The Mint, Tilda, etc., etc., etc.

I had to correct something on this posting. Sorry if you have already read it--no need to do so again.

So I promised I would review The Mint restaurant in Scottsdale on my next post. Well, I lied.

JK. (For my sister, Merrilyn, that  means just kidding.)

The place is absolutely kewl! It has a beautiful interior, and, because I am so on-the-ball, I have absolutely no photos to show you. Ahem. Anyway, the decor is modern and the place is spacious. It has its own wine cellar, which you can rent for $3000 a night--I kid you not. We were not in the wine cellar, btw.

But we were seated at extremely tall tables and perched on very high bar stools, (I needed a ladder to get onto mine. Haha, jk again. I only needed a step stool.) Other than the rather awkward way I had to get on and off of my seating piece, (I just didn't want to say stool again--it sounds so rude), I was quite comfortable as there was a nice railing on which to place your feet. While you are perched. On a very high seat.

The bathroom/restroom (and just who bathes or rests in them anyway?) is rather unique. It is neither for men or women. It is for both. Yup. Men and women, in the same room. There are beautiful sinks in a central area, with automatic water and soap dispensers. And lots of paper towels in trays. And the sinks are right next to a small bar. (There was no one in there serving drinks at the time.) For relieving purposes, there are several small toilet closets, (I can't call them stalls, because they are more like little rooms.) Each has a door which reaches from floor to ceiling, so you have absolute privacy, even though it is a tad weird that men can be right in the next closet. (FYI, Liberty Market in downtown Gilbert also has this set-up for their restrooms.)

The only stranger restroom I've been in was one in a Southeast Minneapolis restaurant in the 1970's. I walked into the ladies' room, entered the stall, hung my purse on the door hook, turned around, and found myself facing every person eating in the restaurant. Yeah, that got a reaction out of me. There was one-way glass in the stall, so you could see everyone eating while you were doing your business, but they couldn't see you. You know how I know they couldn't see me? I made my sister, Barbara, go out and check before I used the facilities!

On to the food and drink. At The Mint. I started with a regular $9 Margarita, which was very tasty. As opposed to starting with the irregular $100 Margarita, which should be out-of-this-world tasty. But who in this world wants to spend that? Certainly not me. And definitely not Gary! The waitress told us, yeah, but it's happy hour and so the drink is only $50. And I said, yes, but the drink I want is only $4.50. So.....

Oh, Gary had some awful concoction to drink. Which I don't think he was crazy about. So he tried some other awful, barf-worthy Martini and pronounced it "good". Egads! What was he smokin' anyway? (JK, again. Gary doesn't smoke or do drugs. Thought I should clarify that. Not that you care. But still.)

We had firecracker shrimp for our first appetizer. Which was a really nice dish, but it was a bit too hot to taste and not hot enough to touch. I think they forgot to bring it out right away, so it cooled down more than I would have liked. Next up was another appetizer called soup gyoza, which were steamed pork dumplings filled with a sizzling broth. OMG! I could have eaten a dozen of those and called it a night. Sooooo good! Then Gary had House Dynamite Chicken, which he didn't really care for. Too bad for him. I had the Apple Cider Salmon, served on top of an Asian pear and pea tendril salad tossed in miso dressing. Wow! That literally melted in my mouth. Oh, so, so yummy! Mmmmm, wish I had some right now. I'm hungry.

We were full after our main courses,  so we did not order dessert. I did notice that by the time we left, (about 9:00), the place was really filling up. With young people. You know the ones--they look to be about 10 years old. Welllll, maybe they were a bit older than that, but not by much. So, if you are old like us, go early at happy hour time. Appetizers and drinks are half price and you can have your choice of seating. (Unless you are in a big party. Then you'll need a ladder, sorry, step stool, to sit at the group tables. The very tall group tables.) BTW, I believe there are also two bars in the place, (besides the one in the restroom). One looked like it was in a darkened room in the back. I think we were too old to go in there.

As an aside. Where do these girls find the short dresses that they wear now? OMG! I told our dinner club that my swim suit is longer than the length of those dresses. We all laughed, but, really, it's the truth!

So I got my new light bulb on Saturday. It cost me an extra $9 for overnight shipping, but it was worth it. However, the lamp itself is poorly designed for changing bulbs. I had to unscrew the cover in three places to lift it enough to pull the old bulb out. There was no way that I could see to get the entire cover off without breaking the **** thing. And I ripped off a good chunk of skin getting the bulb out. Which hurt so much and bled so much that I got terribly distracted. To the point that I re-inserted the old bulb and then wondered why the lamp still didn't work. DUH! I love when I make more work for myself! On the "bright" side of things, I can actually see to work again! Yay! And to think I ordered a second bulb to have on hand when this new one goes. Ugh. I think, after I change this one more time, I am getting a new lamp. Probably an LED variety that won't burn out!

Book alert:  I finished one of the selections for this month at Bookendz Book club. Suzanne picked another winner, but I knew that already, since I read the book at least a year ago. This book is so good that I enjoyed the re-reading every bit as much as the first reading. If you want a page-turner, then read The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Loved it again! Just sayin'. (And I have read two other books of hers that are just as good!)

OK, I made this card just because I wanted to enter a couple of challenges. I like doing Magnolia images, and decided to enter Midweek Magnolias Brown, Pink and White Challenge. OK, that took care of the color scheme. Now, on to a sketch, which I found at The Outlawz Sketch Challenge. And for a theme, I selected 7 Kids Flower Power Challenge. Just for grins and giggles, I am also entering Basic Grey Anything Goes Challenge and Stamptacular Sunday Roses and Ribbons Challenge, and the Magnolia-licious Butterflies and Blooms Challenge.

Here's the sketch:

I selected Tilda with Hawaii Flower for my image and stamped her on Cryogen CS with Memento ink. My sentiment is another from Create with TLC. I had several wonderful butterfly sentiments from Paulette to choose from. Go check her  shop out! She gives away images or sentiments daily, besides her amazing collection of digital stamps you can buy. (Hey, just trying to help you figure out how to spend that disposable income of yours.)

I used Stampin' Up CS and Bazzill CS to go with my DSP, which are from the Basic Grey Kissing Booth collection and some old retired Cactus Pink paper.

Another aside:  I went through my 12x12 collection and weeded out all the large patterns that I can't use on cards--which was most of it. I never scrapbook anymore, so I decided to clean out my paper closet of 12x12 and make it 6x6-friendly. My daughter and granddaughters are the lucky recipients of a lot of really cool paper. A bit of which is actually still current!

Back to my card. I appreciate your patience. I used several dies on this card: Spellbinders Grand Labels 4 and Labels 4, Memory Box Finn Butterfly and Chloe Butterfly and Sizzix Stampin' Up Embosslits Beautiful Wings. My flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts and my ribbon, dyed with my Copics, is from my stash. I added a bit of Copic Spica to the butterflies and flower on the image. Tilda was accented with a white gel pen. And the image was colored with Copics: W00, W1, R000, R20, R21, G40, G99, E000, E00, E11, E40, E41, E43, E47, E49.

If you stuck with me this long, you deserve a medal. Not that I'm going to give you one, but still...

Here's wishing you a wonderful week!