Dog Days of Summer

Here in Waco, we had 24 consecutive days of 100+ temperatures. Yick, yack, yuck. I was just about to head to Vancouver when a cold front blew through and left us with temperatures in the low 90s. What a blessing?

My parents, the wise ones that they are, left last week for an Alaskan cruise and asked me and John to take care of our family's twelve-year-old Maltese, Biscuit. Which is great, because Rosie needs to socialize with dogs. But poor Biscuit does not have the same energy levels of a six month old puppy. It's really provided a lot of entertainment when we're home.

Salt and pepper. Ebony and ivory. The Great White Dog. The Black Bullet. Slowly, the girls are becoming best friends. In fact, if one eats or drinks, the other follows suit. If one is getting attention from me or John, the other comes up and tries to get in on the action.

John and I can't figure out how one person walks two dogs. It's nearly impossible.

There are several downsides though.

Rosie became a little spiteful the first few days and began to find, steal and shred the moss I keep on our coffee table. I know this can only be Rosie because Biscuit can't stand on her back legs that long. (The old girl has had two torn ACLs.)

And then, Biscuit taught Rosie how to turnover a trashcan and shred/eat anything that is in it. I know this has to be Biscuit's teaching because Rosie never did this before and Biscuit did this to me all the time when I was living at home.

Such a mess. Those girls have definately kept us on our toes around here.

I think we're ready to go back to being a one dog household again.

Anniversary in New Orleans

If you'll remember, John and I traveled to New Orleans in March to watch Baylor play win the Sweet Sixteen. We both agreed that given the opportunity, we'd love to back and see more of the lovely Crescent City.

So when we started talking about how we wanted to commemorate our first anniversary, NOLA popped into both of our heads. And so we hopped on a plane Thursday night and landed in the Big Easy, both of us ready for good memories, drinks, food and sights.

We first arrived at the historic (and haunted) Hotel Monteleone.

(Exterior)

(Lobby)

John mentioned we were celebrating our anniversary when he booked our room so we were upgraded to an executive sweet and greeted with champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.

We immediately went out and found ourselves a lovely spot to dine at the Green Goddess. John ate a truly Nawlins dish of crawfish, shrimp and snails over grits. I opted for a quinoa stuffed tomato with over corn maque choux. Delicious. Afterward we went to the Carousel Lounge, the bar located in hotel lobby for some after dinner drinks. (Yes, it's actually an old carousel and yes it still spins.)

We were up early Friday morning and headed to Cafe Du Monde for cafe au laits and beignets.

Shamefully, we ate the entire plate.

Following breakfast, we headed to the New Orleans School of Cooking. Our instructors, life long residents, taught us how to cook bread pudding, pralines, shrimp and artichoke soup and crawfish etouffee. And we of course got to eat it for our lunch!

 

This was definitely a highlight of the trip and we'd recommend anyone travelling to New Orleans in the future to make time for this.

After graduating from cooking school, we headed to the National WWII Museum and spent several hours there. We headed back to the hotel for a nap and shower before heading to our special dinner at Commander's Palace.

Y'all, we had the best food and drinks ever. I had a peach and blue cheese salad followed by soft shell crab and Creole cheesecake. John ordered gumbo then enjoyed a seafood special with crab, shrimp and fish and then finished it off with their famous bread pudding souffle.

Commander's Palace had very unique drink combinations. This was a basil and blueberry concoction. Very yummy. John stuck to sazeracs.

We then headed to Preservation Hall to listen to some New Orleans jazz music.

The music was incredible.

The next morning we lounged until lunch when we headed to Central Grocery, home of the first muffuletta.

We took our HUGE sandwich to the bank of the Mississippi and enjoyed watching the boats go by.

Afterward, we hopped on the street car and looked at the beautiful homes in the Garden District of New Orleans. We then stopped for a quick bite of ice cream from Creole Creamery.

Brown butter pecan ice cream cone.

Vanilla malt.

On our way back, we stopped at Acme Oyster Bar to try chargrilled oysters and split a poboy.

Turns out, I'm not an oyster person.

And then, as we were about to head to the airport, we discovered our flight was delayed. So we took a free guided audio tour of our hotel and then played rummy in the lobby.

New Orleans was absolutley fantastic and we're already to go back again. Maybe not in August when it's so stinkin' hot and humid though...

One Year Ago...

We were in beautiful Maui and Honolulu for our honeymoon. I've thought about it 3,545 times this week and isn't hasn't helped that here in Waco it's been 125 and like 98% humidity. (Note: The last sentence contained several hyperboles.)

Are we tropical or what? Eating sushi at Cascades.

Beautiful sunsets

Just the two of us.

And great sunrises. From the top of Mount Haleakala.

Luau!

Gorgeous scenery.

Best dinner ever at Mama's Fish House in Paia.

And eating hot dogs on the beach.

Highlights included: Biking down Haleakala to the beach, attending an authentic Hawaiian luau, eating some sort of fish for every meal, taking dinner and wine to the beach at sunset, being upgraded because we were "honeymooners", seeing Pearl Harbor and simply relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

Oh yeah, and it was a balmy 80 degrees everyday with cool tropical breezes, pristine blue waters and perfect pina coladas.

I'm thinking we need to plan a return trip, pronto.

They're baaaaccckkkkk!

Remember how some dirty, fat, lazy, good for nothing thief stole my bird feeder last month?

Well, my wonderful Nana, who shares by bird watching fascination, took pity on me and surprised me with a new bird feeder, specifically for apartments. And I literally starting crying when she gave it to me.

The birds are back in action and the greatest thing is that Rosie is finally starting to notice them. So the feeder now serves three purposes: to provide sustenance for our feathered friends, to satisfy by bird-watching desires and to entertain Rosie.

Perfect.

August 1, 2009

One year ago (yesterday), John and I were married by his dad at Southcliff Baptist Church in Fort Worth. It was one of the most sweetest and heartfelt ceremonies I've ever been to. And I'm not saying that because it was my own....several people have said that to me since.

The day was perfect.

All of our favorite friends and family came to celebrate at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards. And we ate, drank, sang and danced the night away.

Yes, that's right. Sang. Unexpectedly, I hopped up on stage and sang Jessie's Girl with the band.

And as a finale, John sang Born to Run with our band, Pardi Gras. It is still one of his favorite moments in life.

At our exit we had AWESOME sparklers. And my lovely Passat was covered in shoe polish.

So yesterday, for our one year anniversary, we watched our wedding DVD the entire way through for the first time. Really though. First time.

And we  John made perfect steaks and grilled corn. I contributed fresh heirloom tomatoes with blue cheese, walnuts, basil and balsamic.

It.Was.So.Good.

Someone else wanted to be in the picture too.

We reminisced, laughed, took Rosie on a walk and then watched an episode of Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It was perfect.

And we'll continue celebrating next weekend by taking quick trip to NEW ORLEANS!

We're looking forward to all that our second year of marriage will hold!