last weekday of freedom

yesterday was my last friday without a job... sort of. cause i spent it trying to get ahead in my job, so it's not exactly like i wasn't working. i've actually spent the past 3 days trying to get planning done but for one reason or another haven't been able to. yesterday i finally hunted the woman down who had the materials for me, and i got them... at wake med. cause that's where she was. i know, it's a little insane. i was thoroughly annoyed with her until i actually met her, but she's just so sweet that you can't be unhappy with her once you see her.

anyway, so i had to cancel the riding planned with jessi once again (very sad about this) to actually do some planning. i worked from the time i got home (somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:30) until andrew got home (around 6:30) and then a little more, and i still haven't done all that i set out to do three days ago. not sure how much time i'll have this weekend, as i've got cindi's shower and bachelorette party this morning/tonight, and we still have TONS of unpacking to do. i'm thinking we need to trash like half of our stuff!

so last night after i tore myself away from my desk (which wasn't much of a challenge physically, since our unlevel floor had been trying to roll me away from it all day!), andrew and i got dressed and headed out to a "tapas and wine bar" dinner at zely&ritz on glenwood. we're trying to make it a habit of trying new restaurants, and though we've been to zr for desserts before, never for dinner. the reason i say it's a "tapas" rather than tapas is that there's not much tapas about it other than the portions are small... and if you ask me, that's normal for gourmet or upscale dining. my overall rating is mediocre with the prices being much too high for the product. their wine selection by the bottle is pretty good, but by the glass is extremely limited, and with the prices on the bottles so high (and the prices on half-bottles higher than i'd usually pay for a whole one), i was not impressed. i ended up with a spanish red that was pretty watery and later an organic sauvignon blanc which was a little sweet for my taste (but what do you expect with a sauvignon blanc anyway) and very heavy on the citris, especially the grapefruit flavor. as a starter, andrew and i got the cheese plate with two local "artisan" cheeses and a beet and feta salad. the best thing about the cheeses was their garnish of marinated pears, though the cheese was good, and the salad was gigantic for my expectations, but also a little salty. we had some shuffling of waitresses, so that was interesting for the feel of the experience, but we definitely ended up with the better of the two. as main courses, andrew got the trout, a new addition to the menu, and i got the emu in peach glaze - excellent. it was like a good steak and reminded us of the "banner" elk that i got at the mast farm inn a while back. the main courses don't come with sides, so you have to order those separately (another $9 or so), so we shared some organic squash risotto - also an extremely large portion - and it was very tasty. for dessert, andrew had the special, a peach/rhubarb crisp, that he commented needed to be crisp-er, and vanilla ice cream. i had the apple brioche bread pudding and, with some convincing of the waitress, subbed out the cinnamon ice cream for the honey comb. i think we both agreed that the desserts, along with the rest of the experience fall into the mediocre category. we walked away satisfied but not raving and with a hefty bill to boot. i would agree that it's probably a nice 2nd or 3rd date place, but if you're looking for good tapas go to the red room, if you're looking for good organic food, go to city beverage, if you're looking for exotic food with lots of selection and good wine, spice street's still the place, and if you want a wine bar, try the grape.