Chocolate Intoxication

I had a meeting on Friday with a bride to go over the decor of her wedding reception.

Linens, draping, chair covers, chandeliers, audio visual, gobos, uplights, pin spots....you name it, we went over it.

It took me several weeks to get ready for this meeting. First, I had to put my design thinking cap on and come up with different looks, styles, textures and colors. Then I had to work on turning my dreams into reality.

That is always the most difficult part.

It is easy to come up amazing designs, but how to make them come to life is another story. I had to compile different linen samples and swatches, color samples, chair covers in different fabrics, colors, styles, get everything measured and make certain everything would fit properly. Then, the worse, I had to sit down with the audio visual manager (Dave :) ) and tell him my lighting and "high tech" needs and see if he could make any of it work. In this case, all of it is doable!

Anyway, all of this is a lot of work. By the time I got finished with my 3 hour meeting with my client and evaluating and processing bags of linens and piles of swatches I so needed a fix. A chocolate fix. My reward.

I love meeting with this client. The wedding is in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Home of Legacy Chocolates. I think the BEST chocolate I have ever had (and I have tasted some pretty good chocolate!)

I didn't even know Legacy Chocolate until my associate coordinator Stephanie introduced us. Now we are best of friends. My trips to Menomonie would not be the same without visiting my good friend and I make certain I do every time I go to town.

Their motto: Peace, Love and Happiness....one truffle at a time.

Makes your heart go pitter patter doesn't it?

You do know that real chocolate is the new health food these days. Legacy's potent little pretties, with up to 85 percent cacao solids, boast some of the greatest concentrations of healthy flavanols—a trendy antioxidant. You order their truffles by cacao percent. I like the 85 and I get Dave and the boys 41. Their truffles are dense but creamy and coated with silky chocolate. The flavors, which often change, include champagne, orangecello, almond, caramel pecan, mint, espresso, pistachio, and Cointreau, never overpower the chocolate, making a transcendent complement instead.

I don't just stick with the truffles. In season, which is not now, I have their Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting for all of its healthy goodness :). This trip, because I was feeling so overworked from all the preparation and presentation of the decor items not only did I get truffles I also got 4 (yes 4) slices of cake. 2 Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and 2 Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Chocolate Frosting. I also tried something new; their hot chocolate, and I must say, it is honestly the best hot chocolate I have EVER had. I have had a few cups of hot chocolate in my time as well. Theirs is a rich drink of the Gods covered in whipped cream adorned with chocolate chunks and white chocolate shavings.

I have also had their sipping chocolate, which, if you have never had sipping chocolate, you have yet to experience life at its fullest. I reckon that upon entering the gates of heaven you are presented a warmed, nearly hot, liqueur glass filled with the dark, smooth, intense, touched with cinnamon, chocolate blessing to sip on as you peruse the grounds and acquaint yourself. At least that is what I am expecting upon my grand entrance.

I had one of the truffles on Friday and then I had to hide everything from Justin for the weekend :) Today, I have been nibbling away, and away, and away. I am feeling a bit light headed and quite giddy.

I am guessing this is chocolate intoxication..............and I like it.

What happened to that 4th piece? :)

I came across a blog, Screaming for Chocolate. I love her motto:

"inside there is a skinny woman screaming to get out, but I can usually shut the bitch up with chocolate."

Some other great chocolate quotes and jokes:

1. After a bar of chocolate one can forgive anybody, even one's relatives.
2. Dip it in chocolate; it'll be fine.
3. I'm not overweight, just chocolate enriched.
4. The problem: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car. The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.
5. Don't wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. Chocolate isn't like premarital sex. It will not make you pregnant. And it always feels good.
6. Coffee, chocolate, men... some things are just better rich.
7. After about 20 years of marriage, I'm finally starting to scratch the surface of what women want. I think the answer lies somewhere between conversation and chocolate. - Mel Gibson
8. A man found a bottle on the beach. He opened it and out popped a genie, who gave the man three wishes. The man wished for a million dollars, and poof! There was a million dollars. Then he wished for a convertible, and poof! There was a convertible. And then, he wished he could be irresistible to all women... Poof! He turned into a box of chocolates.
9. An old man and a young man worked in office next to each other. The young man noticed that the older man always had a jar of peanuts on his desk. The young man loved peanuts.
   One day while the older man was away from his desk, the young man couldn't resist and went to the old man's jar and ate over half the peanuts. When the old man returned, the young man felt guilty and confessed to taking the peanuts.
   The old man responded, "That's ok. Since I lost my teeth all I can do is lick the chocolate off the M&Ms."
10. An elderly man lay dying in his bed.
    In death's agony, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies wafting up the stairs.
    Gathering his remaining strength, he lifted himself from the bed. He slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and, with even greater effort, forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands. With labored breath, he leaned against the door, gazing into the kitchen.
    Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven: there, spread out on the kitchen table, were hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies.
    Mustering one final effort, he threw himself toward the table. His aged and withered hand painstakingly made its way toward a cookie when it was suddenly smacked by a spatula.
    "Stay out of those," said his wife, "they're for the funeral."

and the last, which I couldn't resist. Kyle will love it:

Q: Why don't they make white M&M's?
A: Because they'd enslave the black M&M's, steal all the red M&Ms' land, hunt the blue M&M's to extinction, accuse the yellow M&M's of obstructing trade, start a panic that the little green M&M's were invading the Earth, and complain that the brown M&M's were taking all their jobs.


Here's permission to indulge. Here's to chocolate intoxication!

Spring Lake Park

They have a great wrestling team is about all I can say.

We didn't win a match. The t.v. crew was there filming and the DVD's are available for purchase for $20.00. Spring Lake Park parents may be lining up to get them, but I can guarantee you nobody from Fridley is!

It was a tough night. Kyle took his match kind of hard. But we want to focus on what he did right and not what he did wrong.

It's amazing how we can always come up with all kinds of things we do wrong or should have done differently, and we often really struggle to come up with what we do or did right. They are both equally important. What we do wrong so we can recognize and attempt to make changes and what we do right so we can give ourselves the acknowledgment and praise we deserve.

Team shot after a very disappointing night

Short video of the beginning of Kyle's match. He had a great shoot. Unfortunately, it went out of bounds.

In the program there was a poem printed that I think all parents need to be reminded of and remember:

That's My boy Down There!

Please don't curse that boy down there;
He is my son, you see;
He's only just a boy you know,
He means the world to me.

I did not raise my son, dear fan,
For you to call him names;
He may not be a super-star
But these are high school games.

So please don't knock those boys down there,
They do the best they can;
They've never tried to lose a match
They're boys and you're a fan.

This game belongs to them, you see,
You're really just a guest;
They do not need a fan that gripes,
They need the very best.

If you have nothing nice to say,
Please leave the boys alone,
And, if you've forgotten your manners,
Then please just stay at home.

So please don't curse those boys down there,
Each one's a parent's son.
And win or lose or tie, you see,
To us, they're number one!!!

The Credit Belongs to the Man Who is Actually in the Arena

Wrestling season starts tonight!

We begin with Fridley (Gregory won't have a tournament until January).

Fridley home vs. Chisago Lakes and Benilde-St. Margaret's

Tomorrow we have an Invitational at Fridley:

Irondale
Hopkins
Minneapolis Washburn
Mound-Westonka
Minneapolis Henry
North
Champlin Park

We were in the wrestling room last night for practices and the following hangs on the wall there and I wanted to share:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt