Fiber Fool

Sunday was the BIG day, the whole reason we spent 30 hours on the road and was only in Minneapolis for about 30 hours. Mom, needing audio description for plays can only see the plays on one day in the entire run so she gets a little lead time to get tickets. So, as sort of a way to celebrate her birthday (at the end of this month) got 7 tickets to Wicked at the Orpeum on Sunday afternoon. That was three for she, my dad, and my sister, and we paid her back for the other four for DH and I, and his parents who live only three hours from Minneapolis. We decided it was a good Birthdaymotherfathereasteranniversary gift seeing as how they just got done downsizing for retirement and that. We figure it is better to give memories than “stuff.”

The show was amazing! The costumes were ornate and gorgeous and crazy all at once. The music was fun (though not as catchy as other shows I think). I adored the Galinda charater and I was in awe in how they were able to change your perceptions of these characters you grew up “knowing.”

I have to confess that I still haven’t read the book that inspired the musical. I bought it last summer and tried reading it, but it took me a couple weeks to get about 50-75 pages in so I set it aside. I thought while I was watching the play that I’d jump right into the book when we got home since I’d have some momentum but then mom crushed it for me… She said the book and the play have the same characters and a similar premise, but that is where the similarity ends! I think I’ll let the book wait until the fall.

The show did however cause me to expand my amazon wishlist with a few things - a-hem :-) Though last night in looking for inspiration for SIL3’s birthday gift for tonight we went to Best Buy and DH bought me the soundtrack! Guess what I’ll be listening to today??? LOL!

If you like musicals I don’t think you would be disappointed with this one. My dad isn’t a big musical fan and he enjoyed it. I think it can help to have a familiar story, that and mom made him get a set of headphones for the audio description as well so he might have caught on a bit better :-)

Before we went to the matinee though, my parents came and picked us up at Rob’s and we brunched at this great restaurant in Eden Prairie called Red Stone Grill. I’m not quite sure how to explain their cuisine… Kind of nouveau homestyle cooking perhaps? Anyway, the food was awesome. If you go, don’t miss their Lodge Cornbread! Yum! The AC was up a little high though, so my shot of the building is a bit mysterious because my lens fogged up when I tried to take it. It had just finished raining. The service was also top notch. I’d really like to go back sometime and try their regular menu. Chances are I’ll get to sometime as it is pretty much on the way to the farm from the airport! :-)

After the play all seven of us were going out to dine. Upon a recommendation (whom I won’t credit and you’ll understand why in a moment) we went to Bar Abilene in uptown Minneapolis. It was just a few miles from the theater, so not too hard for the in-laws to find, but far enough away to kind of avoid the post-theater crowd. It did still end up being a bit interesting getting there. DH’s parents do not know the metro area at all and we were not parked in the same location so we couldn’t quite get into a proper caravan. So, they were a few blocks behind us and MIL was on their cell and I was on mine and were dictating directions to them as we went. It was quite an experience, LOL!

Bar Abilene is a nouveau TexMex place (the menu on the web site is very out of date). They have an interesting menu that made it quite difficult to decide. They also had a very extensive margarita menu with some interesting concoctions. Mom ordered a Mango Mariachi that was mango with a bit of adobo sauce in it. It was *yummy* and I would have ordered one myself if we hadn’t decided to drive down to DH’s parents’ house that night to cut a few hours off of Monday’s drive. We also tried to make our own last night. What we made was good, but it wasn’t the same. We’ll have to try it again soon.

Our end of the table (FIL, MIL, DH, and I) decided to go the taco route. They have a taco menu that has small soft-shell tacos and you buy them onesie twosie so you can mix and match. DH and I decided to split a gruyere artichock quesadilla and then each get two tacos. My tacos and the quesedilla were great. I ordered a chicken and apple taco and then a more pedestrian steak fajita taco. DH ordered a three cheese and roasted peper one, but when it came out it had bacon in it. But, because he hadn’t asked them to hold bacon or any meat products because they weren’t indicated to be in the taco he hadn’t checked the taco and ended up eating almost half of it before discovering the problem. Since he’s been vegetarian for so long we were quite afraid he’d be sick for our drive home on Monday, but it was okay. The other taco he got was an avacado and grilled tomato taco which he said was really good. My parents end of the table all got monster burgers that every one declared great. The fries were thin home-style skin on fries with a touch of season and the onion rings were really thin with a season batter that was quite delicious.

Now, if the only screw up was DH’s taco I’d wouldn’t be so negative. That said, the taco he ordered didn’t even have bacon in it and what he got wasn’t one of the other tacos on the menu either so I still don’t understand. However, upon our arrival, they had our reservation down as 4 rather than 7 so they were not ready to seat us. Then, once we were seated the waiter came quite promptly to take our drink order, most of which was for water. Well, he didn’t bring the waters out for 15 minutes and he forgot a water for my sister and she didn’t get it for 30 minutes! Keep in mind that we got there at 4pm, the place was empty except for some bar flies. Then, he only refilled FIL’s soda and never my dad or I’s. When dessert rolled around MIL & FIL ordered the same mudslide dessert to share that DH and I did. It took a looong time to come out and when it did only one was brought out. The waiter gave us some line about how only one can be made at a time and ours was coming. Well, after the first one had been eaten he finally came near enough to our table to ask about ours. It took over 30 minutes to come after they had gotten thiers! That was completely inexcusable! Needless to say there was no tipping involved.

There was obviously some mix up in the kitchen staff, but I think 95% of our problem was our waiter. The food was great and the service the worst I’ve ever had. They were getting busy by 6:30 pm (2.5 hours it took to eat there, I’m not kidding) so I suspect we just got a shitty server who should be seeking employment in some other field. So, while I cannot in good conscience say with enthusiasm that one should go there, I trust the person who recommended them and I am sure we were just very unlucky that day.