Fabulous friend fun

Jenny P was here this weekend! Fabulous weekend item #1 = leaving work early on Friday. Her instructor obligations for a PwC national training ended around noon, so I cut out a few hours early so we could enjoy our Friday afternoon. Weekends are great regardless of start time, but they're even greater when you can kick them off prior to 5:00 PM.

Since she has previously made the rounds of major monuments, etc. etc., AND we were at the mercy of the somewhat iffy weather this weekend, we spent a lot of time skipping the major tourist rounds and...well...eating and drinking and talking, basically, which is not a bad way to spend a weekend. A failed attempt at wine and appetizers at Poste (zero service! zero!) followed by fabulous items #2, 3, and 4 - actual wine and appetizers at Proof, a little bit of shopping at H&M (why doesn't Dallas have one yet?), and burgers and beer at Gordon Biersch rounded out our evening of exploring my neighborhood. Here I am trying out the beer sampler....all in the name of preparing my palate for the upcoming trip to Germany and the Czech Republic, lands of awesome beer:

Saturday included fabulous item #5, which consisted of Tex-Mex adventures, complete with margaritas, girl talk, work gossip, and Elizabeth at Lauriol Plaza - for those keeping score, the chile rellenos were acceptable but lacking in the appropriate batter for the appropriate degree of crispiness that should be achieved upon frying. It was also "open house" day at several of the embassies, so we caught a few at the end of day, compiling fabulous items #6-9 by making stops at Botswana...

...the Kyrgyz Republic, the Bahamas, where we met the ambassador on our way in and paused for a festive costume photo op...

...and our final stop at Indonesia, which was by far the largest and most impressive of the small sampling of embassies we visited. Cool drum things going on, ceremonial headdresses hanging around, and shiny eagles all over the place, which I later learned is the coat of arms of Indonesia. Come on, you know silly pictures are the most fun.

Fabulous items #10, 11, and 12 consist of a delightful tapas dinner at Bodega in Georgetown, drinks and really interesting people-watching at Fadó, and strawberry shortcake. Sunday was full of rain and flight delays, the ickiness of which was countered by fabulous item #13, French toast, and fabulous item #14, lots of relaxation and chillin at my casa. Oh, and I gleefully accepted fabulous item #15, a lovely jar of Smuckers red plum jam as a gift from home. Thank you, Jenny...and Molly! It's good to spend quality time with good friends, and the jam just happens to be the icing on the cupcake of friendship. Geez, I should definitely get away from baking analogies.