Priceless

I just received a disk full of pictures from my Dad. This picture perfectly captures one of my favourite memories from our Domincan Republic trip. We had ended our girl's night with a skinny dip in the ocean, while my Aunt Glenys was "guarding" the clothes. Our boys came and stole our clothes right from under Glenys's nose and sent a bunch of spectators from the bar to come and look at all the naked chics. One of which was my mother! Notice that we are all wearing men's clothing, except for Marie, whose clothes were the only ones left behind in the heist. And best of all, Marie is protecting my virtue with her stick-on bra. Now that's a true friend!
What an awesome night and a great memory.

Great weekend and mid-week girl's night

The past weekend was wonderfully stress-free and filled with friends. On friday night we went to dinner and a move with Mike and Tara. You, me and Dupree. We raided Albertson's clearance on candy and snook it into the theatre. It was a funny movie, but what was more funny was Brian's very loud laughing throughout the movie. Satuday Brian took me on a romantic date for our 2 month anniversary. It's been the most wonderful 2 months of marriage, even the first few weeks where Brian had to do everything for me because I couldn't walk. I wouldn't change a thing.
On Sunday we spent most of the day on the lake. I went wakeboarding for the first time since my injury. I didn't attempt any jumps, but practiced fakies (where you turn the board so you're riding with the opposite leg in front). My ankle feels great and I am totally ready to get back into boarding!
After we put the boat away we headed home for an impromptu grilling. Brian made fajitas on the grill and everyone brought a little something to contribute. Erin made her amazing salsa and Dave brought a variety of very fattening, but delicious, ice cream bars.
We had video taped our day of wakeboarding so that we could see what we were doing wrong/right and hopefully improve our techniqes, so after dinner we watched the footage. Dave had rode my board with no bindings and had some really funny looking crashes. An awesome end to an awesome weekend.

Last night the girls and I headed to Ladies' night at Dallas night club. I'm not one to listen to country music, and I can't two-step, but the last time we went there was for Michelle's bachelorette party, which was 3 years ago. So it was time. We had an absolute blast! I loved the breaks in country music where they played hip/hop and dance music. We all got out and shook our asses and acted totally goofy. Nobody asked me to two-step, but Renee's cousin Mike and I taught eachother and did a pretty good job.

Sigh. I love my girls :-)

What happened in vegas....

We had a wonderful time in Vegas. Just in time to celebrate our 2 month aniversary! The heat was incredible. We had managed to land on the hottest day of the year. 112 degrees!

We met up with Kevin briefly on Saturday and Kev showed Brian how to bet on the horses and get free drinks. A very important detail for the Bauman brothers. On saturday night we had dinner at a swanky steahouse and then saw Folies Bergere. It was a typical Vegas show and very entertaining. On Sunday our day was a complete blur. We love the deli at NY NY, they have the best Pastrami! Sunday night we had the buffet at Aladdin, which was pretty good. A lot of variety, then we headed to Freemont street to see the light show, which was super cool. We spent some time in the casinos. I really like Freemont street. I like the atmosphere in the old casinos. They seem more relaxed and easy going. We played some Blackjack, but as an ex-dealer, I find it hard to play. We lost about $35 overall but I was entertained so it was worth it. We rode "The Deuce" back to our hotel, which was a fun experience, though it takes ages. I'd recommend the monorail instead.
On Monday we had breakfast in Venice and then met Kev at his hotel, which was at the extreme other end of the strip. We walked the whole way and it took us what seemed to be a very long time. We never did get a run in on this trip, but we walked far enough to compensate for it. We met Daurice (not sure about the spelling, so she's D from here on out), when she arrived at the hotel and quickly set off for the thrill ride "The Drive". It's not a typical thrill ride. It's a race track and off-road course. For $10 you can drive any 2 cars. High-end sports cars and SUVs such as Hummer. Brian was in his element. We all got in a Caddillac with him and he took us for a spin around the course. We were all amazed at Brian's driving skills. He really pushed the limits of the car and our nerves, but impressed the professional driver that was in the car with us. I drove a hummer over some really cool obstacles that you'd never imagine you could get over. At one point we were looking at the ground at an almost verticle angle from the driver's seat. Very, very cool.
D and I rode the rides on top of the Stratosphere, and made a couple of cute new friends, Adam and Shane, who couldn't have been older than 14. They opened doors for us and watched us on all the rides. Such nice young gentlemen. Monday evening we headed to Treasure island for the Sirens show, but sadly it got cancelled due to inclement weather. Incelment weather in Vegas? We went to the buffet in TI. It was awesome! way better than Aladdin. They had a sushi section and the sushi was actually good! didn't expect that.
After we left the buffet it was raining. We headed to Ceasar's Palace to see the Atlantis show and do a little browsing in the forum shops. We rounded off the night with a drink in Paris.
On Monday we met for breakfast in NY and headed to M & M world and a few souveneir shops to round out our trip.

1st town lake run

We had a great weekend. We had out usual happy hour on Friday, then on Saturday morning we went to Ethan's 3rd birthday party at Brushy Creek Park. Saturday afternoon I relaxed and watched a movie (rumour has it) while Brian watched footy (soccer to you Americans), waxed off some unwanted hair (thanks, Barbie), and cuddled with the cat. Saturday night we had an impromtu dinner date at Kobe Steaks.
On Sunday I went for my first run on town lake since my injury. It was wonderful to run and chat with Jen. I really missed her. And we did a 5 mile loop which is the longest I've ran since about May 13th! ACK! Brian did some wakeboarding while I relaxed at home and then did some retail therapy.
The maid's coming today, so of course we spent some time picking up clutter so she can actually clean rather than tidy :-)

4 days till Vegas! We're thinking we will go see Jubilee, and possibly Zumanity. I've seen 2 Cirque Du Soleil shows. I loved "O". Tickets are unreasonably high, though. Can't wait to see Kev and meet Dorise (sp?).

Do they have a 4th of July in England?

You'd be surprised how many times I've been asked "do they have 4th of July in England?". Well of course we do. Do you think we just wrote that date out of the calendar and go directly from 3rd to 5th? YES we have a July 4th. No, we do not celebrate America's independence from the British.
I'm glad we cleared that up.
This year's 4th of July weekend was, as usual, full of friends and BBQs and a new addition to the Bauman household... temporarily. On Friday night we headed downtown to Romeo's with Andi and Mike. Followed by a nightcap at the starlight lounge. Romeo's was pretty good, and we were so happy with our find of this tiny bar upstairs at Starlight, where there were couches and comfy chairs and conversation nooks all over the place, with just the right mood lighting and level of music. Andi and I tried wines we hadn't tried before. Very nice!

On Saturday, Mike and Tara dropped off our houseguest, Maverick. He stayed with us all weekend while they went to New Orleans for a spontanous trip. The cats were a little disturbed, especially Onyx. Nikki just freaked momentarily then went about her business like he wasn't there. On Saturday night we joined Nick and Kitty over at Jay and Erin's house for grillin' and drinkin'. They had just bought a new grill and wanted to break it in. I'm very fussy about my steak and I can't stand it overdone. It was delicious! Jay had some special seasoning made by a friend in his home town. It was top notch.
On Sunday we headed over to Bob's house for a pool party. Too many people to list here were there, though two people I didn't expect to see, Tracey and Erin were there. They had met Bob at the boat party last week and came to the pool party. That was a nice surprise. Two kegs later and a very drunk Brian, we happily headed home with Maverick, who had a wonderful time fetching the ball for anyone who would throw it for him.
On Monday Brian went to test drive cars with Nick, while I ran some errands and did some stuff around the house. Somewhere during the weekend we headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to spend some gift cards and came home with a hammock and stand for the back yard. Late Monday afernoon we headed down south to Brian's friend Brett's wedding. It was in a catholic church somewhere of Wm. Cannon. Thankfully they cut most of the catholic stuff out and the ceremony only lasted 45 minutes. And I didn't burst into flames when I entered the church. That would have been awkward ;-)
The reception was held at Vintage Villas and was a lot of fun. I didn't know anyone there except for the bride and Joe and Terri, but by the end of it I had made many new friends and had a great time swing dancing with Joe. Afterwards, Joe, Terri, Brian and I headed to Carlos and Charlies to end the evening and ran into... you guessed it... Tracey! She is everywhere! We hung out with Tracey and her friends and also ran into Freddis, a guy I know from the elevator at work, who it turns out also knows Brian from indoor soccer, but didn't know we were married. Was pretty funny to see him put 2 and 2 together.
On Tuesday we had busy day, cleaning house, Brian did the front and back yards, our lawns look so good! he's been so dedicated to making the grass look good and it's really paying off. Tuesday evening we had a BBQ at our house. Skewers of beef and shrimp marinated in lime, olive oil, garlic and cilantro, and skewers of chicken marinated with Jamaican Jerk sauce. The food was awesome and I'm happy to say that Brian's grilling skills are coming along nicely. I made my famous guacamole and stole Erin's recipe for roasted potatoes, and Kerey brought a patriotic dessert of strawberry shortcake with blueberries. We finished off the night out in the back yard in the rain and it made my whole weekend complete to get soaked and watch fireworks against a backdrop of black clouds and lightening.

Happy independence day, y'all.