So, I’m still not reading The Kite Runner, I’ve decided that I am going to wait until this summer to read it when I can read it uninterrupted. I have not been very successful at reading it in small bits of time, so, I decide to try something a bit light-hearted.
A few weeks ago when I was in Houston and discover the $1 book section at Half Price Books my friend Sara suggested Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster. This book is hilarious and a quick read.

I started it after work and am already 54 pages in the 394 page book. On the cover the story is compared to a Modern Greek tragedy. I haven’t exactly gotten to the Greek tragedy part yet but I did fine myself laughing out loud several times.

Bottom line if you are looking for a fun, easy read I think you should give this one a try. . .well, it’s back to reading for me.

Yesterday morning I drove out to Athens to Meredith’s grandparent’s ranch. It was so much fun!

There were about twelve of us and all we did was play. Unfortunately I wasn’t very good about taking pictures, and some of the pictures I did take, I had to swear not to post anywhere. So if you want to see pictures, check out Kelly’s blog. She’s got pictures from their first trip to the ranch and hopefully she will post some from this trip.

There were so many different things for us to do to keep us entertained. There was fishing, golf carts and my new favorite: go-karts. I felt like I was five years old driving the go-kart all over the ranch, it had the best “track” (if you will) for go-karts.

I can’t wait to go back! Thanks for a fun weekend Meredith!

This is something I learned tonight. . .and man was it fun!

Matt’s poppa made Lacee a marble board for Christmas and ever since we have been playing marbles as often as we can. The way we play is similar to Chinese Checkers but the board is set up a little bit differently.

The whole purpose of the game is to circle the board and end up in the “safe zone.” Each person has 5 marbles and the first one to get all 5 marbles safe wins.

Tonight I beat the guys in two straight games, so they decided to gang up against me and try to “kill” me as many times as possible.

Now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that I get a marble board sometime soon!

Unfortunately I don’t have much to say today. . .

I should have written my post before heading out for karaoke tonight, but I didn’t because I didn’t know what to say then and I still don’t.

Here’s what I know:
Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday
I wish there were more hours in the day
It’s time for me to go to sleep

I hope you’ve had a wonderful week with a restful weekend ahead of you!

P.S. One of these days, I’ll have to blog about karaoke. . .it’s pretty entertaining. . .

Red Diamond – Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (I think)

Today is my friend Wendy Gunn’s birthday, so rather than drink wine at home alone tonight for this post; I decided to drink my wine at the restaurant we went to. Blue Fish had a very limited Cab selection, so I just picked the house Cab.

The bartender said it was Red Diamond and based on their website, I am guessing it was a 2004. I’ve had this Cab before but it has been a few years, so technically it might have been an older vintage, but oh well let’s not get picky.

It kills me to drink wine at a restaurant for $8 a glass when I know the bottle probably cost them under $12, but I guess that is their prerogative. This is a very dry Cabernet to me but it was actually a nice compliment to dinner, which leads me to my next big announcement. For me this is earth shattering. . .

I found a sushi roll that I liked! I still can’t believe I can say that. Over the past several years I have been forced to try sushi many times. California rolls. . .boring and bland, so what’s the point? Raw fish. . .makes me want to gag, but I have still tried it.

But tonight, thanks to Lori I got to try the Sundae roll and it was delicious! I actually ended up ordering a roll all on my own. It was crab, shrimp, spicey. . .perfection.

Sushi anyone?

Next week’s wine will be the BV Cabernet Sauvignon, Coastal Estates, 2005.

I promise not to ruin tonight’s episode of Biggest Looser for anyone. . .but I’m going to ruin the ending of this week’s challenge.

Let me just say, I have never been as impressed by someone on the Biggest Loser as I was tonight. In the first part of the challenge tonight everyone kept giving Tara “extra weight,” not knowing what that would mean in the second challenge. But let’s be honest, how is that ever a good thing?

When the second part of the challenge rolled around we learned that the contestants were going to have to pull a 2 ton car. . .and, the additional weight they were given in part one.

Tara took all of her anger and frustration from being given the extra weight and was able to remain strong and steady in the challenge to pull the car a half a mile. Sione and Mike took off running and tired out not too long into the race. It was awesome to see Tara slowly pass both of them one at a time.

I hadn’t really decided who I was pulling for just yet this season, but now I’m rooting for Tara to win it all! You go Tara!!!

I have been reading The Kite Runner, are you impressed that I’m actually reading? Well don’t be too impressed because I am not very far into it, but there is a very good reason why. . .

I finally finished my book, Creative Chaos. . .whew, I can’t believe I actually get to say that! I am so excited but still a little surprised. I’m not sure I’m going to know what to do with myself now, although I probably won’t have that hard of time coming up with something.

After working on my book for so long, I think it will take a little while before it will really sink in with me that I’m finished. . .well, for now. It is off to my “editors” and then a few other friends before it is really finished, but I am definitely excited about the progress and ready to move on to the next stage. Time to work on the cover design.

Check back often for updates, I will be sure to post them. Here’s the synopsis if you are interested.

I know this comes to as much of a shock to you as it did to me. . .but I went to a friend’s wedding shower today and bought her some things off of her registry at Williams Sonoma but thought they would be a little boring on their own. Not to say she registered for boring things, they were just typical kitchen essentials.

To me, presentation is everything so I tried to come with a creative way to give someone tongs, a spatula and a pastry brush (I think that’s what it was). I decided to try something a little different and make them into a bouquet if you will.

I had this vase already, I had been using it to store my corks but since I have moved them it was empty. I took a piece of patterned paper and dropped it inside. Then I stuffed some tissue paper inside the vase to help arrange the items. To finish it off I tied a bow around the vase. I think it turned out pretty good. . .

Oh, and then tonight I went to see “I Love You Man,” it was hilarious! Go see it.

This is the time of the year that I love, although it might be a tie with the fall for my favorite time of year and that’s because of the patio weather. In Texas we just don’t get much patio time.

I would venture to say, March through early may and then October through mid November. The majority of the year it is just too dang hot! And let’s be honest, who wants to sit out on a patio eating and sweating. . .sick!

Tonight was a perfect example of wonderful patio weather. After a day of nervously watching basketball we headed to Campisis’ for dinner. The one in Frisco has a really good size patio. Tonight was the first night for the live music to start up again, and I have to admit the guy was really good. I have no idea who he was or how they found him but we all were singing along at different times.

What was going to be a simple dinner turned into three hours of just hanging out. . .it was wonderful!

Things were looking good until the match ups in the Midwest match ups started playing. I only picked 2 winners, who would have known there would be 6 upsets?

Tomorrow the Aggies play again. . .so good luck to the Ags; beat the hell out of UConn.

Are you buying a copy of Twilight at midnight?

I had no idea that the NCAA men’s basketball tournament was so much fun. . . until last year when I participated in a bracket pool for the first time. . .and won! That’s right, fingers crossed for a second win!

Here’s what I have learned so far, the more you know about the teams and the match ups the worse you tend to do. . .but with that said I don’t make my picks completely blind. I did a tad bit of research, as in about 10 minutes worth of reading and then made my picks.

In the first round I pretty much made my choices based on the rankings. Although I have learned there is normally at least one 5 & 12 ranking match that is an upset and that you can really go either way on the 8 & 9 seed match ups. Thus the reason I picked my Fightin’ Texas Aggies to beat the hell out of BYU. (Sorry about the loss to my BYU friends!)

Second round gets a little trickier. . .but I am still relatively confident in my picks. . .

This tournament really makes you do odd things, for instance I find myself thinking. . .”Go Horns!” What?? When do I cheer for the Longhorns. . .but still, I picked them to win the first round and I don’t want to be wrong!

So far I am 7 for 8 as the evening’s games just begin. . .

Here are the high points of my picks, I picked UNC to win the tournament. . .I am doubting myself on this one but I guess we will just have to wait and see. My final 4 is Michigan St. defeating U Conn and UNC beating Pitt.

Of Course the one and only team I am okay with ruining my brackets is A&M. . .if they beat UConn this weekend I will be ecstatic! Good luck everyone and Gig ‘em!