Weekend Catchup: Second Breakfast

I had a very Hobbity sort of weekend.

I hadn't really figured out it was Hobbity until I read an awesome post by Mrs. Dandy this morning!

She & her new hubby are on their honeymoon in New Zealand (I know, RIGHT?!), and while I have been enjoying ALL of her posts (and living vicariously through them), this was definitely my favorite.

Because I'm a nerd.

And guess what SHE heard on the tour? The Hobbit is not only being made, they've got set bits coming together and everything. I squeed so hard I nearly cracked a glass.

(See comment about me = nerd.)

I told her I think the release of that film will definitely have to include a trip to San Francisco to meet for real and stuff. It's a good goal. C'mon Peter Jackson, get crackin'!


Dandy & B, being hobbits. They are so cute.

As I mentioned, reading her post made me realize that my weekend was very very Hobbity, and it was just what I needed.

I didn't even get dressed Saturday. I sat around in my PJ pants and a sweatshirt. I read books and watched movies with The Kid. It was blissfully lazy.

Sunday morning was about as relaxed, although I did manage to get dressed and leave the house for a few hours to hang with TR and deliver a gift for a friend's birthday party I can't attend - a Red Sox Mr. Potato Head. It's funny!

Being that it was lunchtime, we headed to a place I hadn't been before (there are so many)...

Steubens.



Those white chairs? Total comfort. They rock a little bit, are padded to within an inch of their lives, and I could sit in them and drink their sweet tea all afternoon. The decor is very 70's high-end comfort - padded stools, lots of brown, but none of it tacky. It's what you wanted your rec room to look like, if you weren't a fashion victim. (Lileks would love it.)

I had their Cubano sandwich, which oh my goodness. Delicious home-made pulled pork, grilled ham, and this limey garlicky sauce (plus pickles, which just kind of make the whole thing) on wonderful bread and extra sauce on the side. There was no way to eat this prettily, so I just kinda dug in.

TR had something similar, only more unusual... a Cuban Eggs Benedict, which is your regular Eggs Benedict, but with the eggs & hollandaise layered over the pulled pork and ham and a pesto-like sauce (instead of pickles, which was good, because I heart pickles (much to TR's grossout) but they have no business near eggs), all on top of the requisite english muffin. It looked delicious, and they didn't skimp... he couldn't finish it!

We topped that off with gravy fries. Hand-cut fries, some sort of delicious cheese, and some equally awesome creamy gravy. The Poutine we had at Mead St. Station a couple of weeks ago was good, but these knocked that right off the map.

I should really take a page from Mrs. Dandy and start bringing my camera to these places.

This was not a diet meal in any way, but I think I deserve some sort of credit for resisting the Butterscotch pudding with sugar wafers. It took effort!

Well okay, it took assurance that we would return another time. I'm only human.

As we were driving back after lunch, we passed St. John's, a stunning cathedral in the middle of Denver. I had always wanted to see inside it but never had. I feel awkward walking into a church that isn't familiar without a valid reason, but it so happens that this is TR's very own church, which he's attended most of his life**, so he felt totally comfortable going inside.

I love cathedrals. Having grown up Catholic, I find them very comforting with all their woodwork and hidden doors and cool stone and organ pipes and stained glass and amazing quiet - there's something about how the light comes through leaded glass that enchants me, and St. John's has some truly stunning pieces. Also, being a proper cathedral, it's got those flying buttresses that always fascinate me. I wish my neck hadn't been hurting so much (I yoinked something earlier in the week), I would have liked to see a little more of them.

Walking around in the cathedral and the adjoining buildings was like being back in St. Margaret Mary's and St. Scholastica (my grade and high schools for my Catholic school years). There's just something about them...

It's hard to describe.

It was what I was looking for this Christmas when I went to Midnight Mass; I wanted to touch base with my childhood and reconnect with the familiarity and traditions I had been missing, and that my Kid hadn't ever experienced but had heard me talk about. The modernity of the church we found just didn't give me that, although it might sound strange - I need the added sensory connections, I guess. (No offense to them of course, it was still a lovely service.)

(** I didn't know going in that St. John's had been so influential for TR. I knew he'd gone there, that within those walls some really intense moments had occurred, but not that so much of his formative years had been spent there, and happily so. I felt priveledged that he shared a few of those memories with me.)

After our tour we headed back to TR's to play with his awesome cats and talk of model airplanes and such, and then it was back home for me! The Kid required feeding.

Speaking of She, it should be noted that we are in active planning for her FOURTEENTH BIRTHDAY PARTY. I will be up to my ears in teen girls. Thanks goodness for Wii, and wish me luck!

Happy Monday!