Sunday, May 31, 2009

Party Like It's 1999

Two weekends ago, we headed home to K-town to attend Lee's 10 year class reunion. Yes, he's getting old.

Lee had a good graduating class, with lots of people that he's still friends with. We talked about how we're glad that we both grew up in the same area and went to the same high school. Although we weren't in school at the same time (when Lee was a senior in high school I was in 8th grade - yeah, I know, gross), I know a lot of the folks he graduated with and he knows a lot of people I graduated with. If we had grown up in different places I don't know if we would even go to our class reunions, because it would probably be pretty boring for the other person.

Anyway, I realized a neat little tidbit about us at the reunion -- Lee was vice president of his senior class and I was president of my senior class. We're such the power couple, right? Ha, if only that had transferred over to the real world ;-) As VP, the planners of the reunion asked Lee to say a few words. They gave him about 3 minutes notice. He did pretty good under the pressure though.

One of the cool touches to the reunion was the nametags. They were made out of the senior pictures of everyone in the Class of '99. Of course, there have been some changes in 10 years, but everyone was still recognizable. I think it will be really interesting at a 20 or 25 year reunion to see the changes since senior year.

Here's a pic of Britt and Heith and their senior portrait nametags:


Here's a shot of all of the members of Class of '99 who came to the reunion:


And here's one of just the guys, looking pimp of course:


The night wouldn't have been complete though without a little dancing action...:


And a little karoke:



Monday, May 25, 2009

I've Been Slack

I'm sure that my recent rate of one blog post per week has been terribly disappointing to my five loyal readers. To you, I apologize. I will try to do better this week, as I have lots of things to share since I've been so slack lately. 

I am too exhausted tonight after a long weekend of fun and sun down in Beaufort for a coherent blog post, but I leave you with this quick video from our trip to Shackleford Island:


I hope you were paying close attention, because this action-packed 37 second clip contained  the following:
  • Wild horses of Shackleford galloping down the beach
  • My darling puppy acting like a maniac, quickly followed by the reason she was acting that way...
  • The fantastic stylings of our nephew Brett
  • My husband, victim of aerosol sunscreen gone bad (notice the stripes on his belly, which I will admit were totally my fault as I was his sunscreen applier the day before)
  • Him calling me Isaac and yelling at me to put the camera down
More to come. I know you're excited.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Bachelorette Bar Golf

I had a big weekend last weekend, with Chrissy's bachelorette party on Friday night and Lee's 10 year class reunion on Saturday night. That's why I'm just getting around to posting. On Tuesday. Because I've been catching up on some much-needed sleep. I'll admit it. I ain't what I used to be.

First things first, Chrissy's bachelorette bar golf night in Chapel Hill. As MOH (maid of honor, for those of you not in the wedding-lingo know), Sara put together the outing and it was definitely a hit. Bar golf is a GREAT idea for a bachelorette party, because everything is organized, everyone knows exactly where you're going and when, what drinks to order, and who is buying the bride's drink. And the best part is that you get to dress up and look goofy (therefore calling attention to the group as a bachelorette party) without having to wear penis regalia and feather boas. Here's a shot of the bride and bridesmaids before making our way to Franklin Street:

Of course, we did outfit Chrissy with a golf visor with veil attached and a set of Little Tikes golf clubs.
Sara, Emily and I had gotten together earlier in the week to prepare the scorecards. Each was complete with matching ribbon and mini-Sharpie marker. We planned 9 "holes" of golf and on the scorecard spelled out each hole/bar, the lead golfer (responsible for buying Chrissy's drink or finding someone to buy it for her AND giving her a dare), and the Eagle, Birdie, Par, and Bogey drinks. The Eagle drink was a signature drink from that bar or a classic drink/shot. At each hole, birdie was a well drink, par was a beer, and bogey was water or no drink. Here's a shot of the whole gang at our first hole:


We had an awesome time bouncing from bar to bar and causing a scene everywhere we went. Chrissy was such a trooper, taking the eagle drink or shot at each of the 9 holes and completing all of her hilarious and somewhat embarrassing dares.
We also added in food holes, because no trip to Franklin Street is complete without a trip to Cosmic Cantina or Time Out. We managed to hit up both. Here's us being silly in Time Out:


And finally, Chrissy and I slowly making our way back to the car after a great night. (Don't worry, we definitely had a sober driver!)

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

This Post is Random

1. I was so fortunate to attend the pharmacy school graduation of two of my dearest friends on Saturday. The ceremony was great, and the party afterwards was even better. I had a blast goofing off with my "other Dawson family" that I don't get to see nearly enough. Congrats Sara and Chrissy, I'm so proud of you guys! Here's a pic of me and Sara in her funny hat:


2. YAYYYY for Kris Allen making it to the finals on AI. Ever since Anoop left, Kris has been my fav. (Props to Erin for backing Kris all along). Even though Adam is sure to win, at least Kris is still in the mix. However, we all know that American Idol is just a holdover until the best show on television begins - SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. Can't wait!

3. Here's a quick video of Sugar's new trick.


I told you this post was random. Maybe I'll be feeling more cohesive tomorrow.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

Lee and I have known ever since we bought our house that we wanted to start a garden. Our back yard is pretty big (and private) compared to other homes in this neck of the woods, and that was one of the biggest things that sold us on the house. Ever since then, we've been thinking about where our little garden will go. As spring rolled around, we started to take note of which areas of the yard get full sunlight, and decided on the left sideyard, which until now had pretty much been unused space.

First and foremost, Lee wanted a salsa garden, with all the fixins to make homemade salsa - tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, etc. But as we were shopping for our seedlings, we also picked up cucumbers, squash, and basil. Lee used timbers to create a garden bed, we dug up the existing dirt (by far the hardest part), added a mixture of garden soil and top soil, and voila! Here's the empty garden bed:


Sugar was a big help. Not. She just sat there looking cute, you know, for moral support.


And here's the bed with the first seedlings and seeds planted:


Please note, this is not a very big space. Although we could've made the bed much bigger, this was the wood Lee had laying around so this became the size of the garden. But we bought way too many plants and seeds and so everything is planted much closer together than the packets call for. So everything will probably grow together in one big jumble. We did add the stepping stones so that hopefully we'll be able to get to the middle of the garden to pick things once everything has grown up big and tall. This is assuming though that we'll be able to keep all of this hard work alive and growing, which I'm thinking is probably about a 50/50 chance at best.

Here's the garden about a week later:


The only things we bought as seed were the cucumbers and squash, and it was exciting when those first started poking up. We had planted them in mounds, then once they came up we thinned them out and planted in a row:


The idea is to put a trellis behind them once they start to grow tall, to free up some space in the garden. Other than the seeds popping up, not much else has happened. We've been diligent about watering, and we've been lucky to get a lot of rain lately. I think our main problem though will be critters. We live in a neighborhood, but our yard backs up to woods and we've had no shortage of deer, rabbits, and even foxes. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that just as our veggies start to develop, a deer will come and eat them all. I'm trying to prepare myself now so I'm not too disappointed later. We did do some research on deer repellant though and installed a super high-tech repellant device:


Yep, that's soap on a rope. Evidently the smell of the soap is supposed to deter deer. We also read that sprinkling human hair clippings around the garden helps keep critters away. We didn't have any human hair handy, but our dog is shedding like crazy so after we brushed her we sprinkled some of her hair around. I'm pretty sure that counts. 

Speaking of Sugar, you'd think that having a dog in the yard would help keep the animals away, and maybe it will, but Sugar's not exactly a guard dog. She doesn't even bark, she just whines every once in a while. And it's mostly because she wants to come in the house, not because she's protecting the homefront. I think if she saw a deer in the yard she'd try be friends and play with it, not attack it.

Anyway, hopefully our little garden will grow and prosper. And some day soon Lee will get his salsa.



Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Potluck Throwdown

We have a wonderful tradition in the Interactive Department at McKinney - the potluck. Seriously, we rock at having potlucks. Our team is full of great cooks, and the not-so-great cooks buy yummy things from the grocery store.

But you see, all the other departments starting getting jealous. As they should. Some tried to hold their own potlucks with varying degrees of success. Then the creative department had an Iron Chef themed potluck, with the secret ingredients being cheese and chocolate. They got confident and issued a challenge to all the other departments. Being the potluck gurus that we are, the Interactive team was the first to take them on. 

And let me tell you, we came with our game faces on. The secret ingredient? Lemon.

The judging criteria was as follows: 85% taste, 15% presentation. I didn't have a great lemon recipe, so I decided to put myself in charge of presentation: name tags, lemon/lime decor, pretty flowers from Trader Joe's, and more. Here are some pics of the spread:


Yummy desserts: 


And here are the judges, hard at work. They were "required" to taste all of the beverages too, two of them being Corona and Firefly Iced Tea Vodka Lemonade. They had it tough.


It was a clean sweep. Every one of the awards went to Interactive dishes. My favorite? Beth's lemon shrimp dip, which tied for first place. Super yummy. Kristin's lemon spaghetti was also a hit. Best dessert was Carmen's lemon poundcake with Chambord glaze:


I also loved Ben's fresh watermelon lemonade. Mmmmm. Great summer drink. He tried to keep the recipe top secret, but I'm pretty sure this is it.

Our next challengers? Account management. They're mighty brave to take us on while we're at the top of our game. Bring it!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Sick Puppy

We've got a sick puppy. Well, not sick exactly, more like injured. Maybe not injured really. Afflicted. Yes, afflicted. Our sweet puppy is afflicted with hotspots.

Sugar loved the river, but I'm not sure the river loved her. Because now she's developed hotspots. Don't know what a hotspot is? I didn't either. It's when a dog's skin becomes irritated and they bite or scratch at the itchy skin so much that it becomes inflamed and yucky. We don't know exactly what has caused them, but it's likely her being in the water and wet so much, or some type of bug or fly bites or the heat/humidity or some other change in her environment that we haven't put our finger on. 

What we do know is that she's pitiful. She's got four major hotspots, one on either side of her head, the top of her head, and on her front leg. I'll spare you pictures of the actual hotspots, as they're pretty gross. The vet did have to shave all the hair around them though, and it's pretty weird looking. She's on an oral antibiotic, a powder antibiotic, Benadryl and she has to wear one of those cones around her neck. YES, those cones. The ones you thought only dogs in the movies wore. Nope, here's our real-life dog sporting a crazy cone:


Needless to say, she hates it. Our normally bouncing-off-the-walls puppy has become pretty much despondent. She keeps looking at me with this "what have you done to me?" look on her face:


Then she starts scratching it ferociously. We can't tell if she's itching and wants to scratch or is just trying to get that crazy thing off her neck. 

For the most part though, she's milking it. We never give her people food and we decided we needed to give her hotdogs for dinner. We never let her on the porch and Lee slept with her there for 2 hours tonight:


I'm actually glad she has the cone though. Because instead of just being pitiful, the situation is a combination of hilarious and pitiful. And I don't think I could handle just the pitiful part. I need the hilarious in my life.

We'll keep you updated.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Dog Days of Spring

We just got back from a wonderful weekend at the river.

Before heading down on Friday night, we stopped in LaGrange for our niece's dance recital. The recital was very well done, the dancers put on a great show, and Leah did a wonderful job. Congrats Leah!

As usual, the river was wonderfully relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered. The weather was great and there was no shortage of good food.

It was Sugar's first trip to the river, and she had a ball. She was the first one into the water Saturday morning and we got to see her swimming skills for the first time.


She LOVES hanging out with Maddie (my parents' dog), although I'm not sure Maddie is quite as happy to see Sugar. Sugar pretty much jumps all over her the whole time and follows her around like a lost puppy .... ohhhh, wait. But Maddie is always patient with
Sugar and showed her the ropes of the river.


Sugar watching Maddie and Astro (the neighbor's dog) fetch:


Too cute:

She belongs at the river:


Pretty ducks:


Lee tried to ruin it by getting Astro to attack them. He was more interested in the tennis ball than the ducks though.


Dirty, dirty doggies:


Worn out. After playing hard all day on Saturday, they did nothing but lay around on Sunday.


When we got home, Sugar told me she missed her new doggie friends and couldn't wait to go back to the river.
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