Road to 29: MOVIE MONDAY!

I thought I would give my liver a break so I planned a movie Monday for a birthday celebration. After work, I jetted off to the theater to buy tickets. There was no way I was going to let the city of Dallas buy all the tickets before I could. With tickets in hand, I met up with Whitey for some pre movie cocktails. Huh? What can I say? I was thirsty.

We went to Mi Cocina where I indulged in two margaritas and some not so awesome chips and salsa. That’s right, working hard on my Cancun body.  We stayed there for a bit until we walked over to the movie theater bar with Ben. Wait? Wasn’t I supposed to be letting my liver rest? Oh well, Ben and I bought a bottle of wine. By that time, it was time to get our seats.

So all day long I tried to avoid any talk about Inception. My coworker Courtney tried to talk to me about it and I had to banish her to her office and then reviews were popping up all over the interwebs. So beside one headline on CNN, I was able to go into the movie with an unbiased mind. Needless to say, I liked it… a lot. I actually don’t have any complaints whatsoever…which as we all know is quite strange. Leo was fantastic and I actually liked that kid from 3rd Rock too! So if you haven’t seen it yet, get to the theater and check it out! I recommend going in with a sharp mind though and not a hazy one from wine and margaritas. :D

Road to 29: SUNDAY FUNDAY!

What better way to rest your aching bones from a Dance Party then to laze around all Sunday in a craptastic pool? Well, that is exactly what we did… besides , of course, having to rest our aching bones.

So I bought one of those huge blow up pools for my backyard. After weeks of trying to get the thing operational, we finally were able to hang out in it. Whitey, Ben and I all jumped in before anyone got there. It was like hanging out in a huge bath tub. So thinking we were geniuses, Ben went off and bought 10 bags of ice to throw in the pool to cool it off. Genius! Yeah, that worked for all of 30 seconds and it only cooled you off if you were clinging to the bag of melting ice for dear life. Oh well, it was still pool fun.

Ben also fired up the grill and made the rest of the fajitas that we have had at the house. Once the food was ready, we all gathered inside around my mini kitchen island (because the table had too much room), ate some awesome food and enjoy another installment of “Hilarity of Clap’s Life.” We got to relive his playa days, his most recent mugging at a bar the night before (the bum stole his drink and ran off) and other captivating stories.

So after plenty of drinks, food and entertainment, everyone went their separate ways. We picked up the house a bit and called it a night by renting Alice In Wonderland…

Road to 29: DANCE PARTY USA!

My birthday celebration week began last Saturday. My first event was going to be a Dance Party USA. I figured what better way to get ready for Cancun, then busting out some awesome dance moves. Well, I guess in my old age and everyone else’s old age, Dance Party isn’t as exciting as it used to be.

So I opted for Roller Derby fun. There was a bout happening that night and figured a lot of people haven’t gone to one before and some people might consider girls body checking each other on a slick surface a dance party, right? So I go online Saturday to buy some tickets and lo and behold, everyone in Dallas must have heard I was thinking of going, so they bought all of the tickets before I had a chance. :(

So Plan C, hmmmm slick surfaces, awesome moves….let’s go bowling! Not as exciting as an actual dance party or girls skating around in circles, but it was a lot of fun. We started the night with some pre drinks at my house and then drove out to Main Event in Plano. Lucky for us, we got some lanes pretty quickly, not so lucky was our very slow waiter. We decided to bowl for two hours. Yay for me, I wasn’t the worst. That title actually was bestowed on Angel’s boyfriend Sam. It is good to know he isn’t good at one sport! With about 15 minutes left on the lanes, we all decided to end the night with trick bowling. I am pretty sure I tried the not so graceful split while hurling the ball down the lane (woo hoo dance move!) and I know I saw some soccer moves and backward throws. It was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with some great friends and even my Dad. :)

After bowling fun, everyone left but Ben, Whitey and I. So we decided to play the games. Whitey and I each ended winning a random stuffed animal in the grab machines, we all raced motorcycles and had basketball hoop shot fun (what! What! I won. Twice.) and pretty much wasted money on anything with a bright shiny light. Whitey and I also got a great workout playing the Japanese horse racing game. We even got some awesome picture fun.

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

After all of the playing around, we all combined our points and bought a crazy hamster to let Sylvester play with, flashing mouth guards and some random foam disc gun. Yay presents!

After that, we went home and gave Sylvester most of our winnings. Only to get ready for the next day…

Ryan Turns a Year Older, Bar Golf Edition

The weekend after July 4th we all decided to celebrate Ryan’s 27 birthday with a little round of Bar Golf. Before the festivities could be begin, a couple of girls and I had a burlesque party where we let our inner sex kittens come out and play. So we all met up at the Burlesque studio, pulled out our slutty heels, put on some long gloves and prepared to learn the art of seduction….on a chair. Not going to lie, it reminded me of my very younger days and watching some Madonna video on MTV (I told it you I was young, there were still videos!) and trying to duplicate her dance with a chair while my sister and brother rolled around on the floor laughing at me after they caught me. So of course when we were asked if we had ever done a chair dance, I denied it! We learned an awesomely sexy dance to some blues music complete with pulling off the gloves, slowing hip rolls and even leg kicks while on the chair. It was soooo much fun. I really want to go back and learn some more moves.

Afterwards I went home, c hanged into my golf attire and headed to the ‘golf course’. So if you have never played here is a rundown: Just like golf you want to have the lowest score. At every bar you have to have one drink, each drink is a certain amount of points. So a shot of vodka counts as 1 point, a mixed drink is 2, a light beer is 4 and so forth. You can also get points by accidently breaking a glass (1 point), losing your putter (5 points) or not wearing the proper attire (10 points). Needless to say you need to have a good score keeper.

So our first stop was Primo’s in Uptown where we thought we would be smart and actually eat some food before the challenge. We also thought it would be smart to warm up our bodies to the idea of drinking by having pre drinks…yeah. I think I would have been better at the end had I just stuck with food.

Anyway, we hopped to 9 different bars. I started off strong walking in a straight line to the bars, having a vodka shot at 3 of the bars, speaking in coherent sentences and all in all having a good time. I obviously took a lot of pictures and managed to look sober…ish. As the night progessed, I got louder, broke a glass, stumbled around, broke my putter, lost my hat, gained a new one, yelled about losing the original and somehow agreeing with Ben and some point that we needed to go home. Oh yes, I also managed to send out text messages, forget I sent one out and then send the exact same one an hour later. And to make matters worse, it was “where you be?” …so we all know my grasp of the English language wasn’t very good either.

I hope Ryan had a great birthday, I know that for the celebration I had a great time. Now as for the passing out in my bathroom, not so sure if that means it was a successful night. :0 Feel free to check out Facebook for documentation and make your own judgements…

Happy Birthday USA!

I broke from tradition this year and started a new one in regards to my July 4th plans. Instead of venturing out to the Simpson Lake house, I went down to Austin to spend time with my family. After work, Ben and I hopped in the car and made our way to my brother’s place and had dinner with the fam. It was quite uneventful, which is good, considering we were a little tired from the trip. We were supposed to stay at my sister’s for the weekend, but in a turn of events that even shocked me…we stayed at Jason’s. Why? Because we planned on working out with Jason and Theresa the next morning….at 6 AM. On Vacation. Huh?

Exactly. Needless to say, Ben and I woke up early, changed into work out clothes (not too sure how those bad boys jumped into my suitcase) and headed out into the neighborhood for some interval training. We walked 45 seconds and then ran 15 seconds for 2.5 miles. Surprisingly it was a really good work out. Directly after our jaunt around the neighborhood, we changed into our swimsuits and jumped in the pool. All before 8 in the morning. The rest of the day consisted of going to some garage sales, buying fireworks, eating, blowing up fireworks, buying some more to replenish our stock and begin the creative process for the Greatest Movie Ever Made. Oh, and then we blew up some more fireworks. :)

That night after gorging ourselves on lasagna, we went out to a random little bar and watched the UFC fight. Then back home, all before Midnight. Seriously, this was turning out to be the strangest vacation ever.

That next morning, we woke up early again….and guess what we did? You are right! We worked out again. This time we went on a 5 mile jog/run. What kind of vacation am I on? Then back in the pool and probably blowing up more fireworks. We did some last minute shopping for the party for that day and began drinking around 1. Jason and Theresa’s friends started coming over around 3 and by 6 the party was in full force. Also around this time, we started filming on GMEM.

It all started when I bought a firework that shoots out 10 parachutes at the same time. Joking around, I said when it went off I would dance around while all of my little soldiers flew around me….which then started Jason and Ben’s minds working. They decided it would be funny to film a 4th of July version of the 50 ft woman. We would have some of the tanks attack me and missiles go off.

So after eating tons of food and drinking copious amounts of liquid fun, my movie career began along with Morgan and Augie. It was a glorious fight of the US led by Augie against the 500 ft Woman (what? I’m a big girl!) and Mothra (Morgan with a towel wing.) Lucky for Augie, the US won and we were defeated. Needless to say, good times! Once my brother is done editing, I will post so you can make fun.
The rest of the night was spent in the pool, across the street at the neighbors’ huge blow up water slide and in the front yard watching about an hour of fireworks being blown up, both by the neighbors and our party. It was a great night. Needless to say, I will be coming back next year for more fun.

The weekend ended with brunch and Ben and I heading back to the Big D. And this time, we managed to make it home without a flat tire. So all in all, a very fun weekend.

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So another busy month has passed and I have once again neglected to update my blog. And to think I was doing so well the last couple of months. So here goes nothing.

Warrior Dash – Wow, probably one of the most fun days of May. If you hadn’t heard about Warrior Dash, you missed out. It was a 3.8 mile obstacle course out in Forney, TX. The obstacles consisted of mud pits, jumping over fire, swimming through a pond and other ridiculous things to make you get dirty. A big group of us ran it… or if you decided to keep pace with me, you ran, walked and photographed almost every step of it. Afterwards, we drank free beer and sported our muddy outfits. After washing off the mud, my skin was super soft. It felt like I went to the spa.

Quote of the ‘race’: “F*ck you, mud!” then .3 seconds later the mud took it’s revenge and I slipped and landed on my butt…once again getting my white tutu even dirtier.

Veiwing pleasure:

From Warrior Dash

From Warrior Dash

Party Boat - Some of Ryan’s friend decided to rent a party boat for a collective birthday celebration. It was decent weather that day, but by no means was it hot. That didn’t stop us from getting in the water. Mostly because we were warming our bodies with Riot Punch and beer. We also played beer pong, flip cup and ‘nourished’ ourselves with cake and pizza. So much fun! Angel and I even escaped for a bit on a speed boat and got in on some random gossip/drama. Funzies!

Viewing pleasure:

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

After the boat, Clap, Ben and I all headed over to Garland to help Katy celebrate turning 29. She picked an awesome place where they serve you mini pitchers of Sangria with a straw. Don’t mind if I do! We hung out there for a while and then all went our separate ways. Which consisted of Ben, Clap and I passing out the minute we walked in the door.

More boat fun and Roller Derby - This is definitely a contender for best day in May. Early in the afternoon, Ben and I headed over to Ryan’s house so we could go back out to Lake Lewisville and enjoy some lake fun. Of course the weather was crap for most of the day. It was overcast, but still warm enough to hang out and get in the water a little bit. Then we decided to try some wakeboarding fun…and lucky us the sun came out! So after a long day of boat fun, we all decided to check out the local Roller Derby bout that just so happens to be 5 minutes away from the house! It was bring your own beer and chair. We set up shop on one of the turns where proceeded to form the rules to the drinking game… Everytime the announcer said Lead Jammer, you had to drink. Every time he announced one of our favorite players, you had to drink. Did he just say Strategery? Yep, drink! Since we aren’t the slyest, nor quietest groups of all the announcer soon caught on to our plan. Needless to say, they repeated Lead Jammer everytime. It was fantastic! It also helped with us making the largest beeraymid at the bout! Afterwards, we hung out at the after party and planned to go again in the near future. So much fun!

River - Another week of work and we were off to New Braunfels/Austin for some river floating fun. We celebrated Whitey finishing finals and the beginning to summer. The river was freezing, but we had some pretty decent weather. We also had the worst dinner ever while we were there at Daisy Dukes… but then again, that place never seems to bring me luck. The rest of the weekend, I hung out at my sister’s house. It was surprisingly a relaxing weekend. Good times, nonetheless.

Memorial Weekend - The weekend started off wonderfully! Ben took me to go see Avenue Q at the new Opera house. It was gorgeous and their drinks are awesome which you can have in the auditorium! If you have never seen Avenue Q and you get the chance, you have to go. It was hilarious! Ben and I are still laughing about it. We then ended the night at Veritas for a bottle of Reisling and then back home. Fantastic date night.

On Saturday, we attended Adult Field Day. Yep, it is exactly what it sounds like… we reverted back to our elementary school selves and played games all of course while drinking. :D Some of the events were: Three Legged Race (Mary Beth and I kicked ass!), Egg Relay, Egg Toss, Tug of War, Tricycle Race and more. After all of the games, everyone played a round of kickball. It was a lot of fun. Then we went to the pool and grilled out. I am hoping we do it again!

Sunday I barely left the house. I went a got a pedicure and that was the most of my exposure to the outside world that day. Great day of relaxing.

Monday Ben and I went with my Mom and her friends to the new Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma. I lost all of my money, but we had a great time. The rest of the day was hanging out on the couch with Whitey and Ben making fun of the awesome acting in Pearl Harbor.

Kickball – And last but not least, I have revived the Balls and Snatchers for another season. We have actually won games this summer! We even got our act together and got shirts. Here is hoping with can continue to kick ass and win another championship!

Viewing pleasure:

From Not So Secret World of Stephanie

Housewarming Fun

A couple of weeks ago, Ben and I threw our housewarming party. Miraculously, everything came together at the last minute. Even the guest bedroom that I decided had to be painted 2 nights prior. Not much really to tell except that I had so much fun and enjoyed seeing all of our friends a family. I did get multiple requests for the recipes so here they are:

Black Bean Dip

--1/2 onion finely chopped
--Cumin
--Paprika
--Cayenne
--Garlic Powder

--Pureed Beans in blender w/onions w/ liquid
--two tblsp of oil in pan
--pour beans in pan, add seasoning to taste
--reduce on low heat, stir occasionally

Avocado Sour Cream

--2 pints of sour cream
--1 bunch of cilantro
--2 fresh jalapenoes
--juice of 6 limes
--2 avocados
--puree all i blender
--Seaon garlic powder and salt to taste

We blended everything in the blender. Serve with Santitas!

Salsa

--8 Core tomatoes
--1/2 onion medium chop
--4 de-stem jalapenoes
--drizzle with olive oil
--roast in oven at 375, until tomatoes are charred
--let cool for 15 minutes
--peel tomatoes and jalapenos
--1 bunch of cilantro chopped
--Dice and mix everything
--Add leftover juice to mixture
--Season with salt/pepper

White Sangria

-- White Box wine
-- 2/3 Cup Sugar
-- Peach canned drink from Mexican Supermarket
-- 2 Gala Apples Chopped
-- 2 Granny Smith Apples Chopped
-- Couple of Drops of Vanilla
-- 3 cans of Sprite/7 Up
-- Strawberries for Garnish

Chop up all of the apples and add to white wine. Also, add sugar, peach drink, vanilla. Let sit overnight. When ready to serve, add Sprite and serve over ice.

Let me know if you guys need any other recipes! I am sure I can get some more out of Fernando.