Sunday Confessions - Look guys, on a Sunday!

It's that time again! And look, I'm even doing it on a Sunday. I haven't done that in about three weeks...


1. I kind of totally bailed on the pub crawl I organized last night. Well technically I didn't organize it, St Arnold's did, I just found out about it and made a Facebook event for it so my friends knew it was happening.
Chris and I were running a little late but as planned we were able to eat beforehand at Le Madeline with some friends and then headed over to meet up with more people at Buffalo Wild Wings, which was one of the first four stops. I didn't want to eat there because I was afraid everyone would have that idea since it was one of the pub crawl stops. Guess what? I was right!! Got a text from one of my friends while at BW3: 'Understand now why you ate at La Madeline. They took forever with Sheldon's burger!' See? Sometimes I do know what I'm 'talking about.
BW3 was so crowded!! A bunch of people were eating so we stayed awhile and then most of the group was ready to go so headed on out to the next place. My other friends who were at another table were finishing up beers, and they were nice beers, no chugging, so we stayed another five minutes or so to let them finish then headed out. Next place was Little Woodrow's on Morningside which is pretty much all outdoors and a bar with no real front wall, just open air... so! Crowded! And cigarette smoke filled. Gross. I did find the rest of the group but they were "inside" near the bar and I stood with them for about a minute before I started to get claustrophobic from the press of people and had to escape. Chris, a friend of his, and I decided to just hit the rest of the places to get our stamps since they were all so close and then camp out in Black Walnut Cafe, which was NOT on the crawl, until it was time for the final stop and the pint glasses. So that's what we did. I did at least text as many people as I could think of to let them know that's what we were doing, and they could join us if they wanted, and Black Walnut had beer and wine if they wanted to drink! I got accused of cheating. Whatever. I can't deal with crowds and cigarette smoke. Ok I probably could but I choose not to. It's not my idea of fun. I like being able to hear the conversation I'm having with someone. I like personal space. And I like AC!
So if anyone who came out is reading this... I hope you had fun. I  hope you didn't feel abandoned by me, that was not my intention. I hope no one was off by their lonesome. That was not my intention.
And if anyone is still saying I cheated, haha, shut up. I got the same glass you did. Look how my collection grows!

Santo - from Dec crawl, C Ale - from Nov crawl, Summer Pills - from a crawl years ago I did  in Market Square area with my sister and brother-in-law, Lawnmower - from when I went to the brewery a few weeks ago.

2. Do you want to see my Christmas decorations for the apartment? Boom! That's it. :) I know. I go all out, what can I say?

3. I need to put laundry away. Seriously. I did laundry on Wednesday or so and it's all in a basket in the living room, just waiting for me. Maybe today. Maybe. I should today.... or else when the heck will I?

4. This weekend is just way too busy... I just want to hide. Yesterday it was the spa at 9, get gas, go to the bank. Book club holiday book exchange at 11 (I gave World War Z, I got Little Bee. PLEASE don't tell me anything about it! Somehow I've gone this long without being spoiled on it). Pick up equipment for ultimate frisbee today on my way home. Get ready for the pub crawl. Crawl. And then I was actually invited to two other parties last night, and my singles group had a games night. I called it quits after we hit up Chocolate Bar after getting our pint glasses. Enough is enough! I'm tired. And I wanted to spend time with my friends who drove up from where they live, an hour away, And then I wanted to spend time with my boyfriend. I felt like I never saw him this week cos I was sick and sleeping almost all the time I was home.
And today is just as crazy... Dim sum brunch with one of his friends at 11. I may have to bail early because I have ultimate frisbee that I'm hosting for the singles group at 1. Then this evening, we have dinner with Chris' family at 6 to celebrate his grandmother's 80th birthday.
All fun but aaaah! WTF! Did I even look at my calendar when I made my schedule this weekend, to notice the other events scheduled?
At least I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.

5. I'm going to a screening of The Hobbit tomorrow with a friend -- IMAX!! Not 3D, I think. I meant to read the book before I saw the movie... whoops.

6. My blog hit 700 page views today!!

7. My confessions will probably never be juicy... sorry. This is my personal blog but it's still the internet, not my locked away diary. I still am very cautious the amount of deeply personal information I put out here.

How do I love thee, let me count the ways

This weekend was totally Chris' moment to shine and prove how awesome he is and how lucky I am to have him! And not just once -- three times!

* Saturday -- So on Friday night, I picked up the packets for The Color Run for myself, Chris, and my sister, who was doing the colorful 5K with us. The Color Run, btw, was AWESOME! But more on that later. I also bought some Color Run merchandise so when I got home, I had four bags total. Popped on the overhead light, gathered up my bags, and headed upstairs for an evening in. Next morning, I head down to my car to run some errands and ... uh oooh, car won't start. That's right -- in that last sentence, I didn't type that I turned off the interior light. That's because I didn't. Left it on all night, ran the battery down. Went back up stairs, told Chris what was up, he handed over his keys to let me borrow his car for my errands and said we'd jump it later. So I went on about my errands and later that night, after a successful pub crawl, we decided to jump my car. Got everything hooked up, and I turn the key, and nothing. So I'm frustrated and thinking something else is wrong with my car but I can't imagine what and Chris says hold on, changes where the cable is hooked to ground and says try again. Boom. Ignition, engine starts. I hadn't hooked up the ground to a metal UNpainted part of the car. Way to save that damsel in distress, boyfriend of mine!

* Sunday -- On Sunday we did The Color Run. Had a blast! Now, you must keep in mind that 5K's are not my boyfriend's thing, or getting really dirty for the fun of it, and neither is waking up early. And the Color Run included all of that. And Chris was a total trooper about it and had a lot of fun. And we got some super cute pictures from it. Now do I expect him to do it again? Haha no. He said on a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 6. But hey. I'll take it. Brownie points for him!

* Monday -- Yesterday Chris was off because he's going to a board game convention later this week so decided to take the entire week off. Lucky! He had also extended the invite to me, because he registered for two spots, but it's not really my thing as much as it is some of his friends and also, I have my Over the Edge rappelling event this weekend -- no way in hell am I missing that! I also don't have that much vacation left. This week is also really busy at work. So since he had the day off I asked him to do some errands for me, which he did, without complaint:
Made dinner for me! Crockpot Monday!
Took the kitty to the vet for what I thought would be a quick follow up appointment. I took her to her annual exam about a month ago and they cleaned out her ears and gave me a cream for a minor ear infection she had, and also prescribed her pills for a thyroid issue she has now since she's an older kitty. They told me that I'd need to bring her in for a follow up in a few weeks so they could do blood work and make sure that the dosage of pills is right. Sometimes it takes a few tries. So Chris took her to the vet for me and when I got home, I saw the new pills, and new cream for her ears to clear up the infection the rest of the way .... and one thing I didn't expect on a mandatory follow up appointment. A $200 bill. Which I had not expected, so had not warned Chris about -- I told him the pills would cost about $10 which I'd pay him back for, or pay for dinner when it wasn't my turn or something. And he paid it! And didn't even mention it to me in complaint or anything. That's my boyfriend -- he's really not a complainer. Which is a great thing.

So. That's my weekend. Full of daily reminders of why I'm so lucky to have Chris in my life!

I dreamed a dream in times gone by

Tonight I have a girl date!!

One of my very good friends Lauren and I decided to get season tickets to Broadway Across America this year because the season line up was just too good to pass up. Don't take my word, see for yourself:

1. Beauty & The Beast - was so good! I first saw this in 95 or 96 when it was first touring.
2. Les Miserables
3. Catch Me If You Can
4. Jersey Boys
5. Sister Act
6. Wicked - cannot wait to see again! I think this is my third time seeing Wicked

Probably the best line up in years, since about 04-05 when I moved to Houston. I remember my sister and I had season tickets the first year I was living with her and going to University of Houston. I don't remember the line up from that year though. I think Wicked was in there. And some odd Disney thing, Off the Record. Unfortunately I didn't keep my stubs from that time period. Now I keep stubs -- I even have a stub shadow box for them!

I have everything I need! My ticket, my free drink ticket, my fancy outfit... although after texting Lauren to find out what she's wearing and what our plan for tonight is, I may need to drive home and change into jeans and a nice top and then get back downtown so I'm not standing next to her and making her look under-dressed. We'll see. I also have my reusable, theater approved wine cup. That's their name for it, or something similar to that. I call it my wine sippy cup.

It's new this season. I bought it at the last show. It has a twist lid to close the opening so you can get a glass of wine during intermission, or before the show, and if you don't finish it, pour it into the cup and twist the lid and you can bring it into the theater! Boom! Wine sippy cup. What could be better?

Halloween Weekend Recap

Time for me to throw in the obligatory, Happy early Halloween blog post!

Been a busy girl since my last post. I worked the Madonna concert on Wednesday and Thursday night -- how exhausting!! Great people watching though -- so many 80's style "material girls"! I definitely don't know how the other departments handle the work schedule of working events late into the night, night after night. Guest services, retail, scoreboard ops, probably so many other departments I'm missing, all of those departments are busy with the games and the concerts/events. Granted, they all aren't expected to come to work at 8:30am the next day after they leave the building at midnight, but it's still a rough schedule. I'll definitely stick to my 8:30-5:30 gig and occasionally "moonlight" with retail for extra cash and do the occasional informational shadowing shift with other departments to learn how they do what they do.

I did get my commission numbers from Madonna, this morning. The little bit of sleep dep last week? Well worth it. Money money money money! I will have my iPad soon. The only question is -- iPad 2, iPad 3, or the iPad 4? Chris is recommending the iPad 4, and when it comes to things like this he definitely knows better than I do, and it sounds like it's coming out just in time for the holiday season.

I was totally drained at work on Friday -- seriously, I could barely function just beyond the basic things I needed to do -- but I was able to get the work I had to do done and left a little early. Had enough time to go home and catch a quick nap before Chris came home and then we packed and we were off to Dallas for the weekend to stay with some of his friends for their annual Halloween party.

The Halloween party was a blast -- Chris and I were a little lazy this year and recycled our costumes from last year. He was a marionette, I was a flapper. We figured, hey, the Dallas people haven't seen these costumes in person, and they're damn cool, so yea, no shame. Recycle! We'll have to figure out epic costumes for next year though, don't think I can get away with being a flapper three years in a row. Which is almost too bad -- I love that costume. It lets me be sexy without being slutty and hey, isn't that what Halloween is all about?

But yes, I have big decisions to make this year. Couple costume? Make our own (yuhright on that for me, I am not that crafty), buy it, assemble something from thrift stores? Pirates, ninjas, Greek god and goddess? Only time will tell.

There were some great other costumes at the party -- Tony Stark, a Pokemon, Daria, Cookie Monster and a chocolate chip cookie, Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman. And we played board games, so many board games -- Dixit and Netrunner and Zombicide (so much Zombicide! I died -- had to take one for the team) and Mafia (okay not a board game, oh well) and Belfort and Innovation!

And we ate food, so much food! There were candy corn themed fruit and veggie trays -- pineapple (yellow), oranges (orange), sliced apples (white); yellow bell pepper (yellow), baby carrots (orange), ranch dip (white). There were mummy dogs -- wieners wrapped in crescent rolls with little mustard faces. There were cookies, so many cookies. There was guacamole with little chunks of feta mixed in -- how have I never thought of this before?? There was queso dip with Rotel -- yum, a favorite of mine. And there were Minion cupcakes, which were the cutest things ever. But you don't have to take my word for it, I'll let you decide for yourself:

See. Too cute. Orange poppyseed cupcakes with lemon icing and decorated Twinkies on top.

I was rather proud of myself that night, on my food intake. I ate several mummy dogs, one scoop of queso and guacamole and a handful of tortilla chips to go with both. And a pumpkin pie Jello shot, with alcohol-infused whipped cream on top. No cupcakes (....that night. I had two the next morning.). And I think that's about it... Oh and to drink, some Sailor Jerry's spiced rum and tropical flavored carbonated water. Yum! Very low cal. Go me. A nice start to the Holiday Season of Eating. Season's Gr'eatings?

This party got me excited about a game night that Chris and I are throwing this upcoming Friday -- more on that later!!

Time for some gourmet!

There has been talk of games, but not nearly enough gourmet in this blog yet! So let's change that now.

I've been eating some awesome food the past few days... Let's review.

• Friday: For lunch I headed to Pot Belly in the Park Shops to get my delicious chicken salad sandwich on wheat, toasted, with provolone cheese. Mayo, lettuce, tomato, Italian seasoning. And it's hard to go to Pot Belly without indulging in their delicious desserts, which I do far too often. And I admit that. And I will try to change that. Maybe I should make this my last Pot Belly dessert for the next .... six months? We are entering the holiday season, in which there will be a plethora of delicious goodies. Anyway. I got one of their oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. So good. Then later Friday I had my Howl at the Moon Happy Hour. Every Friday from 5-7, Howl offers a small appetizer buffet and that night it was salad, spaghetti, and garlic bread. Pretty good, filled me for a few hours but then around 9:30 the people who remained at the Happy Hour and I went over to a Houston late night staple, Katz's on Westheimer. Um. Yum. I had their Challah French Toast and scrambled eggs with cheese and a Fire Dog. The Fire Dog ended up being for the table to share because I could not finish that ridiculous meal! It was so good. 

• Yesterday for dinner Chris and I joined my sister Carol and her husband Kevin at The Melting Pot for her birthday dinner. Yum!! I had not been there in about a year. That's really as often as I need to go to that restaurant though, once a year. I love how easy going we all were in agreeing on a cheese, broth, and chocolate and yet how different all of our meals were! We started off with one of their seasonal cheese sauces -- brie and bacon. Oh yum. With the pretty basic dippers - granny smith apples, bread, broccoli, cauliflower, and baby carrots. Then on to the salad - Kevin with his Caesar, Chris with his strawberry almond, Carol with her spinach mushroom, and me with my house salad (with Ranch dressing on the side, go me!). Next up was the main event -- the entree course. We went with the Court Boullion broth - just a basic broth seasoned with herbs, it goes with everything. Carol and I had Lobster Indulgence, Kevin had Land & Sea, and Chris had Fondue Feast. And finishing off the decadent meal, we had the Cookies 'n' Cream Marshamllow Dream fondue... Here's their description:  Escape in a world of dark chocolate topped with marshmallow cream flambéed and topped with bits of delicious Oreo® cookies.  So good! I highly recommend fondue for anyone who hasn't tried it. Melting Pot is expensive but it's such a great meal for a special occasion. 

• So as if the last two days weren't enough, that brings me to today. Today I plan to make a Pinterest recipe I pinned awhile ago: Pumpkin Spice cookies - with 2 ingredients! I bought the ingredients yesterday. I also plan to add chocolate chips, because mini chocolate chips make everything better. Chris and I also plan to try out a dumpling place we keep hearing is pretty good, in the Galleria. 

There, I think that hits my gourmet quota for the day. I'll update back on how the cookies turn out -- will they be a Pinterest Fail? And how the dumpling place is. 

That's a Bingo!

Oh that's right, it's almost Bingo time!! So in honor of that, I treat you to a clip from one of my favorite scenes from Inglourious Basterds.

So a few weeks ago, one of my coworkers found out about a place in town that does Bingo every Thursday (this place, Houstonians, if you're interested) so she got together a small group of us to go tonight. Pretty excited! I love doing stuff with coworkers outside of work. It always amazes me how different people are out in their own element, outside of the office. I know I'm different.

A few days ago, my coworker who organized this (Megan) and another coworker who's going (Sonia) and I were talking about it and Megan asked if we were going to bring our significant others. I just laughed and shook my head and said, "No, I haven't even mentioned this to Chris. It's not his thing. I don't want to get The Face."

For those of you with a significant other, I think you know The Face I'm talking about. For those of you who have clue what I'm talking about, follow along. I think you'll understand very soon.

So that very night I'm hanging out with Chris at home and mentioned that after work on Thursday I would be home late because I was going to Bingo with some coworkers. Then I got it. The Face. So The Face is that look that guys get when you mention something, something that they'd never want to do. Every guy's Face is different, but for Chris it's always one eyebrow up and a quirk to his mouth. It's the look that says, 'Oh you know there's no way in hell I'm doing that.' There's shock and horror and pride in that look, pride because they KNOW they'd never do that sort of thing. But there's also a touch of fear in The Face... Fear that you will try to convince them to go. And they'll give in.

I also think the fear is there because they're afraid that they'll be convinced to go, and go, and LOVE it. 

So that's The Face. Tread carefully when you see it... But don't let it completely deter you! Sometimes they can be convinced to do things even if you get that look. It just takes a lot of work. And sometimes a few favors. And I know I like to pick my favors, and my fights, very very carefully.

So wish me luck tonight! I haven't played Bingo in awhile... And Megan was teasing Sonia and me earlier this week, that we wasted our luck on a raffle at work because we both won something, so yea. It's on. Bring it! Brought my A game. Got my game face on. And insert other cliche idioms here.