You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Pictures’ category.
I’m trying to get caught up on all my blog posts, luckily I have an entire Saturday, pretty much to myself, to get a few things done. I may or may not be putting up my Christmas tree later. Which I know goes against standard Graceland Christmas decoration rules, but this is a matter of it’s now or never. I will be gone the next 2 weekends and what’s the point in setting up Santa’s workshop halfway through December?
Sorry for the tangent, I’ll get back to the safari. I’m not really sure where to begin with this post, but I’ll begin by saying there’s a lot you can do with dried up cow patties. On the safari we went on, there was plenty of time for horsing around and since we’re a creative bunch, we came up with lots of games.
After a dinner in town Friday, we went back to FTR and the boys set up a little fire for us. After a couple hours of sitting around it, talking about who knows what, Laurie and I got a second wind around 1 am and came up with freestyle bonfire jumping. Maybe not your smartest game, but it’s not like the bonfire was that large.
Saturday morning, we took off in an attempt to see a falcon destroy a duck or two. Unfortunately, the falcon decided to fly 10 miles away and attack another bird. After an hour of standing around, we gave up and decided to move on.
We drove all around the ranch that afternoon, and at one point we saw a random cemetary, so we pulled over to get out and look. After taking a picture or two, we started throwing dried up cow patties at each other. Good times. I then saw a large branch on the ground, picked it up in attempt to use it as a baseball bat.
Unfortunately, the branch was pretty heavy and I choked up too much. So when I swung, the branch had more momentum than I could control, and the part underneath my hands swung around and scraped the crap out of my stomach and arms. And to make matters worse, I just about lost my balance and fell into a cactus patch. I looked up and saw just about everyone, especially Mary, wetting their pants. That could have been ugly and I have a feeling that if I had fallen into the patch, everyone only would have laughed harder. Including myself.
The cactus of course only made us think of a new game. Freestyle cactus jumping. And if that wasn’t enough… synchronized cactus hurdles. I mean, really, the possibilities of ranch style olympics are endless.
After the games had ended, we hauled butt to get happy hour supplies and make it to the top of Flat Top Mountain in order to see the sunset. Nothing says a classy Texas style happy hour better than wine in red plastic cups and brie cheese layed out on rock.
Sunday morning we got up and decided to go check on this mysterious creature that we found swimming around in the bottom of a well. Most likely it was just a frog, but we wondered how a frog could get down there. So, we went to the dump to get a bucked and some rope and then we lowered it into the well. When we tried to pull it back out, we realized we should have poked holes in the bottom so the water would drain. But, since we didn’t, we couldn’t lift the bucket back out of the water. We tried tying it to Patch’s hitch, but of course the rope snapped. Luckily, we had a fishing pole in the trunk, so we got it out in an attempt to fish for this mysterious frog. Of course that didn’t work either, but after an hour of starring down this well, we safely concluded that it was a frog.
In need of a little more exploration, we went to the horse barn and walked around. We went up the stairs where it was completely dark. I was definitely channeling Silence of The Lambs as we slowly walked through the hallway and rooms without really being able to see. We stumbled upon a few toilets and decided to pop a squat. The flash makes it look like it was light, but it so was not. Which is probably why Laurie couldn’t see Suz and I were being jacka$$es while she happily squatted and smiled.
I’m pretty sure this qualifies as Not Something Snow White Would Do (NSSWWD)…
Love this picture.
Yes, I know I am like 2 weeks overdue for an update on my birthday celebration(s). Please excuse me… I’ve been actually having to work at work. I agree, it stinks.
For the record, I just want to say how incredibly blessed I am. My family and friends pulled out all the stops to make my birthday fantastic. Even if it was just a run-of-the-mill 28th birthday (gasp!). The fact that they let the celebrating drag on for 3 weeks shows just how awesome they are.
Birthday celebration 1: Dad, ESM, Bruce and Mary surprised me with a dinner in DC at a seafood joint called Blacksalt’s while I was visiting Reston. Um, any place that has fresh seafood on ice, where you can pick which fish you want and how it’s done… yes please!
Birthday celebration 2: Dinner at Cremona with 15 fantastic friends followed by jello shots in the parking lot followed by family karaoke. Perfection. Minus our buzz kill of a waiter who had to calculate the bill by hand, delaying us an hour. Private room karaoke is really where it’s at. Especially when you have friends that pull out all the stops with props (ah, I rhymed) and will sing with/listen to you sing for 2+ hours. Thanks to Baby and Daddy for the Elvis wig, glasses and balloon (may ye rest in peace on the side of Royal Lane).
Birthday celebration 3: Bible Study with my girls followed by $3 dollar glasses of wine at Cibus. A lovely, relaxed evening.
Birthday celebration 4: Dinner at my tied-for-first-place favorite restaurant, Hudson’s on the Bend. Goat cheese salad, venison, chocolate and caramel dipped pecan pie. Oh Lawdy, I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. Thank you, family, thank you.
I just hope everyone has enough gas in the tank for 2 years from now when we go to Europe to celebrate my 30th birthday. And yes, I’m not that self centered… we can celebrate yours, too. Or whatever birthday it will be for you that year. Tell ‘em to come on!
If only I had a dollar for each time that was said on our trip to the tri-state area, I could afford to live in the West Village or on Long Beach Island. Why is that a simple one-liner like that never gets old? Sorta like the “your mom” jokes that are still flying around since elementary school. There’s your thought for the morning.
Back to the trip. What. A. Blast. Going into the weekend, Alyson and I had high expectations of maxing out on the laugh-o-meter. We came close 5 years ago, but I’m pretty sure we maxed out a million times more this trip. Cheeseburger, cheeseburger!
Mary and I flew into NYC on Thursday night and stayed with Alyson until Sunday, then we went to LBI to hang with MacAttack until Tuesday. Friday was spent with a run along the Hudson River and then a full day of shopping. We went out for tapas that night and after a large pitcher of sangria, Miss New York (aka Mary) decided we must go out that night. Even though we were planning to play-it-cool and call it an early one since the wine tour started promptly at 8am the next day. Alas, we conceded and headed over to Automatic Slims, a bar down the block from Alyson’s. The boy to girl ratio was awesome, and the good looking to non-good looking boy ratio was even better. Why can’t we have that in Texas? We also managed to get our drinks paid for, which was an added bonus. Oh and FYI world, a vodka soda does not equal vodka plus sprite. ICKity split.
After about 5 hours of sleep, we woke up to hit the wine tour. It was tough to get started with a lack-of-sleep hangover, plus the wines on Long Beach leave much to be desired. We spent all day grazing in the grass and dancing when the mood struck. It was an excellent day. Grasshopper, grasshopper!
Sunday morning we took the bus to New Jersey and met up with Mac. We quickly headed to the beach and spent the afternoon sunning, boozing, cartwheeling, laughing and analyzing life. It was perfect.
Mac and her mom dished up a fantastic meal for us and we quickly cashed out a large bottle of Clos du Bois. Not gonna lie, probably better than most of the chards we sampled at the wineries. The night quickly turned into a card game, all the while drinking Modelo out of wine goblets, followed by a Michael Jackson dance off.
And by dance off, I mean just me dancing. At one point I attempted to do the Superman dance move, but my flip flop got caught and in order to avoid tearing the strap out, I quickly conceded and fell to the floor. And against a glass cabinet. Whoopsies. Luckily no one was hurt, I wasn’t from the fall, and the other clowns weren’t hurt from laughing. Sarah’s mom had just walked out of the room before I went down, then heard the crash and said, “Oh my”. In response, Sarah out called from the other room, “What, was Emily dancing?”.
After the MJ dance-off, there was a little pilates instruction from Miss New York and then we called it a night. I’ve decided that yoga and pilates are much more entertaining when buzzed. Just like shopping.
Monday, Monday was spent catchin’ rays either at the beach or the pool. That evening Nana and I took a bike stroll down to the lighthouse and back. The weather was perfect and I started to get depressed about leaving.
And then we got ice cream and I was all better.
It was such an excellent trip, I think we might try to do it again next year! Thanks be to the baby sharks who provided such wonderful hospitality…
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to think Rocky might have a career in modeling. At least for glasses.
My Mom and I got to have some serious hanging out time with the Aggie relatives, which usually leads to a multitude of laughter. Back when they used to live in Austin and my cousins and I were much younger, we used to make routine trips to Luby’s for dinner. Once we finished off our liver and onions, we’d sit around the table for a while talking and wrapping our green cloth napkins around our heads Aunt Jemima style. We’d giggle as our parents would laugh uncontrollably at us.
Saturday night, Rocky stole the show. As we were all standing around saying our goodbyes, I decided to put my sunglasses on Rocky as he was being craddled in my Mom’s arms. Instantly, he was surrounded by papparazzi snapping his picture. He didn’t mind at all… in fact, he hammed it up a bit. Anyone need a dog sunglasses model? He’ll do reading glasses, too!
And yes, I am completely taking credit for being one of those dog owners who dresses their dogs up. It’s shameful, I know.
About a month ago my Mom received this email:
Hi Michaela,
My name is Liz Hoffmaster. We bought your house at 3200 Bryker Dr in 1997. Last year we remodeled and found this sweet note that Emily Clark wrote on the sheetrock in the closet. The workers cut it out and we still have it. We thought Emily might smile to see it so if you have an address for her we could sent it to, I would like to do that.
Many thanks and happy holidays,
Liz
I had completely forgotten about that note until I saw this email. And then the memory of drafting this letter on a note pad and then squeezing into my tiny closet to write it on the wall all came back to me. I couldn’t remember what I had said and had no idea that I had said so much, until I saw the actual sheetrock. When my parents decided to sell that house I was so upset… we had lived there from the time I was 4 to the time I was 15 and so I had a million and one memories. It was a great neighborhood, my BFF lived two houses down, and the house was just cool.
When I was in Austin a couple weekends ago, we stopped by to see the house now and pick up my letter. It looks totally different, except for the mantel in the living room. They did a wonderful job remodeling and I definitely want to buy this house from them they day they are ready to sell! Of course, I’ll need mucho dinero for that to happen.
Here is the sheetrock… I put a running shoe next to it so you can see how long it is. And yes, that is my freshman basketball picture I taped up there with masking tape… it held together well!
Dear 3200 Bryker Dr.
Oh how the years have passed us,
We were together for only 12 short years.
All the memories we share, will never be forgotten.
I can only pray that we will be together again, though I cannot promise.
You shared my laughter and eased my pain.
We tried to make you better, but found out that you were already perfect.
I grew up here with you and I shall take everything with me, as I must venture on in life.
I wish I didn’t have to, but you must know, that was out of my control.
I did everything in my power to stay, but it didn’t work out the way I planned.
Believe me, it breaks my heart to leave you.
I hope that your future owners take good care of you.
As I write you this poem, I leave a part of me here with you, and
I hope your new owners don’t cover it up or anything like that.
I wish you the best of luck with your future, and I can tell you,
Mine won’t be the same without you.
You have all my love, 3200 Bryker Dr.
I shall always love and remember, don’t forget, miss you.
I end saying this prayer for the both of us:
Dear Lord,
Please let us be together again, meanwhile protect us from evil.
I LOVE YOU 3200 BRYKER DRIVE.
Love,
Emily Clark
June 8, 1997
I think I was the most sentimental 15 year old in the history of all teenagers! Last night I went through my grandma’s photo album to pull out some pictures of the house…
My favorite tree. I loved to climb up there and lookout. 
Said BFF, Ross, and I cracking egg cascarones over each other.
There was a bamboo wall of sorta to the left of our house. Bamboo just rocks.
And let’s not forget the coolest birthday party that neighborhood will ever see. Yes, this was the beginning of my ugly boy haircut.
One of a handful of times I wore a dress. And the mantel that still remains!
The front porch. 
I couldn’t have asked for a cooler house to grow up in. Maybe one day my kids will say the same thing!
This weekend was dedicated to Erin and her upcoming last few days of being single. We had a dinner party Friday night at Caroline’s that included some lingerie giving and some cake building. I’d really love to go into detail about the night, but for the sake of my blog remaining PG-13, I’ll have to skip over the details. Let me just say that my gift was a pleasant surprise and that my team won the cake decorating contest. It’s amazing what all you can do with jelly beans, M&Ms, marshmallows, Mike and Ike’s, fun size Twix and some trail mix. I’m really beginning to think I should go into business as a cake decorator. I’m pretty gifted.
Saturday was spent eating Robyn’s MOIST banana bread and going to the spa for pedicures. I’m pretty convinced I don’t belong in nice spas. I think the people that work there can spot me coming a mile away and go out of their way to make feel awkward. So I embrace it and do things like consider the green toenail polish and ask the pedicurists (?) if its a popular color. And then once I’m in the chair and the lady begins to look at my feet I have to give her the warning – “I have really bad feet. I run a lot”. She usually agrees and then when its time to scrub away the calluses, I suffer from extreme leg tremors that get so violent I almost sock the pedicurist in the face. And on Saturday I reached a new level of uncomfortableness. I managed to knock over a glass frame and drop a bowl full of cookies all in one swoop. It’s just not easy being green.
Saturday night we went out to dinner in Deep Ellum at Monica’s. It was pretty tasty and fun to watch Erin cha-cha-cha with the mariachi band. After dinner we went to Sunset Lounge with the goal of being the first group of people to arrive at the bar that night. Sadly, we came in second. We spent a good 3 hours at this place being entertained by the music, the mating rituals of a popped collar dude and a lady in red (both on something), Erin’s dance moves and her growing enthusiasm/confidence in checking off her bachelorette To-Do list. This is best evidenced when we were leaving the bar and as we were walking out of the door there were two Police officers standing next to the bouncer. Erin turns to us and says, “there are two cops, should I go up and talk to them?”. Of course! As she begins to slowly drift towards them, they begin to back away because they have no idea what she is doing. She then befriends them and we get a picture. It was a very entertaining evening, and as you can see by the pictures and videos, Erin was a real champ. I just don’t know who invited this girl…
I realized it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Erin have too much to drink. In fact, I can really only count two times that I’ve seen her surpass her limits. The first was when we were in Ireland and had gone to some bar where she showed off her Jazzercize dance moves. The next morning was pretty rocky for her on the tour bus. I recall her losing her OJ before we even took off. She looked so sad and pitiful all day on the bus. The next time she had too much fun was a few months later at her 21st birthday party. That was a fun night… for everyone else. She was 5 minutes away from home when she got “car sick” in the car. I guess there’s a reason she keeps tabs on herself nowadays…
I finished off the weekend making some shrimp creole and dusting off my basketballs skills. Which, might I add, are still amazing. I bet my opponent that I could make one of my first 5 free throws having not played basketball in at least 2-3 years. I sank #4, thank you very much. Unfortunately, I didn’t bet anything. Apparently its another quirk of mine… I like to make bets. Just bets, no prizes or anything. Like, I bet you I will chew 5 more pieces of gum before the day is over. That’s it.
Last weekend my Mom and I headed to NYC for a little get-a-way. The trip was wonderful and just what I needed. I feel rather refreshed, physically and mentally, and I’m starting to get excited for the holidays!
Mom and I booked separate flights to Newark that were to arrive within 15 minutes of each other. Wishful thinking, of course. My flight was to depart DFW at noon, so I got up that morning and caught a quick workout before coming home to shower, eat breakfast and put the finishing touches on my suitcase. However, when I got back from the gym I had a voicemail from AA (the stupid automated voice that is so cheery its annoying) saying my flight had been cancelled and they went ahead and booked me on a flight that arrives at 11pm. Asphinctersayswhat? I immediately called back and after 10 minutes of trying to talk to the automated voice and eventually cussing her out because she kept repeating my last name as White and not Clark (do those sound at all similar?), I got ahold of someone in AA Advantage. I told them I had “important business” that I had to be there for that evening and to please put me on an earlier flight. They switched me to a flight that connected in Chicago and would only delay me to NY by about 30 minutes. I should have realized how risky this was. Of course there ended up being a 4 hour delay at O’Hare. Needless to say, by the time we were airborne I deemed it necessary to splurge on a $6 canned beer.
My Mom had arrived 2 hours before I did, so when I landed we quickly caught a ride to the city. When we got to the Sheraton and checked into our room we noticed it was rather warm. We tried fiddling with the thermostat for a good while and decided to ask the the front desk for some assistance. ”Oh, we don’t have AC” the lady at the front desk said. Huh? We are from Texas, we don’t speak that language. Granted, we were using points and not cash to pay for our rooms, but you’d still think that would entitle us to one of the basic human needs. Somehow we survived. Thanks be to Tylenol PM’s and my pretend thinking that we were in Europe, not the US.
We got up Friday and made a B-line for the MoMA. Since my Mom works for a museum, not only did we get in free, but we also got to skip the ginormous line outside. Can I get a booya? There was a Van Gogh exhibit there that was excellent and had attracted the masses. I enjoy VG and modern art in general, so it was an ideal museum experience.
After the museum we had lunch at one of my favorite chains, Cosi. Oh, how I miss thee. I got my fill of delicious bread samples and we headed out to spend money. The shopping spree consisted of H&M, Aldo, Banana, J. Crew, Zara and a few street vendors. Whatever mulah I saved from flying with miles, I surely made up for with clothes.
That night we went to see Mamma Mia. What a good show! I’ve always loved ABBA, but really this show put my love of their music into perspective. I also got a good idea for Halloween next year. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know what I’m envisioning. I just hope they sell those jumpsuits on the Internet. After the show we went out for sushi/Asian. Every night we ate dinner around 10pm. I liked it.
Saturday was Brooklyn Day. I’d never been out of Manhattan and thought it would be fun to expand the horizons a bit. We went to the Brooklyn Museum first and it was the perfect day for a museum. Rainy. We saw an exhibit on Egyptian stuff, for lack of a better word, and some more modern art. Some was a little racy. And funny…
And some was just cool…
Afterwards, we tried to find the restaurant of a friends suggestion, but my iPhone let me down (yes it happens) and we ended up getting off at the wrong subway stop. Fortunately, it was Clark Station so we weren’t let down. We walked a block and ate at Clark’s Restaurant. Again, impossible to be let down. It was a late lunch, 4ish, and we decided breakfast sounded good. We split banana-chocolate-chip pancakes and a pastrami and Swiss omelet. Most delicious.
After lunch we decided to try to walk the Brooklyn Bridge since it had stopped raining. The views weren’t spectacular due to the hazy day, but we did get yelled at by a biker because apparently we were walking in the “BIKE LANE BIKE LANE BIKE LANE”. Got it the first time, pal.
After an hour or so of walking, we ran back to the hotel to change and then met Alyson at the Comedy Cellar for a show. I’m generally not a fan of comedy clubs, I feel that they are awkward especially if the comedian really isn’t funny. But, this one was hilarious and a bit raunchy/foul mouthed. A couple of drinks made it all the more entertaining. After dinner we went to Alyson’s favorite Italian restaurant, Bar Pitti, for a late dinner. Alyson and I have the same sense of humor, so we enjoyed many laughs that night.
Sunday, we got up and packed. We had a couple hours before we needed to roll to the airport, so we sqeezed in a little more shopping and a walk through Central Park. The weather was perfect and the leaves on the trees were beautiful. Exactly what I had had in mind when brainstorming the idea of this trip.
After the walk, we grabbed one last pretzel from the street (they are so freaking good) and booked it to Newark. Of course the flights were pretty much on time going home. AgNana had watched Rocky while I was gone and so I headed to pick him up as soon as I landed in Dallas. They had gone to College Station for a game over the weekend and so it comes as no surprise that when she opens the door, I see that Rocky had been brainwashed into being a 12th Man…
P.S. If you’d like to see the rest of my pictures, check out my Picasa.
Recent Comments