Weekend Recap: Tuesday Edition

Well, since yesterday's post was a special one, I decided to reserve the little weekend update for today. It was quite the epic weekend for us, so I didn't dare not share! As you may recall, I shared last week that Harris had made a hair appointment for me, and that I was contemplating some major (for me) changes in the hair department. I did, in fact, make some changes - I got bangs cut and ombred my hair!

In addition to the hair appointment, Harris also scheduled a mani/pedi for me - isn't he the best? It was so nice to get a little pampering and a new look. At any rate, the pampering was brought on as part of a grand scheme of Harris' to celebrate our 6 month wedding anniversary. After the pampering session, I came home to find these beautiful autumn flowers all over the house:

Harris then surprised me with dinner at this one restaurant called Todd Jurich's Bistro that we have been waiting to try. It was absolutely incredible! Everything we had was amazing! We started with a pork and shrimp spring roll (delicious!) then had a pumpkin and crab soup (omg!) then Caesar salad (somehow this was the best Caesar I have ever had!), and finally our entrees - filet with some kind of polenta and spinach for Harris and scallops over squash risotto for me (I can't even). I am so glad we finally tried this little gem (and learned they have some great happy hour specials). As wonderful as our dinner was, Harris was not quite done with the surprises. After our delicious meal, Harris and I strolled through downtown - our destination unbeknownst to me - until we arrived at the Virginia Stage Company! I hadn't really paid attention as we were walking past, so it wasn't until we got inside, and they had a basket of flowers with a card "for your own Daisy" that I realized we were going to see The Great Gatsby! Not only that, but it was also opening night and we had a private box! It was amazing! The set, the characters, everything was just so well done. My sweet hubs knows me so well, and I am so thankful for his thoughtfulness in planning such a wonderful evening!

Blurry shot of the set

Somewhat dark pic of the hubs in our box!

Afterwards - the bangs went up fast.

Saturday we had big plans to go to the Citadel alumni tailgate and then the Citadel vs. ODU football game! We met up with Harris' friend Clay (another Citadel grad), and his parents (his Dad being yet another Citadel grad) and had a great time at the tailgate where I was so hungry I had a BBQ sandwich with baked beans and coleslaw. If you know me at all, you know this really is a big deal because 1. BBQ is not my favorite food in the world (although I do like pulled pork a good deal, so this is probably a moot point after all), 2. I do not like baked beans, and 3. I do not like coleslaw, so there it is. Big deal. After the tailgate, we headed over to the game where we had a blast sitting in the Citadel section. 

I will say about the Citadel alum they are proud (as they should be) and they are intense football fans! The game was crazy! I have never seen a college football team pull the kind of antics that ODU pulled the other night. No disrespect or anything, but I think they knew their defense wasn't up to snuff, so they wouldn't give us back the ball, and still they only ended up winning 59-58. It was intense up until the last play, and it was so much fun! On the way home, we stopped for milkshakes at cookout and I finally, after 6 years, tried a milkshake that did not end in cheesecake (you know chocolate chip cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake, and so on). It was delightful.

Sunday morning, Lucy woke me up entirely too early, and I was a bit grumpy with her for a good 10 minutes, but then I got over it. After hitting up the grocery store, Harris and I prepared our usual Sunday fare of homemade pizzas (him being responsible for the yummy sauce, and me being responsible for crusts), and then watched football games and monitored our fantasy scores. We also managed to squeeze in a late-afternoon nap, which made me quite happy.

As you can see, it was a wonderful weekend! We are so thankful for these times, and feel so blessed to be living in such a great place that gives us these fun opportunities. Keep it up, Norfolk, we approve!

New Neighbors + Weekend Stuff

We are delighted to report that we have new neighbors in the condo right next to ours! They are a young, married couple who will be renting here for the next year. Originally they are both from the states (her from Asheville, and he from California), but they currently (okay, aside from right this very moment) live in England (how fantastic of them!). "They" are Clary and Fred, and they have the sweetest little babe of one year named Rhett. Rhett and Lucy are already the best of friends! Lucy looooves giving him puppy kisses, and he just squeals with delight! It is the most precious thing. We had them over for dinner Saturday night when that delightful husband of mine whipped up some of his famous homemade guacamole, and took a stab at Mexican street tacos - chicken and fish (which were a total success, by the way!). It was nice having guests over, and really nice to be making new friends in this new town of ours. All in all, I would say we are very happy about the new folks next door!

So much of Saturday was spent in the way of prepping for our little dinner party, but, Sunday, oh Sunday was just the most wondrous treat! We had all day together, for starts! Wonder of wonders! We got up - okay, wait, I got up to a husband in the kitchen making breakfast (breakfast burritos made with leftover makings from the night before - yum yum!) - and after breakfast squeezed in a good workout at the Y (you know, so we wouldn't feel guilty about the rest of our day!). We then came home, watched the last episode of the first season of Downton Abbey, and then proceeded to watch all of Season 2 save the season finale. Can you say obsessed?! If you have not yet experienced the greatness that is this little PBS drama, you are surely missing out, my friend. It is riveting, I kid not. Literally, even my hubby who could care less about almost all television shows watched, for all intents and purposes, an entire season of this show with me yesterday! Unheard of!

We had the first disc of Season 2 in from Netflix - we were so hooked,
we watched the rest on the computer on Amazon Prime!

Such a great weekend with that sweet hubby! It was really just nice to have some good QT together after the craziness of the past few weeks. Not that these next couple weeks will be much less crazy, but it is always so nice to get our time together. Hope y'all all had a great weekend, as well!

Catching Up

How is it possible that it is already July?! I honestly don't know where the past month went. Well, I do - celebrating, traveling for work, and so on, but, seriously it went by so very quickly. The weekend before this past, was so much fun! Thursday night, the Norfolk food trucks kicked off their new business with a little celebration on MacArthur Square. Of course we had to go check this out, and neither the tacos nor the (overpriced) cupcakes disappointed! Also, we were fortunate to have my parents in town to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday! They got in late Friday evening, which means we sat around catching up until everyone was ready for bed. Saturday, my Mom's actual birthday, we got up, headed over to the Bayou Bugaloo (yet another of the Norfolk festivals!), enjoyed some cajun food (including our messy attempt at crawfish - still not sure they are worth the effort), drank some strong Hurricanes and some dark, dark beer, took a boat ride around the harbor, and then headed home once our feet were tired and we were starting to get a little rained on. We then ventured out for a sushi/hibachi dinner downtown, and then came back home for more drinks and pie! How awesome of a day was that! I will share the recipe for the "Lime in the Coconut" pie I made my Mom (she requested a coconut pie rather than a cake for her birthday, but my Dad doesn't like coconut, and both of them love key lime, so this was a win-win!), but for now, here are some pictures.

Our yummy food truck tacos!

Do you see this excitement?!

Mmm...pb and red velvet cupcakes

The chocolate was a bit too rich for me, but hubs enjoyed it!

Lucy is ready for a visit from the grandparents!

Lime in the Coconut Pie! Recipe forthcoming

A little weirded out by its eyes.

This crawfish was as big as my Dad's hand!

Birthday girl in her birthday beads! And, we bought those - promise!

Mom & Daddy!

Hot, sweaty, but loving the festival life

Mom and Hubs on the boat tour

See those clouds rolling in? Yeah they opened up on us right after the cruise.

Daddy trying his first sushi

Isn't my Mom adorns?!

After the weekend of wonderfulness, I took a Sunday night flight to Dallas/Fort Worth, where my co-workers and I spent a busy, busy week in training, meetings, a conference, and so on. It was a good week, but it was exhausting! Especially when there are customers involved (which certainly was the case this week), our days usually start around 5am (if you have any hopes of getting a workout in), and don't end until about midnight. There is an ungodly amount of food and alcoholic beverages, and not enough sleep for the likes of this lady. Fortunately, I have some really awesome co-workers, so shout out to you guys for keeping me sane, and letting me pawn drinks off on you when I was too done to keep up, and the customer kept buying them for me :). Also, major shout out to the husband for not only holding down the fort, taking care of the Lucy-pup (who promptly decided upon my departure that she should definitely eat two chocolate protein bars out of Daddy's briefcase - she's fine, no worries - I am pretty sure they were imitation chocolate at best), and working his crazy schedule, but for also being kind and patient with me during my 972 rounds of "I just want to come home now!".

My one and only picture of the week -
a valet claim ticket because we lost our physical copy

Luckily, albeit not without delays and complications, I made it home late Friday night to a pup who was happy to see me, and a husband who bought me beautiful flowers, and was equally happy to see me when he got home from work Saturday morning!

Beautiful flowers!

I had grand plans of doing absolutely nothing on Saturday, to which I succeeded tremendously: Lucy and I laid around Saturday morning while the hubs slept - we watched some TV, movies, snuggled on the couch, took a walk, and otherwise did nothing. Glorious. After the hubs woke up, we snuggled and caught up on our previous week in more depth, which was even more glorious. I finally got out of my PJs around 5pm in order to shower and go pick up Thai food for an impromptu date night picnic in the park with Harris on his dinner break. Afterwards, Lucy and I were in bed before 8pm and asleep around 9. My body is thanking me! Sunday I did my "Saturday things" - groceries, some cleaning, and the like. Harris and I took in an afternoon showing of World War Z before he had to go into work. My thoughts on it? Meh. It wasn't a super scary zombie flick (thank heavens! I am such a scaredy cat), and as I told Harris, I didn't think it was bad. I just didn't think it was good either. My vote is to wait until you can watch it at home. Save yourself a buck or two.

After all that, I am certainly glad that this week contains a holiday, and that, because of aforementioned holiday which then causes many folks to take vacation, it should (hopefully!) be a pretty tame week all in all!