- Hired a wedding coordinator/planner. This did great, great things for my sanity. Did you know planning a wedding takes a lot of work and time? It's kinda remarkable.
- Met Molly and Robert in Ft. Worth for a great dinner at Los Vaqueros and an awesome, Texas-tastic concert at Billy Bob's - Wade Bowen!! I love this man. God bless Texas country music.
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| Not the greatest picture, but it's a man with a guitar...what more do you need to know? |
- Made vanilla bean panna cotta with strawberries in red wine syrup as a dessert contribution for carb-loading dinner at Kami's for the race day girls. So, SO great to spend some quality time with these good people. - Speaking of race day girls, cheered on Kami and Belinda as they totally kicked butt in the Dallas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. Way to go, ladies!! I'm really proud of you for attacking this the way you did and finishing strong. Also, thanks for a reason to go to Cafe Brazil and eat one my favorite things...chilaquiles!!
Oh, by the way, my roommate gets into town tomorrow. My roommate/fiancé/"the boy" and his giant dog. Harrison and I are both EXCITED and and a little freaked out. Actually, Harrison has no idea what's really about to happen. But I've tried to warn him. And I can't wait for Craig to be here.
It's here. Spring. Dallas has been hit with a stretch of gorgeous 80-something-degree days, and we're soaking up all the patio time that deserves.
Preferred spot? Deck in my very own backyard. Although it's lacking the friendly waitstaff that refresh your water glass and bring you tasty things to eat. Harrison also sits at the glass door and meows at me to come back in. Poor little guy. Still weird being in an actual house.
Patrizio's. I always feel poor over in that privileged part of town, but I can certainly afford a baby bellini and plate of pasta to buy some time on that pretty patio with my dear Sarah. Plus Anthropologie is right there and perfect for post-dinner wandering and dreaming.
Dashing out of work at 4:45 to meet friends at Times Ten, where we proceeded to hang out on the patio for the next four hours while sipping a lovely sauvignon blanc (it's white wine season!) and enjoying pizza from Scalini's. I love that they deliver to that patio. It's the perfefct combination.
Common Table for brunch. The sky threatened us with a few clouds, but then it cleared out and was just lovely. Any Sunday is better with mimosas and something that's been Benedict-ed.
Although any Sunday is not better with a SUNBURN. I met Kami and Carolyn this morning for brunch at Taverna, which was delicious and wonderful in every way as we enjoyed the patio and people-watching and catching up on life, but I had my back to the sun. My delicate Casper-like skin shrieked in horror and promptly turned a rather bright pink. It's only MARCH, for crying out loud. Guess I'd better go ahead and bust out my SPF 80 for daily outings. It's kinda frightening what can happen to my skin with an hour of sunlight.
I feel like this kinda became an advertisement for various Dallas establishments with patios...but DC deprived me of patio time. First of all, the weather is generally not this cooperative there this time of year, and patio space = valuable real estate = minimal patio space. And I loved my rooftop time, but it's just not quite the same. Good to be back in patio land.
One of the best things I got out of my time in DC was a wonderful new friend, a constant during the crazy who was always there for sanity checks and explorations of the city. Yeah, basically we ate out a lot, but we also did awesome things like explore Annapolis and enjoy Labor Day outings in New York and get up close with cherry blossoms. We also both happened to meet the crazy guys who decided they wanted to marry us (a little weird, right? just a little?), and I was more than happy to head back to the East Coast for a New York weekend to celebrate the union of the fabulous Dana Duffin and Rex Holmes.
Craig flew up from DC + I flew in from Dallas = reunion in JFK, once I actually figured out which terminal I landed in. Poor guy was confused when I told him I was in Terminal B and he informed me the terminals are numbers, not letters. Oops on my part. We worked it out, though. Totally found each other.
We didn't have any real plans for Friday night - we just set out to have some fun in the city. I LOVE NYC. I really do. I have a coffee mug that says so.
After navigating the AirTrain and the LIRR and the NYC subway and a couple of blocks (phew!), we checked into the Belvedere and promptly headed out to start our evening at Casellula for a little food and a glass of wine to fuel our bodies for some serious Times Square strolling. This place was extremely cute, extremely delicious, and EXTREMELY busy by the time we left to do some walking. We stopped by the TKTS booth about ten minutes before the shows kicked off to see if we could snag bargain tickets to a Broadway extravaganza, but the only half-price tickets were for the pricey seats, which means they were still a little pricey for our liking.
So instead, I bought a $5 scarf/wrap/pashmina-thing from the crazy street guys. And we were just confused by sheep.
Our chilly-ish night needed an injection of fun, so we headed back to base camp and formulated a plan around "tiki bar." Oh yes we did. And that's where we went. Look for the big yellow surfboard and you'll find yourself at Réunion in Hell's Kitchen. It was FUN. And I think I'm now addicted to mai tais.
Follow up mai tais with a late dinner at Becco and it was a pretty stellar NYC evening.
Saturday: fairly ridiculous driving adventure through Queens with a WAY lost shuttle bus driver on our way to the church, beautiful wedding ceremony, epic and beautiful and touching and fun and amazing reception at Westbury Manor in Long Island. Fantastic day with Craig celebrating this wonderful event. The boy even tore up the dance floor a little bit. THAT is how you know it was a good time.
Note to self: I've resolved to go ahead and take the beast camera to weddings. And everywhere. I had this silly idea to rely on Craig's little camera for pictures so I wouldn't have to bring the giant purse and my giant camera and worry about its well-being with drunken revelry all around. I deeply regret this idea.
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| I'm sad about this picture. =( |
Congratulations to Dana and Rex!!
