Food Filled Fun - Post by Alex AND Amy

[Alex wrote some of the blog post this time :) ]

Real Valentine's Day was spent working long hours and hearing about Amy and Sunny move from KC. So, I decided to have a nice Valentine's Day dinner the Saturday after Amy got here. I wanted to take her downtown. I didn't tell her where we were going until we pulled into the parking lot of Ruth's Chris Steak House.

Since we had a reservation for two, we were sat in these huge private booths in the middle of the restaurant. 

We started off by ordering two very up-class glasses of wine that were recommended by the waiter. We ordered the Ruth Chris classic entree meal. It came with a salad, entree, family side, and a desert. They cook their steaks in a 1000 degree broiler. All they do to the meat is salt&pepper it to cook, and then garnish it with some melted butter and parsley on top. The highlights of the meal were OBVIOUSLY the steak for me. Amy really liked her pear and spinach salad with toasted walnuts in a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. All in all, it was one of the best meals that I've ever had. It was a great night.

 [ Alex has been working really late hours so I'm going to help him finish the post. :) ] 

Well Ruth's Chris was amazing. I told the waiter that it was the best steak that I had ever had and I really think it made his day. We had a bit of a language barrier but between the accents, I caught what he was getting at. ;)

We had a great time there. Talking about our year to come and what a great experience our California year would be!

So to cap off our weekend of delicious treats, Alex and Grear decided to check out one of the locally recommended spots. They kept hearing of this place called The Hat. So we took a Sunday drive and checked it out.

World Famous Pastrami sandwiches ....apparently...

And they were!!!!! 

 oh and I almost forgot to mention the fries with gravy on them...Yeah, it was a really healthy meal.

OMG they were huge!

The boys really like the sandwiches...so much that they had to finish 1/2 of me and Hannah's!! (Hannah is Grear's girlfriend)

 

All in all, a great weekend for FOOD and checking out the city. :)

Lots more fun weekends ahead. And no matter how many we have, I'll never get used to walking out of a fast food resturant and seeing mountains in the background. Unbelievable! 

We have a couple weekends to catch you all up on. So stay tuned this week. :)

MOVING!!! - Part II: The Couch Incident

I think I'm a professional mover at this point. If you are thinking that I'm disillusioned based on the previous post, you are sort of correct. But I'm talking about the logistics of it. There is a lot that has to be done for a move!

• throw out ugly clothes
• pack dishes that should retire to the college-aged sister
• cancel all utilities by waiting on the phone on hold FOREVER
• convince DirectTV that, yes, I really DO NOT want your service anymore...even if you DO give me a brand new car or whatever else you are offering.
• Lots of STUFF....

Well I never expected the Couch Incident:

Our company hired "professional movers" and while I am really thankful; the men that arrived in LA to unload my stuff were ...difficult.

Long story short: they couldn't get the couch in through the front door of the house. Being a former construction engineer, I suggested the optimal solution of the large window. The movers weren't in the mood to lift a couch up to the 2nd floor window but kindly offered to take my couch and put it in their house instead of charging me with $1000 in storage fees.

NO DEAL!!

So I told them to leave it in the hall of the apartment complex. "I'll cut the couch in half and bring it in myself!"  [jerks]....***So all my neighbors now knew, if they didn't know before...This girl is definitely from the midwest! Couch in the front yard and all! Sooo Classy! haha***

Well Alex got off work and talked me out of taking a saw-zaw to the center of my sofa. So we headed off to the company team building event to recruit some REAL "professional movers". We threw some bowling frames and after a two game collaborative total of 186, .....

I was ready to go do something I was good at....lifting couches??

This is the view from up in my apartment, out the window. Notice the couch bottom is a little exposed. I was SERIOUS about cutting it in half. I had already removed the linen along the bottom! It came in handy when we needed to tie the tag line to something. BIG YELLOW has taught us so well! Alex and Grear were doing some last minute safety discussions on proper lifting techniques. :) Meanwhile, Katie and I were taking a break and watching out the window...pretty standard union operation.

hahah, just kidding Holzer family!! :)

Okay: Work Plan:

1. Grear and Alex [Ground Crew] throw the tag line rope up to the girls [Sky Team]
2. Sky Team catches the rope after the 2nd try...eek
3. Ground crew lifts and pushes with all their might to get couch up to window elevation
4. Sky team pulls on rope and guides top of couch until a hold on couch is attainable
5. Sky team secures the hold and sends a verbal notification to the ground crew. [screams: "Oh my gosh, its so heavy....HURRY!"] 
6. Ground crew turns into just Grear on his tip toes solo, while Alex scales the 8 foot tall privacy masonry wall, enters the back of the apt complex, runs up stairs, runs in the front door of the apt and joins the sky crew for the heavy lifting portion. 
7. Lots of pulling, pushing, and yelling. 

(Look at those ladies carrying a couch!! I'm on the left and my new roomie in on the right...Meet Katie! :) )

We got that baby in the apartment! We considered sending these pics to the moving company. hehe 

(And if you haven't met him yet, Meet Alex's roomie, Grear!)

Thank you sooo much Alex, Grear, and Katie for helping me get my BEAST of a couch into the TINY LA apartment!! LA is officially our lo-cal. :) So move-ins are done and we are loving California.

We had so much fun this past weekend and want to update you on the wonderful SoCal weather and happenings in our next post. Missing all our friends and family back home!! See you all soon!