Decoration Day (& picture overload)

Dijaknow that Memorial Day used to be known as Decoration Day because soldiers used to decorate (with flowers and flags...not like garland and lights, although wouldn't that be a scene?) the graves of their fallen comrades?

That's the only bit of sustenance in this post. (but really...)

Apparently I have a knack for Memorial Day blog posts (seen here and here), so I'm coming at you again in 2020, bitches.  Sorry, but not sorry for the lack of a 2019 post.  From what I can remember, we ventured from the southeastern corner of the state of LA to the northwestern corner of the state (still LA) to hang out with mi padre.  Nate the Great also planned a little reunion fun with some old work buddies, and we just took it all reallllllll eassssssy. :) We have good memories from a year ago when cloth masks weren't strapped to our faces and the sun was nice and shiny...

Mi Padre and Mi Amore

which is the opposite of today.

I am not one, nor will I e'er be one to complain about a rainy day off work, but Nate and I dreamed up a grandiose good time outdoors today, including a nice little hike at nearby Piedmont Ridge Trail and a picnic lunch outside, but the weather kind of changed all that for us.

After busting our bootays this morning doing a workout from my new trainer (#bigballin'), we got all cleaned up and were like "This rain is going to pass, and we'll just get a little mud on our shoes!"  However, that soon turned into "it's really coming down out there! Mebbbeeee we should reschedule for another day." :( But we made light of it and took some pics by the door.

Hot stuff!

I'm pretty sure I was mid song here.

I guess I could have cropped some of these a bit, but la to the zy.

DEFINITELY mid-song here.

It's all good in the 'hood.  We had a turkey sammiches with a little side of Mr. Trebek, and all was right in the world again.

Then I had the bright idea to go ahead and knock out getting a few groceries from Trader Joe's, and I thought "It's Memorial Day AND rainy - - Trader Joe's is going to be EMPTY!" (are you picking up on the foreshadowing I'm putting down?  'cause if not, then maybe I'm a bad writer you need to go back to 8th grade reading class.)

Little did she know that everyone in the DFW metroplex had the same idea.

So after nearly 18 minutes in line, I hightailed my slippery shoes through the store and was out in less time than my wait time.

But you know what?! Who the eff cares? Cause it's STILL a day off work! #MemorialDayBitches

This is my current view. 

No rearranging/posing things to make it cooler. #lazyblogger  So you just get a plain, boring candle picture. 

And another cat picture. (THANK GOD he's feeling oodles and oodles better than last weekend.)

P.S. That's not water in my water bottle.
P.S.S. Yes it is, because my trainer said I can't have alcohol.

Weekend Wrap-Up: Memorial Day

(sorry for the length.  but then again not sorry because I'm detailed for future Courtney's sake.  This blog is my Allie Hamilton's notebook.)

This was a really good weekend.  Really good.  Like why do I go to work 8-5 every day of the week?  Why don't I weekend all the time?  Oh, because we need the money from said 8-5 in order to party live.

It should be noted that my weekend was nicely bookend-ed by a little thing I like to call Memorial Day on Monday, as well as a little thing I like to call annual leave on Friday.  Annual leave is synonymous with I don't have to wear a bra all day vacation day or much needed paid. time. off.

Friday:
I'm drawing a blank.  It's like when someone asks you what you had for dinner last night and you're like..."I know I ate..."  I'm pretty sure Friday encompassed a few episodes of What Not to Wear because the only season available on Amazon Prime is what consumes my life these days.  I know I didn't really sleep in (maybe 20 minutes past my normal wake-up time) because my body and mind and CAT are crazy like that, but the good thing about lackadaisical days is that you're like "Whatevs...I'll catch a nap whenever I want, betches!"  Speaking of which, this is an actual picture of the calendar on our fridge

Clearly, Sunday was not spent putting a slash through Saturday on the calendar.

I'm pretty sure we also went on two walks around City Park because we live a block away, it's huge and shady (in a good way), and we like to walk and talk.  Sexy, I know.

I'm pretty sure Friday was also filled with me fielding a lot of NOLA Alerts trying to work me up regarding sudden flash flood watches and warnings and thunderstorms and flooding from our good friend Tropical Storm Alberto, but it thundered and lightning-ed and rained for about 1 hour and that was that.  Dodged another home-wrecking whore flood living in Louisiana's Fish Bowl!  A to the men.

I won't reveal which area we're in, for privacy's sake, but let's just say it starts with a mid and ends
with a city. Comforting, right? Source

Saturday:
Nate and I ran that morning, and we came back looking like we'd been swimming in a fish bowl, so we cleaned ourselves up, proceeded to watch another episode of WNTW, and went about our normal Saturday duties (aka grocery list making, grocery shopping, grocery list eating, etc.), but with a nice "I still have two more days off, betches!" attitude.  Are you noticing a theme for this weekend?

Sunday:
Bright and early off to church (this is the one we're currently experimenting with.)  Y'all, we have been to like 5 or 6 churches so far - some warranting a second or third visit - since we moved here, and things can get a little cray in The Big Easy.  We'll go into that another time.  Or maybe me won't.  Anyway, we went to the early service and were out by 10:22, which was sa-weeeeet.  So we came home and ate lunch and napped and read.  I'm currently re-reading this because it was a fun read when I took Library Science at ole Luscious, but I had to get through 45 books in 10 weeks, so I wanted to revisit this Newberry Award Winner (<--- that's my library science-ness coming through).  Also, Nathan is reading it with me because he remembered it from his childhood, and we've never read through the same book at the same time together.  Except for the Bible, of course.  Of course.  And a Dave Barry book we took turns reading out loud, so I guess I should take back everything I just said.

The librarian was just a tad confused when he checked out two copies of the same book...hah!  Source

One of us finished the book today (no names, but it was me), and one of us is a fifth of the way in (no names...  ;).  He's been reading more programming books and computer science textbooks, but let's get real for a minute - - what's going to benefit us longer in the end?  Understanding material for a college class or a 5th-grade reading level mystery novel?

A little backstory for my next point - the BEST point - of Sunday.  Blue Bell released two ice cream flavors around the time we moved here in August/September called Bride's Cake and Groom's Cake.  Apparently everyone in the Greater New Orleans area went batshitcrazy over Bride's Cake and you couldn't find it anywhere, and when stores would get it, people would by beaucoups of gallons and it was MADNESS!  We got around to trying it at one point, and we're like "Yeah, that's alright."  But the Groom's Cake - HOLY MOLY!

This is the description:  Chocolate ice cream with chocolate cake pieces, chocolate-coated strawberry hearts, swirls of strawberry sauce, and chocolate icing.

Basically my dream come true.  Double whammy:  Nate loves it, too!

So we had quite a few scoops gallons back in September/October, and then it disappeared!  But guess what - the supermarket ninjas kept Bride's Cake around! Are you freaking kidding me????  Every time we would go to the grocery store, or any grocery store for that matter, we'd anxiously and hopefully check, but no dice.  We figured we'd have to wait forever (since stupid Bride's Cake appeared again a month ago with no Groom's Cake) or until September/October again.

Until....

We flippantly checked on Sunday, and lo and behold, there was our creamy, strawberry, chocolately goodness!  The grocery store came very close to having to clean up some adult poo on the ice cream aisle.

So Sunday night was spent in pure, utter bliss.  We also whipped up some other yummy treats in honor of our fallen heroes, and then we played a lot of Roller Coaster Tycoon and laughed a lot.  Oh and we watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom because we have a movie list going that we're trying to chisel away at.  We also watched Breach on Friday or Saturday.

And now to today...Monday, Memorial Day 2018:

No grills or frills, but a whole kitandkaboodle of fun nonetheless.  We went down to the French Quarter and walked around and took some ridiculous pictures.  We figured it was time to sight-see a bit, since we've only been living here...oh you know, NINE months!  That's not a baby hint, btw.  Unless it's a Groom's Cake baby, and then it's definitely a baby hint.

The aforementioned ridiculousness

So yeah...who knew I could type 5,000 words on an essay entitled "My Memorial Day Weekend: 2018" that included reading, WNTW, park walks and talks, and ice cream.  I aim to please, folks.

Going to the Big D...and I do mean Dallas

(For those who were not so lucky to have parents that raised them in the heart of 90's country music...I apologize if you clicked the link...and I apologize even more if you got the reference without even clicking.  kindred spirits.)

So it's Memorial Day weekend, which means three things:  cook-outs, lake days, and no work on Monday! <--the best part seeing that Natedawg and I don't own a grill or a boat.  Oh and it's also been storming like a mother since this morning and tu Madre Nature plans to carry on with more of the same through tomorrow (Monday).

Nathan and I decided earlier this week to head to Dallas on Saturday to get out of town like the wild and crazy kids we are.  Nathan's car's been having some spotty A/C issues, so when I posed him with the question of "my car or your car?", he mentioned the A/C, but it honestly hasn't been too bad because it comes and goes, and I figured it wouldn't be that bad.  Do you sense the haunting foreshadow-y nature in my voice yet?  I didn't want to risk taking my car because it's a '98, and while she does well around town, she's had a past of pooping out when you get about an hour and a half away on road trips.  And then those road trips turn into road trips from hell.  So I voiced my vote for Nathan's car.

Off we went, headed west and would you know that that damn A/C didn't come on AT ALL.  Three amazing hours of just warm air blowing, sweaty backs, hot greasy faces, frizzy, poofy hair, etc.  We couldn't roll the windows down until we got off the interstate because road trips are for talking and laughing and goofing around.  And you can't hear any of that if the wind is 70 miles per hour in your ear. Young love at its finest.

All that to say...we finally made it and I apologize to the poor souls who witnessed us busting into Chipotle looking like we'd just come off a hot morning on our boat, but probably wreaked of body odor and fun and didn't have swimsuits or a boat anywhere in sight.  I'm sure we were a pretty picture.  Actually, I know we were because I busted up in that bathroom upon arrival, whipped out my hairbrush, and eventually had to shrug and say "Well, the odds of running into someone I know are pretty slim..."

All in all, we still had a great time, and after we starting hitting up our main spots (i.e. Half Price Books, Fry's, and Trader Joe's), the A/C decided to be a trooper and be spotty here and there.  Then on the way back home, it worked for the first 30 minutes of the trip! (Insert many hallelujahs)  So much so that I had to put on my cardigan at one point.

And then it shut off.  And it remained off the remaining two and a half hours of the drive home.  I proceeded to chastise myself for the next two and half hours for ever being a namby pamby and putting on my cardigan in the first place.

Happy Memorial Day weekend it was! (and I still have tomorrow to make lofty plans to mark things off my to-do list, but will probably just read blogs, and my new book, and think about all the red, white, and blue cupcakes I didn't purchase at Sam's today.)