Weekend Recap... almost a full week late!

What can I say? I'm still behind in my blogging. Which means that life is still humming along at warp speed. At this point, I'm content to just deal with the crazy for as long as it lasts and just keep squeezing stuff in where I can find time. On that note, let's recap the long Labor Day weekend, shall we?

Friday:
Off work early (yay!), which meant I had time to run a few errands and do some grocery shopping before getting ready for dinner. Jim and I decided to try the new Roy's in Pasadena after having a really delicious dinner at the one in Downtown a few months ago with my girlfriends.

The dinner started off on a high note. Even with our late reservation the weather was gorgeous and we sat outside on their patio. Our waiter was nothing special, but took our order relatively quickly and we had our apps in a reasonable amount of time. We were in a fish mood, so we started with the Ahi Poke and the Curry Panko Crusted Calamari. Both were excellent, although I'd say the calamari were probably my favorite. That's saying a lot seeing as how it's something I eat because Jim loves it, but I could usually take it or leave it. This version had some kick to it and was served with siracha aioli. So yummy!

And this is when dinner took a bit of turn. We had a really long wait until our entrees arrived. When they were finally served, they were barely meh. :/ I ordered the Hawaiian Style Misoyaki Butterfish and Jim had the Uni Dynamite Roasted Alaskan Halibut. When I had the butterfish at the Downtown location, it was so delicious! But while the menu described a similar preparation for the fish, this dish looked and tasted nothing like what I had a few months prior. Ugh. I tasted the halibut, too, and it was just not that great. For dessert, we split the Molten Lava Cake, which was tasty enough, but still didn't erase the total disappointment in the entrees. Looks like the kitchen and waiters are still undergoing some growing pains, so I'd say give it another couple of months before trying it out if you're so inclined.

Saturday:
I woke up at 7am and went for a 10 mile walk in and around the neighborhood. For the last part, I actually walked down to the local farmer's market and picked up some fresh produce for Sunday dinner. The market is so cute and so vibrant! I then headed from there over to Whole Foods to pick up some last minute stuff for dinner that night and then Jim was nice enough to pick my tired and sweaty bum up so I didn't have to walk all the way back carrying bags of goodies. :)

We spent the rest of the afternoon running errands and cleaning up the house. Around 4pm we had our friends Dubber and Party Girl over to hang out by the pool and have dinner. The rest of the evening was spent lounging around the pool, eating dinner while watching Cal in their football season opener and playing rock band. I'm sure our neighbors love us, especially when Jim screams Sabotage at the top of his lungs. :P

Sunday:
Nothing! We had absolutely nothing planned! This happens like maybe twice a year so it's always cause for celebration.

In reality, I cleaned the kitchen and did 395658 loads of laundry, while Jim did some work. We also squeezed a Target and 21 Choices run in there, too and ended the evening with a really awesome dinner. Ruhlman posted a loose recipe for pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil on his blog last week and ever since reading it, I've been obsessed with making it. Honestly, it was even better than I expected it to be because on my first reading, I missed the sentence saying that a bunch of butter gets added to the sauce. Butter makes everything better! So simple to make and so freaking good! Before tomatoes are out of season, you need to make this dish. No really, you do!
Monday:
We slept in. Yay!

After finally rolling out of bed, I made breakfast, took care of a few things around the house and then it was time to pack up the car and head out to the Rose Bowl for UCLA's season opener against #18 Tennessee. It was a beautiful day, perfect for tailgating and being outside. The parking was packed as usual and we had a good time enjoying our chicken fajitas and hanging out with friends.

However, we figured the game itself wasn't going to be pretty. I mean, yes, we have the holy trinity in coaching right now (Neuheisel, Walker and Chow), but we also have an offensive line that can't seem to block much of anything and we're on our 4th string quarterback. There is only so much that coaching and the crowd can do. Or so we thought....

The first quarter sucked. Our quarterback threw a lovely 4 interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. We were down 7 going into the half, which was only because our defense and special teams kept it close. Lord knows our offense sure wasn't gettin' it done.

And then, something happened during halftime and wouldn't you know it, the offense got a clue and started playing well. Like, they stopped throwing the ball to the other team and they kept blocking and the passes were connecting with receivers and ... well, they just looked a lot better. If you're a Bruin you know what happened next. We were up by 3 points after a beautiful drive that marched down the field and led to a TD. Tennessee answered with a field goal in the final seconds and we were pushed into OT. For the OT coin flip, we only had 2 captains left (a total of 4 veteran players left the game with injuries), but we managed to score a field goal and then it was Tennessee's turn. We held them, but then it was time for them to attempt a FG themselves. AND THEY MISSED!!! WE WON!!! HOLY CRAP!!

The fans had been loud the entire game, but the stadium just erupted! The players started running around like crazy people. The Volunteers just looked dumb-founded. I screamed until I literally didn't have a voice left. Such a great win for our team and our new head coach. This feels like a new era in UCLA football. No, we're not gonna be great this season, but we're gonna fight and we're gonna have heart and we're gonna try to actually win!

A really fantastic way to end the holiday weekend if I do say so myself. :)