Hey, Shorty...it's your birthday.

We gonna party like it's your birthday. I'm down with the hip-hop people... Yo!, MTV Rocks :) I dont even think they play that show anymore, but I digress.

I celebrated my 30th birthday on Sunday with fun food and friends. We revisited the scene of my 29th birthday at Cabana. It's a really fun place to go... It gets a recommendation from Mimi if that matters for whatever that is worth in your opinion.

Anyway... this picture is of my local birthday buddies.

Waterpark? I went there on vacation.

Here's a Saturday experience. After my hair stylist asked me what I had planned for the weekend, I mentioned I was going to Watermark for dinner. It's a well known, trendy but delicious restaurant in town... I got confused... b/c she replied... "my uncle went there on vacation." She proceeded to mention things that didnt add up to a dinner experience in Nashville... and I said (nicely), "What are you talking about? I was talking about the restaurant Watermark?" She thought I said waterpark...

Anyway...with that said... It was my first time at Watermark, and it was my birthday request to Hal. Via an exaggerated story when he made reservations, he snagged us a table with great views (I had a city view... he had a view of me...OK?) Nuff said.

The dinner was flippin' fantastic. I'll give you a food review verbally if you're interested in going there. I definitely recommend a visit if you're in Nashvegas.

To continue the evening, we walked next door to Sambuca for a post dinner drink. First time there, too... but I'll let you decide for yourself if you wanna go there. I wont make a recommendation either way. I'm like a politician in that sense :)

We came home after that and called a taxi to take us to Tribe. It was a fun time... I had a lot of Cran & Grey Goose... but a lady always knows when to leave (if you know Fried Green Tomatoes, you know that line) ... and that was the extent of my disclosable "pre" birthday.

Coincidence? I think not...

I went to a record store yesterday looking for two specific albums... this store was unreasonably priced for those 2 cd's... and I was ready to leave... but--seriously no joke--at the same moment, I looked over at another aisle and saw something prominently displayed that caught my attention...

Yep, a 3 cd Loretta Lynn collection... I glowed like the angel I am for the rest of the evening... I mean... come on, I seriously wasnt even looking in the country section and saw it on a quick-parting glance...

It was meant to be!!!

And "I Love You Too" gurl

I freakin love Loretta Lynn... and that's not a surprise if you've known me for a while.

Anyway, one of my best friends gave me a special tribute in celebration of this milestone to the tune of one of our favorite Loretta songs... yep, bitches... I'm 30 today and loving every minute of it.

Check this out & read Josh's blog regularly... it's one of the ones linked over in the right side of this blog. He has a really fun blog that is updated quite often.

I love tomatoes on the vine...and squirrels... AND Josh :)

Weekend Wrap-up

Ok... nothing too crazy / exciting to blog about that happened over the weekend. Saturday evening we went to a 5 year anniversary party for Hal's company. It was "kid kingdom" all over again when I first walked in... there were about 4 kids doing karaoke... Kinda cute and funny though.

I proceeded to have a few Oats & Barley concocotions to make that more fun :) Maybe I had a few too many though b/c after we got home, I managed to fall and hurt my back and get a big knot on my head. Oopsie, so I decided it was time to go to bed at that point even if it was 9:30 on a Saturday. I debated on whether I should publicly disclose this incident, but what the heck.

We stayed in most of the day on Sunday. Hal made a yummy brunch and I watched a lot of Sunday type television... documentaries on Dubai and those man-made islands they've built. Neat stuff... and I caught up on some magazines.

I did wake up to thunder on Sunday night... wow... it's freaking been forever since it rained at our house, so it was a welcome sound. I'm over this crazy heat wave and lack of rain.

So there ya go... my weekend... bumps, bruises, thunder and all.

Wow, Elvis left the building 30 years ago today...

Elvis died 10 days before I was born, but this clip makes me laugh. At least he was also able to laugh at himself at this point.

Kid Kingdom

I went to East TN on Saturday to visit my family. I also had some relatives in from Detroit, so it was fun to see everyone.

I got there in time for dinner Saturday evening. Wow, it was fun but like a daycare. My Detroit relatives brought their twin grandkids (4ish y/o?), my brother has three kids (9 & 8 y/o boys and a 6 y/o girl), AND my cousin has twins who are about 3 months old. All this, plus 8 adults in a small place.

All the kids are freaking adorable and it wasnt really that bad, but there's usually always something going on. After dinner, I took my great-gram back to her house. She's 91 and still lives alone. She had a broken hip episode last year, but she's doing fantastic and always makes me laugh.

After that, I went back to visit my brother and his kids. I hadnt seen them since February and it's amazing how much they can grow in that amount of time. My niece is starting Kindergarten this week and she's going to be the smartest girl in her school (I'm not biased at all).

I love seeing my niece & nephews. They (especially my niece) are very observant of me. It's cute to look over at her while I'm involved in another conversation, but I see her sitting there "studying" me. She always gives me a cute smile when I catch that. I'm so excited to watch them continue to grow up.

That's enough weekend babbling for now... I dont really have anything major planned this week / weekend, but I'll see what happens and definitely keep you folks up to date! :)

Shout out to the DMV!!

I'm getting close to a birthday and that also brought along a notice from the DMV about a license renewal. I've read and heard a lot of horror stories about crazy, crazy wait times for this process.

You can renew online, but Hal did that last time and his picture turned out absolutely crazy. So, I didnt work on Friday... and after meeting with my hair & makeup team... I found an "express renewal station" downtown (they dont do drivers tests or tag renewals).

By the time I put money in the meter and finished up, only 7 minutes had expired! Freaking amazing.

Anyway, the point of the story is that if you are in Nashville and need a license renewal...go downtown. It's in the bottom of that huge tower across from the Capitol.

Don't Cry for me Argentina!

The truth is...I cant freaking get that song out of my head... every time I thing about going to Buenos Aires.

Well, today it is on my mind even more. I confirmed our reservation today! The date is set. We'll be down there in November (spring for them)... and it's the Gay Pride event the same weekend...coincidence??? not exactly, we were planning on going in November, but when I saw that event the first Saturday of November, that made for an easy decision.

We'll be staying in the Recoleta neighborhood... which they say is the 'toniest' 'hood in the city. I found a loft apartment to rent for the week...we are forgoing a hotel and plan to live like a fabulous local. The apartment looks amazing (it's through a very reputable company...I checked after some initial apprehension). I'll definitely share a video clip once I'm actually there.

Even better (here comes the Evita reference)... we'll be able to see Recoleta Cemetary from the rooftop of our building!!!... in case you dont know... Eva Peron is buried there... yep, Evita.

It sounds weird to be excited about proximity to a cemetary, but it's a really big deal there.

....The truth is I never left you....

I got a Pounding...

Ok... just got home from seeing Paula Poundstone...so thought I'd blog about it while it is fresh on my mind.

We won the tickets to see her performance... and they also gave us a meet & greet opportunity one hour before the show... so we got there an hour in advance.... I didnt know what to expect really... I thought it would be a meet & greet of perhaps 30 people...but it turns out... there were only 12 people total involved... they took us down to a green room and after a while of awkward conversation among strangers... we hear her coming down the hallway (her voice is pretty distinct).

She walks in... I thought... WTF... she had a crazy getup...kinda like a Circus Ringmaster...that was my first impression anyway... but I was still enjoying the moment. It was a bit awkward to begin with... not sure she knew what to expect and neither did most of us. She started to do a line or so of spiel and one of the guys said something...and turns out...she knew him from the comedy circuit.

Anyway, there was some casual conversation with her & the group... then it was getting closer to showtime...so it was time for pictures... Hal snapped a photo of another couple with her...and we asked them to return the favor...

The dufus man did something screwy with our camera...and it wouldnt take a picture...so here is Hal & I standing awkwardly with Paula P... feeling like idiots... finally we stepped aside and fixed the camera... and at long lost... I have a photo for you!!!

We then went back up to the theatre and had crazy, awesome tickets... 4 rows back-center . Right before we went in, we ran into Hals aunt, her partner... another aunt and her son... small world.

Anyway, the show was really funny--but long. The funniest parts to me included her talking about GWB being the "decider." She joked, "when he says he's the 'comprehender' then we have something to worry about!" She also made some funny comments about the Democrats getting their Prez candidates from Ghepetto...but they've yet to find a real boy (Al Gore got critized for being 'wooden' etc.)

She's really good about quick wit and thinking on her feet... She's big on asking questions to the audience and getting into a public conversation (some of these lasted way too long and one actually involved Hal's aunt--we captured most of that part with a video from the camera).

Anyway, damn...this blog post probably doesnt read so well for anyone not interested in Paula Poundstone...but she was pretty darn funny. She seriously was onstage for 2 hours...without a break...which was a little long for me... but... I still had a great time.

Quote of the Week?

Nah, definitely not. We went downtown tonight for dinner at a place often frequented by tourists, but we like their food. They have a location in Murfreesboro also and thats where I fell in love with the place.

That said... no joke... tonight I saw some of the craziest dressed people.

The prize goes to the man with a t-shirt that said "I'm not a gynecologist... but I'll take a look."

Seriously... for real... no kidding... I swear... he was proudly wearing that shirt among his party of 10.

Sick...Sick...Sick...Sick... I wish I could've slyly taken a picture as evidence, but no such luck.

I'm a Winner too!!!

I won more tickets! I read a lot of smaller, local websites and enter contests whenever I see them. I've won quite a bit.

I got a call today that I won tickets to see Paula Poundstone this weekend!!! Even better, I get to go to a meet and greet before the show...with HER! She had some really bad press a few years ago. I never believed the allegations, but alas.

I've always thought she was a great comic. I'll see for myself on Saturday. I hope to get a picture with her at the meet and greet to share with you folks!

Stay tuned!

I'm (mostly) a loser baby...

so why dont you kill me... ok... funny song reference...

I'm SO used to being on the losing side of elections. I've promised to keep this a non-political blog but... wow... I'm such a losing voter. Nashville had local elections today for Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council at Large and District Council representative.

My winning pick was the Vice Mayor and...thats it... lol... Metro Nashville elections are complicated and there will be a runoff for a lot of stuff... and some people I support are in the runoff but... if you want to win... dont solicit my vote... haha...

Here's my disclaimer... I read a lot of political blogs and know what the polls say, but... I freaking vote for who I believe in, not for whom the polls say I should vote for in our runoff environment.

Why doesnt everyone just vote the way I want them to??? bitches!!!