mendel

I really haven't had the energy to post lots about personal stuff lately, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, and I put off too long an important one from a week ago, when nyxie and I celebrated our first anniversary!

We'd given each other presents earlier in the week because we are dorks who cannot wait until The Day (which was June 18, incidentally). nyxie gave me a bottle of Aberlour a'Bunadh single malt Scotch, a cask-strength special bottling of Aberlour which I've been wanting to try since halfjack started taunting me with it months ago. I gave her a bike, because, well, she didn't have a bike and wanted one (a Trek 7100 for the bike geeks in the audience). We also bought a new bedroom suite (the bed, end tables and dresser visible here) and mattress, but that had been in the works for a while now.

We went out to the Urban Pear, one of our favorite local restaurants. No-one writes decent restaurant reviews here, or else I'd point to one. The Pear has a new menu daily based on what fresh local ingredients the chef decided to work with that day—five appetizers, five entrees, five desserts. I had a chilled pear soup with wine jelly, beef tenderloin in red wine broth with a baby potato, radish and pork salad, and a lemon-ricotta bread pudding with sour cream ice cream; nyxie started with an antipasto of roasted garlic, pear, chilied kalamata olives and Canadian "Brie", snapper on a bed of beets and black sticky rice, and a dark chocolate tart. The restaurant was having air-conditioning problems but it was still an excellent time.

It's hard to believe it's already been a year. I am a very happy mendel and still head over heels about my sweetie. :-)