The Melting Pot

Last night Ryan and I went to the Melting Pot with some friends. I've only ever done dessert there. We had never done the whole 4 course meal thing at this place before so we were all excited to see what it was all about.

It was nothing like the usual chain restaurants that we frequent, as in, the food was not cooked when it got to the table (and we're not talking uncooked the way sushi is uncooked!). The pot in the middle is where you put your skewered meat/fish choice in for a (random) amount of time.

Here we are with Liz and Anthony once our dinner was served. As you can see, there were about 30 different things to dip the food in. She named them all, but after she named the lobster tail and the shrimp, I was completely lost. Based on Anthony's reactions of "Hmmm, that's edible, not good but not bad either" and "Okay, that's gross", I stuck to the basic, cook the food until it isn't pink and eat it. Every item she set on the table had an explanation! " Cook this unknown meat for this long, cook that fish for that long. This sauce tastes like this and is good with that one. These take longer so throw them in early. Don't eat directly off your skewer. The spoon will get really hot" and so on. We felt like we needed little flags for each food and a timer. It was all very interesting and there was lots of laughter at our table. I'm not sure I would do it again, but it was definitely interesting to try it once.

Here's Ryan's tasty drink. Neat!
And of course, at the end of our 4-course meal came the DESSERT! Flambeed chocolate! There were strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, rice crispy treats, marshmallows, some cake thing and brownies. Obviously, we needed no assistance in naming these or timing how long to dip. The formula was simple: pick a dessert, drown it in milk chocolate mixed with Bailey's and try not to lose a single drop of goodness on the table or your shirt. If it lands on your chin, don't be wasteful!

Life does not get any better than a fabulous dinner loved ones!

Can I have a new job please?

Reasons why I hate my job:
1. Promotions that make clients jump through flaming hoops to "get the deal"
2. Finap Frenzy Days
3. Clients who think I, personally, have wronged them for their own screw up or for policies which I actually have no say in creating

Our current promotion claims that our clients will get something Free! Free! Free!, when in reality they have to maintain certain fine print details in order to achieve the not-so-free-anymore product. What that means for me is that if I am still working at the hellhole, in a few weeks when people go to redeem their prize, the fine print will eliminate half the contestants! And that half of the contestants will certainly not sit on their butts and twiddle their thumbs, that half is most certainly going to come in and yell at me as representative of the hellhole and blame me for the wrong that I have done against them. Definitely quitting soon. Definitely.

In other, happier news, Ryan and I had dinner with his sister's family and his parents last night. Little Jack and the Finnster are so precious. Finn has taken quite a fancy for Ryan. He climbs into Ryan's lap, leans up against his stomach and insists that Ryan look at/read a book to him. Meanwhile, Jack runs around on an adrenaline rush because the Cheese! Nana! and his Uncle Ryan! are there to play with him. I can't get over the cuteness of those children.

After dinner, we went over to Erich's house to play Settlers of Catan. Usually, it's just a bunch of guys sitting around the table making manly jokes. Last night, however, was an unspoken bring your girlfriend to hang out with the guys night. Fish brought his girl, I came with Ryan, Cory brought his Erika and Erich's girlfriend Stacey came in later. Settlers of Catan is a "game of economics and strategy". For our group, it means we have to form alliances to simultaneously get what we need individually only to break those alliances to help someone beat our enemies. I threatened Ryan with sleeping on the couch, Justin was offering sexual favors to anyone who would trade him an Ore, Erich & Eddie were whispering sweet nothings ("I'll give you 2 wood so you can build those roads if you give me a grain for my settlement") and Cory & Erika had their heads together plotting to win. Fun was had by all involved.