Pictures!!!

I finally posted pictures of our trip to Dallas in the Texas 2009 album on Flickr. If you’d like to see what we did, click on the photo below. :)

Vacation, part III

Alright… I’m back in Boston (we arrived last night around 9pm) but we didn’t get online so here’s my update on the rest of the trip. Photos will come later when I’m not lazy and upload them to my computer at home. :)

Thursday: Audrey drove to Plano to hang out with us. Once she got there, we went out for lunch at Snuffers. I got to eat a huge delicious burger. It was great. Afterwards we went to the Dallas Museum of Art. We saw the King Tut exhibit. It was alright. I wanted to take pictures but that was forbidden (boring!). Luckily, we were able to go into the rest of the museum because we paid for the King Tut exhibit. So we walked around and I took pictures and annoyed Patrick. I was told by some people that I couldn’t take pictures… but then when I finally went to the gift shop the lady there said that I could take pictures as long as I didn’t use my flash. Too bad they couldn’t get their stories straight. I wasn’t using a flash in the first place. Annoying. After the museum, we went back to the house and I got car sick because of a manual transmission and traffice. I skipped dinner and had some crackers while watching Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice that night.

Friday: Becky informed us all that we would be tortured with a family picture and we all had to dress alike (Patrick and I didn’t know before we arrived so we didn’t have the right stuff to wear) so Patrick and I went to Old Navy to find me something to wear that was black and long sleeved. I got a sweater and a black tank top to wear under (it was a bit see through.) Anyway… after Old Navy, we went to lunch at El Fenix. It was so good. We hung out and talked and then went back to the house to do laundry. After laundry, we went out to dinner with Brian and Marcy. We had sushi at this amazing place somewhere near where they live. It was very good. We also got to hang out and talk and see their house. It’s very pretty and well decorated. I’m jealous. :)

Saturday: The dreaded photo shoot was at 1pm so we went out to breakfast at Taco Cabana. I got about 20 tacos and at them all in one bite. It was awesome. Just kidding. It was only 3. :) But still, it was awesome. We then went back to the house and complained a lot. Then we took the pictures and complained some more… I swear, I have no idea why the Esters didn’t ask us to leave early because we were acting like such jerks. After the photo, Patrick and I went to go meet one of Patrick’s old work friends at a bar. I had some lunch and they had some beers. We talked until dinner time where we went to meet the Esters for our last dinner in Dallas. We had Papadeaux and it was GREAT. I had the Mahi Alexander and I LOVED it. I also tried alligator and it was so good! I surprised myself by trying it! After dinner we just went home, packed, and then went to bed.

Sunday: Family breakfast (for everyone except me because I was feeling sick to my stomach). After breakfast we left the house for the airport. Flew to Chicago, no problem. Then in Chicago our flight was delayed by an hour… then an hour and 3o mins… and then it ended up being 2 hours because the catering people are idiots. We got home at 9pm and we were both tired and grumpy. It was snowing and the cats pretended they had no idea who we were. Jerks.

And now it’s Monday. I didn’t sleep well last night for some reason. I’m using the excuse that I was so excited to be back in my bed that I didn’t sleep well! Haha! I hope we go to be early tonight because I’m exhausted. I can’t wait to be home and relax.  So there you have it, that was our vacation.

Vacation, part II

Alright… Here’s another update on our vacation so far:

Monday, Christine and I had our massages. My masseur was some weird douchebag guy who coughed and then touched my face. Nasty. It was alright but I’ve come to the conclusion that after everyone pees their pants about massages, I don’t really give a crap because I didn’t feel more relaxed or different at all after the massage. But it was fun to do it with Christine and we got some good laughs… especially about the nasty cougher. Gross. He should be fired. After the massage, Christine and I goofed around and went to World Market. I got some beer for Patrick and some candy for myself. It was fun. We don’t have a World Market in Boston. That night for dinner, we had leftovers and then Patrick, Christine, and I went to see The International at the movies. It was fun. I really like the flashy go boom movies that are coming out these days. :)

Tuesday was our last day in San Antonio. We got up and decided to go to the Children’s Museum in San Antonio because it was raining and ugly outside so the zoo was out of the question. Sad story! After Nathan’s nap, we all piled into the car and went to play at the Children’s Museum. It was pretty cute. There were a bunch of things for Nathan to see and touch and play with. We got a bunch of pictures but they are currently living in my camera. I’ll get to them whenever we get back. :) After the museum we went home to hang out. We watched some TV (my TiVo will be so full when we get home!!!) until dinner time. We went to Alamo Cafe for dinner (I had been waiting for that meal since we arrived!!!) but then I got sick so we just hung out at home that night and watched more TV with the fam.

Wednesday: Time to go to Dallas! We got to the airport at 9:30, we got on our plane at 10:20, we left at 10:30, we arrived in Dallas at 11:30. We got our luggage, then we were like “Where’s Becky?”… so we waited a bit and finally I told Patrick to call his mother. He called her cell and it went straight to voicemail… so I told him to call the house in case she forgot us. He said that surely she wouldn’t. Ring ring… “Hello?” Oh… Becky was asleep and forgot us!! So Patrick was her wake up call and she came to get us. 45 minutes later we went to lunch at Paradise Cafe on the way back to Plano. It was good… just like I remembered it from the Pru. :) They have a good caesar salad for those who care. After lunch we went back to the Ester’s house and then we stopped at James Avery and Patrick dropped off his wedding band to be sized down. Poor Patrick keeps losing his wedding band. We also did some grocery shopping for dinner.

Patrick and I were cooking dinner for Becky and Gary’s birthdays. We were making shrimp etouffee for their birthday dinner. Cooking was fun and eating was funner (I know that’s not a word). I made apple crisp for dessert and it was delicious. :) Everyone was happy and then we hung out and talked until bed time.

Today! Yay! Audrey is on her way here to visit with us until we leave. She left at 9am and she should be here in time for lunch. We made plans to have burgers for lunch and then go to the Dallas Museum of Art to see the King Tut exhibit. I wanted to see it when we were in Philly but it was too expensive and we had already spent tons of money… but luckily there’s a “matinee special” at the DMA. If you go between noon and close on Monday through Thursday in Dallas, it’s only $15 a person instead of $27.50 a person. What a great deal! Patrick says he likes the museum so I’m looking forward to checking it out. We don’t know what we’re doing for dinner yet but I hope it’s some good stuff. Of course, I want to go out for dinner and Patrick wants to stay in. What else is new!?

So that’s it for now! I’ll probably write the rest when we’re at home on Sunday.

Vacation update

Howdy! We’re in Texas now visiting my half of the family in San Antonio. We left Boston on Friday afternoon around 3:30pm and flew to Dallas. Unfortunately, our flight was 2 hours delayed in Dallas for some unknown reason but that’s ok because Patrick and I both had books and we ate some delicious Taco Bell (so healthy!) Anyway, once we got to SA, Christine and I promptly went to wake up Nathan and play with him. He was in a surprisingly good mood and played with us until he was too tired… he then went back to sleep without even a peep out of him! So funny!

Saturday was pretty quiet. We got breakfast tacos for breakfast (woooohooooooo!) and then I played on the Wii with Christine. According to the Wii, I’m obese and I am 49 years old because I laughed during a stability test. :) Then, we planned on going to the zoo but there were eleventy billion people there and it was too crowded. I didn’t want to fight the crowds just to see the bears or something so we decided that we’ll be going back on Tuesday. Instead, we went to lunch at La Madeleine and that was fun. After that, we dropped the kid and Patrick back at the house and Christine and I drove to San Marcos to go shopping at  the outlets. :) I had fun! I bought a few oxford shirts, some polo shirts, another pair of my favorite pants from Banana Republic, and of course, some workout shorts. I can’t help myself if I find Adidas shorts on sale, I MUST BUY THEM. :) They are awesome soccer shorts. Saturday night we just hung out at home after Patrick made us dinner (steaks, twice baked potatoes, corn on the cob).

Sunday we were deprived of breakfast  because Mom wanted to have smoked meat sandwiches. Sad little story. Instead, we planned on going to see a movie after eating Freebirds. Sadly the movie fell through because of a time problem with the dinner that Patrick had planned and we read the movie times wrong (geniuses… :)) So we went to Freebirds and I got my usual Freebird on cayenne with chicken, bla bla bla. It wasn’t as good as I remembered. My tortilla was all dried up, there was too much sour creme. It just wasn’t the same as it used to be. Next time I’m in Texas, I probably won’t waste my money on Freebirds… Not to mention that the prices went up like crazy!!! WTF!? $28 for 3 burritos and some sodas? Seriously. Yuck.

After lunch, Christine and I dropped Patrick off at home. I just want to note that by this time, my allergies are going CRAZY because mountain cedar is high in the air here… that’s my worst allergy ever. My throat is all swollen, my eyes are itchy, I can’t stop sneezing and I have HUGE boogers. Just thought you’d all want to know!!!! Anyway… after lunch Christine and I went to Wal-Mart and Kohl’s. I freaking love those stores. I got a tank top from Wal-Mart and some other goodies from Kohl’s (I got a silly Valentine’s Day towel set with cats on it that says I heart Mew.) After that, we just hung out at home until dinner time. I tried to take some pictures of Christine and Nathan outside but he was fussy. I only got a few that we liked so if you click on the photo below, you’ll get to check out some of the pictures that I took. Dinner was great and then I gave Nathan a bath! It was fun except he was tired and just screamed. I guess it doesn’t help that I was the only one in the bathroom with him and he probably thought STRANGER DANGER! Just kidding… Right? After the bath, we watched TV like lazy bums. It was great.

Today is Monday. I’m getting a massage at 1pm with Christine. I’m pretty excited! We’re also getting a peppermint foot scrub thing. It’s going to be awesome. I am, however, going to go now because Christine IMed me from upstairs to invite me to play on the Wii. I think it’s time for some awesome tennis or something. I can’t wait!!!

Click on the photo below to see some pics of Christine and Nathan. :)

Vacation!!!!

For those of you who didn’t know, Patrick and I are leaving Boston tomorrow afternoon to go to Texas for a week to visit family (and friends). We’ll be in San Antonio from Friday to Wednesday (Feb 18) and then we’re flying to Dallas on Wed morning until Sunday (Feb 22) when we’ll be flying home. So if anyone wants to hang out and see us, let us know!!

Adventures with cats

A few weeks ago, I posted about a cat tent that we bought the cats. I took pictures but never bothered to take them off my camera until today (because I’m preparing for our trip to Texas!!) Here’s a photo of the cat tent with it’s primary resident, Noumi.

And one of me putting together Patrick’s night stand… with the cats’ help of course!

Bad Obama!

Tattoo

Me likey this tattoo.

Bank of America

I am so glad that I am a Bank of America customer.  According to this report by Talking Points Memo, the son of Bank of America client called the bank to inform them that his mother had passed away.  In an odd turn of events, the bank representative tried to convince the man that he needs to pay off her debts.  When the man said he was sure that he was not legally responsible for his mother’s debt.  The bank representative then said that we (America) are in this financial mess because people like the man on the phone refuse to pay off this debt.  Here is what happened, according to the man:

Paul Kelleher: Yes, I’m calling to inform you that my mom died on the 24th of January.

Bank of America Estates representative: I’m sorry. Oh, it looks like she never even missed a payment. That’s too bad. Well, how are you planning to take care of her balance?

PK: I’m not going to. She has no estate to speak of, but you should feel free to just go through the standard probate procedure. I’m certainly not legally obligated to pay for her.

BOA: You mean you’re not going to help her out?

PK: I wouldn’t be helping her out — she’s dead. I’d be helping you out.

BOA: Oh, that’s really not the way to look at it. I know that if it were my mother, I’d pay it. That’s why we’re in the banking crisis we’re in: banks having to write off defaulted loans.

The story gets better when the representative’s supervisor said, “That is not how she meant it.”  I’m not sure what that means, but Talking Points Memo tracked down a former representative for Bank of America.  Speaking anonymously, the former representative said that people in the collections department are encouraged to collect as much as possible from callers.  Bonuses have been distributed, as well as people being fired in instances such as those referenced above.

Employment

On the flip side of my earlier post about unemployment in America, Krugman provided this fun chart on his blog today: