The Dirty Thirty: Harris Edition

Last weekend, that sweet hubby of mine turned the big 3 - 0! For about a month and a half prior to his birthday, I had been keeping a surprise from him, and it was just about to burst out of me, so I am glad the birthday weekend arrived when it did!

Thursday evening, we dropped Lucy off with a babysitter for the weekend. I think this was Harris' first inclination that we might be doing something fun for the weekend (prior to this, I had only told him that he needed to take Friday the 30th off work). At this point, Harris really wanted to know where we were going, but I held out, and tortured us both a little longer. All I would tell him was that we needed to be out of the house by 6am Friday morning!

Friday we were up bright and early, of course. I finished packing us up, and then finally clued him in to our destination - Philadelphia! Harris loves Philly, so I knew he would be pleased with the locale of the celebration, but I was still holding out on him, so the drive up was still a bit torturous for me! See, I had arranged for two of his best buds from college, Brett & Josh to meet us in Philly. Brett and his wife, Whitney live in Pittsburgh, and Josh and his wife, Nicole, live in Chicago. Brett, Harris, and I were quire the trio back in college, so it is always fun to see him, and I am pretty sure I haven't seen Josh since Harris' ring ceremony back in 2005!

Long story short, we made it to Philly, and checked into our awesome hotel, The Hotel Monaco (which totally reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, and I loved it!), just in time for me to tell Harris we were going to lunch. We walked a few blocks, wandered into a local joint, where Harris followed me as I charged through the restaurant to a table in the back where his eyes about popped out of his head when he saw his buddies sitting there! It was so worth the planning, nervousness, and anxiety about giving it away!

It was so great to be able to surprise him in such a way, and I think he really loved being able to show other people all the things he loves about Philly. We spent Friday afternoon walking around Old City and down to Penn's Landing, and then over to the Reading Terminal Market. We then had tickets to the 7pm Phillies v. Met baseball game, where I had secured us some pretty sweet seats, if I may say so. They were in the Diamond Club, which was a little over-hyped in our opinion - I mean, yes, it was nice not to have wait in line for drinks or food, and to have an air-conditioned club we could go into, but the seats were fantastic - right behind home plate, 17 rows up! The game ending up going 14 innings, which meant we were at the ballpark until almost 1am, and I don't think my birthday boy could have been happier!

Saturday we all made it to breakfast, and then down to the Navy Yard for the International Beer Expo. Now, not being a beer drinker myself, I couldn't honestly tell you what the selection was like, but all the beer drinkers did seem pretty impressed! It was actually a really awesome festival - so much space that we never felt like we were all cramped up together, especially considering the sheer number of people there - there were some really great booths set up, and everyone seemed to have a really great time!

We spent the afternoon walking along South Street, had some cheesesteaks, and then ended up at a cocktail bar on the rooftop of our hotel. Sunday, we made it to a nice birthday brunch before everyone had to leave town. Overall, I would deem the weekend a success!

Harris, Happy 30th! I love you so much, and am so glad you were born :) I am so happy to have spent these last 11 birthdays with you, and I cannot wait to celebrate every one for the rest of our lives. Here's to many, many, many more birthdays together!

A guy rode his bike up to the ATM...it made Harris laugh so I took a picture

Life Updates

First things first: Happy May (rabbit rabbit)! Second of all, my apologies for being so quiet the past month. I have realized that every time some event happens in life that upends my normal daily routine, this little blog suffers the most. I apologize for my long absence, but promise I will be getting back on track this next week. For now, here is a whirlwind recap of the past several weeks:

We went to our first Sunday Norfolk Tides baseball game as Sunday season ticket holders, and it was a blast! It was a little chilly in early April, but the sun was shining, and the Tides won, so we were happy!

One of my childhood friends got married, so we planned a weekend with my family to coincide, which was so much fun! We had a lot of fun with my parents at the wedding, and Lauren, my friend, was a beautiful bride! We also planned it so that Harris took his first vacation since our honeymoon, and we went to go visit his family (who we hadn't seen since last Memorial Day!), and also spend Easter with them!

The morning after the wedding, my Nana had a heart attack. She was in the hospital for several days after that, and I went down to Florence to spend a few days with her, and sent Harris and Lucy on to Greenville, where I met up with them a couple of days later. Nana was sent to rehab a few days after her heart attack, but ended up back in the hospital that very next weekend. There has just been a lot going on with, seemingly, everything - her heart, kidneys, lungs, having an infection, so on and so forth. She has been in the hospital ever since, and I have been back and forth between South Carolina and Virginia spending time with her. I really wish I had answers for the inevitable questions here, but I think we are all just taking it day by day and seeing what happens. We are thankful that she is still with us, and still fighting! We do appreciate all the love and support floating around out there, more than you know.

Our time in Greenville with Harris' family was really great, though, and we loved getting to spend time with everyone! Most of his family comes together for Easter at his granddad's house, which includes the annual Ligon Family Easter Egg Hunt Extravaganza! spoiler alert: I am a really bad Easter egg hunter, apparently!

Harris went to Arkansas on a business trip last week! He is in the early stages of traveling for work, so he is not yet jaded like I was toward the end of my business-travel time. Actually, I hope he never gets that jaded, but, nevertheless, I think he is enjoying it!

This past weekend, Harris was on-call, so he worked a lot, and I played a lot of catch up on things that had fallen by the wayside the past couple weeks. However, we did manage to make time for brunch on Sunday morning before our second baseball game of the season!

This week has been a good, but busy one! We are both really glad that tomorrow is Friday!

Anniversary Weekend!

Sunday, Harris and I celebrated one year of marriage! While it seems absolutely crazy that already a year has passed since we exchanged vows in beautiful Playa Mujeres, it is even crazier to think that this past Friday was the 11th anniversary of our first date! To top it off, we also got some really exciting news on Friday - Harris got a promotion! Now, I know, I know, he just got a promotion a few months ago, but, some changes happened a bit unexpectedly, and he will be moving into a new role, leading a new team with some pretty high-profile business. I am so proud of him, and I know he will do such a great job! It was a weekend of celebration, indeed!

Friday evening we met up with our friends Clay & Whitley and a few other people to try out Vintage Tavern in Suffolk since it was restaurant week. We had such a blast with everyone, and, the food was pretty great too. It had some room for improvement (felt like the pureed butter bean soup - yes, butter bean soup! - was a little salty, among a few small other things), but I would definitely want to go back! Their cheese plate was one of the best I have had in this area, and the creme brulee was ah-mazing!

I was reminded during our jaunt over to Suffolk how much I really enjoy city living. While it was nice to see the wide open spaces (Suffolk is a little bit country, folks), I really do enjoy having most things within walking distance of our condo. I guess it is a give and take, though - we get to have the convenience of having our favorite restaurants, the movies, the mall, and so on, literally, right outside our front door, but we forsake things like a yard and a grill, and space between us and our neighbors. While those latter things are definitely nice, I think we really enjoy the convenience so much more than we would those other things. Plus, without having a commute for Harris, we get to see each other loads more than we would if we were living out in Virginia Beach, or one of the other burbs. Perk!

After hanging with the friends Friday night, we decided to spend Saturday doing things in Norfolk we hadn't done yet, which mostly involved spending a gloriously sunny day flitting in and out of various shops and stores, and walking streets in the Ghent neighborhood. We popped into one of the local bakeries over there and shared the most delicious slice of cake - it was banana, chocolate, something or other, and I swear it was like the best parts of a chocolate cake mated with the best parts of a banana pudding and made this perfect little cake for our enjoyment. Now, of course Harris didn't know this at the time, but we ended up eating a lot of cake over the weekend! Since we couldn't bring back the top tier of our wedding cake from Mexico last year, I had a local bakery recreate it for us to enjoy! While it wasn't quite as delectable as the original, it was still a darn good cake!

Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but the first year anniversary present is, traditionally, supposed to be paper. I don't know why, but I have always wanted to find some creative way to honor this tradition, and, because of this, have had Harris' anniversary present planned for months! I decided to get us Sunday season tickets to the Norfolk Tides baseball games! I knew he would love it because 1. he loves baseball, and 2. it would be a fun activity for us to do together. There are 11 Sunday games, plus we get vouchers for 2 more games. This seemed much more reasonable than the 72-game full-season tickets! I mean, seriously, that is a commitment! As expected, he loved his gift. Now, for my anniversary present...we are still in suspense over here! With the whole Lucy situation that has been going on lately, we decided to postpone making any serious plans for our anniversary, but, unbeknownst to me, the hubs already has some surprise trip planned, and apparently my gift shall not be given till that time...I love it! He did, however, get me a few little things over the weekend, because he is just nice like that!

Our actual anniversary day was a rainy, yucky, cold mess of a day. So, it was the perfect day for laying in bed, watching our wedding video, snuggling, watching tv, and ordering takeout! No complaints from Team Ligon on that one.

This week has already gotten off with a bang. Yesterday morning, bright and early, Harris took off for a business trip to Mexico! He will be back on Thursday, and Lucy and I miss him desperately, but know he is having a blast. I am writing up a storm, which is great, and I am getting so many things checked off my to-do list. Lucy had a recheck with the ophthalmologist  this morning - her graft is completely healed, but she has had a bit of retinal degeneration because of all the inflammation in her eye. But, we will keep giving drops for the next couple months, and hoping for the best! Overall, she is really doing great, though! I also gave her a totally botched homemade haircut the other day / finished up and gave her a bath today. She looks ridiculous, but I am a nervous Nellie about sending her to the groomers right now, and she needed a little help (although, I am not sure if I helped or hurt, but whatever). She was actually pretty good about the whole thing (and dangit, I just remembered I never gave her a treat when I finished! This is why she is poorly trained - all my fault!), but she probably does hate me a little more than usual now. Ah well.

Off to do some more writing, and try to not let this cold gloominess take over my soul. And by take over my soul I mean coerce me into taking a nap.

Get This Party Started!

We effectively kicked off, or continued as the case may be, Harris' birthdaykkah (my personal take on making birthdays a festive week-long event) with an evening of baseball last night! Although the Tides did not win, we had an awesome time! Before the game, we grabbed a bite to eat at a new favorite restaurant - The Public House - where Harris partook in his favorite birthday food - fried chicken - and I had "white collar" (translation: bourgeois) macaroni and cheese - had the fancy cheeses and truffle oil in it! At the game, I got to sit between Harris and a highly comedic 9-ish year old little boy who entertained me with his commentary on both the game and people around us. All in all it was a lovely, lovely time!

Carolina On Our Minds

This past weekend we ventured down to Greenville, South Carolina to visit with Harris' parents for the Memorial Day weekend. It was so good to spend time with the in-laws; I really am lucky to have such a wonderful second set of parents, as well as all the other great members of the Ligon clan to claim as my own now!

We got into town on Friday, and then had dinner with the folks at one of their favorite restaurants - Lieu's. It is the local, homegrown, better version of PF Changs, and Harris' parents are treated like family every time they grace the threshold (which is at least weekly, seriously). We had a great time catching up, laughing, and enjoying the good food and drinks.

Saturday, the boys headed over to Fluor field to catch The Citadel and Appalachian match in the SoCon tournament (spoiler alert: The Citadel won, but, as I like to remind Harris, football is the only sport that really counts). Krista and I had lunch downtown, and then ran about finalizing some birthday party details for the hubby of mine! Because his parents never really get to celebrate his birthday with him these days, Krista came up with the grand idea to celebrate Harris' birthday a week early, and surprise him with a birthday dinner and cookie cake Saturday night! He was definitely surprised, and I am so glad his folks got to celebrate with him!

Sunday, I met up with my friends Simone and Andrew for a lovely, delightful, delicious brunch at the new Greenville brunch hot spot - Southern Culture. This place was seriously ah-mazing! They have premium juices for their mimosas (instead of just OJ and cranberry, they also have pear, apricot, and pomegranate juices!). The food was seriously impressive (please see Andrew's fried chicken, waffle sandwich below, which was as big as his head!, and my delicious crab cake benedict). After that, we all met Harris' sister downtown to meet her new boyfriend and hang out before we got on the road to head back to Norfolk.

All in all, it was a really great weekend. We are so grateful to be in Norfolk - not only do we absolutely love the Hampton Roads area, downtown Norfolk, being so close to the beach, and so on, we also love being so close to both of our families. Unfortunately, as it always does, the weekend went by too quickly, and, sadly, Harris has to work this evening. I am now getting caught up on what I like to refer to as "Saturday things" - washing clothes, cleaning, running errands, and Harris is getting ready to kick-off his work week.

We hope all of you enjoyed your long weekend, and are ready for a fun week ahead!