Ranch Hands

Well I finally made it to Dallas! Although, that entailed getting up at 3:30am on Saturday so I could try to catch a stand by flight at 6:00 am. I guess the benefit was, since it was so early, there were not only 60 seats open, but a first class seat with my name written all over it! Of course, I don't get to fly first class very often, so you can bet that even though it was 6:00 am, I was taking advantage of free drinks and I had myself a bloody mary. I needed to take that edge off from having made this mistake in the first place, right? Well, that's the story I was telling myself...

So onto the rest of the weekend! I encountered no further delays with my airline travel, in fact, my bag was the first one off the belt at baggage claim. Matt & Trent were picking me up, and AA was SO fast, that by the time I walked outside and called Matt, he was still buckling Trent in the car seat! How about that American Airlines!

We trek over to my dad's and meet Jo, Amanda, Gary, Liz & Dave and we all caravan up to "The Ranch". This ranch, as we'll refer to it, is located in Allen, OK and the biggest thing this town has going for it is the local Quick Pic (that's a "convenient store"). But the news in town is there are some new gas pumps going in across the street and the town folk are quite excited about this! In all seriousness though, this town, or at least the crowd my dad and Jo "run" with, are some of the best, nicest, most sincere and quality people you'll ever meet. Heck, they knew I moved to DC, heard I was coming in town, and they had a BBQ for us out-of-town visitors!

So what is life like on the ranch you ask? Basically, it entails two basic details:

1) Cold Beer
2) 4-wheelers

So, you load the cooler up with above, strap onto the other above, and off you go. 4-wheeling until your thumb and other 4 fingers on your right hand feel like they have arthritis worse than an 80 year old, hence why the beer is involved? You ride through the woods, truck through creeks, past the bones of deceased cows and oh yes! Manure patties EVERYWHERE! Anyway, it's the absolute best way to spend an afternoon. We fished a little, ate a little, shot a few guns, and drank and rode some more. And then later, after dinner, and a LOT more drinking, we did the absolute safest thing you can think of, we went for a night ride! But how can you not take advantage of a view of the stars like you have up there??!!

Trent of course, loving tractors like he does, enjoyed the brand-spankin' new John Deere more than the horse he "rode", the 4-wheeler he was on or the ponds stocked with fish and turtles. We got a lot of great pictures of him, and yes, I would be to blame for the really cute pants I picked up for him, that look more like man carpi's. Guess I didn't notice that was the hip style for guys in DC since that's where I got them? Seriously the tag said they're shorts, and I don't quite see how these things are shorts? Yet, the length just isn't long enough for jeans. Maybe that's why the greatness of H & M is so cheap?

Anyway you look at it, Matt & I are saving up to buy a few acres for a ranch of our own. Hey Grapevine Gang, instead of our own housing development, how about we go in on a ranch? KEYSTONE Ranch! Imagine what a cool brand we could come up with for the cattle we're going to have on it so we can write off the 4-wheelers and a few cars!!??




xoxo

MAJOR Mistake...

SO it's Friday night, and I SHOULD be sitting in seat 5C (yes, that's First Class) preparing for decent into DFW. What you ask, am I doing instead? Sitting at home, by myself, drinking a Yuengling (the only saving grace of the evening).

How does this happen? Well let me tell you ~ for as much as I travel, you would think I'd have made this mistake before. Nope, not me, I'm a savvy traveler, right? Matt and I have the prefect plan for this evening. We're both flying back to Dallas, but him out of Baltimore (two hour commute to the airport) via lovely Airtran Airlines, and me, out of Reagan (5 minute commute) via my fave, American Airlines. We were scheduled to meet up at the old hang out, Tap-In. I must say, I was looking quite forward to crawling in bed tonight smelling like smoke!

Anyway, Matt leaves before me to head to the airport. I finalize everything here, lock up and head down to the Metro. An enjoyable walk and 5 minute Metro ride later, I am at the airport walking up to self-service kiosk. YOU ARE UNABLE TO CHECK IN FOR YOUR FLIGHT THIS EARLY. PLEASE SEE AN AGENT. What? I ask myself...

I walk up to the agent, he looks at me and says, "this reservation is for tomorrow, Saturday, the 23rd". Well, I unfortunately, am not rolling in cash to have paid the $1,000 difference to get me back to TX tonight, so here I sit. STAND BY, I will be on your list at 5:00 am tomorrow and that first class seat better be waiting! ;-)

Onto happier notes! We've had a fun time since my last post.

1) G Love was playing in concert outside of DC and I begged my friend Libby who lives in Virgina Beach to drive up and go with me. She happily obliged, and was quite the trooper considering she had NO IDEA who she was going to see! We had GREAT seats & the temps were perfect. Besides the guy who was sitting near us who told us we could move down by him so we could see better, then told us if we weren't going to quit talking, we needed to move back to our own seats, all was well at Wolf Trap!

2) Matt's 30th Birthday was the 19th! I am now officially with an old man and he says he's waiting to walk in the door and have me tell him I'm leaving him for a younger man. To bad I love DC to much to do that! ;-) Anyway, I surprised him Tuesday night with a sail down the Potomac River. While it was a far cry from any type of luxury boat, we had the most fun time! The wind was decent, it cooled down and it was a great vantage point for the DC sites. We then had picnic dinner at a park on the river and I even baked my entirely made from scratch Italian Cream Cake. And no, my mom didn't make it! While it wouldn't have won much in the way of "beauty", I think I rocked it! It tasted great! Although Lisa, I think I need icing lessons!


Yum! Doesn't that look good? And Matt? I licked all the cream cheese icing off tonight after the airport debacle and then trashed the rest of the cake!

Oh yeah, somewhere in that time we went to a Nationals game, that's the baseball team here. It's their first season in the new ballpark (they suck though) which they have done a FAB job on. Imagine the Ballpark at Arlington, but aimed at our age and not families! Great park for having a few drinks, and a great view of the Capitol. However, just don't take a taxi home. That's a story I won't recount for the sake of Matt & I's relationship!

Another exciting travel story! I experienced my first "Tropical Storm"! I was in FL Tuesday and Wednesday driving from Jacksonville to Tallahassee right through Fay, and it SUCKED! Here's a picture of the weather as I was waiting for my plane to take off. Honestly, don't know how we did it, but that's why these pilots get paid the big bucks!

Love to all!
xoxo

Lovin' DC (and Andy Roddick)!

So not all that much happening up here besides continuing to try and get the house unpacked and feeling like home! We kicked so much butt the first weekend, and I'm kinda over it now. It's hard to get motivated to make those finishing touches, hence why no pictures have been sent out yet!

Besides that, the weather here has been BEAUTIFUL! I work with our windows open in the office, we've slept with the windows open, we eat outside, it's just beyond words! Matt bought a new bike because he is (starting this week) going to bike to and from work each day instead of taking the Metro. We decided on Saturday to make a test run for him to determine route, time & distance. So, it's probably 10 miles door to door and about 45 minutes to an hour depending on wind. The great thing is, you ride along the Potomac River the entire way, cross the bridge into DC and then you're riding along the monuments, so it's a great way to start the morning. Of course, a lot of these monuments I haven't seen yet so I was all excited to take pictures. We're standing in front of the Washington Monument, pull out my camera, and power on, go to take the picture, and the battery dies! I was floored! Guess I'll have to ride to work with him one day!

The rest of the weekend we went furniture shopping looking for a couch for the living room. My red couch doesn't quite work sine the walls are green, it might look a little like Christmas!

Beyond that, we've been walking to King Street for some good eats (and drinks) and have a Mexican restaurant that rivals home, Austin Grill.

The US Open tennis tournament also made a stop in DC this week, so we bought tickets a few weeks ago for Tuesday night's match. Yesterday morning we were excited to learn Andy Roddick was scheduled to play, and actually got some great pictures of him, and he's a cutie in person!

Until next time...love to all!
xoxo

FINALLY! We're Moved In!

Ahhh....so, since I've last updated our blog, the movers finally arrived, of course on the day I left for Dallas! I was excited that my visit home just happened to coincide with a weekend at Moss Lake with the gang, and I ventured out to Las Vegas where Sarah & Keith meet up with me. Of course the entire time, I'm thinking about being at home unpacking boxes.

I arrived home this past Thursday night, and Matt had quite a bit accomplished in regard to unpacking. All the big stuff was put together and he even went through his share of my "endless loads of stuff". That being said, we still spent all weekend unpacking boxes, and while we're almost done, there's still plenty to be done. Overall, we were quite successful in making this place feel like home! And what we've determined from the weekend is that we have the perfect place for entertaining, so make plans now to come visit! On top of that, we're still absolutely pleased with the location of our house. We've walked to King Street a few nights for the typical Irish sing-a-long and for our Mexican fix last night. Yummy! You'd think we were still in TX!

I'm attaching some pictures from the last few weeks, and of the rooms we already have decorated and done! More to comes as we finish up!

Love to all...
xoxo