Let's Try This Again...

Hey! How's it goin'? Lots going on here. V and are are still settling into our new place, but things are coming along swimmingly. Too much has happened since I last blogged so I'll just update you on a couple of exciting things and then move on accordingly in the coming days.

First up, we made a fantastic new discovery. It's a new restaurant in town called "The Pizza Machine." Evidently, and we didn't learn this until after our visit, the pizza makers just returned from Italy where they competed in a some type of pizza tossing competition. The place is great fun and it's mostly because of the staff! The whole novelty of the place is great too. When V and I read about the article in the paper, it said that the restaurant's claim to fame was 1) a pizza crane and 2) a 40-inch pizza. Those factors alone convinced me that this was an opportunity that was not to be missed. Unfortunately, with the history of restaurants in the area where the Pizza Machine was located, I was afraid that we would miss our chance if we didn't go soon. We gathered nine of our closest friends (because V and I couldn't possibly eat a 40-inch pizza by ourselves...) and headed off on our Saturday night adventure.

V's bro was in town so we decided that it would be the perfect weekend to visit the Pizza Machine. We were excited to see the pizza crane, which is more of a controlled zip-line that delivers the pizza from the kitchen on the balcony to the lower level dining room. With a trusted and experienced driver, the pizza crane will lower the pizza directly onto the hungry customer's table. Much to our dismay, the lower dining room was reserved for a private party so we weren't able to personally experience the crane, however we did get to watch it deliver a couple of pizzas to the tables below and it was quite an event! Everyone left their tables and gathered on the balcony to watch the transport, the joint erupted into applause when the pizzas safely reached their destination.

Even though we missed out on our very own pizza crane experience, we still knew that we had the 40-inch pizza to look forward to. With nine people, it's often difficult to decide on toppings. The staff was nice enough to accomodate us by dividing our pizza into quarters so that we could choose more toppings. Because the pizza is so big, it has to be cooked in separate ovens. This led to a bit of a wait. Luckily, there was a wondering magician and a table ready to harass him. You could tell that he dreaded coming to our table, but he did anyway. The ribbing continued until the big moment...our gargantuan pizza was here! Hooray!

It was so huge that it had it's own table. This is the cook who was a great sport and visited us at our table quite often while we waited. The group ate as much as it possibly could, but we still ended up taking the leftovers home. The pizza that we still had left, when boxed up, equaled two complete large pizzas. The price tag? The 40-inch pizza is $60 with two free toppings, $5 for each additional topping. Was it worth it? You bet. Get to the Pizza Machine before it's gone...

Another exciting recent event was our Earth day trip to St. Louis. For Valentine's Day, V decided to pass up the typical flowers and candy. He knows that I love otters so that's what he got me. He adopted an otter for me from the St. Louis Zoo. Yes, I'm officially a Zoo Parent...who will be attending the Zoo Parent picnic in September even! For the next year, I can enjoy my otter and know that thanks to V's generosity, he will be taken care of quite well. Thanks V! We decided to visit my otter for the first time and you can see the pics below from April trip to the St. Louis Zoo.

Aren't we cute? We "otter" be in pictures...

Watch out, V! Shark attack!

A butterfly landed right on my finger!