Bowman West

The Upstairs

One of our greatest blessings here in Cville is our 'hood. Much like every other place I've lived, I stalk my neighbors daily and force them to be my friends. I've even developed a friendship with Lorel, who lives across the street, just so I can squeeze on her chubby baby Ella anytime I want (just kidding, Lorel -- kind of). Last week we swapped babysitting so Craig & Lorel could go out Friday night and Andy & I could go out Saturday night. Friday night when C & L came to pick Ella up after dinner the conversation went like this:

Craig: So, where are y'all going for Valentine's Day?

Andy (sitting on the bottom step of our staircase): The Upstairs

Craig (his face red and embarrassed): Ummm...

Lorel: NO Craig! The name of the restaurant is The Upstairs. It's in the upstairs part of a building downtown.

Craig: Oh gosh...I thought you were trying to make a joke!

Then we all laughed a lot.

Anyway, Valentine's Day started with a family snuggle in our bed. We gave Charlie two new books -- the kind that are about parents loving their kids and are so sappy that they make you want to cry just looking at the cover. We read those a few times and then Andy and I traded gifts. I gave him a new book -- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell -- and a new corkscrew. Random, I know, but he's been wanting them. He was thrilled. He gave me two new CDs -- Adele and Coldplay. I LOVE both of them!! You should run out and buy them right now.

After that things got really romantic. I threw on some clothes over my unshowered self and loaded up the car to go to the recycling center. I invited my boys to come along, thinking we might grab some lunch afterwards. As we were leaving the recycling center we decided to take a drive and listen to my new CDs...and since we were taking a drive, why not drive over the mountain to a town 30 miles away that happens to have the closest Sonic? I really loved the idea of a vanilla diet DP, so we went. We ended up at some random grill for lunch that was decked out with race car stuff and car video games. Charlie was in heaven. I got my DP fix and we headed home. We stopped at some lookout spots that we'd always "been meaning to" stop at. We got home, rested, got cleaned up, and walked Charlie across the street to head out to dinner. Charlie was absolutely perfect the entire day. It's funny how wonderful his behavior is when he has both of us all to himself and gets whatever he wants (or when he's with anyone else but us). Who knew!

So dinner...we made reservations for The Upstairs, this upscale steakhouse on the downtown pedestrian mall (a really cool place!). One of the unique things about Cville is that it cherishes it's local businesses. Even though this means that the local non-super Wal-Mart is a big pile of worthlessness, it also means that there are a lot of great local shops and restaurants, and a shocking number of upscale restaurants for the size of town. The Upstairs had a special Valentine's menu and a limited seating so that it was nice and intimate. The food was amazing! The filet was one of the best steaks I've had, second only to The Beehive in Albany, TX (can I getta AMEN?!). One of our favorite games during dinner was to count how many people called and came in trying to get a table only to be turned away because they were all booked. We counted eight in less than an hour. Seriously? It's 6:30 on Valentine's evening and you haven't made dinner plans? Come on -- your bad. One of the desserts involved some chocolate smeared on a plate. Andy tasted it and said he thought they put fish in it. I believe I correctly nailed the flavor as sage. I've never tasted chocolate with sage but I know how these fancy chefs like to get creative. We also had sweet potato soup with truffle oil (I could ingest a whole bottle of that stuff!), and watercress was used as a garnish for the steak dish. I only understood the menu because of my hours of "studying" the Food Network and Top Chef. Who says TV isn't educational??

This is a long post, but just a few more things...

Andy has a few conferences coming up in May. One is all-expense paid to Aspen, but when I informed him that I was of course going with him he shot me down. Rude. Really, I think he has to share a room with people and then there's the small matter of paying for my plane ticket, but still. He has a conference in Baltimore at the beginning of May so we'll probably tag along then, being that it's just three hours away. Speaking of trips, in a week we're flying to Texas for our friend's wedding, dropping Charlie with the cousins, then heading to Vegas for a week. We've never been to Vegas (I know!) so we're pretty excited. Andy was at a meeting the other day and struck up a conversation about the trip with one of the docs. The other doc asked if we wanted to stay at his apartment (his vacation place) on the 20th floor of Trump Towers overlooking the Strip. He rents it out when he's not there but he'd just charge us $60 a night for maid service and the resort fee. Ummm...$60 a night for a 5-star studio apartment?? Oh, ok. You twisted my arm. We've already got our lodgings worked out for a condo with our friends, but I'd gladly cook myself breakfast and lunch for a few meals in order to spend a night or two in Trump Towers. Good grief. How cool is that?! I hope it works out. I think I'll stay in bed, watch TV and sit by the pool the whole time. If there's a tub I'd sit in there for a while, too.

I've just recently started letting Charlie play with Play-Doh because he used to just eat it. He still tries to eat it but I usually catch him. Anyway, this is what he made the other day. He said it's a snake with eyes. If you say so, Charlie.

P.S. If you're reading this you obviously know that I've gone private with my blog. If you know of someone who wants access please tell them to email me at: bowman.edu@gmail.com