BFW Squared

Big Fun Weekend in Balmy Fort Worth

And a good time was had by all.

(Shoutout to our in absentia members.

We missed you, but we'll see you on Facebook.)

Highlights:

*Homemade pizza and breadsticks. Always a hit with this crowd.

*Chloe wowed "The Aunties" with her sunny disposition, superhuman leg strength and drooling capacity.

*Sophie filled in as entertainer, reading, singing, and constantly asking Kel to take off her glasses (apparently Soph doesn't think they suit).

*Getting significantly lost on the way to Dallas Love Field, driving on the tollway with no cash and writing four, yes four, separate checks to the North Texas Tollway Authority. Oh yeah, and

forgetting to sign one--I'm totally going to jail for that.

*Milkshakes at 1am.

*Certain people hijacking certain other people's computers and signing them up for social networking sites (Facebook, anyone?).

*Flair.

*Lazing about for an entire day, catching up and gazing adoringly at the children.

*Not getting significantly lost the second time around to Dallas Love Field.

*The food court at Hulen Mall.

In summary:

Six tolls and gas for five trips to the airport: $92

Middle-of-the-night Milkshakes: $10.50

Making new memories with old friends: Priceless

An Attempt At Catching Up

We are almost recovered from the craziness that was the luau. Crazy fun, that is! Thank you all so much for coming. I just wish we would have had more time together. We still haven't done any major grocery shopping, but due to beverage leftovers our fridge could be mistaken for something you might see on "Cribs." So sorry about the bug bites. Jon and I were largely unaffected. But as far as I know, none of you rolled around in the grass - where did you find chiggers?

I'm not really sure how to say this next thing that I want to tell you. I scored (for lack of a better word) some free tickets at work for the American Idol Live tour and my mom and I went to the show last week. I am only a casual viewer but my mom watches religiously and has a special gift for picking the top three each season. As soon as Hollywood Week begins she posts her favorites in a central spot in the house so everyone knows her choices and she can't make casual revisions. She has been spot on everytime. Except I don't think she predicated a 3rd place finish for Melinda - that girl was robbed. I digress. The concert, I must grudgingly admit, was quite good. I was really only going for my mom's sake and started to regret my decision when even she was worried that we would "run into someone we know." Not that that would really be an issue because they would probably be just as embarrassed and both parties would either ignore each other completely or sheepishly wave and roll our eyes with a silent understanding to never mention this again. The audience at the Scottrade/Savvis/Kiel/Whatever Center was made up off a lot of families, especially mother/daughter or father/daughter dates. We got 3 hours of solid entertainment - even Sanjaya was decent. I said decent, not good. All of the top 10 finalists seemed much more confident and relaxed and they all seemed to be having a good time, even though I suspect in Gina's case it was more condescending amusement (and her recent engagement) that kept her smiling.

Jon is sporting a new look, or rather an old look revisited. Since the wedding and luau are finished he has cut his hair again. I like it a lot, but now I'm married to a thug.

We traveled from one St. Charles to another over the weekend for a family picnic. St. Charles, MO, was about 105 degrees and dry when we left and St. Charles, IL, was 72 degrees and rainy. Despite the weather, the diehards still went out on the boats for some wakeboarding and tubing. So far, I've brought rain with me to every family event in Chicago. All of my memories so far are of us huddling under tarps and umbrellas. Don't get me wrong, we always have a great time, but it's always a soggy, muddy, chilly kind of fun. On the way home last night we stopped at Ikea and got a few small items for our apartment, including a TV stand. I spent the day today building furniture and we should get our couch by the weekend (finally!).

I'm trying a new thing for keeping up with the many blogs I enjoy reading. Instead of just accessing them from the links on the righthand side of this page, I'm using Google Reader. If you have a Blogger account you can use that to login to Google and do this also. You just tell Google which sites you're looking for and it creates a list which automatically updates. When you login, it will tell you which sites have new posts. You can also create folders and tags to keep them all organized. I've got friends in one (the most important), funny stuff in another (Planet Dan and Improv Everywhere, for example), etc. There are lots of feed readers out there, but I tend to like what Google does and I didn't have to create a new account. I tried the Yahoo reader, both from within Mail and My Yahoo! - and found it to be lacking.

Has anyone seen Becoming Janet yet? I got a new book this weekend called Lost In Austen, by Emma Campbell Webster. It is essentially a Choose Your Own Adventure for adults, based on the Jane Austen novels. I haven't had much time to start it yet so I can't give a review, but I thought the premise at least to be very clever.

In other news, I've already started Christmas shopping and making. The only beneficiary so far is Sophie - I couldn't help myself. *** Christa's blog is now linked in Kristy's list on the right. For creating such an entertaining and informative blog, Christa gets 2 thumbs up! *** I took zero pictures the weekend of the luau except for a few of the kids at Cracker Barrel, so girls, if you'll send them to me, I'll post them all together. *** Kelly, I read some interesting news on Miss Monkey's blog. Or maybe you told me and I wasn't paying attention through the hairspray fumes and pins poking in my head. Tell us more about the triathalon, please!

Luau Debrief

As discussed at the Cracker Barrel (oh how I've missed you!!), many of us appreciate a good debrief after an event such as the luau. I am pretty tired right now, but I do have a few quick thoughts.

1) Jo made a beautiful "bride" (I know, I know, it was a party)

2) I love how much fun we have together, even when it's been awhile since we've seen one another.

3) I really like my friends' spouses. You've all chosen well.

4) You guys have really cute, nice kids.

5) My mosquito mojo is back. I thought they didn't like me anymore.... but I just counted 36 bites on my left leg. I am too scared to look at the rest of me.

6) We're kind of dorks.

My favorite line

My new favorite line is, "Well, if you had read the blog...."

I had such a great time with all of you!!

Together Again

There's an interesting convergence happening in St. Louis this weekend. All 6, that's right, all 6 of the contributors on this blog will be together for the first time, as best as we can remember, in 5 1/2 years (see picture at right). I am so honored that the other 5 have all made the effort to be here to celebrate with me at our luau. Ladies, I can't wait to see you all. Safe travels!

Caramel Corn

Katie, Kelly, Sarah, and I are sitting in Sarah's living room, eating caramel corn, listening to Aerosmith, etc. We spent a good portion of the evening as members of the Sophie Admiration Society. We watched her walk, play, show off her animal sounds and baby signs, bathe, and get her ducky jammies on. Katie, Kelly, and I are planning ways to kidnap her. You think I'm joking. Megan, wish you could be here! Kristy, see you Saturday! Katie says: RV is the worst movie ever.

Sarah says: caramel corn.

Kelly says: Katie has reindeer socks.

Johanna says: Please pass the donut bites.

Kelly's explanation for not contributing to this group blog session tonight: Since I was the last one to blog, I shouldn't have to blog.

Sarah says: I don't want to be nice. I'm not nice. Sweet is not a word people use to describe me.

Kelly says: We could talk about nose hair.

I have a feeling the other girls are not going to like this post when they read it.

Happy 4th Anniversary, Katie & Eric!

Also, I've been informed that I missed a couple of blog birthdays this year. Happy belated 29th, Kelly. Happy belated 30th, Katie.

Countdown to BFLW: 24 hours!

In just 24 hours, most of us will start converging on Fort Worth, moving on to San Antonio on Saturday. I am almost packed and I've already printed my boarding pass. An updated itinerary will be arriving in your inboxes shortly. There's lots of fun and frivolity on tap for the next several days. Shopping, eating at Chick-Fil-A, laughing at the people at Hot Dog On A Stick (please, someone remind me to take a picture this time), drinking lots of sweet tea, playing with Sophie, challenging each other at the Anne of Green Gables Ultimate DVD Trivia Game, bowling, partying it up with Kristy & Christa, etc. I already have an excuse for my sure-to-be poor showing at bowling on Friday night. I was walking down the steps last night with my dry cleaning and completely skipped the last step, turning my ankle pretty badly in the process. I don't think there's any real injury there but it is really sore. So that is, of course, going to interfere with my approach during bowling.

Ray & Tristan

Last Thursday night we went to the Ray LaMontagne concert at The Pageant. It was a great show from beginning to end. A girl named Tristan Prettyman opened - check her out if you get a chance. Tristan, if you ever google yourself and stumble across this blog, I'd appreciate it if you would please record "Just In Case" and "All I Want For Christmas Is Us." Thanks!

Ray started with one of my favorites, "Barfly." I can't say that I was surprised, but I was pleased to find that Ray sounds even better in person than on his recordings. "Hold You In My Arms" came up around 3rd or 4th in the setlist and if the show had ended then I would have considered it worth the ticket price. If there is a baby boom going on right now, we might as well just name it Generation Ray since his music has got to be setting the mood for many an amorous couple.

It was a great night and I'm already looking forward to the next time Ray's in town, but we probably would've enjoyed the evening even more if the U City Bread Co. had not tried to poison Jon. Okay, they didn't really poison him, but we ordered our usual items and something he ate made him feel bad the rest of the night. That was on top of having to wait over 30 minutes for a crispani. The manager was nice about it and gave us a coupon, but I think I'll stick with my strange-but-safe Zumbehl location.

Hawaiian Minute
The Surprising Similarities Between Blogging and Hula Dancing
by Dave Taylor, The Intuitive Life Business Blog, 5/3/2006

Maybe someday soon the Hawaiian Minute will actually come to you from Hawaii.

I know it's been warm lately (warm being in the 50s) but I really don't think that's a reason for the air conditioning to be on in my office. It's freezing. I must leave it now. See you ladies tomorrow!