Path Picnic and Star Trek (hopefully without spoilers)

This weekend was Tom's picnic for the UAB Department of Pathology. It was held at a local park and there was a pretty good turnout. It was catered by Jim 'n Nick's (mmmmm BBQ) and the weather was perfect. There was even a game of kickball after lunch.

Saturday night we went out to the movies with some friends (for the first time in two years!) We don't really have anything against going to the movies, we just don't go. I can't really explain why.....I guess we're just not really "Movie people." We'll watch movies if we're with friends or family but it just isn't something we do when it's just the two of us. Anyways some of our friends had wanted to see Star Trek so that's what we went to see. It was actually really good! I was a little confused about the whole time travel thing and there being 2 Spocks (I hope I just didn't ruin that for anyone.....that's something trekkies already know about, right?) But I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the movie. After the movie we went across the street to sit outside and enjoy some live music and Sam Summer Ale.

Here's a picture of the dessert I made for Tom's birthday last week. For dinner I made buffalo chicken tenders and homemade mac & cheese. For the cake I mixed together yellow cake mix with crushed oreos and chocolate chips....baked it.....then mixed together a little bit of milk with powdered sugar for the glaze and poured it over the cake. We had it with vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate syrup. Yum.

The Hops are Free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Friday, Govenor Riley signed the Free the Hops bill into law, which means Alabama can now sell beers over 6% ABV!! There are many awesome microbrews and other beers that we are unable to drink here in Alabama because of outdated laws with supporters like the idiot in the video from this post. We will even be able to sample some of these fine brews at the upcoming Magic City Brewfest (that we get to go to for free because we are volunteering to pour beer for the other session - how sweet is that?!) I can't wait to try Birmingham's own "Good People Cow Tipper Cream Ale!"

Happy Birthday to Tom!

It's Tom's 29th Birthday today!! I'm not sure what's on the agenda yet as far as a celebration goes.....whatever Tom decides he wants to do! Here's a picture of Little Tom with his good friend Tony. I'm not sure how old they are in this pic but I think they are so cute!! (Tom's on the right).

From Tree City to Music City

This weekend we took an overnight trip to Nashville with our friends. We left early Saturday morning and grabbed some breakfast at The All Steak in Cullman, AL. We can check off another item on the "100 Dishes to eat in Alabama before you Die" list! The hot orange rolls were quite awesome.

We arrived in Nashville and decided to brush up on our history before heading to our main attraction. We toured the largest replica of the Parthenon in the world. Pretty cool and interesting to learn about how it was built.

Then we headed back to the hotel to check in and grab some Tennessee BBQ downtown. We ate at Jack's, "The Best BBQ in all of Tennessee." The place was packed - the equivalent of Jim's on Southstreet. The BBQ was great, and we got to choose from 6 of their famous sauces (my favorite was Kansas City - Mild, Sweet, & Smoky). I tried the Tennessee, because, well, we were in Tennessee, but I wasn't a fan.

With full bellies, we went to flag down a cab, and met our personal cab driver Maanka. He took us to our main attraction, the Yazoo Brewery. So good! Unfortunately, we weren't the only people in Nashville who thought touring the brewery would be a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We arrived a little before 3, and the next tour available was 4:30. Luckily they had a bar :) We enjoyed some fine brews and each other's company while waiting to go on our fun little tour. Good times.

After recouping at the hotel (and planning when we are all going to procreate/adopt around upcoming trips/great american beer festivals), we headed downtown for dinner to the Big River Grille (and Brewing Works). While their microbrews were quite yummy, their food left something to be desired.

We were quite tired after dinner but managed to swing by an open air bar for some live music. We decided we were quite old when we were too tired to even make it through the set change and decided to head back to the hotel for a restful night's sleep.

Sunday morning we woke up and enjoyed some yummy complimentary breakfast at our hotel before hitting the road. We stopped at the Jack Daniel's Distillery on the way home. The tour was quite like the Yuengling Brewery tour we took a couple years ago. There was a lot of walking and going up and down stairs through all of the different buildings to see how the whiskey was made. It was quite pretty there. My favorite part was the "Mellowing" process. It's when the whiskey drips, drop by drop, through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal. During the tour we got to get some good whiffs of this process (since the distillery is in a DRY county! Booooooooo). So no, we didn't get any tastes of whiskey. Just lemonade, but very good lemonade. Tomorrow it's back to work for me! Hope everyone has a Happy Memorial Day!

Material Girl

I don't really think of myself as being materialistic but I have been seriously craving some certain inanimate objects lately. If I won a million dollars, here is what I would buy (after paying off student loans, donating to charity, buying a house with 100% downpayment, saving for a baby, maxing out 401K's and Roth IRA's, and putting 6 months-1 year living expenses in the bank):

Wish List

• 46" LCD HDTV (I had thought I would be conent with a 42" flatscreen, but after seeing some recent bigger tv's my desires have increased)
• 32" LCD HDTV (for the bedroom). My little 13" one is just annoying. I need binoculars to see it from the bed ;)
• This new digital camera (my digital camera is functioning fine, I just really want a Canon)
• These soft looking towels (we don't really need new towels....although we kinda do. Bailey barfed on 1 and we had to throw it away. The other ones are functional but not pretty.
• These new sheets. (Okay, so we don't really need new sheets either, but we kind of do. Our "nice" white sheets must have got caught in the washer or something because they are starting to tear at one end.)
• A new couch, and maybe a big comfy chair. Our couch is absolutely fine, I just want something a little more cushiony/modern. And surprisingly white couches are growing on me. I know, I know, you are thinking "White?! Are you CRAZY?!" I thought the exact same thing. But then one of the bloggers who's blog I frequent brought up a good point. You can just remove the covers, throw them in the washer with bleach, and voila! Good as new.
• Curtains for the bedroom. White, simple. And a curtain rod. And a curtain rod for the living room (already have the curtains). To be honest curtains and curtain rods stress me out. There are so many different kinds, shapes, sizes, and colors. Where is one to start?!
• Fishies!! We've had an empty fish tank for 3 years now!!!

The approximate grand total for my material obsessions? $3,528 Oy! :(

Addendum: Apparently my desire is actually to purchase these things, not just to spend money and get good deals. In the middle of writing this post my ADD kicked in and I started writing my weekly grocery list for Publix. The awesome deals were overwhelming so I decided to just go shopping tonight. I also wanted to swing by a couple other stores that I had coupons for.

Publix: Spent $26, Saved $67

Vicky's: $90 worth of undies for $25

Bath and Body Works: Spent $0, Saved $5 (coupon for free lotion)

Not your typical Monday night........

So on Saturday at Do Dah Day our friend Paige was telling us about how she won Coldplay tickets singing karaoke the night before. We all thought that was awesome, so she was telling us she was going to sing again Saturday night and try to win even better tickets. It sounded like a fun time, so we decided to go hang out and support her. But then I ended up not being able to go because my back was in major spasms (more on that later). But Tom still went. Turns out all you had to do was show up at the bar to get your name entered into a drawing to win tickets to see Coldplay. And guess who won??????????????? Tom!!!!So Monday after work we piled in the car and headed to the Oak Mountain Ampitheater (yeah, an outside concert) to see Coldplay for FREE! We beat the traffic, so we did a little tailgatingThen we headed into the concertColdplay was so great!!! They put on an amazing show. Our seats were in the 3rd (top) "tier" but we could still see pretty well.At one point during the show the band came off the stage into the crowd and played on a raised platform on the right side of the stage. That was pretty cool.Then later they came off the stage and started coming up the left side (where we were). Imagine my excitement when I saw the mini platform, guitars, and microphones FIVE ROWS DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF US! I was like "You've got to be KIDDING!" and immediately jumped up on my chair to snap some amazing photos and some decent video (sound isn't great - in fact, don't even turn your speakers on, just enjoy the view).

So awesome. They did an encore, of course, and played all the songs I knew. Even the songs I didn't know were great.

Do-Dah-Day!

Today was Bailey's first Do Dah Day! It's basically a big outdoor celebration of dogs. It takes place in two parks in the Highlands area and they have food, drinks, live music, and of course, a parade! There are dogs of all different breeds, sizes, and some even wear costumes. Here are some pics from the day. Bailey had a blast and is currently sprawled out on the floor behind me as I write this!

Second Annual Destin Trip!

Ahhhhhhhh. Tom and I just got back from our second annual trip to Destin, FL. We drove down Thursday night and returned yesterday evening. The weather and the beachfront condo were perfect! We stayed right on the beach, on the 18th floor of the condo building. The view was amazing and breathtaking.

We spent all day Friday and Saturday lounging on the beach. Since we stayed in a condo instead of a hotel, we were able to easily cook our own meals. We made breakfast every morning and sat on the balcony to eat it. We picked Friday night to go out to eat at this restaurant AJ's that I'd heard good things about. Bad idea. While we had no wait and were seated in the back room right on the bay, the food was terrible and it was about 20 degrees in the place. Saturday night we had planned to buy crablegs and cook them in the condo. Awesome idea. They turned out so great, and you couldn't beat the view from the condo or the temperature :)

Sunday morning while we were eating breakfast on the balcony we even saw some dolphins off in the distance. I didn't even try to take any pictures this time, since last year I was sure I got some photos of them and turned out all I got was the sky! Before we left we hit up the outlets and then started on our trek home. Oohh! And I only got a little sunburnt. Although I'm not really sure how because I applied sunscreen like 5 times a day and stayed under the umbrella except when I was in the ocean.

Pictures taken from our balcony

Full moon over the ocean

View looking out from inside the condo

Food! Breakfast on the balcony and crableg dinner

Hanging out at the beach

View while lounging on the beach