Weekend update

- 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.

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.

Party on the patio

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.

Wedding festivities, NY edition

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.

I'm sad about this picture. =(

Congratulations to Dana and Rex!!

Busy much? Also, adventures in weight loss

The last three weeks had just a touch of whirlwind to them.  You know, moving back to Texas.  Into an actual house.  And starting a "new" job.  In the middle of busy season.  And having Craig here one weekend and my parents the next and then Craig again.  And I'm going to NYC this weekend for a very dear friend's wedding.  And did you know that I've spent more time in Home Depot in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life?

And I don't want the blog to die.  Poor neglected blog.  It's had a whole lot of zilch going on the last few weeks.  I'm back, little blog, I'm back.

Especially since I need to document the latest step in the healthy living plan...

I could stand to lose a few pounds.  For health's sake.  And vanity's sake, of course - I don't want to worry AS much about my arm flab in a wedding dress here in about eight months.  I've put on about 15-20 pounds in the last year or so (I totally blame Craig taking me on all these amazing dates and cooking for me...plus I'm also buying into the theory that falling in love makes you gain weight...it's possible!), and I'd like to take it off.  Plus another ten on top of that to get to a healthy, stable place.  And Trinity's kinda in the same boat.  Well, not the wedding dress thing, but the "could stand to lose a few" thing.  So he offered up a weight loss challenge, pitting us against each other, sparking the competitive spirit in both us.  Motivation!!

Plus it makes it more serious if you give it a logo with Harry Potter font.  How could that be anything but motivational and awesome?

We weighed in a week ago, set our goal weights, and are going to check our percentage lost every two weeks - the winner (who's really the "loser") gets some kind of prize from the other.  And the ultimate winner (whoever hits their goal weight first) gets something awesome.  We just haven't decided quite what yet.

So far...I'm not off to a stellar start.  I mean, I just got back to the land of Tex-Mex.  What am I supposed to do, say no to shrimp taquito day at Chuy's (Wednesday, of course) or fried chicken taco day (Thursday, if you're interested) at Taco Joint?  Maybe I should also think twice about making a triple batch of homemade oreos (I took them all to work, don't worry - not a single one left in the house.  But of course I still ate plenty during the baking process...).  And I should actually join a gym and actually go there.  Getting on a consistent workout schedule would really help.  Which is where a 9-to-5 schedule would come in handy.  But no excuses!  Time to do this thing!

It's good to be back in Texas, y'all, even if enchiladas tempt me at every turn.

Adventures in moving

"Adventures in moving" is just a little broad.  Let's also file this one under (1) the poor kitty who couldn't fly (Harrison was supposed to fly out Wednesday...and then Friday...and now MONDAY!  Poor little guy) and (2) what happens when a door seal is broken during Snowy Icy Disaster Times (bazillions of cold air molecules rush into your home, creating a thermostat reading of...freezing.  Not good to see your breath in your house.  Heat is now on and the door seal is now fixed, phew). 

Possibly also file under (3) North Texas goes Super Bowl crazy (but at least the Pittsburgh and Wisconsin fans know how to drive in ice and snow, right?) and (4) reacquiring your four-wheel drive vehicle in place of rental car on the day The Great Melt begins (although in its defense, the little Nissan Versa did just fine as long as I went slooooowly - driving on the frozen equivalent of a Slip 'n Slide isn't exactly my idea of a good time.  Glow sun glow!  Melt that snow!).

Who would have thought that I'd need to worry more about snow and ice blanketing North Texas than attacking D.C. this time of year?  After powering through Snowpocalypse 2009 and Snowmageddon 2010, I sent up little prayers to Mother Nature for her to please go easy on the East Coast during late January, early February this year.  Too bad I forgot to account for crazy Texas weather.  Dallas has been blanketed by ice ever since Tuesday...and another six inches of snow fell on Thursday night.  At least I was fortunate enough to be traveling on one of the few flights that actually made it from DC to Dallas on Wednesday.  Egads!

However...I'm remarkably impressed that both the movers with my giant truckload of stuff AND the car carrier got here TODAY.  Thanks for battling the elements, guys!  And thanks for unpacking my ridiculous amount of stuff while I spend the day tethered in, knocking out things like address changes.  And blogging.  And wondering how the heck to arrange the living room.

It's starting to actually feel like I'm back here now and not just on a short visit.  Phew.  Now, if we could just get poor little Harrison here...