The Zin Room

My wonderful friend from work Kathy gave me a coupon for Zin Room for buy one entree get another one free.  Normally I'm terrible with coupons, but the Zin Room is right around the corner and we wanted to go out to dinner so it was perfect.  You're awesome Kathy!

Omaha got its second five star hotel when Hotel Deco opened.  The Zin Room is inside Hotel Deco. 

I absolutely love those textured walls and the grasses in the Zin Room.  I couldn't figure out quite how they pulled off the walls - paint or wallpaper?  Next time I might just have to ask...

We sat in the balcony area, which was kind of fun.  Kevin took these next two photos.  He was pretty proud of himself and wanted me to give him credit :)

The wines were listed in price from cheapest to most expensive.  I love this.  And they had bottles under $30.  Perfect.  We had a sweet Pinot Noir called Irony.

And there was even a lounge singer.  He was serenading the table next to us so I went to take a picture and he turned around and sang to me. 



A bottle of wine, salad, Chilean sea bass, and a fillet with a side of awesome Gouda mac and cheese all for $70.  Two thumbs up for the Zin Room - check it out! 

Newborn pictures

I got the chance to take pictures of my first newborn tonight.  Baby Tyler was 10 days old and super cute.  It was a ton of fun, and was definitely eye opening.  Nothing in photography is ever as easy as it looks!

My dad was nice enough to let me play around in the studio.  How cute is this lil guy?

 

 Baby Tyler's big sister came along.  I snapped a few cute ones of them together, but I loved this picture of just her.  She had been watching me snap pictures of her brother in the bucket, so she wanted to try it herself.  I love her big brown eyes!

Senior picture shoot

 So I haven't been keeping up with my photo challenge, but I think I made up for it tonight.  My first ever senior shoot.  It took me about 3 hours to figure out how to process all the pictures and upload them since it was my first time ever shooting in RAW, but I was happy with how everything came out.  Thanks Sebastian for the great shoot!  Click here for a link to all the pictures.

Nosh.

A few photos from Nosh wine bar.  Kevin and I go here all the time since it's practically inside our building.  Two wine lovers with a wine bar in the building... a dangerous combination? 

Couch vs. Throne?

So how bad is it that after walking around Nebraska Furniture Mart for an hour trying to decide on a couch, that I'm legitimately considering buying a huge leopard print throne (technically called an extra wide chaise) instead of a couch?  See below for a bad cell phone picture.

Here are the things I'm telling myself:
"Common Amanda, how many times has anyone really sat on our couch besides Kevin or I?"  "Wouldn't this be a comfortable place to sit every night?"  "Maybe it is so off-the-wall that it could be trendy?"

...Someone talk me out of it! 



Four days in pictures

Fallen a bit behind on the photo challenge, but I'm not giving up yet.  Here's to catching up.

Thursday, September 15th:

Pictures riding up the elevator and going in our front door.

Friday, September 14th:

I did a little tidying up before the appraisal on our condo.  Fingers crossed that everything comes out ok.  Can't believe we only have a month left in this place.

Saturday, September 15th:

Love Blue Sushi.  The sushi was amazing, and I discovered my new absolute favorite roll - The Thriller. 

I've always had a thing with the bathrooms at Blue.  I love the Japanese newspaper decoupaged to the wall and especially love the red lighting.  So I was a complete weirdo and took a picture in the bathroom...

Sunday, September 18th:

Homemade breakfast potatoes.

Day 3: After class

On Wednesday nights I work all day and then have to go to a night class for my MBA from 6:00 pm till 9:30.  It makes for some longer days but luckily the teacher is good and keeps things interesting. 

My goal to take a picture and post it every day almost went out the window yesterday, but I did manage to snap a few pictures on my drive home from class.  My favorite picture is the one on the end.  We live in a condo building with almost 60 different units and I'm often surprised to see that we're the only ones with our lights on at 9:30 pm.

A rat eating a green bean

Day 2 of the photo challenge:  Last night Kevin made a wonderful chicken concoction with the leftover ingredients in our fridge; he pounded the chicken flat, breaded it, and topped with balsamic vinaigrette, tomatoes from the garden, and feta and blue cheese.  When he started he said he was going to make a healthy meal with chicken breast, green beans and brussels sprouts, but something tells me the breaded chicken and cheese on top cancelled out some of the original intent.  It was pretty awesome though.  I'm both sad and happy to admit that I think Kevin is officially a better cook than I am.  

 

Our rat Mim's loved the green beans.  Just another reason that makes rats are awesome pets... you don't have to buy rat food for them, they can just eat what you eat.  And I know that it's weird that we have pet rats, but common, isn't she a little cute?  How funny are her little hands holding that green bean?