We made it through the anniversary dinner! I think things went very well -- everyone behaved themselves (which is tough at times), the restaurant did a great job on the food and the private room, and the food was mostly terrific. The octopus salami was a little weird and kept the food from getting a perfect score, but the rest of the food was great. The limo was an excellent choice. I would never have found this place if I had had to drive on my own -- never mind parking!

This is the octopus salami. You can see that it was really pretty -- the red around the white was very nice. The potato salad with olives was fantastic. The octopus was good, but it wasn't something that I would spend money on regularly.

Here is the second course: cavatelli with baby scallops and pesto sauce. This was an unqualified hit - tremendously good. The pesto was fabulous, and the pasta even better. Brigid skipped the scallops, but everyone else enjoyed them. For perspective, this plate was about 6 inches square.

The third course was a medallion of beef with melted gorgonzola cheese on a bed of caramelized onions. The onions were so well caramelized that they were practically jam, and they made a nice contrast with the gorgonzola cheese. The beef was crusty on the outside and nice and pink on the inside, and tender enough to cut with a fork. This plate was about 6 inches square -- the beef wasn't a steakhouse cut, but it sure was good!

Finally, we had dessert. As you know, this is the focus of the meal for the Andersons! We had bomboloni with bicerin -- also known as mini-donuts with a dark chocolate sauce. This was great and everyone was very happy with it.

Once the dinner was over, I could finally relax about the weekend. I was pretty tense about the dinner because once I had scheduled it, I found a whole bunch of people online complaining about the service and I was worried that we might get a bad waitperson. This could result in total upset, so once we were at the restaurant and it was clear that we had a good waitperson, it became a much nicer event all around.

Andy was thrilled to go with me to Maryland and he tells me that he had a fantastic time at his grandparents' house on Sunday night. I also took him to see his best friend from kindergarten while we were there, and when they saw each other, they just picked up where they had left off 3 years ago. It was amazing. They played for about an hour and a half while I chatted with the parents and exchanged contact information. I hope that Andy will stay in touch with his friend since they click together so well. The other thing that Andy has kept on talking about was going to the batting cages with his uncles. He had a terrific time. Ian, Nathan, and Alec, and their respective sons and Andy all spent about an hour and a half hitting balls (well, in several cases, trying to hit the balls) and doing that male bonding thing that they do. I was thrilled that my brothers included my son in their activities. I really want him to get to know them.

We got home early Tuesday morning - walked in the house from the Phoenix airport at 1:40am. It was awful. Andy was so tired he was practically begging for his bed, and I was totally wiped out. We had been running from the time we got off the plane in Baltimore, until we got on the plane to come back home. Of course, life goes on, and we had swim practice early the next morning and then a swim meet that night, so last night Andy and I finally got some sleep, and life has improved tremendously!