When you’ve spent an hour of fighting and crying in the corner of the bar for all to see, I’m wondering. . .is it worth it?
While we do appreciate the entertainment you provided us, we mostly felt sorry for the guy in the fight. . .he just couldn’t do anything right. . .I guess it was the fact that the girl had a stinkin’ huge diamond ring on her finger that made you both persevere and not walk away.

I’m especially sad that when the waitress delivered you each a drink from our table, you rejected it! We didn’t even get as much of a smile from either of you. . .

My thought is, unless you want people to get involved in your fight. . .don’t have it in the middle of a bar. But thanks for the entertainment!

. . .and yes they are empty!

Despite being super tired from the week. . .tonight was a fun time with friends at a new BYOB waaaay up north in Frisco, called Giovanni’s. Good times. . .

Before you judge those wine bottles were enjoyed by about 20 of us. . .not just by me!

On Tuesday, I was cruising around the internet on few different financial sites and couldn’t help laughing when I learned that this week is America saves week. Apparently it is a three year-old organization promoting and educating people on saving. I didn’t really get a chance to spend much time on their site but it looks like they offer a lot of good suggestions.

And. . .to update you on my no spending. . .I think I did pretty good. I started Saturday and actually did spend a little money, but I had a good reason. I got a letter a few weeks back from Discover saying they were closing my account; this was a surprise to me because I thought that account had already been closed. They told me that once I got my card I needed to go out and use it, so I bought my brother lunch and that was $6.

Sunday and Monday were excellent no money spent. But, I totally forgot that Tuesday was Mardi Gras. . .so I went out with some friends to celebrate, and only spent $10. . .pretty good, right?

I didn’t end up going to the grocery store this week, I decided to really make what I had at home last, which leads me to Thursday. . .I did spend a little money, but not much. . .so I don’t feel so bad about slipping.

I am thinking about having another no spending week next month; but definitely not the same week as St. Patty’s. Wanna join me?

This week I drank Bitch wine. . .sorry if that offends anyone? But it is good wine! Meredith and I happened upon this wine one night at Cru, a local wine bar, because it was one of the wines in the flight we had ordered. We liked it so much we ordered a full glass to enjoy.

It makes me laugh every time I hear someone go, I had the best wine the other day, it’s called. . .and they quietly say “bitch.”

It is a Grenache, which according to Wikipedia is the most widely planted variety of red wine grape in the world. Who knew, because I hardly ever hear about Grenache. This particular wine/grape comes from Australia.

Maybe I’m drawn to this wine because I think the label’s cute, maybe it’s cause it is around $10 or maybe because it is just good? But it definitely isn’t because it is a screw cap! I am always disappointed when I find a wine I really like and it is a screw cap. . .there’s just something about not having a cork that I miss.

I like that K&L Wines says, “This ain’t your Daddy’s Grenache. This is a wine about pleasure.” In fact, this wine is actually pretty highly regarded; Robert Parker even gave it 90 points which Is pretty impressive.

Over the last few months I have been mainly drinking out of Beth’s stemless wine glasses that Teal gave her, but for this wine I decided to spruce things up and use my fancy Kate Spade glasses that I love, I just don’t use them enough.

I am not quite sure what next week’s wine will be, sometimes it is just hard to decide. As soon as I do I’ll let you know so you can drink along. . .

My no spending money plan was going great until my friend Mia (just kidding, Mai!), sent out an email about going out tonight. If you have ever been fortunate enough to be a part of one of these email chains, you know they can be overwhelming and sort of peer pressure you into things (in a good way). We’ve actually had too many response in one chain that Google had to start a new email conversation in my inbox. . .yikes! Apparently 100 emails is the limit per conversation in gmail if anyone was wondering.

The plan was to meet up at BWW around 7:00 (if you don’t know what BWW is, sorry? Some mystery is probably best as you will see from the story below.) So I carpooled with Lacee and Brett since we were all heading south. . .and I set a limit of $10 for myself including tip. I was successful at keeping up with the no drinking during the week though. Yay for that!

Anyway. . .there we were sitting around enjoying $0.40 wings, all 15 of us. . .and around 9:30ish the original event planners (aka Mai and her friends) all left. We didn’t mind, those that were drinking ordered another round of beers and we watched the Texas A&M men’s basketball team win the game against Nebraska in the last three seconds. WHOOP!
Around 10 or so we all asked for our checks, except for Joe who was smart enough to just go to the bar and order. Little did we know it would be another 30 minutes before we could leave? Waiterboy didn’t seem to understand that when we all simultaneously asked for our bills that we were ALL ready to leave, not just a few of us. One at a time he would bring our checks. When Matt asked the waiterboy on his 3rd trip to our table for his check, waiterboy acted annoyed because he hadn’t had time to “figure out” Matt’s check. What? Is it really that hard when there are only two people left without a bill??? I don’t think so!

Matt gets his bill, pays cash, and waiterboy takes the cash to go make change and get Paige’s tab (mind you we have already asked 3 times for her tab as well). He finally returns with the last check, whew. . .looks like we’re gonna be able to leave soon, but dang it, Paige is paying with a credit card which means. . .we’ll be waiting on him AGAIN.

What seemed like an eternity later, he returns with Paige’s credit card slip for her to sign. . .but we aren’t in the clear just yet. . .as Paige is signing. . .waiterboy awkwardly stands at the corner of our table holding up a bill, tells us that someone didn’t pay. And at which point did this become our problem?

He tells us that there were two appetizers and a beer someone walked out on. . .thinking back now, this seems like a really odd combination to be left unpaid. I mean if it were two beers and an appetizer, sure I get it, one person walked their tab. But two appetizers and one beer, who orders that?? Obviously genius waiter was not keeping up with who ordered what and when they left. He doesn’t stop there. . .he tells us that these items were ordered before he took over our table. . .well, there’s your first clue buddy that they aren’t our items. He was the only delightful waiter that we’d had all night, lucky us!

“Who wants to pick up these items?” He asks us as if this were a normal way to handle the situation. We all awkwardly look away and respond, “Not me!” He obviously wasn’t satisfied with our response and uncomfortably lingered at our table. As soon as he stepped away to check with another large table to see if they would claim the items, we bolted. . .but at the door Paige realized she didn’t keep a copy of her receipt. Seeing as how pleasant waiterboy was, she wanted legitimate proof of her tab in case he decided to charge her for the items anyway.

Waiterboy takes this as an opportunity to try and collect for these items from Paige and follows her to the hostess stand. At which I thought we were gonna see Matt punch him, which would’ve been cool.

The hostess watches this exchange and hears Matt say, “Obviously you weren’t really on top of things tonight and we aren’t responsible for this.” Waiterboy throws his hands in the air, exclaims, “WHATEVER,” and storms off. A fellow waitress says, “Want me to get the manager?”

The manger was very nice and very apologetic, props to him! At this point the night was done, and regrettably there was no rumble at BWW. . .which totally would have been the perfect end. . .

So what started out as a chill evening with friends turns into drama-filled event!

**Personal disclaimer: I really have no issue with waiters unless they are never polite. There is most definitely a reason that I have never been a waitress; I would be aweful at it and I know it!

I haven’t really been reading much this week, I’ve been making progress on my book and working on a few websites. My sister Beth is starting up a site (though we are still finishing it up) and Joe is moving from WordPress to his own domain, what can I say, that blog just cracks me up!

I did start The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, but I didn’t get too far. This should be an interesting read because it is written as letters back and forth. Literally I am about 3 letters in so I can’t really tell you what it is about other than one of the main characters is a writer.

I promise to have this read by next Monday and fully review it for you! No more slacking for me.

To be honest I am not the biggest Oscar fan but it is one of those things I feel like I should watch. And this year I really haven’t seen many of the movies that were nominated.

But with that said, I enjoyed watching tonight’s Oscars despite hearing, “Can you fast forward?” every few minutes. (Notice no “please” in there.) Hugh Jackman did a great job as host; I thought he was funny and entertaining. His jokes were well delivered.

Although not everyone’s timing was as good. I always find it interesting to watch those actors that I’ve enjoyed in movies or on TV fumble their words in front of a roomful of their peers.

I wasn’t surprised at all that Slumdog Millionaire won all the awards that it did or that Heath Ledger was selected as best supporting actor. I most excited for Kate Winslett’s win. She always does a fabulous job.

Unfortunately I missed most of the red carpet so I didn’t get to see all of the dresses as they arrived. But I’m sure I’ll be able to find them online or this week’s people magazine. What were your favorites?

Oh and props to Joe for bringing Beth and I some tasty Chinese food from Iron Wok (formerly Cathy’s Wok)!

**Sadly Cowboy Chow Dallas has closed (updated 2/17/2013)**

Last night we went to Cowboy Chow for dinner because we wanted to try it before they get their liquor license and it was still BYOB. This place was SO cool! And I even liked it before even going because there website is pretty sweet.

This restaurant is really chill and low key. The tables range from booths to benches to the longest dining table I have ever seen. Each table has stacks of glasses and containers of silverware. If I’d had my camera with me I would have snapped some pictures, guess I better track that thing down. One of the owners even stopped by and talked to us for a little bit.

Their main staple at Cowboy Chow is their brisket. In fact all of us got a brisket dish with the exception for Lacee, who got veggie tacos. I got the brisket tacos with jalapenos, Meredith got the grilled cheese that included brisket, Mary got the brisket quesadillas and Matt got the brisket tacos. Not a single one of us was disappointed in our choices. Spuds, one of the chefs, even hooked us up with a brisket taco with cheddar cheese that we passed around the table and each tried.

Since we weren’t in any hurry we decided to try out the deserts. The homemade ice cream cookies were delicious and Matt & Lacee enjoyed their skillet cookie and ice cream.

Needless to say if you are in the Dallas area I highly recommend giving it a try. I can’t wait to go back.

Now I want to try their sister restaurant, Twisted Root Burger Company. They are about to open their second location and Guy Fieri stopped by not too long ago with his cameras to feature the restaurant on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives that airs this July on the Food Network.

So. . .about 1:30ish this afternoon I got a call that my brother was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital. He was playing in a pick up hockey game or “drop in” game as I learned today, and had slid into the boards. Despite it not being that hard of a hit he still managed to crack his collar bone in half.

Which isn’t serious, but really painful. Needless to say I spent a good portion of the afternoon at the hospital. Then I got to drive his huge truck back to my mom’s house and am currently carless. Boo!

Once he was situated I headed to the pharmacy less than a few minutes away to pick up his prescription and it was THE place to be. Who knew that everyone would be picking up prescriptions at 4:30 in the afternoon. That took about an hour.

Now I am headed to this week’s BYOB a place called Cowboy Chow and then to a BYOL bar for a Wedding Shower. . .party time!

If you think about it shoot up some prayers for Scott that the pain in his shoulder won’t be too bad.

I know last week I mentioned My Dollar Plan as a site you should check out to get some good money advice. Well, I’ve been perusing the web looking for some additional sites for both myself and all of you.

This week I discovered Moolanomy. This site is also full of tons of great tips about finances, but my favorite part of this site was the: Frugalist Expense Reduction Guide. And it has inspired me. I am challenging myself to not spend any money for a week.

Here’s my plan, starting Saturday until dinner Friday night (because I have plans), I am not going to spend any money next week.

There will be a few exceptions. First off, I have set up all my bills to auto pay with my credit card so that I am never late on a payment which means it is legit if they hit my card in this time period. Second, I will fill up with gas tomorrow but, if it doesn’t last through the week I will have to fill up again so that I can go to work. Though wouldn’t it be great if that were a valid excuse? And lastly, I am probably not going to make it to the grocery store before Saturday morning but I will need to get food for next week.

So other than those few things, no spending money, no eating out, no random purchases, nothing that credit card will stay in my wallet!

Whew, okay now that my guidelines are in place, I’m set. Anyone want to jump on the challenge band wagon? It could be fun! Or send me any ideas you have for free activities.

Tonight’s wine is the red House Wine from the Magnificent Wine Company.  This is truly a red blend, comprised of 6 different types of grapes.  I have had this wine several times because my friend Kandice introduced me to it years ago.

I like this wine but I don’t think it is one of my all time favorites, I think I am a bigger fan of the label on the bottle than the wine.

5% of this blend is Sangiovese grapes and I think that it over powers all the other grapes.  For me Sangiovese is either hit or miss and I think in this case it is a miss.  Don’t get me wrong, this wine definitely gets less tart the longer it is open and each glass is better than the one before.  This was definitely a bit of a switch from last week’s Merlot.

Next week’s wine is going to be “Bitch.”  I saw it when I picked up my bottle of House Wine and just couldn’t resist.  It is a Grenache that is around $10 and can be found at Central Market.  Go pick yourself up a bottle and drink along.

If so what rules and how did you decide on those rules?

Life is full of all sorts of rules. . .rules of the work place and rules of etiquette. . .even rules to live by. With so many rules to choose from how do you prioritize them? Or is it that we create our own set of life rules based on the ones we deem most significant?

And if that is the case then is it fair for us to hold others accountable to our list of rules? What makes my list better than yours or vice versa?

Rules can apply to how we spend our money, how we react to others or situations and how treat others. So why is it when someone else violates our rules if we don’t remain bound by them in our reaction are we wrong?

My personal philosophy has always been to try to abide by any and all rules of life, etiquette, work and what not because I always tend to think if I mess up I will be the one who gets caught. Even though this doesn’t always come true I still tend to think it and expect it of others.

I can’t tell you how often I wish I were more laid back and less expectant of others and more accepting. . .in fact I am downright jealous of my friends that live their life in chill mood. . .I can dream can’t I?

(Okay Brett, here is a thought provoking post for you. . .hope you are happy, although others might be bored. I’m not use to being so introspective. . .feels funny. . .)

*** Don’t forget to get the Red House Wine and drink along tomorrow!