Leigh's 28th edition birthday

Leigh Finney...oh, where do I start? I met Leigh through a mutual friend, Bentley, and at first sight knew she'd be the kind of friend everyone wants to have. First and foremost, she has one of the most sought-after friend qualities - trust. I know she and I have a special bond when it comes to this word.


So when her boyfriend Lance, who also happens to be a good friend of mine, planned a fantastic birthday dinner for Leigh...I cleared my calendar for Labor Day weekend. Her night began at Penne Pomodoro. At one point (2 people came and went), there were 10 people there... a very good turnout. Dinner was awesome. Leigh, the little charmer that she is, even got a tour of the kitchen to say hi to all of the cooks! Then the manager took us back behind the pizza oven counter and we all got a great picture. Too bad no one grabbed the pizza handler and gave the birthday girl her spankin's...


Then Billy thought it would be funny to murder his lobster. I tried to convince him that the poor thing was probably scalded to death 10 minutes prior, but he didn't seem to care. After all, it was "just the tail".



Blaine was in charge of dessert - and must I say - did a VERY good job. His explanation was (in the gay tone Blaine voice we all know and love) "Well, she likes cheesecake and she likes citrusy things....so I got her a Key Lime Cheesecake!" Lance, and Leigh, couldn't have been more pleased. (Picture below, "The word 'Share' is not in my vocabulary sweetheart.")


After dinner, it was on to Lotus. Think untz-untz-untz-bump-grind kind of place. It's fun, definitely fun, but you have to get there early. Just a few pictures to describe the night...


And that's that.

Another full weekend at the lake

Let me start this last weekend with the story of the dress. Back in June for my birthday, my mom came to Dallas and we went shopping. She, with those spotting eyes of hers, noticed a dress on the sale rack at www.Anthropologie.com. Although they didn't have her size, I quickly snatched up mine. It's a cute ankle length halter maxi dress (for you male readers, it's a long summer dress) that I have yet to wear, so I figured the Pooch Palace Pet Resort Preview Party would be a perfect occasion to bust out this dress. I talked all week about wearing it, and what do I end up doing? I FORGET IT.

Kev and I had planned on leaving from work to go straight to the lake. Thank goodness I have a sweet boyfriend who is willing to drive 20 extra minutes down the tollway to get a DRESS. Finally around 8pm, we showed up at the Pooch Palace and missed the whole party, but DAMMIT I wore that dress! After way too much wine and leftover swiss and crackers, Kevin and I finally went back to his house around 1am...ish.



Saturday morning I had a serious craving for Monte's #4 Breakfast Burritos. If you ever get a chance, you need to try them. It's completely out of the way off of 377 but it's worth every minute. I made a funny comment to Kevin in the drive thru and he did his cute little "hide in the dunce's corner like I'm three) move...he does this every time I say something a little playfully mean. Between that and his pout, it gets me every time.


We stuck around the Pooch Palace to help set things up. Overall, it took 4 people to set up a $10 canopy and made a quick trip at 12:30 to go GET the hotdogs that we were SUPPOSED to have all day for the "Bring your dog, get a dog" event. Kevin and I left around 2:30 to take the boat out for a bit and had plans to go out but we didn't make it. After a nap from 8 to 9pm, we took showers and decided to stay home to drink. Shadow had other plans (napping) because he can't drink...he's only 9 in human years. Another 2 years buddy!


Sunday morning, we dropped Shadow off at our free babysitter (thank you Lisa and Brent!) and went to the Nutshell Bakery for breakfast. After some fabulous blueberry pancakes and "lunch" we picked up one of Lisa's sons, Zach, his wife Jennifer and their friend and went out on the boat. Oh and by the way, Kevin and I are starting a new sunglasses trend...women's shades for men, and the "1991's" for women.


Out at party cove, we met up with some of our lake buddies, Candace, Leah and Ronnie and met some new ones and had a great time with mimosas (yes, champagne on the lake is AWESOME).

As we were leaving town, we stopped for dinner at Pastafina and picked Shadow up (who tooted the whole way home thanks to his 5 cups of Eukanuba...thanks mom :) ). Tired and sunburned, we made it home around 10pm and crashed.

Another successful weekend in Granbury, Texas.

Pooch Palace Preview

I apologize for not being a diligent blogger. I told myself I was going to blog every day, because I know all of you are browsing to my blog every 5 minutes to check for an update because I'M JUST THAT INTERESTING. Hmm, no takers?

Quick rundown of the rest of my week: Wednesday I went to Oklahoma (aka McKinney) to visit with some of my good girl friends that I never get to see because of a certain situation, and Jammi hosted a fun Pure Romance party. I will not go into details...but let's just say there was a particular phrase said by Mrs. Palmer that still resonates in the back of my head and I laugh out loud every time I hear it (fellow party girls, you'll know what I'm talking about)

Thursday I went to the W for an appointment at Bliss Spa. I have a love/hate relationship with that hotel. Kevin and I stayed there for my birthday in June on a Saturday night...the hotel was wonderful. They truly couldn't have been more attentive, detailed and kind. HOWEVER, I have a complete 180 opinion on Ghostbar. I'm not the type who gets dolled up in the skankiest clothes I can find and goes on the prowl for the Dallas douche bags that sport fedoras, all while grinding to Tiesto's latest hit - which is 90% of the Ghostbar crowd on any given weekend night.

But my friend Karla works there as a waitress, so we figured, why not? I could write an entire post about how bad of an experience we had with that place - or rather what we DIDN'T have with the place - starting with the bouncers at the elevators that probably shot up steroids on their smoke breaks and walk away at the end of the night at 4am making $15,000 salary. See? I'm already on a roll...I'm going to halt myself before my fingers are sent to the hospital for keyboard exhaustion.

Fast forward to tonight. Right now, myself and three of my coworkers are sitting in Kevin's office having a de-stressing adult cocktail (don't worry, Kevin is being the DD for me when we leave). We're leaving soon to go to Granbury, with Shadow, for the weekend.

My parents are helping some of their very dearest friends, Lisa and Brent Hall, open a new business in Granbury. Lisa and Brent have been visiting them for the past few years and decided to stop being gypsies (kidding!) and nestle down in Granbury. Lisa has an extraordinary imagination - she's like the waitress who has worked at every restaurant. If you name a job, she's done it and is quite good at it.

So she had an idea to open a doggie day care and extended stay "resort" called the Pooch Palace Pet Resort. They're opening officially tomorrow, so tonight is the preview party for area vets and their staff. I couldn't be happier for the Halls - this should be a very exciting adventure. And bonus...my dad is much happier when they're around. WOO! It's a win-win situation ladies and gentlemen.

I left out the most important part! There will be WINE and CHEESE at this party. Two of my most favorite things. So if you plan on attending, you'll find me by the bar or the food table.

So then I joined the rest of the world...

...and started blogging. Half my friends have already been cooler than me for more than a few months now because they blog. I read Jammi's, Kelly's and Dooce's (technically, I don't KNOW the last one personally, but she sure is freakin funny) blogs daily to see their updates. So therefore, my reason for blogging: to raise my coolness factor.

I'll just jump right into things. There's no sense in giving an autobio or any silly "About Me" beginnings because if you're reading this, you probably know more than you need or want to about me.

I'll start with last night. I sent Kevin to the liquor store in the rain to get more booze, because the counter-full that he already has stocked is simply NOT ENOUGH. I wanted margaritas (recipe can be found here) but unfortunately we had already consumed all of the Patron and Sauza in his house, so he went on a mission. Of course, like the Kevin I know, he returns with more than he was sent to buy. Good thing there's not a Walmart Supercenter nearby: "I went in to buy Q-Tips..."

He returns with the essentials, and several margaritas later it's 12:30am. How? It's a phenomenon that we simply can't explain. We didn't eat dinner and I guess somewhere in the 6 hours between leaving work and then, Kevin got hungry. And what does he suggest? "We should get Whataburger" and I was like "At 1am? I'm not in college anymore!" But then I had a sudden change of heart. I'm thinking it would be fun, right? Before I knew it, he was out the door like someone lit a fire under his ass and headed to the nearest late-night drunk food joint. He wouldn't even stick around for me to look at the menu online! Yes, folks, unlike some lets-go-get-taquitos-every-time-we're-out-past-midnight (Mom...), I do not know the menu by heart. I'm a disappointment to all college graduates everywhere.

So after consuming a Jr. Whataburger and small fries (and stealing some of Kevin's onion rings), I was in bed around 1:30am. On a school night. I haven't done that since I started working in the "real world" and couldn't quite figure out my boundaries. I learned pretty fast how the brown bottle flu isn't really a true illness.

Here's the only picture we have from our at-home happy hour, or shall I say EXTENDED happy hour. We took Shadow out to tinkle while it was still raining and had to dry him off. I've never had a dog look at me with an expression that says "I'm giving you two seconds to take this damn towel off of me before I run around the room and rub my wet dogginess all over your suede couch. I'll do it, I swear." Kevin said he looked like Mother Teresa. I just couldn't stop laughing.

We also discovered that Shadow will do anything for two things: cheese and chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I know chocolate is bad for dogs but they were MINI cookies that I baked from that pre-made refrigeration pack (I just know my grandmother is shaking her head in disappointment that I would EVER use pre-packaged dough). He can now smell them from a mile away, it's crazy. But hell, who WOULDN'T do anything for sugar and chocolate baked goodness?

Speaking of Shadow, we're still interested in finding him a home. Kevin and I woosied out of taking him back to the SPCA today, but he made another appointment so his time with us is limited.

Okay, I'm officially wrapping up my first ever blog. Let me know how I did - hopefully it was somewhat entertaining.