WARNING: The following post is chock full of random chatter and lots of random photos to catch you up on a few of the happenings in my life over the last week or so. I would like to formally apologize right up front for the length and random-ness of this post. Consider yourself warned! :)
Boy, do I have a whole lotta odds and ends to share with you today! I've been saving up, I guess. There's the birthday details, a fun lunch, flowers, books, etc.! I have lots of bits and pieces to tell you about so let's get started with what I'm currently reading, shall we?
Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes! This is the latest book in the Sisterchicks series by Robin Jones Gunn (who, by the way, has been one of my favorite authors for literally years). Since I'm working from home these days, I've been taking a break from the computer/studio to go downstairs and have lunch in the kitchen and while I'm eating, I read. Bliss. And yesterday, I started reading this book and goodness gracious, I was so bummed when lunch was over and I had to stop reading! All of Robin's books in this series are fast reads and they're a lot of fun. They hook you in right away. I bet you'd love 'em.....they're all about a couple of girlfriends that end up going away on some grand adventure to some other country for one reason or another. The 8 books in the series are not connected in any way, so you don't have to worry about reading them in order. If you haven't read any of these yet, I highly recommend them. I can't wait to finish this one!
These beauties were sent to me by a dear friend, after I got laid off. I should have taken a photo the day they arrived, but even a few days later, they were still beautiful! In fact, they're still sitting pretty on my kitchen table right now! (Thank you so much, Chica!)
Now, I would just like to say that having a birthday the week after you get laid off is a great distraction. God's timing is really something, isn't it? ;) I so enjoyed your birthday stories last week.....you girls have had some fabulous birthdays over the years, haven't you?! Some of you posed the same question to me (from the birthday giveaway post).....What is my favorite birthday ever and why? I've had several great birthdays over the years though I have to tell you that when I was little, I was sometimes bummed about having a summer birthday. I couldn't take treats to school and have my own special day. AND, my mom and sister are both Jan. babies, my other two sisters are both Feb. babies and my dad and brother are both Nov. babies.......all 6 of them in the winter and then there was me......all by myself in the middle of the summer! I moaned and groaned about that a bit until the year that I figured out that my birthday is EXACTLY 6 MONTHS FROM CHRISTMAS and then I decided that I had just about the best birthday ever because I would get presents exactly every six months!! LOL!! Then I started to feel sorry for all those winter birthday people that got all their presents at one end of the year rather than having them evenly spaced out like me! Hahaha!! (what a dork, right?!)
All that to say, when we were kids, a lot of our birthdays were spent at Showbiz Pizza (now Chuck E. Cheese) where we'd have family ski ball tournaments (I happened to be pretty good) :) and we'd watch "Fatz" & "Mitzy" and the other robot characters put on a show. We'd eat pizza and play games and earn tickets and buy junky prizes! Hee. In those days, I had two little sisters and there were quite a few birthdays (for me AND my sisters) where my parents would let EACH of us have 2 friends over for a sleepover. You can do the math, but that's a total of NINE giggling schoolgirls staying up half the night and watching movies and eating junk food and probably driving my poor dad crazy! Haha!
I've also been so blessed in that every birthday since meeting my hottie hubs has been wonderful. He knows that one of my 'love languages' is gifts (LOVE to give them, but also like to receive them. They don't have to be fancy or expensive....just thoughtful.) and so he goes out of his way to make my day special with a thoughtful gift or a romantic dinner or whatever. One year when we were dating, he even gave me a 'Day at the Spa' gift certificate. OH, that was so nice to be so totally pampered all day long. 7 hours of various spa treatments including haircut and style and makeup application so that when he picked me up, he could whisk me off to a fun dinner. Happy sigh.......
Photo taken on my iPhone 3G
As for this year, my sweet husband took me out to dinner at a seafood restaurant close to home. (Bristol - we took our Aussie friends there when they were here) That was my dinner, in the photo above. Please excuse these photos -- I forgot to take the Nikon with us, so I had to use my iPhone. ;) Anyway, I had Seared George's Bank Scallops served on a bed of Lemon-asparagus risotto. Oh my lordy bees, was this deLICIOUS! I could have eaten buckets of that risotto! LOL!
Photo taken on my iPhone 3G
Here is Bartley's dinner. Crispy Shortribs with George's Bank Scallops. (Mine was lots better! Hee.)
My hottie hubs also gave me a Pandora bracelet with a Murano glass bead and a few silver beads for my birthday. You can see a that pretty purple bead up close at the Pandora site. Mine's the one in the top row, center. And oh goodness, just check out those other Murano glass beads while you're there! I LOOOOVE the ones on the bottom two rows!! COOL, huh?! (Oh, and since then, my sneaky-sneakster husband also told my family about the bracelet, so (my sis) Grace & Chris got me this bead! It's so fun that you can change out the beads whenever you want to! I love that Bart's so good at being a sneakster......but don't tell him I said that!) ;)
Another dear, sweet friend sent me these gems for my birthday. How about that pink and orange?! SO pretty! I've felt totally spoiled getting flowers twice in the span of a couple weeks! Thank you both, so much!
Photo taken on my iPhone 3G
The last bit of random I have to share with you for today is all about a fun lunch I had last week with a super sweet neighbor. She took me to lunch 'to celebrate my new job', as she put it, and oh, what a great time we had. We went to a fabulous little Swiss tearoom called Andre's. You KNOW it's going to be fabulous when the line to get a table is backed up to the door! Besides having two amazing tearooms, Andre's is also known for their Swiss chocolates and other fantastic pastries & desserts. Check out their website to see what I mean.....you can even order online. The photo above is of the mocha I had with lunch and may I just say that it was sooooooo good! (Didn't have the Nikon at Andre's either, so these pics are from my iPhone as well.)
Photo taken on my iPhone 3G
Here's a shot of the Quiche that I ordered. It's a mainstay on their menu, however the rest of their menu changes constantly. Every day there are just a few items to choose from, but they're different each day. So fun.
Photo taken on my iPhone 3G
Not only is your drink included with the price of your meal, but so is your dessert! They bring out a fancy little tray of French Pastries to choose from! Pam chose the Mocca Roulade. Isn't it pretty?
Photo taken on my iPhone 3G
Does it come as any surprise to you that I chose the pink pastry??? LOL! I couldn't help it. Just LOOK at it! It's the Rum Diamond. Mmmmm......
Photo taken on my iPhone 3G
And lastly, a photo of just a FEW of the fancy treats they have in their cases, just in case you want take a little chocolate goodness home with you! ;) I feel a bit like a food critic here, but I have to honestly say that Andre's is perfectly fou-fou and girly and I felt so spoiled to have had such a fabulous lunch with such a great friend! (Thank you, Girly!)
All right..........don't say I didn't warn you. That was a whole lotta random, but I thought at least a few of you might enjoy some of those of those bits of my life's most recent happenings!
Tomorrow, I'm actually going to have lunch with another friend that I haven't seen in months, so that will be fun. (I'll try to remember the Nikon this time! Ha!) AND, I have a new box of Papertrey awesome-ness waiting for some studio time! Can't wait!
Toodles!
ETA: One more bit of randomocity.......You may have noticed that now when you leave comments here at the blog-o, they'll look a little different. Typepad FINALLY has a new feature that will number all of your comments! HALLELUJAH! This means that when I have a giveaway and 877 of you leave comments, I don't have to count thru all of those comments trying to find whichever commenter Random.org has chosen as the winner! LOL!
Another fun feature, is that I can reply to your comments right in the comments section. SO, if you leave a question in the comments section, I can post a reply to you there. This will be nice in cases where others are wondering about the same question -- they'll be able to see my replies too. Handy, huh? So don't forget to check back here, if you leave me a question. :)
