Ahh the peacefulness of being the first one awake in the morning and coming downstairs to not a sound in the house.  Not even the heat was blaring this morning as my feet touched the cold wood floor at the bottom of the stairs.  I went to bed at 9pm last night and because of that, I'm up at 7:15am, all on my own, no alarm clock.  My Saturday morning ritual has now come to include starting the laundry.  It's time to do laundry when my side of the bedroom is covered in clothes and I catch the cat licking the armpits of my shirts.  Yes I know he's gross.  Or I'm gross.  Regardless, Jasper likes deodorant.  I don't get it.  

Thursday night Ryan & I went to dinner with Sarah & Joe.  Unfortunately, I only get to see Sarah about once a quarter.  I'd like to see more of her, but being a grown up just gets in the way.  We met at a new restaurant in Maple Grove called Pittsburgh Blue.  Amazing.  Loved it.  I highly recommend this eatery!  It's expensive, but very much worth it.  Hearing the server talk about the steaks reminded me of watching the Food Network.  He gave a 15 minute dissertation about the food and the history behind the restaurant.  It was quite interesting.  The owners of Blue are the same people that created Manny's and Oceanaire.  And if you've been to either of those establishments, then you know the service and quality of food I'm speaking about at Blue.  The server went on to say that the creator of Blue melded the two menus of Manny's & Oceanaire together; taking the best of the best and bring it out to the suburbs.  The restaurant specializes in steaks, chops, seafood, and in my opinion desserts, although we did not order any desserts. We all know I love blue drinks, just something about the blue curacao that does it for me, so I of course ordered a Pittsburgh Blue Cosmo; citron, lemon juice, cointreau, & blue curacao.  YUMMY.  Best part ... the drink was served bubbling!  The cocktail was poured over dry ice.  It made me nervous drinking it and the boys played off my nerves by telling me all these horrible things that could happen to me if I drank it.  It was damn good.  :)  We started dinner with a steakhouse wedge that was seriously the entire head of lettuce, huge!  Big, thick tomatoes that were peppered just right and so tasty.  For dinner I had the petite filet and coconut shrimp.  The filet was wrapped with applewood smoked bacon and I ordered a side of peppercorn sauce.  YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY.  The sides are family style and we all shared the mashed potatoes that had apple wood smoke bacon, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and scallions.  They were awesome.  Not healthy, but again damn good.   Earlier I mentioned that I thought they also specialized in desserts.  They have this dessert, Banana Split Your Pants that is served in an oversized 3 foot tall martini glass, it's a table sized dessert.  After it's be placed on the table, the server drizzles carmel and hot fudge over it.  I just drooled watching the table next to ours.  If the price of the entrees makes you a little hesitant to go to this restaurant, then I recommend going for drinks and dessert.  The atmosphere is very nice.  Classy.  Warm.  Not stuffy at all.  We were in jeans.  Ryan thought the servers looked like lab technicians as their uniforms were very lab like.  The best part ... instead of mints as you leave the restaurant, they had candy canes!  :)

Ryan showed me how to put tracker on my blog so I can see who visits.  For the most part I know who the visitors are and I get excited when I look (I'm obsessed with the tracker) and see that Ryan's mom, sister, or Aunt have viewed my page.  However, there is one visitor that I'm not quite sure who it is.  I asked Ryan if it would be dumb if I mentioned it on the blog and he said no.  So, if this information sounds like you, can you please comment so I know who it is?  Your ISP is through Qwest, you live in Minneapolis (or work), you're using Windows, and browsing the internet with Firefox.  If this is you, please comment!  :)  He he.

My laundry is in the dryer.  I'm going to run to Starbucks to get Ryan & I some coffee!

Tomorrow, we get to see Keegan's Christmas recital!  I'm super excited for that.  I can't wait to take pictures of all the little kids.  How cute.  And when Keegan's done, I bet he looks so proud.  I love his proud look.  It's so neat.