Weekends come and go so quickly these days that when I wait til Monday night to recap, it seems like very old news already! Oh well … better late than never.
My weekends have been pretty quiet the past month or so, so I was glad that this one was to be filled with activity. I didn’t get outside, so you’ll either have to do with an exciting (ok, for me anyway), indoor kind of post, or no post at all. An exciting indoor post, you say? Well alright then!
Balzac/My big surprise
Friday night, Christi and Amanda and I went out for dinner at Balzac, a new-ish small-plate-dining restaurant and wine bar on the East Side. Amanda had come straight to my house from Minnesota – she was home for the weekend for our friend’s bridal shower, which she was hosting. She brought with her the bridesmaid dresses for my wedding, which just came in last week. Seeing her and the dresses started the night out wonderfully – they’re beautiful! (I’ll put a few pics in the extended part of the post – leave it up to you if you’d like to take a peek.)
We went to Christi’s house, visited a while, and then walked over to Balzac for our 8:00 reservation. We hung up our coats and were led to our table. The restaurant was dim and not overly crowded – I figured that was because people were out eating corned beef for St. Patty’s Day – but when we left a couple hours later, it was much busier.
I went first and went to the far side of our table, which was set for three. I watched as Christi and Amanda sat on the other side, and all I could think was, why is Christi sitting at that place when the setting is on this side? They were both just staring at me as I sat down, and then I thought – a bit annoyed, well, I can’t see them very well over this huge centerpiece in the middle of the table.
Okaaaaaay … I took a look around just then and noticed that none of the other tables had centerpieces on them. When I actually saw what it was, I realized it wasn’t a centerpiece at all but a huge margarita glass filled with beautiful flowers! I looked up at them like what the … ? Then I saw a box with my name on it. Now I was even more confused. And excited. I think I said, “Guys, my birthday was months ago …”
They just had huge smiles on their faces and Amanda had her camera out, ready to snap my reaction. 
Well, I opened it up and ... it was an invitation to a girls’ weekend in VEGAS for my bachelorette party!! I just couldn’t believe it. I’ve never had a surprise party thrown for me or anything, this was just so huge, and so sweet … I was just blown away. I got a little teary-eyed and walked around and hugged them, and then we spent the next good hour discussing our travel plans and other wedding-related logistics. We toasted over peach/champagne martinis and it was so incredibly fun. (Close-up pics of the awesome invitation are at the end of the post, too) 
I’m going to Vegas, baby! The original plan was to invite a bunch of other people, but after Christi and Amanda spoke to a few, they realized that people just don’t have that kind of money, and that’s completely understandable. So the three of us are just going to go, from a Thursday to a Sunday at the end of September. I sure am a lucky lady!
As for our dinner, it was wonderful. The staff at Balzac was incredibly nice, and we got great service there the entire night. Aside from two menu items we didn’t really care for, the food was delicious. We ordered a couple of appetizers first – some French bread with whipped herb butter and marinated artichokes. Then for the main course, we shared firecracker shrimp, baked brie, seared scallops and manchego brulee. For dessert, we had strawberry shortcake and chocolate mousse cake.
The marinated artichokes for an appetizer weren’t what we were expecting – they were served cold and they were quite bitter. I suppose the “balsamic” part should have told us how vinegary they’d be, but oh well. The entrées were all amazing, especially the brie (one of my favorite foods) and the shrimp. And the squash puree and spinach served with the scallops was incredibly rich and awesome, too. The only other thing we didn’t really care for was the strawberry shortcake. The cake part wasn’t really cake – it was more like a hard muffin top. Good thing we had chocolate in front of us.
Since the name Balzac made us giggle every time we said it, and since we had the normal reaction of why would anyone name their restaurant Balzac? we asked our waitress what it meant. She informed us that Balzac was a French philosopher. Ahhh ... indeed he was.
Our bill there got to be pretty high, but I guess that’s what you get when you order three martinis a piece at $11 a pop. But hey, I hadn’t been out to eat in a month – I figured I could splurge a bit.
I really enjoyed Balzac – and not just because of my great surprise! The mood was relaxed and the food was awesome. I’ll surely be back.
St. Patty’s
The night ended at Buckhead Saloon – I didn’t really want to go out after dinner at all, but Christi convinced me. Downtown was just crawling with people, all decked out in their green hats and beads, getting drunk on green beer. I think getting all excited to go out drinking just because it’s St. Patty’s Day is kind of lame, but I ended up having a good time. We danced and visited with some other friends who were there and then Dave showed up and we hung out a bit before going home around 2:00. I enjoy Buckhead a lot – it’s spacious and they always have good live music – but I can do without all the St. Patty’s Day drunken fools!
A Passion Party / Bridal Shower
Saturday night was my friend, Heather’s, bridal shower. (one of them anyway - the one for her gal pals!) Christi and I drove to Union Grove where it was being held and settled in for a night of wine and food and girl talk. Ah, but first – the Passion Party.
Figuring (correctly) that playing games at showers is the worst part about them, Amanda decided to host a Passion Party instead. Have you ever been to one? It’s like a Tupperware party, only it isn’t Tupperware that’s being sold! I had heard of them but never attended one – and I was excited, but also didn’t really know what to expect.
Well, it was a RIOT.
The consultant, Amy, arrived around the same time the other guests did – there were eight of us, a nice intimate number – and started setting up her goodies. She spent the next hour and a half demonstrating and passing around the items for sale. (If this were my own personal blog, I’d go into all kinds of fun details but alas, I can’t do that! Hmmmm ... I can send you over to Amanda's blog though!)
It was such a blast – we all laughed and laughed, and even got to try a few things out that I never thought we’d be able to try! We played a game that involved shouting out words for different letters of the alphabet – guess who won? Ha! I got myself a little prize for that.
I came to the party thinking, ok, you’re not buying anything. You don’t have the money right now. Do you think I listened to that little voice though? Of course not! 
Once everyone placed their orders, we bid Amy farewell, Heather opened her gifts, and we spent the rest of the night – til around 1:00 a.m. – drinking wine and talking. It was such a nice evening. And I’ll be reminded of that fun evening again in a few weeks when my purchases arrive!
After two late nights and not nearly enough sleep, I just didn’t have it in me to get outside and be active yesterday. So instead I had a lazy Sunday – read the paper, went grocery shopping, ate, watched some TV – ahhh, my favorite day of the week.
Other updates
Tonight, Dave and I had dance class #7. We actually played hooky last week, so it was extra fun tonight since I hadn’t been in two weeks! I made the mistake last Monday of telling Dave, “I’m pretty tired, it’s an icky day, I’m not that excited about dance class tonight.” Well, he jumped all over that and convinced me that we should skip that week. Such a punk. But tonight was great - I can’t believe it’s our last one already next week! I'll recap the whole experience once we're through with class next week.
Today was the first day of spring. It sure didn't feel like it, but we're gettin there.
That's all my updates for tonight! If you'd like to, click below for a little more...
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Here is the amazing invitation the girls had made. And the bridesmaid dresses! These pics don't really show how lovely they are, but oh well. And they're huge on the girls right now. (The one I tried on was for Dave's lil sis - snug on me equals big on her! The top was too big, though - hence my arm over my head.) I wish I could post pictures of MY dress on here … I'll just have contain myself til after October! 
So that's that … it was a fantastic weekend.
I'll be back soon. – Happy First Day of Spring!
what a great weekend - and what a GREAT gift from your nice bridesmaids! how fun and exciting!
Posted by: kelly | March 20, 2006 at 09:12 PM
Hey, great recap of the weekend and nice pics! They look familiar... just kidding of course. I'm glad that you are so excited about Vegas - I promise that it'll be a weekend to never forget!
Posted by: Amanda | March 21, 2006 at 09:39 AM
Vegas baby, Vegas! That's where my bachelor party was..it was a blast! Sounds like you have some great friends. Glad to hear your weekend went so well.
Posted by: Derek | March 21, 2006 at 09:55 AM
Horray for Vegas!! Had a blast this weekend!! I'm so happy that you FINALLY know about Vegas. It's been long enough! =)
Posted by: Christi | March 21, 2006 at 10:33 AM
It was such a great party!! I hope you have a party around here, too, so we can celebrate with you!! Love you! Hope you had a great time!
Posted by: heather | March 21, 2006 at 05:41 PM