Catching up with the birthday girl!

Horrible travel issues aside, I finally made it to Denver around 4:30 yesterday, and was, I think, barely off the plane before hightailing it to the nearest McDonald's and indulging in an aptly-named Happy Meal, to tide me over until dinner, and keep my head from exploding. Consider this -- woke yesterday at 6:15, left for the airport at 7:30, boarded the plan at 8ish, sat on the plane, sat on the plane, sat on the plane, got off to grab two donuts and a blessed Diet Pepsi, got BACK on the plane, sat on the plane, sat on the plane, FINALLY pulled away from the gate around 1:30, with almost another hour (it seemed) before we took off, and the snack service started... which did NOT feature the delicious Frontier white chocolate chip cookie I love so well. No, it was muffins. Inedible muffins, to my taste. So yeah, by 6:30 my time, with only two donuts eaten hours before, I was ready to tackle the next person who waved edible food at me. Luckily, such was not necessary.

Got my bag, met Doyce outside (he was kind enough to pick me up, though our original plan had called for me to take a shuttle downtown to meet him at the office -- a plan shot mostly to hell by my delayed flight), and headed back through some icky weather to the Casa, confirming my arrival to all the need-to-know parties.

After a very happy birthday/Valentine's Day present exchange (Shiny!!), we changed and went downtown to dinner at Strings, for a set four course meal in a room bestooned with balloons. Bestooned with balloons, bestooned with balloons... I just like saying that.

I had champagne, a crab and shrimp "martini" appetizer, heart-shaped ravioli in a red wine and beet sauce, NY Strip Steak with fingerling potatoes, and creme brulee. Yum-MY! Doyce had a mushroom soup, faro spaghetti with lamb bolognese, really yummy pork chops, and cheesecake. So good!

I was practically napping on the drive back home, so we sacked out, delighted that despite the way the day started, it turned out to be a very good first Valentine's Day together.

Today, we're just puttering around the house and running some last-minute errands before heading up to SoDak this evening. Toodles!