AND SO IT GOES

Hubby and I spent the weekend in the greater Austin area with some friends of ours. We were childless, which rocked, but our friends weren't, even though they thought they would be (plans with grandma fell through). Their kids are really good, but sometimes when you're around fun old friends, you just wanna have some obnoxious, grown-up, drunk-enough-that-everything's-funny-okay-not-really (maybe just a little) free time. Alas, that kind of fun is not so easily had with a 9- and 3-year old around.

I know, I know; I sound like an obnoxious lush. I promise I'm not. I just wanted to play one on TV, as the saying goes. Anyway.

So the reason we went to Austin was for a wedding. K's old soccer trainer - a 26-year-old Scotsman - was getting married to the mom of one of P's former teammates. The bride is easily a dozen years older than the groom, and we'd known them both long enough to go "hmm...????" at the relationship, so whispers abounded about a potential green card in the nuptials. However, at the ceremony they seemed pretty happy, so we put our judgmental-ness away.

The ceremony was cool: the groom and the junior groomsman (the bride's 10-year-old son) wore kilts. A bagpiper played the music. UBER cool, that. But - and you knew there'd be a but - some people were better dressed to go to the beach than to a wedding. Some guests were in halter tops, complete with exposed bra straps, mini skirts, and flip flops. Even the woman who sang a solo during the wedding was sadly underdressed: she had on a floppy, oversized black button-up shirt, tan capri pants, and old flip flops. Eww, and eww. Come on, if you are scheduled to sing at a wedding, DRESS THE PART.

This was a formal evening wedding, y'all. I was ... well, I want to say appalled, but "surprised" would be more gracious, I guess.

Here's how hubby and I were dressed for the wedding:



After the wedding, we went back to our friends' house because they'd graciously offered up their guest room for us. We ended up having a few Chrismos (their version of Cosmopolitans - Cosmos - but friend's name is Chris; ergo, Chrismos...see how clever our friends are? And how fun they'd be to drink with?) and talking for awhile. It was really good to see them, as it's been nearly a year since our last visit. Hopefully the next visit won't be quite so far in the future.

CLOSING OUT FLORIDA

As promised, here are some pictures from the Alan Parsons concert, which was held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on April 15, 2006. Be warned - not all rock stars are glamorous when they're sweaty. Case in point: Mr. Parsons himself, who could use a good barber. What's up with the biblical facial hair, anyway? Also, it probably wouldn't hurt him to make nice with the Right Guard can...I'm just saying.

Anyway, here's hubby standing next to his childhood musical and lyrical hero. Hubby's the cute one on the left, as if that needed to be said...













Good thing Alan is a musical genius.


And here's a picture of me at the concert. Woohoo, exciting. At least I was having a good hair day.












Aside to Fishie: Sorry you've never seen the Sunshine State. Like most other states, it has some really beautiful parts. Maybe one day, a dozen years from now, (IOW, when the kids are grown), we can take a road trip to visit Her Evilness. Maybe even catch Steve Burns on his "Get A Clue" Reunion Concert.

MORE ON FT. LAUDERDALE

As promised, here is some non-sad stuff about our trip to Ft. Lauderdale. First off, here's the hotel we stayed at (Holiday Inn Ft. Lauderdale Beach, in case you're wondering):













And here are two beautiful views from our room (one looking slightly left; one looking slightly right). I swear these aren't postcards, although in my opinion they should be. How cool would it be to wake up to that view every day? [sigh]



















Here are a couple of pictures - one of hubby; one of me - with the Ft. Lauderdale beach and the Atlantic ocean as a backdrop:














While in Florida, we took in a lot of the local flavor - most meals were eaten in little dives, (although we did hit Bennigan's once...hey, I had a gift card!). And the food was great. Hubby finally got to gorge himself on the conch fritters he's been missing out on for 14 years. It wasn't pretty...;)

Overall, we had a wonderful trip, just the two of us. It was so nice to reconnect with each other. The only drawback was that we missed having Easter Sunday with the kids, but fortunately they have fantastic grandparents who took care of everything.

Now I just need to update about the Alan Parsons concert, and I think we can put Florida to rest.

FEELING BLUE

This is a picture of our house on Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, in 1991. (Hubby is in the foreground, planting what came to be known as "the mighty oak.")




This was taken five days after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. (That's me walking toward the house, in search of anything salvageable.)

As you may recall, hubby and I recently took a trip to Ft. Lauderdale. While there, we made the two-hour drive down to Homestead to see how things have changed. Have they ever. This picture was taken on the street facing our former home. The little patches of concrete (to the right in the foreground) are part of what used to be our driveway.













I know that razing the base housing was really all the government could do, considering their unlivable condition in the aftermath of Andrew. I just didn't realize how painful the sight would be. We had some wonderful memories in that little house, and Homestead will always hold a special place in my heart.

More on the Florida trip in a later post. Don't worry; it wasn't all sad. :)

THURSDAY THINGS

Hey, all. How's it going? Things are just peachy here.

Summer has officially arrived in the Vichyness household. The kids didn't make a peep this morning until 9:30, and even then they didn't come downstairs for awhile after that. P, who is having a couple of girls over for an "art party" (read: slumber party with crafts) vacuumed her own room this morning. I love how eight year olds think vacuuming is cool.

After cleaning, we lit a couple of candles in her bathroom so it would smell "girly." That was my idea, and apparently it made me the coolest mom ever.

So far this morning, I've accomplished the following:

- fed my husband
- drank my breakfast (I'm not a breakfast eater, so I have a Carnation Instant Breakfast nearly every day)
- cleaned the breakfast dishes
- dusted the downstairs
- vacuumed the house (sans Peyton's room)
- lit a bunch of candles
- bathed the dog

And it's only 10:39. Go me! ;)

Now I can't decide if I want to take a shower or wait and take the kids to the pool first. Pool sounds fun, but P's guests will start arriving shortly after lunch, so I don't know what to do.

Darn, I guess I'll just hit the shower.

Later, if I have time, I'll post about our mini-vacation, which included the trip to Oklahoma last weekend. It's been a great few days.