Royal Fun

Caitlin sent me a very funny Evite the other day for a Royal Wedding Viewing party scheduled for 5:30am.  I decided that sleep is overrated and got my butt up at the wee hour of 4:20am to get ready for work and head over to her house to join in the festivities. 

I have been somewhat withdrawn from all the hype surrounding the wedding, just hearing/seeing glimpses of things about the wedding but not watching every interview or special about it.  I didn't really succomb to all the build up, but I'm SO GLAD I went to watch the wedding with my friends.  It was so moving and special to see this event, not to mention historic!  My mom still talks about watching Diana's wedding with me when I was just a toddler (which I don't remember).

Caitlin got really into the event and had English breakfast tea and an array of scones among the refreshment choices.

It really took my breath away to watch the wedding.  This pretty much sums up all our reaction's to Kate getting out of the car:

Here's some of my favorite images.

I LOVED Kate's dress!  I loved the church, the ceremony, the procession of everyone, the fashion, the tradition, the non-tradition, everything.  It just made me smile!

A royal wave to everyone!



Fish And Lens

Wow, I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday.  This week has been busy and kind of rough.  I woke up at about 4am and drove from Charlotte to Raleigh and back for work today, and I'm tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired!  I just had a smoothie for dinner, because I was too lazy to cook anything and dehydrated from being in the car all day. 

Last night was far more exciting than tonight because it was my birthday date night with Greg!   He's not going to be here this weekend for my actual birthday, so we celebrated together early.

Hi, I'm Brittney and I like to do awkward things with my hands.  I swear I have fingers...

We headed to a restaurant called The Fish Market for my birthday dinner.

The inside is kind of sea oriented and nautical...  but in a tasteful way.

I ordered my usual, a nice Malbec.

We were served fresh warm bread with pesto and garlic in oil to dip in.  My hubby pretty much single handedly dominated the garlic portion.  He loves him some garlic.

For dinner, I ordered:

ISLAND GRILLED MAHI MAHI With coconut jasmine rice, snap peas, pineapple coulis and mango salsa.

The fish was perfectly cooked and I loved the coconut rice and mango salsa accompaniments.  I've actually had Mahi Mahi at The Fish Market before, so I knew it was good, but last time I had it prepared slightly differently- in blood orange sauce.  Both options were delicious.

Greg went with a flat bread and salad for dinner.  I always say if there's anything resembling pizza on a menu, it's a sure thing Greg will order that.  I know him so well...

Dinner was wonderful, and the fun didn't end there.  My husband is great with presents, and this birthday was no exception.  He got me a new camera lens, and I didn't even ask for one!  He did the research all by himself and concluded I should have this lens.

It's called a lens baby.

Check out how it has a pivoting/angly lens...

I have to admit, my first reaction was not complete excitement.  I'm pretty intimidated by this lens.  I have thought before about wanting a new lens and written off the idea when I decided I probably needed how to learn more about photography and how to use my standard lens better before I got overly ambitious and started learning a whole new lens.  I'm still not sure if I'm going to be able to take great pictures with the new lens or not.  I will try though!

Supposedly the coolest thing about this lens is it's ability to take very sharp pictures of one object while blurring everything else surrounding it.  Kind of like aperature priority setting, only better.  I like the idea of this and hope I can take some great shots with it!

Birthday Fun at Kennedy's

Last night I had the pleasure of joining my friends at Kennedy's for a birthday bash. 

There are actually a bunch of birthdays in our circle of friends this week, including mine (Saturday), so we were kind of celebrating all of the birthdays, but last night the celebration was mainly for Caitlin.  It was also the actual birthday of Lori and Michelle.

We had a private room upstairs with a giant long table for all of us.

I was excited that Greg was actually and town, so I had a date!  How rare!

The usual shenanigans ensued.

I started the evening off with a Killians.

Greg and I sat across from Jen and her husband.

And Diana!

And next to Katie and Stew.

After much socializing, we ordered some food.

I ordered a basket of onion rings for our end of the table.

They were crispy and delicious!

For my entree I ordered the fried goat cheese salad.

It had spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, and goat cheese.  I loved it!

Jen was a sweetheart and brought cupcakes from Cupcrazed for all us birthday girls.

She knows my favorite is the strawberry.  They are sooooooooooooooo good!

We even had birthday cake shots!

It was a great way to ring in my birthday week.  I actually have a few more celebrations to attend to coming up as well!  Keep the good times coming!



A Houston Adventure

So, as I said in my previous post, I (and Clyde) actually successfully non revved (flew standby) to Houston with Greg on Friday.  He's been wanting me to come out there and hang out with him at his home away from home for a while now, and it seemed like a good time to go.  Also, it didn't hurt that it happened to fall around the right time of month for baby making.  Sorry, maybe that's TMI, but it's true!

Anyhoo, we caught a flight to Houston and got in late afternoon.  Greg's apartment in Houston is in an area called Greenspoint, which isn't too far from the airport (he's near Bush International).  The area is okay, but slightly ghetto, and I guess that's kind of well known among pilots because they are always saying, "Oh GUNSPOINT" when ever he says his apartment is in Greenspoint.  Nice.  Sadly, of the apartments Greg has had at various bases in Newark, Columbus, Charleston (W. VA), this is by far the nicest pad and also has the cheapest price tag, so he's pretty happy with his digs.

The other funny thing is that his place is barely furnished.  When we drove out to Houston in January in our old Honda Accord that Greg keeps in Houston, he only brought what he could fit in the car, so that really didn't include much furniture.  He bought a small table, chairs, and a desk in Houston, and sleeps on an air mattress.  I keep telling him to get some more stuff, but he thinks he's actually going to end up making another trip from home with some stuff he wants to bring out there.

After checking out his bachelor pad, we decided to head out in search of some dinner.  Greg said most of the pilots he flies with live in an area called The Woodlands.  We headed there to check it out.  The Woodlands was a really fancy town center with lots of shopping and restaurants.  Very nice.  So nice, that in fact, once we got to the center area with Clyde, we noticed that there was stuff posted about no dogs allowed.  Bummer!  We quickly headed back to the car and headed out of there.  I remembered a website called Bringfido.com which could be used to find dog friendly places in many cities and suggested we consult that for some Clyde-friendly dinner options.  We found a place close by called Beck's Prime.

Clyde seemed into it...

It was actually a really beautiful night to dine outside.

And then we saw it...  Yikes!!  We think it was a black vulture.

It was super creepy and lurking nearby...

I tried to distract myself while eating my California grilled chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries.

But that creepy bird actually got closer, probably trying to get some morsels of food, or possibly even try to eat Clyde!  He was only about 10 feet away from us!

Anyway, we survived our dinner at Becks, but it would have been a lot nicer without that freaky bird!

Saturday we got up and had breakfast consisting of oatmeal and fruit cups at the bachelor pad, and then took Clyde for a walk around the area.  Greg is on what is called a "reserve" schedule.  That means on days on duty he's basically on call, and might have to be at the airport in 2-3 hours to fly.  So we knew there was a good chance he would get called in to work on Saturday, but we took our chances and I went out there anyway.  Amazingly, he did not get called to work all day, so that worked out really well!

For lunch, we headed to Greg's favorite, Taco Cabana.  We'd gone there in January and my first experience was not that impressive, but I was up for trying it again and was dying for some Mexican food.  Plus, they have outdoor seating, which was essential for Clyde.

I ordered chicken fajitas, and check out the spread...

Um, yeah... this was actually meant for two people, but Greg had ordered something else.

The good news was that this was excellent, and far better than the burrito I had last time I came.  We also had plenty left over for dinner later.  The rest of our day in Houston was spent exploring a little and getting some fro-yo later in the afternoon.

Sunday morning, Clyde and I caught a really early flight back to Charlotte, because it had the most seats open for standby and we wanted to make sure we got back.  Clyde did great on the plane in his carrier under the seat.  He's such a good boy :)  It was a nice little adventure and makes me less afraid to non rev now that I had an easy time with it.  The last attempt before this one left me stranded in Newark and needing to buy a one-way ticket home for more than I would have paid to fly round trip with a positive seat.  I'm glad everything worked out for this trip!