Bevo Mill

Today, Kraig and I got ourselves out of bed early (after working all night) to go to brunch at the Bevo Mill. It is a German-themed restaurant that has a windmill! It meets 2 of my 4 conditions when choosing where to dine out while traveling, these are being a local restaurant (not a chain) and having unique decorations (like a giant windmill). The other conditions are having a funny name or being famous for some special dish.
The restaurant was built by Mr. Busch in 1916, and the stones on the outside walls of the building were selected by him from his farm (Grant's Farm).
Anyway, the food was really good- they had an omelet bar! They also had shrimp (so Kraig was happy). The only downside was that since we practically rolled out of bed and into the restaurant, I could not eat nearly enough to justify the price. Despite that, we did enjoy ourselves.

Happy New Year!

So, on New Year's Eve we hung out at Heather and Kevin's house. We also got to hang out with Emilie and Andy who were in from Chicago.
It was a really fun night- we had some food and then played games.
My quote of the night went something like this. Everyone to me: You shouldn't pick the mushroom out, they are so tiny you can't even taste them.
Andy: Plus they are good for you. They have lots of vitamin D.
Me: Well, so does sunshine. I would rather eat sunshine than mushrooms.
After we ate, we played Scattergories which was couple vs. couple. Kraig and I did well in the beginning but eventually lost :( Then we played boys vs girls Battle of the Sexes. That was a fun game too except that the girls actually lost! Can you believe that? Even though, once again as Andy points out, I am invisible and no one listens to my correct answers.

Anyway, once the clock chimed midnight we toasted with some champagne and lit sparklers. The sparklers were fun except that other people's sparks kept hitting me! It was a really fun low key evening, and I really enjoyed playing the games.

My New Year's Resolutions/Goals:
1. Eat one serving of vegetables every day. Yes ONE- it is a vast improvement for me.
2. Chips and pop only once a month or not at all.
3. Exercise 30 minutes daily 6 times a week and swim at least 2 of those days.
4. Catch this blog up and actually post no more than one day later than the event!!
My ultimate goal... to lose all of the weight that I put on in the last 3 months being a bum before our trip to Europe!!!

mark one off the list for Kraig...

One thing that Kraig has always wanted to do is get a straight razor shave but he could never find a place that does it. About a month ago, we discovered that the store "The Art of Shaving" in the mall has a barber that does them. Kraig has been growing out his beard for the last few months, and today we went there to get it done.
He got the European Shave which was a straight razor shave with all of the fixings. I thought he should get the "royal treatnent" since it is something he has always wanted to do.
He really enjoyed it, and his face felt 1,000 times smoother (especially his chin) than when he shaves with a regular razor.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Tonight, I went to Heather's house for an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. I picked up my "sweater" a few days ago from the Salvation Army Thrift Store. It really isn't that ugly, just ummm full of holiday cheer and better suited for someone a bit older. I am putting this disclaimer out because Kraig thinks that one of my grandmas already has this shirt!
I accessorized with a light-up necklace and red and green fingernail polish. Going the extra mile worked because I ended up winning the contest! It was really fun to meet some new people and see what kind of ugly things other people found. I for one, think Heather and Kevin's sweaters were the worst. Heather is pictured below, and Kevin was wearing a hunting-inspired sweater complete with paisleys and patches of fur. It was quite the piece of clothing!

all we've really been doing is eating...

We have not done too much in the last few weeks. Really, we have just been eating! We headed to Souplantation (our favorite soup and salad buffet from California). It is called Sweet Tomatoes outside of California though. It was excellent as usual!
We also had lunch at one of the downtown Columbia restaurants one day before Kraig went to work. Yesterday, we knocked another Columbia, IL restaurant off of our list- Gruchela's. When Kraig got off of work, we went there for breakfast- eggs and kegs actually, because Kraig had 2 beers with his breakfast. Kraig tried one of the area's breakfast dishes- a slinger. It is bread or a pancake on the bottom, topped with hamburger steak, topped with an over hard or scrambled egg, topped with a thick layer of hasbrowns, and completed with chili over the top of everything. It was a huge, artery-clogging delight.
I had biscuits and gravy and sampled his slinger. I learned that combining chili with biscuits and gravy is phenomenal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had to work the night before and the night of Thanksgiving.. so we just had a little celebration- just Kraig, baxter, and I. Kraig made a little turkey, which was really, really good. He stuffed the turkey with red potatoes and veggies. Surprisingly, the vegetables were the best part. He also made mashed sweet potatoes, cranberries, and Stove Top Stuffing. It was all excellent! My contribution to our feast was turkey-shaped cupcakes. Baxter got to eat a turkey-flavored cat treat and some scraps of our turkey.

This was the first time that it has ever been just us on Thanksgiving, and it was actually a lot of fun :)

Bloomington, IL with my mom

West park Bowl and Columbia City Saloon

On Saturday night, Kraig and I continued our tour of Columbia restaurants by going to the Columbia City Saloon. It is a bar/restaurant in the local bowling alley. After eating, we planned to bowl but the place was packed! However, the guy that owned it told us about a special that they have on Sunday nights called "Pizza Bowl." It was a good deal that included pizza, bowling, shoe rental, and beer- so we decided to come back the next night for that!

My friend Heather and her boyfriend, Kevin joined us at the bowling alley. It was a really good time. I got 114 in both games (beating Kraig in both I must add). For the third game, we knew we wouldn't get to finish so we just decided to see how fast we could throw the ball down the alley, as the scoreboard also recorded the bowling ball's speed. I actually got mine up to 16.3mph! I was rather impressed with myself. Kraig could throw it the fastest at 21mph. The true bowler in our group was Heather though- she won both of the real games!

We had a lot of fun together, and the pizza wasn't bad either. We also had something called "mucho muchacho nachos.: What a great name!

Confluence State Park

Kraig and I drove north to West Alton, MO for a little bit of nature time. We visited Confluence State Park. The park is situated where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers converge. It was a really cool place. You can get right down by the water- so you know we did! We liked to think of it as standing in two places at once.
The rivers are both huge, and you can see the point where the two currents meet. It was a beautiful day and nice to be out in the sunshine.

We also learned that even though it's called the "Muddy Mississippi," the Mississippi River is not muddy until the extremely muddy Missouri River dumps into it. Also, Lewis and Clark were following the Missouri River hoping that it would take them across the country, only to be met by the Mississppi. This means that they saw the Confluence Point too; however, during their time the confluence point was actually 2 miles farther north than where we stood today.

                           (Left) I was hoping to get a pic of him falling in
                           (Right) sitting along the Missouri River

hittin up the Columbia, IL scene

Today, Kraig and I continued our tour of restaurants in Columbia, IL. We ate at the Lantern Restaurant and both had roast beef. It was a pretty decent place, sort of Prime-Tabley but no Mary and no rice pudding. Afterwards, we checked out the little grocery store also located in downtown Columbia and bought some ice cream to make pumpkin spice egg nog milkshakes. They are gonna be fantastic!

I think our next stop will be the Italian restaurant...