Birthday Weekend Continued

So, a lot went on this weekend.

According to my previous post, I should be telling you now how cute and funny the alpaca were on Saturday afternoon. It turns out Matt and I couldn't go because there are degenerate jerks in this world. I will explain.

Mouse and Dave came down to Albuquerque to meet us for lunch before we headed out to the farms. It was decided that we would go in Matt's car since all of his seatbelts work and since Mouse and Dave had already driven a lot. We were walking towards the car and noticed a car in our lot had a smashed window. Then we walked over to the lot where Matt's car was parked, and several more cars had smashed windows. There was a particularly large pile of glass next to Matt's car.

During the night, around 3am, someone had broken into at least seven cars at my apartment complex, including Matt's. The poor guy parked next to Matt had two broken windows, front and back. So not only was this criminal (criminals?) evil, they were also too lazy to unlock the car once they had broken the glass to get to the back seat. Nothing was stolen from Matt's car, since there wasn't anything in there to steal. But they sure made a mess. My car didn't get broken into, and the only reason I can think as to why is because I have an alarm. So, what we should do is install a tiny blinking red light on the dashboard of Matt's car. Problem solved.

By the time we got back from lunch, and got all the mess sorted out (we sent Mouse and Dave on ahead to the farms) we missed out on the alpacas. Matt is getting his window fixed today, since nothing was open after noon on Saturday. Oddly enough, I think we handled the whole thing (psychologically) very well. Had it been my car, I don't know how I would have reacted.

Saturday evening proved to be much better: I had my wine and dessert party. This is the first time we've had company over, and it was really nice having a living room full of people playing games, eating food, and enjoying ourselves. The list of guests included: Mouse, Dave, Alyssa, Meghan, Claire, and Virginia. It was also great to get the living room, kitchen, and bathroom cleaned. That part of the apartment looks pretty good now.

Sunday had even more surprises in store for me. Matt had been saying for a few days not to plan anything around lunch time on Sunday. That's because he had reservations at a ranch to go horseback riding! I haven't been on a horse in two years, and I used to ride when I was a little girl. I had a really pretty horse, too, her name was Lady. Matt's horse was named Blue. In addition to the ride, they had us tack the horse. The trail ride went down to the Rio Grande, where we had our picture taken.

So all in all, it was a very lovely birthday weekend. It was nice to have company and get cards and well wishes from family and friends. Then Matt made it extra special.

Birthday Recap

Yesterday was my birthday, and I'm happy to say I've had two excellent birthdays in a row. Last year's toga party was fun, but this year I opted for something more relaxed. Yesterday evening Matt took me out to a really nice restaurant, the Artichoke Cafe. I got dressed up, and wore this sweater dress that I've had for a while and not had the opportunity to wear it. Matt got me this cool bracelet I was checking out last week in Old Town, which also matched my dress. I almost bought it then, but I'm glad he got it for me. It's so neat, it's made from tagua nuts, and has sort of the look and feel of ivory but it's from a plant! It's a chunky bracelet, and I don't usually wear anything around my wrists, but I've decided I'm going to try to accessorize more.

For dinner I had the pan roasted duck breast over edamame jasmine rice with snap peas and baby carrots with a soy apricot reduction. A side car as my celebratory drink. This place also does flights of different alcohols, so we shared a flight of three different styles of tequila. Matt got the squash ravioli in sage butter sauce, he let me have a taste and it was also really good. I almost got that, but whenever it's a special occasion, I seem to always get duck because I don't have the will to make it myself and I love it. For dessert we split a chocolate orange pot de creme, that had little slices of candied orange peel and a little cookie as a garnish. Itw as the best dinner I've had in a long time. Everything was so delicious, and so pretty.

Afterward we went to the Chama River Brewing Company to meet up with some of my classmates, and I had a beer, and Fred bought me more dessert! It was dulce de leche something-er-other ice cream with chocolate and caramel and pinon nuts in a chocolate bowl. I also got to meet her special friend, John, who was visiting from Oregon.

Today we are going out for a bit with Mouse and Dave to some alpaca farms that are having open houses, but I also need to find some time to clean the apartment a bit because I'm having a wine and dessert party tonight. I invited the girls from my incoming class over, and it should be a good time. I'll have a pretty full apartment, because my place isn't that big, but we'll make it work.

Time to go clean house!