Savannah's Birthday

Savannah turned 27 yesterday and the day was filled with some interesting moments. Our water heater had been leaking and it leaked right through the wood and drywall pedestal on which it was perched. Thus, we needed a guy to fix the pedestal, and another guy to replace the water heater.

Fortunately Savannah was staying home from work (because of her birthday). Unfortunately, sticking around the house waiting for contractors to fix your place up is not exactly as fun as Chuckie Cheese on your birthday.

However, she knew the day had better things to come.

For dinner, 10 of her friends were to meet her and her husband at the Bada Boom Pasta Room in Ahwatukee. This place is terrifically themed out. On the walls are pictures of notorious looking characters making people offers they can't refuse including a picture of 2 guys in suits shoving another seemingly dead guy into the trunk of a car, and another picture simply of some nice dress shoes...with some bullet shells next to them. The Godfather plays nonstop on one of the TV's in the lounge area and the "wallpaper" is actually red velvet.

Savannah's wonderful husband had reserved the "Frankie Table" for the occasion which is a big hardwood table in a secluded area that is the perfect size for our group.

The company was terrific, the conversation vibrant, and the food very good. After dinner Savannah was surprised with a birthday cake! The cake was made with red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting and was stupendous. Savannah had made a comment to her husband a few weeks ago that she really loves red velvet cake. Taking the hint, he called around to several places to order one for her. Not finding anything, he enlisted the services of Savannah's friend Jennifer for advice. Jennifer knew of a place, of course, and the order was put in. Jennifer even picked it up on the way to dinner so that she could smuggle it into the restaurant without Savannah seeing it as she had no idea this plan was in place. The combination effort worked brilliantly as Savannah was extremely surprised when it came out of the kitchen after dinner.

After everyone stuffed their gills with the food of nobles, we headed off for the bowling alley.

We had 10 people for bowling and the bowling alley was doing Cosmic Bowling that night which meant low lighting and disco lights. Everyone was talking smack leading up to the contest and for the first game, each couple was a team. Some had great showings, and some didn't fare so well. Savannah beat her loving husband and even took a picture of the scores for proof. It was a bittersweet moment for her husband as he likes to see her do well, but hates to lose at anything. Missing the 100 mark by 1 pin was salt in the wound.

The winning team in the first game was the Coy team as Jennifer, the darkhorse of the competition, bowled a stunning 183 in a game that included a turkey (3 strikes in a row). Many commented on the odd gobbling noises Jennifer made after getting that turkey. John Prather was the game high with a 190 and also had a turkey (minus the gobbling noises) as he led off his game with 4 straight strikes.

For the second game, the teams would be mixed couples. Each woman had to select a set of car keys in a drawing and whoever they picked would be their partner. Jennifer once again bowled a strong game but it wasn't quite enough as John and Summer won in the end.

Overall, it was a great night and fun was had by all. Another great birthday for young Savannah.

Valentine's Day

So yesterday was Valentine's Day, that fateful day where men need to out-do what they did last year in order to impress their women. Last year my woman thought I was going to propose, so I was pretty much ok to do anything in order to beat that disappointment for her.

Just to remind her of how she felt, I booked a reservation at the same place we dined the year before. Last year for me was great: I was with my girl, we were eating good Italian food (it barely passed for being Italian but we'll get to that), and an accordion player played our song tableside. A beautiful night. Little did I know that Savannah was sweating bullets expecting me to drop to a knee on a moments notice.

Anyway, this year was a little different. We are married now, no sweating for her this time. I was a good husband and had arranged for roses to be delivered to her office during the day, she loved it. However, she worked late and was not able to meet me at home as planned before going to dinner--she had to go right to the restaurant. So I arrived first to find a crowded entry area. The host let me know that they were running "30-40 minutes behind." Obviously they decided to overbook the place as most people wanted a reservation somewhere between 6-8 and not 9:30 (our reservation was for 8). By overbooking, they pushed several reservations back, and forced people to eat later since you can't very well find an available restaurant on Valentine's night.

By this time, Savannah had shown up and fortunately, the wait provided us the time to return home (2 miles away) and allow Savannah to change into her evening attire. Once home, she quickly emerged from the bedroom in a stunning black and champagne cocktail dress looking much different than the professional office women just 10 minutes earlier.

We returned to the restaurant in time to wait 5 minutes and get our table. Once seated, we looked at the menu which resembled last year's (in fact it was exactly the same--a special truncated version with only 4 choices for entrees). We then waited about 10 minutes as we looked for who might possibly be our server. Several passed but none looked like we were their table. Finally, one waiter who had passed us a dozen times or so actually stopped and said, and I quote, "So?"

A little off guard I stammered before regrouping and saying, "Uh, can we see a wine list?" He was off without a word.

Back a few minutes later, he handed me the wine book and promptly left. We selected our wine and when the server returned he silently looked at me as though I were about to say something. Thinking he was going to ask which wine we wanted, I waited, but upon realizing he was going to remain silent I ordered our wine. As he was about to leave, I knew we had to seize our chance so I stopped him and ordered our entrees. Off he went.

Now, as an educated hospitality person and with a lot of restaurant experience both as an employee and a patron, this lack of relationship befuddled me a bit. So rather than becoming upset, we laughed about it. He broke so many rules of serving it wasn't even funny. Sure he was polite, but he never said his name, never welcomed us, never apologized for getting to our table late, and never offered to help us with a selection. It wasn't bad service--it just wasn't service at all. No matter, we were not going to let the service spoil our night. And it didn't.

The cream of mushroom soup came moments later, amazingly, and it was excellent. Just as we had remembered last year. The pear and caramelized walnut salad did not disappoint either.

When the entrees came, fairly promptly, poor Savannah received a medium rare cut of beef after ordering it well done. As the waiter was no where to be found, she ate sides for 10 minutes before finally we told a busser to grab our server. Once he came he took the beef back to the kitchen and returned with a more well cut. Nothing unusual, it happens all the time to my wife who likes her meat well done with no pink. Oftentimes the restaurants under cook it in order not to kill it and because they can always cook it more, but not less. My duck breast was very good and flavorful so we were half good.

Dessert was also a positive, chocolate covered strawberries, and tiramisu. Excellent. The night ended as we got home and she gave me my present, a DVD I had been wanting, The Departed. And with that Valentine's Day 2007 was in the books.

Inspiration

We were inspired to create this blog after seeing a similar blog that was an account of our good friend Mike Coy's trip to Thailand and Cambodia.

He and his friend Chris traveled through the jungles, islands, and backsteeets of southeast Asia all the while posting their journey's events on the blog. Folks at home were able to see the going's on with pictures and read about the awesome and majestic sites that were visited.

To see the blog, go here findingpangaea.blogspot.com.

Why the Blog Name?

This blog is about the lives and travels of Matthew and Savannah Wolach, or Matty and Sav as many know them. The next major trip is to Italy for our honeymoon! We are so excited but it is not until April. It seems very far away but we are confident it will get here quickly.

Now we just got married January 6, 2007, and our honeymoon is about 3.5 months after the wedding. Why? Because we needed Italy to warm up, and because we wanted to take a break from the insanity that is planning a wedding in the 21st century.

So why Pachelbel's Cherubs? Our song is Cannon in D by Johann Pachelbel. Now we know that a classical song is not a common song for a modern hip couple such as your authors, so let's explain. Before we were together, we were friends. We were attending a cocktail reception for Savannah's work and like many work cocktail receptions, it was a bit boring. So, we decided to relax and have a couple of drinks by the string quartet that was playing. As we were the only ones sitting near the quartet, in between songs they asked us if we had a request. Matty spoke up and asked for Pachelbel's Cannon. The group complied and played a terrific rendition that touched us both...though neither of us told the other. Once we were together, we talked about that night and what the song meant to us. And that was that.