Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I forgot to write about the MS150???


So apparently I forgot to blog about the MS150. I've told this story like a million times already, so here's the short version...

Rained Friday...
Flooded LaGrange...
Nowhere to sleep Saturday Night...
Day 1 cancelled by the MS Society at 4:30pm Friday...
Too much rain on Saturday, hard to drive...
Camped at a friends Aunt's house outside of LaGrange Saturday night...
Ate too many Taco's...
Lots of karaoke...
Rode 75 miles Sunday in sunny weather...
Felt sick about 1/2 way through from too many tacos...
Finished the ride in about 5 hours...

Yea, that about sums it up!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

What a weekend!


Well, I don't even know where to start. This weekend was filled with so much fun and excitement and partying and all types of celebrations. I suppose I should just start at the beginning.

Friday was Jeremy's big day. His brother, Matt, flew in from Columbus, Ohio that morning and a bunch of his friends came in from Houston to support him. Moose, Tim, Albert, Chad, Ron, and Buzz all made the trip, and we were joined by Christina and Justin who live here in town. At 3pm he began his PhD dissertation defense, and by 4:30pm he was congratulated by his committee. I suppose he's not officially a doctor yet, but for all intents and purposes, he is. After the presentation we all headed out to Crown and Anchor for some beers and cheers. This was followed by some Mingo Fishtrap at Threadgills and some late night snacks at Magnolia.

Saturday was met with even more fun as we continued to celebrate Jeremy's PhD, and now also my birthday! We started the day with some lunch at this place downtown called Leaf. If you've never been there before, I suggest you check it out. We also took some time to play mini golf and take a nap before the evening began. At this point everyone from Houston had gone back, but Adam and Liza came up to spend the night with us. The five of us went out to dinner at South Congress Cafe and then met up with some more of my friends at Pete's Piano Bar and then Brown Bar. It was such an awesome night, and thanks to all my friends who helped to make it so special. Check out the pictures on facebook.

We rounded out the weekend celebrations on Sunday with a trip to the Saltlick, after some much needed morning exercise. The Chomel's, Strawser's and Leblond's met us there for some BBQ and Cake that Adam and Liza had gotten for us. We also stuck around afterward to listen to some live music.

Thank you again to all my friends and of course Jeremy for making this such a great weekend! We had so much to celebrate and we were both so happy that you all were there.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Real Quick


So I just had to post these two videos real quick. I usually am not a big you tube fan, but these are both just great.

Train Station Sound of Music

and

Britain's Got Talent

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter Weekend



Happy Easter Everyone! I hope that you all had a great weekend filled with food, eggs, and cheer. This weekend was a Houston weekend for me. So on Thursday night, I packed up the car (with way too much stuff... and the cat) and headed down to Houston. Friday day was a relatively uneventful working day, but by 4pm the weekend had started. After a happy hour trip to Boondoggles with some friends, Jeremy and I headed over to the Lillard's for some egg dying fun. Somehow we wound up dying over 11 dozen eggs! Yea, that's a lot of eggs. Apparently we would be using them later in the weekend for some egg cracking fun. Some of the unique eggs included zombies, yellow polka dot bikinis, eyes, and others I can't even remember. Heather showed me this cool trick that some of the kits came with. They are those little clear/decorated plastic sleeves for the eggs. You stick them around the egg then you put the egg in boiling water and it shrink wraps around it. I found this highly amusing, and somehow I never remember doing this before.

Saturday started out with a great bike ride down to Morgan's point, over the Kemah bridge to 96 and then back up Egert bay, for about a 44 mile ride. It was a great last ride, before the MS150 next weekend! The rest of the day was spent like a typical lazy Saturday. Hung out with some friends at their garage sale, took a nap, listened to DC3 practice, and then went to Tokyo Bowl! For those of you that don't know, this Clear Lake sushi restaurant is the best sushi ever! Okay, well maybe not ever, but I haven't found a better place yet.

On Easter Sunday we woke up early and made a bunch of appetizers for dinner later that night. Somehow, I went overboard again and made chocolate bunnies, chocolate fruit cups, guacamole, caramelized onion dip, to die for dip, and chocolate covered strawberries (the berries were on sale at HEB for 97 cents a pound, so I just had to get them). I think I just get so excited about cooking, I can't pick my favorite recipe, so I wind up making them all. After food prep, we headed over to the Lillard's who were nice enough to host 26+ people at their house for Easter dinner. We wound up having enough food for like 60 people! But it was all so wonderful! The "to die for dip" that I made went over really well! It's on cooks.com and I totally recommend making it. I omit the crackers in the recipe, use a bit more green onions, and then serve it with corn chips. After dinner, Betsy put together an egg hunt for us. I forgot how much fun egg hunts were! And because there were only two kids there that could walk, all the adults got to play. We also played a game called "egg knocking." I've never done this before, but you get two hard boil eggs and knock them tip to tip. One breaks and one doesn't, the one that doesn't wins. After 11 dozen eggs, the last one standing is a winner! This was sooo much fun. Everyone really got into the game, and although the dyed eggs turned our hands colors, it was a blast! Finally, as dessert time rolled around, we started thinking of things that we could deep fry. Randy had deep fried the turkey for dinner that night, so all the oil was already set up. We tried twinkies, oreo's, cheesecake, blue marshmallow peeps, snickers, bananas, and sweet potatoes. The twinkies turned out like cream filled doughnuts, the oreos tasted like oreo cake, and the snickers just didn't make it too well.

Overall it was a great weekend! Thanks to everyone who helped out and cooked food over Easter, and thanks again to the Lillards who opened their house for Easter festivities all weekend long. Check out my profile on facebook for more pictures from the weekend!

Monday, April 6, 2009

A lot going on....


Okay, so most of you know this by now, but last week was rough week. My grandfather passed away last Sunday (March 29th) and I was home in PA all last week dealing with that. Fortunately I was able to get time off work to spend up there and Jeremy was even able to come up with me for a few days. I was surprised how many people turned out for his funeral, and how many people he knew. He will be missed dearly by all who knew and loved him.

On other, happier, news... Jeremy and I went to see Seinfeld last week at the Bass Concert Hall. I was still getting over being sick from the week before, but it was such a great show. In fact I was laughing so hard that my throat was killing me by the end of the set. The next day I could barely talk at all. The only thing I would recommend to anyone going to Bass Concert Hall, is get tickets on the ground level. The 1st balcony was not bad at all, but I would have preferred to see his face. Either way though, I was happy to be there.

The rest of the weekend was mainly spent relaxing around the House. I got some more work done on my front yard, (the landscaping is currently a work in progress) and I managed to get in a 37 mile bike ride on Sunday. I would have liked to go longer, but the wind was pretty strong and I was still slightly sick. Also, on Saturday, we went out to Mandola Winery for dinner with Jeremy's friends, Christina and Justin. The restaurant was pretty good, fairly fancy, and definitely expensive. Though we did have 2 bottles of wine between the four of us.

Overall the relaxing weekend helped to make up for the week before and to get me back into work mode. Also, check out my facebook profile for pictures from Christen's Bachelorette party!