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Girl’s weekend
Thankfully Tropical Depression Andrea did not ruin our trip!
Friday morning I met the girls at T’s house, we ran to lunch and started our trip to E’s mom’s condo (she would join us later in the afternoon). After a disastrous bout of directions {we had 2 Iphones and 1 GPS in the car mind you}, going to the wrong condo and 4.5 hours on the road we finally made it to Cherry Grove.
The weather was still kind of spotty as we pulled into the parking deck but by the time we unpacked the car and changed the sun was out. We headed to the beach to get a little sun while we could. As we were sitting on the beach I noticed what looked like a coast guard helicopter out on the horizon. It began to get closer and thats when I realized they were flying in a grid pattern. Then the beach patrol drove by with someone looking at the water through binoculars. I finally pointed out the helicopter to the girls and decided they were looking for someone. Not surprising, the water was really rough. On Saturday we would see the news article that a 19 year old had gone out on his surfboard with his brother. The board came back to shore but the boy did not. 🙁
Friday night we had dinner at Filets. We were able to snag a table outside, right on the water. After dinner we decided to see what kind of entertainment we could find. Fat Harold’s it was! We walked in only to discover the crowd was quite a bit older, like 60’s and 70’s. One of the girls started chatting with a local and they suggested we go across the street to Ducks. Arm twisted so we went.
We walked into Ducks to discover the crowd was younger, like 40’s-50’s. HAHAHA! At this point, the music was better and the girls felt like dancing, so we stayed, for a while! There was lots of booty shaking, shagging {but not any of us}, a few stalker moments {some old guy with a walrus mustache had his eye on me and kept trying to talk to me}, the electric slide and a bitchy little old lady! 🙂 Finally we decided to call it a night. Needless to say this bar felt very odd and random.
The little old lady in blue who tried to hit E while doing the electric slide. 
We got photobombed. 
Saturday we woke up to beautiful blue skies. Around 11am we headed to the beach and sat for a few hours. Then we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few supplies, grab lunch and basically get out of the midday sun. About 2:30 we headed back out and sat till 6:00. At this point, everyone was a little pink here or there. Thankfully I got the good kind of pink that turns brown the next day. We showered and headed to Clarks on the marina.
After being told there was an hour wait, we decided to hit the outdoor bar and wait for our table. We were all a little surprised the wait was an hour since there seemed to be several open tables, one of which could accommodate a party of 5. Finally someone from inside realized the same thing and we were seated. I have to say the service was pretty awful. The patio staff was short and we ended up with a waiter from inside. It took a good 15 minutes for him to check on us once we were seated. Since we had waited so long we all knew what we wanted. I must say the salad was DELICIOUS along with a fresh baked croissant drizzled with honey. My dinner however, was not great. I branched out and ordered the shrimp and grits. The grits were so cheesy it was almost gross and the blackened shrimp were well, not so good either. Not to mention, it’s really hard to eat grits with a fork! Needless to say I won’t be going back there, not for dinner anyway. After dinner we ran to Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts and grabbed ice cream for dessert and bagels and donuts for breakfast.
Sunday morning we woke to cloudy skies. Everyone packed their stuff and we were on our way home. The drive home was much shorter and aftering picking up my car I was home by 3:30. Matt decided to play golf so I relaxed until he got home. We had dinner and then watched tv for a while before I went upstairs. Having a girl’s weekend is exhausting. 🙂
~k
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Pizza and Fire
Our weekend was pretty quiet except for Saturday night. Matt and I ran errands in the morning and while we were out we stopped at Trader Joe’s. We ended up grabbing some pizza dough, fresh mozzarella, and a basil plant (I am determined to grow basil dammit!).
Saturday night Matt grabbed the pizza stone and fired up the grill. We had decided to try making pizza on the gill with the stone. We go inside and start making our pizzas while the grill and pizza stone heat up. I had just finished topping mine when we headed out. Matt opened the grill and the whole thing flamed up. We laughed and he cut the gas off. Next thing we know the deck railing is on fire. Matt grabs the oven mitt and starts trying to put it out while I run inside and grab some water. A nice splash of water and the rail fire is out. Then I notice that inside the grill, where the propane tanks are are on fire. Crap! We grab more water and put that fire out too.
Once all the fires were out we surveyed the damage. Rail behind the grill charred. Christmas lights (from 2009 ish) melted to the rail. Keg trash can that had been against the grill, melted. Hose connecting the grill to the propane tank also melted.
That’s not even as bad as it first was but I didn’t get a pic. 
You can see the char on the rail and the grill and the melted lights. 
Finally, my yummy pizza. We cleaned up what we could and then moved the pizza stone to the oven. A few minutes later I had pizza and it was Matt’s turn to put his in the oven. Needless to say dinner was quiet interesting. We always have fun on pizza night, whether it’s smoking the house up and the fire alarm going off or apparently actually having a real fire on the deck.
Thankfully the whole thing wasn’t that bad, but we both know it could have been worse. The deck is in terrible shape and we are planning a redo in the next few weeks so that was fine. The grill ended up being saved when Matt found a replacement hose at Lowes. Needless to say the grill got a good cleaning on Sunday. From what we can figure, the stuff in the bottom of the grill caught fire. Then when Matt opened it up, I think that’s when it caught the rail on fire.
With that, make sure you watch your grill! Shit can happen and it can happen quiet fast!
~k
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Hibiscus
I mentioned my hibiscus in a post earlier this week but I didn’t post a pic. At that time I hadn’t actually take a pic of the poor thing. So here it is. It’s supposed to be pink but who really knows. Oh and I also found out my mom used to throw hers out from season to season. Ummm, I had planned to keep it year after year so I’m a little bummed to think I might only have a few months to nurse this little guy back to health only to throw it out. (Although, if it doesn’t die and actually makes it through the summer he’s going in the garage! Dammit, I’m gonna try to save him.) 🙂
Happy Wednesday!
(See the water ring around? That’s from the soil around the plant.)
~k
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Jamaica – Wed & Thursday
Have been posted on the travel blog. 🙂 I’ll try to get Friday and Saturday done tomorrow.
~k
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Good bye vacation! Hello Anniversary!
Matt and I arrived home around midnight on Sunday. It was a long day to say the least. Thankfully I had taken Monday off so while I slept in he got up and drug himself to work. Actually I didn’t really sleep in. I was up and showered by 9 am so that was pretty good, for me at least.
Once I was up I started on our laundry, then I started working on the pics I had taken. I ended up with more than 300 pics from our trip. First I sorted out the ones I actually wanted to edit and then I began. Mostly they just needed a few minor adjustments and I had to spot remove on a few. (Not gonna lie, I’m a little pissed off about the spot since I took it to the camera shop and had my sensor cleaned a few days before we left. Good thing it was free!)
I got about halfway through my editing before I had to stop and run to the store. Monday was Matt and I’s 2nd Anniversary! (WHHHHAAATTT WHHAAATTT!!!!) Like always, we decided to grill steaks. I ran to Earthfare, grabbed a couple of filets and set out to find some sides. I was a little annoyed they didn’t have any green beans so I had to stop at another store on my way home. Anyway, Matt was pretty tired when he got home so he napped for a while and then we started dinner. The steaks were delicious and the green beans were pretty good considering I googled a recipe and threw it together. 🙂
It’s hard to believe we’ve already been married 2 years. I love Matte more each day and find myself constantly telling him he is a great husband. I hear my friends talk and I’m so glad we have the relationship we do. 🙂
Anyway, I have put some of my Jamaica pics up on my photosite. The link may change (I’m trying to change a few things around) but they will still be listed under travel. As for our trip, I will try to start blogging that this week on the travel site. 🙂
~k
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Oh, hello vacay!
It’s so nice to see you! YAY! Matt and I set out early tomorrow morning for our 2nd anniversary trip. Oh yeah, our anniversary is next Monday! WHHHHAAAAAAT!?!?!
Thankfully today is over. The morning started off kind of slow but the afternoon picked up and well, didn’t go so great so I decided to head out early. 😉 Now I just need to finish packing and a few last minute cleaning touch ups and I will be set.
Till next week!
~k
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Another week, another recap (yep I’m a slacker!)
Matt and I didn’t have any real plans for the weekend besides going to an event one of Patrick’s friends had scheduled for Saturday night. His friend Mike is the manager at Mellow Mushroom in Wake Forest. Mike decided to play a few songs as a kick off to the Patrick Edwards Foundation. (This will be a charitable foundation that will help under privileged youth learn the art of making EDM – electronic dance music.)
I knew about the event but I really had no idea there would be fundraising until Saturday when Matt and I set out to buy supplies, a receipt book and cash box. I figured we might raise a few hundred dollars which would be great. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would raise over $1200.00. Like that’s some serious money! I was blown away by the generosity of Patrick’s friends, several of which, made rather large donations. It was just an amazing night spent with good people and good music!
The event was great, and Mike did a wonderful job performing! Hopefully we will be able to be apart of numerous fundraisers for this cause.
After a wonderful Saturday night, we spent Sunday doing a whole lot of nothing. It was rainy and gross out and a perfect veg day. We slept in (which we always do), ate lunch, Matt worked out and I threw some clothes in the wash, then we both took naps. 🙂 Good lazy day!
~k
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When nice happens
My family (me, mom and dad) are not very close to my dad’s side of the family. He has 3 brothers, 2 older and 1 younger. His oldest brother committed suicide a few years ago and left 3 adult children, one of which is mentally handicapped. Donna had an aneurysm in her brain when she was 16 and she’s been in assisted living facilities for years now. Every once in a while we would hear how she was doing from my grandmother, but since she’s not a fountain of knowledge, we only heard bits and pieces. It never occurred to us her dad left nothing for her when he died.
About a year ago Donna’s younger brother and sister, Robert and Lisa, found me and mom on FB. Seeing as I barely remembered Donna and Lisa and couldn’t remember ever meeting Robert, I thought it would nice to get to “know” my cousins. Robert and I had a few brief encounters and I never really interacted with Lisa at all.
Mom and Robert communicated some through email and a few things she told me kind of made me wonder (mainly his motives for getting in touch with family). Then a few weeks ago he posted something on FB regarding the apartment he was building for Donna. I thought it was really sweet but he didn’t say anything else about it. Then last week he posted some pics of Donna’s apartment. The place was in poor shape and the landlords didn’t sound like they were really staying on top of the maintenance. Then Robert posted pics of her new apartment. He didn’t tell Donna and had planned to surprise her over the weekend. My heart just melted.
Monday morning he posted a video on FB of them giving Donna her new apartment and it brought tears to my eyes (I would post it but he has it private). I couldn’t believe he’d gone to so much trouble and expense to help his sister out. Mom emailed Robert to let him know we thought it was such a wonderful thing he’d done and that’s when she found out his dad left nothing for the kids! He left nothing to help with Donna’s expenses, he just left nothing. I hadn’t heard good things about my uncle growing up but I can’t imagine being so selfish as to not try to provide something for your kids! Anyway, that is another story.
I just can’t really express how wonderful it is to see what Robert has done.
~k
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Happy Easter!
Yesterday Matt and I along with my parents spent the day in Greensboro with my cousin and her husband. We arrived at their house around 11:30 and ate lunch a little after noon. I had spent a few hours on Saturday night baking an apple pie. It turned out a little more “rustic” than I would have preferred but oh well. It tasted yummy!
After a nice lunch, we all headed back to the kitchen for dessert, then the guys sat down to watch the Michigan/Florida basketball game. My cousin mentioned she bought some Easter egg kits so mom and I told her we’d be happy to color eggs. This kept us occupied for a while. Surprisingly, our eggs didn’t turn out that great! HAHA! We had fun though and that’s all that matters. One of my cousin’s eggs got lovingly named the “ugly egg winner.” Mom said you have to have one in each group. 🙂
The “ugly” egg winner. We added glitter in hopes of making it a little prettier but even that didn’t help. After coloring eggs and making a mess the four of us headed back to Raleigh. Matt was set on watching the second half of the Duke Louisville game. We watched the game and turned in early.
Happy Easter!
~k
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Follow up – check!
Woo hooo! My appt went well this morning. Dr. said things looked good and I am clear to get back to normal. He still wants me to come in for another follow up in a few weeks but things are looking up. 😀
~k