The best Christmas present EVER

Look no further friends. I have discovered the ultimate present for almost any occasion. Wait, let's give credit where credit is due: my DAD discovered the best present. And, he found it in the Wall Street Journal, no less. (So typical of my father.)

For Christmas, he had 15 bottles of various red wines shipped directly to our door. Best.present.ever. They're all from smallish, up-and-coming vineyards around the world (no offense America but other countries have really good wine too. Nothing peeves me more than a restaurant with a wine list comprised entirely of American wines) and it's been fun trying and comparing all the different bottles. And for the record, I'm not a wine-snob! I went through phase of buying cases of Charles Shaw (three-buck Chuck) at Trader Joe's but I also appreciate a really high end bottle of wine. Wine is wine.

Now, I know these wine club deals are all over the place, so perhaps I'm just more impressed with my dad's unbelievably insightful gift giving skills. It was beyond thoughtful of him and every time we open a bottle of wine, we think of him!

And opened bottles of wine we have. I save the corks (someday I'll get around to a crafting cork project!) and we still have plenty of bottles to last us, say, another week or so. Kidding. At least two weeks.

Just a heads up yall that my birthday is in June, so email me for my address to send my next case of wine.

Happy Friday! And don't forget it's five o'clock somewhere!

First Giveaway & Random Friday Thoughts

Stay tuned for details next week! I've never done one of these bad boys before - heck, I've never even won one when I've been on the other side - but there's a first time for everything. I'll be teaming up with my friend Lenzi over at Homemade Happiness to spoil some lucky winner with a special treat. But, like I said, you'll have to check back next week!

I can't get over how beautiful the weather is today. The leaves are starting to change, there's a crisp breeze in the air and October is just around the corner. I'll be honest, it's days like this when I don't miss Texas. Fall is my favorite season.

Last Friday, we went to Kirk & Susie's wedding up in NYC. Kirk and Mr. B are colleagues and we were so happy to spend the day with them. As it was getting close to ceremony time, it started to rain (that's all it's been doing around here lately it seems) but it made for a really romantic and intimate wedding.

Have you ever seen wedding flowers this beautiful?

Please pardon the "self" picture with an iPhone.

We walked out of the reception and when I looked up, all I could think was:

Holy Batman, We're in Gotham City!



Lastly, remember a while ago when I told yall about the Toilet Paper Graffiti Artist? Well, lo and behold, she struck again. Except this time, it was a team of artists, and they made a special toilet paper face to celebrate our anniversary. I actually laughed so hard I cried when I saw this work of art. It's now sitting on a bookcase shelf for all to see when they stop by my office.

Nothing says Happy Anniversary from your colleagues like a decorated roll of toilet paper.

I love my work friends.

I hope you all are enjoying beautiful fall weather too and have lots of fun plans for the weekend. Mr. B and I have a few house projects to tackle. It's finally time to say goodbye to the crazy green 70's carpet upstairs. I hope to have some before and after's to share with yall next week.

And don't forget the giveaway!

Vacation/holiday Part III: My Best Friend's Wedding

First off, if you're offended by the corny/cheesy blog title, peace out. We're talking about my best friend here so I reserve the right to get emotional, irrational, hypersensitive in this post and that's perfectly fair.

I'll go ahead and confess my sins now. I hardly took any pictures on this trip. Between MoH duties, being generally stressed and nervous and not having an actual camera, it just didn't happen. And I'm mad now. So thanks to the few of who did take pictures (Misch and Alison) posted them on facebook, and are finding out now that I totally stole them. Thanks.

We left the lakes on a Wednesday to hop a flight from Minneapolis to Denver. It was a late flight, so by the time we'd landed, picked up our rental, hopped on 25-North to Fort Collins, well....it was late. And I was exhausted. From what, I have no freakin idea cause I'D JUST SPENT A WEEK DOING NOTHING. It's really rough being me some days.

I popped a Tylenol PM to ensure a super duper nights sleep and awoke on Thursday morning rearin' and ready to go. I'd only texted Whit when we landed to let her know I was going to sleep and I'd see her tomorrow, so when I rocked up at our appointed meeting place the next morning for our nail appointments, it was like a total reality check. We're in Fort Collins. For Whit's wedding. This is happening.

Fast forward to the rehearsal. The weather was beautiful and the entire wedding party + family + friends are finally all together for the first time.

Bride and groom practicing their walk down the aisle together

The ring bearer, Cash, having a hard time keeping quiet. He did a great job on the actual day!

Following the rehearsal, we all headed over to New Belgium Brewery for tours and tastings. Some in the group opted to skip the tour and just head straight for the tastings. (Who me? You've seen one brewery, you've seen them all....) We sat outside in the late afternoon sunshine and enjoyed the various beverages on tap. Favorites? Sunshine and Mothership. Not so much? Hoptober.

The bride and groom were ever-so-clever in their planning and wisely planned for us to move on to the rehearsal dinner before things got too sloppy at the brewery. We piled in a cabs and headed over to Tortilla Marissa's for yummy mexican and margaritas. There were lots of speeches and remarks and then soon enough we were back in cabs again to head down to Old Town for more beers. (Thanks to Tina, our cabbie, for turning a blind eye when we piled seven of us in a four seater. We'll never see you again but you made the night.)

The next morning, Friday, September 9th, came with the blink of an eye. My attempt to sleep the night before was an epic fail. When I wasn't tossing and turning, I was dreaming about the wedding and the alarm sounded very early. The girls met for a leisurely lunch at 11am before our hair appointments just down the street. Again, we were treated to beautiful sunshine and dined al fresco.

No, those two pictures are not a "spot what's different" game. But if you're really reading this post, and I hope you are, you'll notice the Queen is with us. Lizzie is a Whit/Kate tradition dating way back to college for Whit's 21st birthday. She's now present at all major (and minor!) life events including my wedding, and now, Whitney's wedding. She's the best.

Whitney gave each of the girls adorable presents - jewelry and handbags and pashminas and dress sashes - oh my! We gave Whit our measurements a few weeks prior but hadn't tried on the sashes in advance. While I knew my measurements were fine, I was still nervous the sash wouldn't fit. I figured if I tried it on on top of my clothes and two scarves, and it fit, I would be fine.

We headed to the salon for our hair appointments and watched as our locks were transformed from everyday do's to special wedding day works of art. I wasn't particularly happy with mine - it looked like I had three rat tails at the back - so I kindly asked the stylist to redo part of it. It took longer than I expected and suddenly I was behind schedule and running late to the ceremony/reception site. (Flashback to my wedding when Whit wasn't happy with her hair either. What is it with us?)

We had a quick hour or two to get our makeup and dresses on and help the bride with hers. Seriously, time has never flown by so fast. Before I knew it, the photographer was hanging around and we were peeking out the window to watch the guests arrive. And then it was go time.

Nate seeing his beautiful bride for the first time

After the I do's



We ate, drank and danced the rest of the evening away. The stars were out, there was a cool breezy, and some really bumpin tunes. My type of party.

Seriously, why does Blogger do this? The picture is the correct direction on my comptuer and then when it gets on here it goes all crazy. Grr.

I can't put my finger on exactly when the wheels started to come off that night but I'm guessing it was sometime around when this picture was taken. We were trying so hard to get a normal, decent photo, and well, that's stupidly difficult when the wheels are coming off.

From here on out, the night starts to become a little blurry totally awesome. We left the reception around 11pm and headed back in to town to hit up the bars. We were all supposed to meet at an assigned bar - name unknown and time unknown - but we decided to stop for more drinks before heading to the appointed bar. It's weird that at this point, I'm now using my camera, but not earlier in the day when I really needed to be using it?  

When we moved from the pit-stop bar to the real bar, things began to get cah-ray-zay. The real bar was a bar right across the street from our hotel. Easy enough. And me being the genius I am showed up to the real bar sans purse, credit card, lipstick and........identification. One by one we streamed in to meet up with the bride and groom and when it was my turn? Denied. No ID.

At this point, the wheels were officially off. First I pleaded and begged. "Do you see the bride in there? Do you see I have a bridesmaids dress on? Do you think I'm legit?"  No luck. Then, Christopher, the gentleman on the far right in the pictures above, gave me his ID to get in. It was a genius plan. Except he is a boy and I am a girl and the doorman saw him hand me the ID. Better luck next time. Well, at this point, I'm out of options. (Minus the obvious one. Walk across the street and get your ID yourself idiot. Didn't occur to me though.)

So, what does any rational female do? She cries. And cries. And cries. And then magically, I get in.

At some point during all this, Mr. B., learning of my awful predicament, ran across the street to get me my ID, but by the time he returned, I was already seated at the bar. You would think, at this point, the tears would naturally stop. Situation resolved. Entry to bar granted. Move on. Ohhhhh noooooo. I proceed to sit at the barstool and cry, cry, cry. Woe is me. The bartender wouldn't even let me in. How dare he. Doesn't he know who I am. I only stopped crying when Whitney came over and told me to sort it out. (To be fair, this story is almost an exact copy of the night of my wedding when she also had a drunk breakdown and needed some comforting! Ha!) Let's just say the night was pretty much over for Mrs. B. at that point.

The next morning was a little rough, but we grabbed coffee and sat outside in the sunshine (see a theme here?) with a few people and debriefed the night's events. Isn't that always the best part of fun night out?  Swapping stories and hearing the hilarious stories from everyone else made my little crying incident seem totally insignificant. Good. We put on our purple (it was gameday after all!), grabbed lunch, and headed over to Nate's parents house for a relaxing afternoon of BBQ and football.

Early the next morning, we headed back to Denver airport for our flight home. I was worried/anxious/paranoid about flying on September 11 but other than the longer-than-normal security lines, it was fine. (And I'm not complaining about the extra security - bring it on!) However, I really didn't need to see every TV screen in the airport on CNN all morning replaying the images of the planes flying in to the towers etc. I'm not particularly fond of flying as it is - despite the mileage racked up on this trip - so Mr. B did an excellent job of distracting me!

All in all, our whirlwind vacation was a blast. Mr. B and I got to spend some much needed quality time with each other, family and friends and it was a nice break before the chaos of October descends on us. Now, it's back to The Anniversary Home and the endless list of chores/improvements/to fix!

Vacation/Holiday Part I: London

Three weeks we headed across the small pond to England for few days to visit family and friends. Each trip home is like a step back in time: things are the same, but they're different. It's comforting and weird at the same time.

Despite the fact we were only there for a few days, we had a blast and made the most of every day.
The highlight of the trip was the wedding for our dear friends, Mike and Naomi. They made the trek to Dallas for our wedding a few years ago, and there was no way we were going to miss their special day. In case you've had your head in the ground this year, or forever, English weddings are quite the affair. Royalty or not, it's a big, all-day celebration with plenty of drinks to keep your spirits up.

We started the day early with brunch in Bermondsey - we'd obviously need full bellies to keep us going all day long. But let's be honest, when you walk in at 11am dressed to the nines, and most everyone is still in their pjs, it can feel a little awkward. And its more awkward when you ask for the wine list and your waiter has to tell you he can't serve it to you till noon. Well, fine, bloody mary's for the next hour will do.

Donald & Donald. I don't think they even know why they call each other Donald.

Thanks for never taking any picture too seriously Donald.

In typical London fashion, it absolutely chucked it down with rain while we were enjoying our brunch. (Oh, it's raining? We should get another bottle while we wait it out.) And in one of the strangest weather phenomena I've ever experienced: from our table we could see one side of the street where it was raining and another side of the street where it wasn't raining. And I promise that wasn't the wine making us see things. It really happened. Upside after the showers? We were treated to glorious sunshine for the rest of the day.

For you architecture buffs, this was from our table - The Shard of Glass.

Construction is coming along nicely...

And then us walking directly beneath it. Let's talk about how Mike and Adam look like my personal security detail here. Thanks lads.

And the wine is kicking in. And we're not even at the bloody ceremony yet.

Undoubtedly, I said something ridiculously stupid or we were planning our dance floor moves for later in the evening. Probably both.

Despite many drinks, getting lost and a minor shoe crisis (Notice the flips girls. Don't even try to walk long distances through the streets of London in your heels.) we made it to the cathedral on time. And yes, cathedral, cause the bride and groom have connections with godly types. A beautiful service - take my word for it - but no pictures cause I'm not that tacky. But outside of the cathedral, it was fair game.

Sometimes life's so bright you gotta wear shades. Except Mr. B.

Sans shades cause we're cool like that.

So here's what you need to know. From the cathedral, we had to walk a short distance to a pier on the Thames to catch our river cruise. (Yes, river cruise, but more on that later.) Well after a good hour in the church, we were, shall we say, sobering up a little, AND England was playing Ireland in the Rugby World Cup. So would you judge us if we made a quick pit stop in the pub on our way? I didn't think so. Thank you friends.

Photographic evidence that, really, there was sports on that we needed to watch.

And watching sports without drinks is lame. Bulmers, Lager and Wine.

So maybe a little too much time passed at the pub and we had to hustle it to the boat. And we were the last ones on the boat. (Oops. Thanks for waiting though!) The bride and groom had catered to our every need on the boat which meant we were greeted immediately with more drinks. Our crew decided to head to the back of the boat and soak up the sunshine and some amazing views. Prepare yourself for a few of my favorite pictures we've ever taken in London.

Mrs. B + full security detail.

Have no idea what we were laughing at, but if you don't know us IRL, this pretty much sums it up.

Always laughing.

Donald, Big Up, Mr. B and hubs with the London Eye.

In case you want to know the story of how Mr. B and I met, blame thanks Donald and Mr. B.

But that's another post.

My fantastically pathetic attempt at getting a group shot in front of Ben. Fail.

Mr. and Mrs. B with Ben and the Eye.

So, fast forward an undetermined time later. (I say undetermined because at this point I have lost all track of time. It was at least an hour? Maybe two?) We arrive at the other end of the arrive and head for the reception at Fulham Palace. Yep. Palace. Cause again, the bride and groom have connections.

Mr. B attempting to get artsy with the iPhone and I just have no idea what is happening.

More drinks in the garden but the threat of showers chased us inside. By this point, we'd had our fill of English sunshine and it made complete sense to position ourselves as close to the bar as possible. Again, loss of time keeping and we're on our way to dinner. The food was amazing. And that's not just because I'd been drinking all day.

Shepherd's pie and mash at a wedding?. Yes please. Delish.

Soon enough it was time for dancing and that's where things started to get a little hazy. If my pictures are anything to go by, the wheels were starting to come off. We left around 1am, at which point Mikey had an absolutely epic (drunk) temper tantrum about the rest of us being (insert choice word) losers for not wanting to go to some seedy, nasty disco to dance and drink the rest of the night away. For once in my life, this was probably a wise decision because we had to be up in the morning, and in decent health, to travel down to Rich's parents. (Some of you may recall a previous wedding where I did not heed this advice and spent much of the train trip home in the bathroom. Thanks Marie.)

We spent a couple days down on the south coast with Mr. B's family. Our visits home always seem to fly by - when does a trip home not feel that way? We spend a lovely English Sunday afternoon at the local fair. I guess for us Americans it would be a cross between a local 4-H gig (but more civilized) but not quite like a state fair (smaller in scale.)

The nephews and I immediately went on a quest for donuts. Mmmmm. We walked around the entire area before we finally found them and they were well worth the wait. And yes, I am the auntie who feeds sugar and sweets...



We wandered around until we found Mr. B and his brother, Matt, up to their usual, highly-competitive, tricks. This iteration included a coconut throwing contest and believe it or not, ended up in a tie!

Playing "Paper, Scissors, Stone" to start the game.

You and I call it "Rock, Paper, Scissors".

Either way its official.

Matt with his coconut throw. Excellent form.

Mr. B following through with his coconut throw.

To finish off the visit, we went for a family dinner (Nanny, Grandpa, Auntie and Uncle, plus Matt & Helen and the boys.) Of course, I didn't take a family picture. Nothing new there... But I did snap this adorable picture of my little nephew with his after dinner dessert. A cappuccino and ice cream. (But the cappuccino is really just frothy milk.) How adorable is that?? So proper!

I headed back to the States on Tuesday (darn MBA class ruins all the fun) and Mr. B came home the next day before our big adventure to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.... stay tuned for more!

Dallas Days and Fort Worth Nights

One week on and I think I'm just starting to recover from last weekend's adventures in the great state. The weekend flew by - as it always does - but I managed to accomplish what I intended to do: relax with family and friends.

It was hot. Hotter than the hinges on the back door of hell.

It was "run from the house a/c to the car a/c to the grocery a/c to the starbucks a/c and you're going to be sweating no matter what" hot. I didn't mind too much but I can absolutely see how 35 days in a row of 100+ temps could get really irratating.

How to beat the heat? Spend lots of time in my parents pool, naturally. Generally the 8am - 11am shift was the best but I did the 1pm - 4pm shift too. (More on that later.)

The trip was not all giggles though. There was some serious business which needed to be attended to. The dog needed to learn to swim. I said it. I mean "swim" in the most ridiculous sense. She doggy paddles and gets to the side of the pool but we needed to get her feeling comfortable in the water for our vacation to the lake next month.

So Mama H. and I bought her a doggy-life jacket (also ridiculous) and spent the afternoon in the pool (read: 1pm - 4pm shift, aka insanity) with treats and lots of positive enforcement. 

She was PISSED. Look at that face. She'll endure about anything if it means hanging out with the girls but she was so mad at us. But I digress.

When it's super hot, you need to stay hydrated. So I started my hydration campaign at Houston Hobby  during my quick layover to Dallas. Shiner Bock, I love you. (Side note: I can NOT wait for the flippin Wright Amendment to be abandoned. Can't a girl just get to Love nonstop from Philly? Sheesh.)

If you know Mama H. and me, you know that, naturally, the first stop off the plane was the knitting shop. I hooked myself up with a ton of yarn for my next project. (But I didn't take any pictures. That's another entry.)  Then it was straight to PL Nail for mani/pedis with Mama H. I've had mani/pedis all over the world (literally) and I always come back to this local place. The. best. massages. ever. Plus, more hydration.

It was great to catch up with my dear friends, KP and Stef, who are in the middle of planning their wedding for next March. KP and I went to high school together and we were college roommates. I'm beyond thrilled that Stef is the love of his life cause she's kinda the love of my life too. I love wedding planning and I love hearing about people planning weddings so much to KP's annoyance, we spent most of dinner discussing planning. (To be fair, the Rangers game was on.) They found an amazing sushi place on Lower Greenville for us so let's just say Friday night was a success. (And well hydrated. Sake style.)

Saturday was the big girls day! We headed to the Four Seasons Las Calinas for massages and some serious pool time. This was our view for most of the day:

Not too shabby. I think we succeeded in ensuring the bride-to-be to had a blissful, relaxing girls day. Apparently, we were well hydrated too as evidenced by the bar tab and the drunk smiles in this photo.

Not long to go now Miss Whit! You are going to be a beautiful bride and 9/9/11 is going to be one for the history books! (Get it, history books? A la Donald Rumsfeld style. Love you.)

If only every weekend could be like last weekend....

Back in the great state

I woke up this morning

with Texas on my mind

thinking about my friends there...

- Pat Green

I did wake up with Texas on my mind. Indeed, today, I woke up in Texas.

And it feels good. Minus the heat. But I don't care.

There's absolutely nothing better than Mama H. picking you up at Love, heading to PL Nail for mani/pedis, taking a few afternoon laps in the pool (more like bath tub?), enjoying a family Tex-Mex dinner and sleeping in the home you grew up in. It feels good. Really good.

I'm in town for a girls weekend for Miss Mods wedding. I'm super excited for relaxation, laughing till it hurts and celebrating my bestie before she gets married next month. Life is good.

I'll be out of commission until next week but I promise to try to remember to take pictures. I also promise not to make promises I can't keep. So maybe I'll just steal some pictures from someone else.  

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend friends!