What a fun weekend!  

On Friday night, Ryan and I went on a dinner date.  We went to Jimmy’s Food and Cocktails in Minnetonka.  Both Ryan and I had never been there before and we were excited to eat some good food and have cocktails.  The ambiance of the restaurant is nice.  It's a step up from casual dinning, although many were dressed in sweatshirts and a couple even in hats.  They have a pretty bumping bar, but the restaurant when we got there at 6:30 p.m. wasn't very busy at all.  Around 7 p.m. the place started to fill up.  From the look of the customers, Jimmy's appeals to all ages.  We were excited by the menu ... steaks, pastas, seafood.  It had been a while since Ryan and I had treated ourselves to a nice dinner like this, so we were a little overwhelmed.  Thanks to the $100 handshake from the owner of my company, we were able to have dinner on him and decided to splurge.  We made the mistake of telling our server that it was our first time to Jimmy's.  You might be asking, why did they offer this information?  We didn't.  We merely answered yes to her question.  Because of that we were then explained the menu for what seemed like the next 15 minutes (although, I'm sure it was less than 5).  It's very uncomfortable when you're sitting at a table and the server is standing over you explaining in great detail the dishes.  What is etiquette?  To make direct eye contact with the server and fake enthusiastic interest?  Review your menu to see if you can follow along?  Look at other customers?  Look at others in your party?  Make her stop?  I tend to do a combination of enthusiastic interest, review of menu, look at what others are eating and see how others in my group are responding.  She sold me on the lump crab cake and emphasized that they were known for their steaks and that's pretty much all I got out of it.  As mentioned above we were looking forward to cocktails, after all, cocktails is in the name of the restaurant so we figured they'd have pretty good ones.  I was disappointed when we were seated and were not given a cocktail menu, I thought they must not have one and that was incredibly ironic.  After the server tried to take our drink order and us clearly not knowing what we wanted, she offered the cocktail menu to us.  After review of the menu, I of course ordered a blue martin - Lava Lamp (blue curacao and some other fruity juices).  I was hoping that it would come with the shaker like Jensen's, but it did not.  However, it was yummy delicious and even had a cherry in it!  I had two of them and enjoyed them very very much.  Ryan had Fat Tire.  It looked a little light in color to be Fat Tire, but he said it tasted right.  We didn't order any appetizers instead we went straight to the entrees.  I had a 7 oz center cut filet mignon with lump crab cake, Hope butter mashed potatoes and asparagus.  Ryan had an 18 oz. dry aged bone-in ribeye also served with Hope butter mashed potatoes and asparagus.  According to their menu the beef is cooked at 1600 degrees to seal in all the juices and flavor.  I'm not sold on the 1600 degrees to seal in the juices.  I ordered mine medium (next time I will order medium rare) and found the meat a little tough.  Definitely no comparison to Manny's Steakhouse or Murray's that's for sure!  It was good though.  I had high expectations and was expecting the filet to cut like soft butter and melt in my mouth which it did not.  I think Ryan described it perfectly ... "It tastes no better than if my mom were to buy really good beef from the grocery store and cook them at home."  Our meals also weren't served with a lot of flare ... really simple, which was alright with us.  After dinner we pigged out on a brownie sundae served with homemade hot fudge, carmel, nuts and Sebastian Joe vanilla ice cream.  YUMMY.  It was a nice ending to our meal.  I enjoyed my time with Ryan and liked having a leisurely dinner (2 hours).  I would for sure go back to Jimmy's again and try other dishes and would recommend a steak, just don't have high expectations and you will be pleasantly surprised. 

Saturday morning I woke Ryan up early because I needed him to run errands with me and help finish our Christmas shopping.  I don't think he was too happy with me when I woke him at 8:00 a.m., but he quickly got over it!  It was already snowing to beat the band and I was excited to drive in the fresh powder.  It was very peaceful driving in the snow.  Then Ryan reminded me it was peaceful because no one else was on the rode.  Then I got super excited and hoped Target wouldn't be a zoo!  We first made a pit stop at Burger King for breakfast.  I'm not a huge fan of BK Breakfast, but the croissant sandwich was yummy.  While on my way to the drive through, I turned to what I thought was a lane to start the drive through, however because of all the snow I couldn't see what I was really driving over ... a median.  That's right, we did a little off-roading to get to the drive through.  While I was super embarrassed, I was also very thankful that my car didn't get stuck.  And even more thankful that the snow continued to come down and hopefully cover up my idiot tire marks.  Anyway, It was fun to go shopping with Ryan.  After many stores, we completed most of the shopping.  We even walked into Target and purchased a Wii (for my mom and dad ... not a Christmas gift, they will pay us back). Target had like 8 of them. I kept saying, making a fool out of myself, "Are these real? Why are there so many of them? Ryan, are these real?" Yeah I'm a dork. Afterwards, we went shopping to get Ryan some shoes.  He ended up getting a nice pair of Merrell Somato™ lace up shoes. They're nice shoes that are not super dressy and casual enough to wear everyday in the winter. Usually shopping for shoes with Ryan takes a while, but that wasn't the case on Saturday. The Merrell's were the first pair he tried on. When we finally got home, we caught up on some TV and then shoveled the half of foot of snow that had accumulated on our driveway. I shoveled the walk way, steps, in front of the garage and end of driveway by the street while Ryan did the rest. Who needs a snow blower when you have a huge shovel like the one our previous owners left us? It rocks ... well only if there isn't packed down snow on the driveway. Ryan did a fantastic job. He does it so quickly and does such a thorough job, it's awesome. Thank you!

Saturday night we went over and watched Berry's daughter while they went on a movie date. Gwen is so cute. I had so much fun playing with her. She's smart and has such a fun personality. I only wish that we could have played with her more. Maybe they'll go out to dinner and to a movie and let us watch her! :) The only thing that broke our heart was when I put her down to bed after reading books. We could hear her crying for us. She used our names, "Meghan come in ..... Meghan come in ..... Ryan come in .... Ryan come in ..." It didn't last long at all, but it still made us sad. How do parents do it? The night was very fun. It was a lot of fun being able to play with Gwen. Thank you Berry!

And now today! Laundry. Hooray. Clean clothes for our trip to Savannah. Although, it's kind of funny, the clothes I'm washing (with the exception of undergarments) will probably not be packed to go to Georgia being that it's 80 degrees there. Oh well, they'll be cleaned for when we get home. Today, I'm hoping to wrap a couple gifts and finish up some shopping. I'm looking forward to the Vikings game! And now I'm off to Starbucks to get a White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha ... YUM, never had one before yesterday and now I'm craving it!