Now that was confusing. Got it all figured out though!

Snick-snacks!

I brought in some watermelon we had at home, and ate a slice of High Five at Five!

We wrapped up around 7 (after a frustratingly long reconciliation) and went out for one last dinner before Jason heads back to ye ole Montana.

Downtown was bumpin’ for a Monday night! Charlottesville’s downtown is always wildly alive. That’s why I love it!

We landed at a new place called Positively Fourth Street, which used to be called Enotecca. It was a wine bar with small plates and now it’s a full-service restaurant after a renovation.

Much to our disappointment, it was CLOSED! But we found this out after walking in and realizing a private party had just ended.

The food was still out…

And the staff invited us to nibble away!

The gorgeous platter of roasted veggies was just what I would have waited 30 minutes for in a restaurant! We were absolutely stoked!

The Black Eyed Pea hummus was some of the best I’ve ever had. It tasted almost…cheesy? Like brie. Loved it!

And the Smoked Mushroom Tarts…oh my! We really hit the jackpot!

The staff was so welcoming (even when we descended upon the food like starved vultures) and we bought a drink at the bar to have with our dinner.

I had a few small plates of veggies, some flatbread and hummus, a few mushrooms tarts and a mini [grass-fed, local!!] beef slider.

Thank you so much to Positively Fourth and our friend the server Sarah for the hospitality! We can’t wait to go back soon.

I biked home while Matt and Jason went out for a Spice-a-Rita.

After such a long day, part of you wants to go home and get in bed. But the other hand wants to party! It’s hard to choose, so tonight I did a little of both.

I’m kind of starting to miss formal workouts. I gotta get to Body Pump soon or my muscles will shrink!! I’m staying the whole 12 hour day again tomorrow, but hoping to back off a wee bit (to 3/4 of the day!) by the end of the week. We’ll see how much Matt needs me!

Nite!

Four years ago she was Mother of the Bride. I suppose my mom is now Mother of the Bread! She certainly had fun tasting it!

We wrapped up a fantastic opening day by selling out of nearly all of our breads!! It was really a great success. THANK YOU ALL so much for your wonderful comments today!! I enjoyed reading them so much.

I couldn’t believe how HUNGRY I was all day. There was not TIME to eat!! I literally did not have time to stop and eat. I ate my salad and drank my smoothie and had a slice of Popeye bread and a few small squares of Savannah Bar and muffin plus 2 triangles of watermelon that we brought from home.

At 6 we cleaned and cleaned. And counted the greenbacks. And organized and prepped.

And then we celebrated!

We went to Zinc, a local restaurant off Main Street.

The ladies ordered a bottle of Virginia Red, which I enjoyed after the long day

But the real excitement occurred when the staff brought out a tableful of sparkling wine for us to celebrate! From one local business to another, thank you Zinc!

We enjoyed bread and salty butter

And fun times. Kanz had been up since 3am!

Thanks again to the amazing Montana team!!

Mom and I shared the strawberry + beet salad with GRANOLA!

While Dad munched on sardines. They were huge!!

Matt enjoyed the most amazing local sausage – totally fennely!

For dinner I had the scallops, which were perfectly cooked with fingerling potatoes, a GRAHAM crumble (!!) and a beautiful spiced green sauce

And for dessert (!!), mom and I split the strawberry shortcake!! The biscuit was salty and southern – and the whipped cream fluffy and sweet!

I’m long overdue for bedtime, because I can’t slip a blog post Hoping for a good night’s sleep! I feel much calmer tonight about the state of the union – so I am optimistic! And tired!!

Nite.

Work hard, play hard has always been a great motto of ours. I think Davidson really defined the term, and Matt and I carry it into our lives.

It’s certainly the motto of the week!!

We worked like crazy all afternoon. When I say “worked like crazy” I mean we jumped from one task to another blindly. There was no direction just “Do this, now do this” over and over until we accomplished a massive to-do list.

Part of my list included scanning 12 employees x 2 sheets x 12 PDFs to email to our payroll service.

And eating Cville Cluster Granola!!

I made a chalkboard open sign, went to the bank, went to the copy shop, hung signs, and more that I can’t even remember.

Calibowls for the Breadboard!! They make such a great community butter + jam bowl because of the inner lip!

And FLOWERS from my grandmother, Smotey and Mary Frances!

At 6 I think everyone wanted to go to dinner but Matt and me. We wanted to keep working! Part of the reason GH is here is to help balance us out.

So we headed out – to MAS! See the first time we went to Mas when we were here to look for a location in March of 2010!

Tomas, the owner, has a nice loaf of Honey waiting for him tomorrow. He made an appearance on KERF recently and we wanted to repay the courtesy!

MAS is cool!!

Drinks were poured

Lauren got this amazing Cucumber + Ginger martini!

But I was in the mood for a big red

We ordered a bunch of delicious bites for the table….prepare to salivate! I sure did.

Hummus con pan (chickpeas, tahini, harissa, olive oil, and garlic with bread)

[Favorite dish of the night – SMOKED!!]

Tomates asados( hot-smoked roma tomatoes in their own juices)

Datil con tocino (fat, juicy, pitted Medjool dates roasted inside of applewood-smoked bacon)

Pescado al Sartén (pan-roasted wild-caught Pacific King Salmon w/ endive, radicchio, grapefruit, fava beans and basil salad)

Gambas al’ parilla (Jumbo shrimp grilled Catalan style-in the shell-w/ garlic alioli and grey salt)

Grass-fed beef over pita with a smoky cheese sauce

Lots of fun. Lots of learning!

First night of the GH series of dinners we’ve gotten dessert!! I think Mike from St. Cloud and I were leaning towards yes

Tart of the Day: Black Cherry + blueberry

Flourless Chocolate Cake!

After dinner, Matt drove me to the bakery and I biked home from there at dusk. It was so peaceful – I really do LOVE bike-commuting. Sometimes it’s scary, sometimes it’s really hot, sometimes my quads burn, but most of the time I just love the flow of the hills and my pedals.

Early to bed, very early to rise!!

Nearly every person who has entered the bakery in the past few weeks has said “You look so ready!!”

We feel ready, but we know there are still lots of little touches to make the space special + perfect. Thanks to Lauren for her insight and guidance!

Today was all about those details, and tomorrow, along with lots of employee training!

My grandmother’s art is now on the walls!

I’m so happy to have it there!

We picked up this cute cupboard at Possessions Recycled – our go-to chic furniture store now!

Lauren also thought to put PLANTS outside the doors. Genius!

Chalkboard everywhere!

I got a surprise visit from KERF reader Dani, who is vacationing here in Cville for a few days. She brought me TREATS!! Treats are so not a requirement to meet in person, but they are always accepted enthusiastically – thank you Dani! She’s from Vermont and brought maple syrup, chocolate, pancake mix, apple butter, marinade and a bowl!

We also did a little training and made GRANOLA! SO SO good!!! It was my afternoon snack!

We finally wrapped up around 7pm and headed downtown for dinner

Strawberry Puree was on special!

But I actually got a Blackberry Lemonade with Maker’s Mark!! Yum!! And so refreshing on this hot, hot night.

Thanks to Janet, Lauren, and Mike (of the St. Cloud, Minnesota Great Harvest – any locals in the house?!) for their help this week!

Mike shared his caesar salad with Matt and me. Hello polenta croutons!

And we each enjoyed a fritter – stuffed with cheese!!!

I had a really tough time choosing entrees!!! When we went to Zocalo two years ago, I got the Vanilla Orange Scallops and they were incredible! But when we went with Karen a few weeks ago, Matt’s Black Bean + Corn Chili Rellano pepper over smoked grits was also incredible.

Matt and I decided to each get one. I swear, these are the BEST two entrees in the city of Cville!!

I couldn’t pick a favorite. But the vanilla bean is really, really good!

Once we got home, I took my bike out for a spin. I actually don’t think the tire is losing air. Two blocks and a jumped curb later, it seemed to hold the air fine. Maybe it was just psychological this morning!? I definitely have a psychology with tire air. I always think my car tires look low (thanks Dad!)

I am creating a puddle in this computer chair and must get to bed for a super duper big day tomorrow!! Nite!

Tonight we got together with some of Karen’s friends, who happen to also be the parents of one of my sisters good college friends: The Blakeys.

Our dinner wasn’t until 7:30 and at about 6PM my stomach was growling for dinner! I can ignore the general build of hunger before a meal, and I generally hate to snack before dinner, but I cannot ignore growls!

I had a yogurt with some Hemp Plus granola plus a Carrs cracker to tide me over

For the second time this week, we took out-of-towners to Mono Loco! [And we may be returning for a THIRD visit to take the new set of Great Harvest people for a Spice-a-rita. Word has gotten out they are famous!]

You just can’t ignore the festive patio and large delicious menu.

I decided to be uber-adventerous and order a different drink. I decided on a Hibiscus, White Tequila and Lime margarita

It tasted good, but it was pretty sweet and it just didn’t taste well with our food. Once I’d sipped it down 1/3 I asked our server if I could have a glass of club soda to water it down with to try to dilute the sweet. I just don’t like sweet!

When she realized I wasn’t 100% happy, she offered to get me a new drink to replace it. I felt bad, but I agreed and she was SUPER nice. Thanks, Mono Loco, for the excellent customer service!!

Can you guess which drink I returned to? Spice-a-rita. Not too sweet and perfectly mixed. I’m never not ordering this again!

Our table shared the nachos to start. Boy were they cheesy!

For tonight’s dinner I had a burrito-as-a-bowl with cod and crispy avocado. Crispy because I think the avocado was seared! It didn’t change the avocado much, but you just can’t go wrong with the delicious green cream.

I ate about 2/3 – also can’t go wrong with the Mono Loco burritos!

After dinner, we promenaded along the downtown mall. We contemplated Sweet Frog but we’d had so much to eat we all turned it down. Imagine that.

Time for bed!! In clean sheets!!

And speaking of bed, I’m on the market for a new mattress topper. We have a foam mattress and have had the same bunched-up, cheap foam pad on our bed for 6 years now. It’s got lumps where the sun don’t shine, and we could really use a new one. I’m thinking about a featherbed but I’m also thinking about a memory foam topper. Any recommendations!? I’m willing to spend more if something comes highly recommended.

I can get 15% off here PLUS 5% cash back through Ebates so I’m debating buying one there!

One more day off before Opening Week begins!!