World Series Game 5: Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants

I've been a Texas Rangers baseball fan for literally my entire life.  Not that I remember this, but supposedly as a baby I "watched" the games with my dad.  Quality bonding time on the couch.  :o)

I'm proud to say I'm not a bandwagon fan or a fair weather fan.  I've gone to games every year, win or lose, regardless of how terrible we were... and trust me, we've been terrible.  So... when this year we made it into the playoffs, I was super excited but wouldn't get my hopes up since well, we've never advanced past the first round of playoffs.  And then we beat the Tampa Bay Rays!  So it was on to the New York Yankees which we'd never before been able to beat in the playoffs.  I was WORRIED.  And then we beat them to become the American League Champions!  The Rangers were on their way to their very first World Series in franchise history!  I couldn't be more excited!

Gary and I decided we deserved to go to a World Series game no matter the cost.  It would be wrong to go without also taking Dad so we split the cost of his ticket.  It was a major splurge but definitely worth it to be there!  Jeff came with us too and helped memorialize the occasion with awesome photos.  (All photos were taken by me unless otherwise noted.)

Photo by Jeff

We chose Game 5 because we had a feeling it would be the final game of the World Series and then we'd be there for the Rangers' win and how historic would that be!  Alas, our prediction of the Rangers winning was wrong... but we were correct in that Game 5 ended the World Series and it was still pretty cool to be there.  We got to see the very best of both teams' pitchers play and they truly were fantastic to watch.  They each had such different and distinctive styles.

Cliff Lee vs. Tim Lincecum

Neftali Feliz vs. Brian Wilson

    

The Giants played a really great game and they ultimately deserved to win so I'm ok with the outcome.

Photo by Brother

And now for some random World Series photos... former President George and Laura Bush were in attendance.  (We were sitting absolutely no where near them.  Josh's zoom lens is just that good that I could snap this picture.)

I happened to be snapping a picture right at this moment too... the blurry thing in the upper left hand corner would be Josh Hamilton's bat flying out of his hands and into the stands.

And I'll end with this super cute picture.  I did a double take the first time I saw her.  At first I thought it was just a panda stuffed animal but then I realized it was her baby.  Aside from the fact that it's WAY too expensive to buy a ticket to the World Series to bring along a baby... I'd totally dress up my kid like that LOL.

Photo by Jeff

Now let's hope it doesn't take another 39 years to get to another World Series...

  

Happy Halloween from Zoey!

Last weekend, the Velvet Snout hosted a customer appreciation celebration which included a dog costume contest.  If you know me at all, you know I couldn't resist the opportunity to dress up Zoey!

We went as matching witches.  Me, a Candy Corn Witch.  Zoey, a Super Cute Dog Witch.  (If you're one of those who doesn't believe in dressing up dogs and thinks dogs hate it... look at Zoey's happy little smile and then try to tell me she doesn't love it.)

For actual Halloween, we dressed up again.  This time Zoey was my pumpkin to go along with my witch outfit.  (Last year after Halloween, Target had their dog costumes for $2.50 each.  It was such a great deal I bought 4.  Yes... seriously... 4.  So this year to justify last year's purchase, I had to make sure to use more than one.)

We sat on the porch and handed out candy to the trick or treaters.  There weren't that many which was disappointing but it was still fun.

One Year Older, Hopefully One Year Wiser

I love birthdays.  Not just my birthday (although of course I do love mine!) but all birthdays.  It has nothing to do with the gifts or the birthday cake or the good wishes.  I like that it's a day of celebration that's just for that one special person.  It's like random holidays sprinkled throughout the year.

This year I had a birthday week celebration.  Family dinner (with Grandpa in attendance this year!), coworker lunch, dinner with friends, and Anna Bolena (opera) with Josh!

It meant a lot to me that my friends were able to find time in their busy schedules for my birthday dinner.  And Ashley drove all the way from Mansfield!  It's moments like these that remind me just how loved and truly blessed I am.

Josh and I shared a delicious dessert - pumpkin cheesecake!  (I am a sucker for pumpkin.  It makes my world go round.  YUM.)  And look at Josh's baby face!  Bye bye beard, hello 10 years younger!

I have no pictures of the opera - they weren't allowed.  In short, we almost didn't make it and we were SEVERLY under dressed... BUT! it was fun and I really enjoyed it.  Thank you Brother for the front and center orchestra seats!

Here's to 26!  Hopefully I'm a little bit wiser... but if nothing else, I'm sure it'll be a better year than 25 and that's enough for me!

State Fair of Texas 2010 - Dog Shows

Every year I attend the dog shows.  However, the last several years have been the same 2 shows (at least it seems to have been) so I wasn't really all that excited this year.  In essence, I was going to attend the shows more out of habit than anything.

But!  They updated the shows this year!  The "dancing dogs" show (which was cute but more silly than talented) was replaced by an "Amazing Dobermans" show.  It was FANTASTIC!  I'm talking people who don't even like dogs leave this show happy and impressed and cheering.  Yes, it was that good.

And to prove it - here's some video.

A little over 2 years ago, I enticed a big group of friends to go to the Mesquite Championship Rodeo with me.  We didn't really care about the rodeo (it was a first for most of us and ended up being pretty fun I must admit)... We were mainly going to see Whiplash, the Cowboy Monkey (who rides a dog.)  

I thought nothing would top that.  Until I saw this.

A little itty bitty dog (Chihuahua?) riding a Doberman dressed up like a horse.  PRECIOUS.  And no offense Whiplash, (I still love you I promise), you have arms and fingers in which to hold on.  That little dog had nothing.  Pure balance.  LOVE it.

I fell in love with this little dog.  Check out her balance.

I'm pretty sure Zoey was jealous when I got home.  She knew I had loved another from afar.  And while I know this show is called "Amazing Dobermans," the little dog steals the show.  Makes you want to steal her and hide her in your purse.

Jump! Ultimate Dog Show was also updated this year.  They still have the distance dive into a pool part but they replaced the weaving between poles part with a Jack Russell Terrier hurdle race.  I now have a mental image of what dog racing must be like.

State Fair of Texas 2010 (aka Fried Food Capital of Texas)

Nothing says "Fall" like the State Fair of Texas.  I've been going for as long as I can remember plus a couple years I was too young to remember.  Since college, it's become a tradition to go for the TX/OU football game.  It's also become a tradition to go try all the crazy new fried creations the Fair concessionaires (did you know that was a word?) come up with.  So eat we did.

There were eight finalists this year - Fernie's Fried Club Salad, Deep Fried S'mores Pop-Tart, Fried Lemonade, Texas Fried Caviar, Texas Fried Frito Pie, Deep Fried Frozen Margarita, Fried Beer, and Fried Chocolate.

I love fried food but I can only eat so much and some didn't sound appetizing to me so I narrowed down the choices and then off I went.

First up, Fried Beer which won "Most Creative."

Josh was really excited about this one.  It did sound interesting... but it turned out to be a flop.  The beer (which I successfully identified as Guinness!) was lukewarm, the pretzel dough never got crispy and just tasted undercooked, and then adding a cheese sauce just didn't make sense to me.

Second up, Deep Fried S'mores Pop-Tart.

This was delicious.  DELICIOUS.  It's a pop tart, battered in Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate cereal, fried, and then topped with cream, chocolate syrup, and chocolate sprinkles.  Mmm... DELICIOUS.

Next, Texas Fried Frito Pie which won for "Best Taste."

This did taste good but it wasn't all that creative or difficult in my opinion.  It's beef and cheese chili battered with corn chips.  Exactly what a Frito pie is but now a finger food - yum!

And lastly, Fried Chocolate.

I went into this one with no expectations.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The chocolate remains a smooth texture - not liquid nor solid - and has little chocolate chips mixed in with a cherry in the middle.  Nothing fancy or crazy but the familiar is tasty.

In addition to these fried foods, add in 3 cooking demonstrations worth of food, free samples of quesadillas, a Fletcher's corn dog, strawberry milk, strawberry iced tea, and a strawberry chill.  Thankfully this was split between 2 separate trips to the fair but still... I've been eating a ton of vegetables this week to make up for this!

Appreciated

I showed up this morning to work to find a thank you card from a staff.  It really touched me.  It made it all worthwhile to know that someone appreciates that I take the time to teach and mentor rather than just dictate the right answers.  It made it all worthwhile to know that someone appreciates how flexible I am about when we work and how we work.  That there's more to life than just this job and that it's important to be flexible so that we can all have the outside-of-work things that are important to us - friends, family, religion, downtime, etc.

Such a simple gesture to renew my spirits and remind me why exactly I do my job the way I do it.

Grateful

I'm back!  It's been a crazy couple weeks trying to get through my 9/15 busy season deadline but I made it and this marks my first full weekend off in a while.  And even though I'm sick with some crazy infection/inflammation thing, I'm still having a fantastic weekend thus far and just want to reflect on the things that I'm grateful for this weekend.

- My new Martha Stewart "french oven" (enameled cast iron casserole pot) from Macy's.  It's not Le Creuset but it'll do for now.  One day I'll splurge for the real deal but for now I will remain the bargain shopper because closeout prices rock.

- New shoes!  I just keep finding super cute ones on sale/clearance and I just can't resist.  The latest craze is BRIGHT colors - pink, blue, green - I'm sold!  And boots for fall because at some point I do realize I'll have to pack away the flip flops for at least a couple months.

- A new electric griddle because pancakes are just so much more perfect when made on a griddle.  (Also on sale at Macy's!)

- New stainless steel pots and pans to replace the nasty nonstick ones we currently have.  Yay Brother for agreeing we needed new pots and pans!  (On sale at JCPenney's!)

- New bright and colorful shirts!  I know it's about to be fall and the fashion police would say I should start wearing more fall/darker colors but I don't care.  I need the hot pinks and yellows in my wardrobe to brighten up my day.  

- Spending time just pampering myself and creating a spa day at home.  Mmmm smooth skin that glows!

- Relaxing with Zoey.  I love my dog.

- About to watch The Blind Side.

- Hanging out with friends tonight to watch UT Football!!!

- And lastly, the most important: my family, friends, and Josh who have been so supportive during busy season and taking care of me now when I'm sick.

(No pictures this post.  I'm sick, give me a break.)