Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful

Too bad we don't have a fire, that would be delightful.

Just some interesting weather info for the Dallas area...Yesterday's high was 78 degrees. Right now it is 26 with a wind chill of 13. We even have a winter weather advisory! I found this map on weather.com which I find fascinating.



The Ravens are coming to town on Saturday, and Brittany and I are going to do our best to cheer them on. I don't know how much of a chance they have, but maybe we will get lucky. Friday night we might have to drive around looking for Ray Ray and Ed Reed hanging around town.

Dexter is a weirdo.

"so we're pretty much dating now, right?"

I was going to cook dinner but we're going out to Blue Goose instead. We're celebrating half a decade of dating. Love!

it's beginning to look a lot like...

We finally got our tree up! The glowing blue light is a Coca-Cola ornament, just so you know. What do you think?

"We're Goin Up Around the Bend"

Warning: this update will be long.

Brittany and I just got home from our trip to Big Bend/West Texas on Sunday, celebrating our Thanksgiving away from home for the first time. Our journey to the Southwest began Wednesday night, driving three hours or so to Abilene to get a head start. Thanksgiving morning we headed to Marfa, TX, home of three movies...Giant, There Will Be Blood, and No Country for Old Men.

The theme along the way was definitely energy. In every direction there were constant oil dereks and wind turbines.




They were even filming a sequel to There Will Be Blood, as this oil gusher was burning up in the distance



Then the scenery started to get real good looking.



Then we made it...Hello from Marfa



We stayed at a historic landmark hotel, call Hotel Paisano. It was the filming location of Giant, starring James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor.



I "fell asleep" in the courtyard.



The next day, on the way to the park, we tried to find a place to pee in Presidio, TX and wound up almost accidentally going into Mexico! It was quite a thrill.



We drove around a little bit, and snapped this random shot of a typical Presidio car.



From there it was about 2 hours to the park along the Rio Grande. It provided spectacular views of the river and Mexico on the other side.



We finally made it and even the sign provided the perfect backdrop.



It was 7.7 miles and 40 minutes down a gravel, dirt road to get to our campsite in the back country.



But the Suby was up for it, as it basically felt like we were starring in a commercial the whole time while driving in it.



A quick background of the geological history of Big Bend:

The highlight of the park is called the Basin. It is a huge caldera, or a collapsed volcanic crater. All the water in the caldera drains out a small notch called the Window. Over the years, the water carved down the rock to create an opening into the distance. Volcanic rocks are everywhere, layered with intermittent bedding of sedimentary rocks. The elevation at the basin was a mile high. The wildlife consisted of about 30 bears, mountain lions, eagles, javelinas, etc.

Our first evening gave us probably our best picture of the weekend. This is the "window" at sunset. On a clear day, the view beyond stretches 242 miles, limited only to the curvature of the earth.



Sunrise at our campsite was a welcoming, as I couldn't sleep for more than about 20 minutes at a time. It had nothing to do with the cold temperature, but everything to do with hip bones and rocks.



These are the rolling hills as seen from our tent that same morning.



We started off with a 2.2 mile hike to the balancing rock. Basically, it was Stone Henge but natural.



Then we decided to be brave and attempt the 5.6 mile hike to the window, as mentioned above. It was an 800 foot descent, meaning 800 foot ascent the way back. Whoa baby. Here are a few pics from along the way.

A species of tree that occasionally popped up



A lizard! It was about 10 inches long and the most exciting wild life that we saw.



Our destination was plenty worth it. You can't really tell here, but the view was unbelievable.



After suffering back up the trail, we took it easy for a while. However, we were attacked by many grasshoppers that day similar to this guy. He was about three inches long, and he had meat on him too.



One more hike to Tuff Canyon. The total for the day was 9 miles, as made obvious by Brittany and her classic pose.



I had to take advantage of the weirdo holes in the walls of the canyon. I have a hard time sitting indian style.



A look at the Basin late in the day.



Couldn't pass up the cactus/mountain combo.



These were some snow white rocks formed from volcanic ash. Incredible!



And lastly, a silhouette of the desert vegetation.



Unfortunately we had to go home. It was a 9 hour drive, which took forever after we left the good looking parts of the country. However, it felt really good to get home and to realize that Dallas feels like home to us now. We walked in the door, saw our Christmas lights we had up, and I went straight for the shower. Man that felt good.

Overall our trip was extremely satisfying, and we are very proud of ourselves for making it through a full fledged camping trip. We have plenty of pictures for everyone to see during Christmas time. Hopefully this whetted everyone's appetite.

This will be the longest week of work ever!

roar!

A picture to go with my latest Twitter:

help me get my boots back on

Here's that last video I promised. "I Don't Wanna Die (In the Hospital)"

The only annoying thing is that we recorded this after moving to the back. Please notice that at one point, I'm pretty sure C.O. takes off his boots and socks to dance better! Also, the guy that comes on at the very end and messes up Conor's hair is his old friend, Clint.



Tonight we leave for our great adventure. Be prepared for a million pictures when we get back! Happy Thanksgiving eevvveryoneeee!!!!

reunited and it feels so good

Let me preface this entry by saying that I have the best boyfriend ever. Will sacrificed a weekend night and part of his sanity so that I could go see Conor Oberst play at The Palladium. Despite the fact that he can't stand the music, despite the fact that I used to have the biggest crush ever on Conor, Will took me out and let me indulge. I'll have to spoil him somehow.

I get it now. Conor's just grown up a little bit, and I guess I didn't want to grow up with him... but I had an amazing time last night and really appreciated the performance. I did not appreciate the fact that I almost got in a fight at a show AGAIN, but that's not important. At least this time I got a lot of people involved and they all had my back. Since when did I become so scrappy? Whatevs I hadn't seen Conor in five years, I had to fight for my spot. PS - I eventually gave up and went to the back and stood next to his long lost friend that was attending the show.

ANYWAYAYAYAYAY it was incredible. The first opening band, Rig 1, was some crazy rap-ish, electronic type band that reminded me of Cex.


They were fun, and Mike would love them. We later saw the lead singer (rapper?) in the audience so Will snapped a shot.


The second band was The Felice Brothers.

This guy got licked on the face by one of the girls I pushed around.
Poor guy, I hope he gets tested. They were really fun too, and put on a good show. I need to get their CD.


And Conor was perfect. He was even losing his voice, and he was perfect. Here he is performing a new song, "Slowly" ..sorry if it's shaky, I was wayyyy too excited and couldn't keep still!



Here is "Cape Canaveral" - Taylor Hollingsworth is awesome on the guitar.


Check back for the upload of a few pictures and "I Don't Want to Die (In the Hospital)" because YouTube is being weird, but it's worth the wait, I promise.

Ahhh. I feel like I saw an old friend after years of not talking for no good reason.

dressed in holiday style

Every year my Mom decorates our house for Christmas and it looks like some kind of museum. It's gorgeous, and now I have the chance to create my own mini-version. Today we put up some garland on the bookcase, set out a few decorations and unpacked all the ornaments in anticipation for our first tree. I know it's early, but listening to Bing Crosby sing Christmas music will make anyone fast forward a bit. As if the day wasn't cheesy enough, we finished it by watching the sunset on our balcony with hot chocolate and holiday lights, no less.



I love this time of year.

On Friday we went to our very first Mavs game. As you can see, our seats gave us an aerial view.



It was a nail biter, and ultimately Dirk choked and they lost to the Orlando Magic. Boooooo. Seeing Dirk in some crazy metal parody video on the big screen confirmed that he is Mike O'Haver's long lost twin:



hahahahahha! I also bought a very Mad Men-inspired dress from Banana Republic. I'm definitely wearing it tomorrow to suppress my Monday blues. Sunday nights are bad enough :(

That's all she wrote!

go dirkkkk

We're going out to celebrate the weekend, Maryland crab style!!!


Have a good weekend, everyone!

shoulda been a golfer

First, Medieval Times.

I guess it was interesting, but I can't really remember much of it. I was battling a terrible cold and had some weird allergic reaction and my throat tried to close up. I didn't even eat my foooood.

Here's a pic of the "knights"


Our knight was obvi a former mallrat, and didn't even know how to joust as evidenced by this video of him literally JUMPING OFF the horse in fear.



I also have a little gem of Will skateboarding over a cone! Enjoy.


As you all probably know, I worked at a golf tournament last week. It was my first event, and I had an amazing time. I got to eat delicious food all week, see some professional golfers up close, made friends with media people, and I even got to hand the winner a bottle of water when he came in for an interview in the media center. I also met and chatted a few times with Ewan Porter, a young golfer from Sydney, Australia.

He ended up getting disqualified, the poor thing. He plans to move to the Big D in a few months with some friends, so hopefully we'll run into each other around town.

Here's the winner, Matt Bettencourt


His win was quite a story, he even had kidney stones the night before official play and only got about three hours of sleep before his first round. Best quote I heard from him: "I went to the hospital for about four hours, and then I gave birth to Rocky, or whatever you want to call it. I wish that on no one." hahahah, love it.

I'm so ready for the next tournament. I love my internship!


PS - Is it too early to listen to Christmas music? I definitely started today.

Creepy Crawly

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween yesterday! After our adventure last weekend, we didn't do much of anything to celebrate on the actual day besides watch The Birds and Mad Men. Brittany was sick all day, so we just took it easy. Plus, I have always wanted to see The Birds since I have been somewhat open of my fear of birds.

This goes back mainly to the days of delivering Sovereign Bank cookbooks to neighborhoods around Hagerstown and Frederick. Every so often, I would be out in the open, apparently too close to birds' nests, and they would defend themselves by swooping down to only a few feet above my head and squawking at the perfect moment. Frightening! As a result, I am always afraid to walk under vocally active birds. As a matter of fact, this happened just the other day at work, and caught myself extremely tense with my shoulders shrugged and my face scrunched in fear.

Well anyhow, the movie was pretty good and creepy, until it ended abruptly. I thought that was a little strange but overall the movie was very entertaining on a Halloween night.

Creepy!


Also, for anyone who doesn't watch Mad Men, you should really give it a shot. It is very interesting and mysterious but has plenty of humor to make it light and entertaining. I suggest it to anyone who reads this.



If anyone dressed up for Halloween, feel free to send us pictures! We got some from Keith, who dressed up as Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men. I thought he did a great job, as proven below.

Keith


Anton


Now, tonight Brittany and I are going to Medieval Times! Ever since the movie Cable Guy, my expectation have been so high. I can't wait to see what it's actually like. I am preparing to laugh a lot and love the horses at the same time. And, no silver ware is allowed. Should be exciting! I'll take plenty of pics.

I'm a Hangman

Last night Brittany and I went to Hangman's House of Horrors in Fort Worth.



Recently we saw it on the Travel Channel as on of the best haunted houses in the country, so I surprised Brittany by telling her that's where we were headed. She loved the idea, so we went before it was even dark to wait in line in anticipation.

Meanwhile, this guy...



kept scaring Brittany in line. Most of the time I would be talking to her, he would sneak up, and I would play the part and wait for her to turn her head and see him creeping around. That was hangman by the way.

Also in attendance was the greatest Halloween man of all time. The Fredster.



The way in was really exciting. With all these chainsaw guys running around scaring everyone and the real Leatherface over in the corner signing autographs (I think he must be light in the pockets nowadays or something), the mood was set perfectly for scaring people...except for the random karaoke on the side. Anyway, in we went!



The best parts were what I call the "Joker disco" section, and Brittany calls a rave, with all these crazy neon colored nightmare guys jumping around freaking everyone out. I also liked the guy eating someone's intestines like spaghetti and licking it all up in your face. The worst parts were the claustrophobic mazes through white sheets and plastic tubes, as well as the classic spinning tunnel that makes me want to puke. Basically I just closed my eyes and held on to Brittany the whole time we were in there. She had plenty of screams and scares and I had plenty of laughs at her. It was so much fun.

In other news, we watched Brian's Song the other night.



I loved it like I always have, and Brittany "enjoyed" it. She would have liked it more if it was longer and had a more in depth story, as opposed to a straightforward portrayal of Brian and Gale's relationship. At least she finally watched it though, and it sparked a lengthy discussion with Keith about some of the greatest sports movies in history. Now she needs to watch Rocky.

Also I have some issues to discuss. So far I have gotten to watch the Ravens twice on television, and what do you know, they lost both times. I have gotten to also witness Virginia Tech's only two losses of the season...how convenient? Perhaps my luck will change this weekend as they play Florida State and desperately need a win. It's hard to handle mediocrity out of your sports teams! At least I know the Orioles stink. And the Wizards are always "overachieving" because Gilbert is always hurt. Therefore, I never get to experience the full potential of my favorite teams!

Except for those times that the Ravens won the super bowl, and the Terrapins won the National Championship. What a time that was.

Lastly, I would like to mention our fantasy football players' troubles as of late.

Santonio Holmes - caught with marijuana this week

Marvin Harrison - had a "shooting" take place at his restaurant over the summer, and apparently he was a little closer to the incident than just owning the restaurant.

Larry Johnson - being charged with assaulting a woman for spitting a drink in her face

Kellen Winslow - hates his team for getting a staph infection, and his team hates him. Sounds like some great playing time!

Alright that is enough rambling about things no one cares about. Sorry for the blurry photos but I hope they got the job done! See you next time.