Penni Turned the big ??

The Restaurant we took Penni for her b-day


Penni and Zoe - Zoe just got out of the pool

Kristine finally smiled

Penni and her gfts

Penni had a birthday last week. Not the smoothest birthday - we seemed to run into problems every step of the way. Sunday we got my family together to have some cake and ice cream. I asked Nichole to make the cake and I told her that I wanted two rounds that we could frost together. We ended up with a mess. But we whipped something together - the ice cream was good. All this is after a Sunday dinner that I prepared and ran into several problems and someone forgot to order Penni's present online in time for it to be here by her birthday.

On Monday luckily Penni's parents and sisters called her to wish her a happy birthday. I also tried to make it special and took her to lunch. Penni had asked me for two things - her windows washed and to get out of the heat. Plus two other gifts that she found at Ross and had them hold for her – and yes I got the sees candy. I was going to wait until the monsoon season is over to get her windows done - but we went this weekend up to the mountains and did all the things that Penni enjoys.

On the way up to the mountains Penni said that a friend of hers told her about a place to eat that had really good pasta. I am a big Seinfeld fan and Penni said that you know the episode about the Soup Nazi, well there is a Pasta Nazi. She will kick you out if you get out of line and she doesn’t like kids. I told myself that this was the adventure I was looking for this trip – to meet the Pasta Nazi. Penni couldn't remember the name of the restaurant – so that only gave me more motivation. There are three towns right together so it was not an easy task but I was up for it. Turns out is was not that hard - at our hotel I told the two girls working the front desk what I was looking for and they both knew the place.

So dinner plans were set - one of the things that we had heard was that if you were late for your reservation then"no pasta for you". So the whole night was planned around our reservation. I called and made the reservation. Then called back to see if there was a dress code - I didn't want to be stopped at the doorway. We made it to the restaurant fifteen minutes early - our 12 year old scout almost had to wait in the car because she couldn't control herself. We walk in - it is a small restaurant - I saw no kids just old people. Place look really nice - soon we are seated - by the Pasta Nazi. She was your typical Italian women - short, sweet, but not going to take crap. She told Kristine to smile and told Zoe how beautiful she looked - so far so good. Just before we walked in I had to put some fear into Kristine to make sure things went smoothly and my only instruction to Zoe was don't - I repeat - don't spill your drink. We then were greeted by our server - we order - nothing special just pasta. The bread was awesome, salad was really good and the pasta was homemade but average. I leaned over to Nichole and asked her how her dinner was and she said "not as good as Olive Garden" both Penni and I tell her - are you trying to get us kicked out of here. The dinner was winding down when - yes you got it - Zoe spilled her drink. Luckily it was mostly ice. But most importantly we left on our own accord. So here is my review - good not great pasta, above average salad, great bread and excellent water but too pricey to make it a regular plus too much pressure to not get kicked out. I was disappointed that I didn't get to see someone else get the boot.

I asked a guy at work that has a cabin up there about the place and her confirmed that she is the Pasta Nazi and she must of been on good behavior - he won't go back - I guess one of the things that gets her upset is if you are too picky - leave off the garnish. Or if you complain about your order.