First Blossoms Coming Soon

Exciting developments on the front porch...my Mandevilla Giant Sun Parasol plants are about to have their first flowers! These are plants I ordered at a much smaller size, and they have flourished in the Mississippi heat. Here's to hoping there are many more to follow, 'cause we all know there is a whole lot more heat coming.

Busy Memorial Day Weekend at Home

Us government employee's love us some 3 day weekends. After a scrapped plan to road trip to South Carolina (sorry Julie), I managed to find several ways to spend the money that would have gone to inflated gas prices. Slowly but surely, I have been making improvements to make my apartment suitable for more than one person. I had to kick that plan into overdrive this weekend, when my best friend Jenny said she was planning on visiting. We had talked about a girl getaway weekend, but we could never decide a place. To end the torment, she decided to come over to the Red Carpet City for a long weekend.

The kitties and I kicked up our game and made some real progress on sprucing things up...a new bed was purchased, thereby making existing one available for guest occupancy. Max and Annie are clearly grateful for a firmer mattress, and assure me tha it should mean they only need 20 hrs of sleep per day, instead of 22. They are all aflutter about who is going to sleep in which bed now, so Jenny and then Xandi (and any other future guests) better get ready.

Solo Weekend

After so many trips and last week's conference, I just needed some time to catch up with the thoughts in my head and sort through a mountain of mail. I traveled to the Clinton Farmer's Market, which happened to have no farmers, and ran some errands in Jackson, in small part to stimulate the economy thanks to the Federal Government. I love these fish planters, my mom found them for me, and they have ginger plants in them that Deb sent me from Granny's house in Val-P. Hope everyone had a good weekend, too.

Large Times in the Big Apple

So much to talk about from the trip to New York City, so I have opted to share only Top 5 favorite things:

5. Spamalot. We were able to get tickets to this show on Friday night from the TKTS booth in Times Square. I had never been to a large show like this, and had a blast! It was hilarious, even Clay Aiken made me chuckle a time or two.

4. Koren BBQ served by the woman with a bad BoTox job. They light a grill in the middle of the table, then place cuts of meat and onions on it. There are about 400 bowls of sauce, kim chi, small marine invertebrates, and lettuce. It was spectacular. No pictures provided because I was too busy eating. Take home message for the kids: stay in school, or you could end up washing dishes at a Korean BBQ restaurant--and they dirty a lot of them.

3. Yankees game: So the Mets weren't in town while I was there, so the Yankees it was. We got into the stadium after some very awkward street ticket purchasing of tickets. It must have been illegal, because there were cops everywhere, and very few people hustling tickets. I have the number of a guy now, if you need it. Yankees were down 2-0 and they scored 6 runs right after we got there. Only 66 more home games in Yankee Stadium, as this is the Final Season. Pictures to follow.

2. Sunset over lower Manhattan. We opted for the cheesy bus tour, but paid one price for 48 hrs. This meant that any time we saw a Gray Line bus, we could hop on and use it for a cab. On the night time loop, we crossed over into Brooklyn and got some great shots of the sun setting. It was hard to pick just one sight that was my favorite, as we did so many and saw so many cool things.

1. Sal and the most awesome Italian meal I have ever eaten. Amy and I wandered down Mulberry Street in Little Italy and selected our dinner choice based on chair suitability and how "Italian" the street caller is. Turns out we did well for ourselves, since Sal and his cousin took such good care of us. If you ever find yourself in Little Italy, go to Giovanna's and eat whatever they say you should have. And then smile when you ask for the check and they bring 3 more courses.

The Happy Couple

Here is a picture of the chapel on Fordham University, where the ceremony was held. You can't tell from the picture, but it was COLD. Once inside, we struggled with which side of the church to sit on, and Blair's Uncle Joe was lobbying for her side, so we spent some time on both. While on the groom's side, we got a pre-game shot of the always-helpful John giving someone directons on his cell phone while being "miked up."

Though I returned from NYC on Tuesday, life and work have kept me too busy to blog about it. Here you can see the huge smiles on the bride and groom as they enter the reception. We had such a good time getting to know their friends and family before and after the wedding. John's family made quite the impression. Everything was so beautiful, all of their hard work made for a great party!

Taking a Bite Outta the Big Apple

I have been radio silent for a few days, as I was enjoying myself up in NEW YORK CITY! My good friends, John and Blair were married Saturday, May 3 at the Fordham University Chapel. Real pictures will be forthcoming in the next few days, stay tuned.