Wined & Dined

Last night, a company that Mike's work sells product for, hosted an evening out for all their STL area companies that they do business with. (They paid for everything and employees were able to bring their spouses too!) The evening consisted of 3 stops. First was the American Place Restaurant in the Renaissance Hotel downtown STL, from 5:30-7:00, for drinks and appetizers. We did not make it to the first stop, but heard it was great! By the time Mike got home and changed, we arrived downtown right about 7:00. So we just joined in at the 2nd place- Copia Urban Winery (just a few blocks from the Renaissance Hotel).

They held the private party on the patio, which was covered and heated. Very nice place! We had an open bar and were served a prime rib dinner. Dinner was good, however I would have loved to have been able to order something off the menu as I will probably never get to eat there again. ;o) When we first got there, I was trying to decide what I wanted to drink, since I was going to take advantage of the open bar and not just order a beer. I ask the waiter if he recommends any wines (since we are in a winery), however since it's a private party and the "open bar" only had a choice of 5 or 6. He rattle the choices off- chardonnay, Merlot, blah-blah-blah-blah......he lost me after the first two. Anyway, I am not a big wine drinker, therefore I do not know wines very well, so I tell him to bring me whatever is the sweetest (I do know that I do not like dry wine). He comes back with a white wine of some sort...he either misunderstood "whatever is the sweetest" or all the wines were very dry. So, I suffer through about half of the glass...that's enough...bring on the Captain! However, much to my disappointment, they failed to tell me they did not have Captain in the "open bar" and made my drink with regular rum (yes, you can really tell the difference). Okay finished that one and stuck with beer for the next two drinks....and of course they did not have Miller Lite either, so I had 2 Mich Ultras.

On to the next stop at 9:30- Lucas Park Grille (just a block down). Another very nice place! Here we just drank, talked, and listened to the guitar player. At this bar I was able to have my Captain and 2 Miller Lites at last! By the time we went to this bar everyone from Mike's company had left, so we were left to "mingle" with others from different companies. Anyway, this one particular individual that kept talking with us was hilarious. Not by anything he was saying or talking about, just plain hilarious because he was frickin' D-R-U-N-K! It was funny. He bragged all night long about how much he made, his certification (which my hubby has too!), blah-blah, blah and repeated himself over and over. Every now and then he'd leave and converse with others and as soon as he walked away....you couldn't help but bust out laughing! Anyway...music was good, enjoyed talking with some of the other people and just had a good time. So then about 11:15ish we decide that we better start heading home, and yes at this point it had already been sleeting and snowing. Mike was very good about how slow he drank and how much he drank cause I had already warned him earlier in the day that I was NOT driving in the snow (YES, I am a freak about driving in the snow!) So we trudge back to the truck in the snow. It was coming down real good at that point and reminded me of movies that show it snowing in New York or something. So we are driving home and even though I am not driving, I am still freaking out. My heart pounded about 200 beats a minute the entire way home! Mike got us home safe and sound. We had a great evening. I was excited to be able to go to a couple of places that we wouldn't normally go to and best of all...it was paid for by someone else. ;o)