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.