The best things in life are... food.

This weekend actually turned out to be really nice!  On Friday my agency had their annual Sexual Assault Awareness Month event which managed to go off without a hitch.  After that Joe and I came home and paaaassed out.  On Saturday we spent the day doing a lot of free things including taking pictures of some of the beautiful trees and flowers in bloom, going to a Chesterfield library that we don't usually go to, and hitting the dog park.  Both of those days were really nice... but today was amazing.


Dex kept crying in his crate all night (very unusual) so neither of us slept very well and I ended up sleeping till lunch time.  When I got up Joe and I split my leftover breakfast from IHOP and then spent most of the afternoon painting.  The real excitement started around 3pm when my mom called.  She called to check up on me... supposedly.  After we talked for a little while she admitted that a big part of her calling was for Joe.  Mary Washington has put out a few of their presenters for the public forum and on September 23rd.... Anthony Bourdain will be speaking.  OMFG... ANTHONY BOURDAIN!  For those of you who DON'T know Joe and I are slightly obsessed with this rough-around-the-edges chef.  Mom told us that she would pay for the four of us (my parents, Joe and myself) to go see Tony at UMW.  I told her that we could probably find him around town and she suggested maybe they'd pay the extra fee to go to the reception afterwards and... get this... MEET HIM.  Wow... amazing.  So after we calmed down from all that excitement Joe took me to Pho So1 off Broad Street.  We love Vietnamese food and Joe adores Pho and he'd tried this hole in the wall a few weeks ago.  When we walked in the place was packed and there was only one non-Vietnamese person there- and he was there with his wife who was Vietnamese.  We sat down and the menu was two pages... one of which was Pho.  Our waiter came over and stood next to Joe, pen and paper in hand, but never took his eyes off the Lakers game on the GIANT screen TV over our heads.  He said "huh" more than a few times.  Joe ordred that and I had pork vermicelli and then I felt adventurous....  why not try the "salty lemonade soda"?  So I ordered that and Joe decided to try the "salty plum soda".  When he ordered it the plum soda the waiter said "you sure?"  So Joe asked if he'd had it and the guy said "no no, it just.. smells funny."  Well Joe is hardcore and decided not to heed this old Vietnamese man's advice on Vietnamese beverages in a Vietnamese restaurant.  So our food came (and it was phenomenal) and our drinks came and they were...  different.

Can you tell how much Joe enjoyed his "salty plum soda"?

The last two pictures are of my "salty lemonade soda" and yes, those are pieces of something floating in the bottom... no... I'm not sure those pieces are lemon.

After a very tasty dinner we went to Deluca Gelato, our favorite sweet treat in Richmond.  Joe had half sweet cream and half banana nutella gelato while I had my usual half of amaretto and half cookies and cream.  Gelato is really the best way to start or finish anything- always.

So yes blog followers- the best things in life are food, or at least food related (like Anthony Bourdain).

For more on Tony, my favorite celebrity chef, and why I love him, please watch this video which was my introduction to Tony and made me cry beautiful tears of joy.