A Happy Ending, and an Anniversary Dinner

I went running this morning, despite the fact that we more or less didn’t have hot water since yesterday afternoon.

When I disconnected the pipe vent from the water heater, I made sure to turn off the water heater. So we made do without hot water, unti we could figure out what to do about the squirrel.

After my run, I was drinking water in the kitchen when Liz came down to make breakfast. We both decided to venture down to the basement, to see if anything had happened with our unexpected/uninvited guest.

As we got closer to the pipe vent, we heard a lot of scurrying nearby.

A bit closer, we were able to hear our visitor somewhere near the Craftsman Cart at the far corner of our basement. Can you spot him?

After trying to block off access to the rest of the basement… we opened the door, and were able to shoo the guy out into the space underneath our back deck.

There’s a ton of bricks down here, from when Liz cleaned up the driveway… and he slowly army-crawled his way up and out. And ran across the yard.

He was a tiny guy, and seemed more like an adolescent.

A very huge, huge sigh of relief at this point… that this guy was out and free. And that I didn’t have to reach my hand in, to try to retrieve him.

A bit later in the day, Bob was over. I was looking to replace a section of the pipe duct with the new section I purchased… but Bob ended up cleaning out what we had, and did some repairs (I apparently broke one of the elbows).

He got the vent pipe back in place, and our hot water heater up and running again. Which was just in time for me to shower, so that Liz and I could make our anniversary dinner at Monteverde.

Because today is our anniversary! Our fourteenth, to be exact. It seems like a lifetime ago, it seems like yesterday.

If you’re curious for a stroll down memory lane, check out lizandfelix.com/… we’ve got a lot of photos from the day, oh so many years ago.

Inside Monteverde, a place Liz has wanted to come back to for a while now. We’ve been on Keto for a bit, but this was definitely a reason to break from the diet.

My lovely date for the night.

Two “mozzarella shooters”: tomato dashi, giardiniera, shallot.

Funny enough, we both ended up ordering the same thing: Cacio Whey Pepe (mancini bucatini, pecorino medoro, ricotta whey, four peppercorn blend) – with fresh summer truffle.

To go from no carbs to this was definitely an experience. Wishing I could be back at this table right now.

And of course, we splurged on dessert. I got a monstrous tiramus, and Liz got her new/recent favorite: an affogato. Of note: she first got it while we were hanging out with Paige, and I think she’s been longing for it ever since.

What a rollercoaster of a day. This morning, things were up in the air and stressful… but eventually all resolved themselves. And by the evening, we got to relax with pasta and drinks and desserts, and got to enjoy fourteen full years together, and the start of year fifteen.

You should really check out our wedding photos. That was a good time.

Related:
The Squirrel Incident
Driveway Cleanup
Dinner at Ascione Bistro, Overnight at the Sophy Hotel with Paige
Date Night at Monteverde