Friday, May 30, 2008

Food Critic

My good friend Kristen is always finding new things to do and see. She emails me almost weekly, asking me to tag along with her to fashion shows, sample sales, sewing classes, happy hours, professional groups, women’s auxiliaries, etc, etc, etc. One time we almost went to a class on how to blow dry your hair perfectly.  How weird is that?

Yesterday Kristen invited Mark and I to go along with her and Chad to a new restaurant in Garland, Coopie's.  Her boss's husband is the chef at Coopie's and Kristen offered to help them with some PR work, since they are still pretty up and coming.  She promised us a free meal, so we were in.  We made the trek out to Firewheel Center, sat down at our table and were promptly greeted by our personal waiter, Casey.  Casey tells us that we will be sampling EVERYTHING on the menu.  Every meat, every side, every dessert.  We could also order as many drinks as we wanted.  I ordered a Lynchburg Lemonade, had a few sips, then moved on to a Slushy Margarita.  We ate pot roast, meat loaf, chick fried steak, smoked brisket, fried chicken, fish, shrimp, king ranch chicken, rosemary chicken, mashed potatoes, cucumber salad, mac and cheese, veggies, grits, green beans.  You name it, we ate it.  When it was time for dessert, they brought out no less than sixteen plates.  Homemade ice cream in four different flavors, milkshakes, pies, cakes, cobbler.  It was insane!

Everything was really good.  I think my very favorites were the meatloaf, chili lime red bean salad and carrot cake with butter cream icing.  Its too bad that the place is so far away because we would probably eat there more often!

On an unrelated note, I'm going to see Sex and the City with Stephanie tonight.  On opening night!  I haven't seen a movie on opening night since...... oh, Titanic.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

What Might Have Been

You could have inserted me right into this picture, if I had been about ten minutes earlier. Siiiigh.

Monday, May 19, 2008

This Just In

Jason Whitten was at my school today.  As the "only single girl in the office" (ie. not married/not engaged), it was my job to go take some pictures of him/with him.  I grabbed the camera and ran out to find him.  I was all set to get the real dish on Tony Romo & Jessica, as well as bat my eyes and get him to invite me to Ashlee Simpson's baby shower.  I ran to the Lower School and asked the first teacher I saw where he was.  She whipped out her cell phone and showed me that she and Jason had already taken a picture together, but she hadn't seen him since.  So I dashed across campus to the P.E. offices to ask our football coach where he was.  The offices were empty.  Darting back to the main building, I run into a coach in the break room, carrying trays of food.  Trays of food for Jason.  He had.... just.  left.  I missed him.  My one shot of celebrity hang out time at work.  Just missed him.  Oh well.  At least I saw him on the jumbotron at the Kenny concert.  That's close enough, right?  Sigh.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

This, That and the Other

Summer is here!  We spent just over three hours at the pool today with Stephanie, Mark, Virginia and Roth.  We spent the time talking about everyone's plans for the near future and I'm so excited for my friends and all the exciting changes they have ahead of them.  The only bad part of the day is that I now look like a lobster.  Bright red and sunburned.  I've already mentally tried to plan what I can wear to work tomorrow that will make me look less than ridiculous.  I'm not coming up with much.

Speaking of work, we have a new Marketing Coordinator starting on Wednesday.  I am so excited to have a new face in the office!  On Friday, my coworker and I spent the entire workday rearranging our office furniture, cleaning out our desks and weeding through the files on our old Marketing girl's computer.  Today I went to Ikea and bought cute new lamps for our newly cleaned desks.  I hope it will really 'brighten' the place up.

Saturday Mark and I were in Muenster, helping my parents prepare for the graduation party next weekend.  Well, Mark really did the bulk of the help.  He and my dad spent eleven hours outside, creating a garden and leveling out the yard behind the house.  I watched a lot and brought them cold beers when they looked like they might die.  I also planned menus and decorations with my mom and made a few trips to Home Depot to buy flowers and supplies.  I think its going to be a great time next weekend!

Gus and I are watching HGTV, our usual pre-bed activity.  The weekend feels like it went by too fast, so I'm glad we have a long weekend ahead of us!  Best wishes to everyone for a speedy work week and a great Memorial Day!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Celebrating Moms

Happy Mother's Day to all!  Today I called my mom, emailed my godmother and hung out with this little guy, who likes to call me Mom.
This pic was taken with the camera in my laptop, before we went to bed.  Gus curls up with me while I'm reading or watching TV before bed, then he leaves me for the closet, where he sleeps most of the night.  I think he thinks its his own bedroom.  I hope everyone had some quality Mom Time today!

Monday, May 5, 2008

On My Mind

I am one episode behind on The Hills.  Since I don't have DVR, I have to watch all my TV live (gasp!) and run into a little predicament since TH comes on at the same time as The Bachelor.  So I watch the rerun of The Hills at 8:30 and then switch over to Bachelor at 9:00.  Hence I am always one behind.  So I just saw LC's reunion with Stephen, al la Laguna Beach.  omg.  LC needs to be with Stephen.

I just bought Leona Lewis's album Spirit on Itunes.  It's amazing.

Morgan Ash is on the Jewelry Channel, selling jewels on live TV.  This is amazing.  

Kenny Chesney was fun this weekend.  But the real surprise was when Uncle Kracker made a surprise appearance.  Yes, you remember him.  He sang "Follow Me" in 2001.  He also sang it this weekend.  Talk about a one hit wonder.  Jason Whitten also showed up and attempted to sing "Back Where I Come From" with Kenny.  Let's just say Jason should stick with football...

Thursday, May 1, 2008

May Day

How did it get to be May already? Working for a school, I still function on semester calendars, so I can't believe the "year" is almost over. I couldn't be more excited for summer to get here though. Here's a few things I have to look forward to:

1. Four day work weeks. Starting June 2, I get every Friday off during the entire summer. This could be the number one perk of my job. What do I plan to do with all those 3 day weekends you ask? Keep reading.

2. "Working" from the beach. My co-worker and I stated to get spring fever a month or so ago, so we searched for some conferences we could attend this summer in fun vacation spots. Well we just found out yesterday that our trip to Sarasota, Florida for a 3 day conference on fundraising was approved! We're working on going down a few days early to extend the trip and maybe even bring the boys along. Perhaps even a day trip to Orlando and.... Disney World? It's in the works.

3. Wedding fun. What would the summer be without some wedding festivities? I've got an engagement party at the end of May and a Bachelorette Weekend at a bride-to-be's lake house in June. Both should be fun times with friends I don't get to see that often.

4. More beach time. My parents have rented a beach house for a week in late June/early July. Hmm. Who's going to have the best tan ever this summer?

5. High School Graduation, Small Town Edition. My little sister is graduating Memorial Day weekend and my parents are planning a party to which they are inviting "half of Muenster." There's even guaranteed live music and all you can drink keg beer.

6. July 4th at the Lake. We're heading back to Lake Ten Killer this summer to spend the Fourth with Mark's college friends and their new boat/lots of fireworks. Once again, hellllo tan.

So that should get me through mid-July. Then perhaps some trips to visit all these girls who have moved away? I've been watching flights.. no steal-of-a-deals yet, but I'm keeping my eyes on the Ding Fares :)