Since it was the big 3-Oh, I decided I needed to go big or go home. . .so I organized Pub Golf. It was a blast!

This isn’t quite all of us but it’s the closest I’m going to get to a group shot.

We met at the MAT for the first hole, and traveled up and down McKinney Ave. Everyone’s costumes were so fun! I was impressed that everyone got so into dressing up!

Beth made me a super cute cake:

I got koozies made for everyone, and it was so fun to see them all using them.

I definitely have to give it to Brett for coming up with a very creative costume that he actually managed to wear the entire day.

Yesterday was so fun thanks to everyone who came out! Now we just need another excuse to do it again!

Because yesterday was my birthday I thought it was as good an excuse as any to open a fancy bottle of wine.

I picked the Charles Krug Generations. It is a blend that is predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon. I was trying to figure out how to describe this wine, and thought the Charles Krug website said it best. “A selective blend creates a balanced wine that showcases its strength and elegance.”

It is a very smooth wine but with a hint of bitterness that seems to really open up and loosen as the wine breaths.

This is a wine we discovered last year when we were in Napa. I’m not sure if it can be purchased in wine stores or just from the winery. But if you have the chance I definitely recommend this one.

Today I am thirty! Yikes!

I’ve been a little distracted of late. . .all along I thought I was ready. . .and then the day slowly arrived I began to dread it. It’s not that I can’t handle turning thirty or that I think I am super old now. . .it’s just that I don’t feel thirty.

It seems like at thirty. . .I should be, I don’t know, an adult? But that doesn’t sound like fun!

The thirties are the new twenties right? Or is that just what they say to 30-year olds?

Man have I been a slacker on the wine o. wednesday front. . .have no fear, just because I haven’t written about wine, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been drinking it!

To make up for my absence I have two wine recommendations.

For quite some time I have been hearing about Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay. Now this was bit of pricey wine, it was $24 for the bottle. It was good but I wasn’t overly impressed. It didn’t really compare with the Kali Hart Chardonnay which as you know is my new favorite Chard. But this one isn’t bad.

Tonight, I busted a B.R. Cohn Malbec from the wine fridge. It was very tasty. I bought this one last August when I was at the winery and was curious if this was really a “good” wine or if it just seemed good after the very extensive wine tasting. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was actually a good wine even when not introduced by a wine tasting.

I definitely recommend both of these two, hopefully you will enjoy them too!

my, my how can I resist you!

This was my third time to see Mamma Mia on stage and what can I say. . .it was so fun!

Though this wasn’t the best performance I’ve seen. I was a little disappointed in the singing done by the actress that played the mom, Donna Sheridan.

But there is no way 2 hours of ABBA music can’t be fun! The crowd didn’t really get into the dancing at the end which was sad, but I still left singing, “Dancing Queen.”

Now, I need to watch Muriel’s Wedding. . .if you haven’t checked out that movie, do it! It’s a goofy off beat Australian film chalked full of ABBA songs and Toni Collette!

I just finished reading Julie and Julia. Shockingly I was inspired to read this book because the movie was about to come out. Unfortunately I didn’t quite finish the book before the movie came out, but I tried.

This was a fun read. As you read it you really feel like you get to know Julie Powell. She is definitely a no-holds bar author that lets you fully engage in every detail of her life. Though if you’re offended by the F word, consider yourself warned.

While I by no means consider myself a cook, I do enjoy an occasional endeavor into the culinary world, this book almost inspired me to take on the challenge of cooking through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. . .ALMOST! But don’t hold your breath because. . .

Where do I even start? There are so many things I could never do. I don’t see myself cooking liver, deboning a duck or making aspic anytime soon. . .none of those sound in the least bit tempting.

Despite having finished the book I’m still not sure what Julie thought she would accomplish by taking on the challenge of cooking every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year. . .though I admire her determination to stick with the challenge even though the situation appeared dyer on more than one occasion.

I can’t wait to see the movie because I’ve heard that while it has some obvious changes, it is still really good. Plus I absolutely adore Amy Adams. Who wants to go with me?

Growing up my Mom always told me that those fancy salon shampoos were a waste of money. She’s always been one to buy whatever is on sale, or better yet, what’s on sale AND she has a coupon for. I have for the most part stuck to this philosophy throughout my life, but was always curious. . .would those fancy shampoos and conditioners really give my hair more volume?

Up until recently my curiosity about those higher priced shampoos and conditioners was satisfied with the likes of Pantene and Thermasilk. You know the pricier shampoos and conditioners that would occasionally go on sale but could be found anywhere.

Well, in a moment of desperation and weakness, I gave into the temptation and bought salon shampoo and conditioner. There is a store by my house that holds an annual sale on liters, which means what is normally a $28 bottle of shampoo you can buy for $12. I spent about 20 minutes walking around the store anxiously analyzing at all of these fancy options wondering which promise was most tempting: more volume, anti-frizz, perfectly straight, the list could go on and on.

I finally settled on the more volume option and selected a matching set of Redken shampoo and conditioner with this promise. I was eager, anxious even to wash my hair and see how magnificent my hair would look once it had been washed and condition with these salon products I got for over half off its original price. (I would say drugstore prices, but yeah right, one bottle of this stuff still cost me more than an bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner at the drug store.)

Now, I’m not here to say whether or not over all this is a good or bad shampoo and conditioner, but what I can say is my Mom was right! I was completely let down by the promises made to me by the bottles of this overpriced, and obviously on sale for some reason, shampoo and conditioner. After about 4 uses of this new product I finally figured out that I had to use twice as much conditioner as the “cheaper” versions I had previously used to keep my hair from being a tangled mess.
In the end I learned my lesson, at quite a price I might add, and will be using up this conditioner in record speed only to return to the drug store shampoos and conditioners that fulfill their promises and are at a reasonable price.

Hopefully I can save you the expense and disappointment of trying out those expensive hair care products that try and lure us to use them!

Today is my Mom’s birthday, but we won’t discuss which birthday it is. Instead of taking her to her favorite restaurant, because there is now way we could get Scott there, we took her to a new restaurant. She has what we thought was a huge love of chicken fried steak, but surprised at least me if no one else when she ordered the pot roast . . .go figure?

We took her to none other than Babe’s Chicken up in Frisco. I think it became her favorite new restaurant, well. . .that was until our waitress figured out it was her birthday (I’m sure the presents under the table didn’t give it away.)

She gathered up a few of the waitresses and placed a crunched up and scrunched up cowboy hat on her head. Then asked her to stand up. . .which she obediently did until she realized there was “dancing” involved. Mom happily received the funnel shaped cup before she realized she was supposed to bite the bottom of the cup so that it rested over her nose forming a beak. . .

“You want me to do what?” She asked horrified. “I’m sure my son could do this much better.”

“I don’t think so,” Scott said as he sunk in his chair and scooted away.

“Are you sure I really need to do this?” Mom asked, desperately trying to figure a way out of this definite embarrassment.

“Just go ahead and do it and you’ll end this awkward situation a lot faster,” I tried to encourage her.

Eventually she did what she was supposed to do, but never got up from sitting in her chair. . .

Talk about a great photo! Now, if you read this blog and you know my Mom, DO NOT tell her you saw this picture. She will kill me!

Yesterday my friend Jennifer got married to Jamie. The wedding was beautiful and they had a blast. . .

and so did we!

Jamie’s dad got them a 2010 Chevy Camero to use as their getaway car.

Hope you guys are having a blast on your honeymoon!

I was sad to hear that John Hughes passed away this week. His movies were greatness (well minus the Home Alone series. . .I hated those movies!).

While I did grow up in the 80’s, I wasn’t a teenager in the 80’s. . .so I watched all of the John Hughes movies thinking that I was seeing what high school would be like and that I too would one day meet Jake Ryan. . .

Unfortunately I only own Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink so my options for what to watch tonight were pretty limited, yet tough because I love both movies. Sadly, I think I still have the entire movie memorized; I don’t even need to be watching it to know what’s going on.

There is so much to this movie though that can easily be missed if you aren’t paying attention. For instance, when Jake is in the gym after just having gotten “Sam’s sex test,” and is asking his rather burly friend if he knows who she is. . .have you ever noticed the wrestlers in the background?

Or what about Joan Cusack’s facial expressions while riding the bus with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall. . .she is so funny without even talking.

Sam’s run in with the grandparents who have taken over her after descending upon the family home for her older sister’s wedding. I love the scene in the hallway where her grandmother is inspecting her “boobies.”

Here’s a good synopsis of the movie that shows a ton of the funny scenes:

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Though my favorite character is Long Duck Dong, he has to be the best character by far in this movie. I still crack up every time I hear the gong in the background about 3 seconds behind in the scenes when his name is mentioned. Here are few clips that show what I mean:

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If you haven’t watched this movie, do it right away!!!

Next John Hughes film I want to watch, Weird Science. I haven’t seen that movie in forever. . .but I feel a special connection to it because my senior year at Texas A&M, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, aka Wyatt, took over my Chaucer class.

Yeap. . .that’s my English teacher in his undies to the right. . .

Tonight, instead of trying a new wine, I introduced some friends to a favorite of mine. I figure it is nice to revisit my favorites every once in a while, right? Of course it was just as good as I remembered.

Plus, I had two bottles of the Charles Krug Yountville Cabernet in my wine fridge, so I thought it was the perfect excuse to take it over to the Scott’s tonight. (PS as long as Evan doesn’t win SYTYCD, I will be happy!)

We had a good time playing with Kambelle, watching So You Think You Can Dance and drinking the Krug Cab. . .a perfect evening.

This week I am finally reading, “Same Kind of Different as Me,” by Ron Hall and Denver Moore; I was supposed to read it last summer but never did.

I am so glad I finally picked this book up, it is sooooo good!

Ron Hall is a wealthy man whose wife dragged him to the Union Gospel Mission in downtown Fort Worth, TX, who met an unlikely friend Denver Moore. This book is about how their friendship unfolds and the reader sees at that end the Denver taught Ron more than Ron taught Denver.

Denver was a slave in Louisianna into his early adulthood, the only way he could imagine escaping his life of slavery was to hop a train and try to make it to California. After a short stint in California, he headed back East and made Ft. Worth his new home.

After months of trying to get Denver to drop his guard Ron was successful and able to actually develop a friendship with Denver. I found it interesting that when Ron told Denver he wanted to be his friend, Denver had to think about it. And two weeks later, told Ron he would be his friend as long as Ron wasn’t planning to “catch and release” their friendship. If they were going to be friends it would be for life.

I am right at 30 pages from the end of the book and I must warn you, you are going to need some Kleenex as you near the end, but so far it has been so worth it.

There is even talk that this will be made into a movie; the screen play has been sold. If you want to keep up with that possibility, check out the book’s website.