Friday, December 17, 2010

Date Night!

Griff scored some tickets to the Austin Toro’s game the other night so we decided to make it into a date night. In case you don’t know, {cause I didn’t}, Austin has a developmental basketball team, the Austin Toro’s, that feed into the San Antonio Spurs. Oh. Duh.

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The Austin Toro’s played the Bakersfield Jam. {out of Cali}

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Ok, the game was GREAT but I was more interested in this tool of a guy that had the biggest rings on his hands that I have ever seen! Yes, you read that right. This “guy”, and I use that term loosely, had 2 of the most gaudy rings ever! So what did I do? Well I took pictures of him of course!

LOOK AT THESE THINGS!

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Yes, those are skulls. Seriously. Does he think he’s a pirate?

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And of course he had to sit with his arms out so everyone could see his atrocious man jewelry. I do find it equally as humorous that he and his “wife” were sitting on the 2nd row. What? He must have spent all his money on his man bling and didn’t have enough left over to spring for front row seats.

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You could see this guy coming from a mile away. He had blond hair with frosted tips, bedazzled boots, and yes, even a bedazzled belt. I bet this guy has a few Affliction shirts in his closet. Right next to his “boys” that I’m sure he keeps in a jar on his “wife's” night stand.

But I digress. Moving on. The game was super close the whole time, just look at these scores. But the Toro’s were able to pull it off!

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The final score, Toro’s 103, Jam 99.

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Ryan’s Office Holiday Party

A few weeks ago my office threw their annual Holiday Party and this year it was held at Austin’s famous Driskill Hotel. Built in 1886 it’s the oldest hotel in Austin and the most beautiful.

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Just look at the lobby for Heaven’s sakes! I mean really!

2008 Cesar Five Dog Bone Awards

Because our office was holding our party here we were able to score a room for a sweet rate! I was SUPER excited about staying here and the reasons are 2 fold. First, uh, duh, it’s The Driskill and who wouldn’t want to stay there if given the chance! And second, THE PLACE IS HAUNTED!!!! Unfortunately ALL the rooms that were haunted were not available. I tried everything to get a haunted room with no luck! Griff and I took a Ghost Tour of Austin once and the tour ended at this hotel with plenty of stories of ghosts that haunt some of the rooms and roam the halls. Including, the man that built the place, "Colonel" Jesse Lincoln Driskill, a Missouri-born cattle baron that made his fortune from providing beef to the Confederacy during the Civil War. He built the hotel in 1886 at a cost of about $400,000 which was a huge sum of money to spend on a hotel. Unfortunately, he built it a bit too upscale for the area at the time. He then lost it in a poker game shortly thereafter. WHAT?! Guess he should have listened to Kenny Rogers when he said “You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em”.

Anyway, moving on. Here are some pictures of our room. And cool side note, since the hotel’s name starts with a “D” everything had a “D” on it! This is a picture of the floor right as you walked into our room and obviously a picture of the bed, {which was UBER comfortable}.

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Even the toilet paper! Pah!

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The cornice boards had the hotel printed on them. Too cool!

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If you are wondering why Griff looks like he should be driving a van with no windows it’s because he grew out his beard for No Shave November and donated money to Prostate Cancer Research. The day of our party he decided to shave it into this. I went straight from work to the hotel so imagine my surprise when I opened our hotel door and saw this. Actually I thought it was freakin’ hilarious and supported his decision. No matter how creeper he looked.

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My boss Joe might have got Griff back for the Icing Griff gave him a few months ago. In total Joe Iced Griff 4 times that night. Ugh, my stomach churned just thinking about it. Ick.

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My boss’s, Graham, who works in our Chicago office, Rodney and Joe, my boss’s in the Austin office. Joe and Rodney “lovingly” call me their Work Wife so we of course had to get a picture.

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We got them their very own Bobble Heads as their Christmas gift. They’ve “really” made it now!

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We partied well into the night and had a blast!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Lights are up on our house!

Here is a picture Griff took last night from his phone of our house with all our beautiful Christmas lights! Notice the 2 little girls "patiently" waiting on the sidewalk for Mom and Dad to come back over to their side of the street.

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Right after Griff took this picture Eva tried to cross the street. So while this picture looks like we have two well behaved girls. It’s actually just a front. :) Muah-ah-ah-ah.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

A Thanksgiving full of thanks!

We spent this Thanksgiving partly at my parents house and partly at the ranch. Since we are spending Christmas in Louisiana I wanted to have turkey and all the fixin’s at my parents house. We drove in Wednesday night and stayed at my parents house until Saturday morning, then we drove to the ranch to continue our Thanksgiving weekend and to celebrate one of my Aunt’s, Aunt JoAnne, 50th birthday.

Mom and I cooked and baked in the kitchen and Dad carved the turkey.

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I made Spice Cookies! Delicious!!! {I’m eating a few now actually!}

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The boys were chatting it up while watching football.

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The doggies played and swam.

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Then… we ate!

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We got to spend a lot of time with our beautiful niece Sydney! She is growing up so fast! It won’t be too long before she is taller than me. Seriously.

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We played with her dollhouse and her Littlest Pet Shop toys.

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Saturday morning we drove the the ranch to continue visiting and being thankful for family.

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Cousins. {Some of them anyway.}

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Of course, you can’t go to the ranch and not shoot guns.

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The longhorns wanted to say hi. The picture on the right is of the 3 calves that were born a few months ago. They wouldn’t come any closer to the house and the Momma’s were not about to let me get close to their babies. Nor did I want to try.

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Griff took Charley for a ride. {Not really. He was going to the dear stand and needed me to keep her at the house and not follow him.}

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The girls played HARD and slept all the way home. After Griff gave them baths they went right to sleep! Tired puppies!

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We had a great Thanksgiving and we are so thankful for the love of our families.