An Amuze-ing Post

I've been lax on the whole blog thing for the last few weeks. I have good reasons...really. 

Ok, maybe not. I took the last week and a half of the year off from work so I must have lumped blogging into the same category as. I really enjoyed my time away from the office. I didn't even check my work email once. Really. No, really – I didn't.

I had a great week off with my wife. She had to go back to work the day after Christmas so it really was only a week with her. We did a lot of relaxing. We shopped for new furniture to replace our 18 year old living room set. Did some more nothing. Had a couple of great meals with friends. Those actually deserve a paragraph or two of their own.

On December 26 we went to dinner with a couple of our closest friends, Lee and Donna. They celebrated their 24th Anniversary on December 22. Lisa and I celebrated our 21st Anniversary on January 2. December 26 seemed like a great middle date to have a dual celebration. We went to this intimate little restaurant in Palmer Lake called the Amuze Bistro. By little I mean tiny. There are four tables. Two seat four people each, and two seat two people each. We had an outstanding meal with great service and even better conversation. If you've got a special celebration coming up I would highly recommend Amuze. I would also highly recommend that you make a reservation.

The next night we were treated to an  early anniversary dinner by my parents. They head southwest to Phoenix for three months every year to get away from the Colorado winter so they weren't in town for our actual anniversary. We dined at a restaurant in Castle Rock called Uniscali Food+Wine. Uniscali's is a little larger than Amuze (I counted 10 or 12 tables) and the food is every bit as good. The service was right up there, too. It's not what I would call intimate, but I would recommend it for a great meal for a special occasion as well. We're going to take Lee and Donna on a little road trip to Uniscali's one of these days. Reservation's would be a good idea for this place, too.

The rest of our time off was spent with various family members, more searching for furniture and more relaxing. We eventually found our new furniture. We spent more than we wanted but if it lasts us another 18 years it will be another great bargain. I'll post about the new furniture once it's delivered sometime in February. In the meantime we've got a great, lovingly used sofa and a couple of arm chairs that need to find a good home. They really are still in pretty decent shape (one of the many benefits of being DINKs) so if you know someone who's looking send them my way.

On January 5th we found ourselves back at work and looking forward to what's in store for us in 2009. We've already started planning for our next vacation...most likely to Phoenix in March to visit Mom and Dad. We may have to take in a baseball game or two while we're there. It will be Spring Training after all.

As I formulate ideas for upcoming posts I would love to hear about your favorite "special occasion" restaurants - what makes them special to you?