Football Season

If you're wondering why we haven't posted anything in the past month, it's because it's football season again! We've been keeping up with the Cowboys, who've turned out to be a bit disappointing and frustrating for our fantasy football team! We were 6-0 until Romo injured his pinky finger...and then it's been downhill after that! Oh, well.

Most of our weekends have been spent traveling to cheer for our Sooners, watching the following games:

• In Norman (five-hour trip from Austin, although I sleep most of the way - can't help it with the sun shining on my face!): Cincinatti on 9/6th, TCU on 9/27th, and Nebraska just this past weekend


• In Waco: Baylor game on 10/4th while getting a chance to visit with Brad's cousin, Lacey, by trying out Vitek's BBQ, which is really good (ask for the gut pack!).


• In Dallas: Unfortunately, we made this trip for the annual Red River Shootout. Needless to say, we left rather quickly after that:(

This weekend, we're off to College Station to watch the Sooners in action against Texas A&M. This will be our final game in attendance before OU makes it to a BCS bowl (fingers crossed!)

And for those of you who are wondering, yes, I still keep up with my little Owls - they're 5-1 in conference right now, with some history-makers on the team! So, it's been a pretty good season for both of us so far...we're hoping it continues!!

Recovering from Chicago

The past few weeks have been pretty busy for us as we continue traveling. This time, we spent our Labor Day weekend in Chicago since our friend, Tony, was getting married and because we'd never been. I'm so glad we went. Aside from sightseeing in this beautiful city (I wouldn't mind living there at all), we had so much fun with friends whom had traveled from all over to celebrate with Tony. One minor drawback was that I suffered some major allergies over there - weird, huh?
We flew in Friday evening, and met up with Burton and Tanya for dinner. Walking along Michigan avenue is so pretty at night since all the major structures in Millennium Park were lit up. Once we got our pizza at Giordano's Pizza, I had no idea how good it was going to be - I mean talk about cheese! We LOVED it!
Saturday morning, we got up a little early (well, early for Brad anyway) and headed to the Sears Tower, where we had a little history lesson, learning that it's the 3rd tallest building in the world - after Taipei 101 in Taiwan and the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.
After that, we had lunch near the hotel, and ventured off to the Cubs game at Wrigley Field. And yes, after the game, we joined Sooner alumni to watch the season opener...Brad could not miss that! That night, we met up with friends to help celebrate Tony and Jen's wedding the next day.
Sunday morning, we ventured over to an Italian restaurant called The Italian Village, where I had the best lasagna - it was SO creamy! We then headed over to Millennium Park and stumbled across the Magnificent Mile (shopping street).
The wedding was Sunday evening, held in the penthouse of Hotel 71 (which is where The Dark Knight was filmed - Bruce Wayne's penthouse - ha!). The view was spectacular and everyone had a great time. We partied 'til 1:30AM...the wedding started at 5:30PM!
The next day, we went to visit the Art Institute of Chicago, where we actually bumped into someone who gave us 2 tickets for $10 (normally priced $12 a piece), and before I know it, Brad's in the museum when I'm being told to check-in my backpack. I hand it over, and then am asked for $1 to cover the fee...I didn't have a dollar! And much to my embarrassment, the lady had to write an IOU!!! That should teach me! :)
We then attempted to find Soldier Field, but got lost somehow, and I wasn't happy. I was hot, tired, and sweaty. So, we found a place to chill for 45 minutes, hailed a cab to take us to the neareset L train stop, and went back to the hotel to retrieve our bags and headed to the airport. We finally arrived in Austin at 10:30PM...oh, what a trip!

Joys of Owning a House

We've been in our home for a little over a year, and lately, we've noticed there are a few things we need to maintain. One them being keeping our tree limbs trimmed, so they won't rub against our roof shingles. I got an estimate from a local tree trimming company, and I could not believe that to trim one limb, it'd cost us about $200?! So, I called Brad and before I know it, he had gone to Home Depot, bought a pole saw and there were tree limbs all over our yard. Unfortuntaly, I missed the action, but he was too pumped about his new toy, that he went out the next day to see what else he could saw off.

Of course, mowing is necessary, so I thought y'all would get a kick out of this picture, where Brad took all precautions against the heat and having any grass come into contact with his legs (Brad note: it was over 100 degrees):

We've also been meaning to install a fan in our office, since it tends to get a little warm in there, but we'd been procrastinating since we had no idea how to install one. But a few weeks ago, we decided we had enough and we went out to buy one, brought it back home, and voila! We have a new fan in the study - I think Brad's dad would be proud;)

Back from NYC

We got back from our trip to NYC yesterday afternoon, after sitting in the plane for about 45 minutes before it took off. I had dozed off and woke up thinking that we were already in the air, but sadly, we were still waiting. Oh, well...that was pretty much how our trip began as well, with us arriving in New York 20 minutes early, only to find ourselves waiting for our luggage for three hours due to some heavy thunderstorms. Who knew that the luggage ramps were affected by that?!

We had a pretty busy three days:

• Friday - Ate at Gray's Papaya (remembered that from Fools Rush In!); visited the Museum of Natural Science; attended the Yankees game, which was the whole point of the trip, since they are playing the final season at that stadium (it was rain delayed for an hour and a half). Funny how we haven't seen rain all summer in Austin, but as soon as we get to NYC, we're complaining about it? ;)
• Saturday -Ate at Serendipity (like the movie!) and had one of their yummy frozen hot chocolates; visited 5th Avenue, the Diamond district (beautiful jewelry!), Coney Island, the New York Aquarium, Times Square where we watched Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal on the big screen and had a nice dinner at Blue Water Grill in Union Station
• Sunday - Ate at Lambardi's (the first pizzeria in the US); visited Little Italy, Chinatown, Financial District, World Trade Center, Rockefeller Center, United Nations, other side of 5th Avenue, FAO Schwarz (although it had just closed), and ate at this cute restaurant called Eatery

I love visiting New York, but am always happy to come back home to Texas. There's really nothing quite like it;)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Birthday Party Preparations

It's 1:15 in the morning, and we're still up baking, cooking, and creating playlists for tomorrow's (I guess today's) small get-together with friends to celebrate Jeremy's, Trevor's, and Brad's birthday.  I wonder how Brad's going to play in his 9AM flag football game tomorrow...

Blogged with the Flock Browser