Conversations with Audrey

This is where Audrey, my little sister, and I were talking about having recently watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and the end of the Harry Potter era.

LOL

Conversations With Audrey

On Monday Audrey [my little sister] had a final to take for one of her summer classes .. This was just right about when she was about to go in and take her exam... LOL

That's how we roll ;D

Weekend in Dallas - Monday

Monday [5/16]:
We woke up pretty early considering how tired we were from the previous day's walking around. We were awake by 8, however we weren't ready till after 9 so we missed the complimentary breakfast from the hotel :(

No worries! We ventured off to a "Corner Bakery"

The Farmer's Scrambler - DELICIOUS!!

After breakfast we headed off to the Galleria for some shopping! :D We found our way over there without missing any exits :) And we even walked around each floor a couple of times, at least! Man were we pooped! We were there for a few hours but headed back towards the hotel around 2 to avoid being stuck in any kind of traffic that would make us late to the concert.

We stopped for a little lunch at La Madeleine ...

MMmmm - love that pesto pasta salad!

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for the concert!

The countdown I had on my phone :)

We arrived at the American Airlines Center right around 5:30PM

.... Then we parked the car ....

... to get in line and wait to get our tickets, for what seemed like forever!

We had to wait in this line for the package[d] tickets. You see, my little sister didn't just buy regular seats :)

After about 40 minutes [give or take a few], we finally got our tickets!!

Audrey bought the tickets in the Gold Package, which entitled us to a few "perks".

First, after we got the tickets we got to shop at the merchandise booth, crowd free! Litterally, it was just our little group able to buy things before the main doors opened and the table would be open to everybody! I thought that was pretty cool .. then we were escorted to a private lounge for some free snackage where we also received a complimentary tote with a VIP tag and a resuable water bottle.

I'm not sure about the drinks, I made it a point to stay away from that so I wouldn't have to run to the restroom in the middle of the concert. Boy, would that stink!

After the free food we were able to go to our seats! We were so stinking excited!

^^ In line to make our way to the floor seats!

We were so close to the stage - our seats were unbelievably awesome!

JOSH GROBAN is amazing! I think everyone should make it a point in their life to see him in concert That man is charming, and freaking talented!! I loved it! I was so sad when it was over :( But I am so happy, and appreciative for the opportunity to have seen him live!

Thank you Audrey!!!

Here are some pictures I took:

Audrey and I before the concert!

Weekend in Dallas - Sunday

Wow! So we just had a HUGE explosion happen here in the yard! We think a propane tank went into the shredder for an explosion that big. Luckily, there wasn't a fire and nobody was hurt. Items that were hung on the walls fell, other objects fell off shelves, and the sink in the women's restroom completely came off the wall and ended up on the floor. I didn't have my phone with me so I don't have a picture of that, but we are all ok :)



So Dallas was fun! I'd only been there once before and that was about .... almost 8 years ago! And it was on a school "trip" so I didn't remember much about it except the ginormous mall!! :D

Sunday:
We left to the Harlingen airport from my apartment about 10 minutes later than we'd originally planned, but me made it with time. The weather out was really nice and fresh, which is quite unusal for the Valley this time of the year. But I'll take it over 100% humidity any day! From Harlingen we flew to Houston-Hobby where we had a layover for about an hour before the next plane to Dallas departed. I love flying :)

So we land in Dallas and the pilot comes on the intercom and alerts us that we've arrived, blah blah blah, weather and all that. lol. He told us it was 64 degrees out! Man was it chilly!! We picked up the rental car and were off to find the hotel! So there we are: 2 valley girls driving in a city we'd never really been in. Funny stuff! The next hour or so was spent locating the hotel, which ended up being maybe 15 min. from the airport! I'd be driving waiting on directions from my sister [who was getting the directions from her iPhone maps app] and I would pass an exit or a turn and she'd tell me "you just passed it" (a little late, lol ;) ) But we eventually found it!

It was then time for lunch, which ended up being at T.G.I.Friday's before we went to Buffalo Exchange, a thrift store. Audrey found a couple of things she liked, I unfortunately found a few but then talked myself out of actually buying them. Buyer's remorse before the fact. lol. We also wanted to watch "Something Borrowed" and there happened to be an AMC theater at Northpark Mall. We found our way there pretty easily. We must've walked around that mall at least 5 or 6 times before the movie was set to start! It's huge! We were in William's Sonoma the longest, I think, than all the other stores!

Here some random pictures I took:

We saw this cute little dress right when we walked in through Macy's. I picture messaged it to Danny, for our imaginary future baby girl. LOL.

Pink, orange and yellow Cactus!

Modern art ...

I thought these were pretty cool.

I think this was my favorite

We saw this in a window at Tiffany's. It says: "Come and go as you please, but stay with me always"

This is a little trinket I told Danny I needed for pies .. he replied to me that "I don't make pies :( "

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy 21st Birthday to my little sister Audrey!!!

She's one of the most amazing people I know. She really senstive, but she's stronger than she knows. She's super smart even though sometimes she may not think so. She's always putting everyone in front of herself - her giving has [almost] no limits. She's one of the most kind people I know, even though she may not consider herself to be. She's my baby sister, and I love her to pieces!!

Here's an old picture of us when I was taller than she was! :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUDREY!!!

Austin: Mini-Vacay; Thursday (05/06/10)!

I count this as a mini-vacation only because I missed out on days at work :) Not that I'm upset about that - maybe just in the sense that I didn't get compensated for those days . . . but other than not, nope!

So here's the breakdown:
Destination: Austin, TX
Duration: 2 days :(
Objective: See my BFF, Danny Saldana perform his senior recital at UT
Accomplices: Danny [the hubby] and Audrey [my sister]
Limitations: NONE!

We arrived with good time, approximately 10:50PM - considering we left Edinburg around 5:45PM and stopped for at least 30 min. to eat at the Sonic in George West. Hey we were starved! lol. Ok not really, but we were hungry and I don't think we would've made it to Austin ... maybe San Antonio ...

So the 1st thing we do is call my cousin, who was so generously going to house us for the 2 nights we'd be there. We needed to find her apartment and find a free available parking spot on the street near her apartment. She lives in "West Campus", like that means anything significant to me! lol. Give me street names, buildings anything! Annie then texts us the address to get the exact directions off the map on my iPhone. So we follow. And we find it. The apartment complex. Only it doesn't look like it! We'd been there once before to pick her up a couple of months ago and were so sure it wasn't the building. But we continue to circle the building. Lots of times.

Then I call Annie. I tell her we're circling her building. I tell her what it says on the front of the building. Because we followed the address she gave us. A couple of minutes later she sends us a text saying that she meant to type a 6 instead of a 3 - 26th street instead of 23rd street!  Yep! That would do it! We were 3 blocks down of where we should've been!

Luckily we found a street spot right away! :) Free parking for us!

We didn't stay up too late that night. We had a full day planned out for the next morning so we called it a night around 2am. I think.

Thursday morning we went to Kerbey Lane for breakfast. Upon referral and the hubby's burning desire to eat at as many diners as he could find. He's a big fan of Triple D on the Food Network.

And although Kerbey Lane wasn't on Triple D, it came highly recommended.

The Mr. and I

The waiting turned into awhile, so we started to read the local papers.

So somewhere among the hustle and bustle of the mid-morning rush, our waiter "forgot" to put our order in and forgot to come and check on us to see how we were doing. It didn't seem that long to us, we didn't notice any. But then the manager came out and retook our order and said she'd give us free drinks for the screw up.

Finally! My sisters plate: The Denver Omlette with sourdough toast and fruit.

My plate! The Portobello Omlette with an English muffin and some fruit.

Danny's Plate! The California Omlette and his side:

Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes with a lemon glaze! DELICIOUS!

We were stuffed! It was so good :) We got up to see what the deal was with the bill so we could pay and be on our way. The manager came out again and told us not to worry about it. She didn't put the reorder in either, but it was ok - not to worry about it. FREE BREAKFAST! Heck yeh!

Next we headed to Mount Bonnel! We had to walk off that huge breakfast!

It seemed like a million steps to get to the top!

Danny and I

My sister Audrey and I

Then we headed dowtown to do a couple of errands. I'd just gotten paid [lucky me!] and needed to deposit my check/get cash. So off we went!

Cool guitar statue outside the Wells Fargo on Congress St. in Downtown Austin

Here's Audrey acting like a tourist! lol.

Next we headed to the shops on South Congress!

We had to show Danny the Candy Shoppe!

Here I am picking my chocolate! :)

By that time we knew it, we were hungry again! So we decided to eat lunch at Magnolia Cafe - they were featured on Triple D's. Danny was excited about that, although not too hungry seeing as he munched down his dark chocolate covered raisins pretty soon after we'd bought them!

I munched on a cup of their soup of the day: Lentil Vegetable Soup. It was pretty good.

My entree: Alfredo Pasta Spinach fettuccine with fresh basil, mushrooms and garlic topped, alfredo parmesan sauce with grilled chicken..

Audrey's Plate: Magnolia Stir Fry

Danny's Plate: Portobello Quesadillas!

The food was again, delicious! And extremely plentiful :)

We changed into what we thought was proper church/recital clothes and made our way to the location of Danny's recital!

Danny's Program:

He's so awesome! Playing the bassoon standing up and all! He did amazing! I'm so glad we were able to go and see him perform!

I think this post is long enough, lol. I'll type about Friday in another post! I will probably post it later tomorrow.

A very, very unbirthday!

So my little sisters birthday is tomorrow. Not today. lol

But because it's on a weekday we decided to celebrate today. And what she wanted to eat: hamburgers.

Homemade hamburgers.

So it was my job to prepare the meat. I used 80/20 ground beef and added an egg, some ketchup, some bread crumbs, a packet of onion soup mix [HCF brand-nothing wrong with generic, besides HEB brand] and a secret ingredient. I can't share. Sorry! lol.

Here they are in all their glory! The patties I mean.

There are 3 more patties underneath those pictured :)

And because they were 80/20 they didn't shrink much at all once cooked on the grill. The burgers were huge!

This was my serving. I could only eat half! I shared with my Danny.

This is what my dad's looked like. I don't think the picture does it justice to show how ginormous it was in reality! I don't know how he finished it all! Or where it goes, lol. He's super skinny!

I also baked my sister a cake, because I love her that much.

Strawberry Swirl cake.

It was delicious! There is just about 1/3 of it left! And I just baked it this afternoon! lol.

These are the presents Audrey got today:

Bouquet of flowers from Mom.

And the above pictured from everyone. We all contributed!