Dinner with Fred, lunch with Stephanie, etc.

Whew! We sure have been doing a lot of eating out while we've been in Denver, and it's all been excellent. One of the best new things about Colorado is the fact that, as of July 1, 2006 all restaurants are smoke-free! I might not like this if I was still a smoker (quit June 10, 1998), but as a non-smoker, it's wonderful. Maybe because I was a smoker I'm more sensitive, but it'd be a tough choice between sitting next to a screaming kid or a smoker.

Anyway, we've been so busy looking at houses, we haven't had time to do much else because we're so tired at the end of each day. But we finally had a couple of days off and called up my Uncle Fred, who's living in Denver, working for Crickett cell phone company. I found a restaurant in Lodo (lower downtown, the hip & cool area of Denver) that was actualy reasonable and sounded good, named Venice Ristorante. During their happy hour (5-7pm. & 9-close), they have a happy hour menu with small plates that are each $3, and glasses of wine at $5. We each had 2 glasses of wine, split 2 orders of an appetizer, salad, and a pasta dish. It was very good.

Yesterday I took Stephanie, from Maverick Ranch out for her first real sushi meal. I got to know Stephanie when she came to Michigan for the D&W (a grocery chain in Grand Rapids) Food & Wine show in Grand Rapids. Rich & I had gone when he worked for another beef company, and we'd also been a few times with Maverick. Usually Rich hands out samples, while I wander around eating and getting drunk. The time that Stephanie came, we had a blast together & have kept in touch ever since. When we came to Denver in June, Maverick put on a fabulous dinner where they served Rocky Mountain Oysters as an appetizer. Stephanie encouraged me to try some. I agreed as long as she agreed to have sushi the next time I was in Denver. She'd had sushi before, but only the cooked stuff. So yesterday I picked her up and off we went for raw fish! We had sweet shrimp, eel, tuna, salmon, a spicey tuna roll, a california roll. Stephanie ate everything except the tuna and sweet shrimp. We had a great time and I learned all about team roping.

This morning Rich left around 8:30 to meet with his boss, Charlie for breakfast to discuss more details about his job. It's now 11:30 and I'm going a little stir-crazy without a car.

-Laura