Best Team EVER!

Last summer, some of the girls at my office decided to put together a kickball team. I, of course, joined and came up with the awesome name Balls & Snatchers. We played for about 7 or 8 weeks and lost every game except for one….that was the day half our team couldn’t make it and we brought in replacements. I actually enjoyed the kickball fun, but not so much my team.

The following season I decided to revive Balls & Snatchers and replace all the crappy people with good players. I was sure we would win every game and have a great time playing. Oh how I was wrong... Every week there was some new problem. Our games were either rained out or I was struggling to find enough people to play on the field. We lost every game but one. As the longest season on earth went on, the core players were finally coming together as a team.

Lucky for us, everyone makes it to the playoffs….

In true fashion, we had a rocky start. The playoffs were pushed back a week, therefore, we lost three of our main players. This left me with five original players to put on the field. Mind you, you have to have a minimum of eight. Oh joy.

Thank goodness for Angel. She found two extra players for me and even better they have played kickball. So now with a whopping seven players, we made our way to the field. Did I also mention that I was battling the bubonic plague and could barely take in one breath without hacking up a lung on the field? So pretty much, we had six good players.

Luck was on us again when the first team we were to play showed up and only had five players. They asked us if they could play since they only had one girl. They would do some crazy fandangly line up. I ‘let’ them play…because really, if my team of seven can’t beat five people, then we shouldn’t make it any further in the playoffs. That was almost my biggest mistake. They came close to beating us, but we somehow pulled it off.

On to the next game…..one of our arch nemesises (nemesi?). The Other Team. Let’s just say, that every time the played us, we got our asses handed to us. Total kickball annihilation. Did I mention that everyone from their team showed up too? Yeah, well they did. The Other Team came into the game as undefeated and left with a 12-1 LOSS under their belt! My team of seven killed them. They even had to end the game early since we were winning by so much. Sorry bout ya, suckers!


This meant we were in the CHAMPIONSHIP game! That’s right. On one of the coldest nights, my team of seven players made it to the big ‘ship. There was supposed to be a game to decide who we would play. As we waited to see if everyone for the next game would show up, we all secretly wished they wouldn’t. We would gladly take the title by default. Unfortunately that wasn’t in the cards….. one team showed up for the game and that team was our other arch nemesis. Without a break in between, my poor battered team went into the championship game…

What was one of the most emotional, crazy games ever…my team walked away with THE BIG WIN!!!!! That’s right, somehow my team, the last team in the league, somehow beat everyone the night of the playoffs and WON!

Needless to say, I forgot about all about the troubles, issues and losing games of the season and have decided to bring the Balls and Snatchers back for another season in the Spring. So if you think you have what it takes, come join us for some fun at our Victory Party!

CONGRATULATIONS, BALLS & SNATCHERS!!!

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

That went by fast...

Oh man, November flew by and we are already in December! What happened? I guess that means it is time for a November update blog….

Boot Camp: Remember when Mary Beth and I decide to sign up for some boot camp fun? What was supposed to be only one month of ass kicking turned into my standard work out for six months! I finally had to stop going in the mornings because it was too cold to work out. No really, I looked like a fool trying to run two miles all wrapped up in my comforter (not really, but you can imagine.) I seriously recommend Boot Camp to anyone. Not only did I get in shape, gain the ability to run more than 5 feet ahead of me (and not towards cake) but I also lost about 20 lbs and made a new friend as well. It still weirds me out that I have friends from working out…..

Mexico: Since the economy is crap and trade show industry on a whole is declining, my job made everyone take a week of work without pay. Most people would look at this and get upset and whine about missing out on money…. Are you kidding? I just got 5 extra days of vacation! Woo hoo. So rather than waste those days in Dallas, Ben and I decided to go to Mexico. We stayed at the Valentin Imperial Maya in the Riviera Maya. Our hotel was right in middle of Playa del Carmen and Cancun. The best part about the hotel was that it was all inclusive and….ADULTS ONLY! YES!

Needless to say, Ben and I had a great time. We took a snorkeling excursion. We snorkeled in a cenote, a cave and where the fresh water river meets the ocean. It was so much fun but freaked me out…..I have a strange fear of water and the things that live in it. :)

The cenote that we snorkeled in:

From Mexico

Us in the scary cave:

From Mexico

We also took a trip to the ruins in Tulum, also known as Zamma. I have seen plenty of Mayan and Aztec ruins in my life, but these were gorgeous. The ruins were built on a cliff looking down into the ocean. Our guide was incredible as well and told us a lot of interesting details about the ruins and the Mayan people. We also got to swim in the crystal blue water while we were there.

The ruins:

From Mexico

View of the beach from the ruins:

From Mexico

While in Mexico we also shopped, drank, slept, relaxed, got massages, drank, hung out on the beach, drank and ATE everything in sight. Needless to say, it was a fantastic vacation.

One of many….

From Mexico

Thanksgiving: A week and half after we got back from Mexico, Ben and I were on another trip back to Mexico. Ok, not really but we did go to McAllen for Thanksgiving. For those of you who don’t know, McAllen is on the border of Mexico and Texas. Some of Ben’s family is still there so we spent time with his Dad and his brothers. We also ate as much Tex Mex food that we could fit in our mouths. I seriously wanted to throw up at least once every day. While we were down there, I also got to brush up on some of my Spanish. Believe it or not….I heard more Spanish in McAllen than I have ever heard any time I have ever gone to Mexico.

As you can see, November was a busy month. Now it is time for me to focus on Christmas presents and trying to figure out a way to sell my kidney on the black market so I can afford all the work that needs to be done on my f*cking car…… Just in case you are wondering, I wasn’t in a wreck….I just bought the worst car on earth.

Till next time….

Tour of Dallas - History

The stop on our Tour of Dallas was History. One of the most important pieces of history that is associated with Dallas is “The Day Stephanie Moved To Dallas.” Just kidding. Actually it is the day that JFK was assassinated.

So at 9:50 AM, Ben and I walked down to the Sixth Floor Museum. I was sure we would be the first ones in there if not the only ones for a while. I was wrong. Did I mention that our Tour of Dallas happen to coincide with the TX/OU weekend festivities? No? Yeah, that is because I am trying to forget about it.

Anyway, sure enough we walk in and I see a cluster of Burnt Orange. Ugh… We hurriedly buy our tickets, grab our headset and take the elevator to the Sixth floor. Lucky for me, there was more Burnt Orange. :-/ Oh goodie.

Aside from trying to see around some people, it was a good time. If you have never been to the museum, I highly recommend it. It takes you through the early days of JFK’s administration, through the few days before, obviously day of the assassination and also goes into some of the theories surrounding his death. You see videos, pictures and even some memorabilia from the day.

We ended up spending about an hour and half walking through. I have been before I took Ben, but I assure you I learn something new each time I go. Once again, this is a really great museum and only $14. Completely worth it!

And that concludes our Tour, Ladies and Gentleman…

Tour of Dallas - Entertainment

We woke up Saturday to perfect weather for the Entertainment portion of our Tour. Since Ben was nursing a mini hangover from his fun on Friday night, we decided to grab some lunch before we headed off to my tour stop.

If you live in Dallas and you have never been to Jimmy’s Food Store you are missing out on the best Italian sandwiches in DFW. They are amazing. Since they are super filling and you can pick up some other awesome stuff in the store, Ben and I headed there for lunch. I ordered their amazing meatball sub and Ben got something crazy and Italian. While at the register, I told Ben that I would pay since he was the ‘Birthday Boy’ and when the man at the register heard this he decided to give us our meal and drinks for a whopping $1! Plus Ben got to pick out a free hat….lucky boys. So the real message of this paragraph is Eat at Jimmy’s!

My meatball sandwich

From Bens Birthday

Ben’s Italian sandwich

From Bens Birthday

His free hat!

From Bens Birthday

After lunch it was off to the Entertainment portion of our trip. Since Dallas has quite a few locations for entertainment, Ben was stumped. Unfortunately for him we weren’t going to any sport games, or any movies or any live performances….we were off to the Entertainment that made Dallas famous! That’s right, we went to Southfork Ranch where they filmed the TV show Dallas.

From Bens Birthday

Neither of us have ever seen an entire episode so most of the outing was lost on us. We did check out the Museum, got a horrible picture taken with Cowboy hats on, we went on tractor ride over to the ‘Mansion’ and then took our own tour of the ‘Mansion.’ All I can say is the mansion is TINY! As is the pool and everthing else (besides of course for the conference center that they built). It is amazing what camera angles can do! Oh yeah, and the fact that they hardly ever filmed inside the house. Maybe two episodes/scenes?

The “Mansion” from the street…I zoomed in

From Bens Birthday

So we learned a little Dallas TV Show history, we pet some horses and also saw the famous car that one of the characters drove…..I think it is a 1970ish something car with only 27,000 miles on it…..oh yeah and it was also 19’ long. It was a beast.

From Bens Birthday

From Bens Birthday

After the Ranch we met up with Ben’s brother again at Hard Rock Café. We had some crazy drinks and overpriced nachos. It was good, but I don’t need to go back.

Needless to say we had a fun, random Saturday with plenty of Dallas entertainment…..

Tour of Dallas - Live Music

Ben’s third stop on the tour was to see some live music. I tried to throw him off by mentioning awesome venues like the House of Blues, American Airlines Center, Deep Ellum…so all day he was trying to figure out where we were going and who we were going to see….

Lone Star Café & Club was the winner for the night! Wha? Never heard of the rockin’ venue? Neither had I, until I found out a Led Zeppelin tribute band would be playing there. Since Led Zeppelin is Ben’s favorite band, we had to go there.

On the way there, through the country Ben was completely stumped. Even when we pulled into the strip mall where the ‘Club’ was I think he still thought I was kidding. Finally we walked in and he saw the ‘stage’ and band’s equipment with all of the LZ symbols on it. Needless to say he was excited.

Little did he know that earlier in the month, I sent out an evite inviting our friends to join us for the surprise birthday stop. He was ready to have an evening out with me, when Jessica and Brent walked in. That’s when he figured out the plan. Not only did Jessica and Brent make it out for the random fun, so did Ryan, Clap, Jon and Erych. It also worked out that his brother happened to be in town and made a surprise visit as well.

Ben and his brother Lucho

From Bens Birthday

I think they had too many mini pitchers of Beer

From Bens Birthday

The Gang

From Bens Birthday

The Rockin’ Band

From Bens Birthday

Needless to say the band was very loud and played forever. Ben had a good time and enjoyed the music. He even stripped down a bit to show the lead singer is LZ tattoos. Not only did he get pictures but so did I (unfortunately Ben has banned me from posting them). I was just happy the club was still open and the band was still scheduled to play.

Afterwards Clap, Ben and I made our way to the Regal Beagle for so more drinking. It was a lot of fun and I even ‘attempted’ to play Ring on a Hook. In case you are wondering, you try to get a ring on a hook. Easy concept, hard (for me) to play. Clap, of course, did it in two tries. I had to physically walk the hook to the ring so I could ‘win.’

All in all it was a great night, I got to hang out with friends, listen to random music and even discovered that Clap and Ben have a college ‘friend’ in common. What a small world….

Tour of Dallas - Shopping & The Arts

There is one thing that people in Dallas love to do and that is shop. We have so many different shopping areas: North Park, West Village, The Shops at Legacy, The Galleria. I mean we are home to Neiman Marcus, JCPenney and Fossil. So needless to say we aren’t hurting for places to shop.

Since Ben loves ties, I figured I would take him to this tie shop that I saw in some random email. It was called Tiecoon. So while at work, I googled the place and tried to get some more info. That is when I found out it was closed. Yep, that was the whole reason we were going shopping. So then I found a place called The Tie Shop. That was to be our new destination….

So off we went after work to find The Tie Shop. Apparently it was in the Galleria, so once we walked in, I searched for it…only to find out that it too had been closed. So our shopping consisted of walking around the Galleria and looking at expensive clothing and TIES! So at least he saw some…

After the Galleria we headed on over to the Dallas Museum of Art. The best part about going on Thursday is that they have jazz in their atrium, are open till 9 PM and it is free! We had a great time and saw some super old art (as can be expected) and some newer stuff that I am still trying to figure out. All in all it was a good night and I didn’t feel robbed like I did when we went to go see King Tut (in case you didn’t go…he wasn’t even there nor was his mask nor anything really cool worth seeing for $38).

So even though there were a few bumps, Shopping & The Arts was a success and fun.

Tour of Dallas – Fine Dining

The first stop on Ben’s tour was Fine Dining. Believe it or not but Dallas has the most restaurants per capita, even more than New York City….so I had a plethora of restaurants to choose from. To whittle down the competition, I had to figure out what Ben would like to eat.

One of Ben’s favorite meals was in Vegas where he had Veal Porterhouse. So I googled the dish in Dallas and came across Del Frisco’s. I had been to Del Frisco’s in Ft Worth and highly enjoyed my steak and they also own Ben’s favorite steak restaurant so I figured this would be the winner. I checked the menu at the restaurant to see if the Veal Porterhouse was listed. It wasn’t, so I emailed. Sure enough, I got an email back and it was confirmed they had it. Score for me.

So I took Ben to the restaurant and he didn’t really get why I picked Del Frisco’s. So we sit down, look at the menu and I don’t see the Veal Porterhouse. No problem. I tell Ben we came for the Veal Porterhouse which is obviously not on the menu, but the waiter will know about it. So I ask the waiter…..he has never known Del Frisco’s to have Veal Porterhouse, but he’ll ask the Chef. Yeah, well I guess he never knew they had it either… It was official, my carefully planned dinner was not going to work out.

So Ben orders the Lamb Porterhouse and I order the Filet Mignon and two sides. Our waiter still feels bad about the Veal fiasco and asks if I still have the email. I do, so I show him on my phone. Right at that moment, the Manager is over the table and he sees the email as well…

Now commences one of the best dinners we have ever had. To make up for the misinformation, the Manager orders us another round of drinks on the house and 2 more side dishes. Oh man, the food was amazing. We were stuffed but saving room for the dessert I had at home. Too bad for us that the manager wasn’t in on this plan…..next he sends out a special dessert dish by the Chef. It consisted of the Butterscotch Cheesecake, Chocolate Mousse and the Lemon Tart Cake. Everything was so good.

From Bens Birthday

Then when we figured we couldn’t ingest any more, the Manager sent out a flight of Grand Marnier. Ben was in heaven. His favorite was a part of the flight.

So after the drinks, food and dessert we decided to have another after dinner drink in their lounge. It was nice romantic and they also had great live piano music. We finally left before they could offer anything else for us to eat or drink. Great experience!

From Bens Birthday

Of course, when we got home we had to eat some of the awesome cake that Jon made and Ben opened his presents. I don’t think we have ever been so full in our lives. We didn’t even have the energy to have any Wii fun. :D

So here’s to Fine Dining in Dallas!

Ben's Birthday!

As many of you know, birthdays are my favorite events, even if it isn’t my own. So lucky me (and Ben too, I suppose), we celebrated Ben turning the big 3-2 last week. I got him a few gifts and planned a fun celebration for him. Here is what the lucky boy got:

1. Star Wars Lego set from Sylvester. Ben’s favorite movie is Star Wars so I decided to run with it…..

2. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii. This was from my Mom. We have yet to play it, but even I am looking forward to it…and you’ll see why.

3. Two Light Saber Wii/Remote thingys that actually light up! From me. :D That’s right so now Ben and I can duel! I am also thinking they might work for some techno dancing fun. Stay tuned for pictures when we actually bust those bad boys out.

4. Amazing Chocolate cake with Banana frosting from Cakes by Jon. Jon is one of my good friends here and makes the most amazing cakes I have ever had. Trust me, I have had a lot of cakes and his are my favorite. So if you ever need a cake for a special occasion, contact him: www.cakesbyjon.com

From Bens Birthday

From Bens Birthday

5. Tour of Dallas. Since Ben and I couldn’t go anywhere for his birthday, I decided to take him on a Tour of Dallas. We were tourists in our City. The tour included: Fine Dining, Shopping & The Arts, Live Music, Entertainment and History. I’ll blog about each stop later.

From Bens Birthday

I hope he had a great birthday because I know I had fun celebrating with him. Can’t wait for the next one….

Da Fair

Last Saturday Ben and I went to State Fair of Texas. There is only one rule when you go to the fair: Stuff yourself silly with tons of crap so that you never want to eat again. Trust me, Ben and I adhered by the rule. Here is a list of what we ate in the 10 hours we were at the fair:

1) Corn Dogs – Regular and Cheesy Jalapeno
2) Fried Peanut Butter, Jelly and Banana Sandwich
3) Curly Fries
4) Fried Peaches and Cream
5) Funnel Cake with Cherry Topping
6) Slice of Pizza
7) Nachos
8) Banana pudding
9) Ice Cream
10) Fried Texas Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Fried Peaches and Cream:

From Fair

I know, disgusting. That is why the fair is only once a year and I only go once a year.

Besides eat we also saw the Dog Stunt show and walked around and shopped. We also spent hours in the Midway section (Carnie Land). We played games where you squirt water in hole to win some race, a cork shooting game, fishing, horse racing, chicken toss, the huge hammer thing, ring toss, Color Gambling and best of all the token game. You know the game where you put one token in the slot and hope the bulldozer pushes 20 more off the ledge. Yeah, we played that bad boy for at least 2 hours. We were addicted. We ended up with tons of toys for Sylvester! It was our gift to him since he had to be locked up all day.

Sylvester and His New Toys:

From Fair

From Fair

From Fair

We also played some Texas Lottery fun at the very end of the night. We ended up winning $24 dollars and who knows how much in the TX lotto ( I am keeping my fingers crossed).

Needless to say it was a great day (except for the weather) and I wanted to puke for the next 3 hours after we got home. Can’t wait for next year!

New Orleans - Work and more work

After being in 4 states and 3 planes, I finally made it to New Orleans, LA. One of coworkers was kind enough to pick me up at the airport and bring me to my hotel. After driving around for an hour or so (he had lived there all of his life) and finding out very little history, I finally made it to the hotel. I checked in and made my way to Luke’s restaurant….apparently some famous guy from some cooking show runs the place. I ate at the bar with my two new friends and we judged people in the bar ….especially the people from New York. Oh man, that was fun. Anyway, I had a burger (I know, I know….New Orleans food is lost on my because I don’t like seafood). It was good…but the cocktails were better. Especially since the bartender let us try a few that he was making.

The next day I walked over to the Convention Center so I could supervise the booth we were building for my client. Little did I know that the minute I stepped outside my glasses would fog up and I would be covered in water (not sweat) from the humidity. Man, that 15 min walk took forever. Then lucky me, I spent the whole day watching the booth go up. The clients finally made it for the last bit of the day. We worked some more and then made our way to dinner. I had Cajun Injected Chicken. I don’t really want to know how they can legally take a Cajun and mush him down to a green goo and inject him in Chicken….all I know is it tasted pretty good. Oh yeah, I also had the “World Famous Onion Rings” and an oyster (I was forced!). I finally made it back to my hotel where I am pretty sure I passed out within seconds of hitting the bed.

The next day it was back to the Convention Center. The booth I never thought would be finished finally was. What a relief. I was done working around 3:30 so I walked the “Riverwalk” and did some shopping AKA bought flip flops for my throbbing feet, looked at the boats on the Mississippi and finally made my way back to the hotel. That night, I walked to Bourbon Street and decided it wasn’t the place for to have dinner by myself because we all know that my dinner would have consisted of hurricanes, margaritas and cocktails and I would have been out until around 2 AM if not longer. So I had a nice dinner on the corner somewhere, did some shopping afterwards and was home in bed by 9. I am such a crazy girl. 

Finally my last day in the city, I checked on the booth and the show. Everything was great, the clients were happy and I was officially done with time to spare. So I checked out of my hotel and walked around the French Market. I had a Mufalleta (ok, really only 1 and half bites….definitely not for me) and beignets at Café Du Monde. I also did more shopping and site seeing. I finished my trip off with more work and then the best taxi ride ever. Lucky for me I had an old tour guide as a driver. He gave me a history lesson of the city and told me all the restaurants I need to come back to when I return. Needless to say, I will be coming back but definitely not for work…

I finally made it back to Dallas around 7 PM at night. I never thought I would ever be ‘traveled out’ in my life, but I was. Thank goodness I didn’t have any where to go for the next couple of days…

Some pics from NOLA:

From New Orleans

From New Orleans

From New Orleans

New Hampshire and Boston

It all started with Ben, my mother and I hopping a plane to New Hampshire for my cousin Renee’s wedding. We landed in New Hampshire around 10:30 at night to 40 degree weather. That was a nice slap in the face to the 80 degree weather we left in Dallas. There wasn’t much fun the first night. We met up with my sister (she exists, Veronica) and Jimmy and unpacked and slept.

Then the next morning we all packed into the rental car and made our way to Boston/Weymouth. We visited my grandmother’s old place, played in the park next to it and then visited my grandfather. Then it was back to New Hampshire for Friendly’s and Renee’s rehearsal dinner. It was a very good night especially since Ben and I took advantage of the open bar. Yum!

My Grammie Gram’s place:

From Weymouth and Boston

Park Fun:

From Weymouth and Boston

Friendly’s!

From New Hampshire - Wedding and Fun

From New Hampshire - Wedding and Fun

Then the next day my Auntie Bea came to NH and we went shopping, ate more and drove around more….. After a short day at the mall, we got ready for the wedding. It was absolutely beautiful and Renee was gorgeous. Tim is a lucky man. I had a great time hanging out with my family and taking advantage of the bar…..again. 

Fun with Auntie Bea and Fam:

From New Hampshire - Wedding and Fun

Wedding Fun:

From New Hampshire - Wedding and Fun

From New Hampshire - Wedding and Fun

From New Hampshire - Wedding and Fun

The next morning my sister and her man left and Ben, my mom, Roland and my uncle all made our way back to Boston for some sight seeing and culture. Unfortunately it was raining and we couldn’t do the things we had planned, but it worked out in the end. We went on the Duck Tour (you hop in a WWII DUKW and tour guide takes you around the city and into the Charles River). Ben even got to drive the thing! Then we walked over to Faneiul Hall and Quincy Market for some culture and shopping. We then let my mom and my uncle go back to New Hampshire and Ben, Roland and I continued our tour. We ate at the Oldest Tavern in America, saw the only wood building (Paul Revere’s house) in Boston, ate cannoli’s and other pastries at Mike’s Pastries, had pizza on the North End along with a few cocktails, went back to Quincy Market for some more cocktails. We then decided it would be a good idea to go to the original Cheers. Along our extremely long walk, we stopped at some historical places, the Make Way For Ducklings statues and finally ended at Cheers for …that’s right…another cocktail. Then we finally headed back to NH.

Boston Fun:

From Weymouth and Boston

From Weymouth and Boston

From Weymouth and Boston

From Weymouth and Boston

Finally we woke up the next day at 4 am so we could make our way back to Texas…and I could make my way to New Orleans….

Paranormal Activity

Oh man, if you want to see a great movie this Halloween season, you have got to check out Paranormal Activity. Seriously, I was afraid to go to sleep last night after watching it. I even made Ben get up with me at 3 in the morning to take the dog out. It was a horrible night of sleep but worth the good scary movie. See it!

Travelin'

Since graduating with my degree in International Studies, or as my brother says “My Secretaria degree”, I have always wanted a job where I get to travel or live in an awesome country. I was convinced it was going to happen….but it never has.

When I was an International Logistics Coordinator (yes, my brother called me a Secretaria here), I just knew that my company would be sending me off to China, Spain and Italy….all the places where we bought products for the company. Since I was writing their Customs handbook, I would HAVE to travel! How else was I going to make sure we weren’t dealing with companies with sweat shops? Needless to say, the farthest I ever traveled was to Grapevine, TX to go meet the companies that shipped all of our products. Whoopee.

Then it was off to Neiman’s where I was a Purchasing Coordinator (yep, glorified Secretaria.) In my interviews, they talked about sourcing out to new companies in Latin America (yay, I have ‘experience’) for their furniture and other items they put in the store. Obviously they would NEED me to go and help pick some things out. Hell, some of my bosses even traveled to Turkey, Germany and other places to source. Well, the closest I ever got to Latin America was in the VP’s office where I listened in on a conference call with some guy speaking Spanish and the farthest I ever got out of the office was to Longview, TX. Yay me…

Finally, I am in my third job and my Secretaria skills are a little more complex. I manage booths for Trade Shows. In my interview, I was under the impression that I would have to travel to these shows to make sure everything runs smoothly. Well, I have been here for a year and FINALLY I get to travel! As in hop on a plane and make my way to some city, by myself, and pretend I know what I am doing on the Show floor. So here I come NEW ORLEANS! Even though you aren’t too far away, I can’t drive to you from my office for the day. I will get a hotel room and have to eat some of your great food. Oh yeah, and I guess I will actually make sure everything runs smoothly for my client as well.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!!!

Looking for a New Best Friend!

Welcome to the Annual Notice of what Stephanie is doing for her birthday. This year I won’t be hopping on a plane and heading to any crazy wild place like Vegas or Mexico. I am keeping it a little closer to home, as long as you think 4 hours is close. The theme for this year’s birthday is “Looking For My New Best Friend” except I am not going to go all Paris Hilton on you and make you express your adoration for me on camera (although if you would like to make a tape as my present, I will gladly accept it) or make you do stupid stunts (once again, if you would like to humiliate yourself for my entertainment, I will let you). This year I hope my best friend will be in the form of a shiny new diamond! No, not that kind of Diamond... One I find myself in the mines of Arkansas! Here is the linkey to the mines:

http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/


I want to stay at the Swaha Cabins. This place is located on a lake, they are pet friendly and have boat rentals! There are cabins, cottages and condos at this place. So it seems like it would a great place for relaxing, grilling and lake fun….all with puppies!

http://www.swahacabins.com/index.htm


So here is the tentative schedule:

Thursday, July 23, 2009: Leave Dallas and drive up to the Swaha Cabins. Make it up there, unpack and drink and play some games.

Friday, July 24, 2009: Start the search for the perfect best friend at the Diamond Mines. The mines are open from 8 AM – 8 PM. Yay, plenty of time. Obviously we will get breakfast, lunch and dinner some where in the day. Also, it might be fun to find a local bar at the end of the night. I figure this day is up for grabs on what you want to do.

Saturday, July 25, 2009: Let’s go to the Diamond Mines again! You can never have too many friends! I figure we could do a half day this day and then the other half we could rent a party boat and hang out on the lake near our Cabins. The have some BBQ/Grill fun at night.

Sunday, July 26, 2009: This is all up to you but eventually I will be making my way back to Dallas.

If any of this sounds like fun to you, let me know. I think I will probably book something at the Cabin place next week.

In summary, the plans are diamond hunting, lake fun, puppy fun and more diamond hunting.

Feel free to invite anyone you want. Let me know if you are in.

Updated...with a Soundtrack

Once again, it has been awhile since I have updated my blog. So here I go again….and to mix it up a little bit, I will let you know what I am listening to on my iPod while I write (I am at work writing this…)...yeah…I know it won’t make it any more interesting. So here goes.

First Song: Waste It On – Silversun Pickups – I have this song because I bought the CD for Lazy Eye. Since I don’t like this song…I shall skip…

Cover Me – Candlebox – Who doesn’t like this song? I downloaded it (illegally of course) in college. No good story to continue with it.

So back to the updates… a couple of days after my last entry I got in a car accident. First of all and shockingly enough, it wasn’t my fault and no worries I wasn’t damaged at all….just hit my head on my side window. As I was driving to have dinner with one of my friends, I was hit by crazy Dallas driver. She decided to ignore all the road signs and go the wrong way on a one way street thus insuring that she would collide into the beautiful, kind of scratched up (ok, beat up) paid off Jetta. Needless to say, she killed it. She killed my sweet, sweet paid off Jetta. So update number 1, my Jetta died.

Oooh, new song….Lose Yourself – Eminem – Yeah, loved 8 Mile, love the song and most of all I love Eminem. Yum.

Since my car was killed, I had to go car shopping. If anyone knows anything about my first two cars, you will know that I am stubborn. Once I decide I want a car, I refuse to look at anything else. Even if it is a good deal, cheaper or better car for me overall…I won’t even consider it. Since I don’t like the new body styles of the Jettas and I wanted to upgrade, I set my sites on an Audi A4. So I scoured the Dallas area for an Audi A4 in black or gray. I drove a lot, Ben drove some and even my friend Ama tried to kill me while driving a few. Needless to say, I finally got one. So now I am in the Audi club, which isn’t as popular as the BMW and Lexus club in Dallas. It did how ever make me d-bag. I am becoming waaaaay too Dallas now….I live downtown, I have a designer dog, I carry a Prada purse and now I have an Audi. Don’t worry I hate myself too….

And on to Inacceptable by Rinocerose. I bought this album because of the iPod commercial with the song Cubicle. I don’t like this song. Time to skip….

Hardhouse Anthems 3 CD1 by ??? Yeah, I remember when I got into techno, I downloaded anything and everything with techno or House in the title. Needless to say, this was not a good choice.

I Do – Toya …..umm I guess it was good in College…..NEXT

Read My Mind – The Killers. Oh man, I love the Killers and I love this song.

So as I am sure you are all wondering…. the Naked Man is still out there. Oh yes, and he came back to his favorite garage about a week or two ago. Once again, I was on the phone with Mom and taking the dog out for a walk when all of a sudden I hear “Excuse Me…” Thinking it was someone needing directions, I turned around. BIG MISTAKE. There was no car behind me, there was no lost tourist….there was just one completely Naked Man in the parking garage waving his hands…..and junk. He got me. I didn’t think it would happen but he did….he got me. Third times a charm, I guess. Needless to say, I screamed in my mom’s ear. Hung up the phone and called Ben to come help me find him. Mind you my mom is now freaking out as she thinks I am being killed. Good thing I didn’t get killed and also, we never found him…..but I am sure he will be back. I will keep you updated.

Hero – Enrique Iglesias. He is hot, he is Latin and he can sing. Why wouldn’t I download this song? We had a brief love affair for awhile until I couldn’t stand the whining in his songs any longer. :)

Final update: Mary Beth and I finally did it. We started boot camp. Oh man, 5:30 AM is early. Or first week we were pretty pitiful. I am not sure if it was sweat or tears running down our face but man there was a lot of liquid. We figured as the days would go on the workouts wouldn’t be so hard. What were we thinking? We are in week three, I can run farther and for longer but I get my butt kicked every day. I am amazed at all the different exercises these guys can come up with. The craziest thing about the whole thing is we both signed up for another session, for another month. Hopefully this next session will help me get skinny. I guess I should stop eating ice cream, fries and queso…..and not all at once either…

Final Song: Oceans – The Fray. When I discovered Pandora.com and I made my own Fray channel, I was introduced to this song. Love it. Pretty sure I downloaded (legally this time) the day I heard it.

It's a Crazy World We Live In....

....especially when you live in Downtown Dallas.

So last Sunday when I was taking Sylvester outside to do his 'bidness' I was across the street at a big patch of grass. While I was outside waiting for him to finish, I heard some whistling. So ignored it, like I usually do...but it wouldn't stop. So I start looking around for who was whistling and couldn't find anyone. Well, Thank God I had my sunglasses on because there is a parking garage across the street from the grass. I happen to look up towards the garage without moving my head and I saw.......a NAKED MAN.

That's right, NAKED. Well, I guess not completely naked. He had a blue and white tank top on that he had pulled up to his chin. With his other hand, he was holding on to his junk. Since he didn't see that I saw, he kept his stuff covered. Then a big group of people came by and he disappeared.

Fast forward to tonight....

So I get home after having a drink with two of my coworkers and I take Sylvester out again to the patch of grass. I am on the phone with Julie chatting when all of a sudden I look towards the garage and I see my favorite NAKED MAN. Except this time, he left the shirt at home and was completely naked. Well, I guess he was wearing shoes and a ball cap but there was a lot skin to be seen.

So I ask Julie to send me the non emergency number to the Police. When I am about to call, two women walk up to me and start petting my dog. So I dial, the number doesn't work and the women are going gaga over the dog with the crazy naked man behind them in the parking garage. I, of course, want to protect their diginity and tell them in a calm voice that their is a naked man behind them trying to show his junk, so don't turn around. At that time, I call 911. While I am on the phone, my buddy figures out what I am doing and disappears into the garage again.

At this point the ladies are 'safe' and they leave. I call Julie to give her an update when I see a cop across the street in front of my apartment complex. So I grab the dog and run over to the cop. I start talking to the cop and telling him about my NM situation. He tells me, "Well, I would go look for him but someone in this apartment complex tried to commit suicide, so I guess I need to stay here. I mean she is alright but I need to stay here." So my new cop friend calls 4 of his bike cop friends over. They get my story and investigate the parking garage. All while my original cop friends and I watch as the girl who ate too many pills is being taken away in an ambulance.

So yeah, that was my night when I got home today. Naked Guy and crazy girl all in 20 minutes. Needless to say, I guess I will be investing in some Mace to either spray at NM or in my own eyes so I don't have to see his junk.

INVEST!!!!

Have you ever wanted to invest in a bar/restaurant and didn’t really have enough money to be considered? Well, now is your chance…if you want. Ben and Zymology are in some dire need of investors and since I don’t have a big wad of cash to give him, I figured I could form my own investment group…as in we all chip in any amount of money to the group and we will invest from there. Then once it comes time to actually earn some money back we can divvy up our earnings amongst the group by how much you invested.

I really don’t know if this will work but I figured it was worth a shot. If you are interested or know anyone else who is interested, let me know.

Also, if you are big money bags and want to be your own investor, I can contact Ben and have him send the actual business plan rather than my email. 

I also hear investments are a good Tax write off for next year….

On a more serious note, I appreciate everyone’s support of Zymology over these past couple of weeks. I am hoping that he will come up with the funds that he needs to keep open…at least until the summer months where he has a fighting chance. Please do not feel obligated to give any money if you can’t, I just figured I would try my hardest to help him out.

Thanks again!

Happenings...

Ok so I figure I should let you in on some updates....

First, remember when I posted that Mary Beth and I were going to work our butts off before Darrah's wedding? Ha! Didn't happen. We did really well for a couple of weeks and then the holidays came, and then the awesome food and vacation punched our Work Out dreams in the face. We did talk about working out, we just never did it.

Then of course there was the article I read about how you can change your life in 30 days. I was gung ho to do sit ups, push ups, paint my nails and wash my face. What I learned...I hate painting my nails. It was a waste of time. I would pick at the paint all day long and curse my nails. Nail painting...lasted one week. I figured I would be awesome with the sit ups, push ups and face washing...but after trying to do drunk push ups at 2 AM quite a few times. I gave up. I lasted two weeks. So, I never changed my life because I didn't give it time.

Now we come to the Lent contract. Mary Beth and I gave up candy, fast food and fried food (all with loop holes mind you) and shockingly enough....We did it! We went the entire 40 days without any of the things we gave up. So you can rest assured the first thing I ate Easter morning was some chocolate my mom brought. Then it was off to brunch where I had some fried food. Then to celebrate, Mary Beth and I went to lunch today and celebrated with more fried food. So yay for us, we finally stuck to something. :)

Best Moment of Today: You would think my best moment of today would have been Mary Beth and I's awesome lunch or pint night at Ben's...but it wasn't. It happened at work. On one of the rare moments that I didn't have my headphones in, I picked up on a conversation next to me. My coworkers were talking about something and somehow it came up that a psuedo invoice was needed. Except I didn't hear psuedo.....I heard PAH SWADE O. Oh yes! It was great....if that wasn't funny enough, when my other coworker corrected the girl for her incorrect pronunciation, she said "Well, it is Spanish so...." Really? Is it because it ends in O? Now I know I haven't been in a Spanish class in a while, but I am pretty sure Pah Swade O wasn't a word I learned. I guess I will have to ask V.

Sylvester: He is pretty much the devil. A cute devil, but the devil nonetheless. His favorite game is to bite your toes as you walk or make the most pitiful whimper while you sleep. Good times. He is lucky he is cute. I just wish his needle teeth weren't so sharp.

Up and coming: Since Mary Beth and I can't be motivated on our own to work out, we have decided to join a boot camp. So starting in May we will be waking up super early and working out at 5:30 AM. So if you live near Victory Park, I apologize beforehand for the high pitched bawling, uncontrolable cussing and neverending complaining you will hear so early in morning. Wish us good luck. We will be torturing ourselves for an entire month, 3 times a week.....at 5:30 AM. Ugh, what have I done....

Meet Sylvester!!!

Say Hello to our new puppy...

From Sylvester

From Sylvester

From Sylvester

From Sylvester