Beautiful Saturday

Austin and I had a really nice Saturday. We ran a few errands and then Austin wanted to go to the Apple store to browse and show me a TV thing. We found a shopping center that turned out to be very high end- sculptures all over, fountains, ambient music, and stores from Barney's to Tiffany's to Louis Vuitton. We walked along and did lots of window shopping (or in my case, much "lache-vitrine," the French expression that literally means window licking).

We were considering getting a glass of wine from Cru, the wine bar, and sitting and people watching but decided to have our own picnic. We went wine shopping at one of our favorite liquor marts and browsed wines from all over the world. We got a Sauvignon Blanc for our picnic and some Malbec. We also went to their amazing deli and got a wedge of quiche- smoked salmon, cream cheese, and asparagus. Austin got an antipasta salad for lunch today and we also sampled the macaroni and cheese (made with a bechamel sauce, smoked gouda, homemade breadcrumbs... comfort food!). The deli chef told us about upcoming fall foods and we decided we may just have to visit every weekend. The prices are very reasonable and we may be inspired to recreate the dishes on our own.

Anyway, we took our loot home and hauled some chairs and a little table outside on the balcony to set up our picnic. Fall here (at least as far as we can tell so far) means that the temp was in the low 80's, there was no humidity, some leaves were turning bright yellow, and the sky was brilliant blue. Below us, a neighbor had spelled out "I *heart* U" in rocks at the edge of the lawn.



We enjoyed our picnic and then spent the rest of the afternoon doing our thing, then ordered in a pizza and watched a movie. It was really relaxing and a perfect day overall.