Olympic Cheesecake

First of all, I want it to be known that I had an awesome weekend. It was peaceful, fun, relaxing, and just overall very enjoyable. I worked as normal on Friday night and had a good evening at the restaurant. Kinda slow, which was fine with me since I was still getting over my week of sickness. Then Joy came to Regina's towards the end of my shift and we sat there and talked for a bit as we watched the end of the opening ceremony. Gotta love Pavoratti.

Saturday mornings are probably the highlight of every week for Joy and me. We sleep in, get a real breakfast (she made eggs), and this week we went out for all sorts of Saturday errends. We dropped the car off for an oil change and check-up (they always find a ridiculous amount of things they say need fixed and I never fix any of them) and then went to Starbucks to pick up maid-of-honour Julie at the end of her shift. With my iced grande soy Tazo chai in hand, we went to Panara to check our e-mail (Joy and I don't have internet) and literally we just about ran into with a runaway shopping cart. Well, the woman behind the madness was none other than Gale Wightman, so of course we loved talking to her for a few minutes. Then Joy and I went to the bank (a deposit, not a withdrawal!!!) and then ordered our last dresser to finish our bedroom set and went home for an afternoon of relaxation.

Saturday afternoon was fantastic. Relaxation and lounging on the couch, books a nice distance away. I made some hot tea and turned on the T.V. to watch the Olympics. Now, as I wrote in my last entry, I'm not Mr. Sports, but I really do always get quite excited about the Olympics. I love the intense competition, love seeing the different countries, and especially love thinking about what it must be like to stand on that platform with gold around your neck while you look out over your rising flag at the thousands of people and listen to your national anthem getting played for all to hear. Honestly, sometimes it gives me straight up chills.

Well, most of you are probably aware of my two of my favourite days in recent years: skiing in Colorado last year. (See my March 17 and 19, 2005 entries for more details.) Well, I've been mildly obsessed with skiing since then, but haven't actually gone any this year. So I have been watching these Olympic skiers with piqued interest. In short, I want to be them. Yes, I know I'm not going to be in the Olympics and will never be close to their level, but I want to ski. I actually couldn't sleep last night because I envisioned myself going down the run over and over again. Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.

Back to my weekend. We were hanging out on Saturday and later we decided to begin the process of doing our taxes. Neither of us have done taxes before, so we get the pleasure of learning about all of this stuff together, and goodness do we have some questions. Right when we needed a break, there was a knock on the door. Of course, our Italian neighbors were standing there and they invited us over for dinner. We went over, had some great pasta and then played with the kids and looked at pictures and even got some serious Italian practice in. Then it was back home after a few hours for more Olympics, a few episodes of Friends, and then a nice long night of sleep.

Sunday brought new excitement. One of the high schoolers in my small group gave his testimony for the high school group, so that was way cool. Then out to dinner with Joy's parents before a Sunday afternoon of coffee and more Olympics. Alice came over to do wedding stuff and that was fun, but towards the end Joy began to literally obsess about cheesecake. Now, Joy and I have a pretty rigid budget going that we are really trying to stick to, and there is no fund for spur-of-the-moment desserts. After about two hours of begging, I finally caved and off we went in search of the world's greatest cheesecake. Well, we settled at the Cheesecake Factory for some oreo/chocolate piece that was really glorious and then went home for dinner (I've discovered Joy can make the most delicious grilled turkey and Swiss sandwiches) and more Olympics, a little reading, and then we finished the night with our cheesecake.

Like I said, it was a pretty fantastic weekend. Thanks for remembering it with me on this early, cold Monday morning.