Last Friday Dallas and some friends went to check out Emporium Arcade Bar, but it was super packed, he said. Trevor mistakenly bought $20 worth of tokens (you put in the machine instead of quarters, though they still only cost a quarter), but Dallas only needed one. He put one token in the Street Fighter 2 and then beat every person who walked up to challenge him. After a while he just gave up!
We went back to Emporium Arcade on Sunday to check it out and it was not packed at all. During the day the bar was bright and pretty. Lots of nice wood. The arcade games line the walls and there was plenty of seating for our small group. Trevor had given us his $20 worth of tokens, so we had plenty of gameplay. I checked out Double Dragon, Rampage, and of course Tetris. I remembered all of these from when I was young. Dallas played a bit of Street Fighter 2, but was disappointed that there was no one there to challenge him! He was up for some more butt kicking.
The arcade doesn’t have a kitchen, but you can bring in whatever you want. One of Dallas’s friends showed up with tacos and said he got them two doors down. I assumed it was some old taqueria, but when I headed over, the “taqueria” was Antique Taco, a new restaurant I’d read about that had just opened a month or so ago. So, yay. I got to try two new things in one day, and both of them were great.
Cocktail hour aperitivo: Chips, salsa, and guacamole.
Adam and Andy
Brett and Kelly with coconut drinks.
Brett and her coconut!
Even Dallas had one.
I noticed that the wedding photographer was taking shots of the wedding party on the pier at sunset. Beautiful!
Trevor and all his friends! Just kidding! He stepped away to smoke and take in the sunset.
Soon, everyone joined to watch the sun set.
The dinner setting was gorgeous during the sunset.
Table #5, Couple #1: Kate and Trevor
Table #5, Couple #2: Mitch and Emily
Table #5, Couple #3: Dallas and Rachelle
Table #5, Couple #4: Damian and Vanessa
The photo slideshow that friends put together. The photo showing is of ziplining in Hawaii on our wedding trip!
Surprise! Guy on stilts with a live marionette puppet!
We followed them down to the beach.
Fire dance!
Brian and Sara’s first dance as a married couple.
Everyone rushing the dancefloor!
Brian busting out some Michael Jackson moves. He also did his signature move, the worm.
“…. now I had…. the time of my life… ” (Josh and Kelly)
“…. I put my hands up, they’re playing my song….. “
It’s a Party in the USA Mexico
Mike and Todd
Josh and Dallas (and their horrible dance moves).
Mike, Todd, Josh, Dallas
Kelly and Vanessa
After Brian and Sara’s wedding ceremony, we all went back up to the palapa where a mariachi band was playing. On the boat I said something like I’d hoped there would be mariachi, so I was extra excited about this! The band played for the cocktail hour, where we chowed on salsa, guacamole, chips, and many, many fruity drinks. On this trip the Miami Vice had been the most favorited fruity drink, but during the cocktail hour the favorite was definitely the drink in the freshly chopped coconut!
For dinner we headed up to the upper palapa. Dallas and I were at Table #5 with Damian, Vanessa, Trevor, Kate, Mitch and Emily. We had been hanging around with all these guys for the whole vacation, so it was a fun table to sit at. Adam gave a really nice (and funny) speech during dinner and Brian’s brother Mike poignantly stood up to say that he wished their mother could be there with them that day.
Next, some friends put together a surprise slide show with photos of Brian and Sara throughout the years. At first everyone paused dinner just to watch the show and take a trip down memory lane with Brian and Sara, but it soon became apparant that this thing would go on forever, so dinner resumed. (I helped edit a lot of the photos, so I know there were over 500, which would auto-play for something like 40 minutes.)
At the end of dinner everyone was surprised when an elaborately dressed guy on stilts came in and was controlling a life-sized, real-live-person marionette puppet. This grand entrance was punctuated by the two guys following, who were playing a slide trombone and a drum! They moved all around the dinner space and then all the guests followed them to the beach where they performed a fire dancing show. Extra impressive, since it was a very windy day!
Next up, Sara and Brian had their first dance. After that everyone basically rushed the dance floor and it was nonstop til the end of the night! People danced their butts off! Especially to Brian’s favorite Miley Cyrus song! What a fun wedding! Thanks to Brian and Sara for inviting us to be a part of it!
For years I have made Simply Recipe’s Perfect Guacamole. It really is the perfect guacamole recipe and every time I have made it at parties I’ve gotten a lot of compliments. Well, a while back I got The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook. The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for guacamole is much the same as the one on Simply Recipes… but get this.. in the book she talks about how one day it dawned on her that basically the onions and peppers and tomatoes that you’re putting into the guacamole are basically the same as pico de gallo. So…. why not just make a batch of pico and dump some of it into your smashed avocados.. and you’ll have both the perfect guacamole and pico de gallo. Bingo. Two dips for the time of one. Works for me.
I made the pico and guacamole when my family was visiting. Everyone liked them both. There was some pico left and Dallas quickly ate that up when he got back from his business trip.
For the Pico de Gallo:
5 whole Plum (roma) Tomatoes
½ whole Large (or 1 Small) Onion
3 whole Jalapeno Peppers
Cilantro
Lime Juice
Salt To Taste
- – -
For the Guacamole:
3 whole Avocados
Pico De Gallo
Lime Juice
Salt To Taste
Pico de Gallo:
Chop jalapenos, tomatoes and onions into a very small dice. (Leave seeds in your jalapenos for a hotter pico). Adjust amount of jalapenos to your preferred temperature. Next, chop up a nice-sized bunch of cilantro. Just remove and discard the long leafless stems before chopping. No need to remove the leaves from the stems completely. Place all of these ingredients together in a bowl and give it a good stir.
Squeeze the juice of half of one lime into the bowl. Add salt to taste and stir again.
Guacamole:
Start with buttery-soft avocados. Halve them lengthwise and remove the pits. Next, with a spoon scrape the “meat” out onto a large plate. Next, with the bottom of a clean cup (or with a fork) mash the avocados, making sure to leave it relatively chunky. Add just a couple of shakes of salt to taste. Next, add a generous helping of Pico de Gallo. Fold together. Lastly squeeze the juice of half of a lime over the top. Give it one last stir.
Originally we were going to spend Super Bowl 43 at Jen & Chad’s house, but Jen and Quinn are visiting relatives in California and Chad was traveling on business and got stuck there longer than he’d anticipated. So Dallas and I volunteered to host the party at our house.
It ended up being a fabulous food party. Dallas made 4 pounds of slow cooker pulled pork and blue cheese cole slaw to eat on the sandwiches or on the side. I made cocktail wieners and guacamole. Loden made cheesy potato casserole and mini football-shaped brownies. On each one there were the frosted football details. Kristin made cornbread and chicken fingers. Jill made pumpkin cake and chocolate chocolate chip cake. Liz made cookies. And everyone brought beer and wine. So much food and drinks. So delicious.
The game? I thought it was ok. Everyone keeps saying how it was such a good game, but I don’t think any of us really got into it until the 4th quarter.. and specifically Brian and Loden were just cheering for their numbers at the end (they both won money). I don’t really even remember any of the commercials. They weren’t that great this year. Some were even old commercials that were already playing on TV. We did like the Cash4Gold commercial, though. It sparked a long discussion about Snuggies and ShamWows.
Killian and Liz brought their new dog, Sandy, over to the house. She’s only about 6 months old and they’re still training her so they couldn’t leave her at home the whole time. I thought she was going to be a crazed puppy, but she was really relaxed and listened very good. .. and no accidents! Sandy is the 4th dog (Maggie, Milo, Jackson) to visit our house and we’ve only lived there 3 months. Guess that means we have a dog-friendly condo. Jill and Brian brought their extra Wii controllers and the Mario Kart game. After the football game we all played Wii.
Abby and Phil’s wedding was Saturday night (more on that later) and I was so exhausted that I couldn’t bring myself to take any photos yesterday. I know. Crazy!
Adil, Tom, Alden, Traci, Eric L., Eric O., Charley, Jessie, Giuliana, Paul Baker, Chris, Joe, Jon
Chris wore his FeedBurner bike hat for the special occasion.
Sorry, everyone! I forgot to post these photos that I promised I’d post weeks ago. The night before Dallas and I left for Connecticut, I went to a FeedBurner reunion party at De Cero. About 13 of us made it out. We expected more, but it was a busy week for many people. A lot of people who were there I’d seen often at the Google office. Others, I hadn’t seen for a long time, more than a year. Enough time for Adil to have a baby even! As per the FeedBurner tradition, we ordered a ton of guacamole and platters of assorted tacos. It was a fun time and something we’ll have to repeat.